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Musical Courier 1903-06-24: Vol 46 Iss 1213, 1903
22 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1PARIS JUNE 3, 1903.
3The hot weather has made attendance at concerts more a duty than a pleasure. Some of them have been of, however, sufficiently interesting character as to warrant more than a passing notice. Among them the concert given at the Salle d'Athènes for the public début of Mlle. Berthe Valmont. I say public because, although this young singer has been seen and heard many times at concerts and private musicales, yet I believe this is the event which now stamps Mlle. Valmont as artist and not amateur. Berthe Valmont is the professional name of the daughter of a composer of a large number of songs, who is very well known on both sides of the Atlantic. Their home in the Avenue d'Antin, Paris, is the scene each winter of a series of musicales, at which the programs performed are of a very high order, both as regards selection and interpretation. Mlle. Valmont has very many gifts in her favor. Most charmingly gowned in white, with a wreath of leaves in the hair, she presented such a graceful picture as to realize at once the muse of song. She has a temperament that would seem to point to even greater successes in the theatre than the concert room. Mlle. Valmont must also be an excellent musician, as was evinced by the long and arduous program she gave from memory, and her linguistic gifts were of a very high order indeed. Songs in French, English, German and Italian were rendered with a purity of diction and pronunciation as to make it apparent that the same facility existed in all. After the opening number—a sonata by Grieg, performed by Messrs. Lucien Wurmser and Hollmann—Mlle. Valmont sang with good sentiment the "Elegie," by Massenet, and "Chanson d'Amour," by Hollmann. In them she had the advantage of the violoncello obligato, superbly played by the veteran Hollmann. In "Viens à moi," and a bright song with a gay well marked rhythm, "Phil's Secret," Mlle. Valmont had the advantage of being accompanied on the piano by the composer, S. B. Schlesinger. Schumann's "Dichter liebe" I have to own always to me appears a trifle wearisome when given in its entirety. The singer on this occasion was able to give a great variety to the different numbers forming the cycle, and her arduous share of the concert was concluded by a very dramatic rendering of the beautiful and nearly forgotten aria of Leonora, "Pace, mio Dio," from the "Forza del Destino," Verdi, and scena from "La Tosca" (Puccini). All these different numbers, varying in school, style and sentiment, were sung in their original languages, with the character and interpretation belonging to each. Mr. Wurmser at the piano and Hollmann as 'cellist were greatly applauded. The latter, with his full large organ tone, made a sensation in the clever "Variations Symphoniques," by Boellmann.
5Risler, the pianist, and Oliveira, violinist, gave a very good concert, the last of the present series. They were both at their best and met with enthusiastic appreciation from a very large audience. Program: The "Kreutzer" Sonata, Beethoven, piano and violin; "Invitation à la Valse," Weber, and Impromptu in A flat, Schubert; piano, Aria, Bach, and Fantaisie de Concert, Rimsky-Korsakoff, violin; Sonata, Gabriel Fauré, for piano and violin.
7If Grieg, the individual, was greeted with certain signs of disapproval on presenting himself before the public at Colonne's concert, some weeks ago, his Parisian admirers made up for it by the warmth with which he was met at his concert in the Salle Pleyel. The attendance there was so great that the box office did not even open on the night of the concert. I learn that this makes the third time that Grieg has appeared in Paris, making fresh conquests every time he has come, whether as composer, pianist or conductor.
9The performances of Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust" at the theatre are now over. One can certainly say that both from an artistic and financial standpoint they have been eminently successful. As to whether the work should or should not have been mounted on the stage is a subject, like many others, on which there is a good deal to be said—and already a very great deal has been said—on both sides. Certainly everything was forthcoming that was necessary from a high artistic standard. A splendid orchestra of seventy, conducted by Colonne, who has for the work an almost religious reverence, the best singers available, a chorus of ninety, the like of which is but rarely heard in opera theatres, and a mise-en-scène of great originality and aesthetic value, all made elements that contributed to the very great success that the work met with in its new form. As to whether it will remain a permanent part of the operatic repertory I scarcely like to prophesy, but my impression is that it will not. Curiosity had naturally a large part in the success that "La Damnation" met with at the theatre. Now that that is satisfied I think the public will prefer to hear it in the form to which it has hitherto been accustomed.
11Charles Joly has had the patience to hunt up the opinions of three of the principal music critics on the first performance of "La Damnation." He gives those of Fétis, author of the "Grande Biographie des Musiciens"; Scudo, critic of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and Hanslick, of Vienna. Says Fétis of the incantation by Méphistophélès "Voici des Roses," by many thought to be a page of genuine inspiration: "Of a singular form, unsettled; harmonies without resolution or cadence; effects, always effects; but a melody, a poor little melody of a few bars, one does not know where to look for it. Is there no melodic principle in the head of M. Berlioz?"
13Scudo says: "M. Berlioz has understood nothing whatever of the 'Faust' drama. He has taken seriously certain puerilities that Goethe has scattered here and there for the background of his picture in order to make prominent the local color of German society of the sixteenth century, in which passes the events of this divine drama. Rarely has the alliance between drama and symphony been more unfortunate. Not only is M. Berlioz ignorant of the art of writing for the human voice but his orchestration even is but a mass of curious sonorities, without body or development."
15Lastly Hanslick, who predicted four performances of Wagner's "Lohengrin," expresses himself thus on "La Damnation": "Does there exist anything more unsingable or melody more pitiful than what is given to Marguerite, Faust, Méphistophélès or Brander? The composer puts forth all his means, the most risky rhythms and modulations, the most violent dramatic expression, the most powerful orchestral sonorities. But under this impression of that which is extravagant and overdone the ear is tired and the heart chilled. It is as if one were in a bitterly cold house where the stoves smoked."
17At the Opéra Comique the last new work of the season, "La Petite Maison," is announced for its first performance Friday.
19Program for the week: Monday matinee, "Mignon," evening, "Mireille" (this was for the reappearance of Miss Courtenay, who has returned from her successful season at the French Opéra, New Orleans); Tuesday, "Werther"; Wednesday, "Lakmé"; Thursday, "Carmen"; Friday and Saturday, "Le Petite Maison."
21At the Opéra the superb revival of Saint-Saëns' "Henry VIII" continues to attract, although it is generally admitted that the principals cannot be compared with the original interpreters, who made such an effect in the famous quartet. The troupe at the Opéra, although very large, and numbering some capable performers, is certainly mediocre for the first lyric stage of Europe. Of all the débutants of last season there is not a single one who rises above the commonplace. Never was there
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