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Musical Courier 1927-06-16: Vol 94 Iss 24, 1927
48 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1June 16, 1927
2MUSICAL COURIER
3VIENNA CONCERT SEASON NEARING ITS CLOSE
4Renewed Activity in the Opera—Hellerau School Gives Milhaud Première—Elman Returns
5VIENNA.—Little by little musical Vienna is preparing for her well-deserved summer rest. Fewer and farther between are the musical events which disturb the even tenure of her life. The Staatsoper alone is in feverish activity. Big events are in store there, the long announced Festival Weeks for instance, and Chaliapin's eagerly awaited debut—and a few smaller ones which have taken place.
6It is the era of revivals more or less lovingly prepared. Adam's Postillion of Lonjumeau had a short-lived resurrection, and St. Saens' Samson and Dalilah, unheard here since the days of Mme. Charles Cahier. Rosette Anday, for whom the Staatsoper undertook this lost labor of love has, so far, neither the authoritative stage presence nor the consummate art of her great predecessor; but she has a big asset in her favor, namely the freshness of youth. Her opulent contralto revolved in the Mon coeur aria, but certain symptoms inspired the fear that this singer, too, will sooner or later fall victim to the "soprano epidemic" which in the past has wrought havoc with so many beautiful alto voices. Richard Schubert as Samson is but a shadow of his own past; it is painful to see so fine an artist go on the rocks, vocally, through bad tone production.
7PHILHARMONIC SEASON ENDS
8One of the last Philharmonic concerts of the season included several novelties. Kurt Weill's Quodlibet, as a witty piece of unproblematic music, and Wilhelm Kienzl's Septuaginta, as the work of a composer who enjoys a great personal popularity in his city, were pleasing if unexciting. The second piece, based on a theme from Kienzl's opera, Le Ranz des vaches (Chicago heard it in pre-war days), was a sort of birthday present from the seventy-year-old composer to the Philharmonic Orchestra. They and their public accepted the gift with pleasure, less for its merits than for the sentiment of the giver.
9The Philharmonic, still under Weingartner, collaborated again in one of those now annual charity affairs announced as "Monster Concerts." They consist of an evening of popular symphonic music played jointly by two orchestras with a total of about two hundred men. Fifteen double basses, eight horns, six trombones and an adequate army of other instruments gave a none too subtle performance of Tchaikowsky's Pathétique. Monster Concert is perhaps a more correct title for these events than the promoters realized, but the benevolently inclined accepted the affair with good grace because of its charitable aims.
10HELLERAU SCHOOL IN MILHAUD
11The Hellerau School of Physical Culture at Castle Laxenburg, near Vienna, has once more entered the public arena with a scenic production. The sanguine hopes of those who anticipated a new incentive in the musical life of Vienna from the advent of this well-known school, have happily not been disappointed. For if the Hellerau organization had not mustered the courage, who else in Vienna would ever have risked staging the belated local premiere of Darius Milhaud's delightful one-act ballet, Le Boeuf sur le Toit, and especially with such a splendid and comic setting?
12It was really no small matter for Vienna's ideas on ballet dancing are somewhat set. Happily the Konzerthaus where Valeria Kratina, Hellerau's ballet master, staged the clever little piece, is less dangerous ground for modernism than the Staatsoper, and the choreography (or pantomime) and Emmy Ferand's smart costume were witty enough to bridge the dangers of Milhaud's "radical" music. Economy precluded a full orchestra, but Rudolf Kolisch's diminutive setting for violin, piano and saxophone (with the arranger himself taking the violin part) made up in briskness what it lacked in volume. Most ingenious was the idea of seating this miniature orchestra on the stage, in full view of the audience, for the sake of the proper bar atmosphere. The whole production, in the style of a parodistic puppet show, was delightful. What a contrast to the Bach and Bartok dances that had gone before—and what versatility on the part of the dancers! The Hellerau people have good reason to be proud of their work and its appreciation by the Viennese public.
13BARTOK "STIRS THEM"
14Late, but not too late, has Bela Bartok found his way to Vienna. Much of his music had been heard here before and admired, though rarely understood except by the modernly inclined portion of the public. The press, or the larger part of it, had made him one of its bête noirs—a rank which the Hungarian master may be proud to share with the majority of the modern composers.
15Happily he is not the type of artist to heed the cries of these modern Jeremiahs. No other musician whom I have met seems so far removed from the noise and bustle of the surrounding world. He goes his way in his quiet set manner—an almost touching figure among contemporary composers. If the press raved, Bartok's public responded in a surprising degree, to the art of this man who has divested Hungarian national music of the fanciful gipsy elements of the Lisztian Rhapsodies. Bartok has done for Hungarian peasant music what Janacek has achieved for the Czechs. Bartok's marvellously "genuine" Hungarian National Songs (i.e. a few samples of them) were sung with feeling and musicianship by Mme. Rose Fuchs-Fayer. On the whole, this Bartok evening was one of the few real events of the season.
16CZECH MUSIC
17If Bartok's art is firmly rooted in the soil of his country and nourished by the mental and spiritual resources of a great nation, the young Czech composers seem to have completely forsaken the fields from which their predecessors, Smetana and Dvorak, drew their creative inspirations. More and more has modern Czech music accustomed itself to a cosmopolitan idiom, so to say. This observation has been made frequently in recent years, but it was again driven home forcibly when the Novak Frank Quartet, of Prague, played an evening of contemporary Czech chamber music in the Vienna I. S. C. M. lately. There was the String Quartet No. 2 of Boleslav Martini, for instance, who earned the nick-name of a Stravinsky epigone with his football epic, Half Times, two years ago, and still holds it. There was Emil Axman's String Quartet No. 2, somewhat more Czechish in character, yet not really as "national" as we had come to expect from these Smetana offsprings.
18K. B. Jirak's Divertimento for violin, viola and cello was by far the most matured and clarified of the three. The music is more lyric, pensive and cultured, if less conspicuously spontaneous. The Novak Frank Quartet, by the way, is following the path of the famous old Bohemian String Quartet, for passionate delivery and visible temperament. Even our old and somewhat stolid cellist friend Maurits Frank, of Hindemith Quartet memory, seemed enthralled by the vigor of his three colleagues. This new organization is excellent and ought to make a career.
19ELMAN AND SPALDING
20One of the big events that, in passing, rippled the surface of the spring season was Mischa Elman's return to Vienna, after a lapse of nineteen years. A crowded house attended, eagerly awaiting the anticipated thrill, and revelled with Elman in his almost uncannily big and sonorous tone. Less heralded, but no less vociferously welcomed, was Albert Spalding, who, like Elman, is the possessor of a wonderful instrument and the gift to draw from it a tremendously voluminous tone. Spalding's virile conception of so unvirile a piece as the Cesar Franck sonata at once revealed him as an artist of serious purpose, and his smaller tid-bits at the close of the program (de Falla, Fauré) unloosened a tornado of applause. Besides so distinguished a colleague, a younger violinistic product of America, Louis W. Krasner, held his place with honors. He gave the impression of a musically and technically well equipped player in Vieuxtemps' Fifth Concerto (played under somewhat adverse circumstances with a semi-professional orchestra) and with Gregori Krein's Poeme, the latter in a concert of Jewish Music at the Konzerthaus.
21SIROTA A MASTER
22The ordeal of a whole Liszt evening was administered to his numerous admirers by Leo Sirota, the eminent Russian pianist; and if there be one master of the keyboard today to make such musical diet at all palatable, Sirota is certainly the man. He has the tenderness and repose for the Spozzilizio, the breadth of conception and temperament for the Dante Sonata, and the technical brilliancy for the Don Juan Fantasy. This artist has gradually come to the fore in recent years and today he stands in the front row of contemporary pianists. The audience shouted its approval and left no doubt as to its critical verdict on this remarkable artist.
23PAUL BECHERT.
24HERMANN SCHERCHEN'S TRIUMPH IN ROME
25Artur Schnabel's Success—Stravinsky's Les Noces Monotonous—David Stanley Smith Welcomed—Another American Composer
26ROME.—The most interesting and successful guest conductor that has come to Rome this season has been Hermann Scherchen. In a program comprising Beethoven's Great Fugue, op. 133, Mozart's D major Serenade, Bassani's F major Adagio for strings, oboe and organ, Scarlatti's sonata in five movements for flute, strings and piano, and Till Eulenspiegel, Scherchen's success increased steadily until, at the end the enthusiasm of the audience knew no bounds.
27He won further honors at the subsequent Wednesday Popular Concert by breaking the custom of repeating the Sunday concert and conducting an entirely different program, Haydn's D major and Schubert's Unfinished symphonies, the Tannhäuser Bacchanale and Verdi's Nabucco overture aroused such clamorous applause that the overture had to be repeated.
28A most distinguished pianist who visited us about the same time was Artur Schnabel. Under the excellent orchestral leadership of Mario Rossi, he gave masterly performances of three concertos, Mozart's A major, Bach's third Brandenburg (G major) and Schumann's A major, and scored a tremendous success. This success was increased at his two recitals which were devoted to Beethoven sonatas. The Hammerklavier (op. 106) and the last (op. 110) sonata were played with a superb virtuosity, immense force and deep penetration; but it was the earlier, letter known works, such as the E major (op. 14, No. 1) that pleased his listeners best.
29Another all-Beethoven program was given by the Gewandhaus Quartet who, while their interpretations were considered rather cold, were nevertheless much appreciated and heartily received.
30REVIVED MADRIGALS
31In a program of striking contrasts arranged by Alfredo Casella one of the most interesting works was the oral comedy, Amfiparnasso, written by Orazio Vecchi, and published in Venice in 1597. It is arranged in the form of madrigals for a mixed, a capella chorus, the music is fresh, charming, and full of piquant humor and was beautifully performed by the Varese Madrigalists who are already in high standing here.
32Les Noces, by Stravinsky, has also had its first hearing in Rome, but only in concert form as yet. The vocal parts were sung by Rachele Maragliano-Mori, Ghita, Lenart, Marcell Govoni and George Lanskoy, while the four pianos were played by Mario Castelnovo-Tedesco, Oscar Adler, Gino Mortari and Dante Alderighi. Casella conducted with energy and enthusiasm, but the public considered the work monotonous.
33Magda Brard, who appeared as a child prodigy at the age of six, has come among us once more as a mature artist of twenty. She is as attractive now as then, possessing considerable charm, spontaneity, a strong instinctive sense of beauty and a clear, flowing technique.
34DAVID STANLEY SMITH IN CONCERT
35A particularly interesting recital was given by the violinist, Hildegard Donaldson and David Stanley Smith, the American composer-pianist. The latter's sonata, op. 51, beautifully played, was very well received, as were Tallahassee, by Cyril Scott, Byegone Memories, After Sundown and a Negro Air and Dance. The artists were enthusiastically recalled.
36Another interesting concert was given under the auspices of the British Institute of Florence, dedicated to the propaganda of English music. The artists were the English violinist, Elsie Owen, and Maestro Felice Boghen, of Florence, pianist of renown who is attached to the Musical Institute of Florence. They played works by John Ireland (D minor sonata), Arnold Bax (second sonata) and J. B. McEwen (Sonata Fantasia, No. 5). Both the artists and works were enthusiastically applauded.
37Space forbids more than a mention of some of the other musical occurences. The Russian singer, Paolina Novikova, made a most successful appearance on her way to Berlin; Marco Peyrot and Rodolfo Caporali, cellist and pianist, respectively, were likewise warmly received; the Roman Madrigalists, organized and conducted by Domenico Alealeona gave a delightful concert of old Italian music.
38Nor must a private concert of considerable interest be overlooked. It was given by the young American composer, August Eisert and Mme. Lucey de Rochefort, the soprano, at whose home the concert took place. Mme. Rochefort, with her clear, sympathetic voice and good diction, gave delightful interpretations of Eisert's songs which won immediate recognition. Both the artists were spontaneously and enthusiastically applauded.
39D. P.
40Midsummer Night's Dream at Forest Hills
41A feature of the open-air performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will be given at the West Side Tennis Stadium, Forest Hills, L. I., on Sunday night, June 19, for the benefit of The Actors' Fund, will be the familiar Mendelssohn musical setting for the play which will be interpreted by the Chamber Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Max Jacobs. The arrangement of the Mendelssohn score will be the same as employed by Conductor Jacobs on numerous occasions for the al fresco performances of the play given by the Ben Greet Players.
42Mr. Jacobs visited the Forest Hills Stadium last week and pronounced the acoustics of the enclosure as perfect. The full tonal qualities of the music will be heard with ease in all parts of the spacious amphitheater.
43Richard Buhlig Teaching in Paris
44Richard Buhlig, pianist, has decided to stay in Paris until September 17, when he expects to sail for America. Mr. Buhlig has a number of German and American pupils studying with him this summer, so it will not be one of complete rest, although Paris offers much opportunity for amusement, too. The pianist's address may be secured at the MUSICAL COURIER office in Paris.
45Photo Fayer, Vienna
46HELLERAU SCHOOL'S INGENIOUS PRODUCTION OF MILHAUD'S LE BOEUF SUR LE TOIT, AT VIENNA.
47The clever costumes are by Emmy Ferand, choreography by Valeria Kratina.
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