Books › Musical Courier 1911-03-22: Vol 62 Iss 12, 1911 › scan 39
Scan 39
Musical Courier 1911-03-22: Vol 62 Iss 12, 1911
109 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 40. See the scan on archive.org.
1BROOKLYN, March 20, 1911.
3It was at a Schiller celebration in the Montauk Theater, some eight years ago, that the late Heinrich Conried by chance heard Marie Rappold sing. That meeting of a modest but gifted singer and the former impresario of the Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan, resulted in giving the operatic world a very beautiful voice and a refined and conscientious actress. Brooklyn was formerly Madame Rappold's home and her frequent appearances in the borough since she became a world renowned prima donna have made her old friends feel most proud of her. No artist is more deserving of these tributes from old friends and neighbors. At the performances in Brooklyn by the Metropolitan Opera Company, Madame Rappold has been heard as Leonora in "Il Trovatore" and Eurydice in "Orfeo." Tuesday night of last week, she added another triumph in Brooklyn by singing Desdemona, in the performance of "Otello." Hamilton Ormsbee, the music critic of the Brooklyn Eagle, voiced the opinion that is universal about Madame Rappold's impersonation of the gracious lady so brutally murdered by the Moor. These lines are from the Eagle of March 15:
5There were many friends of Madame Rappold in the audience, and she justified their enthusiasm with a performance which vocally and histrionically was of a very high order. Her Desdemona has quiet grace and plaintive dignity rather than haughty pride, and passionate resentment. The fine quality of her full, clear voice, which is at its best in the upper register, justifies her interpretation. It was evident in the duet with Otello, which concludes the first act, that she was holding her real power in reserve and her work broadened and grew in strength as the tale of the Moor's passion strode to its climax. There was an audible increase of power in the scene where Otello casts her off, and the "Prayer," in the last act, was well phrased and beautifully sung.
7Histrionically, Otello is Sleazak's best achievement. Scotti was the Iago, Miss Marbourg the Emilia, and Andrea de Segurola the Lodovico. Toscanini was the conductor.
9Charles Anthony, an excellent pianist from Boston, came to Brooklyn last week to assist in the concert which a string quartet gave in the music hall of the Academy of Music, Thursday evening. The feature of the program was a new quartet (in manuscript), by Rubin Goldmark, for piano, violin, viola and cello. The work made a profound impression. It has sterling characteristics and is especially grateful in the piano part. Mr. Anthony's fine qualities as a player were immediately disclosed, and after hearing him in ensemble one did wish to have the privilege of hearing him as a soloist. He is an artist revealing a noble tone and that well balanced and intelligent musicianship which is such a joy and contrast from the self centered, self conscious artists who often seem to think more of their personalities than their art. Mr. Anthony seems concerned only about his playing and he did beautifully in the Goldmark quartet. The other music of the night was from the works of Bach, Beethoven and Tchaikowsky. The concert was under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
11Pupils of the Berta Grosse-Thomason Piano School played again before a fine company, Saturday morning of week before last. The program follows:
13Frolic …………………………………………………Nurnberg
14Frances Duryea.
15Solitude ……………………………………………..Friol
16Cornelia Woolley.
17Reverie ……………………………………………..Schutt
18Valse, C sharp minor …………………………..Chopin
19Margaret Renton.
20Meditation …………………………………………..Tchaikowsky
21Edna Shepard.
22Air de Ballet ………………………………………Moszkowski
23Clara Bundy.
24Chant sans paroles ……………………………….Sinding
25En Automne ………………………………………Moszkowski
26Harriet Connor.
27Scherzo, E minor …………………………………Mendelssohn
28Clara Bundy.
29Polonaise, A major ……………………………….Chopin
30Gilbert Kapelman.
32The Fique Musical Institute will give its eighty-second students' concert, Thursday evening, March 23. The music for the night, for piano and voice, will be from the compositions by Fique, Weber, Jouberti, Von Stutzmann, Elsie Wilckens, Rogers, Rachmaninoff, Kronke, Gluck, Fischer, Beach, Wekerlin, Chopin, Donizetti, Tosti and Hiller. It is a bewildering and eclectic program. Some mention of the performances will be made next week.
34As announced in this column last week, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gives its final concert of the season in Brooklyn, Friday evening, March 24. Anton Witek, the concertmeister, is to be the soloist. The order of the program follows:
36Academic Festival Overture, op. 80 ………………………………………Brahms
37Symphony, From the New World ………………………………………Dvorak
38Concerto for violin and orchestra ………………………………………Beethoven
39Overture to the opera Der Freischutz ………………………………………Weber
41The concert by the New York Philharmonic Society at the Academy of Music, Sunday afternoon, March 19, at which Kathleen Parlow was the soloist, will be reviewed elsewhere in this issue of THE MUSICAL COURIER.
43The Plymouth Choral Society, Arthur Depew, conductor, one hundred voices and full orchestra, recently gave a concert form performance of "Faust" in Plymouth Church, with these soloists: Caroline Hudson Alexander, soprano; Arthur Clough, tenor; Harvey Self, bass. Though organized only three months, the society gave a very creditable evening of music. The officers are Frank P. Ferguson, president; Dorothy Howard, secretary, and A. W. Stanley, treasurer. The next concert is set for April 26.
45De Pasquali Wins New Triumph in Denver.
47Bernice de Pasquali, the prima donna, has made very successful concert tours South and West. This season she has eclipsed all of her former triumphs by her con-
49Copyright, Mishkin Studio, New York.
50BERNICE DE PASQUALI.
52certs, particularly those given since the holidays in the Far West. THE MUSICAL COURIER has published criticisms of Madame de Pasquali's successes in California, and now here is another tribute which tells of her latest triumph as soloist with the Apollo Club of Denver:
54DIVA MAKES DISTINCT HIT.
56It is quite evident after last night's concert that Pasquali will be a most welcome addition to the coming musical festival.
57She is likely to be at least an equal, and perhaps more of a favorite than either Gadski or Fremstad, for her personality appears as gracious and charming as her vocalism is brilliant. In this respect she resembles Schumann-Heink.
58The last concert of the Apollos at Trinity was in many respects its best one.
59The audience was large and most cordial, the artists satisfying to a degree. Pasquali was very likable, and Evan Williams, with a half tear in his voice—which is of a wonderfully sympathetic quality—made a most excellent impression, while the club itself sang the opening number, "Comrades in Arms," with a precision and eloquence that was pretty nearly faultless. That precision is the glory of this club, the finish of its work, the absence of slovenly raggedness, as a rule.
60"I do not know what you think of your organization," said a visiting artist to me on one occasion, "but you Denver people should hear the pretentious male choruses in some of the other cities; you would quickly appreciate the uncommon excellence of your own."
61Interest last night centered about Madame Pasquali. It usually does linger about a woman when two are appearing, and are of the opposite sex, even though musical audiences are always made up of two-thirds women.
62Pasquali made, it seemed to me, a distinctive hit. She appealed to all tastes; she ran the gamut of song from the technically difficult made scene from Ambroise Thomas' "Hamlet," with its trying passages and florid high soprano, to the concluding simple melody, "The Low Back Car," which the departing audience, half standing, listened to when the artist was vociferously recalled after her final group of songs.
63She sang in Italian, French, German and English. She sat at the piano and played her own accompaniments. She dressed well and richly, showing her native American good taste, and she captivated with her Irish gray eyes, her fascinating manner, but above all, by her unquestioned artistry.
64Pasquali's voice is not over sweet, but is conspicuously clear; her tones are pure, her coloratura flawless, and with her fine phrasing the general effect is decidedly satisfactory. Her interpretation of the Brahms song last night was a vocal gem.
65The personal graciousness of Madame Pasquali was demonstrated privately in a manner that it may surprise her to find recorded.
66Day before yesterday she and her husband—what a suffragette sound that expression has, "She and her husband"—called on a Denver lady whom the artist had met abroad.
67Madame Pasquali evidently enjoyed her visit. She played the piano, sang and chatted gayly. The family have a Japanese butler, and when later in the afternoon tea was served the white-robed Asiatic was deft, silent, impassive, after the way of the brown race.
68Waiting on the visitor carefully she addressed him a word of Japanese, and as "Tony's" eyes lighted up, she said cheerily and smilingly, "I have sung for the family; I will sing for you. Then standing up she burst forth in the Japanese national hymn.
69You can imagine its effect on the boy.
70Think of yourself, away in some alien land, in a position of servitude, when suddenly a sweet voice spoke to you in your own vernacular, and then sang brilliantly, "The Star Spangled Banner." You may then get an idea of its effect on the Oriental. The Jap fairly trembled in his joy, and I am sure he would walk far on his hands and knees if he could be of service to the gifted guest of his mistress.
71Perhaps if Bernice Pasquali had been a European she would not have indulged in that pretty action with a representative of the "lower classes."
72But she has the pleasant democracy of her native Massachusetts, is a daughter of the Revolution, tracing her ancestry back to the Mayflower days, Madame Pasquali being Bernice James, of Boston, before she went abroad, and, with her art, met Salvo de Pasquali, the dark-haired and impassioned tenor of La Scala.—Denver Post, March 15, 1911. one of two readings
73But she has the pleasant democracy of her native Massachusetts, is a daughter of the Revolution, tracing her ancestry back to the Mayflower days, Madame Pasquali being Bernice James, of Boston, before she went abroad, and, with her art, met Salvo de Pasquali, the dark-haired and impassioned tenor of La Scala.—Denver Post. March 15, 1911. one of two readings
75Stojowski Gives Chopin-Schumann Program.
77Sigismond Stojowski devoted his fourth in the series of historical piano recitals, in Mendelssohn Hall last Saturday afternoon, to compositions by Schumann and Chopin. These lecture-recitals have attracted large audiences, with piano teachers and students among the majority of those who applauded Mr. Stojowski's learned lectures and his beautiful illustrations. The music played last Saturday follows:
79Fantaisie in C major ………………………………………Schumann
80Aufschwung ……………………………………………..Schumann
81Warum …………………………………………………….Schumann
82Carnival ……………………………………………………Schumann
83Fantaisie in F minor ………………………………………Chopin
84Two nocturnes …………………………………………..Chopin
85 G major, op. 37, No. 2.
86 C minor, op. 41, No. 1.
87Three mazurkas …………………………………………Chopin
88 G major, op. 50, No. 1.
89 C sharp minor, op. 41, No. 1.
90 C major, op. 56, No. 2.
91Two etudes ……………………………………………..Chopin
92 Op. 10, No. 8.
93 Op. 25, No. 7.
94Scherzo in C sharp minor ……………………………….Chopin
96Mr. Stojowski's sane and sincere art was doubly appreciated at this recital. Many pianists, even some of the great ones, overdo the "romantic" themes in these compositions, but the player of last Saturday left no one in doubt as to his manly and scholarly treatment. The Schumann "Carnival" had all the gala delights from the preambula to the "March of the Davidsbundler Against the Philistines." The Chopin fantaisie aroused much enthusiasm, and in each composition Mr. Stojowski put touches that afforded instruction and pleasure to those who love the works on his list as much as any music written for piano.
97The last recital in the series, on April 1, will bring the subscribers to composers of the modern school.
99Hassler-Fox Notices.
101Regina Hassler-Fox, the charming contralto, has been asked to sing Conductor Julius Lange's beautiful new work, "Errinerung," with string orchestra accompaniment at the next concert of the Buffalo Orpheus Society concert, April 17, for which she has been engaged as soloist. Appended are two press notices attesting to the success of Madame Fox:
103Madame Hassler-Fox's voice is a contralto of the purest and truest type, mellow, rich and flexible, showing thorough training as well as variety and depth of expression. There is a resonance in the lower register which is not found in the usual so-called contralto voice, while the upper notes are clear and liquid, with a sustaining power that indicates much reserve force.—Philadelphia Inquirer.
105Madame Hassler-Fox, who has a fine contralto voice, sang most beautifully "From the Depths," with orchestra, and received an encore which was justly her due, whereupon she sang another selection to the delight of all.—Cape May Gazette.
107"Any suggestions as to the music for the dinner tonight?"
108"Well, play something loud with the soup course. You understand?"—Washington Herald.
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