Scan 41
Musical Courier 1902-02-12: Vol 44 Iss 1142, 1902
52 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 42. See the scan on archive.org.
1Berlin Branch Budget
3German Headquarters of The Musical Courier.
4Berlin, W., Linkstrasse 17
5January 29, 1902.
7It is hard to say why Alfred Sormann's opera, "The Sibylle of Tivoli," written ten years ago, was given its initial production last week at our Royal Opera House. The work made very slight impression, and its faults and crudities were so very apparent that one is forced to wonder how they escaped the critical eye of the person, or persons, who selected this "novelty" for performance.
9We are accustomed to find bad the books of most modern operas, but the book of Sormann's "Sibylle" is especially bad. The perpetrator is named A. Schultz-Hencke, and he was led into wrongdoing by a novel of Richard Voss. The man Schultz-Hencke left nothing out, and the man Sormann put nothing in—there lies the real story of the opera.
11The printed story, in verses, is woven about this plot: The family Cesana had long lived in the old Temple of Sibylle, at Tivoli, near Rome. The villagers believe the Cesanas to be witches. This superstition is strengthened by the fact that in each generation the first-born female of the Cesana family has been named Sibylla. At the beginning of the last century two Sibyllas, mother and daughter, live in the old temple. The son and brother, Carlos, pushes his former friend, Sandro, over the edge of a cliff. The mother of Sandro incites the populace to attack the temple and the two women. In order to save themselves the Sibyllas pretend to have recourse to black art, and admit that they are witches. Frightened, the crowd disperses, cursing the Cesana family. The daughter affirms that only her taking the veil and sacrificing earthly love can remove the curse that rests on the temple. She swears to do this. The mother dies suddenly. Sandro appears. He has not been killed. He loves Sibylla. She tells him of her vow, and he follows her to Rome. Later they meet at the Tombola Festival in Tivoli. Again Sandro woos, and again he is repulsed, although Sibylla confesses her love for him. Carlo reappears and forces Sibylla to take a number in the lottery. The number coincides with the hour of the death of mother Sibylla. The girl wins the grand prize. Furious, the villagers renew their accusations of witchcraft, and attack Sibylla. Sandro protects her. Carlo raises his dagger to strike Sandro, Sibylla throws herself between the two, and receives Carlo's thrust in her own heart.
13As can be seen, the story is old fashioned, and could have been made serviceable for Meyerbeer or the early Verdi. There is an abundance of opportunity for arias, duos, trios and choruses. But Sormann does not wish to make an old-fashioned opera, and instead he makes a dire mistake. If one abandons old forms, one must substitute new. If all forms are discarded, we get very questionable art.
15Sormann's work is a continual cross between a lyrical opera, a music drama and a grand opera. It is a hybrid opus without definite musical purpose or unity. The composer's operatic language is diffuse and involved. He beats around the bush. He lacks the power of characterization, the ability to find the proper phrase, the proper word. Without the action on the stage, Sormann would be unable to tell us a story in music. It is strange how small a role melody plays in the successful opera of today. Sormann has melody, but he fails to impress it on his audience. That is because he cannot think of the right melody at the right time. The parlando of Leoncavallo, Puccini and Mascagni and their short, vivid snatches of themes are not so pretty as some of Sormann's melodies, but they are infinitely better adapted to the musical exposition of a swift moving drama. The book of "Sibylle" moves slowly enough as it is, but the composer has made matters much worse by his frequent and interminable orchestral interludes, introduced without any need or reason. This abuse of parentheses is as bad in music as it is in writing. The dance and ballet episodes were charming.
17The audience left little doubt about its opinion by calling for the artists after the conclusion of the opera. The performance as such was unusually good. Our new director, Edmund von Strauss, made a decided hit. He was energetic, alert and tactful.
19The "Sibylle of Tivoli" will probably be played here a dozen times, and then make its way over some of the provincial boards. I'll lay odds that it will never reach New York.
21To-night is another première at the Royal Opera. "Heilmar der Narr" ("Heilmar the Fool") is to be done. Kienzl, composer of "Der Evangelimann," is responsible for the music. What has come over the spirit of the squat building on the Linden? Has Somebody said that He is tired of Lortzing, and Weber, and Mozart, and Wagner?
23Prof. Siegfried Ochs, one of the best choral leaders in the world, and the Philharmonic Chorus, one of the best choruses in the world, produced Anton Urspruch's "Frühlingsfeier," adapted from Klopstock's famous ode into a cantata for tenor solo, orchestra and chorus.
25It is extremely doubtful whether any other leader, or any other society, would have the courage to grapple with this transcendentally difficult work. And it is certain that no other body of singers possesses the consummate choral technic necessary for a correct musical performance of "Frühlingsfeier."
27Urspruch makes his demands too severe upon singers and listeners. He follows the lines of the poem too closely. Music is not allowed the freedom of the spoken or of the written word. To translate into musical ideas every slightest shade of meaning, to illustrate in tones every variation of thought and theme, is to accomplish a task of very doubtful value. Klopstock's poetical suggestions reach us without this musical emphasis. Urspruch's faithful tonal tracery but serves to weaken the poem. "Frühlingsfeier" is an ode that makes us think. Its musical setting disturbs the trend of our thoughts. This is a union that was ill-advised, and would benefit by divorce.
29Urspruch seems able to rely on himself. At such moments when a slight continuity of mood in the poem allows the composer some chance for unbroken flow, Urspruch can declaim eloquently and grandly. At once, however, he is led off from his theme by some slight variation in the nature of the text, and immediately he abandons everything, and makes his music speak each separate word. One can imagine how agile and well trained must be a vast chorus, to follow correctly this kaleidoscopic variety of moods, keys, rhythms, melodies, tempi and dynamics. Urspruch's counterpoint is that of a master.
31If he could acquire some of Sormann's looseness of form and give of his compactness to Sormann, the world would be the richer by two great composers.
33On this same evening Professor Ochs gave an impressive reading of Brahms' "Schicksalslied." The audience received Brahms with enthusiasm, Urspruch with politeness. They resented the fact that "Frühlingsfeier" lasted forty-five minutes.
35Busoni's second piano recital brought us another of his remarkable programs. He played Chopin's B minor and B flat minor sonatas, and the same composer's twenty-four studies, op. 10, and op. 25. I am aware that Busoni has a large following here and that he is by many considered to be the greatest pianist in Germany, but I find it impossible to work up the slightest degree of enthusiasm for this artist's playing or personality. In the matter of technic he does not surprise me, in the matter of sentiment he does not touch me, and in the matter of temperament he does not arouse me. What, then, can I admire? His phrasing, his clever tricks of pedaling and accenting? In order to phrase musically one need not be a great pianist. Cleverness, too, does not constitute greatness in pianism. I would not call Godowsky, Paderewski, Rosenthal and Pachmann merely clever; would you?
37Busoni has intellect, but what care I for intellect in Chopin? Heart I want, humanity, poetry, passion, anything but cold, precise intellect. It was a chilly Chopin I heard, and I didn't like him. "Morituri"—I am ready for the worst.
39My colleague, Mr. Abell, has begun to take up the critical cudgels again, and so I left the violinists of the past week to his sympathetic pen.
41At the third interesting concert of Messrs. Schumann, Halir and Dechert a new trio by Robert Kahn formed the chief attraction. The work is characteristic of Kahn. The melodies are masculine, the counterpoint is bold and sure, and the rhythms are sharply marked and contrasted. When published (the trio is still in manuscript) this latest opus of the gifted composer should find many warm friends.
43Donald Francis Tovey, a young pianist and composer from London, has been giving a series of four concerts here. At the first I heard Mr. Tovey play some Bach Variations that lasted precisely one hour. Then I fled. At the second concert I heard compositions by Mr. Tovey—a trio for piano, clarinet and horn (!), and two pieces for piano and oboe (!) I have never listened to more meaningless music. At the third concert Mr. Tovey gave us a heavy program of heavy chamber music. I did not go to the fourth concert. This young man is too deadly in earnest.
45Two pianists who are very similar in their tendencies and style played to appreciative audiences last week. They are Otto Hegner and Max Pauer. Hegner played a Beethoven program, and he played it like a good German and like a good musician. He is another prodigy who has "arrived." Pauer is a trifle more sober than his younger colleague. He is almost dry.
47Berlin Gossip.
49The repertory at the Royal Opera this week consists of these works: "Magic Flute," "Prophet," "Heilmar, the Fool" (premiere last night, January 28), several repetitions and "Carmen." The Theater des Westens has prepared for its patrons the following interesting program: "Freischutz," "Vienna Blood" (several repetitions), "Fledermaus," "Czar and Zimmermann" and "Eugen Onegin" (Tschaikowsky).
51To the conservative German mind stories of such American successes as those of Paderewski and Kubelik seem like the most absurd extravagances. Thus a prominent Berlin paper comments as follows on a paragraph that appeared recently in a London daily: "The London Morning Leader prints some news about Kubelik, from its New York correspondent, that is as nauseating as it is untrue. The cable paragraph reads: 'In Brooklyn the
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