Books › Musical Courier 1907-10-02: Vol 55 Iss 14, 1907 › scan 11
Scan 11
Musical Courier 1907-10-02: Vol 55 Iss 14, 1907
52 lines. Read by computer on 24 September 2026. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1teachers are sure to receive a warm welcome to their Paris home.
3Victorien Sardou will attend the final rehearsals and be present at the Opéra, coming in expressly from his home at Marly, when his "Patrie," with the music by Paladilhe, is to be presented to the public. "Patrie" is spoken of as a "new" opera, but I am under the impression that it has been heard before.
5Fendall Pegram writes a pleasant letter from the delightful home or birthplace of Mozart to announce his return to Paris and resumption of lessons, after the end of a fine, refreshing and invigorating holiday spent in travel through incomparable scenery in agreeable company.
7Ellen Forena, the Dresden soprano, whose personality is as attractive as her voice, and who has been studying the past year with Fendall Pegram, is in Paris for a short stay to perfect her répertoire under his coaching. Her concert tournée with the Wilhelm Backhaus company in England commences next month.
9Dr. and Mme. Dossert, the well known vocal teachers, formerly of New York but now firmly established in the "Ville Lumière," took an automobile trip to Mendon the other day to pay their respects to William C. Carl, the New York organist, and M. Alexandre Guilmant, the celebrated master, at whose home he is stopping.
11Willy Vilonat is the name of a new baritone singer who has come here from Vienna to join the ranks of the teaching profession. He feels sure he will succeed—and there is no known reason why he should not.
13Recent visitors at the Paris office of THE MUSICAL COURIER were: Louise Gérard-Thiers, the singer and vocal teacher, of New York, accompanied by her pupil, Florence Leslie; Mary L. Todd, pianist, of New York, and her sister, Mrs. Charles Pratt; Frank van der Stucken, musical director, from Cincinnati; Louise Dumarteray, dictation teacher; Mlle. Magdelene Godard, violinist, and sister of the late Benjamin Godard; Elsa von Grave, the "prima donna" pianist; William C. Carl, the celebrated New York organist; Mme. Von Niessen-Stone, the singer and teacher, of New York; Susan S. Boice and Louise Felter, singers, of New York; W. Gaston Sargeant, basso, Paris; Mlle. Jane Brola (Miss Brooks) and Jessie Christian, soprano, Paris; C. de Macchi, of New York; Olga Moskowa, prima donna, and her husband, Professor Alex. Gordon-Ross.
15Elsa von Grave, the well known pianist, of Berlin, who has been spending the summer in Paris, has accepted a most flattering offer for a series of concerts on the Pacific Coast. She will leave for America on October 6, aboard the steamship President Lincoln, to open her season in Los Angeles, November 22. While in Paris Mme. Von Grave has been heard at several private musicales, and everywhere excited admiration for her musicianship and temperamental playing.
17Maurice Aronson's Studio Notes.
19William L. Wright, the pianist, who has pursued his studies so successfully with Maurice Aronson, in Berlin, during the past three years has accepted the directorship of the music department at Brandon College, Brandon, Manitoba. Mr. Wright began his new duties on October 1.
21Clara Otten, the gifted pianist, a younger sister of Anna Otten, the leader of the Anna Otten String Quartet, of New York has returned once more to Berlin to continue her studies with Maurice Aronson. Miss Otten is a very talented young girl and has received her entire musical education from Maurice Aronson. On September 28 she was engaged to play one of Beethoven's concertos, with orchestral accompaniment, at Count Esterhazy's palace in Hungary. The Esterhazys are one of the most aristocratic and cultured families of Austria-Hungary, and intimately associated with the lives of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. To this day the Esterhazys support their own orchestra, as in the days of Beethoven, and their string quartet is said to be the most perfect in the Austrian Empire. Miss Otten will also play Liszt's E flat concerto with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague, and in concerts at Hamburg, Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Cologne, and Berlin.
23Ludwig Wüllner a Forceful Personality.
25Some idea of the power which Ludwig Wüllner possesses in regard to his listeners may be gathered from the following:
27Once more has Dr. Ludwig Wüllner held his audience spellbound by the victorious masterfulness of his art, striking out into quite new lines; once more was his audience in the grip of this eminent personality who understands how to enter into the most secret depths of tone-poems to an unequalled degree, who unveils their heights of feeling to the very utmost and who penetrates into them and renders them alive with the force of a comprehending soul. Passion and mind flow together in one mighty harmonious chord in Wüllner's recitals, music and poetry cling to each other in an inseparable manner and melt into an art which may have been previously guessed at, but which has been embodied in a superior manner by Wüllner alone. He has once again proved that singing possesses something else besides the much-praised "elegance and charm" school—a mighty elementariness of feeling which can make us shiver and tremble and glow in a feeling of convincing truth. The hall, which was eminently suited to the singer's organ, was densely packed and the audience gave him non-ending ovations. But rarely has such applause been heard in a concert hall as was called forth by "Prometheus" in its inimitable, dramatical and musical interpretation; Brahms', Schumann and Strauss songs, and above all, Loewe's ballad, "Archibald Douglas." In spite of the extremely difficult program the fêted guest had to give addition on addition to his songs.—Duna Zeitung.
29Anna Wüllner at Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory.
31Anna Wüllner, a sister of the lieder singer and reciter, Ludwig Wüllner, is the latest acquisition of the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, in Berlin. She will teach singing in the advanced classes. She began her work October 1.
33Bouhy Admires Madame Merritt-Cochran's Art.
35The new circular just issued by Alice Merritt-Cochran, the soprano, is introduced by the following letter from Bouhy, the singing master, of Paris, in which the writer expresses admiration of Madame Cochran's voice, her style, and also the instruction the singer has received in New York:
37PARIS, 4 Juillet, 1907.
39"CHERE MADAME—J'ai eu très grand plaisir à vous entendre et à vous donner quelques conseils sur certains airs de votre répertoire Français. Cela m'a permis d'admirer la qualité vraiment exceptionnelle de votre voix, votre style et l'enseignement que vous avez reçu dans cette bonne ville de New York dont j'ai gardé si bon souvenir.
41J. BOUY."
43"à Mme. Alice Merritt-Cochran."
45Something About Smetana.
47After the excellent biographies of Beethoven, by Jean Chantavoine, and of Mendelssohn, by Camille Bellaigue, says the Paris Journal des Debats, the "Collection des Maîtres de la Musique" has recently published a monograph on Smetana, by William Ritter. Though one of the most musical nations of the universe, Bohemia holds no leading place in the history of music. She has produced innumerable virtuosi, but nearly all her composers, when leaving their native land, have at the same time abdicated their national character and fallen at once under the influence of either the German or the Italian schools. It was Smetana's ambition (a successful one) to remain faithful to his country. Smetana was a precocious musician, and when hardly out of college began to compose without ever having enjoyed the instruction of a teacher. These improvisations, conceived, as he says, in the obscurity of the profoundest ignorance, bore even then the characteristics of popular Bohemian folk tunes. Later on, repudiating the classic forms, which he considered as essentially German, Smetana aspired, in writing his poemes symphoniques, to become the Berlioz or the Liszt of Bohemia. The magnanimous Liszt became at once his protector and champion. Smetana founded a musical institute at Prague and in 1862 demanded the creation of a national Czech Opera. His efforts were at last successful, and this Opera was inaugurated in 1881 with a representation of "Libussa," the chief work of Smetana. But the composer was denied the gratification of hearing it. Neurasthenic and menaced by insanity, he had become deaf, the same as Beethoven. He died in a sanitarium in 1884, sixty years old. Smetana wrote in all eight operas, of which "The Bartered Bride" is the most popular; several symphonic poems, some compositions for piano, and two characteristic quartets, in which he aimed to depict some of the sad history of his life.
49Johann Strauss' operette, "Thousand and One Nights," was recently given at Florence, with much success.
51A series of opera performances has been arranged for Ostiglia, Italy, which commence this month. "Rigoletto" and "Il Barbiere" are selected as opening performances.
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