Scan 5
Musical Courier 1909-05-05: Vol 58 Iss 18, 1909
30 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1technical resources of his instrument; his left hand is strong and facile, and he has an energetic manipulation of the bow. His conceptions are straightforward and legitimate, and, although he does not essay the brilliant virtuoso style of playing, he is by no means without temperament. The slow movements of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos were played with real feeling; the violinist's best work was in the Brahms concerto, of which he gave an admirable rendition.
3A monument was erected to the late Eduard Lassen at the Weimar Cemetery on Thursday. Carl Scheidemantel, the distinguished baritone of the Dresden Royal Opera, delivered the address, giving a brief outline of Lassen's career. Lassen succeeded Franz Liszt as first conductor of the Grand Ducal Opera of Weimar, and he officiated in that capacity from 1861 until shortly before his death in 1904. He was a lifelong friend of Liszt. As a song composer Lassen was very popular twenty years ago, but his name is now rarely met with on concert programs. He also wrote symphonies, overtures and other orchestral works. In his compositions, notwithstanding his intimacy with Liszt, he was not much influenced by the modern spirit; all of his symphonic works that I ever heard were very much under the influence of Beethoven. As a composer he is perhaps best known through his music to Goethe's "Faust."
5A movement is on foot to found a Richard Wagner Theater in Berlin. The idea originated with the Berlin Operatic Association, whose intention is to produce Wagner's works only on this new stage. It is planned to make this the biggest opera house in Germany, with 2,500 seats, and there are to be 360 evening and eighty afternoon performances, making an average of more than one a day the year round. The personnel will comprise 400 members, including 100 orchestra players. The plan is at present meeting with much approval and disapproval. As it is to be a private undertaking, it will have to be made to pay, and some think, and with good reason, that Wagner alone will not draw the masses the year round. Some interesting statistics have been compiled in connection with the project concerning the opera attendance of the Berliners. Among 200,000 music lovers in this city, it has been found that there are only 15,000 who can be called opera habitués; that is, who attend the opera more than five times a year. That does not look very encouraging, but the promoters of the Richard Wagner Theater hope to secure subscriptions enough to guarantee the undertaking.
7An Anti-Noise League has been founded in Berlin. The first act of the committee was to send the following questions to about three hundred persons who are prominently before the public: 1. "Do you consider our campaign against noise necessary and useful?" 2. "Do you suffer personally from noises and what are the nature of these?" 3. "Can you offer suggestions for overcoming these noises and are you in accord with our program?" In a very short time two hundred answers were received, and they were all in favor of the anti-noise campaign. To quote some of these, Frigo von Hoffmannsthal, the author of the libretto of "Electra," writes: "I consider your campaign against noises necessary and useful in the highest degree. I suffer terribly from noises and in a way that often makes it impossible for me to work." Professor Carl Lamprecht, the famous historian, of Leipsic, writes: "I consider your campaign very necessary. I suffer from the noises of a great city, especially from the discords. If I were in authority I would have all the bells in the city tuned to a major chord. I thoroughly approve of your program and shall be glad to sign a petition to the Reichstag." All the others write in a similar vein.
9Willy Burmester, the famous violinist, will make a tour of America for the season of 1910-11. Burmester has had a remarkable season in Germany, his receipts having been 110,000 marks, which is a vast amount of money for a violinist to earn in this country in six months. Burmester now stands in the plenitude of his powers and he is absolutely at the head of the German school of violin virtuosity. He has reached that enviable stage in his career as a soloist where he does not have to depend upon engagements with concert societies, but can give his own concerts; he has appeared this season almost exclusively in concerts of his own, and sold out houses have everywhere been the rule. Burmester's re-entree in America after an absence of ten years will be an event of great importance and one that will arouse special interest among lovers of the violin throughout the length and breadth of our land. During the winter he has been decorated with numerous orders, the most recent distinction being a very rare order that has just been conferred upon him by the Duke of Coburg-Gotha.
11The recent appearance of Tilly Koenen in Vienna in her farewell concert of the season called forth great admiration on the part of the public. The distinguished Dutch contralto has been a frequent guest at the Austrian capital every season, and the Viennese by no means approve of her leaving them for a year to make an American tour, claiming that they cannot conceive of a Viennese musical season without Tilly Koenen. So great was her recent success that requests came in from all sides for a second farewell concert.
13The Concert-Direction Hermann Wolff has just issued its concert calendar for the season 1909-10, this being the fifteenth time that this valuable little book has appeared. It contains a complete list of all the artists who concertize under the management of this most famous of concert directions. The list is a long one and contains upward of 500 names. Aside from the complete list in the concert calendar the bureau has issued a special list of artists, including Julia Culp, Elena Gerhardt, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, Felix Senius, vocal; Frieda Kwast-Hodapp, Ferruccio Busoni, Raoul Pugno, Edouard Risler and Artur Schnabel, piano; Stef Geyer, Carl Flesch, Alexander Petschnikoff, Arrigo Serato, Jacques Thibaud and Eugen Ysaye, violin; Pablo Casals, cello; the Bohemian, Klingler, Rose and Sevcik String Quartets. Hermann Fernow, the head of the Concert-Direction Wolff, is not only one of the ablest but one of the busiest men in the entire musical world.
15Maestro G. B. Lamperti, the famous Italian singing teacher of this city, accompanied by Madame Lamperti, spent the Easter holidays in Zurich. While there he heard his American pupil, May Scheider, sing the part of Violetta in "Traviata" at the Zurich Opera, of which institution she has been the leading coloratura soprano since last September. The singing and acting of Miss Scheider were of a very superior order and called forth the full approval of her eminent teacher.
17Harriet Schreyer, a young American violinist from New York, who has been studying for several years with César Thomson in Brussels, made her debut in that city on April 6 in a violin recital with great success. Miss Schreyer is one of the most gifted pupils that the great Belgian master has ever had. Two years ago she won the first prize with the highest distinction at the Concours of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, and now she is a finished artist. The program of her concert comprised Max Bruch's second concerto, the Vitali chaconne, a Scandinavian cradle song by Thomson, Sinding's romance and Wieniawski's scherzo tarantelle. The Brussels papers speak of the young lady in warm terms, praising her reliable, brilliant technic, her sonorous tone and her breadth of style.
19D. S. Davis, the Russian-American basso, will give a concert at Scharwenka Hall on Tuesday next, under the management of the Concert Direction Jules Sachs. The program of Davis' concert, which will be in the form of a song recital which consist of works by Handel, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Schumann.
21Ferdinand Pfohl, the distinguished critic of the Hamburg Nachrichten, writes, in the issue of his paper of April 1, one of the most eulogistic accounts of the singing of Madame Schumann-Heink that I ever read of any artist. He dwells on the magic of her voice, so rich in color, and on the splendor and brilliancy that emanate from her artistic personality. Speaking of the effect the great artist's singing made upon the public, he says: "The success which the much beloved artist won with the Meyerbeer arias was tremendous. The public, which had filled the great Convent Garden Hall to the last seat, was beside itself for joy. The artist was called out innumerable times; the men shouted, the ladies waved their handkerchiefs and tore the flowers out of their hats and threw them at the great singer, who reached down from the stage to shake the hands of the listeners. An 'Umarungstimmung' (hugging mood) took possession of all the enthusiastic audience."
23Tilly Koenen's Vienna Triumphs.
25Vienna was taken by storm by Tilly Koenen, the noted Dutch singer. Her very first appearance there called forth the most enthusiastic encomiums and the public was wild about her. The appended Vienna criticisms are eloquent and authoritative testimonials to this success:
27As Tilly Koenen's glorious and tender contralto tones rang out ever stronger through the hall, flooding the listeners in a sea of harmony, there broke forth such exultation as is very seldom heard here.—Neue Freie Presse, Vienna.
29Tilly Koenen is the happy possessor of a powerful, sonorous, contralto voice, equally rich and tender in all registers, and in spite
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.