Scan 4
Musical Courier 1905-03-08: Vol 50 Iss 1302, 1905
34 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1LUITPOLD ST. 24,
2BERLIN W.,
3FEBRUARY 19, 1905.
5PIANO playing was the most prominent feature of the events of the past week, for we heard no less than seven pianists, namely, Reisenauer, Risler, Scharwenka, Backhaus, Schnabel, Ernesto Drangosch, and Gertrude Peppercorn.
7A rare artistic treat was the piano recital by Alfred Reisenauer. This artist does not yet draw in Berlin. His recital was by no means as well attended as it should have been, which is strange, considering the way the public flocks to hear more celebrated and far inferior artistic offerings. Reisenauer is a distinct piano personality. His playing is warm, poetic and communicative. His tone is beautiful, capable of manifold gradations, and withal his sentiment is never morbid or sickly. His technic is clean and fluent, his finger work being the quintessence of crispness, and his pedalling is masterful. In Franz Liszt's "Années de Pèlerinage," the Beethoven E flat sonata, op. 81a, and three Schumann numbers Reisenauer displayed his best characteristics. It was deep and true playing, and Reisenauer surely deserves greater recognition on the part of the public than he has hitherto found here.
9Edouard Risler is in many respects the antipode of Reisenauer. He has not the latter's poetry, sentiment and warmth. He is objective, but he has a breadth of style and at times a fire of delivery quite electrifying. If occasionally his playing seems rather sleepy, it is because he is conserving his energies in the less essential parts of the composition in order to work up a greater climax when called for. His tone is big and manly, he commands a wide range of dynamic power, and his conception is straightforward and healthy. Risler is essentially a sane performer, yet he is big and commanding in style, and his playing of the Beethoven sonata, op. 106, left little to be desired.
11Wilhelm Backhaus at his first recital enhanced the favorable impression made at his début with orchestra. He played compositions by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, displaying pianistic and musical qualities of a very high order. Rarely does one see so young a pianist overcome technical difficulties with such ease. His touch is beautiful. The delicacy and dynamic subtlety of his tone shading, moreover, are worthy of great admiration. His taste is impeccable, his sense of rhythm very strong, his conception interesting, and in fact his whole makeup is thoroughly artistic. All Backhaus needs is soul and depth, qualities which in view of his extreme youth we may confidently expect him to attain with greater experience in life's school.
13Xaver Scharwenka is seldom heard in Berlin's concert halls, which is a great pity, for he is not only a fine pianist, but also a musician of depth, of maturity, and of strong personality. At the "Elite" concert of Thursday evening he played two solos, the Chopin F minor fantasy and Liszt's rarely heard study, "Ricordanza," one of the "Transcendental Etudes," with complete technical mastery, with noble tone, and with much warmth. His interpretations were thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of the compositions, and were flavored by his own individuality. Scharwenka is one of the busiest piano instructors in Berlin, being at the head of the piano department of the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, besides having a large class of private pupils, and it is a wonder that he finds any time for practice. It is a pity that a pianist of his calibre should not be heard more often in public.
15Arthur Schnabel is steadily advancing in his art, and, in spite of his youth, he is today not far from the heights on which the gods of the keyboard stand. He played four sonatas, the Beethoven in C major, op. 3, the Chopin in B flat minor, the Schubert in B flat major, and the Weber in A flat, revealing in each ripe musicianship, maturity of conception, and finish of technic and beauty of tone. It was artistic piano playing of a high order, and through it all the leavening influence of Schnabel's strong personality was felt.
17Gertrude Peppercorn appeared with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and played the Schumann and Tschaikowsky concertos and a couple of soli by Chopin. The young lady is a pianist of rare talent. She has a sure, firm technic, a good touch and a fund of temperament that stood her in good stead in the passionate Tschaikowsky concerto, which she gave with bravura and abandon. If her impulsive nature runs away with her at times, it is due solely to her youth and exuberance of spirit. With greater maturity and experience this fault will undoubtedly be overcome. She is already an artist of proud attainment and of greater promise.
19Susanne Dessoir at her lieder recital presented an unusual and interesting program, made up of folk, dance, and children's songs by various composers, ancient and modern, arranged in part by H. Reimann. Madame Dessoir is a genuine artist and she caught and gave admirably the spirit of the different works, now naive, now sad, now gay and sprightly. She has a voice of large volume, but she also produces beautiful mezzo effects, and, in fact, the greatest charm of her singing is in the softer tints. She sings with much feeling and with taste, and her rendering of the simple melodies made a very pleasing impression.
21I was unable to attend Raimund von Zur-Mühlen's song-recital in person, but I am told that the singer drew a crowded house and that he sang with all of his old time charm of interpretation as well as with his well known mannerisms. Zur-Mühlen is not a great vocalist, but his interpretation is so artistic that, with certain limitations, he takes high rank. The applause was enthusiastic, and the singer was called out many times.
23Karl H. Barth and Margarethe Wollmann, pupils of Professor and Mrs. Schmalfeld, gave a recital in the Künstlerhaus on Thursday evening, singing duets, lieder and ballads by Hildach, Sinding, Löwe, Franz, Bruch, Strauss, Mary Norris, Tschaikowsky and others. Mr. Barth is the possessor of a beautiful baritone voice, sympathetic and soft, yet powerful and penetrating. It is so thoroughly well schooled and so perfectly placed, moreover, that he sings with the greatest ease. In short his powers of endurance seem limitless. His delivery revealed warmth and intelligence, and had the true artistic ring. His work was much appreciated and warmly applauded.
25Fraulein Wollmann has a pure soprano voice of pleasing timbre, and also remarkably well trained. She is musical and very much in earnest in her art, and, like Mr. Barth, full of promise for the future. Considering that this was the first public appearance of these two young artists they did remarkably well, and are to be congratulated upon their success. Professor and Mrs. Schmalfeld are also to be congratulated upon such an eminently successful demonstration of their method.
27Another young singer, Lilli Menar, appeared for the first time in public in Berlin. The young lady is well known in private life as the Countess von Kanitz. She wishes in her public career, however, to stand upon her artistic merits alone; hence she has assumed the pseudonym of Lilli Menar. She has a soprano voice of beautiful quality, her high notes especially being charming. Her voice, also, has a dramatic timbre, and she sings with much expression. She does not pretend to be as yet a finished artist, but with further study she bids fair to become a singer of prominence.
29Arthur Hartmann at his second concert in Beethoven Hall introduced two compositions that are new to Berlin, the slow movement from Tirindelli's violin concerto, entitled "Andante idilico," and a "Spanish dance" called "Tango," by Fernandez Arbos. The Tirindelli andante is a melodious movement, with many pleasing features. There are some individual harmonic touches in it, and the treatment of the solo violin is interesting. It was the more important of the two novelties, the Arbos piece being rather trivial, although it has a lively swing that made it "take" with the public.
31Hartmann's principal numbers were the G minor sonata in its entirety, and the big A minor fugue by Bach, for violin alone, which were both played with breadth and authority, with impeccable technic and excellent tone production. Hartmann takes chords with remarkable cleanliness and precision. He has his own ideas of Bach, and they are always interesting. He also performed the air from the Goldmark concerto and Hubay's "Zephyr," which he delivered with all the delicacy and refinement the work calls for, arousing such enthusiasm that he was obliged to encore the number.
33Fifteen new songs by Walter Meyrowitz were heard at a recital by Lisa Meyrowitz, with the assistance of Anton Sistermans. M. Meyrowitz evidently has much talent for
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