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Musical Courier 1905-09-06: Vol 51 Iss 1328, 1905
37 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1HOTEL CECIL, LONDON,
2LONDON, August 23, 1905.
4It is a mistake to call the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts by their present name. There isn't any promenading. The only promenading is done by those who walk from the box office back to the outer darkness, because people are already standing packed like herrings and the management can't find room for any more. Even when there is any room to promenade, the audience don't want to. Anyone who is bold enough to start walking about while other people are standing listening breathlessly to a symphony is soon stopped by the furious looks from his neighbors. Just strike a match, too, when the music is going, and see what happens to you.
6These thoughts occurred to me at 8 p. m. last Saturday, when Mr. Wood mounted the platform and was given the warmest of welcomes by one of the typical audiences that he has made his own. They were all there on Saturday—the city clerk and his beloved, the would-be musical student, and the other familiar types one sees year after year at the "Proms."
8The program does not call for much mention; it was composed of such familiar things that one cannot even tell yet whether the orchestra has improved still more, or not. The "Tannhäuser" overture, the "Peer Gynt" suite, Tschaikowsky's "Capriccio Italien," are items typical of the rest of the concert.
10There is nothing very notable in this week's programs. On Monday night the "Siegfried" Idyll, the Vorspiel to "Tristan," the Good Friday music and the "Walkürenritt" were played, and on Tuesday a "New Suite on Russian Folk Melodies," by Max Bruch.
12Tonight Tschaikowsky's "Romeo and Juliet" overture, which I account to be one of the most beautiful works the great Russian ever wrote, is to be played, and tomorrow the same composer's "Air des Adieux" from "Jeanne d'Arc" will be given. On Friday Berlioz's "Harold in Italy" and Beethoven's symphony No. 5 will be the chief attraction.
14David Clegg, who is a very remarkable organist, is giving daily recitals in the small Queen's Hall on a new "Invertitur" organ, built by Brindley & Foster. The organ is replete with up to date appliances similar to those with which (so Mr. Lemare tells me) every American organ is loaded—"duplicate pistons," "controls," "grand crescendo" pedals, &c. It sounds exceedingly well, but, like the late Mr. Best, I prefer "less theory and more organ." David Clegg is, as I have said, a most remarkable organist. He has a most wonderful technic, equal to that of any living player, but unfortunately he belongs to that class of player who, if he is performing in a church, indulges in realistic efforts when the choir are singing of the "noise of the deep" or the "fowls of the air." I remember that, some time back, in London, he played a concoction of his own describing a farmyard. It was amazing, and as an acrobat and an extractor of weird noises from the organ I award the palm to Mr. Clegg. It is magnificent, but it isn't music (as our neighbors in Gaul would say). Mr. Clegg commenced his recitals last Friday and they will be continued daily till October 10.
16Londoners were somewhat startled the other day to hear that the Coliseum Variety Theatre contemplated oratorio performances. It was also announced that the new departure would be ushered in by a new work, "Joseph and His Brethren." Speculation has been rife as to the composer. Parry was first favorite, although many feared it might be Mackenzie. I had my forebodings, and they were justified. Walter Slaughter is the musician who is writing this immortal work! Of course his effort will be more interesting than Parry's would have been, and with my knowledge of Mr. Slaughter's musical comedy work I should think it will be quite a curiosity. Joseph will doubtless be a lady in tights, &c., and the brethren (there were brethren, I fancy, in the original libretto) will doubtless form a charming ballet.
18But this incursion of music hall composers into the realm of oratorio is quite serious. The only fitting retaliation I can think of is that Parry should compose the music for the next song scene at the Coliseum.
20As a matter of fact something of this kind has already happened, for Hamish McCunn has written a song scene for the aforesaid theatre on the subject of Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesperus." I can't think what has happened to Hamish McCunn. In the '80's everybody spoke of him as a coming man, and some said that he had already arrived. Now he never writes anything, and his earlier works are completely neglected. And yet he is still a young man, not yet fifty. One does not even hear his overture, "The Land of the Mountain and the Flood," which everybody praised up to the skies in earlier years.
22An American violinist new to London, Albert Spalding, will make his appearance here in the early autumn at Queen's Hall. I understand that Mr. Spalding is only sixteen years of age at present, and that earlier in his career he was a "prodigy." Time was when a sixteen-year-old player would have been a prodigy, but those good old days are past. Mr. (or Master) Spalding, who is a New Yorker, has studied on the Continent, and according to reports to hand has met with much success at concerts given on the Continent.
24The Sunday Concert Society have now completed their arrangements for the season. The London Symphony Orchestra is unfortunately to be conducted by Mackenzie and Stanford, neither of whom are conductors in the modern sense of the word. They are merely time beaters, and not very good even at that. If the London Symphony Orchestra want to try a new native conductor, there is one ready to hand. He is Walter Hedgcock, who, I am confident, would make a name for himself as a chef d'orchestre if he were given an adequate chance. He is a man who knows how to command forces, a splendid trainer (a more important thing for a conductor than most people realize), and an accomplished and versatile musician with very catholic tastes.
26Among the works to be played by the S. C. S. are Mackenzie's violin concerto and an excerpt from his "Troubadour," Parry's "Symphonic Variations," Stanford's "Irish" symphony, Ed German's "Rhapsody on March Themes" and his "Welsh" rhapsody.
28Mr. Wood will give no British music.
30The Carl Rosa Opera Company, which provides the provinces with some of their few opportunities for hearing opera, will, in a week or so, commence a big tour through the kingdom, visiting every town of importance. They promise one or two new operas, among others an English version of Smetana's "Bartered Bride." G. H. Clutsam's "Jester" is a new light opera that the company have recently added to their list. It has not been done in London yet.
32His Majesty King Edward VII has been bestowing marks of royal favor on musicians lately. A few days ago Landon Ronald was presented with a scarf pin by His Majesty, and now Mischa Elman has been similarly honored by the gift of a ring. The only thing that puzzles me is that the boy should have a ring and the man a scarf pin!
34Charles Harris, the Canadian musician, who engineered Sir Alex. Mackenzie's Canadian tour in 1903, is over here now. Mr. Harris has been given a Mus. Doc.—I fancy by the Archbishop of Canterbury—and he is arranging a Canadian festival, to take place in London in May, at which his own "Coronation Mass" and choric ode "Pan" will be performed. Also, I understand, he is arranging another tour for Sir A. Mackenzie in Canada. Well, if there is another tour, I hope the list of British works to be taken out will be a more satisfactory one than before.
36The Guildhall School of Music, one of the best musical institutions we have, has been enriched by two scholarships presented by the Musicians' Company, acting for Ernest Palmer. They are to be competed for alternately by choir boys from St. Paul's and the Abbey, to enable them to continue a musical training after their voices have broken. Mr. Palmer has done well in establishing these scholarships. It is a pity that he did not do something of the
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