Scan 5
Musical Courier 1927-11-17: Vol 95 Iss 20, 1927
95 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1PARIS' SALLE PLEYEL THE LAST WORD IN CONCERT HALLS
3Sound Proof Rooms Make New Building a Haven for Musicians—German Music at Inaugural Concert—Vocal Recitals Abound—Many Americans Heard
5PARIS.—The eagerly awaited opening of the great Salle Pleyel took place on October 18 with an inaugural concert, given before an audience of 3,500—500 more than the supposed capacity of the hall. Two of the world's leading composers, Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel, conducted their own works, and one of France's finest pianists, Robert Casadesus, was the soloist of the occasion. It is significant, however, that the first work on the program was the Meistersinger Overture, conducted by Philippe Gaubert. German music to inaugurate a French institution! A distinguished audience, which included the president of the republic, numerous ambassadors and other high political and social dignitaries, exhibited the overwhelming enthusiasm the occasion deserved.
7For this is not an ordinary hall, but one that may well prove to be the finest of its kind. Acoustics have always presented unknown surprises in the past, and builders of concert halls have usually made their calculations as well as they could and then sat back hoping that sound would play them no tricks. Now, for the first time in history, a hall has been built in Paris whose acoustic properties are based on exact scientific data. It is the Salle Pleyel, contained in a new building which is a veritable temple of music, and the result of many years of study on the part of Gustave Lyon, director of the great piano house for forty years.
9There has always been need in Paris for another, larger hall than the Salle Gaveau; a hall in which orchestral concerts could be given. Lyon, who is both a musician and a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, has always averred that acoustics are a question of mathematics, and he has been working on this idea for many years.
11When it was decided to give concerts in the hall of the Trocadero in 1889, Lyon, who was asked to organize them, said that he would have to correct the acoustics; but he was unable to do so until 1904. The result was so remarkable that he was asked to correct acoustic defects in other halls. He even went to Belgium to apply the principles which he had worked out, and those are the principles which he has now carried out in his own new hall, the latest word in art and science.
13A BEAUTIFUL STRUCTURE
15The new Pleyel building is situated on the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré and the rue Daru. It is a huge white stone structure with a wide and inviting entrance, and numerous gleaming white columns. There are three concert halls, the large Salle Pleyel, which seats 3,000, and two smaller halls, one (the "Salle Chopin") seating 500, the other 200 spectators. The large hall can be reduced to 1,300 seats by the manipulation of curtains. Besides these three halls, the building contains the offices of the Maison Pleyel and a great number of studios, all of which are constructed so as to be absolutely sound proof. No pains or study have been spared to attain this desirable result.
17In the large hall every distance has been carefully calculated to give perfect acoustical results. The sumptuous decorations are in gold and mauve; the entire ceiling and about one-third of the walls are covered with gold leaf, only the lower part of the hall carrying a somber and discreet decoration in tints of mauve, representing different musical subjects. Indirect lighting is employed everywhere, though there are several lamps under the ceiling, like great stars.
19The hall is built on the principle of radiating lines starting from a center that is formed by the stage. This stage is large enough to seat one hundred musicians and six hundred singers. The organ, which has been built behind the wall of the stage so as not to interfere with the acoustics, is the work of the Maison Cavallé-Coll and Jean Huré, who was in charge of its artistic construction. This new hall is a veritable triumph of modern architecture in that it has to a degree the simplicity and dignity which present-day taste demands. Every seat is so placed as to give the occupant a perfect view of the stage and ensure him the best hearing, and at the same time, the great size of the hall permits the charging of low prices, an essential condition today. It will be possible to give the best symphony concerts at popular prices and it will undoubtedly bring many people to concerts from which they have been debarred in the past by the price of admission.
21MANY SINGERS
23Vocalists have claimed a good deal of my attention thus far this season, though the pianists, including Iturbi, Rubinstein, Ciampe, Walter Rummel and others, have begun their interminable list of recitals.
25Anna El-Tour, a soprano of great experience, recently returned from a tour of Java and other oriental lands, gave the first of a series of four recitals in the Salle des Agriculteurs. Her program ranged from early Italian classics down to modern Russian, and she sang in Italian, English, French, German, and Russian. One of Purcell's old English songs had to be repeated. She was apparently at home in all styles, and her audience contained a goodly number of professional singers who followed her interpretations of rarely heard works with keen interest.
27AN INTERNATIONAL SINGER
29Margherita Marsden, reported to be a Canadian by birth, a Californian by adoption, and an Italian vocalist by training, came up from Milan and gave a recital in the Salle des Agriculteurs at the end of October. Her unusual program attracted much attention, for one rarely hears Mexican music in Europe. The audience was generously enthusiastic about this new singer (two of the old English songs, and one of the Italian folksongs, had to be repeated). She wisely limited the number of French works on her list. Too many young singers attempt the French language without the necessary delicacy of accent to satisfy a Parisian audience.
31Berthe Era's powerful and rich dramatic soprano voice was heard to great advantage in the Salle Gaveau in a recital of songs selected from Handel, Mozart, Debussy and several Spanish composers. This vocalist is always sure of a public in Paris, where her art is well known and highly esteemed.
33One of the most carefully trained and artistically conscientious singers before the Parisian public today is Nika Cunelli, who interpreted Mozart to perfection at one of the Pasdeloup orchestral concerts on Saturday, October 29. She has a warm, appealing soprano voice, which she manages with consummate ease.
35A NON-OPERATIC RECITAL
37Cecilia Hansen, the popular violinist, was announced to play the concerto of Glazounoff at one of the Pasdeloup orchestral concerts. But when I got there the program was bare of Glazounoff, and Mendelssohn's ever young and captivating concerto was substituted, to the great delight of the audience, which recalled the violinist to the platform again and again. The orchestral accompaniment, directed by Rhéné-Bâton, had much to do with the success of the work. The entire program, in fact, was excellently done. one of two readings
38Cecilia Hansen, the popular violinist, was announced to play the concerto of Glazounoff at one of the Pasdeloup orchestral concerts. But when I got there the program was bare of Glazounoff, and Mendelssohn's ever young and captivating concerto was substituted, to the great delight of the audience, which recalled the violinist to the platform again and again. The orchestral accompaniment, directed by Rhené-Baton, had much to do with the success of the work. The entire program, in fact, was excellently done. one of two readings
40KINDLER PLAYS BLOCH
42Hans Kindler, long popular in the United States as a cellist, made two appearances with the Colonne orchestra conducted by the veteran Pierné. At the first concert he played a suite by the old Italian composer, Giuseppe Valentini, a work which the famous cellist Piatti had arranged for orchestra, and Hans Kindler himself had afterwards transcribed as a concerto for cello and orchestra. The full, singing tone of the performer was greatly appreciated. At the following concert, he played Ernest Bloch's Schelomo, or Hebrew Rhapsody. Mary Garden was to have appeared at this concert, and the old theater was packed to suffocation to hear the second act of Pelléas et Mélisande in concert version. But a cold prevented the popular soprano-actress from appearing.
44The American pianist, Eleanor Spencer, played Schumann's poetic concerto with the Pasdeloup orchestra under the direction of Rhéné-Bâton to a large audience which showed the same great enthusiasm that has been characteristic of all the many orchestral concerts in which I have heard this brilliant artist play. It would be hard for me to say whether I liked her best in the Mozart, Beethoven or MacDowell concertos, all of which I have recently heard her play. Her Schumann playing certainly pleased her audience, and the Schumann concerto is not a work which allows the pianist much scope for the display of any quality but poetry. one of two readings
45The American pianist, Eleanor Spencer, played Schumann's poetic concerto with the Pasdeloup orchestra under the direction of Rhené-Baton to a large audience which showed the same great enthusiasm that has been characteristic of all the many orchestral concerts in which I have heard this brilliant artist play. It would be hard for me to say whether I liked her best in the Mozart, Beethoven or MacDowell concertos, all of which I have recently heard her play. Her Schumann playing certainly pleased her audience, and the Schumann concerto is not a work which allows the pianist much scope for the display of any quality but poetry. one of two readings
47DRESDEN OPERA IN PROCESS OF SCENIC REJUVENATION
49Revivals to Supersede Novelties—Otto Erhardt's Success
51DRESDEN.—The outstanding feature of the Dresden operatic season so far is a new tendency toward the scenic rejuvenation of the venerable old Staatsoper. This tendency cannot be recommended strongly enough for experience has shown that the principal aim of a well-managed operatic theater should be not so much a craving for a large number of "first times anywhere"—a mania which has become a veritable epidemic among the competing German opera houses—but for revivals of important old works. The modern operatic director has come to realize that in order to obtain satisfying performances of the classics, high musical standards alone will not suffice.
53It was probably for this reason that Fritz Busch, the Staatsoper's eminent director (who is now in New York as guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra) decided to win for the Dresden Opera the young and excellent stage director, Otto Erhardt. The first achievements of the new man have fully justified the expectations he aroused. A newly studied Tannhäuser was in perfect Wagnerian style, but imbued with modern ideas of stage setting and direction. Cosi fan tutte followed in a delightful performance which made the old work one of the strongest box office magnets in years. Fritz Busch gave a marvellously clear reading of the transparent score, and the singers were mostly excellent. For the scenic designs Erhardt invited Bernhard Pankok, his former colleague at the Stuttgart Opera, to collaborate, and the outcome was a delightful array of scenery and costumes in the most perfect "commedia dell'arte" spirit.
55INTERESTING EXPERIMENT
57For the forthcoming première of Krenek's Jonny Spielt Auf, Erhardt has tried a bold and interesting experiment. The scenic designs will be the work of Oscar Strnad, the Viennese painter and architect whom Max Reinhardt brought into prominence and whom Erhardt has now encouraged to make his initial attempt at operatic stage designing. It is Strnad, incidentally, who has made most of the settings for the forthcoming American tour of Reinhardt's German company.
59Aside from Krenek's jazz opera, the novelty of the early season in Dresden will be Dreamland, a new opera by Jan Brandt-Buys, the Dutch composer naturalized in Germany, who scored the great success of his career some ten years ago at Dresden with his opera, Die Schneider von Schönau. Unlike this comic piece, Dreamland is a grand opera of the romantic type.
61CHALIAPIN AND BAUER FOR BARCELONA
63Advent of the Two Artists Rouses Unusual Interest
65BARCELONA.—After a series of arduous and complicated negotiations Feodor Chaliapin has signed a contract with the management of the Liceo Theater and will appear there during the coming winter season. This will be the first time the celebrated Russian bass will be heard in Spain.
67One of the operas in which he will appear is Ivan the Terrible, by Rimsky-Korsakoff, in which he created one of his greatest parts. This opera will be under the direction of Albert Coates. Chaliapin is also to sing in Boito's Mefistofele in company with Gilda dalla Rizza and our compatriot Miguel Fleta, a performance to which lovers of bel canto are looking forward with keen enjoyment. Very rarely has such a remarkable cast been gathered together for the interpretation of this somewhat hackneyed opera.
69Another event which has aroused considerable interest is the news that Harold Bauer has been engaged to give two concerts. This interest is due partly to Bauer's real merit and partly to the fact that he is an old acquaintance of ours; one may even say he started his artistic career in Barcelona, where he lived at the time. Many music lovers remember Bauer's early recitals, both alone and in conjunction with Pablo Casals, who was also a beginner at that time. Later on he disappeared from our musical world in search of broader horizons, and today, after a twenty-five year absence, he is again to appear before us, this time preceded by the great reputation his performances have won him in Europe and in the United States.
71C. L.
73CROSS SECTION OF HALL AND BUILDING
74THE NEW SALLE PLEYEL (PARIS)
76FRONT ELEVATION
77A Lobby
78B Rotunda
79C Stairs to Pleyel Building
80D Stairs to Hall
81E Cloakrooms
82F Rooms to rent
83G Stairs to orchestra seats
84H Anterooms for two small halls
85I Salle Chopin
86J Picture Gallery
87K Pleyel Offices
88L Warerooms
89M Studios
90N Workrooms
91O Apartments
92P Salle Pleyel—3,000 seats
93Q Offices
94R Organ
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