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Musical Courier 1902-06-04: Vol 44 Iss 1158, 1902
32 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1one of her most brilliant successes as Isolde. Further discussion of this, must, however, be left over till next week.
3Owing to the pressure of concerts last week it was necessary to hold over two important piano recitals, those given by Godowsky and Victor Benham. That of Godowsky took place on Thursday afternoon and hardly attracted the audience it deserved to Bechstein Hall. There can be few pianists living who have such a wonderful technic, and for this reason, if for no other, his recitals are always worth hearing. Fortunately, however, he combines with it great artistic gifts, and his playing is generally interesting as well as amazing. Occasionally, it is true, his strength of finger appears to lead him into excesses, and on more than one occasion in Schumann's "Carnival" his tone was not as pure as it might have been. This, however, was more than compensated by the delightful delicacy with which he played such numbers as "Enseibius," "Coquette" and "Florestan," a delicacy which no player with a less perfect technic could hope to rival. But a little of that delicacy might well have been applied to "Pierrot" and the final march, and also to portions of Beethoven's Sonata Appassionata with considerable advantage.
5Victor Benham, who gave the second of three piano recitals at the same hall on Friday afternoon, is certainly a pianist of great natural ability. He has, in the first place, that greatest of all gifts, temperament, without which no pianist, however brilliant he may be, can ever hope to become an interesting player. Occasionally his temperament appears to lead him astray, and he indulges in contrasts which are almost too violent. But that is a fault which can easily be corrected, and he showed in Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata that his playing possesses great possibilities. While his performances are often characterized by great breadth and virility, he can also play with perfect delicacy, and his reading of the slow movement of the sonata and of Chopin's Nocturne in C minor were almost perfect in this respect. In the course of a long and interesting program, including Schumann's "Etudes Symphoniques," in which he displayed his powers in their best light, he introduced a sonata of his own. We have already had occasion to speak highly of Mr. Benham's talents as a composer, and this sonata more than confirmed previous impressions. He has great powers of invention, and they are combined with a technic of the first order. The sonata is well designed and well written, while on Friday it was also exceedingly well played.
7On Tuesday afternoon Miss Mabel Monteith gave her third concert, and scored at it no less a success than at her other two. As at her first concert, she had the advantage of the assistance of a very excellent orchestra conducted by Arthur Friedheim, which played the accompaniments to Weber's Concertstück and Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia and E flat piano concerto admirably. Miss Monteith proved herself once more to be one of the most brilliant and promising of the younger pianists of the day. For sheer virtuosity she can have few equals and no superiors, and her execution is neater and clearer than that of any lady pianist it has been our lot to hear, with the possible exception of Carreño. She is obviously a player from whom we may expect very great things indeed, and we shall be very much surprised if she does not win herself a place among the leading pianists of the day. In addition to the accompaniments the orchestra played the overture to "Egmont," Liszt's "Les Préludes" and Otto Floersheim's symphonic poem "Consolation," a work which displays all the delicacy of fancy and delightful scoring which characterize everything that Mr. Floersheim produces.
9We have had the opportunity this week of comparing two violinists who have already made names for themselves as virtuosi, Kubelik and Kocian. For his series of concerts, which began on Wednesday afternoon, Kubelik has brought over his Bohemian orchestra, conducted by Herr Nedbal. The reason of this proceeding is rather hard to discover, for we have plenty of orchestras in England which are quite as good and not a few that are a great deal better. Herr Nedbal accompanied the concertos very nicely, but Mr. Wood would have accompanied them quite as well, and would probably have given better readings of the few orchestral pieces which were included in the program. Kubelik's playing of the uninteresting and unnecessary "Faust Fantasia" of Wieniawski and of a set of Paganini variations was, of course, as brilliant as ever, but his technic is really little better than that of Kocian, and in the matter of artistic power we would prefer to pin our faith upon the latter. Kubelik on Wednesday played Mozart's concerto in D, and all credit is due to him for making an effort to give us music that is really worth hearing. But he showed in it that his artistic powers are still in need of development, and his playing left one totally unmoved.
11Kocian, upon the other hand, has unquestionable artistic possibilities. In César Franck's violin sonata, which headed his program on Thursday evening, he achieved better things than he had shown himself capable of previously. He still, it is true, needs power, and he does not always reach any great depth of sentiment. But, while his technic and his tone are quite as good as those of Kubelik, he possesses much more temperament than that very popular violinist, and it will not be at all surprising if, when he has increased his experience, he becomes by far the better violinist of the two. A word of praise is due to the playing of Miss Marguerite Elzy, who played two pieces of Scarlatti at Kocian's concert with admirable delicacy and neatness.
13Two very delightful vocal recitals were given at Bechstein Hall on Wednesday, one in the afternoon by Mary Münchhoff, and one in the evening by Whitney Tew. The program of Mr. Tew's concert might well he held up as a model to intending concert givers. It was irreproachably classical, but yet it contained nothing that was in the least commonplace or hackneyed. The most familiar of the songs, such as Schubert's "Aufenthalt" and Franz's "Aus meinem grossen Schmerzen," one was very glad to hear again, especially as Mr. Tew sang them; while Hensche's "Salomo," Dvorák's "Tune Thy Strings, O Gypsy," Hartmann's "Mir träumte von einem Königskind" and Martini's "Plaisir d'Amour" very rarely find their way into concert programs. In addition to this, out of the twenty songs sung by Mr. Tew no fewer than nine were by English and American composers. This proportion of songs in the native tongue is, unfortunately, all too rare, but we trust that other singers will be encouraged by the success of Mr. Tew's experiment to follow his example. They included Stanford's "Battle of Pelusium," Cuthbert Hawley's "For a Dream's Sake," Liza Lehmann's "Marching Song," Dudley Buck's "Until God's Day" and songs by Dorothea Hollins, Miss White, Ethelbert Nevin and Charles Wood. Mr. Tew proved to be more than equal to the trying ordeal of singing twenty songs and of making them all interesting. He is a singer with a fine temperament and strong dramatic power, and he has a great variety of tone color at his command. In everything that he sang he proved himself a thorough artist whose performances are always sure to be very well worth hearing.
15The exceedingly favorable impression which Miss Mary Münchhoff made last week was more than sustained at her concert on Wednesday. Her clear, pure soprano voice grows upon one with acquaintance, and she combines technic and artistic power in a manner that is only too rare among singers. Her technic is so highly developed that she would be justified in confining herself to music of the florid school. Fortunately, however, she is content to use it as a means and not as an end, and she depends for her success more upon her powers as an artist than upon her skill as a singer of coloratura music. She is, indeed, fully justified by the results. She has temperament, a perfect idea of phrasing and a beautiful voice which is absolutely under her control. For what greater gifts than these could any singer wish? But there are few vocalists who could sing as did Miss Münchhoff on Wednesday, songs ranging from Schubert's "Du bist die Ruh" to Rossini's "Una voca poco fa" with unvarying success.
17Miss Gertrude Collins, a violinist, and Frank Haskoll, a vocalist, gave a concert at Steinway Hall on the same afternoon; while in the evening a piano recital was given there by Fräulein Hedwig Buschmann, a pianist whom we could seriously recommend to become note perfect before appearing in London again.
19On Thursday afternoon a concert was given at St. James' Hall by Ley Vernon, a clever tenor, who would, however, be rather better heard in a drawing room than in a concert room. At Steinway Hall a concert was given by Miss Victoria Levatsoka, a soprano, who had, apparently, come all the way from Russia to do it. She need not have taken the trouble.
21The only important concert announced for Friday, the first of Bispham's series, had to be postponed, owing to the fact that the singer had a bad cold. Other concerts were given by Mme. Adine O'Neill and Miss Hope Morgan and by Mr. and Miss Tabb.
23C. VIRGIL GORDON'S RECITAL.
25MISS JULIA MOSS, pianist, played the second of C. Virgil Gordon's series of pupils' recitals at the Virgil Piano School, 29 West Fifteenth street, on Tuesday evening, May 27. She was assisted by John Perry Boruff, baritone.
27A large audience greeted the pianist on this, her first attempt at playing a whole recital. Miss Moss presents a good stage presence and possesses personal magnetism. For her opening group Miss Moss chose four poetical "Tone Pictures," by Grieg; "An den Frühling," by the same composer, and the Waltz in C sharp minor, by Chopin. In all of them she showed to great advantage, producing many musical effects that any artist might be proud of, her touch both in the Grieg and Chopin numbers possessing that beautiful, scintillating quality which many so-called artists lack.
29At her second appearance "Kammenoi Ostrow," by Rubinstein; Impromptu, A flat, by Chopin; Allegro Vivace, op. 31, from Beethoven's Sonata, and the "Rustle of Spring," by Sinding, afforded excellent opportunity for the display of much emotional and dramatic ability, and showed her to be the possessor of exceptional musical and temperamental qualities. With a continuance of her present course of study Miss Moss will undoubtedly become a shining light in the concert field. The program was closed with Hensel's beautiful gem, "If I Were a Bird," and Schumann's Novelette in F. Miss Moss was enthusiastically applauded and received many flowers.
31John Perry Boruff, the singer, was in splendid voice, and sang with exceptional artistic effect. He was showered with applause, and had to respond with several encores.
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