Scan 4
Musical Courier 1903-02-04: Vol 46 Iss 1193, 1903
42 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3Berlin
5GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
6HAUPTSTRASSE, 20A, BERLIN, W.,
7January 10, 1903.
9S regards the motives of Count Hochberg's sudden retreat from the Royal Opera, it is asserted in the Dresdner Nachrichten that His Excellency was accosted by the Emperor a few days after the first performance of Richard Strauss' "Die Feuersnot" about the "immorality" of the libretto of this work. The count is reported to have urged in defense of himself against this blame that Richard Strauss was conductor at the Royal Opera House, and that he could not proceed too rigorously against one of his own kapellmeisters. Hereupon the Emperor is said to have retorted: "I have no use for conductors who compose!" The paper then asserts that on account of this utterance of His Majesty, Richard Strauss intends to hand in his resignation. It further states that Baron von Huelsen had carefully put out his feelers to see whether he could not in Strauss' stead secure the services of one of the most renowned of out of town operatic conductors. The latter statement bears reference to Hofrat Ernst von Schuch, who is promptly out with a denial, and states that he has not the least intention of leaving Dresden.
11Equally spurious is the news of Richard Strauss' intended resignation. To an intimate friend of his who asked the great composer-conductor about the truth of these reports he answered: "I have neither tendered my resignation, nor have I the least intention of doing so, for I feel myself very well satisfied here." The best sort of refutation, however, regarding the subject of "Die Feuersnot" is the fact that Richard Strauss' opera was put on again last night, when it was as usual conducted by the composer.
13The concert of Miss Elsie Hamilton, a pupil of Professor Jedliczka, can be dismissed with a few words. This young woman, with a nice technic and fairly good tone, is not quite ripe for an appearance in public, and even less for a concert performance of Brahms' F minor Sonata, a work which in part belongs to the deepest things that have been written for the piano. She did much better with the A minor Prelude and Fugue from the Bach "Well Tempered Clavichord," and she displayed good musical intention also in portions of Schumann's "Carnival," which seems to be a work greatly in vogue at present. With further study she should eventually accomplish a good deal in the line of concert piano playing.
15While the foregoing recital took place at Bechstein Hall, Jean ten Have, a Netherlandish violinist, gave a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra at Beethoven Hall. He performed the Lalo F major and the Bruch G minor concertos and a suite "in ancient style" by Vieuxtemps. A Belgian named Rasse had orchestrated the piano accompaniment to this work with so much esprit and refined skill that the suite, which in itself sounded somewhat passée, gained renewed interest. The concert-giver, Mr. ten Have, a most musicianly performer, is hardly a great virtuoso.
17Eugen d'Albert's only piano recital this season at Berlin was the great attraction Monday night. He drew to the Philharmonie so large an audience that not only the spacious hall and its gallery and standing space but also the platform itself was densely packed with people who had paid for admission. Few artists and still fewer pianists could accomplish such a feat in Berlin at the present moment. He, however, on the strength of his big reputation, is still master of the situation. And this, too, despite the fact that the demands of modern audiences in regard to technic have grown to a considerable extent through the performances of younger pianists with whose training d'Albert has not kept step. He is still the grand musician. He played the first part of his program in a manner slovenly and most unsatisfactory from a pianistic point of view. This al fresco style of playing which d'Albert has developed of late comes from lack of piano practice, hence his technic is rusty and unreliable. This is too bad, for it spoils even the best and noblest of musical intentions.
19Beethoven's C major Sonata, the "Waldstein," was ill adapted for d'Albert's present style of piano playing. It is pre-eminently and more than any other of Beethoven's sonatas a virtuoso piece, and if it is reproduced with a lack of clean scale technic it loses in charm and character. In the Chopin selections I enjoyed only the variety of colors and the tremendous dynamic tone power he was able to draw from the superb Steinway concert grand at his command. Several pianistic and musical atrocities which he committed in the A flat Ballad, as well as the preponderance of the left hand over the right in the octave episodes of the A flat Polonaise, made these works unpalatable. It is only fair to state, however, that the audience applauded most enthusiastically.
21Marie Hertzner-Deppe's song recital at Beethoven Hall was one of those entertainments which "would not have been missed." I did not like her singing when, nearly ten years ago, she was a member of the Berlin Royal Opera House personnel. I liked it less when she reappeared as a concert singer. The concert platform is a severer lyrical test, as a rule, than the operatic boards. The program included some songs in manuscript by Max Schillings and H. Zumpe. These latter were very disappointing. "Weihnachtsfriede" proved absolutely tedious, so labored and unnatural was its melodic and harmonic content. Much better is the "Lullaby," which on hearing I remembered to have seen published in an illustrated paper, while the program called it "in manuscript."
23A singer of different stamp proved to be Miss Minnie Tracey, who appeared for the first time before a Berlin audience at Bechstein Saal and made a decided hit. Our comely countrywoman surprised the audience by the versatility of her style of delivery almost as much as by the volume and beauty of her well trained soprano voice. That it is well trained became apparent to connoisseur ears quickly enough through the fact that she could make so excellent and varied use of it, although she was evidently suffering from a severe indisposition.
25Miss Tracey gave the aria "O toi qui prolonges mes jours," from Gluck's "Iphigénie en Tauride," with maestoso pathetic delivery, in purest French pronunciation. Later she also shone to advantage in the singing of songs by French composers, among which was a rousing "Hymn to the Sun," by George. Berlioz's clever "Villanelle" was somewhat marred by the dragging accompaniment of Robert Erben. Faure's "Après un rêve" was much applauded. A pretty ditty, "Ni jamais, ni toujours," was vociferously redeemed.
27Of Miss Tracey's German lieder I liked best Schubert's "Die junge Nonne," albeit it was sung a little more slowly, but also with much more expression than one is wont to hear it. A fine delivery was given to Elsa's balcony aria from "Lohengrin," though the singer was apparently laboring under the difficulties of the German text. That, however, she was able to emit it as clearly as she did, after only so short an experience with the German language, shows that her linguistic talent is on a par with her musical gifts. Admirable in every way was also the delivery of the Page's aria from Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," which Miss Tracey sang in Italian. The house bill furthermore contained lieder by Brahms, Grieg and Sinding, and the "Jewel" aria from "Faust."
29Gabriele Wietrowitz, a favorite pupil of Joachim, but a dry performer on the fiddle nevertheless, gave a concert at the Singakademie. Of course she played Joachim's E minor Variations. In the only valuable work for the violin upon the program, Bach's double concerto, she had the important and attractive co-operation of the master himself. The other soloists were a "grand ducal court pianist," Ida Sothmann, and a "grand ducal chamber singer," Antonie Liebeskind. Both are pitiful amateurs. The four songs composed by Miss Sothmann are evidently written by a mere musical tyro, and her accompaniments fitted so well to Miss Liebeskind's singing simply because both were of the most amateurish kind.
31At Bechstein Hall Ernest Lochbrunner performed a well selected program of Bach, Weber, Beethoven and Liszt works. He has the fleet fingers for a clean, fast reproduction of the third Weber Sonata, but everything sounded mechanical, for Lochbrunner is lacking in musical spirit. Equally uninteresting was the otherwise intelligent performance of Bach's B minor Organ Toccata in the Busoni piano arrangement.
33Edouard Risler, the Alsatian pianist, held forth the same evening at Beethoven Hall. Just as he has done for the last four years, he began his series of recitals with a program made up of the last four of Beethoven's sonatas. The late Hans von Bülow used to go him one better. He also kept the chronological order of things, while Risler began with the E major, op. 109. Sonata, followed it up with 110 and 111, and then, trying to make a climax, closed with the big B flat Sonata, op. 106. I wonder when pianists will return to the earlier of Beethoven's sonatas, which are unduly neglected nowadays, while the last ones are so often performed that to an habitual concertgoer it becomes somewhat burdensome to have to listen to them all the time. The task is by no means made more easy if the Beethoven interpreter is so lacking in poetry and charm of conception. Risler's playing was unexceptional from the technical side, and he has also a good tone and a certain amount of musical intelligence. But with thinking alone a fine and convincing reading of these works cannot be accomplished, there must also be heart—and a pretty big one at that—in the interpretation, otherwise the affair grows lifeless and to a certain degree annoying.
35At the Philharmonic popular concert Anton Witek performed for the first time a work for solo violin, with orchestra, by Akos László. In the form of variations the composer here presents some Hungarian airs, which are well written for the instrument, pleasant to the ear and generally meritorious in workmanship. As Witek performed the novelty in brilliant style he won deserved applause for himself, and incidentally also for the composer, who is a young Hungarian living in Berlin.
37Joseph Lhévinne, the young Russian pianist, who carried off the Rubinstein prize in Berlin a number of years ago, showed much pianistic but comparatively little musical talent on that occasion, and hence the close decision of the judges never remained as an undisputable standard. Those who were not in favor of Lhévinne seem to have been correct, for the artist has not improved much since then. Recently he played the fifteen Variations of Beethoven with a lot of mere finger technic but little intelligence, and in Chopin's B major Nocturne neither touch nor tone was of the soft quality for which the composition calls. The program contained besides some Russian works and Schumann's "Carneval."
39Georg Liebling, court pianist of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, had not played here for the last six years, during which period he evidently has not been lazy and must have studied a good deal. His tone has grown just as has his entire style in brilliancy and power. All of this is more from the virtuoso side of the matter, for Georg, like most others of the Lieblings, has an inborn and pronounced talent for the piano. He is also a thinker, but more of a seeker after effect than a philosopher or a poet of the piano. Hence his reproduction of the B flat minor Concerto of Tchaikowsky was justly applauded after the allegro con fuoco finale, taken at breakneck speed; while I found the applause bestowed by a good sized audience upon the first movement of the Schumann Concerto somewhat misplaced. No piano concerto needs more poetry and suavity of conception than just this, the loveliest of all ever written.
41At the Zajic-Gruenfeld subscription concert there was the Septet for piano, strings and trumpet, by Saint-Saëns. This quaint, but exceedingly interesting, concisely formed
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