Books › Musical Courier 1927-10-27: Vol 95 Iss 17, 1927 › scan 40
Scan 40
Musical Courier 1927-10-27: Vol 95 Iss 17, 1927
60 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 41. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1October 27, 1927
3VIENNA
4(Continued from page 5)
6the whole too melancholy, too "minor" in mood to evade the danger of occasional monotony.
8In this respect it was the antithesis of what followed, namely the first movement, for cello and piano, of Malipiero's Sonata a tre. Brilliant music, unburdened by ethical or spiritual preoccupations, it is calculated to please and to give ample scope to the instrumentalists, an opportunity enthusiastically embraced by Emma Lubbecke-Job, the pianist and by Hans Kindler who revelled, like a full-blooded "Musikant," in the sustained cello cantilenas no less than in the dashing, technically intricate display passages.
10Nor was Leo Weiner's Pittsfield Quartet of the spiritual order. The work is well known in America, with its fluid music of the entertaining sort, melodious and neo-Mendelssohian in spots.
12LOEFFLER'S SETTING OF ASSISI HYMN
14Amid these mundane joys the pensive element was largely entrusted to the vocal portion of the programs. Francis of Assisi's Hymn to Brother Sun has tempted many a composer into elated outbursts, but we have yet to hear a musical setting that reflects the noble, yet naive grandeur of the poem. Charles M. Loeffler is, to our knowledge, the latest in the long list of adepts. He approaches the task with more sincerity and taste than creative potentiality, with more knowledge of ecclesiastical than Italian diction, with more reverence than originality. His St. Francis speaks mildly to his Lord; but Frederick Jacobi prays to his heathen gods (in his Two Assyrian Psalms) with the requisite pagan tempestuousness. We are in quite an operatic world there; the prayer to Bel Marduk seems to presuppose in the deity a strong predilection for Meyerbeer, and the ghost of Salome walks ubiquitously through the invocation of Istar.
16Admiration was aroused for the courage and vocal equipment of the soloist, Ruzena Herlinger, who undertook the duel with the stormy orchestral waves of Jacobi's Psalms, emerging victorious, and who displayed a beautiful voice and fine lyric qualities in the Loeffler piece. The selection of this Viennese artist for the international occasion was a compliment well merited and fully justified. Hans Kindler, the versatile, wielded the baton with enthusiasm and achieved dashing dynamic climaxes.
18SCHÖNBERG'S NEW QUARTET
20Otterino Respighi was present to conduct this, the first public performance of his Trittico Botticelliano, for chamber orchestra—three pieces of contrasting and well balanced moods suggested by three paintings of the Italian master, namely, La Primavera, L'adorazione dei Magi, and La Nascita di Vere. It is limpid, transparently scored music throughout, with the typically Respighian note, Gregorian elements wedded to impressionistic influences and, this time, to certain Puccinian reminiscences as well. It was followed by what was expected to be the great event of the Coolidge Concerts, namely the first performance of Arnold Schönberg's new Quartet, opus 30, No. 3.
22To speak definitely of a piece like this after a single hearing, to find one's way through this wonder work of construction, taxes the critic's sense of responsibility. The question musicians are asking is whether this work, like the Woodwind Quintet, is what misunderstanding or ill-willed hearers have called "paper music," musical mathematics. Even to quote such "critical" verdicts is painful to one who has recognized that the errors of a Schönberg, if errors there be, are more important, more constructive, more fundamental for the music of the future than the so-called positive achievements of the seekers for ephemeral success.
24If writing in the twelve tone system constitutes "paper music," then this work deserves the epithet. But even granted that the Woodwind Quintet was an experiment in the new technique, a study, as it were, in the new musical grammar—the Quartet, born two or three years later, is a well set poem in the new language. If the "rhymes" are not at once intelligible in the first movement, the lyric beauty of the second cannot but strike the hearer immediately.
26BEAUTIFUL MELODIES
28We have heard so much in recent years of the alleged "lack of pregnancy" in the melodies of modern music. Here is, in the second movement, a wonderful, sustained theme, treated and developed with the mastery of a Schönberg. Here is also a last rondo movement with a strong, virile melody for its theme. Here is, throughout, a mastery of thematic work, a supreme, clarified craftsmanship that reveals Schönberg as he is, the great classic master of our age. Let those, incidentally, who have heretofore complained of a lack of melodic inspiration in Schönberg, bear in mind that Beethoven built a whole symphony movement on a thrice repeated G joined to an E flat. But we are yet to find the strange prophet who bewails a want melody in the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth.
30A word of praise, nay many, are due to the Vienna String Quartet, who undertook and carried out the gigantic task of performing Schönberg's new quartet. Any phrase extolling this feat must be too weak to do it justice. It was a triumph of congenial musicianship and mental homogeneity with the will of the composer.
32AMERICAN RECITALISTS
34Chronological correctness compels the reviewer to bridge the enormous gap that lies between this new work and the current recitals of the season. His reluctance to take this step does not, however, in any way reflect upon the qualities of the vocalists under consideration. Indeed, the jolly band of colored artists known as the Utica Jubilee Singers was excellent and a joy to the hearers. They were received with tremendous enthusiasm and the Spirituals and Plantation Songs which have become favorites in Vienna, thanks to the inimitable Roland Hayes, have now been made more popular than ever.
36The first Lieder singer to invite Vienna's verdict this season was Margherita Marsden, from California, who presented herself with a varied and taxing program. She won her audience at once both by the evident seriousness with which she approaches her work and by her handsome stage presence. Her vocal material is excellent and it shows to particular advantage in the middle register, which rings clear and pure. She will undoubtedly succeed before long in correcting certain weaknesses in her highest notes. Miss Marsden's audience was unusually large and appreciative.
38PAUL BECHERT.
40RUZENA HERLINGER,
41Viennese soprano, who had the distinction of being the only central European vocalist to be selected by Mrs. Elizabeth S. Coolidge for the latter's concerts of modern music given in the musical centers of Europe. (Photo Setzer, Vienna)
43L. Leslie Loth Gives Interesting Lecture
45L. Leslie Loth recently gave an unusual and highly interesting lecture on The Parents' Part in the Child's Music Study before a large and enthusiastic audience of the Parents' Association of the Glenwood Road School in Brooklyn. Mr. Loth's hearers were so stimulated by the address that they asked many questions concerning the subject and musical matters closely related thereto. These were expertly and delightfully answered by Mr. Loth. This well known pianist-pedagogue also has won wide recognition as a composer, many of his compositions frequently appearing on concert programs. Last Sunday evening Galli-Curci sang his Wintah, Summah, Snow er Shine at her New York recital in Carnegie Hall. The words for this delightful song are by Paul Laurence Dunbar and it is published by G. Schirmer.
47Henri Deering Recital, November 17
49Henri Deering, pianist, who divides his time between Europe and America, will give his first recital of the season in Town Hall on November 17.
51MARGUERITE COBBEY VACATIONING
52(1) and (2) the young coloratura soprano aboard the Aquila in which she cruised Puget Sound this summer. In one of these pictures she is shown with the skipper and first mate. (3) Ready for a round of golf at the Seattle Country Club. (4) a little work on the farm, and (5) in the garden of her home at Edmonds-on-the-Sound, Wash.
54CLAUDINE LEEVE
55Soprano
56"A singer with taste and brains as well as a voice."
57—Boston Globe
58Concert Direction: Aaron Richmond
59Pierce Bldg., Boston, Mass.
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