Books › Musical Courier 1909-09-15: Vol 59 Iss 11, 1909 › scan 28
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Musical Courier 1909-09-15: Vol 59 Iss 11, 1909
58 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1OCEAN GROVE
3OCEAN GROVE, N. J., September 10, 1909.
5Lillian Nordica-Young and Albert Spalding closed the season here in a brilliant concert last Monday. Accounts of interesting past events and of those to come gave a peculiar significance to Madame Nordica's home coming at this time, and to her appearance at Ocean Grove on Labor Day. Among them were the reports of homage paid her by royalty, the critics and the general public of London in her concerts at Queen's Hall last June, her marriage also to George W. Young and the attendant festivities, the announcement that upon November 8 she will open the new Boston Opera House, of which Henry Russell is director, and her return this season to the Metropolitan Opera House, notably in the Wagnerian roles, with which her career has particularly been identified. The fact also that this was Mr. Spalding's last concert in America prior to spending a season abroad, was an added incentive of no little consequence to his friends to attend. Many of the thousands of excursionists whom the clear, cool air of the holiday had brought to the Twin Cities by-the-sea, remained for this event. The evening was ideal for the motoring parties from up and down the coast, who came in such numbers that their cars wellnigh filled all the streets and approaches about the Auditorium. It was an audience both expectant and curious—an audience which, in point of numbers, of distinction and of the profusion of the floral tribute which it offered, surpassed all those of the summer.
7The program was as follows:
9Russian Airs ………………………………………….. Wieniawski
10Cavatina from La Reine de Saba ……………………. Gounod
11Meditation from Thais ………………………………… Massenet
12Piedmontese Rhapsody …………………………… Sinigaglia
13There Was an Ancient King ……………………….. Henschel
14Twilight …………………………………………………. Rummel
15Damon ……………………………………………………. Stenge
16From the Land of the Sky Blue Water (Omaha Indian melody) ………………………………………….. Rogers
17At Parting ………………………………………………… Rogers
18Largo (with organ accompaniment) ……………… Handel
19Zigeunerweisen ……………………………………… Sarasate
20Ave Maria (with violin obligato and organ accompaniment) ……………………………………… Bach-Gounod
21Madame Nordica and Albert Spalding.
22Aria from Der Walküre, Scene 2, Act 1 ……………… Wagner
23Madame Nordica.
25Madame Nordica's numbers included nothing in which she has not been heard before. It was not, however, to listen to some novelty that her audience had come, but rather to see her again and to listen to her voice in whatever she might choose to sing—and it was the same voice which, upon at least three occasions last year at Carnegie Hall, New York, had aroused her hearers to such a height of enthusiasm. In a day when so called short cuts to the art of singing are craved by impatient students and proffered by unscrupulous teachers, and when a fervent dramatic instinct, to a degree, can compensate in opera of modern tendency for the lack of ability to sing well, it is a profitable experience to hear an artist who so built her voice and has so used it, that, after a career which has embraced three careers, she can still sing a mezzo voce, so pleasing in quality of tone, so able to carry well to the remote parts of the vast hall, so evenly sustained and evidencing so clearly an admirable breath control, which, of course, accounts for it all. It was in the skillful use of this light voice, as apparent in Rummel's tone poem, "Twilight"; Roger's "At Parting," and Cadman's "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water," in which, by the way, the composer makes the Omaha Indian share with the Greek a knowledge of the whole tone scale—that Madame Nordica showed herself to be still expert in this technical requirement of her art. A Nordica program would scarcely be complete without the "Erlking," nor was it lacking at this concert. In response to a request, Madame Nordica sang it after her group, and gave the song all the dramatic vividness of characterization for which her reading of it has been notable. The heavier numbers of the program found her in adequate voice to read them with the interpretative freedom and wealth of tone which has been her custom, notwithstanding the fact that owing to the camp meeting yet in session, it was impossible to rehearse in the Auditorium until 1 o'clock of the day of her concert, when, in defiance of restraint or caution for the evening, she sang in superb voice the principal numbers of her program. That Madame Nordica afforded her hearers delight was assured by the reception which they gave her and their insistence upon recalls.
27Mr. Spalding, too, had his audience. Those who had not heard him play before found him thoroughly equipped in the technic of his instrument, adept in several styles of playing, in all an exponent of the violin, sincere and consistent in his artistry. Mr. Spalding does not court a style which dominates because it is imperious, nevertheless he delights and fascinates, first by the warmth and sympathy of his tone, the quiet intensity and breadth of his cantilena, the agility and spirit of his more brilliant passages, and in no small degree by the candor and simplicity of his manner. The "Meditation" from "Thais" and the more dignified "Largo" were marked by a broad singing tone and much beauty of style. The "Zigeunerweisen" went brilliantly, with all the brave display of virtuosity which it requires. Mr. Spalding was happy in the rapid arpeggi mounting into harmonics, which he played with sureness and a wraithlike purity of tone. Mr. Benoist's accompaniments were a delight, as always. This pianist has the rare faculty of being able to create the atmosphere of a song ready for the singer with merely a few bars of prelude. Madame Nordica shared her applause with him during the course of the evening. Mr. Benoist proved equally as sympathetic in accompanying Mr. Spalding's numbers as in Madame Nordica's. In the "Ave Maria" for Madame Nordica and Mr. Spalding, and in the "Largo" for Mr. Spalding alone, Mr. Macfarlane controlled the great organ into a mere suggestion of its ponderous power, remote yet intimate, upon which both voice and violin rested like fragile craft upon the deep sea.
29The demonstration given Madame Nordica within the Auditorium scarcely equaled that after the concert without. It is a peculiar benediction vouchsafed by Ocean Grove audiences to this great singer, whom they call favorite—the throng of expectant thousands crowding about the stage door, leaving but a narrow aisle to the motor car—the applause which greets her as she appears—the eagerness with which a thousand hands press forward to catch the flowers which she tears from the gorgeous bouquets and throws to them—and the "goodbys" till next year which follow her as she is driven away. It was indeed a triumph well worth returning for.
31The season of 1909 at Ocean Grove is over. Follows now in its wake a tranquil moment apt for the leisurely contemplation of many a curious incident which it has brought forth. It would be unjust to conclude arbitrarily the precise relation which any of these bore to the general cause while on the spot in which they happened or were perpetrated, but with the more carefully adjusted perspective which a journey half way across the continent can lend, there are a few high lights in Ocean Grove's color scheme which would impress any one who is not hopelessly color blind. Ocean Grove is a striking antithesis. Within the past decade it has attained a musical significance throughout the world. In that regard it is an eloquent testimonial to the indefatigable zeal, the inexhaustible tact and the executive and musical generalship of one man—Tali Esen Morgan. Other than that it has been identified as a camp meeting rendezvous during ten days of the summer for zealots whose form of religious observances is decadent. Beginning at Ocean Grove with a limited field for work in choral music, Mr. Morgan has so broadened the scope and extent of the summer program at this resort that it has become the handiwork of a supreme ambition which has overleaped the actual possibilities, the craftsmanship of an artisan who persists and endures through all obstacles and triumphs in spite of them. Growing more divergent each year have been these two elements—the musical and religious—not by deliberate choice or volition upon the part of either, but by the inevitable process of natural evolution. The Camp Meeting Association has the final jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to the Auditorium, for they own it as they do the greater part of Ocean Grove—hence, incidentally, the present determined contention upon the part of the residents to secure a borough form of government and a voice in municipal administration. Despite the fact that a stranger need not sojourn long in Ocean Grove without hearing it officially said that the association is not a money making institution, yet its members are sufficiently keen as financiers to realize to some degree at least how valuable an asset to their scheme Tali Esen Morgan has made himself. While they perhaps would not concede the point, it is nevertheless clearly apparent to any one comparing the class of people drawn from the outside to attend Mr. Morgan's concerts and the class of people attending the camp meeting, that if perchance he should leave Ocean Grove its value and prestige as a summer resort would outshrink the cheapest Jersey sweater on the market. Notwithstanding the large public which Mr. Morgan has already proved is to be drawn to the appearances of the great artists he presents from summer to summer, and could be attracted in greater numbers and with greater frequency, were he free to inaugurate certain improvements in and about the Auditorium, he is unable to do so. The most essential of these are some means of making the building more accessible to the public which makes up its chief constituency.
33ARTHUR B. WILSON.
35Glenn Hall in Concert and Opera.
37Glenn Hall, the American tenor, who will be heard at the Metropolitan Opera House this season, is still in Europe, where he has spent the entire summer. Mr. Hall will return in October to fill a large number of concert engagements booked by his managers, Haensel & Jones. His contract with the Metropolitan Opera permits him to accept concert engagements not only before and after the season, but also during the season when he is not cast to appear in New York.
39Bron and Arriola at the Metropolitan.
41Sunday evening, November 28, at the Metropolitan Opera House, R. E. Johnston will present the double attraction of Pepito Arriola, the gifted little Spanish pianist; and Jascha Bron, a young Russian violinist for whom the greatest success is predicted. Both these young artists come to America for the first time this season, and both are to make their debuts early in November.
43Mulford Engaged for Reading Concert.
45Florence Mulford, the mezzo soprano, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera Company, and the Neues Königliche Opern Theater, of Berlin, and Annie Louise David, the harpist, have been engaged for a concert to be given in the aid of charity, under the auspices of Mr. Haage, in Reading, Pa.
47Hudson and Kefer Engaged for Bridgeport.
49Caroline Hudson, the soprano, and Paul Kefer, the cellist, have been engaged by the Woman's Club of Bridgeport, Conn., to appear in joint recital. The concert is scheduled for January 12. The artists were booked by Walter R. Anderson.
51One More Booking for James.
53Cecil James, the tenor, who is now under the management of Haensel & Jones, has just been booked by them for Verdi's "Requiem," with the Minneapolis Philharmonic Club. The performance will take place March 11, 1910.
55Elvyn's Pennsylvania Recitals.
57The Y. M. H. A., of Philadelphia, has engaged Myrtle Elvyn, the eminent young pianist, for its first concert, November 10, immediately after which she will play in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
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