Scan 5
Musical Courier 1903-02-04: Vol 46 Iss 1193, 1903
66 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1and very piquant work was much enjoyed by the audience. The piano part was in the trustworthy and musicianly hands of Court Conductor Bernhard Stavenhagen, of Munich.
3The greatest artistic success of the week was scored by Jean Gérardy. His success may be called sensational. This is a rare triumph, especially for a 'cellist, for as a solo instrument the 'cello is not a great favorite with the masses. Jean Gérardy's wonderful tone, however, conquered them just as easily as if he had been a fiddle wonder, and in fact his "fiddling" upon the unwieldy instrument, his flawless technic and his equally admirable bowing created just as much enthusiasm as if he had been a Sarasate or an Ysaye. So pronounced was Gérardy's success that he contemplates giving a third concert here in the near future. His selections comprised the inevitable Goltermann Concerto, Bach's wonderful C major Suite for 'cello, unaccompanied; the pretty little A major Sonata of Boccherini, the Bach Air for the G string; Handel's "Adagio e Pastorale," Schubert's "Lullaby"—re-demanded—and Davidoff's "Springbrunnen." Several encores were granted.
5Weingartner concertized last Monday night with the Munich Kaim Orchestra at Vienna, where he met with much success. To a representative of the Viennese journal Die Zeit the great conductor granted an interview, in the course of which he unboomed himself as follows regarding the state of contemporaneous German opera: "A general verdict I am, of course, unable to give. You know that I have written an essay upon 'The Symphony After Beethoven.' The space of time since 1827, the year of Beethoven's death, is one that allows of a retrospect, historically as well as critically. But the few years which have elapsed since Wagner are not yet surveyable. He still stands in too close proximity to us. Since his death there have been written good operas and bad ones which imitated his works. I have often thought over what is going to come. You think that there are perhaps signs of a beginning to popular opera, that it would seem as if one wanted to return to Lortzing and Weber, applying Wagnerian dramatic construction to them? I am sorry that for myself I fail to see these beginnings. Return to the old we shall probably not. In my last opera 'Orestes' I have employed the Leitmotives again, but indeed in a more disguised and less frequent application than Wagner does. In popular opera I do not believe, for an art work, according to the taste of the multitude, cannot offer pure art. Humperdinck's works? It is true Humperdinck has in 'Hänsel und Gretel' made use of folk tunes, but please consider the difficult, complicated music he writes for orchestra when mere children are supposed to be talking upon the stage. The naïveté is wanting. The orchestra anyhow is what our opera is suffering from. In future more stress will have to be laid upon the singing and upon what is going on upon the stage than upon the orchestra." Then the interviewer goes on to say: "I enumerated to Weingartner still a few other operas, in which it seemed to me that a striking of folk tune feeling had been attempted, and mentioned among them 'Der Baerenhaeuter,' by Siegfried Wagner. Weingartner, however, seemed to have but a poor opinion of the heir to the throne of the Bayreuth monarch, for he only shrugged his shoulders and called him an amateur. We also spoke about Richard Strauss, but there also Weingartner only smiled a little sarcastically."
7Wagner's "Walküre" without music will be read here on January 26 by Hedwig Niemann-Raabe, the wife of Albert Niemann and an actress of note. Together with Rudolf Christians, from the Royal Comedy, she will recite the first act of Wagner's music drama, the poetic and dramatic beauties of which she considers sufficiently great and attractive to make them enjoyable by mere recitation of the words without the music. This will not be the first time that such a recital has been ventured, for Ernst von Possart gave a similar reading of the entire cycle of Wagner's "Nibelungenring" at Munich some months ago.
9The usual Beethoven Festival will be held at Bonn this year during the days from May 17 to 21. The program is a very simple one: Joachim and his associates will play all of the Beethoven string quartets. They will not perform them in chronological order, however, but on each day one of the quartets from the three periods into which one is wont to divide Beethoven's creative activity.
11The Berlin Tonkuenstler Orchestra will go on a four weeks' concert tour under Richard Strauss' direction during the last part of February and first half of March. The trip will begin in the larger cities of Middle Germany, and thence to Austria, extending through Italy, the South of France and Switzerland.
13"Parsifal" has lately been performed in oratorio style in its completeness at a concert in Amsterdam. As the Bern Convention does not cover Holland, the Wagner heirs were deprived of legal means from inhibiting the performance. A number of Wagnerites of well known reputation have united, however, in the publication of the following protest: "We, the undersigned, who have participated in the honor of intercourse with the master, and—aside from his public declaration that he wanted to have his work, 'Parsifal' solely and exclusively performed at Bayreuth—know exactly his intentions, protest herewith against the performance in toto of the Buehnenweihfestspiel, such as has taken place at Amsterdam, as an undertaking which stands in contradiction to the wishes of the master and signifies a violation of his art, in so far as a work for the stage was brought to concert performance in the guise of an oratorio—Karl Kliandworth, Hans Richter, Adolf von Gross, Emil Heckel, Felix Mottl, Franz Fischer, C. Fr. Glasenapp, H. P. von Wolzogen, Engelbert Humperdinck, Julius Kniese."
15Four original letters by Johann Sebastian Bach, which some time ago had been discovered in the archives of Sangerhausen, and which a magistrate of that town was willing to sell to a Berlin collector for the paltry sum of $720, will not be sold. The Secretary of Cult has refused to consent to the sale, but wishes these extremely valuable autographs to be incorporated either in the Ephoral Library at Sangerhausen or to entrust them to the keeping of one of the existing Bach collections.
17Felix Weingartner has just completed the composition of a string sextet which is to have its very first performance at one of the John Kruse Quartet's last Popular Concerts at London this season. The work is still in manuscript, and will remain so until after said performance.
19Massenet, who has of late years appeared only as an operatic composer, has re-entered the field of concert composition with a new piano concerto, which Diemer, to whom it is dedicated, is soon to perform for the first time at Paris.
21It is a pleasant piece of news to report that our countryman, the Boston born composer and conductor Wilhelm Berger, has been selected as successor to General-musikdirector Fritz Steinbach (who goes to Cologne) in the direction of the famous Meiningen Court Orchestra.
23August Bungert was in Cologne last week, where he showed his latest work, entitled "Unter der Blume," to Professor Schwartz, the conductor of the Cologne Caecilia, a male chorus society, and to several leading members of that organization. The work consists of a collection of songs written partially for solo voices and in part for male chorus. The poems all treat of the Rhine, Rhine wine and kindred subjects, and are from the pen of Carmen Sylva, the Queen of Roumania. The Cologne chorus will study the work and will sing it for the first time in Cologne and then in several of the Rhenish cities. Bungert, meanwhile, has returned to Dresden, where he is superintending all of the rehearsals for "Odysseus' Death," his latest music drama, which completes his Odyssee cycle, and which is soon to be brought out for the first time at the Saxonian capital.
25The Emperor's Prize for the best male chorus singing, which was competed for for the first time at Cassel three years ago, when among eighteen societies the Cologne Maennergesangverein carried off the trophy, will again be sung for this spring, the competition taking place at Frankfort-on-the-Main. No less than thirty-four male chorus societies have entered their names for this second competition, three each from Essen and Wiesbaden, two each from Barmen, Berlin, Dortmund, Elberfeld, Offenbach and Muehlheim, and one each from Aachen, Bonn, Bremen, Cassel, Crefeld, Dresden, Erfurt, Gladbach, Hannover, Cologne, Leipsic, Magdeburg, Potsdam, Solingen, Strassburg and Wuerzburg.
27O. F.
29Felix Fox in Demand.
31FELIX FOX assisted Miss Maud MacCarthy at her first recital in Boston. That his playing was satisfactory may be noted from the following press extracts:
33Miss Maud MacCarthy, violinist, gave a recital yesterday afternoon in Steinert Hall, assisted by Felix Fox, pianist, and Max Zach, accompanist. The efforts of Felix Fox contributed much toward the artistic success of the recital, for he was admirable in the sonata, and in his solo numbers he showed his usual technical and artistic abilities that have put him in the front rank among the younger generation of pianists.—The Post.
35Miss MacCarthy and Mr. Fox played Beethoven's C minor Sonata for piano and violin. Mr. Fox lent good service in the Beethoven Sonata, keeping his place in the ensemble admirably, but still playing with intelligence and interestingly.—Evening Transcript.
37Mr. Fox rendered his share of the Sonata well—with warmth, not heat—and was earnest without urgency, so that complete understanding and accordant treatment were combined in ensemble playing that was just right intellectually, emotionally and in coloring.—Boston Herald.
39Mr. Fox filled an engagement with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the second concert of a series given by that organization in Allentown, Pa. Mr. Fox played the Grieg A minor Concerto. A few of the fine things said of his performance are herewith set forth:
41The soloist of the evening was Felix Fox, the pianist, of Boston. He played the Grieg Concerto. Mr. Fox plays with much color and expression, and by his precise and uniform touch conveys to his hearers a bewitching conception of the piece. He plays with a brilliancy of execution that stamps him at once as a true musician and a cultured artist.—Chronicle and News.
43The soloist of the concert was Felix Fox, of Boston. His renditions were a revelation to his hearers, who found in him the equal of any pianist who has appeared here in recent years. His work bore the stamp of genius, and his ease and grace in the most difficult passages of the composition gave his auditors the impression of how simple yet how sublimely grand the music was.—Morning Call.
45Felix Fox, the piano soloist from Boston, made his début last night, choosing as the medium for his introduction Grieg's Concerto for piano and orchestra. Mr. Fox is a man of unique personality, but a finished artist of the romantic type of musicians.—Daily City Item.
47AUGUSTA
48Soloist during the past season with Gericke, Thomas, Paur, Walter and Frank Damrosch, Klengel, Ernst, Mollenhauer and other noted conductors.
50LILIAN CARLLSMITH, CONTRALTO. Last Season in Europe. RESIDENCE STUDIO, Hotel Cadillac, 43d Street and Broadway, New York. CONCERT DIRECTION N. VERT. LONDON, ENG.: 6 CORK ST. NEW YORK: 9 E. SEVENTEENTH ST.
52COTTLOW
53Management: HENRY WOLFSOHN.
55RICHARD C. KAY
56BOY VIOLINIST VIRTUOSO, 26 East 11th St., NEW YORK.
58BROAD STREET CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, GILBERT RAYNOLDS COMBS, Director. 1331 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE FREE
60PRODUCTION. STYLE. REPERTORY.
61Mr. HERMANN KLEIN gives instruction in The Art of Singing.
62PRODUCTION. ENUNCIATION. DICTION.
63LIEDER. OPERA. ORATORIO.
64STUDIO: 154 West 77th Street, New York. Telephone: 2921 Riverside.
65THE ARENS VOCAL STUDIO The second edition (Eighth Thousand) of "My Vocal Method" is exhausted. A third edition, revised and enlarged, is in preparation. Advance orders may be placed by sending 10 cents in stamps to 305 Fifth Avenue, New York. Voice examination daily at 2 P. M.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.