Scan 6
Musical Courier 1903-07-01: Vol 47 Iss 1214, 1903
18 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 7. 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.
3London
5HOTEL CECIL.
7HOTEL CECIL, LONDON, June 13, 1903.
9HE Strauss festival came to an end Tuesday evening, and of its complete artistic success there can be no possible doubt, except, perhaps, in the minds of a few irreconcilables. Such a series of performances was, indeed, the one thing wanted. For years England has lingered behind the rest of the civilized world, and has contented herself with taking her Strauss in small doses at very considerable intervals. Everyone, even those to whom Strauss is anathema maranatha, must admit that he has, at any rate, a right to a fair hearing, and that it was not fitting to pass either a favorable or an adverse judgment upon him until we had enjoyed an opportunity of judging his work as a whole.
11The festival won many converts, and many of those who were exceedingly hazy about Strauss' objects and methods have come away from it with a clearer understanding and appreciation of them. Of course, there are still some who hold Strauss to be an apostle of ugliness for ugliness' sake and who will not see that his work is, in truth, full of exquisite melody, and that such passages of discord as it contains were written with a set purpose. No doubt if we are to take it for granted that it is only legitimate for music to charm the ear, their objections would have a certain amount of weight. But we have yet to learn on whose authority we are to accept this proposition. Up to the present, music certainly has dealt principally with the beautiful, though there are many notable exceptions even in the music of Beethoven. But music has stood alone among the arts in this respect. No one considers it illegitimate for a painter or a sculptor to attempt to express an ugly idea, and no one will deny that the famous "Laocoon" would not hold the position among works of art that it now holds if, from purely aesthetic motives, the sculptor had endowed Laocoon's face with a seraphic smile instead of its expression of intense agony. It is a mere convention that music may only express the beautiful, a convention which it is impossible to support by any adequate argument. Upon the other hand, no one would wish music, any more than one of the kindred arts, to deal in nothing but ugliness, and it is in singling out the ugly passages from Strauss' work and dwelling too long upon these that his detractors make their greatest mistake. No one understands the law of contrast better than he, and it is absurd to speak of "Also sprach Zarathustra" as if it were composed of nothing but the chords of B and C played against one another. This particular effect is not beautiful, if we judge it by the accepted canons, but on whose authority are we to say that these canons are to hold good for ever and ever? Heaven knows, enough critics have gone tooth and nail for Donizetti for introducing Lucia's mad scene with a suave melody on the flute, and yet, with amazing inconsistence, they then fall foul of Strauss because he did not attempt the impossible feat of suggesting ideas that were not entirely beautiful by dainty and attractive melodies. The question is not one of whether some of Strauss' music is discordant or not. His opponents have been at great pains to prove that it is, although nobody ever doubted it from the beginning. To justify their position they must prove one of two things, either that music, alone of the arts, may not attempt human characterization, or that, granting that it may do so, Strauss has failed in the task which he set himself. If, instead of merely indulging in indictments of Strauss' ugliness, they would confine themselves to these two vital issues, there would be some chance of their opinions receiving consideration.
13After hearing all of Strauss' most important works in succession, it seems to me that it is very difficult to deny that his efforts at characterization have met with complete success. The selfish idealist, Don Juan; Don Quixote, the mad knight errant; Macbeth, the unscrupulous man of war; Till Eulenspiegel, the irrepressible jester; the hero of every day life, the dying man in his struggle with death, are all portrayed with a faithfulness that could not be excelled by the most perfect word painting. We have been helped considerably by the superb performances which the Amsterdam orchestra under Herr Strauss himself and Herr Mengelberg have given of the music. As an orchestra, this band of fine players has, of course, won world wide fame, while it has an intimate knowledge of the music which is shared by no other institution. From beginning to end the performances have thrown a light upon the meaning of the music such as could not have been thrown by any English orchestra until the works had become familiar to the players, and this could only be a matter of considerable time. Each of the earlier concerts was further marked by the delightful singing of Madame Strauss of some of her husband's songs, songs which are fortunately becoming better known in this country every day, for they are certainly among the finest lyrics that have been produced in recent years. It is, of course, scarcely possible to speak of "Guntram" after the few extracts from it which were given at the last concert on Tuesday evening. The preludes to the first and second acts, however, and the two tenor scenes sung by John Harrison bred a desire to hear more of the work, even though it obviously is molded on Wagner and does not represent Strauss in his most characteristic light. This concert also included the Burleske for piano and orchestra, the solo being brilliantly played by Wilhelm Backhaus, and two movements from the symphonic fantasia "Aus Italien," of which the slow movement proved the most attractive and the most interesting, as foreshadowing something of Strauss' future greatness as an orchestral colorist.
15At the extra concert given on Monday evening a young American pianist, Richard Platt, made his first appearance before an English audience, and created a very good impression by the neatness and fluency with which he played Beethoven's C minor Concerto and a Chopin group. As Mr. Platt proposes to give some recitals it will be better to wait a little while before forming a definite opinion of his powers. It is impossible to leave this festival without alluding to the excellent analytical notes supplied by "A. K. and P. P." to the new works. Notes which, unlike most of those printed in programs, were a real assistance to the audience.
17The Strauss Festival has been by no means the only event of importance of the week, for on Saturday afternoon Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius" was given for the first time in London. It is, of course, amazing that this fine oratorio should never have been heard in the metropolis before, but, as this point has been made so often, I do not propose to insist upon it again. The great thing is that the disgrace has been removed and that our greatest composer has received somewhat tardy honor in his own country. The Roman Catholic Cathedral was not, perhaps, the best place for the performance, for its size did not allow of any very subtle shades of expression, and finally, though the North Staffordshire Choral Association sang the music, one could only feel that they would have been heard to still better advantage in a hall with more perfect acoustic properties. Another feature of the performance to which it was possible to take exception was the engagement of Dr. Wüllner to sing the tenor music. He has made the part his own in Germany, but his methods are not the methods that find general acceptance in England, and several of our own tenors could have acquitted themselves quite as well of the task. He is a singer who sacrifices everything to dramatic effect, and his performance savored too much of the operatic stage. He forces every point upon one in such a manner that the music is never allowed to speak for itself, and he seems incapable of believing that a single member of his audience possesses a spark of intelligence. He is no doubt very clever, but in England we have an absurd idea that a singer ought to be able to sing and that, if the music is good it will, to a certain extent, tell its own story. However, the performance was, on the whole, a success, and we were at any rate glad of an opportunity of hearing this most impressive
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.