Books › Musical Courier 1926-03-11: Vol 92 Iss 10, 1926 › scan 13
Scan 13
Musical Courier 1926-03-11: Vol 92 Iss 10, 1926
41 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSIC STUDY IN BERLIN CHEAPER THAN PRE-WAR
3BERLIN.—The prevailing opinion in America today is that Germany now is the most expensive country in which to study music. As if in answer to this, the Stern Conservatory of Berlin has issued an interesting statement showing that instruction in any branch of music is today, in proportion to the rise of prices all over the world, at least 25 per cent. cheaper at this institute than it was in 1914. Indeed, taking room-rent, board, and general living expenses into consideration, Germany is in comparison cheaper now than before the war when the American musical colony was so very much larger.
5On the other hand the Stern'sche Konservatorium der Musik, as they call it in Germany, has not had to lower its standard of instruction in any way. Since Prof. Gustav Hollander's death, Prof. Alexander von Fielitz has taken charge, and the list of instructors include some of Germany's most eminent pedagogues.
7To mention a few from the list of over one hundred, there are: Voice—Kammersaengerin Frau Prof. Alma Fohstroem, Kammersaenger Nikolaus Rothmuel, Signorina Franzeschina Prevosti, Clara Klatte, Anna Wuelner-Hoffmann, Susanne Landsberg-Hollaender, daughter of the deceased director, Prof. Gustav Hollander; piano—Prof. James Kwast, Rudolf Maria Breithaupt, Fritz Mashbach, Fritz Hans Rehbold, Theodor Schoenberger, Lydia Hoffmann-Behrendt; violin—Louis van Laar, Siegfried Eberhardt, Maxim Jacobsen; cello—Felix Robert Mendelssohn, Kammermusiker Eugen Sandow; conducting—Director Alexander von Fielitz; opera—Kammersaenger Nikolaus Rothmuel; harmony, counterpoint and composition—Prof. Wilhelm Klatte; organ—Arnold Dreyer.
9Outside of the soloist's classes the students can also receive instruction in orchestra and chamber music playing, sight reading and choral work. And, best of all, in private and public performances given at the Conservatory Hall and the Beethoven Saal (Berlin's most famous concert hall), the students are frequently given an opportunity to appear before public and press.
11Marguerite D'Alvarez' Only New York Recital
13Marguerite D'Alvarez will give her only New York recital this season at Town Hall, Sunday afternoon, March 14. On this occasion she will give a request program.
15Mme. D'Alvarez has had a busy season. Last September she sang three operatic performances in San Francisco, two in Los Angeles and one in San Diego, under the auspices of the San Francisco Opera Association. She also had six performances with the Chicago Civic Opera Company in Chicago and Boston and three concerts in Havana with the Pro Arte Musical. She has also sung concerts in Mt. Vernon, Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio; Louisville and Lexington, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Roanoke, Va.; Springfield, Mass.; Boston; at the opening of the Madison Square Garden, New York City; also at the Plaza, Biltmore and Roosevelt Musicales.
17On May 5 Mme. D'Alvarez will sing at the Newark Music Festival.
19Sandor Harmati Wins Omaha
21The Omaha Symphony Orchestra, under the skilled direction of Sandor Harmati since last fall, is making history and winning success for its conductor. After the last concert the Omaha press gave due credit both to orchestra and conductor. Phil Mick in the Daily News says the orchestra rose to heights never before equalled by the organization. From start to finish, says this paper, the concert was a tribute to the wizardry of Director Sandor Harmati, who literally swayed the sixty-odd musicians with his slightest gesture of baton or lifting of finger. Martin W. Bush in the Omaha Bee says that this concert must be accorded a high place in Omaha's musical history. The orchestra, he says, has matured since the beginning of this season and the quality of every choir has taken on more lustre, and there are many other elements of improvement, all of which are to be traced to the conductor, Sandor Harmati, who is characterized as having indomitable courage, a lust for work, and highest qualities of musical leadership. The World-Herald confirms what these other papers have said. August M. Borglum records the fact that Harmati was greeted with a storm of unrestrained applause, and calls him a born leader. The most extended article of all is in the German paper, Tagliche Omaha Tribune. This paper especially praises Harmati's ability to bring his orchestra forces gradually to ever greater heights, and to loose at the psychological moment every element of force and imagination. These articles are too long to quote in full, but they give assurance of Harmati's success.
23Dickinson Lecture Recitals Close
25The last lecture recital of the season in Clarence Dickinson's historical series at Union Theological Seminary, New York, had for its subject God in the Thought of Mankind, and outlined the various conceptions of deity as expressed in music. Choral numbers were sung by the motet choir of the Brick Church with rhythmic freedom, exact attack and telling dynamic contrasts; they included two numbers from the Jewish Liturgy, By Babylon's Wave (Gounod), How Far Is It to Bethlehem (Geoffrey Shaw), O Jesu Sweet (Dickinson), with a quaint text from William Humm's Handful of Humisuckles, 1583. In the last number, Holst's Turn Back, O Man, the male choir of the seminary (some twenty voices) joined them in working up a great tonal climax.
27Inez Barbour sang with finished style Bizet's Agnus Dei; Rose Bryant's pianissimos were heard to advantage in Dvorak's God Is My Shepherd, Shaw's How Far Is It to Bethlehem, and Dickinson's Flower in the Cranied Wall. Charles Stratton sang in manly, robust tenor fashion a negro spiritual and The Knight of Bethlehem (Thomson), and Frank Croxton put color and tonal richness into two Jewish numbers and Cecil Forsyth's The Lord of Heaven. Vladimir Dubinsky, cellist, substituted effectively for Roszi Varady. A winsome feature of the program was the singing of two Salvation Army songs by two sweet-faced and sweet-voiced Salvation Lasses, with such simplicity and sincerity that the audience was completely won. Several hundred were turned away, unable to gain entrance to the building.
29ZARA ALEXJEVA AND HOLGER MEHNEN,
30Russian dancers, pictured as the Black Swan and the Lily, one of their most popular dances. They recently gave a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, previously having met with favor in Europe and South America.
32Cincinnati College of Music Notes
34The spring season of the College of Music of Cincinnati was inaugurated with two memorable concerts. The first by two members of the piano faculty who gave a recital of two-piano selections which is unique in the annals of musical Cincinnati in that the entire program, with the exception of two numbers by Liszt, was arranged for this occasion by Dr. Albino Gorno, head of the piano department and dean of the school, and most of this fascinating music is still in manuscript. There was laughter and gaiety in the music that Margaret Quinn and Ann Meale played in inimitable style, carrying their audience with them from the first number through the last. Each selection was a gem of beauty and reflected the genius of the artist who gave it a setting, and the artistry of the two pianists who gave it interpretation. From Bach to the American ultra-modernist, H. Carpenter, the artists carried the audience to great heights, then brought the program to a brilliant close with two Liszt Hungarian rhapsodies, the fifth and the fifteenth. Both Miss Quinn and Miss Meale proved themselves thoroughly capable of interpreting exquisite little gems of music with dazzling technic and poetic feeling, and they can paint with great masterly strokes displaying warmth of feeling and a deep understanding. It was a triumph for the musician, Dr. Albino Gorno, who arranged the delightful compositions for greater enjoyment, and for the two musicians who played them to the enthusiastic approval of the audience.
36The other outstanding event at the College of Music was the second concert by the College of Music Orchestra, under the baton of Director Adolf Hahn. Opening the program was a memorial tribute to the memory of George W. Dittmann, late president of the College of Music and for many years closely identified with musical life in Cincinnati. Preceding the playing of Handel's Largo, with orchestra and audience standing, Martin G. Dumler, secretary of the board of trustees made a beautiful address in which he extolled the many attributes which endeared Mr. Dittmann to all who knew him and spoke of his unselfish, sympathetic and intelligent interest in all things musical in Cincinnati, and especially his great interest in the College of Music which received his personal attention for many years. Of the new things on the program, interest was centered in the concerto in C minor by Frederick Delius, young English composer. This work was given its first performance in Cincinnati and its personally corrected score was loaned especially for this occasion by the composer. The piano part was effectively played by John Quincy Bass, pupil of Ilse Huebner. In the concerto in A minor, for violin and orchestra, Dorothy Robb, talented pupil of Mr. Hahn, gave every evidence of careful teaching. Grieg's concerto, op. 16, for piano and orchestra afforded Olga Prigge, another pupil of Miss Huebner, a good opportunity to display her fine technic and excellent interpretation. Norma Richter sang the aria for soprano from Il Re Pastore by Mozart, with violin obligato by Karl Payne. Her voice and quality of interpretation were indicative of the exceptional training received from her teacher, Mrs. Adolf Hahn, who also presented Carrie Schaefer in the aria, Farewell Ye Hills, from Tchaikowski's Jeanne d'Arc, in which she won a great tribute from the audience. Miss Huebner's other pupil, Charlotte Froendhoff, displayed much brilliancy and excellent technic in the Arensky concerto, op. 2, in A flat. The orchestra was heard alone in only the Haydn Symphony No. 2, in D. On the whole the concert proved one of the most interesting of the season and the other two are looked forward to with much eagerness.
38Mary Allen in New Bedford, Mass.
40Mary Allen recently filled a week's engagement at the New Bedford, Mass., Theater, singing in the prologue to the feature picture.
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