Scan 8
Musical Courier 1907-11-20: Vol 55 Iss 21, 1907
41 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 9. 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.
1Berlin.
3LUITFOLD STRASSE, 24.
4BERLIN, W., November 2, 1907.
6It has been an unusually busy week, nearly fifty concerts having taken place. The flood-tide was reached on Tuesday, when ten concerts occurred, besides the four operatic performances, making in all no less than fourteen serious musical entertainments that evening. The most important artists heard during the week were, among the violinists, Emile Sauret, Jacques Thibaud, Franz von Vecsey, Kathleen Parlow and Vivienne Chartres; among the pianists, Harold Bauer, Emil Sauer, Conrad Ansorge, Gottfried Galston and Alice Ripper. The long list of singers included Johannes Messchaert, Franz Naval, Tilly Koenen, Frances Alda and Marie Blanck-Peters. There were four string quartets, to wit, the Halir, Bohemian, Kingler and Dessau, and there were sonata evenings by Frédéric Lamond, Bernhard Dessau and others. One of the most brilliant successes of the week was achieved by Sergei Kussewitzky, the contra bass virtuoso. There was also a program of new compositions by Max Vogrich, of Weimar, and innumerable unimportant piano and song recitals.
8Emil Sauret's rentrée proved to be a great triumph for the celebrated artist. The Berliners always had a warm corner in their hearts for him, and the hall was completely filled on Saturday evening. Accompanied by the Mozart Orchestra, under the able direction of August Scharrer, he played the Lalo, the Saint-Saëns and the Ernst concertos. Sauret has been playing in public for more than forty years, but his left hand has not lost its cunning, and his style is as modern as that of any of the younger virtuosos. All of those qualities that have made him so famous, such as his wonderful left handed facility and surety, his large and beautiful tone, his bold and vigorous bow stroke and his temperament, which gives so much life and vitality to his playing, were again displayed to the best of advantage. Few artists can play the enormously difficult Ernst F sharp minor concerto as he did; he received an ovation and was called out again and again. He played two encores at the conclusion of the program, and the public would have liked to have heard several more. He has been again acclaimed by the press, no less enthusiastically than by the public, and his many friends hope he will decide to settle in this city.
10On the same evening Jacques Thibaud gave a concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra at the Beethoven Hall. I was unable to attend, but my representative informs me that he played with great charm of style, beauty and suavity of tone and impeccability of technic, displaying all those qualities he so excels in and which are so peculiar to him; his success was enormous. Besides playing the Bach E major concerto and Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole," he was heard in Emanuel Moór's second concerto in G major, which was introduced to us by Henri Marteau last season. This work I heard Thibaud play at Kreisler's house, just before the latter artist left for America.
12I have never been able to enthuse over Moór's compositions, yet I must say I like this work much better on a second hearing. The scherzo contains much of interest, and the slow movement, too, has many beauties. Moór has a very peculiar style, to me it seems lacking in spontaneity, and yet great artists are taking him up. Mengelberg recently performed his symphony at Amsterdam. Casals and Suggia, the Spanish cellists, are playing him everywhere; Thibaud is doing the same, and now Kreisler and Ysaye seem getting interested in this second concerto. That he is a musician of serious intention and lofty aim there is no doubt.
14At the Philharmonie on Monday a new violin concerto by Jenő Hubay, the noted Hungarian violinist, was introduced by the composer's star pupil, Franz von Vecsey. Hubay has the advantage of having a complete knowledge of the instrument; his concerto, although very difficult, is thoroughly violinistic. The scherzo is a bright, lively movement with a Hungarian flavor; the adagio affords the violinist opportunity to display his cantilene, and the theme of the finale is very energetic and characteristic. The Berlin critics will have naught of either the Hubay or Moór concertos, but the work of the latter is, for violinists at least, very interesting. Some of Hubay's small compositions for violin, such as the "Hirikati" and "Zephyr," have become world famous. Like d'Albert, he is neglecting his instrument for composition, devoting himself chiefly to opera. His "Violin Maker of Cremona" has been given on numerous leading European operatic stages with success.
16When Hubay first played for Vieuxtemps in Paris in 1878, he then being twenty years old, the great violinist got up from the piano, hugged the youth and called his family into the salon, saying, "At last I have found one worthy to be my successor." This was a prophetic utterance, as Hubay actually did for a time become Vieuxtemps' successor, as head of the violin department of the Brussels Conservatoire, the position which had been held by Beriot, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, and lately by Ysaye and Thomson.
18Vecsey, who had not been heard here for two years, received a warm welcome on Monday. He gave an admirable reading of the difficult Hubay concerto. He has grown and matured in his art to a remarkable degree since he last appeared in this city. His technic is formidable, his tone large and broad, and he plays with much independence of conception and delivery. He is a most extraordinary boy.
20The other numbers of the program were a Volkmann overture, Grieg's variations on an old Norwegian romance and Bruckner's C minor symphony. Nikisch gave a magnificent reading of the symphony.
22Sergei Kussewitzky created a perfect furore at his concert at Beethoven Hall on Tuesday. Kussewitzky is one of the few musical sensations of our day, and yet despite his sensational attachment there is no more true and legitimate artist before the public than he. He had one of the biggest audiences that have been drawn to the Beethoven Hall this season, which proves how great the interest is to hear a performance even on such an unwieldy instrument as the double-bass, when an artist of such transcendental qualities as Kussewitzky is in question. He played a Mozart concerto, Bruch's "Kol Nidrei," his own transcription for contrabass, Bottesini's "Sonambule Fantasy" and an unaccompanied sonata for contrabass and viola d'amour by Borghi, in which he had the assistance of M. Henri Casadesus, of the Society of Ancient Instruments of Paris. This sonata is a delightful, old fashioned composition, and it was played with such perfection of ensemble, such finish of technic, such beauty of tone, the form of delivery withal being in such complete sympathy with the ancient character of the work that the audience actually laughed for joy. It called forth a perfect hurricane of applause, and the artists were obliged to repeat the finale. Never have I seen two artists in more complete sympathy with each other.
24In his solo numbers Kussewitzky was a delight; his playing is always a surprise, for there could be no greater contrast than the soft, ethereal beauty of his tones and the ponderous instrument he manipulates. His tone is sweeter and more sympathetic than that of any cellist I know. It is of no cello timbre; the somewhat nasal qualities of the latter instrument are wholly lacking. It is a tone peculiar to Kussewitzky, for no other artist, either on cello or contrabass, has it. Wherever Kussewitzky has appeared, he has been compared with Bottesini, and many critics have written that he, like Bottesini, plays an instrument slightly smaller than the regular contrabass. This is not true. He plays a full size orchestra double-bass. It is, however, more pointed at the top and for this reason looks smaller, as it has not the width of the ordinary contrabass, but the fingerboard is of the exact size of the regular orchestra bass, hence the execution is the same. Kussewitzky also plays four strings, tuned to fourths, while Bottesini played a much smaller bass of three strings tuned to fifths. Technic on Bottesini's instrument was much easier. Kussewitzky plays some of the great Italian's fantasies, but at heart he is a serious musician and bemoans the fact that the literature for contrabass is so limited. That is the reason he transcribes Mozart, Bach and others.
26In every composition he essays his rendition of it always shows the ideal combination of virtuoso and musician. As I said above he received an ovation and was called out innumerable times at the conclusion of the program. As an encore he played a dainty little berceuse.
28Of the pianists who appeared during the week I heard six—Conrad Ansorge with the Mozart Orchestra at Mozart Hall; Alice Ripper at the Bluthner Hall, Gottfried Galston at the Singakademie, Emil Sauer at Beethoven Hall, and Micio Horszowski at the Philharmonie.
30Alice Ripper, the Hungarian, is a pianist of the Amazonian type. She has great physical strength, and she plays with force and temperament. Her technic is of a very superior order and her tone is very much like Carreño's.
32Galston gave the second of his series of five historical recitals, playing Beethoven this time, his program consisting of the last five sonatas. When Bülow did this for the first time it was considered an unheard of thing, but now it attracted no attention whatever. Galston was in better form than at the first concert; his technic was big and sure and his tone full and singing and the spirit generally penetrating. He had a large audience and was enthusiastically applauded.
34Conrad Ansorge had not been heard in Berlin with orchestra for several seasons and he was greeted by a large audience. He was heard in four concertos—Brahms' D minor, Beethoven's E flat major, Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy" and the Liszt A major. In the Brahms concerto he quite surpassed himself; it was an interpretation full of strong individuality and overflowing with temperament. Ansorge has the lyrical feelings of a poet and a nobility of sentiment which is the reflex of his own peculiar musical soul life. These lyrical and poetical qualities of his are generally best displayed in Schubert and Chopin, hence I was surprised at his heroic reading of the Brahms concerto. He gave the very best he has to offer in this and it was a most impressive performance.
36In the Beethoven concerto, of which I heard the first movement, he was not so convincing, but in Schubert again he was entrancing. It was all in all a noteworthy success.
38Harold Bauer is not a frequent visitor to Berlin, but he is always a most welcome one. For intellectual grasp, legitimate conception, sound musical judgment, healthy sentiment and complete technical mastery Bauer is unexcelled; he is one of the elect and his readings always interest, be it in Bach, Schumann, Franck, Chopin, Debussy or Saint-Saëns. These were the composers who figured on his program at his recital at Bechstein Hall on Thursday. Bauer is no specialist; he is master of all styles and equally at home in the classic, romantic and modern schools. There is something commanding and convincing about his playing. A large number of Americans were present and he had a very warm reception. It is to be hoped the distinguished artist will visit us soon again.
40In the large hall of the Philharmonie a joint concert was given by the two prodigies, Vivienne Chartres, violin, and Micio Horszowski piano. The little pianist played, among other things, Beethoven's thirty-two variations and the big Chopin A flat polonaise, while I heard the elf-like violinist in Wieniawski's "Faustian Fantasy," Grieg's "Norwegian Berceuse" and Bazini's "Ronde du Lutin." The two children also played together a movement of the big Raff sonata in E and two Hungarian dances. It was a remarkable exhibition of precocity on both instruments. The violinist is only twelve years old. It is difficult to
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