Books › Musical Courier 1927-04-28: Vol 94 Iss 17, 1927 › scan 15
Scan 15
Musical Courier 1927-04-28: Vol 94 Iss 17, 1927
48 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1CLAUDIA MUZIO
2Beloved on Three Continents!
4La Scala Season
5Last week, "Madeleine" in Andrea Chenier
6This week, "Tosca" in Tosca
7Arturo Toscanini conducting
9Management
10Civic Concert Service, Inc.
11DEMA E. HARSHBARGER, President
12Auditorium Tower, Chicago, Ill.
13Baldwin Piano Used
15MUSICAL COURIER
16THROUGH AUSTRALIAN EYES
17A Visiting Musician's Impressions
19Mr. and Mrs. Roland Foster, of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, are visiting New York again after a lapse of seven years. They are on their way to London, where Mr. Foster will teach during May, June and July, his work as a teacher, writer and lecturer having made him known on both sides of the world. Mr. Foster is acting as special correspondent for the Sydney Sunday Times and the Australian Musical News during his travels, and has been making a survey of musical conditions in a number of cities on his way across the continent. "The American people's attitude towards music," says our Australian visitor, "is one of extraordinary receptivity and responsiveness and nothing has impressed us more than the way in which musical activity is stimulated and encouraged by your wealthy citizens and prominent business men. The promotion of every form of musical art is going ahead with splendid force and energy, and in addition to this there is every evidence of the growth of artistic aspiration as an essential element of your national life. Minneapolis, for example, has the laudable ambition to become distinguished in course of time for its art and culture, as are Dresden, Leipsic and other cities of the old world—not merely for its affluence and commercial prosperity. Though relatively small, in comparison to Chicago and New York, it possesses a symphony orchestra and chorus, a new auditorium of great size in which a fine organ is to be installed, several excellent choral organizations, a civic music league which exists for the furtherance of music and the kindred arts, and two large music schools one of which, the MacPhail, has an enrollment of no less than five thousand pupils. The musical education of the school children, under the supervision of Thos. P. Giddings, is being carried on in a manner remarkable alike for its efficiency and idealism. Further, besides the usual civic art gallery, Minneapolis is fortunate in having a magnificent collection of valuable pictures and art treasures gathered together by Thomas Walker, and presented by him, along with the building containing them, to the people.
21"We found the Pacific Coast a perfect hotbed of musical activity, and greatly enjoyed the fine work of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, under Alfred Hertz. We had the pleasure of meeting a number of the city's leading musicians at a gathering arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Shipman. Mr. and Mrs. Hertz entertained us several times. So did Mr. Arrillaga, of the Arrillaga Musical College, and our old and dear friends, Selby and Blanche Oppenheimer. At Portland, the Ellison-White Conservatory gave a reception in our honor, at which I spoke on musical conditions in Australia.
23"We did not spend much time in Seattle and Vancouver, but after a wonderful trip through the Canadian Rockies—with a stop-over at Banff, where we did a little snowshoeing—had a very happy ten days in Minneapolis, as the guests of M. and Madame Verbrugghen, who are affectionately remembered in Sydney where Mr. Verbrugghen set new musical standards during his leadership of the Conservatorium and State Orchestra. We were guests of honor at the annual banquet of the Civic Music League, which was attended by about 250 persons. In Chicago we had an enjoyable talk with D. A. Clippinger, a vocal teacher whose sound and practical methods I cordially endorse.
25"Our first call in New York was at the office of the MUSICAL COURIER, where we received the unwelcome news of the illness of H. O. Osgood, our very good friend, who acted as guide and mentor on our previous visit and has kept up a correspondence with us ever since. To find him in the hospital was an unpleasant surprise but we hope for his speedy restoration to health and activity.
27"Another of our familiar friends, Daniel Mayer, was away on a business trip, but through the courtesy of Ernest Urchs, whom we met in San Francisco, a luncheon given to Ernest Newman, English critic, brought us into immediate contact with a number of distinguished musicians and critics, and we are enjoying a regular feast of musical events and social functions.
29"Coming from that far-off clime, Australia, we have naturally been delighted at encountering in close succession several compatriots who, in their various ways, have succeeded in winning recognition. First came Percy Grainger, whose barbaric tone-poem, The Warriors, had a great reception at two concerts of the Minneapolis Symphony under Henri Verbrugghen. 'It was an ideal rendering,' said the composer afterwards, and indeed, he had every reason to feel satisfied. Grainger is decidedly unorthodox and employs methods of orchestral scoring which must dismay the purist, but there is something in his music which reflects the high-powered energy of this modern age and it certainly gets the public. Next we met Madeleine Collins, who made an exciting debut in Australia a few years ago and, like Marion Talley here, jumped into the front rank straight away, being the youngest prima donna engaged at the Covent Garden Opera, where she sang for five seasons. Grand opera has not been a paying proposition there, however, and like many other singers, Miss Collins found a more consistently remunerative vein in light opera, and is now starring in Katja in Chicago. Her husband, Leonard Ceiley, whom she met in London, is playing the tenor lead. Merle Robertson, one of our finest Australian pianists, now resident in New York, was the first to greet us on our arrival, and our 'musical pilgrimage' brought us here just in time to hear the Australian dramatic soprano, Florence Austral, who has a great European reputation and is adding to it here, we are glad to see. With her is her husband, John Amadio, the premier Australian flutist of today. Three nights afterwards my wife and I were present at the New York debut of another Australian singer who has reached the front rank, Horace Steevens. Mr. Steevens is in more demand than any other baritone in England at the present time. Just now, as a matter of fact, Australian singers are 'scooping the pool' over there, and amongst those who have achieved special prominence are several of my own pupils, including Rosa Alba, Essie Ackland and Ethel Osborn. The latter was hailed as 'a real discovery' by the London critics on her appearance at the Royal Albert Hall last October and has since toured the provincial cities with Dame Clara Butt and Kennerley Rumford, who will be remembered by New York concertgoers. Mr. Verbrugghen has offered her an engagement as soloist with the Minneapolis Orchestra and I feel sure that she would make an unusually favorable impression on vocal connoisseurs, as her voice is one of remarkable beauty and she uses it with great skill. Inter alia, she has a range of three octaves extending to the B flat in altissimo, just one octave higher than the usual soprano 'high B flat.' This, of course, has no artistic significance or value, except that it makes easy such arias as those for Astriaia-mento in Mozart's 'Magic Flute.' But it is possible for almost every soprano to reach F and G in alt., if she goes the right way about it. Singers' troubles with the high notes are mostly of their own making. Lacking the acquirement of real skill in vocal emission they are compelled to rely upon sheer muscular force or excessive breath pressure—against which, in course of time, outraged nature rebels, and the singer's career suffers in consequence.
31"Listening to singers great and small one is constantly left wondering why, given a beautiful instrument, the owner will not learn how to make the most of it technically and artistically, thereby ensuring its stability and endurance as well as increasing its responsiveness to emotional and intellectual demands.
33"As a British singer myself, with London training and experience, it has been very gratifying to me to witness the successes of as many British artists in this great musical maelstrom, fed by a fiercely-flowing stream of competitive endeavor. It cheered us immensely to be welcomed by our old friends Fraser Gange, well-known baritone, and his charming wife, professionally known as Amy Evans, one of the most distinguished singers that Wales, the land of beautiful voices, has produced. Mr. and Mrs. Gange made a memorable tour of Australia not very long ago, and to find them established here lends an additional pleasure to our stay. The exceptional popularity of The English Singers on their recent visit is another tribute to British vocal art of which we may well feel proud, because there is no part of the world where a lofty standard of vocal artistry is more strenuously sought and cultivated than in the United States. Vocal teaching reaches a very high level of efficiency and conscientiousness and I see no reason whatever for American singers to go abroad in search of vocal guidance."
35ROLAND FOSTER
37May Moore photo, Sydney
39Florence Austral at Columbus
40Florence Austral sang recently in Columbus, Ohio, with the Cleveland Orchestra under the auspices of the Symphony Club of Central Ohio. She scored an immense success as always and in which her husband, John Amadio, flutist, shared. The Ohio State Journal commented as follows: "Miss Austral made her first appearance in the Tamhauzer aria, the joyous greeting to the hall of song at Wartburg. The high voice is brilliant and stupendously full. Over the din of the fiery and cluttered Wagner music it soared and soared. The immolation scene was triumphal music. The Wagner music-drama requires great singers with an intellectual and dramatic grasp of powerful scenes and emotions. Before the moving and glowing musical background, which picturizes fire, the whelming of the Rhine waters, death, and angry passion, her voice poured out in ringing and vibrant tone."
42PARIS STUDIOS
43BYRNE STUDIOS for Opera, Oratorio, Concert gave 20 Operas in France during past season. Complete staff of instructors JOHN FRANCIS BYRNE, Director (Recommended by Jean de Reszke) 197 Foubourg, St. Honore, Paris
45JOHN HEATH
46PIANIST
47Studio, 45 rue des Acacias, PARIS, May until January Villa Martine, Beaulieu sur Mer, France, January until May
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