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Musical Courier 1902-05-28: Vol 44 Iss 1157, 1902
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1the Beethoven Concerto. To accomplish such a thing needs some experience of the deeper emotions of life, and to acquire that experience is a matter of years. Kubelik has done well in leaving his beaten track and attempting music which is really worth hearing. He has undoubtedly met with considerable discouragement on his first attempt, but if he can only succeed in rendering his technic a little less obtrusive there is no reason why he should not succeed better later on.
3With regard to the rest of the programs, Richter played the "Meistersinger" Overture and Brahms' First Symphony as only he can play them; while, at the Philharmonic, the performances of Tschaikowsky's Fifth Symphony and a portion of Mozart's Suite, "Les Petits Riens," would have been all the better for a little more rehearsal.
5It is a bold pianist who, while quite unknown, elects to give a series of six recitals at St. James' Hall. Miss Mabel Monteith, however, who gave the second of her series on Tuesday afternoon, seems likely to come out of the ordeal with flying colors. A pupil of the late Emil Bach, she certainly has the advantage of possessing a wonderful technic. Her fingers have been trained to perfection, and even in so exacting a work as Brahms' first set of variations on a theme by Paganini it would have been very difficult to find a single flaw in her execution. She played the most rapid passages with perfect neatness and clearness, not a single difficulty was shirked and not a single bar was blurred. Liszt, of course, plays a large part in the scheme of her program. That of Tuesday included the "Liebestraum," exquisitely played, and the brilliant "Don Juan" Fantaisie, in which she displayed a command over her instrument such as is possessed by few of the gentler sex. Her artistic side still stands in need of a little development, but she is still very young, and we have little doubt that experience is all that she needs. If her performance of the Liszt and Brahms pieces showed great achievement, her readings of Chopin's Study in E, the A flat Polonaise and the G minor Ballade also showed great promise, and Miss Monteith is a pianist of whom we may expect great things. It is whispered that she has incurred the wrath of a well-known firm of piano manufacturers in that having won their scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music she now plays on an instrument made by another firm. Daniel Mayer says that he cannot understand the reason. Is it so very hard to divine?
7Other concerts were given on Wednesday by Hans Dressel at Steinway Hall and Rosa Bird at Bechstein Hall.
9On Thursday afternoon Arthur Hartmann gave his second violin recital at St. James' Hall. His brilliant playing has already won for him a name in London to which few artists have attained so rapidly, and his playing on Thursday only served to increase his reputation. He might, however, pay rather more attention to his programs. Two short pieces by Bach are surely rather skimp measures of the classics.
11The week has been so heavy that it is impossible to discuss all the concerts that have taken place. Small recitals, such as Miss Polyxena Fletcher's, and Smallwood Metcalf's on Wednesday, Miss Otta Brong's on Thursday and two chamber concerts given by the Chaplin Trio and Miss Grimson's quartet on Friday may be left to take care of themselves. The two important concerts of the latter part of the week, Godowsky's and Victor Benham's recitals, must be held over till my next letter in order that full justice may be done to them.
13ZARATHUSTRA.
15LONDON NOTES.
16Henry Wolfsohn is stopping at the Langham Hotel.
17Andrew Carnegie is stopping at the Langham Hotel.
18Jean Gérardy, Fritz Kreisler and Arthur Hartmann called on Mr. Chester yesterday. Gérardy had come over from Spa (Belgium) on a flying visit to London for the purpose of engaging a pianist for his forthcoming Australian tour. He has arranged with Gottfried Galston, and the two artists leave England on Saturday next by the St. Paul en route for Australia via New York and San Francisco. Gérardy will play in London and the English provinces next winter.
20Fritz Kreisler's success at the first Richter concert was so great that he has been engaged for another Richter concert on June 2. The same soloist playing at two Richter concerts out of a series of three is unprecedented.
22Josef Hofmann arrives in London from Berlin on May 23, and gives his first recital, under the management of Ralph Emerson Burnham, at the Queen's Hall on May 26.
24The young Bohemian violinist Kocian has just signed a contract with Rudolph Aronson, a New York manager, to play a series of eighty concerts in the United States and Canada, commencing November next. [See editorial in last week's MUSICAL COURIER.—Ed.]
26It was through the instrumentality of Mr. Aronson and by his suggestion that Daniel Frohman entered the concert field and engaged Herr Kubelik last season. In this connection there arose certain differences, the result of which is that there is at the present time a lawsuit pending between Mr. Frohman and Mr. Aronson.
28Kocian was a fellow pupil with Herr Kubelik under Professor Sevcik, of Prague, and although only eighteen years of age he has played in all the principal cities of Europe. His second recital in London this season will take place at St. James' Hall, Thursday evening, May 22, and in addition he will on May 26 perform Joachim's Hungarian Concerto at the Richter concert in London.
30He was recently the guest of honor at one of Mrs. Ronald's musical afternoons, and he has also arranged to play at one of the annual musicales given by W. W. Astor at his house on Carlton House terrace.
32Financially associated with Mr. Aronson in this enterprise are Joseph Leiter, of Chicago, and H. W. Arkell, the former editor of New York Judge.
34"ELIJAH" SUNG TO AN AUDIENCE OF MEN.
36MENDELSSOHN'S oratorio, "Elijah," was sung before an audience of men at Carnegie Hall last Sunday afternoon. The performance was given under the auspices of the West Side branch of the Y. M. C. A. The admission was free, and, as a matter of course, the hall was crowded to the doors. Tali Esen Morgan conducted the New York Festival Chorus of 600 voices. There was an orchestra of forty men. The soloists were Miss Kathrin Hilde, Miss Kathleen Howard, Evan Williams and Gwilym Miles. Miss Howard, the young contralto, is a pupil of Madame Evans von Klenner. She has been one of the successes of the season in New York. Miss Howard's voice is a beautiful rich contralto, and her singing is on each occasion a good illustration of the von Klenner method. The other soloists are well-known oratorio singers, and Miss Howard divided the honors with them.
38FLORENCE MULFORD FESTIVAL FAVORITE.—The Watertown May Festival just closed was a very successful event, Paur's Orchestra, with prominent soloists, assisting. Commenting on the festival the Syracuse Post-Standard, in an article headed "The Favorite of the Festival" (alluding to the contralto, Florence Mulford), says:
40Miss Mulford was a stranger to the audience, but won immediately such favor that she is such no longer. Her rich contralto voice is a thing of beauty with mellow tones that go straight to the heart. The contralto quality exists throughout the extent of her remarkable range, over every tone of which she has perfect control. She sings with grace and facility, interpreting each song in perfect sympathy with the composer's thought.
42Her program number, "Lieti Signor," from "Les Huguenots," showed excellent technic, but it was in her encore, Nevin's "Rosary," that her finest work was done.
44There have been many renditions of this exquisite composition, but it is doubtful if there has ever been one more satisfactory than hers. Her voice appealed. It was full of tears and sent the song straight to the hearts of those who heard it.
46Miss Mulford, who will undoubtedly be remembered as the favorite of this festival, sang charmingly the gavotte from "Mignon," and for an encore "Thy Beaming Eyes," in which her rich, low tones showed to especial advantage.
48PARIS, MAY 7, 1902.
50"PELEAS et Melisande," the new work produced last week at the Opéra Comique, and which has provoked so much discussion among musicians and critics, is a musical setting by Debussy of a libretto based on the play of Maeterlinck. The author of the play, annoyed by the changes and cuts made in his work, refused to acknowledge the authorship, stating his case in a letter to the Figaro. Albert Carré, the director of the Opera Comique, who was responsible for these changes, replied to the letter without answering it, simply stating that on the eve of the production of an important work he did not wish to have any controversy which might prejudice its success. Since then nothing further has been published on the matter. Claude Debussy, the composer of the music, is a Prix de Rome, and has, I believe, been working on this composition for several years. He has brought himself into notice by several vocal and instrumental works performed at concerts, all displaying great technical skill and feeling for color, combined with a distinct note of originality. The present work is remarkable for the form in which it is conceived. There is not the faintest approach to an "air" so called throughout the entire opera. The action of the piece unfolds itself to the accompaniment (if I may use the word) of the orchestra, which seeks to express not only the different emotions and sentiments of the personages in the drama, but also the atmospheric effects, murmuring of the breeze, appearance or disappearance of the moonlight, &c. All this carried on continuously without the slightest intention of a "phrase," the end of an act being the only interruption to the stream of harmony.
52The vocal parts are written without any attention being paid to the characteristics of the singing voice. In fact the singers recite their role to notes, without the composer having cared as to whether the sequence of these notes shall prove agreeable to the ear or even express the character of the persons in the drama. Of melody, so far as the vocal parts is concerned, there is not the slightest pretension. In fact the same results would be obtained exactly if the singers were to declaim their parts instead of singing them, provided they kept the pitch of the voice quite distinct from the tonality of the orchestra and fitted their words to it. The only reason that I can see why this style of writing opera should not be carried to its legitimate conclusion and the actors be made to speak instead of sing is that the voice in singing carries farther and is more distinct and audible than when speech is made the vehicle of interpretation. Not the slightest attempt has been made by the composer to copy any of the well-known formulas of Wagner, such as the use of the leitmotif, &c. It is even amusing to notice the virulence of some of the attacks made on the composer for this lack of imitation, when one remembers that it is at no very great distance of time that the composer, whose works are now
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