Scan 31
Musical Courier 1906-12-19: Vol 53 Iss 1395, 1906
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1The eighth Gewandhaus program, given December 5-6, marked Glenn Hall's first appearance in that house, at the same time, his first public appearance in Germany. The one work given was Schumann's "Paradies und Peri," which is a setting for a solo, chorus and orchestra of a part of Thomas Moore's poem, "Lalla Rookh." The other soloists were: Walter Soomer, baritone, and Mizi Marx, soprano, of the Leipsic Opera; Hella Rentsch-Sauer, soprano, of Berlin, and Pauline de Haan-Manifarges, contralto, of Rotterdam. The mixed chorus was the regular organization of the Gewandhaus.
3The well known story of "Paradise and Peri" is that of the Peri who got out of heaven and wished to get back. The return was not accomplished without some difficulty, but on the whole it is a comparatively peaceful story, and Schumann has written unusually gentle and poetic music for it. True, he has once indulged in suggestion of a battle, and in another place indicated Oriental character in a chorus of the Houris, but it was a comparatively peaceful battle, and the home of the Houris must not have been very far into the Orient anyway. Thus it happened that the gentle, poetic, Leipsic Schumann hardly got as far as Dresden with his figurative incursion into the Orient. He wrote the pure music that we so naturally expect of him.
5The performance of the work was meritorious in nearly every respect. The chorus followed Nikisch's beat with remarkable promptness and generally maintained fine vocal quality. Glenn Hall's voice sounded comparatively large in this house, and his careful enunciation of the German spoke volumes both for his vocal method and the enthusiastic industry of his coach, Mrs. Nikisch. His musical conception of the numbers was marked by all the vigor that the composition demands. As the principal solo parts fall upon the tenor and upon the soprano, represented by Fräulein Marx, Herr Soomer had little chance to employ his great voice and style, but the public was glad to hear him, even under unfavorable conditions. The singing of Frau Manifarges aroused universal admiration, and the very high soprano parts were well sung by Fräulein Marx. Frau Sauer's voice was comparatively hard in company with the others.
7A strong contingent of Mr. Hall's Chicago friends was present to enjoy his singing. It would be unfair to report how many they were, besides his wife and his mother, who took occasion to embrace him in celebration of the first German public appearance, and simultaneous entry into the Gewandhaus.
9Next week Teresa Carreno will play MacDowell's second concerto, and Nikisch will give the first performance of Max Reger's four movement serenade, op. 95.
11The motet service of the Thomanerchor, December 1, brought the Bach D.minor organ toccata and fugue; Oskar Wermann's four voice Advent motet, "Mit Jubel sing' ich dir entgegen"; Wilhelm Lamping's motet for mixed chorus, "Mein Heiland-reiss den Himmel auf."
13The Sunday music service, on December 2, was held in Nicolai Church, and the composition given was Bach's "Nun Kommt der Heiden Heiland," for solo, chorus, orchestra and organ.
15Max Reger has just launched what sounds like a great composition for two pianos. This is his "Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue," op. 96, already published by Lauterbach & Kuhn, of Leipsic. It was given its first local presentation by the composer and the Teichmüller virtuoso pupil, Georg Zcherneck, of Leipsic. At the same concert the composer and Gewandhaus concertmaster, Edgar Wollgandt, produced for the first time the violin and piano suite in old style, op. 93; and the contralto, Johanna Schnaudt, of Munich, presented eight new songs from the opus numbers 97 and 98.
17Whatever volumes there are to be written about Reger's compositions and his unique personality, the one true chapter will be that pronouncing him a genius of rhythm and something not far short of a great pianist. But Reger says it is inartistic to practice, consequently never does so. As to the counterpoint he writes, some of it would move a mountain, and this sort may occur in a simple song as readily as in a pretentious work. Note this in his "Leise, leise, weht ihr Lüfts," op. 97, and his "Sonntag," op. 98.
19Much of the excitement of a horse race attended the above performance for two pianos, for when Zcherneck got to the couple of pages of octaves, already at a cruel tempo, Reger still rushed the first piano part, and in language that would never do to print, exhorted Zcherneck to hurry on. Fortunately, the discourse was not audible to the public, but the two pianos were, and this was the auditor's cue either to grin broadly or gasp for breath. Some did this and some did that, but none were drowsy.
21The composition is written so thickly in parts as to be harmonically unintelligible at a first hearing, but the rhythmic feeling was of such charm as to attract from the very beginning. From then until the close the work was a succession of stirring inventions and indescribable weldings of the two instruments. At the conclusion the most musically learned audience of this season called the composer forward time and time again.
23The violin suite, in a prelude, largo and fugue, was missed for this report in favor of the d'Albert second piano concerto in another hall, but the work found unqualified praise from every musician accosted, and Wollgandt is said to have played it superbly, the fugue particularly so. Fräulein Schnaudt is a contralto well schooled in the interpretative details of lieder singing. As she has talent and a good voice under very good training, her singing gave much pleasure. Her instructor, coach and fiancé, Karl Erler, of Munich, was present at the concert. The program and management of the concert were by Lauterbach & Kuhn.
25The young pianists, Margaret Schuch and Alice Voekler, as duetists, and Franz Schütze, as soloist, played a recital in the Blue Hall of Crystal Palace. The four hand works were a Mozart D major sonata and the Schumann andante and variations, op. 46. The Beethoven E flat sonata, op. 31, was the principal solo. The young women had a fairly correct manner of playing the duets and Schütze had many finely musical moments in the Beethoven. It is unfortunate that his mannerisms at the piano did not permit watching him without vexation.
27The Mozart sonata generally treated one piano as solo and the other as accompaniment. That is a very conservative and fairly agreeable plan. The most conservative thing of any is to get entirely out of the habit of composing for two pianos. But Max Reger and his new introduction, passacaglia and fugue do not come within this ruling. Reger is an exception to nearly any rule of music or life—in truth, the most unique character in the field.
29The correspondent was recently present in the studio of Mrs. Carl Alves to hear a half hour's lieder singing by her long time contralto pupil, Emeline Klenen, of Brooklyn. Among the numerous songs heard was the Brahms "Sappische Ode," Brahms' "Der Tod, das ist die Kühle Nacht" and Grieg's "Der Schwan." Miss Klenen had had some years of study in New York with Mrs. Alves, and through those years acquired the finished musical style of a routed lieder singer. Her voice is a rich contralto, which she uses so well and so naturally as to maintain the native humanity of it in every tone. It flows in perfect freedom at any pitch. Knowing how rare it is to find in any part of the world an instructor who can build and maintain the contralto voice in its whole beauty, a correspondent finds especial pleasure in broadcasting this report upon the work of a representative pupil.
31Guy Ambrose, of Port Hope, Canada, has been in Nikisch's conducting class at the Conservatory for two years, and has just gone to Elberfeld, near Cologne, in the capacity of third conductor at the City Opera. Mr. Ambrose left Canada seven years ago. Since then he spent some years in London in the study of composition and in Leipsic has had composition and orchestration studies for the two seasons. In the spring of 1905 the Conservatory Orchestra played two movements of his "Canadian Nature Pictures." Since then he has completed a set of ten variations and finale on an English folksong. A single hour
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