Books › Musical Courier 1926-07-08: Vol 93 Iss 2, 1926 › scan 29
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Musical Courier 1926-07-08: Vol 93 Iss 2, 1926
72 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSIC ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE
3SEATTLE, WASH.
5Seattle, Wash.—Music week this year found Seattle professional musicians more co-operative than ever before, with the corresponding result that there was more enthusiasm on the part of all concerned, particularly on the part of the many, and large audiences which felt more keenly their growing appreciation of good music when well presented. Fifteen units of the Music and Art Foundation, all the choral and various study clubs, as well as the chamber of commerce and the various churches, joined together in rendering every assistance to make the Music Week Festival a success. Among the concerts given during the week, the London String Quartet was the most prominent.
7The Amphion Society, Seattle's male chorus organization, gave its final concert of the season at Meany Hall, under the excellent leadership of Graham Morgan. The assisting artist was Mabel Riegelman, soprano, who was given a warm reception. The Amphion Society continues to uphold its high standards.
9Mu Phi Epsilon, national honorary music sorority of the University of Washington, sponsored a program at the Women's Century Club Theater. Besides contributions by members of the organization, George Kirchner, Seattle cellist, gave a few groups of unusual merit.
11The Orpheon Society, women's choral organization, under the direction of Edwin Fairbourn, was heard in concert with Hubert A. Graf, harpist, as assisting artist. This is the conclusion of the second year of this organization and the final concert of the series of five.
13Dorothy Eich and Eleanor Richards, piano students of Orrill V. Shopp, were presented in recital at the Wilsonian. Maria Corbella, voice pupil of Annabel Trent, was the other participant in the program.
15Vesta Muth, talented and progressive young pianist from the class of Harry Krinke, was heard in recital at the Olympic. Miss Muth has made these appearances an annual event and they are always greeted with enthusiasm. It is a great pleasure to watch Miss Muth's progress, technically and musically, and she is deserving of great praise for her excellent work.
17An unusual ensemble concert was given by forty-five harpists under the direction of Hubert A. Graf, himself an artist of repute, assisted by the Seattle Oratorio Society, an organization of 100 voices under the direction of J. W. Bixel. Dell Friedenberg, tenor, also assisted on the program, contributing a large share to the success of the evening.
19Russell Avery Kohn, artist-pupil of Paul Pierre McNeely, Seattle pianist and teacher, was heard in recital at the Wilsonian. Mr. Kohn is well known in the northwest and his program attracted wide attention.
21Theodore Anderson, young Seattle violinist, was recently heard in a farewell recital. Mr. Anderson is leaving for Paris, where he expects to spend two years in study.
23The annual spring concert of the Lyric Club was given recently. Under the direction of Graham Morgan, the club gave some splendid interpretations of women's choral music. John Jenkins, baritone, was the soloist of the evening.
25Sigmund Stojowski, Polish pianist and pedagogue, has been announced to give a series of lectures at Meany Hall, under the auspices of the music department of the University of Washington. This is but another evidence of the progressiveness of the university's fine arts department. Mr. Stojowski and Daisy Jean, French cellist, will be heard in joint recital during Mr. Stojowski's time in Seattle, this to be sponsored by the Associated Students' Organization of the University.
27Vocal students of Louise Clary were heard in an interesting recital. Mme. Clary is well known in Seattle as a singer and teacher, and her pupils display that ease which is attributable to a teacher with much singing experience.
29Mary Kalk and Marion Evans, of the piano department of the University of Washington, were heard in joint recital at Meany Hall. Both are talented pianists from the class of A. F. Venino.
31Summer opera is being much talked of now, due principally to the recent success of the Seattle Civic Opera performances. The Stadium affords an excellent site for outdoor opera, it having been the setting for many pageants and plays, notably the famous Wayfarer.
33Several students of Magnus N. Petersen were presented in recital recently.
35Byrd Eliot, violinist and artist-pupil from the class of Vaughan Arthur, was heard in a delightful program and received favorable criticism for the excellence of her work.
37Concluding its meetings for the season, the Seattle Musical Arts Society gave a varied program. The program included selections rendered by the Mendelssohn Instrumental Trio, a vocal sextet group, and piano compositions interpreted by Mrs. Henning Carlson.
39Violin students of Maurice LePlat were heard in recital at the Wilsonian, assisted by several pupils of Annabel Trent, voice teacher.
41John Hopper, pianist, has returned to Seattle after the completion of a year's study abroad; he has resumed his duties at the Cornish School.
43The summer school announcements of the Cornish School are of particular interest at this time, due principally to the engagement of Arthur Hubbard, vocal pedagogue, who will conduct a six weeks' master class, beginning August 2. Myron Jacobson, accompanist and coach, is also announced as a member of the summer faculty of guest artists. Peter Meremblum, violinist, head of the violin department, was heard in concert at the Cornish Little Theater, assisted by Berthe Poncy Dow. These two artists have made such names for themselves in the northwest during the past two years that their concerts are eagerly awaited whenever announced. The Cornish Follies, an entertainment devoted principally to music, had all the members of the faculty as participants. Compositions of modern French composers were given exclusively by pupils of George May, of the piano department, and voice students of Sara Y. B. Peabody.
45J. H.
47CLEVELAND INSTITUTE'S SEASON NEARS END
49Cleveland, Ohio.—Seven advanced students from the instrumental department and the Senior Orchestra gave the first of a series of three open concerts which will mark the close of the Institute's fifth year. The recital is the first one in which the orchestra has been featured in an all-orchestral program. Under the direction of Andre de Ribau-pierre the orchestra has made notable progress in the past year. In particular the string section, composed of pupils of de Ribau-pierre, Charlotte Demuth Williams, Carlton Cooley and Victor de Gomez showed a quality and precision not often found in the string sections even of professional orchestras.
51The opening number, Mendelssohn's violin concerto, brought before the large audience, three young violinists of unusual attainments. Walberg Brown brought to the first movement all the fire and enthusiasm which the music inspires. His playing was technically and interpretatively finished, and his tone authoritative. He was followed by Lois Brown, who had ample opportunity to demonstrate her excellent musicianship and ability in the slow movement of the concerto, which demands beauty of tone and fine finish of phrase. Jacob Kaz, one of the youngest of the evening's solo performers, received a veritable ovation at the conclusion of the Allegro.
53There followed Faure's Elegie for cello and orchestra played by Frank Grant. He played the piece with exquisite beauty of tone and interpretation, the orchestra furnishing an accompaniment that for finish, discretion and balance showed the excellent training of these young musicians to advantage.
55The Beethoven piano concerto in C minor, No. 3, op. 37, was conducted by Beryl Rubinstein, who presented three of his pupils in the three movements of the work. The Allegro was played by Lionel Nowak, who also wrote the brilliant cadenza with which the movement is crowned. The youthful pianist astonished his hearers by the maturity of conception, the poise, and his brilliant and sure technic. Frieda Schumacher played the Largo movement with reserve, and a tone of much beauty. Her understanding of the music brought her playing to the level of an artistic achievement. In contrast to this movement was the spirited Rondo and Allegro played by Irma Hallgren. In selecting these three students Mr. Rubinstein showed his usual judgment, for from the qualities evidenced each student had been allotted the movement best suited to his and her ability.
57MUSICAL COURIER
59Utica Conservatory Commencement
61On the occasion of the commencement exercises held June 17 by the Utica Conservatory of Music, Johannes Magendanz, one of the directors, spoke in memory of the centenary of Karl Maria von Weber's death. In part, he said: "A century ago the world bewailed the loss of one of its princes of music, Karl Maria von Weber. His was a life of tragedy, of untold suffering, of incessant labors, of never ceasing battles for his artistic ideals, which led eventually to victory. A glorious life, though a relentless fate sealed it grimly with untimely death. His life was martyrdom, and truly what could be called more pathetic than the steady flight of a man whose physical weariness reminded him constantly of a possible collapse before his mission was fulfilled. And, yet though frail of body and exhausted by the ravages of consumption he fought a valiant battle; his fiery spirit and undaunted courage won the day; his art swept away hollow and shallow ideals which heretofore had held the world enthralled, substituting for them the fundamental principles of an operatic ideal which Richard Wagner was destined to carry on." The speaker pointed out to the graduates and post-graduates the engrossingly interesting lesson which Weber's life offered and in a short résumé of Weber's work he said: "Weber was essentially a man of the theater; he stuck so tenaciously to the boards that almost everything he wrote outside his operatic music shows some traces of his characteristic penchant; yet the great brilliancy of his piano music is to a high degree fascinating, though lacking in depth and true paths; at any rate it attests to the remarkable virtuosiship that must have been Weber's. Indeed, we must give him credit for a distinctive artistic elaboration of the then existing piano style, the threads of which were picked up ingeniously by Chopin and Liszt. Weber's Romanticism is of the purest water; he was the first one to plant the flag of this departure from classicism. His art is never at a loss to grasp a situation with the true insight of a poet, whenever occasion arises; he knows marvellously well how to conjure up by a beautiful horn passage or clarinet episode or whimsical bassoon grunt the mystic beauty of nature, the romance of dales and haunts of the forest, the quaintness of folksong, the revelry of fairies, elves or gnomes by the forest side and the ghastly stir of demons in a forbidden glen. With a single touch of the drum he has more than once added dramatic tenseness to mysterious situations, which modern composers would fail to create by a whole drum corps. Weber's operas herald in more than one way the mysterious, symbolic and metaphysical music of Wagner's Tetralogy."
63Those taking part in the program, in addition to Mr. Magendanz, were Margaret Griffith, Alice Newman, Clara Wenner, Mary Nightingale, Grace Cunningham, Alice Doolittle-Schorges, Adam Pourben, Margery Holmes, Helen Ehlinger, Mary Elizabeth Darling, Ronald W. Coates, Walter P. Griswold, Ida Samuels, Clara Wenner, Ramon V. Pritchard, Frank Parker and Albert Kuenzlen. The graduates were Mary Elizabeth Darling, Helen R. Ehlinger, Ida Rae Samuels, Alice Doolittle-Schorges, and Mabel Elizabeth Van Buren, and those graduating from the post graduate course were Walter Price Griswold and Alice Newman.
65Critical Praise for London String Quartet
67Following the London String Quartet's appearance in Boston, the Globe critic stated that "It is seldom so large an audience has listened to a concert of string quartet music in Boston." According to Warren Storey Smith in the Boston Post "There is in their playing a flexibility, a sensitiveness and above all a living response to the music in hand." And Roy G. Gardner noted in the Boston Herald: "There was music last night worth going far to hear when the London String Quartet played in Symphony Hall. For they are four supremely good musicians, so good that they can safely trust themselves to risk that kind of ensemble playing which secures the finest results if only it succeeds, the kind when each player properly mindful of the ensemble, still treats his own part with a considerable degree of independence."
69San Francisco to Hear Fine Artists
71The Auditorium Artist Series in San Francisco announces its fourth season and will present eleven concerts by prominent artists. The list includes Mary Lewis, soprano, appearing for the first time on the coast; Lucrezia Bori, soprano, her first concert tour in five years; Florence Austral, dramatic soprano, also new to the coast; Kathryn Meisle, contralto of the Chicago Opera; Reinhard Werrenrath, baritone; Alberi Spalding, violinist; Alexander Brailowsky, pianist, who is also making his first coast tour; Charles Hackett, tenor; Elschuco Trio, and the Ukrainian Chorus. The series will start immediately following the opera season.
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