Books › Musical Courier 1909-03-17: Vol 58 Iss 11, 1909 › scan 49
Scan 49
Musical Courier 1909-03-17: Vol 58 Iss 11, 1909
169 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 50. See the scan on archive.org.
1What the Jury Thinks.
3The originals of these extracts are always to be found on file at the respective newspaper offices.
5"Madam Butterfly," March 5.
7New York American
8Grassi's voice has sometimes an unpleasant nasal quality.
10New York Tribune
11He has a pure and pleasing voice.
13The Sun
14Grassi was aroused by Destinn to unwonted effort.
16The World
17Emmy Destinn's Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's "Madam Butterfly" is one of the most moving impersonations upon the contemporary stage. By the beauty and art of her singing and by the eloquence and pathos of her acting she lifts the simple, loving, trusting little Japanese girl into a commanding place among the heroines of romance. Her personal triumph last night at the Metropolitan Opera House—crowded as if Caruso were singing—was unmistakable and thoroughly deserved.
19Philharmonic Concert, March 5.
21The Sun
22The slightly increased tempo of the funeral march (Beethoven's "Eroica") is something for which the great length of the movement offers no small extenuation.
24The World
25In the flower garden scene a gaping hole thirty feet long by five feet wide was inadvertently left open in the stage.
27"Parsifal," March 6.
29The World
30In the flower garden scene a gaping hole thirty feet long by five feet wide was inadvertently left open in the stage.
32New York American
33The representation that yesterday's audience witnessed was one of the most satisfying yet to be recorded.
35New York Tribune
36Campanini and the orchestra gave of their best.
38The World
39Miss Garden, sparing herself not at all, with a performance of "Salome" in the evening before her.
41Tschaikowsky Cycle, March 7.
43New York Tribune
44The valse and the elegie (Suite, op. 55) seemed very persuasive and sincere as Damrosch played them yesterday, and full of melody. The performance revealed as nothing else has done better this season the superb strength and beauty of this string choir.
46"Rigoletto," March 8.
48The Sun
49Tetrazzini exercised especial care.
51The New York Times
52Constantino was not in best voice.
54The World
55Her runs, and trills, and sustained notes were never so brilliant.
57New York Tribune
58The Duke (Constantino) seemed to have got to level again and sang his "La donna e mobile" with his usual charm and beauty of voice, with never a quaver or trace of the fickleness that may be considered inherent in womankind and tenors.
60"Manon," March 8.
62The Sun
63The audience was one of moderate size.
65The Sun
66The audience was one of moderate rapture.
68The World
69Jörn added to his vogue by his poetic and manly characterization of Des Grieux.
71New York Tribune
72There was a fitful performance of "Manon."
74The Evening Post
75Farrar was in good voice, and enchanted the audience with her beautiful and expressive singing.
77The New York Press
78The quality of her voice hardly enchanted the ear, particularly in her high register, which was penetrating. Miss Farrar gave the most satisfaction in "Adieu, petite table," though the pathos she tried to infuse into her singing did not ring true.
80Kneisel Quartet, March 9.
82The New York Times
83The octet may well be ranked among the living works of Mendelssohn's composition in freshness and beauty.
85The Sun
86The fifth evening concert of the Kneisel Quartet took place last night at Mendelssohn Hall with the customary meteorological accompaniment.
88The World
89The octet is so infrequently performed that it had practically the effect of a novelty, doubly so because it is not written in the usual Mendelssohn strain.
91New York American
92The piano part of the Corelli sonata (played by Lillie Sang-Collins) was nearly always too loud. She forgot to keep in the perspective, and seemed determined, at times, to step pretty nearly out of the frame.
94The Evening Post
95The Corelli sonata has no particular individuality.
97New York Tribune
98The valse moved rather heavily and ever roughly in places, while the elegie was hardly deeply elegiac. At times the strongly marked rhythms so characteristic of Tschaikowsky seemed to halt and balk in Damrosch's hands.
100The World
101The Mendelssohn octet sounded older than anything else on the list. The andante, even when performed as well as it was last evening, seemed modelled in too low a relief to be sufficiently detached from its arabesque background.
103"Rigoletto," March 8.
105The World
106Her runs, and trills, and sustained notes were never so brilliant.
108New York Tribune
109The Duke (Constantino) seemed to have got to level again and sang his "La donna e mobile" with his usual charm and beauty of voice, with never a quaver or trace of the fickleness that may be considered inherent in womankind and tenors.
111(no line here) one of two readings
112"Manon," March 8. one of two readings
114THE NEW YORK HERALD one of two readings
115The audience was large. one of two readings
117The Evening Post one of two readings
118Farrar enchanted the audience. one of two readings
120The New York Press one of two readings
121Jörn's Des Grieux suffered from a strain of sentimentality not exactly Gallic. one of two readings
123The Evening Post one of two readings
124Another excellent performance of "Manon" was given. one of two readings
126The New York Press one of two readings
127The quality of her voice hardly enchanted the ear, particularly in her high register, which was penetrating. Miss Farrar gave the most satisfaction in "Adieu, petite table," though the pathos she tried to infuse into her singing did not ring true. one of two readings
129"Tannhauser" (Benefit), March 9. one of two readings
131New York American one of two readings
132The sum realized for the German Press Club had not been computed. one of two readings
134Benefit, March 9. one of two readings
135The net receipts were $5,200. one of two readings
137"Trovatore," March 10.
139The World
140Madame Adaberto has a good voice, large, full and sweet, which she uses with skill.
142The New York Press
143To be sure, her deep register is not full and rich, and her middle register is peculiarly uneven, but her high notes are large and powerful. This soprano indulges in many of those peculiarities of tone emission which are favored in Italy, but not in Northern America. She is fond of emitting tones made strong and effective by a process of vocal bleaching, but which thereby are robbed of much quality. Moreover, her breathing and her phrasing last night did not reveal great skill or musical taste. Madame Adaberto as an artist seems somewhat crude, a criticism applicable both to her singing and her acting.
145The Sun
146Adaberto's singing aroused no great enthusiasm.
148Musical Art Society, March 11.
150The New York Press
151In Bach's concerto grosso No 2, the solo players included David Mannes.
153The Sun
154The Palestina "Adoramus te" was not given in a manner worthy of the traditions of the society.
156The World one of two readings
157The New York Press one of two readings
158The Palestina's "Adoramus te" revealed the powers of the society to great advantage. one of two readings
159Palestrina's "Adoramus te" revealed the powers of the society to great advantage. one of two readings
161The Sun
162Nothing except volume was gained by the employment in the finale of a choral force from the Oratorio Society.
164The Sun
165The concertino performed last night, that in F major, was written for trumpet, flute, oboe and violin, with the accompaniment of strings, reinforced by a harpsichord. The edition used last night, that of Herman Kretschmar, recognized the difficulty of finding players in these days for Bach's trumpet parts. Kretschmar edited the trumpet out of the slow movement of the composition. This alteration cannot be deemed otherwise than an improvement in view of the manner in which the trumpet is usually made to sound in works of this kind. It rarely fits into the picture at all.
167The Sun
168The Bach concerto grosso is a work that in these days of psychologic composition, of soarings after the unsearchable and divings after the unfathomable, comes upon the spirit like the evening spell of Lake Garda. Fresh, sweet, unaffected and yet filled with the riches of an inexhaustible art, this music lives beautifully on, a thing of undying joy in the midst of a world disturbed by "Salomes" and "Molochs," "Le Villis" and "La Wal…"
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