Books › Musical Courier 1928-09-06: Vol 97 Iss 10, 1928 › scan 11
Scan 11
Musical Courier 1928-09-06: Vol 97 Iss 10, 1928
56 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 12. 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.
1Germany's Summer Activities
2Keep Music Folk Well Occupied
4Second German Dancing Congress in Essen Arouses Varied Opinions—Handel Festival in Gottingen Offers Something New—Likewise Leipsic—Other Festivals—Wolfheim Library Sold
6BERLIN.—Though the opera houses and concert halls of Berlin and the other larger cities of Germany have been closed long since for the summer vacation, musical life in Germany has not gone to sleep at all; it has only changed places and migrated to new localities.
8The second German dancing congress in Essen manifested so many aspects inseparably connected with music that a few lines must be devoted to it here. The extraordinary interest in the problems of the modern dance, everywhere in Germany, was evidenced by the large number of participants in the congress, by the wealth of its program in theoretical discussions, lectures, practical demonstrations and performances, and lastly by the passionate antagonism of opinions.
10Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman are the leaders of the two principal schools. Both are expressionists in the strictest sense of the term and utterly opposed to the methods of the former ballet. But it becomes clearer every year that the ultimate legitimate style of German dancing will have to find its place midway between the conventional, emotionally empty old type ballet and the exaggerations and orgies of expression that characterize the Laban and Wigman schools. Happy effects of musical dancing were attained by Valerie Kratina's class from Hellerau, near Dresden, where about twenty years ago Jacques Dalcroze laid out his first seed. Soulful grace, clear, plastic form is the aim here. Lucienne Lamballe, from Paris, represents the same ideal with still more stress laid on plastic form, purity of style and technical virtuosity. Particularly successful were the offerings of Gerd Palucca, whereas Vera Skoronen sometimes approached a dangerous ecstasy. The principal outcome of the congress has been a gain in clearness respective to theatrical dancing in opera and modern ballet. Harald Kreutzberg and Yvonne George, well known on the German operatic stage, defended their ideas with particular authority. Max Terpis, choreographic leader of the Berlin opera, clearly showed the difference between the problems of the absolute style of dance (comparable to chamber-music) and of theatrical dancing; each demands a very different discipline and a special training. The theatrical performances: The Last Pierrot (music by Karol Rathaus, ballet by Terpis), Pagoden by Kröller-Paumgartner, Honegger's Horace victorieux and Milhaud's Salad gave practical illustrations of the theorems discussed. Also the English group of Morris dancers and the Japanese dancer, Jodjana, excited considerable interest.
12The eighth Handel festival in Göttingen differed from its predecessors in departing from the traditional production of an opera-score not heard since Handel's days. Several repetitions of Julius Caesar, the most successful and effective Handel opera so far given, were the center of gravity of the festival. In order, however, to show something new at least, the problem of scenic decoration had been made the point of special interest.
14These scenic experiments found their principal field of action less in Julius Caesar than in the scenic cantatas, namely Handel cantatas performed with scenic decorations; Apollo and Dafne, and Lucrezia, two musically magnificent cantatas, were set into a fantastic scenic frame, utilizing the most modern devices of illumination, projection of pictures, and cinematographic effects. Whether something worth while is gained by these spectacular additions, by this tendency towards super realism, seems questionable.
16In Bach's delicious cantata, The Quarrel between Phoebus and Pan, the third program number in this series of scenic cantatas, the scenic decorators had a happier hand, refraining from exaggerations that might prove disturbing to the music.
18The participants in the festival are for the greater part connected with the Göttingen performances since 1920. Rudolf Schulz-Dornburg has been the regular conductor ever since Dr. Hagen (the founder of the Göttingen festivals) went to America. Dr. Niedecken-Gehard, the enthusiastic and able director, has been from the start more intimately connected with the scenic production of Handel opera than anybody else, and consequently his authority in these matters is considerable.
20Maria Pos-Carloforti, Eleanor Reynolds-Schlosshauer, Wilhelm Guttmann, Georg A. Walter, and Bruno Bergmann belong to the traditional Göttingen ensemble of singers. To these excellent specialists some newcomers of artistic rank must be added, namely Emmy von Stetten, Franz Northolt and Claire Autenreith, the last named of whom scored an extraordinary success in the rôle of Cleopatra. Dr. V. E. Wolff, the splendid cembalist, was heard to best advantage in a chamber music matinée with a Handel piano suite and his own effective piano arrangement of the Organ concerto in F major.
22Another remarkable event of the German Handel renaissance has been the first performance in Leipsic of the opera
24ALBERTO JONÁS
25World-renowned piano virtuoso and pedagogue, teacher of many famous pianists, announces the
26RE-OPENING
27of his Studio on
28October 1st
29at
3019 West 85th Street
31New York
32Applications may be sent in now to
33Secretary of Alberto Jonás
34Telephone Schuyler 1044
35Five Assistants
37Alcina in Hermann Roth's excellent German translation and arrangement. The Alcina score contains some of Handel's finest inspirations, and the precious music received a fine performance at the hands of Conductor Oscar Braun. But the style of the scenic decoration with its burlesque touches and modern costuming of 1920 seemed of questionable taste.
39It is also worth recording that in Bamberg Karl Leonhardt, the eminent pianist, performed (for the first time in Germany) seventeen of Handel's lately discovered piano pieces, found in London some time ago and published there (if I am not mistaken) by the late Barclay Squire. The pieces proved worthy of the great master and must be considered a valuable addition to classical piano literature.
41A year ago Bach's Art of Fugue was first performed in its entirety in Leipsic, in a version and orchestral arrangement by Wolfgang Graeser, a young musician previously unknown. The success of the revival was enormous. A great masterpiece, so far not practically utilized, not recognized in its value, had been rediscovered, presented to the world in an adequate, efficient form, thanks to the insight, knowledge and skill of this unknown young musician, who thus suddenly acquired fame. In June, 1928, a year after his phenomenal success, Graeser committed suicide at the age of twenty-two, throwing away a life which promised a good deal and yet did not appear to him worth living. The tragic fate of this gifted young artist excited much sympathy and comment among musicians.
43The irony of fate is responsible for the fact that at the time of young Graeser's death another monumental but sadly neglected Bach work was brought out for the first time in Leipsic in a version which owes much to the example set by Graeser in the Art of Fugue. Bach's Musikalisches Opfer was, like the Art of Fugue, heretofore considered as a prodigious work of theoretical speculation, inaccessible to practical performance. Hans David has made a profound study of the Musikalisches Opfer, (written by Bach on a theme given to him by King Frederick the Great of Prussia) and has recognized the subtle plan of the architectural construction. David places the Trio-sonata in the center, makes the three-part ricercar serve as a prelude to the work, while the six-part ricercar is used as a postlude; the ten canons are divided into two corresponding groups of five and are placed before and after the trio-sonata. Thus the following symmetrical architecture is revealed:
45Prelude, three-part Ricercar—five canons—Trio sonata—five canons—Postlude, six-part Ricercar. Besides this new arrangement David has orchestrated those pieces for which Bach had not prescribed certain instruments. This part of David's work, however, was less approved by critical listeners than the general idea of his reconstruction. The success of the performance, before a distinguished audience of Bach enthusiasts from many cities, was extraordinary. The city of Leipsic introduced its Bach Festival (1928) with this memorable performance, in which the celebrated Gewandhaus Quartet and a number of other artists participated. Edgar Wollgandt, concertmaster of the Gewandhaus orchestra and leader of the Gewandhaus Quartet, was particularly honored on this occasion, twenty-five years having elapsed since he first appeared as concertmaster at the Gewandhaus.
47Protestant Church-music was the object of several festivals. In Breslau a Church-music week had the purpose of presenting masterpieces from the time between Luther and Bach. A service in the venerable old Barbara church reconstructed the ample Protestant service of about the year 1600: liturgic antiphony, organ music and motets were performed. Nine different programs gave a survey of the old ecclesiastic music. A number of Heinrich Schütz' principal works were heard, the St. Matthew's Passion, a cappella and smaller vocal pieces from the Geistliche Konzerte. One program was devoted to Buxtehude's organ music and cantatas, another to compositions of Bach's ancestors and relatives, while two concerts were devoted to J. S. Bach's cantatas and organ pieces.
49In Magdeburg the Evangelical Church Music Union had its yearly meeting. In the several concerts Heinrich Schütz and J. S. Bach received attention primarily; there were also a number of smaller pieces by old and modern masters of Protestant Church music.
51The little town of Schopfheim, in Baden, Black Forest, had a church-music festival of particular interest. Rhenish masterpieces of sacred music from the middle ages to the time of the Reformation (from about 850-1550) were heard. All the music performed, works of famous masters like Notker Balbulus, Mangold, Schlick, Heinrich Isaac, Gregor Meyer, Ducus, Senfl and others had been written in the convents of St. Gallen and Engelberg in Switzerland, in Basle, Zürich, Säckingen, Constance and Heidelberg. Dr. Handschin from Basle ad Dr. Rieher from Lörach may claim the merit of having selected, arranged and scientifically annotated the highly interesting and valuable programs.
53The library of Dr. Werner Wolfheim of Berlin, perhaps the most comprehensive and valuable private musical library in existence, was sold in part at auction in Berlin. Only old prints, books and compositions up to the eighteenth century were placed on sale; the modern part, scores and books of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were still kept back. Numerous authorities in musical history and antiquarians from many countries had gathered in Berlin for this occasion. Prof. Dr. Otto Kinkeldey, of the New York public library, purchased for his institution and for several other American libraries a number of costly rarities. Vienna, Switzerland, England, Sweden, Finland, Paris, Rome and of course, the principal German libraries sent representatives. The total receipts amounted to about a quarter of a million marks ($62,500). The principal item was Hans Juden-king's extremely rare tablature book (anno 1523), for which the Swiss collector Oppenheim paid the record price of eleven thousand marks ($2,750).
55The Berlin library bought several other famous tablature
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.