Books › Musical Courier 1909-09-15: Vol 59 Iss 11, 1909 › scan 31
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Musical Courier 1909-09-15: Vol 59 Iss 11, 1909
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1SKETCH OF AMERICAN TOUR.
2Under R. E. Johnston's Management.
3[By Willy Olsen, Conductor, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.]
4To have made a trip of 15,000 miles in sixty days and to have given fifty-six concerts within this time—from March 29 to May 29, 1909—in thirty cities of the United States—from New York to New Orleans, is the magnificent achievement to the happy and successful solution of which we look back to. The suggestion of this large and in many ways difficult enterprise was made in the spring of 1908 in the Anglo-American Club of Dresden. Soon after more precise propositions were made to me, guarantees of expenses given, and as the project suited me, I decided quickly to accept the offer, after having secured permission and leave of absence from my managements (Gewerbeverein and Royal Belvedere).
5The best and well known impresario, R. E. Johnston, of New York, was entrusted with the management and the arrangement of the concert tour.* This manager has the reputation of having guided for many years through the United States the best and foremost artists of the world. The word "impossible" is unknown to him, and he values success above all, regardless at what cost obtained. In this sense he also was working for us.
6After a farewell concert at the Gewerbehaus, on March 28, 1909, we started, with our orchestra, increased for the American tour to seventy musicians, the next day on our trip toward Bremen. Hardly arrived on board of the fast steamer, Kronprinz Wilhelm, when she weighed anchor. Majestically great in the calmness of its enormous power, the steamer began the ocean trip, and within one hour we found ourselves on the high sea running at full speed. We had, of course, to share all the splendor of the trip with the sufferings of seasickness, especially during the first few days, when we traveled in a wild sea and bad weather. But later on the ocean became milder, even so friendly toward us, that, with few exceptions, the members of the orchestra were on deck, and on the last day but one before the end of our trip we assembled for a concert for the first time since departing from Dresden. This was a concert at high sea, which I arranged at the request of our excellent captain, Mr. Nierich, and was given for the benefit of the seamen. The artistic success was as great as was the financial. It gave us pleasure and satisfaction to have contributed our mite to the welfare of our brave seamen.
7April 7, in the forenoon, we reached New York, after a delay of sixteen hours. Here we were heartily welcomed by our impresario. The entrance to the port is magnificent and made a vanquishing impression on us with its gigantic structures, the view of thousands of masts, the sea of sky-reaching buildings of from twenty to sixty stories, together with the feverish hustling on the Hudson River and the piers.
8After a really necessary day's rest—the trip of nine days, including the trip from Dresden to Bremerhaven, and the storm and the seasickness had somewhat overstrained our strength—I assembled my musicians in the forenoon for an orchestra rehearsal, as we had to be presented on that same evening in a reserved hall of the immense Café Martin, to the members of the New York press.
9The rehearsal passed off so smoothly that our impresario, Mr. Johnston, expressed to us his unreserved approval. He joined to it the invitation to the feast provided for us on this evening. Toward 9 o'clock, as all the invited guests congregated at this feast, nearly all of whom were journalistic and musical notabilities, I was introduced by Mr. Johnston to the guests. I faced this introduction with difficulty, for it was only by this short performance in a flying hour (time is money) that we had to justify the reputation of the orchestra and to assure its future. We played but two selections: Lassen's "Festival Overture" and the "Andante Cantabile" of Tschaikowsky. Both pieces won for us the fullest approbation and the warmest recognition. Everybody predicted for our tour the happiest results. Of the invited guests who appeared were the prominent singer, Madame Jomelli; the violin virtuoso, Albert Spalding, and the excellent pianist, Miss Schnitzer.
10This critical, as well as important, evening terminated with a luxuriously served supper, during which we received from all sides welcome greetings and proofs of hospitality, and afterward a photograph of the entire assemblage was taken. It was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning when we were brought back to our hotel in autos.
11The following evening we opened our tour with a concert in Carnegie Hall, New York. In the program figured Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony, solos by Madame Nordica, Madame Langendorff, Miss Schnitzer, Mr. Spalding, and David Bispham. The immense hall was entirely filled; the reception was enthusiastic. Here we had our first great American success, which has been told with sincerity by all the New York papers.
12The following day we started on our big tour by traveling to Syracuse. We were accompanied by the following soloists: Madame Nordica, Madame Jomelli, Madame Bouton, Madame Langendorff, Madame Maconda, Miss Schnitzer, Messrs. Spalding, Lawson, Lockardt. Besides my orchestra, consisting of seventy members, there was Mr. Johnston's business staff, consisting of eight persons, namely, cashier, secretary, baggage and quarter master, typist, etc., altogether about ninety persons, forming a real colony of artists.
13All the necessary music, instruments, business properties, etc., were carried with us, and we traveled, as on all our American trips, on special trains, which were provided with dining and sleeping cars, thus assuring all comfort to our wants.
14In Syracuse we were engaged for a great music festival of three days' duration, in which the entire city participated, and its suburbs also. We produced the principal works—Beethoven's ninth symphony, Tschaikowsky's sixth symphony, Mendelssohn's "Walpurgis Night." The choruses were well presented by full sounding voices, and to my surprise and admiration were so well prepared musically that I could successfully give performances of faultless precision, in spite of the fact that only one rehearsal could be held. Altogether, I found in all cities where we had to give concerts with choruses excellent choral material and solid discipline. The music festival passed from beginning to end amid the loudest applause of the hearers, numbering thousands, and the honorable estimation of the press.
15Like in a flight, we then went through beautiful country scenery over to Hamilton, in Canada (afternoon concert), to Toronto (evening concert), over to London (one concert), Detroit (three concerts), then on to Cincinnati. In this largest city of Ohio, of decidedly German character, we had a really enthusiastic reception, and so many proofs of sympathy and patriotic inclination that our Cincinnati visit will remain with us always as a very pleasant memory.
16We traveled from Cincinnati to Knoxville (two concerts), where we were greeted by an American military orchestra; to Spartanburg (one concert), Charlotte (two concerts), then on to Columbia. They have reason to call the country between Knoxville and Spartanburg "the land of the sky," for it certainly is one of the greatest and mightiest of countries, possessing natural beauty to a major degree, a veritable "land of Eden," which we had the opportunity to see. Favored with the best spring weather, we crossed valleys and mountains, woods and meadows, and beheld the beautiful panorama of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the romantic banks of the mighty rivers, which were animated here and there by primitive negro huts or by idealistically situated large farming properties. Great and beautiful impressions, not to be forgotten! We were very much surprised that Americans having in their own country such a paradise should go to Europe to seek natural beauties, and we were assured that to most Americans the beauties in their own land are very little or not at all known.
17Under such lasting impressions of nature we reached Columbia, in the State of South Carolina, April 22. We were engaged here for the first Columbia Music Festival. The entire city and even far out into the boroughs was decorated with flags, garlands and flowers, and from far and near came thousands to participate in the festival. The hotels were overcrowded, and in private houses a place could be found only with difficulty. The general interest in the festival was, to our joy, noticeable in a hundredfold ways.
18On entering the stage with the members of my orchestra, we were greeted with a storm of applause, which was often renewed, and which at the end of the concert was repeated with increased force. The program comprised works of Wagner, Weber, Tschaikowsky, Liszt, Goldmark, Svendsen, etc., and each of the works had extraordinary success. As a permanent remembrance, a photograph of all the participants was taken, a farewell dinner was tendered us, and we received expressions of the heartiest sympathy. We left at a late hour in a special train of sleeping cars (Pullman cars). Our route was to Valdosta, Brunswick, Savannah, Rome, Nashville, Memphis. In all of these cities we gave one or two concerts, which were always brilliantly received. Apart from these honors, we had also to count with two incidents which might have terminated disastrously for us. First, a railroad accident, at least an emergency which might have become such, caused by the great rapidity of the so called lightning express trains. While flying along at a speed of 100 miles an hour, the locomotive and a part of the baggage car went partially to pieces between Nashville and Memphis. Fortunately, no one was hurt, so that we and also the engineer escaped with only the fright, and no harm was done to our instruments and music. What would we have done had they been destroyed under the ruins of the baggage car? Curiously enough, as if such accidents were foreseen, an auxiliary locomotive arrived. The track was soon cleared, so we could reach Memphis in time for the concert, even though we suffered a delay of several hours. But in Memphis, also, we had a great misfortune spared us. The day following our concert, after we had left there, a terrible storm, a destructive hurricane, swept over the city and made victims of hundreds of human beings, besides destroying a part of the city. Here also a Higher Power watched over us.
19The heat and sultriness, sometimes unbearable, might have been disastrous to us, as we suffered from the humidity in the above mentioned cities, and some of our party noticed attacks of malarial fever. But we kept together. Nobody allowed himself to be discouraged, and the enchantment of the given word, "Forward, farther, farther," happily kept from us the malicious illness.
20On May 1 we reached New Orleans, the metropolis of the State of Louisiana, with its inhabitants belonging to four races, namely, Americans, Frenchmen, Germans and Creoles. We gave two concerts there, which were well attended and received with great applause. Then we went on, via Mobile, to Atlanta. In this city, finely decorated for the music festival, our tour reached its artistic pinnacle. We gave here between May 4 and 6 five concerts, these being the greatest and most important of our music festivals. In the majestic music hall "Auditorium," inaugurated by us, over 8,000 people were present for the first concert. There were sold in all for the concerts given by us over 35,000 admissions, and, in spite of enormous expenses, the music festival closed with a net profit of about $10,000, with gross receipts of about $50,000.
21But not only in regard to the financial side, but also in regard to the artistic side, were these days a music festival in the best sense of the word. In the program there figured Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Liszt, Tschaikowsky, Saint-Saëns, Puccini, Richard Strauss and other masters, whose compositions were enthusiastically received, without exception. And how often we met great, deep comprehension, sympathy of the noblest kind, which are not supposed to exist in America!
22All critical notices contained unreserved recognition, and from all sides came convincing proofs of sympathy. It was the magnanimity of American hospitality! Who has not learned to know it is not in the position to judge an American to his full value in his noblest faculty. Everywhere we went we were received with open arms and with honest cordiality.
23In the evenings after the concerts great dinners, given in honor of the participants, took place in elaborately decorated halls fitted out in the richest style. In this way we were, during our entire sojourn, so to speak, driven from one festivity to another, and always we met with that distinct and at the same time cordial spirit which made us all feel as though we had been acquainted with these gentle folk for a long time. If we had only been in a position to thank them, according to our feelings, for all the splendid hospitality bestowed on us.
24Without detriment to its hospitality, the American magnanimity has also a somewhat strong metallic twang. For example: I had to pay in the Hotel Manhattan, in New York, and the Touraine Hotel, in Buffalo, for a room in the twelfth and sixteenth story, respectively, $5 to $6 per day. This price does not include shoe cleaning nor clothes cleaning. Every hand move must be paid for separately, so that you have to count for these incidentals an extra dollar per day. Not less "generous" are the prices in the dining room of the hotels. Breakfast, $1; lunch, $1.50; dinner, $2 to $3, altogether about $10 to $12 (40 to 50 marks).
25After a cordial adieu in Atlanta, we resumed our tour on May 7, and gave concerts in Athens, Oxford, Anderson, Piqua, Delaware, Wooster, Canton and New Castle. In Newcastle we found ourselves again in the midst
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