Books › Musical Courier 1925-12-17: Vol 91 Iss 25, 1925 › scan 27
Scan 27
Musical Courier 1925-12-17: Vol 91 Iss 25, 1925
58 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSICAL COURIER
2Weekly Review of the World's Music
3Published every Thursday by the
4MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY, INC.
5ERNEST F. ELLERT …………………………………………..President
6WILLIAM GEPPERT …………………………………………..Vice-President
7ALVIN L. SCHMIDT …………………………………………..Sec. and Treas.
8437 Fifth Avenue, S. E. Corner 39th Street, New York
9Telephone to all Departments: 4650, 4651, 4652 Caledonia
10Cable address: Musiciur, New York
11Member of Merchants' Association of New York, National Publishers' Association, Radio Club of New York, The Fifth Avenue Association of New York, Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, Advertising Club of New York, Honorary Member American Optimists.
12ALVIN L. SCHMIDT …………………………………………..General Manager
13LEONARD LIEBLING …………………………………………..Editor-in-Chief
14H. D. TOSWOOD …………………………………………..Associate Editor
15WILLIAM GEPPERT …………………………………………..Associate Editor
16FRANK PATTERSON …………………………………………..Associate Editor
17CLARENCE LUCAS …………………………………………..Associate Editor
18RENE DEVRIES …………………………………………..Associate Editor
19CESAR SAERCHINGER …………………………………………..Managing Editor
20THOMAS W. ALLEN …………………………………………..General Representative
21OFFICES
22CHICAGO, HEADQUARTERS—JEANNETTE COX, 820 to 830 Orchestra Building, 220 South Michigan Ave., Chicago. Telephone, Harrison 6110.
23BOSTON, MASS. U.S.A.—118 Huntington Avenue, Room 282, Boston. Telephone, Back Bay 3181.
24LONDON, ENG.—CESAR SAERCHINGER (in charge), 175, Piccadilly, W. 1 and 123, Wigmore Street, W. 1. Telephone, Mayfair 6453. Cable address, Musiciur, London.
25BERLIN, GERMANY—C. HOOPER TRASK, Gesenheimerstr. 27, Berlin Charlottenburg 1. Telephone, Wilhelm 9144. Cable address, Musiciur, Berlin.
26PARIS, FRANCE—CLARENCE LUCAS, 12 rue des Hauts Clozeaux, Sevres.
27MILAN, ITALY—ANTONIO BARRI, 31 Via Durini.
28For the names and addresses of other offices, correspondents and representatives apply as above or at our New York Office.
29SUBSCRIPTIONS: Domestic, Five Dollars; Canadian, Six Dollars, Foreign, Six Dollars and Twenty-five Cents. Single Copies, Fifteen Cents at News-Stands. Half Numbers, Twenty-five Cents. American News Company, New York, General Distributing Agents. Western News Company, Chicago, Western Distributing Agents. British News Company, Limited, Agents for Australia, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, and other countries. Agents for New Zealand, New Zealand News Co., Ltd., Wellington, New Zealand. Agents for the International News Company, Ltd., Bream's Building, London, E. C. 4, England.
30The MUSICAL COURIER is for sale at the principal newsstands and music stores in the United States and in the leading music houses, hotels and libraries in Europe.
31Copy for advertising in the MUSICAL COURIER should be in the hands of the Advertising Department before four o'clock on the Friday previous to the date of publication. The advertising rates of the MUSICAL COURIER are computed on a flat rate basis, no charge being made for setting up advertisement matter. The MUSICAL COURIER is not responsible for mortgaging, nothing, and lay-outs which call for special set-ups.
32Entered as Second Class Matter, January 8, 1883, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879.
33THE MUSICAL COURIER EXTRA
34Published every Saturday by Musical Courier Company
35Devoted to the Interests of the Piano Trade
36New York December 17, 1925 No. 2384
37"Three Nations Will Unite to Save Migratory Birds," says a Herald-Tribune headline. Must those opera singers always break into the newspapers?
38It is not true that this period of the year is called the changing season because it marks the time when artists usually shift from one managerial bureau to another.
39Geraldine Farrar will not return to the operetta, Romany Love Spell, according to the latest announcement. She is to rest all winter, it is said, in order to recover completely from her recent illness.
40Feodor Chaliapin is to head his own opera company next year, according to an announcement issued this week by the Universal Artists, managers of the famous Russian basso. His associate artists have not been announced as yet.
41Sibelius promises to be a favorite symphonist this season. Two weeks ago Stokowski played his Fifth with the Philadelphians and last Sunday Sokoloff gave the First with the Cleveland Orchestra. There is no one writing today with more important things to say than the Finnish master.
42It looks as if Josef Stransky, one time conductor, will have to stick to the picture business for good. His last stronghold, Baden-Baden, is to have some opera performances next year with singers from the Metropolitan under the direction of—Artur Bodanzky. Song by the Bürgermeister and Stadtabgeordneten: We could not love thee, Joe, so much, Loved we not Artur more.
43We certainly reckon Dr. Richard Strauss among the readers of the MUSICAL COURIER. When the first announcement was received here that he had commissioned his faithful librettist, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, to prepare a scenario for a ballet on Till Eulenspiegel, the MUSICAL COURIER suggested to the good Doctor that, instead of having something new written by his decidedly mediocre companion, he should obtain the rights to the splendid scenario made years ago by Nijinsky and never produced outside of New York. (Dr. Strauss did not know that such a scenario was in existence until we chanced to mention it to him in conversation.) Now comes the news that Dr. Strauss has done exactly what we suggested. It will be produced by Max Reinhardt's International Pantomime Company. Strauss has withdrawn his objections to a reduction of the orchestra, and his music is now being re-scored to meet the practical demands of a traveling company. Bravo, Doktorle!
44Sir Thomas Beecham was in court again the other day—more creditors, this time a tenor. Sir Tom, in the course of his testimony, remarked that he was allowed only "a paltry £20,000 per year, out of which he had to keep a wife and two children, and then he had to live." Personally, we will undertake to keep two wives and four children and ourselves on that amount, and have a bit left over for the savings bank at the end of the year at that.
45Nikolai Sokoloff and his Cleveland Orchestra came to New York last Sunday and once more gave proof that a very high standard prevails among symphony orchestras in America. The Cleveland organization today need fear no comparison with any orchestra in the country. Sokoloff gave a thoroughly interesting and well balanced program. The Clevelanders are to come again in January and their second visit will be looked forward to with unusual interest.
46H. T. P., in the Boston Transcript, has been poking fun at his New York brethren for not liking the program which the League of Composers offered here two or three weeks ago with Mr. Koussevitzky conducting. He laughs especially at the conservatism of Ohn Downes, of the Times. After quoting him at some length, Parker comments: "Here it is best to take leave of Grandma, wringing her wrinkled hands, while the tears well up in her old eyes." It seems to us more or less like pot calling the kettle.
47Beethoven died on March 26, 1827. General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza of the Metropolitan Opera, with characteristic forethought, announces already that, to commemorate the centenary of his death, he will produce next season the only Beethoven opera, Fidelio. Recitatives to take the place of the spoken dialogue of the original will be prepared by Artur Bodanzky. The revival of Fidelio is thoroughly in place. It corresponds practically in German operatic literature to Spontini's La Vestale, which Mr. Casazza gave this year as his classic revival in Italian.
48Half a century is a long time to spend in an active musical career. On December 10, Alvin Schroeder gave a recital at Jordan Hall, Boston, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his public career as a solo cellist. His actual career has been even longer. Before devoting himself entirely to the cello, he was viola player in the quartet of his brother, Carl. In 1880 he was made first cellist of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and first came to this country in 1886 as cellist of the Kneisel Quartet. His kindly face, with the picturesque gray hair above it, is still familiar at all Boston Symphony concerts, where he is at the first desk of the cellos.
49Great is the reward of the artist when he ventures into corners of the world seldom visited—that is to say when he is an artist of the rank of Leopold Godowsky, and there are not many of those in existence. The distinguished pianist on his present European tour played three times in Athens to audiences which crowded the hall to the last inch and went wild with enthusiasm, and he has just repeated the experience in Cairo. He has played several numbers from his new Java Suite on his programs and was delighted with the warmth with which they had been received. He has still to play in Constantinople and Palestine, as well as in Europe itself, and without doubt his progress will continue to be a series of triumphs.
50The coming of Richard Strauss to take up his new home at Vienna early in December was the signal for a concentrated attack of the pro-Straussian press against Director Schalk. One of these papers, Die Stunde, announced definitely in a sensational article that Schalk has been dropped by the government and will shortly be dismissed, as soon as a successor is found. A Weingartner-Korngold combination is mentioned. Other names hinted at are those of Schillings, of Fritz Busch, and of Furtwangler. The dark campaign is conducted in the shadow of an existing dissension between the three authorities responsible for the financial welfare of the Staatsoper: Dr. Pruger, the intendant; Dr. Ramek, the premier, and Dr. Schneider, minister of fine arts. It actually appears that the Staatsoper is being made an object of bargaining among the political parties of Austria. Director Schalk has denied rumors of his intended withdrawal, but Die Stunde still maintains that its information is correct, and incidentally lets out the secret that its candidate for Schalk's post is—Richard Strauss.
51Salesmanship
52The idea seems to prevail in some quarters, and especially among artists who are just beginning their careers and who have never been brought into conflict with the hard and cruel business side of music, that art sells itself. The thought that art and artists have to be sold, the same as any other kind of merchandise, seems to the artists repellent and offensive. Alas! This is no world of sweet and gentle ideals. People who think of it that way are likely to suffer the fate of a Schubert, while the Beethovens, who make solid contracts with their customers for everything they turn out, live in more or less comfort (according to the salability of what they can turn out) and die leaving a competence to their heirs.
53In another column the astute and wily gentleman from K. C., namely, Walter A. Fritschy, tells how he sold artists to the good people of Kansas City. As will be discovered by those who read his brief but pungent remarks, it was purely and simply a matter of salesmanship. Of course, he did not try to force down the public throat what the public did not want to consume. That would have been impossible. But if anyone thinks the public will come out voluntarily and buy what it wants that person is woefully mistaken. Or, rather, one should say that the public does not know what it wants. The want has to be created. And, even then, the force of the desire has its limits. A man's wants are graded. Some things he "just must have no matter what it costs!" Other things he just must have—if the price is right.
54The want is created first primarily through advertising. But there must also be a salesman on the job, and a maker of prices. In the musical world there are generally two salesmen, the wholesale jobber or New York manager, and the retailer or local manager. The music business can never become a mail-order business. People do not write in and ask for an artist to be sent them post-paid. They realize too well that it takes all sorts of organization to rent halls, bring the artists to town, and attend to all of the multifarious details contingent upon a successful concert appearance.
55It is also being realized more and more all the time that the day of Barnum-managed artists is passing. The big flamboyant splurge that was possible with a Jenny Lind in days gone by where our cities had about one real art event a year is scarcely possible today. At all events, it is not found to be satisfying to the public. The public wants more than one big splash a year. Consequently the "course" is coming more and more into vogue. Fritschy saw this long ago, and it is interesting to note that in the passing of nearly twenty years his prices have scarcely risen. He has sold his town year after year for courses of increasing size at prices which have made it possible to hear all of the world's leading artists at about a dollar a concert.
56But, of course, if such courses are to present ten artists a season successfully, these ten artists cannot be ten Jenny Linds. The wholesale cost of such a course would be prohibitive. Selling in bargain lots, the lots must be made up in such a way that the average price will even up according to the seating capacity of the halls in which the artists are to appear, and other local conditions of overhead. That is where salesmanship comes in, and that is where Fritschy has been particularly successful. He has always given his people high class artists—and he has realized fully what some people never realize at all, that artists may be of equally high class and yet not have the same box-office value. In other words, a course may be made up exclusively of artists of the highest class, yet the price of some of them to the local manager may be far in excess of the price of others—it is hardly possible to create a chamber music organization (for instance) that will have the sale value of a Caruso. That is obvious, yet it would be absurd to claim that Caruso was higher class than some of the leading chamber music organizations. Both are right at the top.
57This is what local managers—like the gentleman from K. C.—have "sold" to their public. And it is this sort of salesmanship that has made the growth of music in America possible. Local managers of the Fritschy type deserve medals. Perhaps some day in the not far distant future they will get them.
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