Scan 7
Musical Courier 1902-03-05: Vol 44 Iss 1145, 1902
62 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1Schorg (Brussels Quartet), not forgetting the Ladies' Quartet, Soldat-Roeger. Add the trio unions of Barth, Wirth, Hausmann, the Frankfort Trio and the Holland Trio. All sympathy must be given to efforts to restore chamber music to honor, as the Munich and Berlin chamber music societies strive to do. There is no doubt that here there are hidden treasures to be exhumed, and that the culture of chamber music will be stimulating to our woodwind artists.
3Less favorable is the review of the vocal field. The division between the stage and the concert hall is ever increasing, and hence the unsatisfactory result, that presumably in consequence of the toils of concert tours which few organs can stand with impunity, the material is very quickly exhausted. Voices like those of Lilli Lehmann or Eugen Gura, which are still fresh in their fifty years, will with difficulty be found among the young ones. To mention only two examples, Marie Berg and Meta Geyer are already fading. Of sopranis there stand in the first rank Ida Ekman, Katherine Fleischer-Earl, Rose Ettinger, Marcella Lindh, Marcella Pregi, Mary Münchhoff, Erika Wedekind and Maria Wilhelmi. Mezzo-sopranis and contralti are Theresa Behr, Clara Butt, Louise Geller Wolter, Lala Gneimer, Tilly Koeven, Camilla Landi, Magda von Dulong, Matja von Niessen, Adrienne Kraus-Osborne, Anna Stephan, Selma Thomas, Edith Walker and Idana Walker Choinamus. The most distressing prospect is in the field of tenors. I name here a half dozen—C. Derich, R. Kaufmann, E. Pinks, R. Walter, L. Wullner and von Zur Muhlen, and I think I have omitted no names worth remark. Somewhat better is the case of baritones and basses; here I quote the names of Ewyck, the two Guras, Paul Haase, A. Heinemann, F. Kraus, Karl Mager, Mech-aert, von Melde, Van Rooy, Sistermann and Strakosch.
5WIENZKOWSKA PUPILS' PIANO RECITAL.
7MADAME DE WIENZKOWSKA gave her sixth piano recital at Carnegie Hall, on Monday afternoon, February 24, and for lack of space the program was crowded out of last week's Musical Courier. Here it is:
9Technical Illustrations.
10Mrs. Robinson, Miss Tevin, Mrs. Parker.
11Frelude and Fugue, G major………………………………………Bach
12Miss Hansing.
13Valse Mignonne…………………………………………………….Schütt
14Fantaisie Impromptu……………………………………………..Chopin
15Edna Mampel.
16Humoresque………………………………………………………..Dvorák
17Am Springbrunnen……………………………………………….Scholtz
18Mrs. Jean D. Lilley.
19Scherzo (from Sonate)…………………………………………..Beethoven
20Gavotte………………………………………………………..Bach-Saint-Saëns
21If I Were a Bird…………………………………………………Henselt
22Ida Mampel.
23Etude, A flat…………………………………………………….Chopin
24Miss Helen Tevin.
25Fileuse………………………………………………………..Raff
26Mrs. Gay Robinson.
27Nocturne, F major……………………………………………..Chopin
28Air de Ballet…………………………………………………….Moszkowski
29Mrs. de Saint-Seigne.
30Canzonetta………………………………………………………..Schütt one of two readings
31Canzonetta………………………………………………………Schütt one of two readings
32Twelfth Rhapsodie……………………………………………..Liszt
33Mrs. J. A. Parker.
35The musical playing of the pupils was highly appreciated by the audience. A number of Madame de Wienzkowska's pupils have played in public, and on all occasions showed the skillful training received from the accomplished directress of the Leschetizky School for Piano Playing at Carnegie Hall. Paderewski, by the way, is a warm personal friend of Madame de Wienzkowska, and when Mr. and Mrs. Paderewski gave a dinner recently in honor of Madame Sembrich, Madame de Wienzkowska was among the guests. When Madame de Wienzkowska came to this country she brought endorsements from many great musicians, among them Leschetizky, Paderewski and Hans Richter. Paderewski in his indorsement wrote:
37"Madame de Wienzkowska is a finished pianist, and possesses an extraordinary ability of communicating to others a complete knowledge of her art."
39ELIZABETH WELLER.—Miss Elizabeth Weller, the accompanist, is a young woman whose uniformly excellent playing is bringing her to the front. She has a good technic, phrases clearly and never obtrudes her personality at the expense of the soloist. Miss Weller recently played for Mrs. A. T. Yardley at a meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution in East Orange, and for Mrs. Lucille Jocelyn at the Woman's Philharmonic Society concert at Carnegie Hall.
41to be considered as divine or sacred. Also, they argued, seeing that Beethoven was a German, there was really a bare possibility that the German tradition was as good as the French. These feeble pleadings were unheard in the tumult of indignation. After ten years, however, came to Paris other distinguished conductors, Richter, Weingartner and Strauss, who showed to a Parisian public that in Germany everybody is agreed that Beethoven's music is not dead and inert, but throbbing with life, intense and profound. And so, following the footsteps of these men, the Paris orchestra conductors have striven to dispel the ancient tradition and restore life to Beethoven's music.
43PARIS, FEBRUARY 13, 1902.
45AT the last Lamoureux concert, after a superb performance of the overture to Weber's "Oberon," played with all the fire in the finale to which Chevillard has accustomed us, the Symphony in C major, by Paul Dukas, was repeated. This work met with an even better reception from the public than on its previous hearing. Two novelties were presented, differing as much in character as the reception they met with on the part of the public. The first was "Edith of the Swan's Neck" (Edith au col de cygne), a set of six melodies for voice and orchestra, composed by Georges Hüe to a poem by Maurice Chassang. The story deals with a legend of the loves of Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king, and Edith. The body of Harold, who was killed at the Battle of Hastings, was afterward discovered by Edith. This is the whole of the story, and is told in six cantos, of which only four were given at its first performance. The music is clever, very mournful, as befits the poem, except in the two movements "Autrefois" and "Dimanche." The prologue is scored very simply, the colors of the instrumentation always sombre, but with a certain mournful charm and delicacy. In the second and third parts of the work all the resources of the orchestra are called very happily into play. The work was much applauded, the solo vocalist being Madame Chassang.
47It is not often that a Parisian public expresses disapprobation of a new work in so pronounced a manner as it did at the same concert on the performance of a new concerto for 'cello, by Abbiabe, a very capable soloist and author, I am told, of an excellent "method" for his instrument. The new work turned out to be merely a series of passages exhibiting the virtuosity of the performer. It was certainly a tedious affair, and the public showed its dissatisfaction by stamping and hissing to the great discomfiture of the player. The incident was so disagreeable that it had a very marked effect not only on the conductor but the entire orchestra, as was shown by the rendering of the last two numbers of the program, "Forest Murmurs," by Wagner, and "Carnival Romain," by Berlioz, these being given in a very nervous and perfunctory fashion.
49Pierre Lalo, the excellent music critic of Le Temps, apropos of the various stages in the musical education of the Parisian public, and the dislike with which it receives certain novelties, to acclaim them later, relates that when Hermann Lévi first conducted the Beethoven Symphony in F at Colonne's concerts, some ten years ago, a perfect storm of disapproval was shown at its close by a public accustomed to an entirely different interpretation. During the entr'acte many members of the Conservatoire who were present were boiling with indignation and astonishment. All these different shadings, diversities of phrasing and expression were entirely wrong; sacrilegious, in fact, and entirely contrary to tradition. What tradition? The Conservatory tradition, of course. Several persons, however, very diffidently advanced the plea that to their idea the work gained considerably in animation and effect by being thus rendered, and that the Conservatoire tradition, respectable though it might be, had no claim whatever
51The storms of disapproval which met the efforts of Lamoureux when he tried to inoculate the Parisian public with Wagner will be remembered. Just as violent were the outbreaks when a work by an unknown French composer was presented. It is said that when Saint-Saëns first introduced the piano concerto of Castillon, that from the opening bars to the finale, that is, for about ten minutes, one heard neither piano nor orchestra, only the jeers and hisses of the public. It is said that Saint-Saëns sturdily kept on, the orchestra following him. The fingers of the pianist could be seen flying over the piano, the bows of the stringed instruments were drawn backward and forward, the trombones were pushed in and out, but not a sound was heard. Of course it is thought they all reached the last note at the same time, but no one ever really knew.
53When the "Danse Macabre" of Saint-Saëns was first announced was also the signal for another outburst on the part of the public. Who was Saint-Saëns? Nobody had ever heard of him before. Why did concert givers persist in putting these young composers forward? The good, honest musical public of that day did not wish to have their musical tastes upset. They had Donizetti and Adolphe Adam. The "Danse Macabre" to them appeared savage, barbarous; the Prelude to "Lohengrin" unintelligible; the Overture to "Tannhäuser" foggy. Since that time we seem to have gone to the other extreme. Now our public is largely composed of minds so profound as to feel unsatisfied with any musical pabulum lighter than "Parsifal" or "Tristan."
55The last concert of the New Philharmonic Society was one of the best of the season. The Chaigneau Trio—three sisters, Thérèse (piano), Suzanne (violin) and Marguerite (violoncello)—performed—for the first time in Paris—Tschaikowsky's Trio, dedicated to the memory of Rubinstein. This long work, which in the second movement contains twelve variations, was performed by these accomplished artists with a warmth, sense of color and perfection of ensemble really remarkable. The same high qualities were also noticeable in the Beethoven Trio in D major. Two vocalists—Mr. and Mrs. Felix Krauss, of Vienna—were also heard and applauded at this concert. Both singers have, I believe, appeared at Bayreuth, the lady, then Miss Osborne, as one of the Rhine daughters. They made a good impression, both in voice and diction, interpreting songs by Schubert, Schumann, Weber, Cornelius and Brahms. The piano part of these compositions was played with rare taste and skill by Mlle. Thérèse Chaigneau.
57An excellent Beethoven recital was given at the Salle Erard by Arthur de Greef, of Brussels, pianist, and M. Crickboom, violinist, the latter, I think, a pupil of Ysaye. The program consisted of three sonatas by Beethoven for piano and violin—in G major (op. 96), in C minor and the "Kreutzer."
59Gabrilowitsch has had great and well deserved success in his three recitals at the Salle Erard. He has satisfied the most exacting critics by the charm, expression and great technic with which he has played the most diverse programs. Gabrilowitsch, who makes his first visit to Paris, will stay here some little time.
61A revival of Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine" is in progress at the Opéra. This work has not been given here for ten years. It is one of fifteen works which the direction of the Opéra undertook to remount after the destruction by fire of the scenery storehouse. "L'Africaine" is the last of the fifteen works to be remounted. It is to be given February
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.