Books › Musical Courier 1907-03-20: Vol 54 Iss 12, 1907 › scan 27
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Musical Courier 1907-03-20: Vol 54 Iss 12, 1907
57 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1KATHARINE GOODSON,
2REMARKABLE PIANIST.
4Katharine Goodson, the English pianist, has been accorded unqualified praise on all sides for her playing in America this season, which is her first visit here. It is news of moment that Miss Goodson will revisit America early next autumn for a concert tour of the United States. This season she came at the invitation of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and made her debut January 18 and 19. She was immediately engaged by Dr. Muck, the conductor of the orchestra, to play at the Cambridge concert of the orchestra immediately following her Boston appearance; she was at once engaged also by Franz Kneisel for four appearances with his quartet and by Willy Hess with the Boston Symphony Quartet, these engagements being made because of the remarkable impression Miss Goodson made at rehearsal with the Boston Orchestra. Since that time she has played numerous recitals, public and private, and altogether she will have played some twenty concerts before returning to England.
6There is something remarkable in the playing of Miss Goodson. True, she is equipped with a splendid technic and an innate musical nature, well rounded out and developed by study and work, but there is more, too. There is some subtle charm about her personality and her playing which awakens the lively interest of her hearers, and which affects her audiences with a magnetic power. As Miss Goodson plays, you feel thrills—thrills of joy—you feel at peace with the world, your worries are dispelled, while your thoughts dwell on the beautiful, the calm, the benign. There is some strength along with this quality which bespeaks the master, an assurance which denotes authority; a repose which is restful and a simplicity which is refreshing and inspiring. True, as Miss Goodson sits at the piano there is evidence of a nervous vital force, which is in full sway, but there is also evidence that it is always under control. Temperament? Yes, an El Dorado of it. A temperament which inspires and enlivens the dullest page of music and which thrills the hearer in no common way.
8It is not often that a pianist comes along who combines the solid musicianship qualities which Miss Goodson has supplemented by this rare, almost indefinable quality.
10MUSICAL COURIER readers will be glad to know that arrangements have been made for the return of Miss Goodson next fall.
12Ernest Schelling in Amsterdam.
14The following is a criticism of Ernest Schelling, the pianist, from the leading Amsterdam paper:
16At the Sunday matinee we heard Ernest Schelling, a pianist, executing together with the orchestra two works, and a composition of whom was also rendered by the orchestra. A pianist-composer is no very strange phenomenon! Just think of Dirk Schäfer in this country; of Busoni, of d'Albert, to name a few. I think that even Carreño published a quartet for stringed instruments. In Paderewski, with whom the thirty years old cosmopolitan Schelling studied last, he has an example of how a great piano virtuoso may at the same time be an exceptional tonal colorist in his own work. Paderewski—we had an opportunity of admiring it in the "Fantaisie Polonaise"—preserves the transparency in the complex construction of his composition, and gives a characteristic expression to his thoughts with the help of an effective instrumentation, of antitheses and rhythmic transformations of his motifs.
18Apparently the pupil has not yet arrived at a vigorous, convincing expression of his intentions. In Schelling's "Symphonische Legende," which has a motto instead of a title ("And in the desert where I day, dreams came to me, visions that shimmered on my soul of lands unknown and far, of realms long lost, of kingdoms unattained"), an important question concerning its construction has been left unanswered: Why, while the motto—the program, if one prefers—poetizes one mood, has the composition been divided into two parts, an andante and a vivace? The full meaning of the composer's intention came home to me in the andante, in its peculiar tonal combinations, in the sustained low pitch of bassos and fagottos, above which the trilling sounds of the violins rise softly, symbolizing the heat of the desert, and so on. This andante, finished as it is, is in itself an inspired piece of music. But the vivace—no, that was a disappointment. There the desert, where dreams of faraway kingdoms were being dreamed, was left behind; there was a rushing and tripping in an endlessly restless measure of five-fourths, now on the one theme, then on the other, then on both at the same time (trumpets and violins), and a repetition of the movement, with figurations added to it, without apparent sense or intention. What unrest! what noise! Why did Schelling add this vivace to his andante? The vivace is only to be appreciated as a rather heavily arranged thematic work. We might have done very well with the first part—a "Symphonische Legende" of modest dimensions, if necessary without a motto. * * *
20For the present Schelling the pianist seems more interesting to me than Schelling the composer. The fantaisie by Paderewski, which is perhaps a little long, but full of coloring and perfectly in its national character, with its dancing motifs, he played with much brilliancy, with perfect technic; but in his rendering of Chopin's concerto in F minor Schelling was at his very best. His rendition had the poetic, dainty, distinguished qualities of the composition itself. I think this artist especially favors Chopin's style. He feels its peculiarities, the subtly connected melodies lavishly interwoven with delicate figures, the emotional breath of the cantilene, the wonderfully exhilarating, rhythmic and freely tripping measures. Schelling showed us Chopin's noble qualities in a bewitching light. He is a pianist of excellent taste and a lively temperament. Very beautiful indeed was the larghetto in A flat, the most emotional part of the F minor concerto; it was played on the piano as a song sung by a human voice, a deeply felt song of longing and an avowal of love, broken off by an elaborate recitative of brilliant expression. Light and airy is the harmonic basis which Chopin gave his fantasies. Against the voice of the piano that of the orchestra is remarkably modest, but in many places not without significance. Beside the predominating piano playing, which excels our full attention and abounds in tuneful melodies and splendid passages, the orchestra fulfilled its modest task in a very artistic way. I do not think that this instrumental relief can be reproduced in finer tints and more beautiful contours than was done by this orchestra led by Mr. Mengelberg. In Chopin the combination of orchestra and piano afforded an exquisite enjoyment.—Algemeen Handelsblad.
22Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
23MILWAUKEE, March 14, 1907.
25The eighth and ninth students' concerts at the Wisconsin Conservatory took place Saturday afternoon, March 8, and Sunday afternoon, March 9, at Conservatory Hall, corner of Mason and Milwaukee streets. The following named pupils of Florence Bassett appeared in the program Saturday: Misses Kowalsky, Gill, Fink, Brand, F. Mock, Hanley, Burke, Strong, Meckleberg, Doll, M. Mock, Kuecker, Rehfeld, Weltge, Chalker, Reinke, Master H. Frank and Philip Beyer.
27These pupils of Liborius Semmann participated on Sunday: Misses Barte, Packman, Kindermann, A. Strasen, Redel, C. Strasen, Hoeck, Paulus and Kerler, and Messrs. Kappelmann, Frinke, Gieseler, Bumbalek and Mueller. Special features of interest in these programs were a series of ensemble numbers for two pianos.
29The tenth, eleventh and twelfth recitals are scheduled for March 16, 17 and 23.
31Madame Grosse-Thomason's Pupils in Manhattan.
33Wednesday afternoon of last week pupils of the Berta Grosse-Thomason School, of Brooklyn, gave a musicale at the residence of Mrs. Herman Behr, 41 West Seventy-fourth street, Manhattan. The program follows: "Solfeggietto" (Ph. E. Bach), Marcelle Guerin; "Baechlein im Thal" (A. Foerster), George von Zedlitz; "Slumber Song" (Kjerulf), Gertrude Behr; menuet, E minor (Grieg), Edna Shepard; nocturne, F sharp (Chopin), Margaret Behr; "Au Matin" (Godard), Marcelle Guerin; valse, C sharp minor (Chopin), Marion Webster Powell; polonaise, C sharp (Chopin), Madeleine Ehret.
35Madame Thomason's pupils always play musically and technically correct. The musicale was enjoyed by a fine audience.
37Music in Norwich, Conn.
38NORWICH, Conn., March 12, 1907.
40Archibald Mitchell, whose untiring efforts for the last three years have placed this city among the first in the State from a musical point of view, is now making arrangements for a series of two concerts in April, one by Arthur Hartmann and the other by the Kneisel Quartet.
42At the monthly meeting of the Parish House Association Annie Vaughn and Mrs. George A. Kies contributed an attractive musical program.
44The Olive Mead Quartet gave a concert in New London last Wednesday night, at which Helen Lathrop Perkins was the soloist. The playing of the quartet met with instant favor, as did the artistic singing of Miss Perkins. Fred Lester played the accompaniments.
46The monthly musical service at the Second Congregational Church was held last Sunday evening under the direction of Charles Palmer Potter.
48Organist Charles A. Dowsett directed a concert at the Spiritual Academy Sunday evening, at which Mrs. George Beebe was the soloist.
50L. F. B.
52New Bookings for Winkler.
54Leopold Winkler, the pianist, has been engaged as soloist by the Vienna Männerchor for the Philadelphia concert, which takes place in the Academy of Music, May 10. This engagement is no small tribute to Mr. Winkler's worth as an artist, but in view of the many successful appearances which he has had this season it is not surprising that he should be chosen as soloist for this concert. Mr. Winkler is also to play with the Liederkranz, of Syracuse, N. Y., Albert Kuenzlen, director, on April 15, and also with the Jünger Männerchor, of Philadelphia, under the baton of Louis Koemmenich, Sunday, May 5.
56Last evening (March 19) Mr. Winkler gave a recital in Brooklyn. Today he is to give another in Newark, N. J.
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