Scan 37
Musical Courier 1902-02-19: Vol 44 Iss 1143, 1902
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1Glazounow; Concerto No. 8, Spohr; "Mephisto" Waltz, Liszt, and the Pastoral Symphony, No. 6, of Beethoven. Fritz Kreisler was the soloist.
3Concerning the Glazounow Overture, one able critic says: "It is pompous and empty, and reminds one of Macaulay at his worst." Another discriminating critic remarks: "There is nothing solemn about the music, unless it were the prevalent sameness of the performance."
5Both of these critics are right in their estimate; it is "empty," but the judgment of the reviewer complaining of "a prevalent sameness of performance" hit the nail on its head, for Gericke's reading was little less than shameful in his utter ignoring of the author's directions in the score.
7If the orchestra had merely been playing through the parts from the composer's manuscript in order to see if the notation was correct the effect of the music could not have been more completely concealed than it was at the playing in this concert.
9It is a work that demands the most accurate attention to the detail of dynamic contrast if its meagre material is to command the attention of the listener.
11The fine tranquillo at the beginning of the overture was about as tranquil as a midnight call to arms of a sleeping army aroused to repel an attack of the enemy—the theme of the meno by its famous author in his portrayal of the various moods of this episode.
13In its class this composition is one of genuine worth, and in his reading of the music Gericke made every moment one of interest to the listener.
15Messrs. Kneisel, Schrader and Maquarre played the solos splendidly, the latter having a generous opportunity to display his excellent ability. What a skillful performer is M. Longy, the solo oboe of the band, and what a fine artists as well!
17The Beethoven Symphony was read with commendable regard for the demands of the score, and had the woodwind been as considerate in its effort as the strings were it would have closely approached an ideal performance.
19But why make the long repeats of the first and third movements?
21Mosso, piano, dolce cantabile was about as dolce and soft as the pens of college students celebrating the victory of their university crew, nine or eleven.
23The entire performance of this overture was without contrast or the accomplishment of a single climax.
25It was loud and coarse throughout.
27If Gericke had desired to pervert the author's intention he could not have succeeded more completely than he did.
29Either the composer of Gericke are mistaken as to how this overture should be read in its performance.
31Quite on the contrary was the playing of the Liszt number, in the reading of which Gericke accomplished a great success, displaying with vivid truthfulness every item in its multiplicity of effects so ingeniously wrought.
33WARREN DAVENPORT.
35Minne Humphryes.
37MRS. MINNE HUMPHRYES, the concert and oratorio soprano, has filled many important concert engagements this season. She is the principal soloist in the choir of the Greenwood Baptist Church, Brooklyn, and is very popular with the members of the church and congregation. Mrs. Humphryes possesses one of those rare sopranos that can sing equally well songs, arias and the broader and quieter styles of music written for the church. Both in her solos and in the concerted numbers Mrs. Humphryes has made her music a force in the church circles of Brooklyn, and some of her friends predict she will soon be called up higher.
39A TIMES SUNDAY CABLE.—Eleanor Cleaver, the American singer, who has been cordially received here, gives a farewell concert in St. James' Hall next Tuesday, and sails for New York on the following Saturday for a brief concert tour, for which the time is all filled, and returns here in time to fill spring engagements in April.
41HENRY WILLIS NEWTON.
43AMONG the busiest and most successful of Chicago musicians is Henry Willis Newton, the well-known tenor, who is under the experienced concert direction of the Bureau of Fine Arts, Fine Arts Building, and whose studio in Kimball Hall is a scene of much activity.
45Mr. Newton's fine and sympathetic voice has been heard at many important events this season, including one of the Apollo Club's concerts in Chicago; while the Apollo Club of St. Joseph, Mo., has honored him with a return engagement. At Akron, Ohio, he will sing in "The Creation" on May 7.
47He is an instructor at the Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill., which he visits for two days every week, spending the remaining four days at Kimball Hall, Chicago.
49As a conductor Mr. Newton is prominent. The La Grange Choral Society, the Amateur Musical Club, of Bloomington, and the choir of St. James' Methodist Episcopal Church, Chicago, are under his capable direction.
51And now, as a composer, he is shortly to come conspicuously before the public, for his new sacred cantata, "The Atonement," will be sung by the La Grange Choral Society on February 25, and by the St. James' Methodist Episcopal Church, Chicago, on the evening of Easter Sunday.
53An extended account of "The Atonement," which is an appropriate work for choirs and musical societies to take up at this Lenten season, will be found in the Chicago department of THE MUSICAL COURIER's next issue.
55Harold Randolph Plays.
57HAROLD RANDOLPH, of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, played the piano part in the Brahms A major Piano Quartet, op. 26, with the Kneisels Tuesday evening of last week at Mendelssohn Hall. Mr. Randolph, whose abilities are known to the readers of THE MUSICAL COURIER, proved himself to be an admirable ensemble player, refined, forceful, musicianly and individual. The performance was a finished one.
59HELEN HAY SONGS.—The "Three Songs from Some Verses" (words by Helen Hay) were performed at a Washington composers' concert on January 31, by Miss Amy Law, a soprano, of Washington, D. C., at the Friday Morning Club. Miss Law gave the songs an effective rendering. She also sang them at her last studio recital. On both occasions the audience applauded Miss Law enthusiastically.
61BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.
63New York, Thursday Evening, February 20, 1902.
65PROGRAM.
66Overture to Leonore, No. 3…………………Beethoven
67Concerto for violin, No. 8, in A minor, Scena Cantante, op. 47……………………………Spohr
68Symphony No. 6, "Pathetic," in B minor, op. 74………………………………………Tschaikowsky
69Prelude to "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg"…Wagner
70Soloist, Fritz Kreisler.
72New York, Saturday Afternoon, February 22, 1902.
74PROGRAM.
75"Ouverture Solennelle"………………………..Glazounow
76Concerto for Piano, in A minor, op. 17……..Paderewski
77Symphony No. 1, "Rustic Wedding," op. 26…..Goldmark
78Soloist, Mr. Paderewski.
80KREISLER IN BROOKLYN.
82FRITZ KREISLER, the violinist, carried an audience to enthusiastic heights last night in the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was the fourth Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. The program was made up of Mendelssohn's "Athalie" Overture, the Tschaikowsky "Pathetic Symphony," the "Die Meistersinger" Vorspiel, and the Bruch G minor Concerto for the soloist. This concerto is a happy medium of expression for Kreisler, for in it he finds all opportunity for his beautiful tone and authoritative style. A bad night for strings, the ensemble was well-nigh perfect. The introductory phrase, which appears so peculiarly in the first movement, was devoutly played, and the romanza second movement found Kreisler singing it as few violinists can. The rondo march movement was a brilliant display of technical assurance and tone volume. Five recalls, but Kreisler would not be heard again.
84The orchestra, under Gericke, was in good form.
86DOROTHY HARVEY.
88ALTHOUGH a wealthy church in Pittsburg, Pa., offered Mrs. Dorothy Harvey $1,800 a year, with the usual permission to send a substitute when filling concert engagements, the soprano preferred to remain here where her interests are centred. The First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, has re-engaged Mrs. Harvey for another year at an increased salary.
90Following are extracts from Worcester papers about Mrs. Harvey's singing in Händel's "Samson":
92HANDEL'S "SAMSON," PILGRIM CHURCH.
93The beauty of Mrs. Harvey's rich, full voice was detected in her initial aria, "Ye Men of Gaza," and she displayed exquisite coloring in her interpretation of the passage, "With Plaintive Notes." Additional interest was lent by the beauty of the soft notes of both piano and organ. She received an irresistible encore for which she bowed her acknowledgments. But the great treat of the evening was her remarkable rendering of the aria, "Let the Bright Seraphim," with trumpet obligato by Lafcianin, soloist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The many high notes and passages were well sustained, and the full power, flexibility, sweetness and bell-like quality of her glorious voice was such as to convince the vast audience that she had won the greatest triumph achieved in this aria ever known in Worcester. She received a perfect ovation at its close. Mrs. Harvey is a woman of much endurance, which was proved by the fact that she left New York at 9 a. m., arriving at the church at 2:30, where she was detained by a full rehearsal until 6 p. m. After an absence of an hour and a half, without dinner, she returned and sang the difficult role with a fresh, clear and strong voice, as if she had been resting quietly all day.—Worcester Spy, February 8, 1902.
95Mrs. Dorothy Harvey, who made her début last year in New York with the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra, and who has had such great success with such artists as Plancon, Campanari, Schumann-Heink, Bispham, Kreisler, Zeisler, Becker, Dohnányi and others, did not disappoint her audience. She is a most beautiful woman, with a wonderfully sweet soprano voice, luscious and brilliant, and she sings with exquisite ease of manner, yet with deep dramatic feeling. In her difficult role of Delilah she did ample justice to a strong and dramatic part, and in which she clearly proved to be a finished artist. It is understood that arrangements
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