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Musical Courier 1926-09-30: Vol 93 Iss 14, 1926
79 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1ARTISTS WE HAVE NOT HEARD
2No. III
3SALOMEA KRUCENISKI
4By J. H. Duval
6The American public, especially the New York public, has heard many of the world's greatest operatic artists in recent years, but not all of them. Even during the Grau Regime when every effort was made to bring together as many of the foremost singers and operatic artists of the world as could be crowded into one theater, when we had Roméo et Juliette with Edouard de Reszke as Friar Laurence and Plançon as Capulet in the same cast, when Melba or Eames even sang Micaela, when we had Don Giovanni and Les Huguenots with those never-to-be-forgotten ensembles, yet even then many artists of equal stature were heard in Europe who did not come to this country at all.
8We still continue to have our share of the opera singers who stand highest in the Italian career and some others as well, and in the concert field one could almost say we hear all of them—and yet—there is someone we have not heard who excels in opera and concert, the only artist who, in the opinion of this writer, possesses the same superlative qualities of Chaliapin, but in a feminine way: Salomea Kruceniski.
10It seems strange that this great dramatic soprano, this superb interpreter both vocally and dramatically of the operas of Wagner and Strauss and the songs of all nationalities, has never been heard either here or in England. And she has all the qualities in abundance that are demanded of an artist by the audiences and critics of New York and London.
12Kruceniski! Why, her name is not known here at all.
14"What is she like?" you ask.
16I hardly know where to begin to describe her. Kruceniski is so complex that one never knows what is gripping one most when listening to her, when seeing her. Yes, she is really as much to see as to listen to. There is nothing of the usual prima donna about her at all. From the time she steps on the stage or concert platform she immediately awakens the imagination and the listener has poetical visions. Each phrase she sings is laden with meaning. Each movement of her body is correct and beautiful. She charms the eye and satisfies the intellect.
18She is tall, gracefully robust, a woman of great strength and her heroic frame is free from superfluous flesh and remains as delightfully youthful to-day as when I heard her as Adriana Lecouvreur at The Lirico, in Milan, when she and Titta Ruffo were scoring their first real triumphs under the magnetic baton of the great Mugnone.
20Rodin said human beauty was expression of the face and grace of the body. So I can say Kruceniski is truly beautiful, for added to her graceful body is a face of rare nobility and sensitiveness. She is a Juno who can become a mortal at will and express all the human passions.
22Her voice is a real dramatic soprano—a heroic dramatic—the sort one rarely hears in our day. It is of great power and range, well under the control of the artist who uses it as a means of expressing the intent of the music she is interpreting. "Le chant d'expression," as Maurel described it, is never sacrificed to any effect that is purely vocal.
24Like Chaliapin, to whom I have already compared her, she delivers the text with such truth and intensity, and her personality, like his, is so tremendous that we cannot remember the voice even after a song recital. We leave under the impression of the music and poetry we have understood so profoundly.
26Her style, although very personal, is still classical. Positive intonation never fails her no matter how she is entering into the emotion of her role, and as in the case with the great master interpreters of the past—Maurel, Lehmann, Jean de Reszke—the line of her singing is never lost. She is ever playing on her instrument in a musical way even when leaping from rock to rock as she sings the cry of the Wal- kűre.
28I shall never forget her Brünnhilde. What all-compelling virility! Her voice, her every gesture is as full of life and nature as the music itself. One might think Wagner had created her.
30To have heard her as Isolde is to have heard Isolde. She is Isolde.
32And Salome of Strauss, with which she scored such triumphs at the Scala of Milan, all over Italy—at Petrograd and Warsaw. The lascivious voice, the seductive glide, the weird orientalism of it all!
34Other operas in which Kruceniski has triumphed are Aida, Loreley (Catalani), Electra (Strauss), Phedre (Pizzetti), Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea), and the whole general repertory for a dramatic soprano of the heroic type.
36Kruceniski was born in Limberg, the daughter of a Ukrainian clergyman. When a mere child she graduated from the Conservatory of that city as a pianist, with highest honors and a gold medal. She had already begun vocal study which she continued in her native city for a time, later going to Milan where she perfected her voice and studied repertory. She sang in Cremona, Parma and Trieste after which she was called to Russia to sing in the Imperial Opera at St. Petersburg. After several seasons in Russia and Poland she returned to Italy where she quickly jumped into real fame in Aida and La Walkiria at the Costanzi in Rome. Later she appeared in all the leading opera houses of Italy, Spain, Portugal and South America. Mugnone, Toscanini and other prominent conductors of Italy vied with each other in securing this great artist to create roles, and honors were bestowed on her by the Queen of Italy, the King of Portugal, the Czar of Russia, and numerous rulers and celebrities.
38Several years ago Kruceniski tired of the stage, of always singing in the same theaters, interpreting the same roles. She had long been a devoted worshipper at the shrine of the great German masters and their songs together with those of the Russian composers she had studied and sung for herself and her friends. She resolved to devote herself to this line of work and rest from opera for several years at least.
40So for the past three seasons she has been giving recitals of a high order throughout southern Europe and South America, and if any artist can there give the songs of Brahms, Strauss, Wolf, Schubert, Schumann, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Franck, Ravel, Moussorgsky a start toward the favor they find in the northern countries, Kruceniski is that person.
42The Queen of Italy had her give a concert at Court following her sensational success in a public recital at Rome.
44Although this work is most laudable and much needed in just those countries where Kruceniski with all her operatic prestige is able to do it more than anyone else could, yet it seems unfortunate she cannot be heard in America. There was never a time more indicated for the advent of such a great artist than right now.
46Like Schumann-Heink and Chaliapin she is of artistic stature, sufficient to link up with the great past in concerts and recitals, and in opera, if she could be induced to give some performances of her great creations, we might think we were back in those good old days we are ever lamenting. What memories she would awaken! For she has much of the song gift of Lehmann together with the scenic art of Bernhardt and—the personality of Kruceniski.
48Detroit Orchestra Schedule
50The 1926-1927 season of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra begins with the first pair of symphony concerts on October 14-15. There will be the usual sixteen pairs of these concerts all under the direction of Ossip Gabrilowitsch, with two exceptions—once when he gives way to his associate conductor, Victor Kolar, and a second time when he will give way to a guest conductor. The soloists engaged for the symphony concerts are Florence Easton, Alfred Cortot, Joseph Szigeti, Tito Schipa, Georges Miquelle, Palmer Christian, Ero Dohnanyi, Luella Melius, Leonid Kreutzer, Efrem Zimbalist, Alexander Brailowsky, Walter Gieseking, Sigrid Onegin, Cecilia Hansen, and Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
52There will be the usual twenty-four Sunday afternoon concerts, a feature of the musical season of Detroit. These concerts are under the direction of Victor Kolar except two which will be conducted by Mr. Gabrilowitsch. A very attractive list of soloists has been engaged, including the concert master, Ilya Schkolnik, Renee Thornton, Sylvia Lent, Nadia Reisenberg, Tina Lerner, Elizabeth Santagano.
54There also will be a series of five Young People's Concerts to be given on Saturday mornings under the direction of Victor Kolar with Edith Rhetts lecturing. The subjects for this season are the Evolution of the Symphony Orchestra and Musical Travelogues in Italy, France, Great Britain, Salzburg and Vienna. All lectures are illustrated by stereopticon and will include data gathered by Miss Rhetts this summer in Europe.
56A feature of the Detroit Symphony Society's service to the community is a series of ten concerts given free to the school children of Detroit and Wayne County. No admission is charged, although each attending school child is provided with a grown-up's seat ticket, it being a part of his education to conduct himself while entering the hall and in the hall as a regular symphony grown-up patron. This work will be further supplemented this year in that the concerts will be broadcast for the benefit of the schools in the state. This will be worked in connection with the State Board of Education, and the numbers played will be included in the curriculum of both the state and Detroit schools.
58The orchestra will play in twenty-five different cities on tour including the Michigan cities of Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti, Pontiac and Ann Arbor. An Eastern tour will take the orchestra to Toledo, Buffalo, Utica, Ithaca, Philadelphia, Fall River, Boston and New York, and a Western tour will take it to Chicago and Bloomington, Illinois; Kansas City, Mo.; Lincoln, Nebr., and Des Moines, Iowa. Cleveland also is included in the out-of-town cities.
60The Detroit Symphony Choir, in connection with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and notable soloists, all under the direction of Ossip Gabrilowitsch, will give three performances: The Messiah at Christmas time and Bach's St. Matthew's Passion twice during Holy Week.
62Strauss Returns to Vienna Opera
64VIENNA.—The most important announcement given out so far by Franz Schneiderhan, new general director of the Austrian State Theaters, is that Richard Strauss will shortly return to the Vienna Opera—not as director but as a frequent guest conductor. The rupture between him and Schalk is said to be almost completely healed. Schalk himself, in announcing the Staatsoper's plans for the season, hints at "an important contemporary opera" to be heard, which is generally thought to allude to Strauss' Intermezzo, for the Vienna production of which Strauss had so far withheld his consent, owing to his grudge against the Opera. The other novelties will be Turandot (with Lotte Lehmann and Slezak), Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, Verdi's La forza del destino (with Werfel's libretto), Hindemith's Cardillac, and Korngold's new opera, The Miracle of Heliane. Dr. Wallerstein will stage Turandot, and it is planned to bring Otto Erhardt from Stuttgart as guest stage manager, with a view to a permanent engagement. Two new ballets will have their world's premiere at the Staatsoper: The Nutcracker, by Wilhelm Grosz, and The Tempting Phantom, by Franz Salmhofer, both young Viennese composers.
66Godowsky Goes to Europe
68Leopold Godowsky, after spending three or four months in this country this past summer, sailed for Europe on the S. S. Berengaria, on September 22, to join Mrs. Godowsky and their son, Leopold, in Paris, remaining abroad with them until well into next spring. While away Mr. Godowsky will play a number of times. His tour will include Germany and the Scandinavian countries. His Berlin recital will be the first one for years. Christmas he will spend in Africa, playing a few times at Algiers and Tunis. During his visit to America, Mr. Godowsky spent considerable time in making free transcriptions of a dozen favorite Schubert songs which will soon be published by Carl Fischer.
70Harmati Writing Music to a Drama
72Sandor Harmati, conductor of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and well known composer and prize winner, is composing incidental music to a play to be produced in New York in October. It is called The Jewelled Tree an Egyptian Phantasy, by Garret Pier. The music is to be actually incidental, accompanying and underlining the action of the play, and the orchestra a reproduction so far as possible of the orchestra of ancient Egypt.
74Mr. Harmati will return to Omaha early in October to begin rehearsals with his orchestra.
76Mr. and Mrs. Wilmot Goodwin Killed
78MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—On September 1, Wilmot Goodwin and his wife, Florence Austin Goodwin, for six years vocal instructors in this city, were killed when the Viking, Omaha railway flier, struck their automobile at a crossing in Fairchild, Wis. The couple were on their way to Chicago for a short vacation trip.
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