Books › Musical Courier 1923-10-04: Vol 87 Iss 14, 1923 › scan 23
Scan 23
Musical Courier 1923-10-04: Vol 87 Iss 14, 1923
20 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
1BERKSHIRE FESTIVAL
2(Continued from Page 5).
3sitions. At the same time, he does not shy at real melodies or at perfect cadences. Above all, the work is written most understandably for the viola. The theme of the allegro energico (the middle movement) is particularly effective as played by Mr. Tertis; and the composer's good judgment is shown by his making the first and last movements slow, as suits the characteristics of the instruments, which, even under Mr. Tertis' most skillful direction, makes rather a poor job of frisking about.
4The other numbers of the program were an utterly unimportant bit of Mozart, a trio for piano, clarinet and viola, played charmingly by Katharine Goodson and Mr. Tertis and rather dryly by Gustav Langenus, clarinet; and a sextet for six violas (Introduction and Andante) by B. J. Dale, another Englishman, having its first performance in America. The blame must fall on Richard Wagner for this curious experiment of Mr. Dale's, for it, too, is another Siegfried Idyll period piece, but it sounds rich and ear-filling, calls for no special intellectual strain and illustrates the possibilities of viola range. Also it is short, a virtue which must be credited, too, to the Hindemith quartet and the Goossens fantasy, later numbers of the festival.
5Myra Hess, who played the piano part of the Brahms and Bax sonatas, deserves a paragraph all to herself. Her one desire was to make a perfect ensemble with Mr. Tertis and she succeeded, displaying extraordinarily fine musicianship and a sense of co-operation that is all too rare in those who are habitually solo artists. This was also true of her playing in the Clarke rhapsody on Saturday. She shared equally and deservedly in the applause which greeted Mr. Tertis and was also showered on him at the end of each of his appearances of the morning.
6FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
7Friday afternoon was devoted to a program of what was called "vocal chamber music," a program arranged by Kurt Schindler. Mr. Schindler's taste went badly astray in this instance. The feature number was the second set of vocal waltzes with accompaniment for piano, four hands, by Johannes Brahms—Neue Liebeslieder, op. 65—sung by Mabel Garrison, Elena Gerhardt, George Meader and Reinald Werrenrath, with Coenraad V. Bos and Mrs. Coolidge at the piano. Three or four of the numbers are of exquisite beauty and the entire set was sung by all four of the artists with a sympathy for the work and a regard for ensemble that was of the first order. To Miss Garrison's lot fell two or three solos that were beautifully sung. The artists were recalled time after time at the end as they well deserved to be. This item may be very properly called "vocal chamber music;" but why three conventional and uninteresting Cornelius duets for soprano and baritone (redeemed only by the notable care and taste devoted to them by Mabel Garrison and Reinald Werrenrath), should come under that head, or what Schumann's song cycle, Frauenliebe und Leben, or three songs for tenor by Schubert, have to do with chamber music of any kind, is hard for the uninitiated to understand. The Schumann cycle was sung by Elena Gerhardt who seemed to be affected by an indisposition of some kind and could not give herself and her voice so freely as usual. The three tenor songs were given by George Meader, than whom there is no better interpreter of Lieder today. Mr. Schindler's selections for Mr. Meader were Die Erwartung, Das sie hier gewesen, and Stimme der Liebe. Not one of these is first class Schubert, Die Erwartung, in particular, being long, childish, and uninteresting. With so many fine songs by Schubert it was hard to understand why Mr. Schindler made the selection he did. Possibly there are hidden beauties in them, revealed only to the Schindlerian ears.
8SATURDAY MORNING.
9Saturday morning offered a program of three items entirely new to the listeners. The Hindemith F minor quartet (first performance in America), was followed by Rebecca Clarke's Rhapsody for piano and cello, and the Goossens Phantasy Sextet in one movement for three violins, viola and two cellos, the two works specially commissioned for this festival.
10The quartet by Hindemith, which has aroused great interest in Germany, turned out to be an excellent piece of workmanship; more than that, its themes were attractive and full of life. One doubts if it is quite as important as they think in Germany, but there is no question that it is a distinct contribution to chamber music literature, one that will be played by organizations all over the world within the next few years. Mr. Hindemith has something to say and knows supremely well how to say it. The astonishing thing is that the work is not at all modern in the bizarre sense of that word. It seems as if Mr. Hindemith had picked up music where it was in 1913, before the war started, and advanced not more than six inches or so on that. The first movement "very lively, strong in rhythm" is in material and handling like every first movement—and like Reger in particular; there is even a fugghetta in it. The finale is the usual chatty theme for the first violin with pizzicato accompaniment for the other instruments. The gem of the work is the middle movement, a theme with variations. The theme, on first announcement, does not impress one at all; but the variations are masterly, both musically speaking and in the really superb writing for the instruments. To draw tumultuous applause from the usual audience with a form as dull as the theme and variations is a real feat, and Mr. Hindemith accomplished it. The variations, in fact, are decidedly better than the theme itself.
11The new Festival Quartet of South Mountain (William Kroll, first violin; Karl Krauter, second violin; Edward Kreiner, viola, and Willem Willeke, cello), covered itself with glory, giving a flawless and vital performance of the work. It was without doubt the hit of this year's festival.
12Rebecca Clarke's Rhapsody for piano and cello was a long work, taking twenty-seven minutes in the playing. It is distinctly modern—very modern indeed to be exact—and seemed vague and wandering on the first hearing, the attention being caught only once by a short passage in which the piano played a theme of pastoral character while the cello provided an accompaniment which appeared to be beaten on the strings with the fleshy under-side of the middle finger, May Mukle, cellist, and Myra Hess, at the piano, performed it as if it were a labor of love.
13The Goossens Phantasy was a well made piece in modern style, bright and attractive and well put on the instruments, though hardly a work that one would clamor to hear again. It had the advantage of Albert Spalding playing the first solo violin, which he did with a beautiful tone in a few little solo passages which fell to him. The rest of the ensemble was made up of Edouard Dethier, Hugo Kortschak, Lionel Tertis, Willem Willeke and Emmeran Stoeber.
14SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
15The Saturday afternoon program brought back the Festival Quartet of South Mountain, which confirmed the fine impression it made the day before and gave a splendid performance of the Haydn D major quartet and the Brahms F minor piano quintet, with Katharine Goodson giving a capital performance of the piano part. Between these items the quartet gave the first performance anywhere of Stornelli e Ballate, a piece for string quartet by G. Francesco Malipiero, who won the Berkshire prize three years ago with his Rispetti e Strombotti. The present work is one decidedly similar in character, loose in structure, modern in feeling, well-made rather than strongly felt.
16NOTES OF THE FESTIVAL.
17H. T. Parker, of the Boston Transcript, after listening to the Frank Bridge Sextet, Brahms' Liebeslieder, and the Goossens Sextet, remarked that the musical slogan for this season seemed to be, "say it with six."
18Green seems to have been transferred from a favorite color of spring to the usually brown autumn. Myra Hess
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