Books › Musical Courier 1927-06-16: Vol 94 Iss 24, 1927 › scan 26
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Musical Courier 1927-06-16: Vol 94 Iss 24, 1927
85 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
1June 16, 1927
3those days there has been practically nothing of importance written for this beautiful instrument.
5In the last twenty years numerous pianists and violinists have appeared who have compelled the notice and admiration of the musical world, but where are the cellists?
7Sit up and take notice, ye apostles of the noble knee-fiddle! Yours is a heritage of eminent forebears, and your mission should be to bring back the cello to the place in the musical world which it occupied in bygone days, and which it should maintain today and for all time!
9ON MUSIC FESTIVALS
11One of the noblest deeds of man is a music festival devoted to works of a composer whom the world has not accorded the posthumous position due his genius. Less noble is a music festival when projected for the purpose of pandering to local sensationalism and attracting foreign attention through special advertising and the employment of celebrated soloists. Least noble is the kind of music festival conceived as a private money making scheme, which follows shrewdly the spurts and shifts of public taste and is on hand at any propitious time, devoting itself to any composer or any works whose performance seems to promise a profit.
13America has had all sorts of music festivals, unsolicited on the part of the public, and the nature of most of them was such that the word "festival," attached to a series of concerts, often made the prospective ticket purchaser wary of venting his enthusiasm and investing his money.
15In Europe a music festival usually grows out of a specific cause, an anniversary celebrated at the birthplace of a composer, or a demand by the public and musicians for a series of chamber concerts, a cycle of opera, or a course of symphonic performances, as the case may be. Festivals to honor living composers as a rule spring from the genuine admiration of their artistic adherents, and thus Strauss, Schillings, Weingartner and others have been distinguished in recent years as the recipients of such celebrations—without profit to themselves, of course.
17The Wagner festival at Bayreuth has strong artistic reasons for existing aside from sentimental ones, and the Wagner gala performances in Munich are based on that city's historical association with the composer. Mozart's operas receive special consideration in the Bavarian capital because it possesses a theater especially adapted for their performance.
19The great choral festivals of England, after which all other choral festivals the world over are patterned, serve the laudable purpose of stimulating the interest in and supporting materially the representative local choruses and maintaining the standard of oratorio composition and performance, branches of musical art in which England has excelled since Handel made that country his home and Mendelssohn paid it his significant visits.
21While most of the European music festivals are started under municipal auspices, all of them are developed and controlled by committees of well known musicians and representative business men and officials, who devote their services without pay and oftentimes contribute money out of their own pockets as a warrant of their disinterested local patriotism and true musical enthusiasm.
23That is why, when a European community announces a music festival, the cultured citizens of other localities, near and far, feel themselves drawn to the spot where honor is being done to the tonal art. Such festivals command respect because the visitors understand that no effort has been spared to make the performance perfect, that competent conductors and soloists have rehearsed incessantly to achieve an ideal ensemble, and that for the time being, all persons concerned in the productions have set aside every other interest and devoted themselves with the true whole heartedness of genuine artists to the noble musical cause they banded themselves together to serve.
25Of such a character are the extraordinary music festivals being held in Europe this summer—a real renaissance of pre-war art spirit—and that is why American music lovers, who have the necessary leisure and means, should not fail to visit the current great tonal celebrations across the seas.
27MUSIC WEEK COMPETITIONS
29The New York Music Week Association competitions have proved this year to be more interesting than ever. There seems to have been an extraordinary number of contestants, as many as 10,000 or more, and about 1,000 of them have been given medals of one sort or another. One of New York's musicians who is close to this movement says that these competitions had the effect of ruining the business of fake music teachers. The pupils of the fakers found that they were getting nowhere and were not slow in determining in their own minds upon the cause. If the Music Week competitions had had no other effect but this, they would be well worth the time and trouble that has been put upon them.
31A great deal of generosity has been shown by numerous persons and organizations in aiding the competitions, notably the owners of Birchard Hall, Carnegie Chamber Music Hall, Chickering Hall, Guild Hall, Steinway Hall and Town Hall, who have donated the use of the halls for the examinations. Also the judges have donated their time, and a great deal of time is needed to get through the various classes of competition. The judges were as follows: (piano) Ernest A. Ash, Gustave L. Becker, Helen Beebe, Walter Charmbury, James Friskin, Grace Hofheimer, Henry Holden Huss, Ellis J. Moss, G. Aldo Randegger, Bernard Ravitch, Carl M. Roeder, Albert Von Doenhoff, Ignace Hilsberg; (violin) Max Bendix, Carl Binhak, Henry Burck, Carl Hahn, Jacques Gottlieb, Fritz Heim, Franz Listemann, Roland Meyer, Emil Mix, Mrs. Emil Mix, Walter Pfeifer, Carl Tollefson, Nathan A. Ulanov; (wind) Gustave Langenus; (vocal) George Bowden, Frederick A. Haywood, Hildegard Hoffman Huss, Clara Kalisher, Wilfred Klamroth, Oscar Saenger, William Stickles; (choral) Dina Moore Bowden, John Hyatt Brewer, Oscar Franklin Comstock, T. Tertius Noble, Herbert S. Sammond, Frank L. Sealy, William Armour Thayer.
33ENSEMBLE OF SEVENTEEN PIANISTS PLAYS AT PHILADELPHIA FESTIVAL
35Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists Also Take Part in Program
37The sixth annual Spring Music Festival, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Music League, was given in the Arena in Philadelphia on the evening of June 4 before an audience of nine thousand people. The program opened, after an introduction by the orchestra of Sousa's Stars and Stripes, with the Merry Wives of Windsor overture by Nicolai, Herbert J. Tily conducting the orchestra composed of members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Four choral numbers followed, Gilchrist's Hunting Song and May Day by Stephenson; Hail Bright Abode, Wagner; Chorus of Homage, Gericke, and Viking Song by Coleridge-Taylor, the first two and the last named orchestrated by N. Lindsay Norden and each conducted by a different leader in the following order: Henry Hotz, Henry Gordon Thunder, N. Lindsay Norden and Joseph Smith. The Festival Chorus, kept from last year's Sesqui-Centennial Chorus and numbering about a thousand voices, had been trained in four units under the above named leaders and then had several massed rehearsals before the concert. The result was amazingly satisfying, for to control and sway such a large body as though playing upon an instrument and with such success as to smoothness, tone quality, markedly fine rhythm and shading with almost unfailing precision in attack, attested to the skill and experience of the different conductors and the seriousness and interest of the singers.
39Part II consisted of a piano ensemble—eight pianos being used in which seventeen of the best pianists of the city took part, one as conductor while two were placed at each piano, their selections being Hungarian Dance, No. 5, Brahms; Bolero, Moskowski, and March Militaire by Schubert, conducted in turn by George Boyle, Leo Ornstein and D. Hendrik Ezerman, each as he relinquished the baton filling the place at the piano left vacant by the one assuming the leadership. The pianists were Pearl Boyle, Letitia Radcliffe Harris, Helen Pulaski Innes, Dorothea Neebe Lange, Mary Miller Mount, Pauline M. P. Ornstein, Agnes Clune Quinlan, Myra Reed Skibinsky, W. Leroy Ansbach, Erl Beatty, George F. Boyle, D. Hendrik Ezerman, Joseph W. Clarke, Clarence Fuhrman, Harl MacDonald, Edmond Vichnin and Josef Wissow.
41By reason of its very decided and various rhythmic changes the Brahms number did not quite equal in excellence of performance the other two which, while favorites with an audience, are rather elementary for such a group of skilled pianists.
43The rendition of Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass by the chorus with May Ebery Hotz, Royal MacLellan and Nelson Eddy as soloists was inspiring and clearly demonstrated the further capabilities of the chorus. The Kyrie, Gloria and Agnus Dei were conducted by Mr. Norden and the Credo, Benedictus and Sanctus by Mr. Thunder, while the soloists did the artistic work for which they are well known. One felt it an instance of a rare discernment which aside from its cultural value placed this great work on a program of this kind showing thereby to a popular musical audience how expression may be given to the many human emotions, not the least of which should be the spiritual.
45Part IV of the program was a series of very beautiful ballet numbers furnished by Caroline Littlefield's Corps de Ballet, presenting Pastel Ballet to music by Gounod, Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda, an Oriental Fantasy, music by Saint-Saëns and Borodin and concluding with Greeting to Spring to the Blue Danube Waltz. That the entire program was enjoyed was shown by the enthusiastic applause which greeted each number and the appearance of the various artists.
47SUMMER COURSE AT VIRGIL CONSERVATORY
49An intensive course for teachers and advanced players will be held from June 21 to July 15 at the Virgil Piano Conservatory in New York.
51NEWS FLASHES
53Hadley Makes South American Debut
54(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
55Buenos Aires.—Henry Hadley achieved a great success conducting Philharmonic Orchestra.
56(Signed) Epstein.
58Elman in Paris
59(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
60Paris.—Mischa Elman, at his recital at the Grand Opera on June 9 played in his best old time style before a fair sized audience that applauded him vigorously.
61C.
63Easton Scores London Success in Turandot
64(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
65London.—Florence Easton scored a success last evening at Covent Garden in Turandot. English critics paid her high tribute and praised the quality of her voice.
66(Signed) A.
68Shavitch Receives Ovation in Paris
69(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
70Paris.—Shavitch gave magnificent performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Conservatoire Orchestra and the Choeurs Mixtes of Paris. Great ovation.
71(Signed) Dandelot.
73Marguerite Morgan Acclaimed at Third Paris Recital
74(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
75Paris.—Marguerite Morgan in third recital at Pleyel Hall gave fine renditions of Bach and poetic interpretations of Chopin. There was a large audience and many recalls.
76(Signed) Lucas.
78Balogh Work Composed and Performed on Ocean
79(By special cable to the Musical Courier)
80Paris.—For the first time in music history a world premiere has been given on the Atlantic Ocean. String trio composed on S.S. Minnekahda by Erno Balogh performed by Godowsky Junior, Henri Elkan and Daniel Saidenberg.
81(Signed) Debogory.
83PIANO ENSEMBLE OF THE PHILADELPHIA MUSIC LEAGUE'S SPRING FESTIVAL
84held in the Arena, Philadelphia, June 4. The photograph shows (left to right, standing), Leo Ornstein, Dorothea Neebe Lange, Edmond Vichnin, Helen Pulaski Innes, Harl MacDonald, (sitting), D. Hendrik Ezerman, Mary Miller Mount, Josef Wissow, Pauline Mallet-Prevost Ornstein, Joseph W. Clark, Agnes Clune Quinlan, Clarence Fuhrman, Letitia Radcliffe Harris, Erl Beatty, Pearl Boyle, Myra Reed Skibinsky, George F. Boyle. The directors were Messrs. Boyle, Ezerman and Ornstein. (Photo by Stanley E. Stady).
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