Scan 8
Musical Courier 1908-04-01: Vol 56 Iss 14, 1908
43 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. 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.
1LONDON
235 Weymouth Street,
3LONDON, W., March 18, 1908.
5Writing the date of a letter just now brings to mind that in the House of Commons the other day there was a proposal to reform the calendar. So it may soon happen that England will have a date of its own, just as Russia has. The proposal seems to be that the year shall be divided into exactly fifty-two weeks, the New Year's Day not counting either as a day of the week or of the month, while the extra day of leap year would come at the end of June, and it also would not count, but would be called Leap Day and be a holiday. The several months would always begin on the same day, and there would be eight with thirty days, four with thirty-one days. Christmas Day would always fall on Monday, and Easter would always be on April 7. Think how convenient for a business man to have the days of the week occur always on the same days of the month, and there are other advantages. But it is not until 1912 that this millennium of dates is suggested for the beginning time, the time being allowed in the hope that there will be international concurrence.
7And now we have an automatic violin, or, as it is called, "Mills' Automatic Virtuoso." It made its first appearance on Monday evening at one of the music halls and attracted much attention for its ingenious playing. Naturally it is rather intricate as a machine, with steel fingers to manipulate the strings, while revolving discs take the place of the bow, the whole being run by machinery. The discs, of course, enable the mechanical device to always play in tune, which is something gained, and it accomplishes double stopping rather well. The inventor claims that "it plays with all the skill of the human hand music unequaled for sweetness, harmony and volume of tone." It bears about the same relation to violin playing that mechanical devices for pianos do to human interpretation. But it may be that in time the instrument will occupy as prominent a place in the violin world as piano players do in their department today.
9Law is a funny thing, is it not? A recent case that attracted much attention resulted in an emphatic decision against one of the parties. It was then said that such a verdict would ruin any business that formerly existed; on the contrary, it seems to have had no effect whatever—that is, as far as discontinuing said business is concerned.
11LESLIE HIBBERD Representing in Great Britain the Leading Agencies of BERLIN, PARIS, HOLLAND and BELGIUM Cable: Klangsaal, London 17 Hanover Square, London
13FRANK BROADBENT VOICE SPECIALIST 142 Marylebone Road London ARTHUR ALEXANDER TENOR In Europe Winter 1907-08 HARRY CLIFFORD LOTT of LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA BARITONE IN EUROPE WINTER of 1907-8 ALBANY RITCHIE VIOLINIST Touring in Europe 1907-08 Cable: Keynote, London
15CONCERT DIRECTION DANIEL MAYER Solo Agent for MISCHA ELMAN and other leading artists one of two readings
16CONCERT DIRECTION DANIEL MAYER Solo Agent for MISCHE ELMAN and other leading artists one of two readings
18for the same advertisements are simply transferred to another daily paper, and possibly bring in even more pupils than formerly, attracted by the notoriety achieved. What end did the law proceedings serve? Who has been benefited? Was any good accomplished?
20The firm of Ibbs & Tillett is now two years old, and is firmly established as one of the leading concert direction agencies in London. Both the members of the firm were graduates from other concert directions, so they brought to their own business a long experience and full understanding of its details and requirements. They are both young men, full of enterprise and untiring in their application to their work. At present Mr. Tillett is in charge of the London office, while his partner, Mr. Ibbs, is traveling in Australia with Clara Butt and her company. Mr. Tillett has been associated with concert direction in New York, so that among his clients he has at least one American, Herbert Witherspoon, who will soon be visiting us again to fill engagements already booked for him. Mr. Witherspoon is now one of the well established London favorites, and will make appearances at two of the musical festivals this year. The tour of Clara Butt in Australia has been quite phenomenal in many respects, and being under the personal management of Mr. Ibbs reflects great credit upon him, for much of the success of any artist depends upon proper handling of their business. The large number of return engagements booked by Mr. Ibbs for Clara Butt in Australia, as well as the large attendance upon each and every one of the concerts given, proves the tour in every way to be enormously successful. The receipts for this tour have never before been equaled by any organization. The party is due to arrive here about June 1, and late in that month will give a concert at Albert Hall, where the capacity of the hall will be the only limit to the audience. Glancing over a list of artists who are under the management of Ibbs & Tillett, the names of many well known musicians are seen. Agnes Nicholls, one of the leading English sopranos; Esta d'Argo, a fine lyric soprano; Clara Butt; Kirkby-Lunn, well known on both sides of the Atlantic; Mrs. George Swinton, a member of the social set, who often sings professionally; William Green, Kennerley Rumford, one of the favorites at the Chappell ballad concerts; Dalton Baker, the young baritone, who is to sing at the Cincinnati festival in May; Plunket Greene, who has sung in America in previous years; Charles Knowles, Robert Burnett; Leopold Godowsky, pianist of great fame, whose visits to London are warmly welcomed; Tivadar Nachez, Johannes Wolff, and the veteran cellist, Joseph Hollman, are among the soloists whose constant public appearances attest to their high standing in the world of music. Two string quartets are also under Ibbs & Tillett's management, the Capet String Quartet, and the Brussels String Quartet, the latter organization having just concluded a series of concerts that have been of great interest and have placed this Quartet, in the opinion of many musicians, as quite above any other heard in London during the past few years.
22There is to be a grand Irish festival at Royal Albert Hall on the 17th, when a Polish violinist will play Irish music. The announcements of this festival brought names into juxtaposition that seemed anomalous. The words Grand Irish Festival, immediately followed by the names of Tchaikowsky and Zacharewitch, gave the impression that both composer and player were Irish. But Irish melodies played and sung will probably be all that the patrons of the concert will require, even if Russia is drawn upon for some of the music.
24It is a pleasure to find the announcement of three appearances of Kussewitsky arranged for May. The first one is to take place at Queen's Hall, when Mr. Kussewitsky will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra. The second appearance is to be at Bechstein Hall, when he will give a double bass recital, and again at Queen's Hall on May 26, when he will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra. These concerts will be among the important ones of the coming season, and will give opportunity for musical London to hear this celebrated artist under the most favorable circumstances. His two recitals last spring were largely attended, and a warm and enthusiastic welcome awaits Mr. Kussewitsky upon his return to us.
26Mr. de Pachmann's favorite time for crossing the Atlantic is the month of June; on his way to America for his present tour he crossed last June, and the coming June he again intends to cross on his return to Europe. It is a welcome piece of news to hear that late in the month he will give one recital in London on his way to the Continent, Queen's Hall being the place selected for his appearance.
28Antonia Dolores appeared at Crystal Palace last Saturday afternoon, her program including German, Italian, English and French numbers.
30A special compliment has been paid to Landon Ronald in being selected to take the place of Dr. Richter, who is unavoidably absent, as conductor of the next Philharmonic concert. Mr. Ronald is the youngest conductor who has ever been intrusted with the direction of a Philharmonic concert. Just now Mr. Ronald is in Germany, where he conducted the Philharmonic concert at Bremen last week. At the Philharmonic here the fourth Tschaikowsky symphony will be played, this being the work in which Mr. Ronald scored such successes recently in Berlin and Leipsic.
32Again a Victor Beigel-pupil has scored a success. This time it is Susan Metcalfe, whose first recital last Friday at once placed her in the front rank of singers, a second recital Monday afternoon confirming all the good opinions of last week. The beautiful quality of Miss Metcalfe's voice would alone distinguish her singing, but when to that is added a splendid training, the combination makes for a high degree of excellence. All her interpretations were marked by great understanding of the song, and in the two programs that she has presented to the public there was opportunity for great variety of interpretation, showing her capabilities as an artist of great versatility. Miss Metcalfe is to be congratulated that she only made her public appearance when quite ready and prepared for a public career, and Mr. Beigel is equally to be congratulated and thanked for giving us such a perfectly trained singer. This adds another name to the rapidly growing list of public singers who have graduated from Mr. Beigel's studio, Miss Metcalfe being the third who has appeared within a few weeks. On both occasions the programs were divided into three distinct parts, the miscellaneous group coming first on Friday's program, followed by six Schubert songs and the same number by Schumann. On Tuesday afternoon Brahms led the way with a half dozen, G. Fauré also contributing that number, while the miscellaneous group at the end was all of French composers, Duparc and Debussy each with two to
34CONCERT DIRECTION
35KARL JUNKERMANN
36(Sole Manager for KUBELIK)
37122 Regent Street, LONDON, W.
38Cablegrams: DOREMI, LONDON
39THE DELLE SEDIE SCHOOL OF SINGING, Ltd.
40DIRECTORS:
41MR. INGO H. SIMON, MME. ELEANOR CLEAVER-SIMON, MISS GERTRUDE GRISWOLD, MRS. J. EDGAR RUDGE, Managing Director.
42FOR TERMS, ADDRESS SECRETARY, 12 Hill Road, St. John's Wood LONDON
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.