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Musical Courier 1928-07-26: Vol 97 Iss 4, 1928
84 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1London Season Closes With Popular Opera and Russian Ballet
3Chaliapin Dominates as Boris—Stravinsky's Apollo Musagetes a Classico-Romantique Baroque—Schubert Singspiel Revived—Americans Among Last Recitalists.
5LONDON.—I think it is fairly safe to say the season is over. It ought to be; we are in the middle of July. The opera, finished officially, is keeping open for a week at popular prices, and, having been told they are getting something for nothing, the public is rushing to take advantage of it.
7The last opera to be produced at full—nay, double—prices was Boris Godounoff with Chaliapin. There were three performances in all, and each time the house was full. Chaliapin was at his best—and his worst. He rose to great dramatic heights, despite the incipient decadence of his voice, he dominated the stage and made puppets of the rest of the cast. He shifted properties in the middle of a scene to suit his own particular fancy, and he walked off into the wings in the middle of Shuisky's message in order to give directions to an electrician. One wonders what Moussorgsky would say could he see his masterpiece cut up and rearranged to suit a male prima donna, his harmonies and orchestration "corrected" by another hand; his chorus—the soul of the great Russian people—reduced to a mere hack chorus of oratorio manner.
9Vincenzo Bellezza conducted, and the singers, except Chaliapin, sang Italian. Dino Borgioli as the false Dimitri, Luigi Manfrini as Pimen and Jane Bourguignon as the Nurse gave performances which in the circumstances were very creditable.
11Another opera season has come to an end—the annual experiment in "non-grand" opera at the Court Theater. Cosi fan tutte, in English, proved the biggest draw and therefore gets an extra week's run. Meantime we have had Cimarosa's Secret Marriage, and a weirdly assorted triple bill. Schubert's Der vier Jahreszeiten, re-worded as The Faithful Sentinel by Rolf Lauckner, translated (unhappily in verse) by Steuart Wilson, and revised musically by Donald Tovey, was preceded by Vaughan Williams' Shepherd's of the Delectable Mountain, a pretty pastoral trifle, and the Puppet Show of Master Pedro, by de Falla. The latter is the kind of music that is described as "clever" but which seems to be to be much easier to write than to listen to.
13SCHUBERT AND CIMAROSA
15Schubert's Singspiel contains many charming pages of music, light, unpretentious, sentimental, but if it can be saved at all as a stage piece the present editors have not succeeded. It is in any case worth hearing what a genius turns out at the age of eighteen.
17Cimarosa's fragrant old opera, Il Matrimonio Segreto, however, proved the artistic success of the season. It had the strongest cast of any of the operas given. The men, Clive Carey, Roy Henderson and John Armstrong gave the most finished performances. Of the women Dorothy D'Orsay sang and acted with gusto.
19Still another quasi-operatic venture, a spectacular scenic performance of Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha at the Albert Hall, had a great popular success and ran for two weeks. The King and Queen were present once, and the chief honors fell to Florence Woodman, as Minnehaha, and Os-ke-non-ton as a really truly Indian medicine man.
21STRAVINSKY'S LATEST
23As customary at this time of the year, we have with us Diaghileff's Russian Ballet. The usual ballet audience crowds His Majesty's Theater night after night, with Bloomsbury and Chelsea in the galleries and a particularly knowing section of Mayfair in the stalls. ("What's that—Stravinsky? Oh, he's the orchestra man.")
25The great novelty of the season is Apollo Musagetes, by Stravinsky. Apollo, leader of the Muses, is shown from birth (a process of unwinding the silvery swaddling clothes in which he is held, like a cocoon) to the point where he leads his three muses towards Parnassus, while the heavenly chariot comes to meet them near the top of the proscenium arch. The interim is filled with athletic exercises which ought to frighten any old-fashioned muse; but these muses are modern ones, with tulle ballet skirts and polka-dot bathing caps—very fetching—and they do their best to convince us that art is, after all, a sport.
27Stravinsky's music is, like every new score of his, another volte face. This time the once so bitter radical is not merely classical (as in Oedipus Rex), but romantic (horrible dictu) borrowing austerity from Gluck, sensuousness from Tchaikowsky and the Siegfried Idyll, but preserving, somehow, a decorative attitude all its own. A period furniture shop is the nearest homely equivalent to Stravinsky's workshop—a purveyor of variegated styles. Or is his object the creation of a new baroque, a pseudo-classicism peculiarly adapted to this decadent age? Those tulle-skirted Muses are the 20th century equivalent of the plumed goddesses of Louis Quatorze.
29AMERICAN STRAGGLERS
31The concerts are petering out. John McCormack has sung for charity to a crowded Albert Hall; and Paul Robeson has broken a record by filling the huge Drury Lane Theatre for a matinee of spirituals. He has become a celebrity here by his appearances in The Show-Boat, and now is justly acknowledged as the most authentic representative of the Negro muse. Lawrence Broan seconded him with great discretion and taste, both at the piano and as a "chorus."
33The Trio Morgan, consisting of Marguerite piano; Frances, violin, and Virginia, harp, gave a semi-private concert at the American Women's Club. They are a unique combination and in their old-fashioned dresses present a picturesque appearance. Their music, light and delicate for the most part, gave real pleasure to the assembled Americans and others. An English Fanfare arranged for the trio by Clarence Lucas, was especially liked.
35John Hartigan, American baritone, made a propitious first appearance. He has an exceptionally beautiful voice, and when he lets himself go—as he did in a group of English songs—he shows that he has both temperament and power of delivery.
37THOSE COLLEGE BOYS
39It is open season for college glee clubs. One from Denmark and one from Georgia have thus far been heard; the Yale Glee Club is in the offing. The Georgians, being the Emory University Glee Club, under Dr. Malcolm Dewey, are here for the second time and are already favorites, especially in clubs and social circles. An excellent way of seeing Europe, on the wings of song, so to speak.
41Among the English artists appearing at the fag-end of the season there was a youngster named Clifford Curzon, who gave an excellent account of himself at the piano. An overabundance of temperament, which shocked some of the critics, is surely to be expected at his age. Anne Thursfield, a singer of excellent taste, gave an interesting trilingual program, in which she showed extraordinary adaptability to style and correct diction. And Fanny Davies, pianist, one of the upholders of the classic tradition, once again satisfied a select following of those who prefer quality to showmanship.
43AND THE SCHOOLS
45Finally there are the schools. The Royal College and the Royal Academy of Music are both exhibiting their pupils in very creditable performances of chamber music and even opera (Die Meistersinger). The pupils of Tobias Matthay and of George Woodhouse fill whole series of recitals and raise many fair hopes; while those of Mme. Blanche Marchesi show that singing is not quite a lost art.
47The season is over, but—another is already casting its shadows before. Next month we have the Proms, again under the indefatigable Sir Henry Wood, and sponsored by the all-embracing British Broadcasting Corporation. They last until September; then after a brief breathing space the grind begins anew.
49CÉSAR SAERCHINGER.
51Washington State M. T. A. Holds Convention
53Thirteenth Annual Event Largely Attended and Proves Well Worth While
55YAKIMA, WASH.—"Instructive, enjoyable, and eminently worth while" were the comments to be heard on all sides from those who attended the thirteenth annual Washington State Music Teachers' Convention held in Yakima. There was the largest attendance of any of the conventions, the registration showing that there was no section of the state omitted, or not adequately represented.
57The opening program, always known as the Chairman's Program, was given after the first business session, and was representative indeed of the excellent talent to be found throughout the state. All the participants were the students of teachers belonging to the association. Lectures of merit were given by many prominent musicians, not only of Washington but elsewhere as well. Ruth Durheim, Pearl McDonald, Marguerite Liszniweska and Lazar Samoiloff were included in this list. At a conference on the Theory of Music, headed by Carl Paige Wood, excellent papers were read by Carl Pitzer, Loma Roberts and George F. McKay, all of Seattle.
59A very helpful feature of the convention were the Round Tables, devoted to the discussion of the vital points in the teaching of specific subjects, as piano, violin, etc. These were conducted by Carl Paige Wood, theory; Elizabeth Richmond Miller, voice; Mary Ella Cook, piano; George A. Stout, violin, and Lewis G. Hunter, instrumental music.
61Interspersed throughout the entire convention were numerous enjoyable concerts, luncheons and automobile rides, the latter furnished through the courtesy of various civic organizations of Yakima. Quite the outstanding concert of the convention, however, was that given by Marguerite Melville Liszniweska, of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, who also conducted two master classes. Another individual recital which created a sensation was that given by Emily Bentley Dow, talented young artist, a violinist from the class of Mme. Davenport Engberg of Seattle, who demonstrated unusual musicianship and artistry.
63Seattle was chosen as the next meeting place of the convention, which is planned for June, 1929. Officers elected for the ensuing year are: Anna Rollins Johnson, of Everett, president; George A. Stout, Spokane, vice-president; Edith Hawley, Yakima, secretary; Carl Paige Wood, Seattle, treasurer. District vice-presidents named were: Mary L. Short, Spokane, Eastern; Stella F. Knoebel, Wenatchee, Central, and Bernard Wagness, Tacoma, Western.
65J. H.
67Aksarova for London "Proms"
69LONDON.—Valentina Aksarova, Russian soprano, will sing at the Promenade concerts, under Sir Henry Wood, at the Queen's Hall, following her tour in Latvia and concerts in Riga during August.
71J. H.
73Lillian Hunsicker Sails for Europe
75Lillian Hunsicker, soprano, sailed July 16 on the S. S. Berengaria for Cherbourg, France. Shortly before leaving she appeared as soloist at a matinée littéraire and musicale, given at the Church of the Redeemer in Allentown, Pa.
77While abroad Mrs. Hunsicker will spend most of the time in Germany, but will also visit Switzerland and England. She plans to attend the Wagnerian festivals at Bayreuth, and also the Shakespearian plays at Stratford-on-Avon. Mrs. Hunsicker will return home in September, as she is already booked for several engagements in Allentown in October—as soloist at the National Convention of the American Medical Association, at a luncheon for the Ladies' Auxiliary, and at the first meeting of the year of the Athenaeum Literary Society. In December she will give a recital at Town Hall, New York.
79Alfred Holy Retires
81Alfred Holy, harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1913, has recently resigned and has moved abroad, where he will make his residence in future. He was born at Oporto, Portugal, in 1866, and was educated at the Prague Conservatory. He became a noted harp virtuoso and toured Europe a number of years before coming to America. He was solo harpist at the German Opera in Prague, the Berlin Royal Opera, the Vienna Court Opera, the Vienna Philharmonic Society, and the Bayreuth Festivals. He composed pieces for the harp; chamber music for harp with organ; orchestral studies for harp from the symphonic works of Richard Strauss, and an opera, given in 1909. He has also made arrangements for the harp.
83TWO SNAPSHOTS OF THE SPECIAL POPULAR SCHUBERT CELEBRATION IN VIENNA ON JUNE 3. The pictures were taken by Geza de Kress, first violinist of the Hart House String Quartet, who with Mme. Norah Drewett de Kress, pianist and ensemble and life partner of the violinist, is spending his summer vacation in Europe. The pictures show the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra tuning in, preparatory to performing Schubert's C major symphony, No. 11, and the crowd of more than 20,000 people who assembled in front of the Vienna Town Hall to hear the concert. In the background can be seen the celebrated Burgtheater.
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