Books › Musical Courier 1927-04-07: Vol 94 Iss 14, 1927 › scan 19
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Musical Courier 1927-04-07: Vol 94 Iss 14, 1927
52 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 20. See the scan on archive.org.
1NEW YORK CONCERTS
2(Continued from page 13)
3ning of considerable pleasure for the guests of the Singers Club.
5Music School Settlements
6An anonymous program was given by pupils of New York's Music School Settlements at Town Hall on March 31. The Settlements which gave the program were: Christodora House, Bronx House, Greenwich House, Brooklyn, Yorkville and Neighborhood. The compositions, all given by bright young people with evident pleasure (but whose names were not on the program), included new compositions by Pochon, Friedman, Mason, Elman, Hutcheson and Schelling, written especially for the Music School Settlements and, as a program note says, accepted for publication by Carl Fischer & Sons. The compositions were excellent and the performances extraordinarily fine.
8APRIL 1
9N. Y. Symphony: Florence Austral, Soloist
10This evening concert at Carnegie Hall was given under difficulties, as Walter Damrosch was ill (following a nasal operation) and Florence Austral, the soprano, also did not feel in good health. Nevertheless, both artists gave of their best, and rendered excellent musical service.
12The occasion was a concert performance of the third act of Götterdämmerung. The work made a strong impression even without its customary scenery and costumes, proving Mr. Damrosch's contention, that Wagner's operatic music is potent enough to carry itself without the stage action.
14Mme. Austral was clear voiced, emotionally convincing, and stylistically authoritative, as Brünnhilde. Rudolf Laubenthal, the Siegfried, was of course, master of all he sang, and his long experience in the part, told brilliantly. Frederick Patton, the American bass-baritone, covered himself with glory in the measures of Hagen. He has a resonant and finely trained voice, which he uses with full musical effect. Frederic Baer was a sympathetic Gunther, uncommonly intelligent in delivery. The Rhine Maidens consisted of Gitla Erstinn, Claribel Banks and Viola Silva.
16APRIL 2
17New York Philharmonic Society
18Three works only, made up the April 2 Students' Concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall and broadcasted, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting. They were Braunfels' Don Juan, the composer being a Cologne composer, now forty-five years old; Strauss' Death and Transfiguration, and Beethoven's fifth symphony. The youthful audience and many grown-ups received these musical offerings with great enthusiasm. A crescendo of appreciation and applause marked the entire evening, until at the close there was a riot of applause, with calls for the conductor, an orchestral fanfare for him (the only one heard this season, hence of deep significance as showing the orchestra men's estimate of Furtwängler), and many manifestations of highest pleasure; it marked his last appearance for the season at these concerts, and so had meaning.
20Pierre Pelletier
21Pierre Pelletier, baritone, who was to have been accompanied by Wilfrid Pelletier, gave a song recital at Town Hall on April 2 with flattering success. He sang the Cavatina di Figaro from The Barber of Seville with much dash and verve and included in his program other operatic numbers, among them an aria from Nerone (Boito) and one from Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (Massenet). He terminated his program with a very fine rendition of Il Prologo from Pagliacci. There were, in addition to these operatic arias, songs from the Italian and French and a number of songs sung in English. In all of these languages Mr. Pelletier was entirely at home and he sang throughout with commendable poise and an obvious feeling for public presentation, perhaps one should say the operatic stage. Some delay was caused at the beginning of the recital by the fact that Wilfrid Pelletier, one of the conductors at the Metropolitan Opera House, who was to have played the accompaniments, was unable to leave his operatic duties and at the last moment the services of Leo Paul Moran of Montreal were secured. Under the circumstances some nervousness both by singer and accompanist might have been expected but none was apparent, and the program was given with authority and was enthusiastically received.
23Freiheit Gesangs Ferein
24The Freiheit Gesangs Ferein was heard at Madison Square Garden in several choral works, on April 2, in connection with a celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Freiheit Jewish newspaper. The assisting artists were Raisa, Rimini and Radomsky. Raisa sang a number of songs with piano accompaniment and a whole row of encores, and received a tremendous ovation from the vast audience that filled the hall. She and Rimini sang several operatic duets with artistic and popular success.
26The program of the evening offered as a novelty the first performance anywhere of Jacob Schaefer's setting of Alexander Bloch's poem of the Russian Revolution, entitled Twelve. It is unfortunately quite impossible to make any intelligent comments on this work at this time. The auditorium was so large that many of the orchestral effects and no doubt some of the choral effects were lost. From past performances of other works by Schaefer this writer is able to say that he possesses a real genius for choral writing and no doubt this new cantata will prove to be his most important work when it is properly heard, which will be at its second performance at Carnegie Hall in a few weeks time. At present it is only possible to say that the music, so far as it could be judged, appears vital, very modern, strongly emotional and impressive. The principal musical theme which is given out at the beginning by the horns and trumpets and is heard frequently throughout the entire work is of distinctive character. It is one of those useful themes that is rhythmically and melodically easily recognized and its frequent reiteration is well calculated to give the work unity.
28APRIL 3
29John McCormack
30John McCormack recently gave three sold-out concerts in Albert Hall within five weeks, and his reception from the London public and press was such that someone stated that America would have to watch out for her English cousins after this as far as a record in attendance was concerned. If any British admirer of the famous tenor could have peeked into Carnegie Hall on last Sunday night, he would have realized how firmly McCormack is held in the affections of his following in New York. Not only every seat was taken, but also the stage was filled and he was given a rousing reception. This was the first of two spring recitals, the other to take place on April 17 for the benefit of Holy Cross College.
32McCormack was in excellent voice and delighted his listeners with a varied program, most popular of which was, as usual, the group of Irish folk songs, and also a beautiful song, which had to be repeated, Just for Today, by Blanche Seaver. It is one of the finest songs heard in some time, the music and lyrics matching each other in their beauty. Walter Kramer's The Last Hour was well received, the composer being in the audience. Edwin Schneider's Thine Eyes Still Shined, closed the printed program, but there were several encores after each group, one of the loveliest being Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song. The early part of the program included an old German love song (1460), Enjoy the Sweet Elysian Groves, sung in true Handel style; La Procession, Franck; Desolation, Bartok; Luoghi sereni e cari, Donaudy, and Is She Not Passing Fair? by Elgar.
34The assisting artist was James Liebling, cellist, who made a very favorable impression. His opening group consisted of two George Liebling compositions, Lucifer's Song and La Marquise (Minuet), in which he displayed a good tone and command of style. The compositions are charming and the audience liked this group considerably. Mr. Liebling later played a Bach air, a Scherzo by Van Goens, and two other Liebling works, Arietta and Tarantelle. Edwin Schneider, who has accompanied Mr. McCormack so long that he is now a valued part of the tenor's recitals, was warmly applauded after his composition.
36Sunday Symphonic Society
37On April 3, Josiah Zuro and his Sunday Symphonic Society gave the final concert of this season's series, which has been splendidly attended. The repertory has included important classical works as well as a number of novelties and first time, modern compositions. There have been soloists of good standing and Mr. Zuro is to be congratulated upon this fine work he is doing in giving free concerts to the music lovers of New York. The maintenance of this annual series is by voluntary contribution, Mr. Zuro and his men giving their services gratis. A conductor and musician of repute, he has assembled a mighty good orchestra.
39On Sunday, at twelve-thirty, the program opened with the Haydn Symphony No. 2 in D major, followed by the first hearing of From the North, by Sibelius, an interesting composition, admirably orchestrated by Adolph Schmid, and which was well received. Little Italy, from Hugo Riesenfeld's suite, Etchings of New York, was repeated for the second time this season. The concluding number was Liszt's Les Preludes, given an excellent rendition. The audience gave Mr. Zuro and his men an appreciative farewell reception.
41Mr. Zuro greeted the audience and expressed his thanks for the manner in which those attending the series had helped to make the season a successful one. Plans, he said, were already being made for the fifth series of free concerts.
43Friends of Music
44On April 3, at the Town Hall, the Society of the Friends of Music, Artur Bodanzky conducting, offered Mozart's Requiem, accompanied by some of the orchestra from the Metropolitan Opera House and with four members of the Metropolitan Opera Company as soloists; Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano; Merle Alcock, contralto; Max Bloch, tenor, and Carl Schlegel, baritone. This last work of the great composer, incomplete at his death, was finished by friends of the composer at the request of Mozart's widow, but the finished score bears no vivid lines of demarcation between the parts done by Beethoven and those by his successor, or successors. The whole was beautifully sung, both by the soloists and by the chorus so ably trained by Stephen Townsend, chorus master. Town Hall was sold out some time in advance and the sympathy and appreciation of the audience were signified more by its silence and lack of applause between each of the twelve numbers that comprise the Requiem than by the warmth of its acclaims at the conclusion of the program. Mr. Bodanzky conducted with sincerity and understanding.
46Reinald Werrenrath
47Werrenrath's Sunday matinee drew a large audience of the steadily growing army of the admirers of that singer. He also is growing steadily in his art, and what with his finished voice manipulation, and sublimated intelligence and musicianship in delivery, now completely disarms even finical criticism.
49The Werrenrath programs always are "different," and last Sunday's was no exception to the rule. First came a group of five Scandinavian songs, by Rangstrom, Sjögren, Alnaes, and Nielsen, of which the two Sjögren numbers, Lay Thy Cheek Against My Cheek, and See, For Thee I've Plucked a Rosebud, were far and away the best.
51The Four Serious Songs, by Brahms, had a deeply moving interpretation, the diction being especially impressive. Werrenrath showed his mastery of operatic vocalism when
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