Books › Musical Courier 1928-04-12: Vol 96 Iss 15, 1928 › scan 23
Scan 23
Musical Courier 1928-04-12: Vol 96 Iss 15, 1928
41 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
1Conservatory Orchestra and Flute Players Club Present New Works in Boston
3Rossanna McGinnis Wins Success as Soloist With Orchestra—Claudine Leeve Scores in Songs of Hindemith and Schrecker
5BOSTON.—The concert of the New England Conservatory Orchestra at Jordan Hall last Friday evening proved one of the most interesting of the current season. Ever a resourceful program-maker of catholic taste, Wallace Goodrich, the conductor of this orchestra, opened his program with Vivaldi's smooth-flowing concerto in F major for three violins, provided by Chadwick with an effective accompaniment for string orchestra, three trumpets and organ. The violin soloists—Cecile Forest, Jone Coy and Margaret Clark, all of the Class of 1925—reflected credit on their teacher, the excellent Harrison Keller.
7After equally creditable performances of Beethoven's overture, Coriolanus, and of Converse's finely conceived and characteristically workmanlike Elegiac Poem, Mr. Goodrich passed to the novelty of the evening, a new symphonic poem for pianoforte and orchestra, Sortilegio, by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli. This piece was inspired by an ancient Oriental legend of the wizardry demonstrated by one Danesch to prove to a skeptical sultana that he was really the king of enchanters. Frankly programmatic in character, the music mirrors with more or less subtlety the magic depicted in the story. Composed before the days of aggressive polytonality (the score is dated 1917), this work may nevertheless be classed as modern because of its harmonic and instrumental fancy and rhythmic energy. Mr. Pick-Mangiagalli has not sold his Italian birthright as a melodist for a mere of counterpoint nor has it been necessary for him to sacrifice soundness of construction in order to produce dramatic effect. At the outset the piano played on this occasion by Rossanna McGinnis, is treated orchestrally, and the soloist, with fine taste, refrained from making her part in the musical scheme unduly obtrusive. After the first episode, however, the piano emerges as a solo instrument, giving Miss McGinnis ample opportunity to prove that she is a young artist of uncommonly promising possibilities. Her technic was more than adequate to the exacting demands of the music; and, although she did not use her skill for display, she could be brilliant when brilliance was required. Endowed with an intelligent appreciation of musical values and with a keen sense of rhythm, her playing respected form and succeeded, moreover, in imparting dramatic significance to her interpretation. Her elves and fairies of the garden scene were not handicapped with seven-league boots, as is so often the case in the performance of this type of music. Miss McGinnis has made a praiseworthy beginning—thanks to her technical dexterity, musicianship and imagination—and her career will bear watching. The audience was very enthusiastic, recalling the soloist several times.
9For the rest, Mr. Goodrich presented the introduction to Act II of Chabrier's opera Gwendoline and the prelude and closing scene (with chorus) from Parsifal. He conducted throughout the evening with the authority, taste and musical sensibility that have always been associated with his gifts as an orchestral leader.
11CLAUDINE LEEVE PLEASES AS SOLOIST
13Claudine Leeve added to her rapidly growing prestige as a singer when she appeared as soloist at the Flute Players Club Concert last Sunday afternoon, in the large gallery of the Boston Art Club. As principal vehicle for the display of her admirable abilities Mme. Leeve chose Hindemith's Die Junge Magd, for mezzo voice, flute, clarinet and string quartet, this being its first performance in Boston. The six poems by Georg Trakl on which Hindemith has drawn for inspiration attempt to portray the emotions of a young servant girl, who is struck with some insidious sickness and jilted by a brutal lover, as she contemplates life and the tragedy that gradually overwhelms her. Not a pretty story—indeed, quite sordid; but, having chosen it as a text, Hindemith has provided tones that tell the tale not subjectively, as one who has been profoundly moved by the emotions portrayed in the poems, but as one whose aim is rather to describe the tragedy as a disinterested observer who does not wish to take sides, as it were, and thus avoid the danger of becoming engulfed in the misery depicted. It is masterfully written, with singular economy of means, and is appropriately stark, bare, vivid. Essaying a thankless role, Mme. Leeve sang the words with manifest appreciation of their dramatic import and merits praise for undertaking such a courageous task. Arthur Fiedler conducted the performance of this piece with his customary skill and understanding. More grateful to Mme. Leeve and to her listeners were the songs of Schrecker and Schumann with which she completed her part of the program, for they gave her opportunity to reveal those qualities of voice, skill and temperament that have already won her high place among the singers of New England. She was warmly applauded.
15The balance of the program comprised chamber music by Malipiero, Pierne and D'Indy.
17J. C.
19Richard Strauss Says Egyptian Helena Was Intended for Jeritza
21Richard Strauss has sent out the following telegram dated Vienna, April 6, to the American press:
22"After my return to Vienna from Italy I learned that certain facts about The Egyptian Helena were not correctly represented in the American press. Therefore I state that from the beginning the role of Helena was intended for Mme. Jeritza.
24"Upon request of the Dresden Opera House, and after mutual agreement, Mme. Jeritza, the Vienna Opera House and myself consented that the first performance of Helena can take place in Dresden. As insurmountable difficulties prevented Mme. Jeritza singing in Dresden, Mme. Rethberg was invited to sing the role there. (Signed) Richard Strauss."
26Kathryne Ross' American Debut in Philadelphia
28Kathryne Ross, a native of Wilmington, Del., who for the past two years has been singing with success in the leading opera houses of Italy, will make her initial operatic bow to the American public on Thursday evening, April 12, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company.
30Miss Ross attended Blackstone College in Virginia and graduated from Combs Conservatory in Philadelphia. She was one of the first ten chosen for the Eastman School of Music operatic project in Rochester in 1924, and the following year made an extended concert tour. In 1926 she went abroad to study with J. H. Duval and prepare for grand opera, and made her debut five months later as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at Naples. Her success was assured and she was re-engaged for many performances in Naples and several other of the Italian musical centers.
32Minneapolis Symphony to Play Accompaniments at Chicago Musical College Contest
34The annual contest of piano, vocal and violin students of the Chicago Musical College will be held at Orchestra Hall, on May 12. The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, with Henri Verbrugghen conducting, will furnish the accompaniments of the evening. The judges will be Professor Leopold Auer, Henri Verbrugghen, Dudley Buck, Rudolph Ganz and Victor Kuzdo.
36Aside from the orchestral appearance the best player and vocalist in each section will receive a prize of a Mason & Hamlin grand piano, presented by the Mason & Hamlin Company of Boston, a Conover grand presented by the Cable Piano Company of Chicago and a Vose and Sons grand presented by the Moist Piano Company of Chicago. A valuable old violin will be presented by Lyon & Healy of Chicago. This promises to be a memorable occasion.
38Horace Parmelee Sails for Europe
40Horace Parmelee, vice-president of Haensel & Jones, sailed for Europe on the SS De Grasse on April 11 to be gone for several months on a combined business and pleasure trip. Mr. Parmelee is accompanied by his mother. After visiting Paris the Parmelees will rest at Biarritz, motoring through the Basque country and in Northern Spain while there. Later they will proceed through southern France, making the trip from Nice to Chamounix by car, then into Southern Germany returning home by way of London.
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