Books › Musical Courier 1927-04-07: Vol 94 Iss 14, 1927 › scan 25
Scan 25
Musical Courier 1927-04-07: Vol 94 Iss 14, 1927
39 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1but in the first movement of the Eroica symphony. In the Fifth symphony he attained the most perfect harmony—form, idea, expression—any symphony has ever attained. I think in the last years of all, in the string quartets, he was once more feeling his way toward a perfect reconciliation of all these warring elements in his nature. We must not make the mistake of attributing to him a poetic intention of which he was unconscious but all the same there was a purpose to make his music express a little more than the music itself, and the fashion in which the last quartets so often leave us, is due to the fact that we have need of the key to Beethoven's purpose. But we must beware of assuming that in this last epoch Beethoven was finishing his career in a mood of complete abstraction from the world. I believe that to be perfectly false. I believe that of all composers who have died too young, Beethoven was the most remarkable case.
3"He was only fifty-seven. He was in a bad way physically, it is true, but if he had not caught that cold riding back in an open carriage in Vienna, he might have lived another ten years, and then I think our perception of the final Beethoven would have been a different one, because with all the changes in his nature shown in the last period of his work it is the same Beethoven. He is doing the same things, but with much more range and scope. Had he lived another ten years he would have entered into the fourth period of his creation, and that would have been the most interesting period of all for many reasons, because it is a curious fact that as Beethoven's mind developed he became more conservative.
5"In these days our younger composers thing it incumbent upon themselves to make each one a style of his own. His very great horror is to have it supposed that his music is like the music of anyone else. Each tries to get a poem of his own, a harmony of his own, in fact to be not only different from all other composers, but different from himself in each work he writes. That cannot be done. The whole history of art shows that cannot be done, that if the composer wants to get the best out of his mind he has to take a great deal in technic and vocabulary for granted. No architect could get very far who insisted not only in drawing his plans, but in making his bricks and mortar. That is what the composer does who tries to make something new in every word he writes. It is very significant that Beethoven, in the last few years of his life, did not, as a modern composer would have done, try to make a new vocabulary of his own. He positively went back. He went back first to the fugue form of the eighteenth century, and to the variation form into which he poured the great part of the energy of his mind in those last few years. If he had lived in a time of critical excitement such as ours is now, in his last few years some of the critics would have called him a reactionary.
7"Here we are in 1927 celebrating the centenary of Beethoven's death, and we may ask ourselves for a moment precisely what Beethoven means to us, and here once more we come upon the fact to which I invited your attention earlier, that significant as Beethoven's historical position is, his personal significance is even greater. We are all agreed as to his historical position, but we are still far from being able to fathom his significance as a composer, as an individual. One proof of that is this: none of the music since his day has been able to profit by and build upon his greatest music of all—although the least known—the music of his third period. That music is still without influence on any composer because no composer is big enough to start from that as a point from which to build himself.
9"The Brahms symphonies would be just the same if Beethoven had stopped at the Eighth symphony or even the Fifth. The great characteristics of Beethoven's later work all were passed over by Brahms who went back to the classic symphony of Mozart and Beethoven up to the Eighth. Wagner did something to use the Beethoven technique. There is a faint touch of it in the second act of the Twilight of the Gods; and the third act of Parsifal is the most Beethoven-like music written since Beethoven.
11"But the real Beethoven of the last ten years of his life is a Beethoven no composer has been able to build upon for his own purposes. His influence has been largely a moral influence. His technic they have been able to do very little with. That is why I fancy when the next centenary comes around, that of his birth in 1970 or of his death in 2027, Beethoven will still present practically the same problem to thoughtful people that he does today. It is significant that he exercises all the finer musical minds in every period. There is no musical literature so thoughtful, so searching as the Beethoven literature. In 1850, when he began to be studied, he called out some very good critical literature. In 1870 there came that extraordinary essay of Wagner's. That did not exhaust the subject and during the last few years the best minds in all the nations have once more been exercising themselves upon Beethoven. It is proof that he is still a challenge to criticism, there is still something in him we have not fathomed. I venture to prophesy it will be the same in 1970, in 2027.
13"Another point I instance as proof is the extraordinary vitality of his music, that the interpretation of it improves with each later development of music. As music has developed, Beethoven has been able to develop with it. During the last week from your superb orchestra and your great director we have had wonderful performances. (I will not say Beethoven could not have imagined such performances, but I will say he never got such performances in the Mendelssohn period, and never in the Wagner period.) The explanation is that music is not merely itself but what we bring to it. The beauty of the beloved is not in the beloved, but in the eye of the lover. With each new development of music we ourselves become bigger people musically and spiritually, and the music that is still big to us after we have grown is the greatest music.
15"A man like Meyerbeer is a great figure of his own time. But he means nothing to us now because his music has not been able to grow as rapidly as we have. Beethoven's music does grow. People who have passed through Wagner and Bach find more in Beethoven than people who lived before Wagner and Bach. I fancy that will still hold true in the next one hundred years, that Beethoven will have grown in proportion as the musical perception of mankind has grown, and that in 2027 Beethoven will still be the most intriguing and most baffling problem in all musical criticism."
17[The speech was delivered without any pretensions to oratory, but with a clear voice that carried well and in a manner that carried conviction. Hearty applause followed the address.]
19BEETHOVEN'S LAST QUARTET
20After an intermission, Mr. Damon read a commemoration ode and there followed a performance of Beethoven's last quartet, Musses Sein, in F major, opus 35. It was played by the Lenox String Quartet with a fine degree of precision, euphony, and balance, and warmly vitalized, moreover, by the spontaneity and communicative warmth of the performance. Last, but by no means least, came the concluding remarks of Mr. Koussevitzky, himself. The large audience rose to greet him, with tremendous applause that lasted for several minutes. The Russian conductor intrigued his listeners immediately by declaring that it was harder for him to pronounce nine words in English than to play the nine symphonies of Beethoven. He then expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the trustees, orchestra and chorus, Dr. Davison and Mr. Woodworth, Mr. Newman and Mr. Damon, the management and public—how all had contributed to the success of the festival; and finally to Beethoven, all honor and glory.
22THE NINTH SYMPHONY
23For appropriate ending came a stirring performance of the choral symphony, the orchestra being assisted by the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and a quartet composed of Jeanette Vreeland, Nevada Van der Veer, Charles Stratton and Fred Patton. A delightful performance of the charming little Eighth Symphony served as an effective curtain raiser. Then the Ninth, with its brooding opening allegro, overpowering scherzo, songful adagio and irresistible finale—all conceived on the highest level of Beethoven's inspiration and offering fresh proof, if proof were needed, that in this work his art found the most glorious tonal expression of universal love, the most thrilling heights ever scaled by music. Mr. Koussevitzky's justly celebrated interpretation was intensely dramatic, always vital and epical. His infectious enthusiasm inspired all concerned. It was hardly surprising therefore that at the end of the concert the large audience that filled every inch of available space in the hall, added cheers to handclapping, and on such a scale as to make the outlander wonder if this was really Boston. Be that as it may, the ovation to Mr. Koussevitzky and his confrères was richly deserved, for this Beethoven centenary festival merits a place in American musical history as one of the most important musical undertakings that this country has ever known.
25J. C.
27Leginska Guest Conductor of Woman's Symphony of Chicago
28Ethel Leginska, foremost woman conductor of the present day and brilliant pianist and composer, has been engaged as guest conductor for the last concert, this season of the Woman's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, which has made a remarkable record of accomplishment in its first year of existence. Miss Leginska will make her Chicago debut as conductor at the Goodman Theater, April 19, following a most successful season as director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Her success at the Hollywood Bowl, where she conducted the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra before an audience of 30,000 was a spectacular achievement. Of equal musical importance and popular interest were her appearances as guest conductor with the London Symphony, the New York Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Paris Conservatoire and the Munich Conservverein orchestras. At every concert her success was instantaneous and her pioneer achievement in opening a new field for women musicians, where, however, success is only won by those of supreme ability and musicianship, has brought her international publicity.
30In addition to conducting the entire program which consists of the Beethoven Fifth symphony, the Euryanthe overture of Weber, two lighter pieces of Pizetti and the Marche Slav of Tchaikowsky, Leginska will play and conduct the Mozart A major concerto for piano and orchestra, a musical feat of unique interest.
32The five concerts this season have programmed five full symphonies—the Beethoven seventh, and the Franck, Schubert, Dvorak, and Tchaikowsky's fifth, besides other major orchestral works. The last concert of the season, in which Leginska will be the guest conductor, will be notable, viewed from every angle, and a record crowd is expected at the Goodman Theater for this event.
34Seattle Likes Lucy Gates' Carmen
35Lucy Gates has been appearing with success this winter on the Pacific Coast in opera and concert. "Lucy Gates Wins Praise"—such was a headline in the Seattle Daily Times following the soprano's appearance in Faust with the Seattle Civic Opera Association. The critic of that paper then declared that "The work of Lucy Gates as Margarita… remains as a vividly pleasant memory. In voice, stature and dramatic talent Miss Gates is a delightful Margarita. Her Jewel Song and her duets with Mr. Davis revealed her voice as one of pure lyric quality and exquisite tonal balance, of liquid clarity in the quieter passages of her middle register and capable of dominating the higher register without sacrificing purity of tone to strength." Although Miss Gates is a coloratura soprano she is able to sing the title role in Carmen so well as to elicit unusually high praise from the press. Her colorful interpretation of the Spanish gypsy was characterized as follows by the Seattle Daily Times: "The Carmen of Miss Gates is distinctive and continuously gratifying. In this role one discovers that her feeling for drama arises from a native talent that finds an excellent medium of expression in song. Thus she happily combines talents which give her a command of her every moment on the stage. Seattle liked her Carmen."
37Schmitz Master Classes
38E. Robert Schmitz, who is at present in Europe fulfilling concert engagements, will return in time to conduct his summer master classes at Colorado Springs, July 19. After that he starts on his season's engagements which extend from October to February.
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