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Musical Courier 1902-05-28: Vol 44 Iss 1157, 1902
38 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER
3Berlin Branch Budget
5GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
6BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17,
7May 5, 1902.
9The London Music Festival of 1902 and Miss Monteith's Debut.
11ALL the ideas of an English music festival which I have ever held were upset by the one I had the pleasure and good fortune to attend at London during nearly the whole of the past week. It is true they were based on hearsay evidence, reading of accounts, programs and criticisms only, and they may have been quite appropriate, or at least very nearly correct, as far as the old-fashioned and well-established Worcester, Birmingham, Norwich and other country town festivals of the same order are concerned. These somewhat dull, lumbbersome and cumbersome, but, of course, highly respectable and mostly subventioned—be it by the town treasury or other means—affairs, were musically in the main dependent upon the festival chorus, and the program therefore could not dispense with the time honored Händel oratorio, as well as the equally wonted pièce d'occasion, written by the one or the other of the more or less orthodox—I mean it only in the musical sense—among the English composers "commissioned" to write it.
13Nothing of the kind was the case at the London Music Festival of 1902, which owed its existence to that enterprising and modernly minded manager Robert Newman, whose sole inspiration it was, and who, unaided and unabetted by city council or government subvention, carried it out to an artistically and, let us hope for his sake, also financially successful issue. There was no festival chorus of so and so many hundred singers, nine-tenths of whom ought to have kept their mouths shut in order to give the remaining and only musical tenth a chance to be heard in unalloyed fashion, as I so often wish and long for when I hear one of these beautifully dressed conglomerations of vocalists, yclept "local talent," and consequently there was also no oratorio. Instead of it we had thoroughly modern, highly interesting, well arranged symphony concert programs, performed by an orchestra of over one hundred musicians, which has for years been drilled into a body with as finished an ensemble and sonority as well as euphony of tone as can be found anywhere upon the European continent. The merit of having organized this Queen's Hall orchestra and having, through incessant work, musical energy and talent, brought this permanent orchestra to its present high artistic plane belongs to H. J. Wood, the only English conductor, as far as I know, who can be mentioned in the same breath with the famous Continental conductors. Probably he conducts more concerts in a year than anybody else with the sole exception of Josef Rebicek, of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, for besides the regular symphonic and soloists' concerts, he annually conducts no less than sixty-six promenade concerts during the summer. Hence, in his routine, which, however, has not made him blasé, and in the matter of fire, verve and impetuosity of beat he was a fair match for any of his four rivals. Altogether, this festival of six days—there were three afternoon and three evening concerts—had no less than five renowned conductors, a perfect "galaxy" of knights of the stick, or a conductors' congress as it were. It would have delighted the heart of Wm. R. Chapman, of New York, for here at last he could have his heart's wish gratified of measuring them all off one by one and then seeing who is "the greatest" among them. In this respect the London Festival also offered an unusual attraction over any of the German music festivals, for while it was formerly and for many decades the habit of engaging besides the local conductor some "capacity" of the very first rank for the Netherhrenish Music Festivals this custom has of late been abandoned nearly entirely. Professor Dr. Wueller, at Cologne, was the first one to make it a one man's affair, and he was soon followed by Buths, of Düsseldorf, while only Schwickerath, of Aachen, still holds to the useful co-operation of a Richard Strauss. The reason, however, may also be one of necessity, for where are the "renowned" men to be found who are to act as conductors and drawing cards? Mendelssohn was one for years at those Netherhrenish concerts; so was Schumann, although he could not conduct and better and was possibly worse than Saint-Saëns, who was assuredly the most "renowned" among the five artists who officiated as conductors at the London Music Festival last week. He, as well as Schumann, proves the old adage that great composers don't always make good conductors. Mendelssohn and Schumann, however, were before my time, but I still can remember, though a mere boy at the time, the great impression that was created by Liszt when he deigned to appear, he, the first progressionist, as conductor of one of those festivals held in the strongholds of musical conservatism preached and practiced at that period by men like Hiller, Reinecke, Rietz, Tausch and a few others who were then the reigning spirits of the Netherhrenish music festivals.
15What struck me most forcibly at the very first night of the London festival was the predominance given not only in the first, but also in one or two of the following programs, to the works of Tschaikowsky, and on the other hand, with one single exception, the complete neglect of Richard Strauss. This almost looks like "horses for courses," as the English turf saying has it, and that while they have come to a liking, and possibly also to an understanding, of the melancholy and fierceness of the Russian master, the ultra modern, nay, decadent spirit of the greatest among living German composers has not yet filtered into the musical make-up of the English. They will have a chance of personal acquaintance with the man and his works, for Richard Strauss is at present in London, where he will present together with Possart, to probably big audiences, his "Enoch Arden" and a new work of similar order, as well as conduct some of his creations for orchestra. Of other English predilections for special composers I could detect during my fortnight's stay in the capital of that country only one for Dvorák, which exceeds that of Berlin for the here not quite sufficiently appreciated Bohemian composer, and a fondness for Grieg, which in my estimation passes beyond the deserts of the Scandinavian with the one and only national flavor to give zest to his otherwise more pretty than powerful music. I remember the time, not so very long ago either, when I also had that longing for Grieg, but now it seems to me almost like a long conquered hay fever, and a little of his music goes a great way with me. I can enjoy it only like sweetmeats after a substantial dinner.
17The first program, which by the way was much too long, contained no less than three works of Tschaikowsky. It opened with the brilliantly orchestrated, but rather shallow "Coronation March," a veritable pièce d'occasion, which the master wrote for the coronation of Alexander III. of Russia, and was performed for the first time during that ceremony in 1883 at Moscow. And the program closed with the much more telling overture solennelle "1812," in which only the short allusion to the national anthem, composed by Liadov many years later than 1812, always strikes me as an anachronism. The pièce de résistance, however, was the last symphony of Tschaikowsky, which closed the first half of the program. I was told that this noble and great work had been "done" so often of late by the same band and, of course, also under the same conductor, that I did not wonder at all that it did not go particularly well on this special occasion. It is often the case that when you want to do something that always goes well, extra well, that you overshoot the mark and cause disappointment to others and to yourself. This was the case during the greater part of the first three movements of Tschaikowsky's Sixth Symphony, in which the playing of the orchestra was rather ragged, and Mr. Wood did not seem himself, nor did half as well as I had seen him do here in Berlin with a strange orchestra. In the final movement he, however, as well as the orchestra, was simply "auf der Hoche," and a superb, elevating and touching performance of this "suicidal" finale justified the ovation with which the audience honored the home conductor, and in which he made his orchestra share in approved fashion by making them rise and acknowledge by a general bow the strong and persistent applause which the public bestowed alike upon the rousing march movement and the closing one of the symphony.
19New to me was the name of Percy Pitt, whose "Paolo and Francesca" suite, constructed from material taken from the incidental music composed for Stephen Philipps' play, proved a very well scored, euphonious and contrapuntally, as well as in general structure, most musicianly work. If it were in ideas equally as new and important, as it is fluent in facture, this music would be among if not the greatest England has so far produced. As it is, it is very clever and interesting, and from it I should be inclined to number Mr. Pitt among the rising young English composers. He is certainly one of the most popular in London, and also, as I had a chance to find out by personal observation, one of the most modest.
21There were two soloists at this concert, both of whom need no introduction to you, for you know them well. Hence I can pass them over with a few words. Lillian Blauvelt sang the Mad Scene from "Hamlet," with all her wonted bravura, purity and beauty of voice, and scored a triumph. The latter was allotted also to Ysaye, although he played the Beethoven Concerto. I agree with you, and so we probably say all of us, that he is the greatest living violinist; but only for certain works. His interpretation of Beethoven and frequently also of Bach, however, is unsatisfactory and lacking in breadth as well as nobility of style. This was most plainly noticeable in the slow movement and in the second theme of the last, which sounded absurdly maudlin in his reading. The selected cadenzas also were more showy than musically valuable.
23The second day of the festival brought a less interesting and likewise less well performed program. The concert itself took place in the afternoon.
25The attendance of the festival was on an average a fairly good one, and thus, with prices ranging from 15 shillings down to 5, it is supposable that Mr. Newman will have covered expenses, extraordinarily large as they undoubtedly were.
27M. Ysaye had exchanged the bow for the baton, and gave use a spirited reading of the "Euryanthe" Overture, which war horse, as usual, did not fail to incite the enthusiasm of the audience. Less was this the case with the Beethoven C minor Symphony, the interpretation of which was for the greater part uninteresting, and the slow movement of which, marked by composer as andante con moto, was dragged out by Ysaye into an adagio tempo. Evidently—and this was noticeable also in the mere technic of conducting—Ysaye is a far greater violinist than he is, and especially than he thinks himself, a conductor.
29The "Siegfried Idyll" of Wagner was cleverly performed, but the praise therefor principally is due to the excellent woodwind of the orchestra. A comparative novelty, or at least a rarely heard piece, was Svendsen's "Carnival in Paris," an episode for orchestra, which sounds more brilliant than characteristic. It is full of life and fun, however, an international humor more than a specifically Parisian one finding plenty of vent throughout the effectively scored and thematically well developed piece.
31Of Haydn's six 'cello concertos, five of which are entirely ignored nowadays, the very pretty one in D major has of late been revived by Hugo Becker and others. The great Frankfort master of the unwieldy instrument has made the work known here as well as in New York, and it needs therefore only my statement that he performed it at this festival with the same extraordinary and infallible finger technic which he commands in like degree as Klengel, and which, for want of a better comparison, I should like to call fiddling upon the 'cello. Becker's tone is big also, but it is not one of the best or most pleasing quality. If not exactly rasping, it at least sounds dry and unsympathetic.
33The other soloist at this concert was the always so monitory and so self-conscious D. T. Firangcon Davies. Once upon a time, before D. T.—the initials are his and mean no allusion—became a professional singer, he was a Welsh Protestant curate, and
35"You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of the roses will cling to it still,"
37as Tom Moore has it. Therefore D. T. still preaches when
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