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Musical Courier 1926-07-08: Vol 93 Iss 2, 1926
76 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1JACCHIA RESIGNS AS BOSTON "POPS" CONDUCTOR AFTER TEN YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP
3Receives Ovation in Last Appearances—Arthur Fiedler Conducts Final Concert
5BOSTON.—Agide Jacchia, conductor of the Boston Symphony "Pop" Concerts for the past ten years, announced his resignation on Thursday of last week, declaring that the management had refused to keep a full quota of players for the final concert of last Saturday, with the result that he feared the orchestra would be unbalanced, inadequate and hardly up to the high standard to which the patrons of the concerts had become accustomed. Under an agreement in effect until his resignation, he was not only expected to complete the present season but to conduct the "Pops" another year. The acceptance of his resignation by the Board of Trustees cancels his leadership of next season's "Pops."
7Frederick P. Cabot, president of the trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, issued a statement with regard to the resignation which follows, in part:
9STATEMENT BY CABOT
11"Last Sunday morning the orchestra's management received a letter from Mr. Jacchia expressing dissatisfaction with the size of the orchestra for the closing concert, July 3. It was at once pointed out to Mr. Jacchia that the orchestra for the closing night this season would be as large and as well balanced as the orchestra had been during the closing concerts for the last nine seasons, which Mr. Jacchia conducted.
13"This week Mr. Jacchia sent a second letter to the management specifically stating that he would not conduct the concert July 3. The management replied that they had no authority to modify Mr. Jacchia's contract and the hope was sincerely expressed that Mr. Jacchia would not act upon his suggestion. On Tuesday night of this week Mr. Jacchia wrote another letter repeating his intention not to conduct on July 3 and also stating that he did not wish to accept the contract which had been offered for next season.
15"On Wednesday morning this correspondence was referred to me as president of the trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with sincere regret I accepted Mr. Jacchia's resignation. Mr. Jacchia has had the respect and admiration of the Boston public for many years and no one can regret more than the trustees and management his decision to shorten this engagement, even by one night."
17In a statement given to the press, Mr. Jacchia is reported to have said: "I have condoned the absence of a few players now and then, but allowing so many to leave on Saturday was too much. The management asked me to reconsider my resignation, and I in turn asked them for a promise that such affairs would not take place next year. They told me to forget about the future. I refused."
19As was to be expected, the press has been filled with editorial comment, largely deploring the failure of the management and Mr. Jacchia to adjust their differences or to defer them until after the close of the season. A typical editorial, incidentally a significant commentary on the esteem and affection which Mr. Jacchia enjoys in this city, appeared in the Boston Traveler, under the heading "Keep Jacchia!" It read as follows:
21"Boston learns with deep regret that Agide Jacchia has resigned as conductor of the 'Pops' concerts. For ten years, Mr. Jacchia has been leading these concerts, to the delight of a wide and growing patronage.
23"Mr. Jacchia has had the happy faculty of knowing just what to bring to 'Pops' audiences and just how to bring it. Under any other conductor the concerts will have to win their way all over again into popular esteem—we had almost said 'affection.'
25"If, as Mr. Jacchia plainly intimates, the reason for his resignation is the management's policy of reducing the size of the orchestra below the number required for artistic balance and effectiveness, then some means should be found for altering that policy. Mr. Jacchia is right, both aesthetically and ethically, in demanding that the patrons be given the services of eighty players, since this is the number advertised and the number required for satisfactory rendering of the usual selections.
27"Mr. Jacchia should be asked to reconsider his resignation, upon terms which will make possible his agreeable continuance as wielder of the 'Pops' baton and creator of the 'Pops' atmosphere—one of the very finest, most sincere manifestations in our city life."
29All in all, the incident was extremely unfortunate, particularly because it might easily have been avoided had those entrusted with the direction of the orchestra remembered that they were dealing with a sensitive artist rather than a rational banker or mill owner. Mr. Jacchia's good faith in this controversy is not to be questioned. To his skillful leadership and catholic taste as a program maker, let alone his unsparing efforts to diversify and improve the repertory of these concerts, may be attributed the extraordinary success which the "Pops" have had during Mr. Jacchia's régime. He was jealous of the lofty standards which he had established and maintained for so many years, and was naturally loath to compromise with his artistic ideals. Greater exercise of tact on the part of the trustees or the management would conceivably have prevented this regrettable occurrence.
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33Chicago Opera to Go On
35The Chicago Civic Opera Association will continue after next year for another period of five years, as already more than half the needed amount of $500,000 annually has been subscribed. The affairs of the company were conducted last year at a cost to the guarantors of $399,913.16. Thus, Co., Chicago, will not interfere with her concert career. Mme. Dux plans to give up her operatic activities, but will continue to fill all recital engagements.
37RAVINIA'S FIRST WEEK AUGURS WELL FOR REST OF SEASON
39Madame Butterfly, Romeo and Juliet, and Lucia Are Superbly Presented With Well Known Stars in the Leads—Delamarter Conducts First Orchestral Concert.
41Elizabeth Rethberg's re-entree at Ravinia on Sunday evening, June 27, after having been away from the company for four years, was marked with a series of prolonged ovations. Rethberg's reappearances as Madame Butterfly brought to Ravinia as fine a performance of the Puccini Japanese opera as has been the pleasure of music-lovers to witness. Her glorious voice, mellow, rich in all registers; her colorful and warm tone thrilled her auditors to the highest point of enthusiasm. Her singing of One Fine Day completely won her the hearts of the public and salvo's of plaudits broke from every side of the theater at the conclusion of the solo. Her acting was on a par of excellence with her singing, and her Mme. Butterfly will live long in the memory of all those who were lucky enough to secure seats for this remarkable performance.
43Mario Chamlee sang the role of Pinkerton superbly. Chamlee is another singer who may well be qualified as an artist. His art grows every year. He scored a spontaneous and well deserved success, as he was one of the brightest stars of the performance. Words of praise also must be written in favor of Basiola, a baritone who when he first came to these shores relied solely on his beautiful voice to make his appeal; but today he is a singer of the first order and as an actor he has improved 100 per cent. Ina Bourskaya made a sympathetic Suzuki, singing the part with telling accent and acting it in a manner entirely to her credit and to the enjoyment of the spectators. Jose Mojica's marriage broker will in the near future be reviewed at length, for though the part is very small, he made it so prominent as to deserve more than passing comment.
45Papi conducted a performance of the highest artistic merits. By the way, New Yorkers should come to Ravinia to see how Papi conducts here. The Papi of the Met. is not the Papi of Ravinia. Why? This is one of those incomprehensible operatic mysteries, unless that Papi at Ravinia feels that Louis Eckstein gives him complete leeway and to this may be due the superb readings he gives all the Italian operas given at this unique summer operatic house.
47MONDAY, JUNE 28
49The first orchestra program of the season, directed by Eric Delamarter, had for soloists two members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra which functions at Ravinia—Jacques Gordon, concertmaster, and Alfred Wallenstein, principal cellist. The program was opened with D'Albert's Overture Improvisator. The Schubert andante from the unfinished symphony was the backbone of the program and was superbly played by the orchestra under Delamarter's brilliant direction. Jacques Gordon played the first movement of Tschaikowsky's concerto for violin, revealing anew his impeccable technic, and clear and solid tone, and his interpretation was that of a virtuoso. His success was complete and well deserved. After the intermission Wallenstein played the second and third movements of the Saint-Saëns concerto for cello.
51JUNE 29, ROMEO AND JULIET
53It is a noteworthy fact that since the beginning of the season, not a vacant seat has been seen in the large pavilion at Ravinia. Again a huge and enthusiastic throng was the one that witnessed the performance of Romeo and Juliet, with Bori and Johnson in the leads. Lucrezia Bori has made innumerable friends at Ravinia, not only through the sheer beauty of her voice, but also through her exquisite singing.
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57ROSA PONSELLE
59No artist has grown more quickly in public favor in the comparatively few years of her career than Rosa Ponselle. To-day, both as concert and operatic artist, she stands at the very head of her profession. Recovering promptly from an operation for chronic appendicitis Miss Ponselle left a few days ago for Europe, where she will spend a quiet summer, returning early in the fall to resume her concert work, and to take her place again as leading dramatic soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company.
61Claire Dux Not to Retire
63Concert Management Arthur Judson announces that, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, Claire Dux's engagement to Charles H. Swift, vice-president of Swift &
65FOURTH REGER FESTIVAL IN ESSEN MAKES NEW PARTISANS FOR GERMAN COMPOSER
67ESSEN.—The city of Essen, in conjunction with the Reger Society, has just celebrated a five-day Reger festival in honor of the tenth year of the composer's death. The cleverly arranged program, which comprised the choice examples of each style of composition, and the high standard of performance combined to arouse the enthusiasm of the consistently large audiences and win many new Reger admirers.
69The very first evening showed Reger from various sides. It opened with the heavy ungrateful piano concerto. But played as it was by Rudolf Serkin in so finished and convincing a fashion and with such deep, musical intensity on the part of the orchestra under Max Fiedler, all difficulties and heaviness were forgotten. The G minor serenade for orchestra, following the sensitive choral work, The Nuns, supplied a welcome note of gaiety. It was played with an exquisite sense for sound effect.
71Fritz Busch, musical director from Dresden, was in charge of the third concert and, like the tried and true Max Fiedler, proved himself to be a Reger exponent of high authority. An almost inimitable achievement was the performance of the violin sonata in which his brother, Adolf Busch, played the solo with a consummately beautiful tone.
73A comparison between the two festival conductors by no means leaves the older man at a disadvantage. While Busch concentrates on brilliance of orchestral sound and achieves
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