Scan 5
Musical Courier 1907-06-12: Vol 54 Iss 24, 1907
26 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of the Staten Island Mosquito, or any other bird. I don't care to hear what the explanations are of the composer; all I want is to listen to his composition and that is all any one can desire. The explanation, nevertheless, appears, and it is never twice alike and no two persons on earth ever will explain similarly or with the same programmatic plot. The Rimsky-Korsakow work appeared to me in my program so dull that there was not a customer in the store. It may have appeared to others as a sublime composition, and those to whom it did appear so have exactly the same rights and reason I have for considering it dull. "Program music," if it really is to perform a fixed or a definite function in musical art, must be emancipated from a fixed program. It must be free to make for each listener his own program.
3There were some songs from a Moussorgsky work, sung by Chaliapine, and he and Litvinne sang parts from Borodine's (apparently strong) opera "Prince Igor." Nikisch conducted Tschaikowsky's "Francesca da Rimini," and from memory, making it the most notable and effective number thus far heard. The manner in which Nikisch molds this Parisian co-operative orchestral material into a plastic body performing his will and effecting his purpose represents orchestral manipulation of the finest and highest order. The few orchestras here are not permanent but give concerts on a co-operative basis, and they select their leaders and the results are always indifferent and never artistically gratifying. We know all about the loose and shabby system of orchestral operations in New York; they are the same here and for the same reason, and they are the same in London. It is only the permanent orchestra that can do justice to the orchestral program.
5Josef Hofmann played Scriabine's early work—the concerto op. 20 written when the composer was eighteen years old. It is an excellent copy of Chopin, which is saying much in its favor. Hofmann played with wonderful repose and authority, and he and Nikisch combined to do justice to this inspired concerto, inspired in the sense that young Scriabine was genuinely sincere and enthusiastic in the making of the concerto. The grand piano was a Russian instrument, which sounded like a xylophone to ears accustomed to the volume of the American concert grand. However there was quality, a kind of foreign quality in the tone, and it was not entirely without character. The people here like these banjo effects in pianos. The tone has not fully outgrown the harpsichord. One must cross the ocean to realize the fully equipped concert grand piano.
7Last night, Sunday, May 26, the fourth Russian concert took place, and the program was carried out as projected, Chevillard conducting. The last concert is down for Thursday night, but outside of Josef Hofmann's playing it promises little. The concerts have made no impression whatever, and did not interest the Parisian, who seems to be deadly indifferent to the practical phases of music.
9Strauss and His Dancer.
11The part of the dancer who simulates Salome was allotted in the Paris performances to Mlle. Trouhanowa, who danced the Seven Veils like a true Terpsichore, but after a number of performances she retired from the part and issued the following card:
13"On the occasion of the fourth performance Dr. Strauss expressed his wish that I should not acknowledge the applause of the public at the close of the performance, as he considered the art of dancing was an inferior one to which such an honor was not due. I replied that if there was anything inferior it was the posturing of a man of talent—or who considers himself to be such—who mounts on the stage every evening to salute the public when they do not ask for him."
15Mlle. Trouhanowa charges Dr. Richard Strauss with impoliteness and lacking in that culture to which people in France have been accustomed for centuries, and it is a fact that the composer of "Heldenleben" has never been charged with an excess of courtesy. The matter became somewhat more important and several of the French papers interviewed the danseuse, who said that for one thing, she considers the composer of "Salome" to be totally lacking in politeness. He always politely greeted Frl. Destinn, but forgot this courtesy with regard to the ballerina.
17Even during the rehearsals differences of opinion occurred, but the widest rift in the lute was when the composer insisted upon the dancer donning a similar garment to that worn by Frl. Destinn as Salome—"a tunic with gilded lions," said Mlle. Trouhanowa, "which looked like wild cats, and directory style ornaments. It was unesthetic, anachronistic and grotesque, and I told him so."
19"Mademoiselle," replied the composer, "learn that this tunic was designed by his Majesty the German Emperor."
21To show her good faith, Mlle. Trouhanowa consented to don this "horror" of a tunic. But worse came, for after the third performance Dr. Strauss came to her dressing room and announced that he did not wish her to appear before the curtain with himself and Frl. Destinn, because the presence of two Salomes on the stage at the same time spoilt the illusion, and he felt a little ridiculous between the two.
23At last, Mlle. Trouhanowa's cup is full, and she announces that her artistic dignity forbids her to dance any more. She even goes so far as to call Strauss' "Salome" a "German mad-woman."
25Very naturally a dancer has little chance against the imposing figure of Richard II, and while she has secured sympathy the episode will pass into eternity without affecting the relative standing of Strauss' "Zarathustra." At the same time it need not be assumed that the bad breeding even of a Richard Strauss can be condoned. He does not hesitate to declare that he prefers his beer and ham sandwich to a state dinner, and that is a matter of taste, too, and as long as it is beer that has inspired him to write his songs, why let us drink to beer. By the way, his mother is a daughter of the Pschorr Brau owner, of Munich, and with the vats of Gambrinus within easy reach young Richard has no doubt imbibed a tendency to meet conditions in a manner a well bred Frenchman, Englishman or American would resent; but he does not mind. He goes on merrily composing and collecting royalties and other
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