Scan 59
Musical Courier 1906-12-19: Vol 53 Iss 1395, 1906
20 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 50. 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.
1MUNICH.
3MUNICH, November 27, 1906.
5The third Kaim concert, November 12, was an exceptional treat. Max Schillings' prelude to the second act of "Ingwelde"; Liszt's A major piano concerto, with Reisenauer as the soloist, and Bruckner's third symphony in D minor, furnished a program that was a delight to the listeners from beginning to end. Reisenauer was in excellent form, and exhibited his usual mastery in technic, style, tone and expression.
7The fourth Kaim concert, November 19, offered likewise an interesting, though less genial, program than its predecessor. The entire evening was devoted to Brahms, and the numbers were "Variations on a Theme from Haydn," the violin concerto and the fourth symphony.
9Henri Marteau, the soloist of the occasion, gave a polished and elegant rendering of the concerto; though, personally, I did not find it a deeply inspiring performance. The audience treated the famous violinist to something like an ovation, however, at the close of the work. The orchestra, under Schneevogt's splendid leadership, played with their customary finish and precision in ensemble, and fine musicianly interpretation and skill.
11Three great artists lately played in Munich on consecutive evenings, namely, Max Pauer, Emil Sauer and Willy Burmester. Pauer, who was the first in order, gave an interesting program, in which some of his best qualities appeared to advantage. His numbers were two Beethoven sonatas—the seldom played op. 10, No. 2, and the op. 31, No. 2; three Mendelssohn selections, namely, the prelude and fugue in F minor, op. 35, and two of the "Charakterstücke," op. 7; a "Humoreske," by Schumann; two Brahms rhapsodies, op. 79; and the same composer's variations on a theme from Händel, op. 24. Pauer is eminently a scholarly and musicianly pianist, whose virtuosity is never brought forward for mere empty display, but is always subordinated to the service of his art. His style leans to the academic order, but is individual and forceful, and combines intellectual strength and repose with tenderness, simplicity and poetry of a rare description. He gave exquisite illustrations of these latter qualities the other evening, particularly in the Schumann "Humoreske" and the Beethoven D minor sonata, which were both played in a way that will long linger in the memory of the listener.
13Following close on Pauer's heels, the Titan Sauer played the next evening in the Musenhe Hall to an eager course of listeners, fascinated no less perhaps by his dominant, eagelike personality than by his dazzling, bewildering technic and the crystal well-springs of his poetical expression. The evening opened with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's organ concerto in D minor, arranged for piano by August Stradal. This was succeeded by Liszt's great B minor sonata, played in grand, broad style that brought thundering applause from the audience at its conclusion. Schumann's "Carnival," a Chopin nocturne, etude and the G minor ballade; two of Sauer's own compositions—a "Tarantelle Fantastique," and a valse de concert, called "Les Délices de Vienne"—and Liszt's "Ricordanza" and "Mazeppa" studies formed the rest of the program.
15Sauer was technically magnificent throughout the evening. But while the stupendous bravura with which he dashed through the intricate mazes of his own brilliant waltz and the ease with which he hurled aside the towering difficulties of the Liszt "Mazeppa" etude intoxicated his audience, to my thinking he made his strongest appeal in the vivid life and color with which the Schumann scenes were delineated, and the breath and dignity and limpid tonal beauty with which he repeated the proud pathos and poetry of the Chopin ballade.
17Sauer's expression has not the depth of sentiment nor the soul reaching tenderness that characterize some of the other great pianists, but it has irresistible magic of its own that haunts the memory afterward. The great artist was almost annihilated with applause after the concert, but declined to give an encore.
19Willy Burmester's concert next evening was another distinguished affair which was attended by a large house, including several prominent votaries of the violin, notably Felix Berber and Erhard Heyde. Spohr's concerto, in C minor, op. 38, was one of the chief attractions offered by the program, and was given with the polished phrasing and masterly style familiar to Burmester's admirers. He also played his own arrangement of an E minor concerto by Bach, and a group of charming pieces belonging to the period of the earlier composers and arranged by himself. They numbered, besides seldom heard selections from
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