Scan 5
Musical Courier 1904-05-25: Vol 48 Iss 1261, 1904
56 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1concert under Nicodé, November 16, 1886. As soon as Bülow stepped onto the platform the "patriots" overwhelmed him with an avalanche of abuse. Hissing, whistling, yelling and cries of "Out with Hans!" and "Down with Bülow!" were heard. It was many minutes before Nicodé could give the orchestra the sign to begin. Bülow turned white with rage, but he played, and rarely had he been heard to play the Beethoven concertos in G major and E flat as on that night. However, the scandal severed the cord that bound him to his native town. He never forgave the Dresdeners the insult, nor could he ever be induced to play there again.
3Antonia Mielke, who is now located in Berlin as a vocal and dramatic teacher, has rapidly come to the front, and is enjoying a pedagogic popularity such as hitherto only her famous colleagues of the operatic stage (Lilli Lehmann and Etelka Gerster) had realized here. It is little to be wondered at, for during her long operatic career Madame Mielke scored triumph after triumph wherever she appeared—in Dresden, Leipsic, Bremen, Berlin, New York, Cologne, St. Petersburg—in short, on all of the world's leading operatic stages.
5Madame Mielke's pupils can consider themselves doubly fortunate, not only in having such a great artist as a teacher, but also for the exceptional opportunities they have in the way of operatic debuts, through her friendship and influence with the leading European opera conductors. No less a personage than Edmund von Strauss, conductor of the Berlin Royal Opera, under whom Madame Mielke has often sung, recently wrote her how glad he was that such a great artist had settled in Berlin as a teacher, and that he hoped to bring out many of her pupils under his baton.
7Berlin will hear some great piano playing next season. Godowsky announces six recitals here, and Rosenthal seven.
9Irma Saenger-Sethe, the famous Belgian violinist, will probably visit the United States on an extended concert tour during the season 1905-06. Madame Saenger-Sethe has been justly called the "female Ysaye." Of all fiddling girls and women she has the greatest fund of temperament and individuality, to which are added good musicianship, a big technic and a noble tone. She will "take" with the American public.
11ARTHUR M. ABELL.
13The Nashua, N. H., Festival.
15NASHUA, N. H., May 20, 1904
17THE third music festival was given at the City Hall, May 12 and 13, and the universal opinion is that the music was worthy of the biggest city in the country. Gade's dramatic cantata, "The Crusaders," was sung as a second half of the first concert, the soloists being Miss Adelaide Griggs, Glenn Hall and Gwilym Miles. Verdi's "Requiem" was sung at the third and final concert. The soloists were Miss Caroline Cutler, Miss Griggs, Mr. Hall and Mr. Miles. Besides the Oratorio Society of 100 voices there was a good chorus of 150 from the High School. E. G. Wood conducted. Henri G. Blaisdell was concertmeister of the festival orchestra, and two pianists, Miss Anna L. Melendy and Miss Helen B. Ward, assisted.
19A Promising Violinist.
21A recent musicale at Nyack on the Hudson several pleasing numbers were given by Albert Turell, violinist. His playing was marked by an unusually fluent technic and brilliant tone. Mr. Turell was for four years under the guidance of Henri Appy, who will be remembered as the violinist of the Jenny Lind tour.
23OPENING OF DUSS' "VENICE."
25D USS and his orchestra, recruited bodily from the Metropolitan Opera House, opened their second summer season in "Venice" under the most brilliant auspices at Madison Square Garden last Sunday evening. The picturesque auditorium was thronged with an enormous and representative audience whose demonstrative welcome left little doubt on the score of Duss' general popularity as a man and as a musician. He has completely conquered this critical burg, and his present high standing is due solely to earnestness of purpose, consistency of direction and unswerving devotion to the highest artistic ideals. When Duss stepped on the stage the orchestra blew a lusty fanfare, and the auditors joined in the tribute with a round of hand clapping and "bravos" than which none more warm or more sincere ever were spent on the prima donna conductors who came here from foreign shores last season.
27Duss deserved all this encouragement and more, for his treatment of the public was royal, when certain things are taken into consideration which happened before the concert on Sunday finally began. Madame Nordica had been extensively advertised as the soloist of the evening, and for some reason the management had made the prices of seats more expensive than the usual "popular" rates which were to prevail for the rest of the "Venice" season. On Saturday the singer became indisposed and so informed Duss and his manager. Some persons trace the singer's indisposition to a domestic misfortune which has been flaunted in public rather conspicuously of late; but that is a phase of the matter which does not concern the present chronicler nor his readers. Suffice it to state that Duss and his manager, disregarding the customary local operatic ethics that govern such happenings, be-thought themselves first and foremost of the public to which certain representations had been made, and they sent to all the Sunday newspapers a notice announcing Madame Nordica's indisposition and a promise that prices would be "popular" after all, with the added privilege that holders of paid tickets could get a rebate at the box office or have their money refunded or seats exchanged for another night. Large bulletins were posted about Madison Square Garden, so that not one guest was likely to enter the auditorium under any misapprehension. This sort of treatment appeals to New Yorkers—for it is so unusual—and truth compels the statement that although many persons collected the rebate on their ticket holdings, not a single one so far as could be seen stayed away from the concert. And to cap it all, in a clever little speech Duss himself announced that he had secured Mme. Ruby Cutter Savage, the gifted soprano, "not to take Madame Nordica's place, but to come into her own," a graceful compliment which referred to the fact that Madame Savage had already been engaged to sing at all the other "Venice" concerts during its first week. The conductor's speech was received with significant applause and the soloist was assured a success even before her personal attractiveness and artistic singing had made the capture of her audience complete.
29The orchestral program on Sunday was devoted entirely to Wagner, for the day—May 22—was the composer's birthday. This was the alignment:
31PART I.
32Overture, "Rienzi."
33Prize Song (violin solo), "Meistersinger."
34Prelude, "Lohengrin."
35Entry of the Gods into Valhalla, "Rheingold."
37PART II.
38"Vorspiel," "Parsifal."
39Siegfried's Funeral March, "Götterdämmerung."
40"Waldweben" ("Forest Murmurs"), "Siegfried."
41The Ride of the Valkyries, "Die Walküre."
43In Part I, after the "Lohengrin" prelude, Mme. Ruby Cutter Savage sang the "Ah Fors e Lui" aria from "Traviata," and in Part II, following the "Götterdämmerung" excerpt, she added to the program one of the best Wagner numbers of them all, the aria "Dich Theure Halle," from "Tannhäuser."
45As a Wagner conductor Duss has long ago proved his mettle, but on Sunday he was in exceptionally fine form. The orchestra has just finished a rather long and wearisome Wagner season at the Opera, under German leaders, who direct not because they like to but because they have to. With them a nuance is an event, a crescendo a labor, and a climax a calamity. Under the enthusiastic and vital baton of Duss the players responded with a will, and the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra exhibited a degree of verve and freshness which had not been noticeable during the greater part of their operatic season. Duss has won since last year in breadth of interpretation, in subtlety of nuance, and in his handling of dynamics. He has all his old control, his firm sense of rhythm, and his appreciation of color contrasts. It were difficult to select any one number on the program for especial praise, but mention should in justice be made of the vim with which the "Rienzi" and "Rhinegold" excerpts were done, the majesty of the "Parsifal" prelude, and the delicacy of the "Waldweben," from "Siegfried." Encores were numerous, and after each and every number Duss was rewarded with loud and lasting salvos of applause. Nahan Franko, too, reaped success for his playing of the "Meistersinger" prize song as a violin solo.
47Mme. Ruby Cutter Savage is the possessor of a full, rich and resonant soprano voice, admirably smooth and perfectly trained throughout the registers. In her selections she revealed her uncommon versatility, for they covered the entire range of vocal possibilities, from the florid roulades of Verdi to the dramatic strophes of Wagner. In her coloratura, in her legato, in her piano, and in her forte, Madame Savage reveals complete possession of all that complicated vocal mechanism without which many vocalists are merely singers and not artists. But it is not only in the externals of vocalism that Madame Savage differentiates herself from the average concert artist. She possesses also musical intelligence of the highest order and a warm temperament, both of which lend to her delivery a dignity and a charm which are as rare as they are delightful. She was encored after each of her numbers, and would have been encored again and again had time and the long program permitted. Her success was absolute and should attract many hearers to "Venice" for the balance of her engagement there.
49The building is as tastefully decorated as last year. The starlit sky, the moving clouds, the canals, the red lampions, the background of Italian houses and loggias, St. Mark's, the gondolas, the gondoliers with their songs, and mandolins and guitars (during the intermissions), the bridges and the tables—all are there and offer a most alluring prospect to those New Yorkers who stay at home during the summer. Duss and his "Venice" are a real boon.
51Mrs. Morrill's Pupils.
53MISS LILLIA EUNICE SNELLING, a pupil of Mrs. Laura E. Morrill, sang at an orchestral concert at Norwich, Conn., Wednesday of last week. Another pupil, Mrs. Theodora S. Bollee, sang at a recital in the Astor Gallery of the Waldorf-Astoria Thursday. Miss Cora Remington, also a Morrill pupil, is engaged for two concerts this week, one in Atlantic City and the other down in Virginia. Several of Mrs. Morrill's pupils study with her during the summer at her country home.
55Joseph Baume, hitherto known only as a pianist, has written very interesting music for the dramatic legend, "Genéviève de Brabant," of Charles Segard, produced lately with success at Bordeaux.
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