Scan 17
Musical Courier 1902-03-26: Vol 44 Iss 1148, 1902
80 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1she played two of her own compositions, a Ballad in D flat and an arrangement of the Richard Strauss Serenade.
3Among the members and guests at the dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Franklin W. Hooper, William C. Redfield, Mrs. Camden C. Dike, Mrs. Andrew Jacobs, Otto Wissner, Edward H. Colell, Arthur Claassen, Mr. and Mrs. Frank D. Tuttle, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Allan Price, Miss Agnes E. Bowen, Mrs. George Hunt Prentiss, General and Mrs. George W. Wingate, James H. Downs, Dr. and Mrs. J. Elliott Langstaff, Miss Alice M. Judge, Mrs. Henry A. Powell, and many other well-known people. The most interesting feature of the varied program of the evening was the singing of twenty-four girls from the public schools and the members of the Brooklyn Choral Art Society.
5ANNOUNCEMENTS.
7The Kubelik recital at the Academy of Music last Monday night will be found reviewed on another page.
9To-night, Wednesday, the Associate Alumnae of the Adelphi Academy will give a concert. Bispham and Madame Schumann-Heink are announced, but as both artists have been reported ill it is doubtful if either can appear.
11To-morrow evening, Thursday, Plunket Greene will sing at the Institute concert at Association Hall, and Temple Choir concert will be given at the Baptist Temple.
13Paderewski will give a special recital at the Academy of Music next Monday evening, March 31.
15Josef Hofmann, Fritz Kreisler and Jean Gérardy will give a joint recital at the Academy Thursday evening, April 10, and all musical Brooklyn should go to hear these gifted young men in one evening.
17PEOPLE'S SYMPHONY CONCERTS.
19The fourth and last but one in the series of concerts was given at Cooper Union last Friday evening, before the usual large and music loving audience. No people seem more eager to hear good music than those who turn out to attend these interesting and instructive concerts. Franz X. Arens, the conductor, has been highly successful, and there is in preparations plans to extend the concerts. Last Friday the orchestra performed the Overture to Weber's "Oberon"; four parts from Tschai-kowsky's "Nutcracker" Suite, and one part, by request, from Grieg's "Peer Gynt." Miss Anna E. Otten played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, accompanied by the orchestra, and Mrs. Judson-Van Wie, contralto, contributed the vocal numbers.
21Mr. Arens again prefaced the compositions with explanatory remarks, and both as lecturer and conductor made a profound impression upon his hearers. Miss Otten played the familiar violin concerto with good intonation and warm tone, and the songs by the contralto completed a highly enjoyable evening.
23Margulies' Chamber Music Matinee.
25Miss Adele Margulies gave the closing concert in her series of chamber music matinees at Mrs. Thurber's residence last Wednesday afternoon. The pianist was again assisted by Leopold Lichtenberg, violinist, and Leo Schulz, cellist. The trios played were the one in C minor by Beethoven, and the Arensky in D minor, the latter by request. Between the trios, Miss Margulies and Mr. Lichtenberg performed the Brahms Sonata for piano and violin in A major. Artistically, socially and financially these chamber music matinees have been most successful. The subscribers especially enjoyed the restful beautiful playing of Miss Margulies. Next season a third series will be given.
27BOSTON SYMPHONY CONCERTS.
29On Thursday evening of last week the final one of the Boston Symphony evening concerts was given at Carnegie Hall. This was the program:
31Overture, Penthesilea………………………………………Goldmark
32Concerto in B minor, for violin, No. 3, op. 61…………….Saint-Saëns
33Timothée Adamowski.
34Symphonic Poem, Viviane………………………………….Chausson
35Symphony No. 8, in F major, op. 93……………………Beethoven
37Originally the program had contained, instead of the Chausson number, a set of Symphonic Variations by Koessler, dedicated to the name of Brahms; perhaps during a sleepless night Gericke, surmising what Mr. Finck would write about this composition, was affrighted and replaced it as above.
39Goldmark, with his grateful scoring for strings, usually fares very well at the hands of this orchestra. "Penthesilea" was inspired by Heinrich von Kleist's dramatic poem of the same title. In his interesting program notes Philip Hale has thus summed up the poem's action:
41"Armed for the fray, the Amazons, led by Penthesilea, their queen, set out to attack the Greeks besieging Troy. They hope to celebrate, with captured youths, the Feast of Roses, in their own city, Themiscyra. In the battle Penthesilea meets Achilles, and her heart is turned to water by the splendid beauty of the hero. The traditional and strict law of the Amazons, that only conquered foes should participate with them in the Feast of Roses, compels her to attack him, for she already loves him with consuming love. He overcomes her in the fight, but she is rescued by her Amazons. When Achilles learns that she would be his if she should conquer him in battle, he determines to challenge her to single combat, and then, unarmed, to yield to her. She suspects him of falsehood and treachery, her amorous frenzy turns to raging hate. She kills him with an arrow from her bow, sets her hounds upon him, tears with them his flesh and rejoices in his blood. When her fury is spent, and she knows what she has done, she stabs herself and falls on the mutilated body of Achilles."
43Now in his overture Goldmark chooses to illustrate the battle, the Feast of Roses, love and death. And this composer, who seldom rises to the scorching heights of dramatic writing, draws a very intense picture of the episodes. Why the work is heard so seldom is another one of the many concert room mysteries, since it is very effective in its scoring and climaxes, though not exactly music of the highest order.
45Ernest Chausson's "Viviane" is almost a novelty here. His name appears repeatedly in the make-up of the Colonne concert programs, but in this country we owe a hearing of this work to Theodore Thomas, who played it in Chicago, October 21, 1898; since then Paur has played it here. The score is inscribed with this "legende": Viviane and Merlin in the forest of Brocéliande. Love scene.
47Trumpet calls. The messengers of King Arthur traversing the forest in search of the enchanter.
49Merlin remembers his errand. He would take flight and escape from the embraces of Viviane.
51Scene of bewitchment. To detain him Viviane puts Merlin to sleep, and binds him with blooming whitethorns.
53The greater portion of the tale is borne by the scoring; thematically the work is neither original nor compelling. Wagner has been drawn on for themes, and those selected seem to fit neatly in the Chausson mold. Above all the compositions flow easily and suggest dim, mysterious outlines more than a direct picture. But it must not be overlooked that this is only an op. 5, and that the composer's possible full development was cut short by his death.
55Saint-Saëns' glib Concerto is as courteous and as unoriginal as you please. This facile composer has an unlimited stock of polite musical phrases up his sleeve—true, they are not always children of his own midnight oil, but he has adopted them and put them through their French paces, adorned them with accents aigu and otherwise until, voila, he has quite enough for a symphony or a concerto—again as you please.
57The present work is "not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door," but 'twill serve to show off the skill of many a fiddler to come. It is a pity that one so good as Adamowski should not aim more ambitiously. His work on this occasion showed a deal of improvement over his previous appearances. His tone was healthy, the intonation clean, the phrasing intelligent and his technics unimpeachable. He was applauded appreciatively, for the performance throughout was musical and brilliant.
59Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, called "the little one" by its composer, is a strange hindrance to those who would divide his active life into three productive periods; that it follows the giants "Eroica," Fourth, Fifth and Seventh, and was created the one before the climactic Ninth, is difficult to explain away in a scheme of gradual growth.
61But Beethoven had moods—ranging from royal snubbings to pouring water over his head—and he indulged them. As much so had he musical humors—this Eighth Symphony is one of them.
63The opening movement is young and healthy melodically. Then comes the famous Allegretto, the shortest movement of any of Beethoven's symphonic ones, in which he has embodied one of his earlier practical jokes. The even rhythm which persists throughout it all is a musical translation of the metronome tickings; and against it sounds the melody which has for its basis a four voiced canon, "Ta-ta lieber Maelzel," improvised by Beethoven at a supper and addressed to Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome. From Berlioz to Schopenhauer almost every condition of man has found time to praise this tuneful bit, and during the time when Beethoven's music still was in need of champions it opened many unwilling ears.
65The minuet and its trio is simplicity itself, and Beethoven grows serious only in the final rondo. Mr. Gericke conducted the work metronomically, without a great show of dynamic relief. The orchestra played with the customary amount of precision and pleased a large audience.
67With the Saturday matinee concert the organization closed its present season here, playing this program:
69Overture to The Flying Dutchman…………………………..Wagner
70Vitellia's aria from Titus………………………………………Mozart
71Symphony in E minor, No. 4, op. 68………………………..Brahms
72Die Allmacht…………………………………………………….Schubert
73Schumann-Heink.
74Selections from the ballet, The Vine………………………..Rubinstein
75(With new orchestration by Wilhelm Gericke.)
77There was an enormous audience present and an enthusiastic one, but this did not quicken the conductor's pulse by the single beat of a metronome. Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" sailed into port in a placid sea; the storm never left the score for a minute, and if Mr. Gericke will take the trouble to look he will find that it is still there.
79But one would gladly forgive him this if he had not played such sad havoc with Brahms' Fourth Symphony. Safely can it be said, though he played every blessed little note of the work, not at any time did he succeed in making the work cohere intelligently. The phrases were
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