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Musical Courier 1902-03-26: Vol 44 Iss 1148, 1902
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1theatre has its stock of scenery and wardrobe, which permits them to produce a new opera at comparatively little cost; whereas you cannot bring out a new opera here without new scenery and wardrobe and expensive advertisement. You cannot mount an opera under these circumstances for less than $10,000. This all falls away in Germany or England. You will have no chance here with a grand opera. Even our light opera composers had to bring out their first opera at their expense. No manager will risk a new opera, and grand opera in this country is a chimera." My recent experience was strong evidence that the man's opinions were justified and not exaggerated. And yet, if I followed his advice, was it patriotic? Was I not disowning my own country, my own feelings? And was such action not an insult to my country and my fellow musicians?
3Was it not employing the very method which you, Mr. COURIER, have been antagonizing? Must the American composer achieve a European success before he is acceptable to American audiences. Must every young composer expatriate himself, become a foreigner—like many of our students do—to receive a European laquer, in order to reach the gold weight of appreciation? Dr. Mason believes, as other do, that our motto should be: Americans for Americans. Well and good. But where is the American musician who has not inhaled the European art ether, and who does not extol its exhilarating and beneficial effect? In speaking of the American composer Dr. Mason advises him not to linger too long in the foothills, but to rise to "the heights." All very good advice. But is the doctor aware of the innumerable efforts, noble efforts, that are and have been made by the American composer without the least symptom of an encouraging nod, a helping hand, or a word of sympathy? Has the doctor any knowledge of the noble sacrifices of my predecessors in the operatic field? Sacrifices of time, labor and money. These things have been carefully hidden from the public, since it is a courageous act to confess publicly an error of judgment, or an apparent failure. Yet it is a fact that we will obtain sympathy and a helping hand if we but give evidence of their need. And, therefore, I have been quite frank in recounting my experience. I am confident, if others were like minded, we might be able to redress and improve much of the existing unfavorable condition of things. We must know them, comprehend their causes, and seek to better them. I am fully convinced of the extraordinary opportunities existing for the growth and improvement of opera in America, and am confident of glorious results, if these opportunities were better comprehended and acted upon by those possessing capacities for composition among the better musicians of the country. But I have also found that there exists a strong feeling of antipathy between the musicians of the schools and the concert stage on the one hand, and those upon the operatic stage on the other. There is no sympathy lost between them. Here lies an almost insurmountable obstacle for an improvement of operatic affairs. The musicians associated with the operatic stage—that is, with our comic operas—have, as a class, not the musical training of those in the schools and the concert stage. Hence it is impossible that we could expect an elevation of the stage from them.
5The better trained class know nothing of the stage, and have less sympathy for its sphere. And yet whatever attempts in the direction of American opera of the better type have been made emanate from the better trained musicians. Is the case then not clear that as long as this state of things exist it is useless to expect a development in the form of operatic entertainment as we have it now? The comic opera as it exists has a wide field and a large hearing in America. There is consequently but one possibility to achieve a practical solution of the opera question, and that is: That upon this popular growth must be grafted the shoots of a better type of opera comique, and finally grand opera. This must be the practical course of development and progress. And now, Mr. COURIER, if I have been tedious, I hope you will also consider the extraordinary value of my advice, based upon my late observations. Of course this is all gratuitous. My reward will come if some budding genius will, by following it, achieve success. His success will be my fee, and yours, too Mr. COURIER, for publishing this long winded effusion.
7JOHN A. BROEKHOVEN.
9LOUIS VON GAERTNER'S COMPOSITIONS.
11A DISTINGUISHED musicale was given by Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Poor at their residence in Gramercy Park, Tuesday evening of last week. Compositions of the young composer and violin virtuoso, Louis A. von Gaertner, were heard, this being Mr. Gaertner's introduction to New York musical circles, though he has been long known here and in Berlin, Boston and Philadelphia. When abroad he studied the violin with Joseph Joachim and composition with a half-dozen celebrated composers; so he is well equipped in the technics of his art. Emil Paur conducted an orchestra of sixty. The new compositions heard were a violin concerto, a piano concerto, a symphonic poem and some songs. Brought up rigorously in the classic school, which rests its foundations on Bach and Beethoven, it may be surmised that the young composer would make no startling formal experiments in the two concertos. A practical violinist, he knows how to write in the idiom of the instrument, and a singularly eloquent speech it discourses in his concerto, the introduction to the slow movement being of compelling beauty. Only two movements were given by Charles Gregorowitsch—the romanze and first allegro—the latter being of simple structure, but well built and containing excellent thematic material. If any composer is suggested it is Beethoven, the best of models. The piano concerto is less satisfactory, for it seems to be a compromise with classic and romantic ideals. The piano passage work is conventional, though the slow movement is very melodious.
13The tone poem proved to be a symphonic setting of the dramatic moods in Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the subject of a similar orchestral composition by Richard Strauss. Strauss has adhered to certain poetic and psychologic ideas in the play, while Mr. von Gaertner gives us an objective and also more external picture. It is an ambitious attempt, and with its ten or twelve motives, their musical and poetical development, the canvas is a crowded one. It is absolute music, leaning more to Tchaikowsky than to Strauss, brilliant in hue and harmonically interesting. Mr. von Gaertner handles his orchestra with due feeling for the individual qualities of the various instruments—he has a color sense—and he contrives his climaxes artfully and with an avoidance of the banal in melody and rhythm. There is a good narrative tone sustained throughout and the various episodes are well contrasted; that the themes themselves are not of especial distinction is a matter of course. There are few new melodies made nowadays. Modern is this "Macbeth," and as the trend of this young man's talent is toward the new he is to be congratulated. There is little use, save as mere exercises in formal and contrapuntal dexterity, in writing imitations of Mendelssohn and Beethoven or Brahms. The piano concerto was played by Hamilton J. Orr; the songs—several charming ones—were sung by Miss Kate Huntington. Isadore Luckstone played the piano accompaniments.
15Among the invited guests was the father of the composer, Carl von Gaertner, the veteran violinist, quartet player and conductor, of Philadelphia; Richard Townsend, the well-known amateur, and Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery Sears, of Boston. Others present were Prince and Princess Pierre Troubetzkoy, Mr. and Mrs. W. Pierson Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Barbe, Miss Barbe, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Seton, Jr.; Mrs. J. West Roosevelt, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Bell, Mrs. and Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder, Miss Tillinghast, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Francis Hoffman, Jr., Mrs. Ferdinand Wilmerding, Mr. and Mrs. George G. DeWitt, Miss Blodgett, the Misses Hewitt, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clews, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Wilmerding, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Mitchell, Miss Tuckerman, Mr. and Mrs. Weir, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Alexander, Mrs. Lindley H. Chapin, Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, Mrs. Robert B. Minturn, Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Blacque, Mr. and Mrs. Stanford White, Miss Greenough, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Blashfield, Mr. and Mrs. James W. Pinchot, Dr. and Mrs. Gorham Bacon, Mrs. Dunlap Hopkins, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Masten, Mr. and Mrs. Jules Montant, Mrs. W. Earl Dodge, Miss Anna Dodge, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Untermeyer, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, Mr. and Mrs. Robert W de Forest, Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Mali, Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Howland, Miss Marion Fish, Miss Delia Gurnee, Mr. and Mrs. John Crosby Brown, Dr. and Mrs. William T. Bull, the Misses Fulsom, Mr. and Mrs. Haggin, General and Mrs. Francis Vinton Greene, Miss Grace Bigelow and John Bigelow.
17Jessie Shay.
19HERE are additional press notices of Miss Jessie Shay's performances as solo pianist of Kubelik's tour:
21Miss Jessie Shay, solo pianist, is another young artist who has come to the front in a brief time. She is of charming personality, possessing a good stage presence, and her mannerisms are pretty and becoming. Miss Shay gave "Rigaudon," Raff; Double Note Etude, Moszkowski, and "Hungarian Rhapsodie," No. 12, Liszt, with good interpretation and excellent technic.—World-Herald, Omaha, Neb., March 9, 1902.
23Miss Shay, the pianist, was magnificently applauded for her honest, artistic work.—Omaha Bee, March 11, 1902.
25Miss Shay's piano solos were much appreciated, not only by the musicians, but by the general audience. She is a thoroughly competent pianist, with a sure, clean technic and much breadth of style.—The State Journal, Lincoln, Neb., March 8, 1902.
27Miss Shay's grace and execution are splendid and her technical skill good.—Lincoln (Neb.) News, March 8, 1902.
29He was assisted by Miss Jessie Shay, pianist, who received her full quota of applause. In the "Rigaudon," Raff, her fluent touch, loose wrist and easy octave work were conspicuous. The Double Note Etude, Moszkowski, had some fine staccato work and a constant variety of intonation. She was brilliant and persuasive in her bravura interpretation of the "Rhapsodie Hongroise, No. 12," Liszt. She is always expressive. She has independence of performance and a thoroughly pleasing presence. Her numbers were received with marked favor and she was repeatedly recalled.—Kansas City Journal, March 7, 1902.
31Miss Jessie Shay, the pianist, was entirely educated in the New York College of Music, under Alexander Lambert, a significant bit of information to those people who think the American made pianists a rather inferior product to those that are fashioned or polished abroad. Miss Shay made a most successful tour of Europe music centres and received the stamp of their approval in very complimentary notices. She has a flawless technic, a high sense of the perfection of detail and a delicate simplicity of style. After the grotesque Raff "Rigaudon," she played the E major Waltz, by Moszkowski, using the Double Note Etude when she responded to the call for encore. This etude is one of Moszkowski's new works which he has of late contributed to the department of musical pedagogics, the whole entitled "School of Double Notes," and dedicated to Diemer. The Liszt "Rhapsodie" was played with a faithfulness to the letter of the composer's law—a delicate charm and warmth. Miss Shay's work is musical, clean, there is not the untruth of a single note, and who shall say her reading is not as authoritative as anyone else's?—Ohio State Journal, March 2, 1902.
33JAN KUBELIK
34THE BOHEMIAN VIOLINIST.
36Management of DANIEL FROHMAN and HUGO GORLITZ.
37(H. G. SNOW, Representative.)
39Business Address: Daly's Theatre, New York.
41Wissner Piano Used.
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