Books › Musical Courier 1927-04-28: Vol 94 Iss 17, 1927 › scan 30
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Musical Courier 1927-04-28: Vol 94 Iss 17, 1927
104 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 31. See the scan on archive.org.
1April 28, 1927
3BACH CROWDS BEETHOVEN OUT OF LONDON HALLS
5Easter Festivities Follow Hard on the Centenary Celebrations—Several Concert Series Close—Siegfried Wagner's Visit—Beecham Rediscovers Mozart—The Flonzaley Quartet Warmly Received—A Dazzling Pianistic Star
7LONDON.—The last fortnight has been open season for choral societies, for Easter, which is practically synonymous with Bach in this country, has followed so closely on the heels of the Beethoven celebrations that there has been no break in the flood of oratorio concerts. In fact the performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, by the students of the Royal Academy of Music, under the direction of Sir Henry Wood, all but overlapped Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.
9This wonderful Mass, given under the direction of Sir Hugh Allen, formed the last concert of the Royal Philharmonic series for the year. In order to do the work justice in the matter of space, it was given in the Albert Hall—the first time, it is said, that the Society ever appeared there—and the result was stupendous. The Philharmonic and Royal choral societies joined forces for the evening, and it can be safely asserted that no body of singers outside of England can surpass or perhaps even equal them for sheer beauty of tone.
11In spite of Sir Hugh's rather straight-forward conducting, bad acoustics and, with two exceptions, no more than passable soloist, the huge audience waxed enthusiastic. While after the Choral Fantasia, which followed, its enthusiasm broke forth in unstinted applause.
13At the Queen's Hall an even more enthusiastic, though necessarily smaller, public greeted Hermann Abendroth when he conducted the first and ninth symphonies recently at one of the London Symphony Concerts. This blond Teuton giant, who has caught on in London so rapidly, repeated his former success in full measure, and as has become usual with Beethoven concerts, the house was full.
15If among the composers Beethoven has the greatest drawing power, Bach runs him a close second. There have been performances of the St. John Passion, notably that of the London Choral Society under Arthur Fagge; of the St. Matthew Passion, including one in Westminster Abbey; and the B minor Mass by the Oriana Choir and the Bach Cantata Club, besides innumerable shorter masses, oratorios and cantatas in all the smaller concert halls and churches. For example, Dorothy Silk, one of England's most popular oratorio singers, gave a Bach chamber concert, consisting of arias from various cantatas, accompanied by a string quartet, double bass, flute, oboe, oboe d'amore and piano. There will, of course, be some Handel added to this sea of Bach, for Easter without the Messiah would be unthinkable, while, just to show that there are no hard feelings, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius has been performed, and the Glasgow Orpheus Choir made two appearances in London, the first since their return from America.
17GROWING APPRECIATION OF SCHUMANN
19Easter has had no influence, however, on the symphony concerts, which, on the other hand, are having a very good influence on musical culture in a quite unexpected direction. Namely Schumann, who, as a symphonist, has been considered extremely dull, is steadily coming into his own. It is a far cry from the reception given Bruno Walter's charming interpretation of the B flat major symphony last autumn, when the public was merely polite and one critic advised him not to try to put new life into anything as dead as Schumann's music, to the enthusiasm displayed after Ernest Ansermet's recent conducting of the second symphony (C-major) in Albert Hall, shortly after Beecham's brilliant resurrection of the third (E-flat). The work had not been played in London for twenty years and many of the orchestra members had never even seen the score. Contrary, however, to all expectations of the musical cognoscenti, the audience not only burst into spontaneous and prolonged applause, but many of them shouted their approval.
21The occasion was the next to the last concert of the National Concerts series organized by the British Broadcasting Company. Handel's lovely B minor Concerto Grosso, op. 6, opened the program which also included Balakireff's Tamara, Ethel Smyth's On the Cliffs of Cornwall, and the second suite of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Ansermet's enthusiastic and musicianly conducting brought him a great public success and a glowing press.
23BERNARD SHAW LISTENS TO SIEGFRIED WAGNER
25Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the conductor of the last concert, Siegfried Wagner, who was evidently intended to close the series with a grand climax, was awaited with unusual eagerness. More than one Londoner in the audience, including Bernard Shaw, had been present fifty years ago when his father conducted in Albert Hall, and the atmosphere of the great crowded hall was charged with emotion. The audience, as a whole, was evidently thoroughly satisfied with what they heard, for the enthusiasm increased from stormy applause after the Rienzi overture, which opened the concert, to a veritable cyclone, such as has seldom been equalled, after the Meistersinger overture, which brought it to a close. Even Siegfried's own orchestral prelude, The Sacred Linden, played for the first—and undoubtedly last—time in England, was unable to disturb the steady crescendo.
27But all this had no effect on many hard hearted critics who would speak their minds, and those minds harbored scathing opinions of Wagner the Second, both as a composer and conductor. That even "father" would have called The Sacred Linden "Kapellmeistersmusik," and that the son is unworthy of the Siegfried Idyll, written in his honor, are two of the not unfriendliest remarks. Verily, it is hard to be the child of a great parent.
29MORE EMOTION
31Another emotional occasion (whoever said the English are cold?) was the last Queen's Hall Symphony concert, when, so far as anyone yet knows, Sir Henry Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra bade a final farewell to musical London. The orchestra never played better than on this occasion, and that, combined with an interesting program and Nicolas Orloff as soloist, made the concert a memorable one.
33Still another series is coming to a close, namely that of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Sir Thomas Beecham is conducting the last two concerts. He nearly always manages to bring out some unknown Mozart symphony and prove that it is almost as good as the popular ones. Thus, on the April 11th program he gave the C major symphony, No. 34, with such fine perception, feeling and enthusiasm that one wonders why it has not been done before. Delius's Sea Drift, on Walt Whitman's poem, which followed, is a listless sweetness, long drawn out. Berlioz' stupendous Te Deum, with Walter Hyde as soloist, closed the program on an exalted note.
35THE FLONZALEYS IN LONDON
37Chamber music has come to a complete standstill for the holidays. Albert Sammons and William Murdoch have finished their series of Beethoven sonatas; the Flonzaley Quartet paid a flying visit to London, and were most cordially welcomed by the public and critics; Joseph Szigeti and Max Pirani, the fine pianist of the Pirani Trio, played a delightful program for The Music Society, the novelty of which was an interesting sonata by Roussel (A major, op. 28); the New Philharmonic String Quartet brought out Arnold Bax's new string quartet in three movements; and the London Contemporary Music Center gave a delightful program for chamber orchestra.
39Vivaldi's Concerto Grosso, in MS., edited by Anthony Bernard, who conducted, was followed by a Concertino of Lennox Berkeley. It is a tuneful, clever little piece and well made. While lacking in weight and originality, it is nevertheless promising for a young man who seems to be still in his teens. Prokofieff's Overture on Jewish Melodies, Honegger's Pastoral d'été, which is full of charm and spontaneous sentiment, and not confined to mere impressionistic platitudes as is usual with modern "pastorals," and Peter Warlock's Capriol made up the rest of the program. Capriol is a series of old dances dressed up in modern fashion, an easy form of composition which is certain of success if the original pieces are sufficiently good. In this case they are very good indeed, and were so successful that the last three had to be repeated.
41A BRILLIANT NEW PIANIST
43A new star has risen in the pianistic world, that threatens to eventually outshine the virtuosi who are now sparkling so brilliantly. His name is Vladimir Horowitz and his accomplishment proved to be even greater than was promised by the rumors which trickled over from the continent. His playing of Chopin and Liszt was a revelation. He recreates as he plays, and there is not a note that is not given its full value. This fine musical feeling, coupled with a technic that, even in these days, is astonishing makes for performances that hold the hearer spellbound.
45Recitalists have been fairly scarce of late; Frederic Lamond, Jan Smetterlin, Nicolas Orloff, José Iturbi and Claudio Arrau are among the pianists most recently heard. Plunket Greene figures most prominently among the singers, while Isolde Menges is practically the only violinist who has braved the musical indifference of a holiday-minded public. The railroad stations are covered with enchanting pictures of what an Easter landscape ought to be like—but isn't—and even this scribe is being lured, ostensibly by a "music" festival, to Bournemouth on the Sea. C. S.
47Horace Stevens, Well Known Singer from Australia
49Horace Stevens, who appeared with success on April 21 as soloist with the New York Oratorio Society in a performance of the Bach B Minor Mass, was born in Windsor, Victoria, Australia. At the age of seven years he became a chorister at All Saints Church, St. Kilda. He sang in the choir at the opening service of St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, and retained his soprano voice until reaching the age of seventeen years and three months. For six years of his service he was soprano soloist and during this time he sang the Youth's part in Elijah with many celebrated visiting artists, including the late Sir Charles Santley and the late Janet Patey. Upon losing his treble voice he accepted the position of choirmaster at Christ Church, South Yarra. During the two years in which he occupied this position he subjected his voice to severe strain by singing with either boys or men. Despite this, his bass voice developed with such rapidity that in less than six months he was sharing the solos with the professional bass. At the end of two years he returned to All Saints Church as bass soloist. Shortly afterwards he was appointed lay clerk at St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, where he remained until leaving Australia for the war, early in 1916, a period of eighteen years. He also sang at many of the leading concerts in Melbourne and other cities. His time in these days, however, was not wholly occupied with music. He was the son of a dentist, and became apprenticed to his father. He qualified and practiced as a dentist for nearly twenty years, and was a clinical instructor at the Australian College of Dentistry and Dental Hospital, affiliated with the University of Melbourne. He gave clinical demonstrations and read papers before the Dental Congress of Australia. He also found time for sport, and was champion sculler of Victoria, retaining the title until the age of 35, when he retired undefeated. As an oarsman he won in pairs, fours and eights up to championship class, and had forty-two wins to his credit.
51After service in the Great War, in France and Belgium, he was invalided to England. Shortly after the Armistice he made the acquaintance of Sir Henry J. Wood, who heard him sing, and advised him to remain in England and devote himself entirely to music. He made his first appearance in London at Queen's Hall with Sir Henry Wood and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra on September 29, 1919, when he sang Wotan's Abschied, and on November 5 he appeared in Elijah at Birmingham (again under Sir Henry's baton), when critics declared him the successor in the part of Elijah to Sir Charles Santley. He soon became well known as an oratorio singer, and since then has sung at the great English Festivals and has a large clientele including the leading choral societies of Great Britain.
53Newark Music Festival
55The thirteenth season of the Newark Music Festival will be held at the Sussex Avenue Armory on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 2, 3 and 4. On the first day, Amelita Galli-Curci, Manuel Berenguer and Homer Samuels will be the soloists. Lucille Chalfant and Lawrence Tibbett are scheduled for the second day, with Kath-
57NEWS FLASH
59Muzio Sensation at La Scala
60(Special cable to the Musical Courier)
61Milan.—Scala, April 23, another sensational triumph for Claudia Muzio. Sings Tosca. Jammed house. Marvelous interpretation. Portrayal majestic. Incomparable artist. Second act impressive and touching. Visi d'Arte sung sublimely. Genuine prolonged ovation in open scene holds up action. Many recalls end of opera. Enthusiastic audience loath to leave. (Signed) BASSI.
63ryn Meisle and Moriz Rosenthal appearing as the attractions for the last day. Other than the soloists there will be orchestral and choral numbers, C Mortimer Wiske being the musical director.
65Isadore Freed—Pianist—Composer—Conductor
67The past few months have been busy ones for Isadore Freed. On February 21 he gave a recital of modern music at Elkins Park, playing a program ranging from Debussy and Scriabine to Bela Bartok, Ernest Bloch and Arnold Schoenberg. On February 26 he conducted the orchestra and choral society of the Y. M. and Y. W. H. A. of Philadelphia in concert; March 4 he appeared in recital in Brooklyn, N. Y., and on March 17 he gave an all-Chopin program in Newark, N. J. The Philadelphia Society for Contemporary Music introduced a suite for viola and piano by Mr. Freed at its second concert on March 25. The composer played the piano part and Henri Elkan was violist.
69Lisa Roma Sings at Atlantic City
71Lisa Roma sang on Easter Sunday evening in the Blenheim Exchange, Atlantic City. The program was given by the Marlborough-Blenheim Quartet, Leo Sachs, director, and included a violin solo by Abram Goldfuss, a piano solo by Rudolph Hildemann, a cello solo by Leo Sachs, and two vocal groups by Miss Roma, the first being an aria from La Tosca, and the second, songs by Dvorak, Mednikoff and German. Miss Roma was enthusiastically received.
73Helene Romanoff Pupils in Recital
75A large audience gathered at the Steinway Salon on April 3 to hear a recital by pupils of Helene Romanoff. Following the interesting program which was presented by these well trained singers, a reception was held by Mme. Romanoff at her studio to which a number of distinguished guests were invited. The dance selections referred to in last week's issue were given at the reception and not at the recital.
77Edwin Grasse Artist in Recital
79Alice Ives Jones, violinist, appeared in recital at Rumford Hall on April 22, presenting a program of numbers by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Grasse and Kreisler. She was assisted at the piano by her teacher, Edwin Grasse, who is well known for his versatility as a musician, having made numerous appearances as violinist, organist, pianist and composer.
81Shuberts to Produce Patience
83The Shuberts are to produce another Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Patience, which will open in New York about May 23.
85OBITUARY
87MRS. PAULA WOLFSON
89Mrs. Paula Wolfsohn, widow of the late Henry Wolfsohn, founder of the well known Wolfsohn Musical Bureau, died suddenly on April 20, at the Hotel Berkley in this city.
91Mrs. Wolfsohn took an active part in the business started by her husband, and her executive ability, tact, and personal charm were important factors in the success of the enterprise. The Bureau managed the first American tours of Rosenthal, Kreisler, Rachmaninoff, Elman, Schumann-Heink, and other noted artists.
93After the death of Henry Wolfsohn, in 1909, Mrs. Wolfsohn continued her interest in the Bureau until 1911, when she retired. Of late years she has spent much of her time attending concerts and opera.
95Mrs. Wolfsohn is survived by a daughter, Mrs. George W. Hammersley, of New York, and by two sisters, one living in Detroit and the other in Bremen, Germany. Mrs. Wolfsohn was a sister of the late well known composer, Gustave Kerker.
97KARL PROHASKA
99VIENNA.—Karl Prohaska, a Viennese musician, beloved both as man and artist, died here, after long and severe illness, at the age of fifty-eight. Born at Mödling, near Vienna, he studied piano under Anna Assmayer and Eugen d'Albert and theory under Kretn and Eusebius Mandyczewski. He was a faculty member of the Strasbourg Conservatory in his early years and later conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw. In 1908 he was appointed professor of piano and theory with the Vienna State Conservatory. Among his compositions, the most successful were Frühlingsfeier, after Klopstok's ode; Pierrot Lunaire (based on the same poems as Schönberg's work of that name); a choral work, Der Feind; several symphonic and choral compositions, and an opera, Madeleine Guinard, which was produced with some success.
101LAURA SEDGWICK COLLINS
103Laura Sedgwick Collins, well known composer, passed away on April 20 at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York at the age of sixty-eight. Miss Collins was a daughter of the late General John Fletcher Collins.
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