Scan 23
Musical Courier 1902-05-14: Vol 44 Iss 1155, 1902
64 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
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1mique, has developed a method of her own for singing and acting at the same time, not as a character in an opera, but in the interpretation of separate songs, the songs of Schumann and Schubert, for instance, and in songs written for the words of Verlaine, Maeterlinck and others, by Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Fabre and other musicians. If she comes to London she will take one of the smaller halls, where the effect at which she aims could be best realized; when I heard her in Paris, it was in a private house, with the accompaniment on the piano of M. Fabre, the composer of a good many of the songs.
3Imagine a woman who suggests at the same time Sarah Bernhardt and Mrs. Brown-Potter, without being really like either; she is small, exuberantly blond, her head is surrounded by masses of loosely twisted blond hair; she has large gray eyes, that can be grave, or mocking, or passionate, or cruel, or watchful; a large nose, an intent, eloquent mouth. She wears a trailing dress that follows the lines of the figure vaguely, supple to every movement. When she sings, she has an old, high-backed chair in which she can sit, or on which she can lean. When I heard her there was a mirror on the other side of the room, opposite to her; she saw no one else in the room, once she had surrendered herself to the possession of the song, but she was always conscious of that image of herself which came back to her out of the mirror; it was herself watching herself; in a kind of delight at the beauty which she was evoking out of words, notes and expressive movement.
5Her voice is strong and rich, imperfectly trained, but the voice of a born singer; her acting is even more the acting of a born actress; but it is the temperament of the woman that flames into her voice and gesture, and sets her whole being violently and delicately before you. She makes a drama of each song, and she recreates that drama over again, in her rendering of the intentions of the words and of the music. It is as much with her eyes and her hands, as with her voice, that she evokes the melody of a picture; it is a picture that sings, and that sings in all its lines. There is something in her aspect, what shall I call it? tenacious; it is a woman who is an artist because she is a woman, who takes in energy at all her senses and gives out energy at all her senses. She sang some tragic songs of Schumann, some mysterious songs of Maeterlinck, some delicate love songs of Charles van Lerberghe. As one looked and listened it was impossible to think more of the words than of the music or of the music than of the words. One took them in simultaneously, as one feels at once the softness and the perfume of a flower. I understood why Mallarmé had seemed to see in her the realization of one of his dreams. Here was a new art, made up of a new mixing of the arts, in one subtly intoxicating elixir. To Mallarmé it was the more exquisite because there was in it none of the broad general appeal of opera of the gross recognized proportions of things.
7The trouble about these attempts to fuse the arts is that the description in the pellucid prose of Mr. Symons is very much more beautiful than the thing itself. Mlle. Leblanc is the affianced wife of Maurice Maeterlinck.
9And now have you not had enough of Richard Strauss? The warm days are nigh and anything more exciting than Strauss, except a Martinique volcano, cannot be well imagined; so unless I am able to fish up any more scores or revolutionary pamphlets I shall be silent on the subject for many months. It has been fairly well threshed out; only the songs have been omitted.
11NOTICE.
12Musicians and people interested in musical affairs who are going to Europe can have all their mail sent, care of this office, and it will be forwarded to them. Musical people generally, who are visiting New York, or who are here temporarily, can have all of their mail addressed to them, care of this office, where it will be kept until they call for it, or redirected, as requested.
14BURMEISTER'S FIFTH MUSICALE.
15RICHARD BURMEISTER presented eight pupils at the fifth musicale for this season, given last Saturday afternoon at the Burmeister residence, 604 Park avenue. Three of the eight were small girls, and there was, as usual, a program judiciously arranged:
16Sonata in C major (first movement) ………………………………………Mozart
17(A second piano part added by Grieg.)
18Milly Rosenbaum.
19Spring Song ………………………………………………………..Mendelssohn
20Rebecca Goldstein.
21Gavotte in E minor ……………………………………………..Silas
22Miss Stella M. Tryon.
23Capriccio Brillante in B minor ………………………………………Mendelssohn
24(With accompaniment of a second piano.)
25Miss Elsa Behrens.
26Tarantelle in G sharp minor ………………………………………Nicodé
27Miss Delphine Martin.
28Concerto in G minor (first movement) ……………………………Saint-Saëns
29(With accompaniment of a second piano.)
30Miss Ida Rothstein.
31Three Preludes …………………………………………………….Chopin
32Miss Ethelyn Harrison.
33Hungarian Fantasie ……………………………………………..Liszt
34(With accompaniment of a second piano.)
35Victoria Boschco.
37The second piano parts were performed by Mr. Burmeister himself. Those who take the trouble to scan the works played by these students will see for themselves how the master considers his pupils. Milly Rosenbaum and Rebecca Goldstein, two of the small girls, played charmingly the pieces suited to their tender years. Miss Tryon played the Silas Gavotte in a dainty fashion. Dainty also describes the performance of Nicodé's pretty Tarantelle by Miss Martin. Miss Behrens, with the Mendelssohn Capriccio, and Miss Rothstein, with the first movement of the Saint-Saëns Concerto in G minor, both showed conception of the music and in the execution displayed technical skill of a high order. Miss Harrison's playing was marked for a soft, warm tone. The Russian child, Victoria Boschco, is a pupil of pre-eminent gifts. Her playing of the Hungarian Fantasie, by Liszt, lacked only power to make it a remarkable performance. The bravura parts were performed with amazing finish, such as one might expect of an adult virtuoso of international fame. Mr. Burmeister's assistance at the second piano was masterly and had undoubtedly something to do in inspiring the youthful pupil with confidence. The sixth and final musicale is announced for Saturday afternoon, May 17.
39DUSS CONCERTS.
40ON Sunday evening, May 25, Mr. Duss will give his inaugural concert at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Duss Band numbers fifty-six performers, and among these are some of the best players in this country. A very good program has been chosen for this occasion. The Duss Band will begin its summer night series on May 26 at St. Nicholas Garden, and many attractive features have been added to the garden. Mr. Johnston, the manager of Duss, is doing everything possible to make the Duss concerts most attractive.
42The St. Nicholas Garden has been identified as a resort for music lovers during the past three summers, and no doubt it will be a rendezvous for thousands of people during the warm evenings. The atmosphere will be cooled by the large ice plant and will be 15 degrees cooler than outside.
44FREDERIC LAMOND ENGAGED.
45FREDERIC LAMOND, the eminent pianist, authority on the classics and virtuoso of the highest order, has been engaged for the coming season to play in this country. His performances will constitute one of the important musical features of 1902-3.
46Mr. Lamond will play the Mason & Hamlin piano.
48MILAN
49CORSO VENEZIA 65, MILAN, ITALY, April 21, 1902.
50HE grand or regular opera season being finished at the Scala Theatre, four orchestral concerts have been announced to take place in rapid succession at this theatre. The first of these will be noticed in today's letter.
51As there was, however, an orchestral concert on the day before at another theatre by a visiting organization, that, by right of priority, must be given first attention.
52At the Lirico Theatre the Munich orchestra of Dr. Franz Kaim, under direction of Felix Weingärtner von Münzberg, gave a concert with the following rather classic or conservative program, but which pleased exceedingly on account of its musical context:
53Ouverture zu Iphigénie in Aulis ………………………………………Gluck
54(Mit schluss von R. Wagner.)
55Ouverture zu Zauberflöte …………………………………………..Mozart
56Ouverture zu Oberon …………………………………………………Weber
57Venusberg (Bacchanale) aus Tannhäuser ………………………..Wagner
58(Pariser Bearbeitung.)
59Simphonie No. 3. Eroica ……………………………………………..Beethoven
60The date of this concert fell on the opening night at the Dal Verme Theatre, with the opera 'Andrea Chenier' as the attraction, which proved somewhat unfortunate for both. While the audience at the Lirico was of fair size, with the upper house crowded and overfilled and the lower part comfortably so, the attendance in the boxes suffered. Among the different box occupants were seen Arturo Toscanini, the Scala opera conductor; Cleofonte Campanini, the opera conductor and brother of the late tenor so well remembered in America; Gabriele d'Annunzio, Dr. Kaim and Manager Joseph Smith, besides many persons well known in Milan musical circles.
61The Kaim Orchestra consists of about seventy members, composed on a string basis of forty-five or forty-six, with woodwind choir twelve, brass ten, harp, &c. They are an evenly balanced body of musicians, the violins being quite brilliant and played mostly by young men with a Wagner profiled concertmaster named Rettich as their leader. Not only is the string band of this Kaim Orchestra excellent, but all the players have been well chosen, and the young blood in the band works well and in sympathy with the youthful energy of the conductor, Felix Weingärtner, who has not yet reached his thirty-ninth year.
62While the violins and the other stringed instruments were flawless in every sense, in their entrance and attack at all times, in bowing, tonal beauty, light and shade effects, &c., the wind instrument players showed signs of suffering from the effects of constant travel and playing every day in a different town in their tour of Italy. In this respect the flutists, clarinetists and horn players are apt to suffer from change of climate, of table (food) and drinking water (perhaps the absence of their native Münchener brew in some towns), so that, in consequence, a touch of indigestion, or headaches, need of rest, loss of energy, indifferent, inactive breathing powers, or a lack of perfect breath control in phrasing, &c., may occasion much disturbance and all sorts of trouble, all of which, too, would explain any absence of firm lip pressure or attack, known among blowers of musical instruments as embouchure or "Ansatz," which was noticeable here and there among the reeds and horns of the orchestra. I make mention of this, not as criticism, but on the contrary as a matter of justice to the musicians, and these remarks are based on my own orchestral experience as a violinist (while studying voice and its development).
63As a conductor, Weingärtner appeared an interesting.
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