Books › Musical Courier 1928-12-13: Vol 97 Iss 24, 1928 › scan 26
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Musical Courier 1928-12-13: Vol 97 Iss 24, 1928
93 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
1December 13, 1928
3New York Concerts
5December 2
6Society of the Friends of Music
7At Town Hall on Sunday afternoon, December 2, the Society of the Friends of Music gave what may be termed one of its best and most successful concerts for some time. The musical elite of New York was largely represented and the whole concert assumed the atmosphere of something festive and unusual; and well might it have been so, for in Brahms' Deutsche Requiem, Elisabeth Rethberg sang the soprano part, and our own American baritone, Lawrence Tibbett, shared honors with her. It is only a comparatively short time since the musical world discovered Lawrence Tibbett, quite unheralded and in a comparatively small part which he put across the footlights with such assurance and finish as to raise him to stardom.
9The chorus did excellent work throughout the whole Requiem. The crescendi and diminuendi were excellently rehearsed and very well executed, and the pianissimo passages were particularly beautiful in all voices. The first number, Selig sind die da schlafen, abounds with strains of great delicacy and beauty which rise at several points to powerful climaxes, well sustained by the singers.
11The third number brought forth Lawrence Tibbett. The baritone part is very effective and allowed the singer to show some of his best tones. He sang with perfect ease of tone production, well poised expression as well as correct and clear diction of the German. The chorus has some very difficult work in this number and did it exceedingly well.
13The fourth number is perhaps the most beautiful and tender of the whole Requiem. It begins with Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen Herr Zelbarth, expressed with great melodic beauty and very well sung by the chorus.
15In number 5 Brahms has written some exquisite passages for the soprano, and Elisabeth Rethberg gave to them all the charm and beauty her glorious voice could produce. One wished only that there might have been much more of it. In the sixth number the baritone is used in connection with the chorus and it proved another splendid chance for Mr. Tibbett to do some more fine singing, particularly in the passage, Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen.
17The remaining number proved to be the climax of the whole, for the chorus rose to the demands made by it in the most finished way. The conductor and orchestra gave proof of the highest excellence and artistic understanding. Mr. Bodanzky was the master of the situation throughout the whole performance and the orchestra gave the very best that was in them, and so the whole was welded into a perfect ensemble. The audience was very large and enthusiastic, calling out conductor and soloists many times at the conclusion of the concert.
19Musical Art Quartet
20The second subscription concert of the Musical Art Quartet took place on Sunday evening at the John Golden Theater, before a large audience made up of the cream of the musical intelligentsia of New York.
22The quartet consists of four sterling musicians of the highest artistic standing and their work is of a kind calling for praise and commendation without any reservation. Upon this occasion they were ably assisted by John Erskine who played the piano part in the Brahms Quintet.
24The program opened with a finished performance of Mozart's G major quartet. Every mood of this charming piece of musical rococo stood out as it cast in the finest Sevres porcelain. The second number on the program was a quartet in F by Vittorio Rieti. The date in parenthesis (1926) on the program must have indicated the year in which it was written. It indicates plainly that the composer has much talent and that more can be expected of him in the future. The quartet shows good workmanship and a thorough knowledge of the instruments. The final quintet, opus 34, by Brahms received most careful and loving treatment from the quartet, ably assisted by Mr. Erskine, and was enthusiastically applauded by the large audience. Particularly enjoyable was the playing of the scherzo and finale.
26The members of the quartet are Sascha Jacobsen, first violin; Paul Bernard, second violin; Marie Roemaet-Rosanoff, cello, and Louis Kaufman, viola.
28December 3
29Vladimir Horowitz
30The committee of the Women's Trade Union League, of which Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse is chairman, is to be complimented upon its choice of Vladimir Horowitz, sensational young Russian pianist, as the attraction for the benefit at Carnegie Hall on December 3. The hall was packed to capacity, and there was such enthusiasm for the pianist that at the end of the concert a large throng crowded in front of the stage and called him back numerous times for encores until the lights had to be turned out.
32Horowitz, as has been established here, is a pianist extraordinaire. Such hands, in all their power and magic, he has! With them Horowitz can get the most remarkable effects on the piano, whether they are crashing chords or an almost purring, just barely audible, tone. His all-comprising technic never fails him and his playing is positively kaleidoscopic in effect. Horowitz is a pianist who holds the interest of even the person who says "a little piano playing goes a long way."
34His program on Monday was well arranged, opening with the Bach organ prelude and fugue in D major, arranged by Busoni, and also the latter's arrangement of the Bach Chorale in G minor. The Chopin sonata in B flat minor had a superb reading and brought down the house. After the intermission there was a Liszt group which ended the concert in brilliant fashion. Extra numbers, too, were in order but these only left a desire for more of this amazing artist's playing. Artistically and financially the benefit concert reached the high water mark.
36Elsa Meiskey
37Elsa Meiskey made her New York debut in a song recital at Town Hall on December 3. The recital was given under the auspices of the Curtis Institute of Music, where Miss Meiskey studied last year with Mme. Sembrich. In her singing the young artist revealed a lovely soprano voice and gave ample proof of the excellent instruction she had received at the hands of the renowned diva. She also sings with feeling and in addition possesses an attractive personality.
39Miss Meiskey's program consisted of Italian, German, French and English numbers; it was in the German and English groups that she appeared to be at her best. Two of the English numbers, Christ Went Up Into The Hills and Me Company Along, by Richard Hageman, brought forth considerable applause, which Miss Meiskey graciously shared with the composer, who also acted as her accompanist throughout the evening. A good-sized audience showed marked pleasure in the offerings of the young singer.
41December 4
42Cleveland Orchestra
43(See story on page 7)
45December 5
46Maleva Harvey
47Maleva Harvey, pianist, delighted a select audience at Town Hall on November 5, in a program bristling with technical difficulties. Such is her charm of personality, together with a firm technic and subtle understanding of nuance, that the playing of every piece was colorful and arresting. She is one of those rare women pianists who can project power without pounding, and daintiness without sentimentality. Her program started with the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, which was followed by Schumann's Sonata in G minor, and a choice selection from the works of Brahms, Liszt, Scriabine, Dohnanyi, Rachmaninoff, and Albeniz. Miss Harvey is a real American artist, born in this country, and having secured most of her musical education here. She is very definitely a candidate for high pianistic honors.
49Schubert Memorial, Inc., Concert
50The first concert of a series to be sponsored by the Schubert Memorial, Inc., was given at Carnegie Hall, presenting, as soloists two graduates of the Juilliard Foundation, Muriel Kerr, pianist, and Sadah Shuchari, violinist, supported by an ensemble of eighty players from the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg. The appearance of these two young artists was a notable one in view of the avowed purposes of their sponsors, "to introduce to the chief critics of the press as well as to a large and representative concert audience the most outstanding talents of the coming musical generation in the United States." With this trenchant advance notice to live up to, and facing an unusually critical audience, both of the young soloists appeared a bit nervous.
52This seemed especially the case with Miss Kerr, a charming young miss of seventeen and a pupil of Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard Foundation. This was her first major concert appearance in New York. She played Rachmaninoff's Concerto in C minor in brilliant and facile style. Her technic is smooth and flowing and her musical intelligence is obviously of a high order. A few blurred effects seemed to be due to lack of physical strength plus lack of experience and, possibly, a too conscious realization of the importance of the occasion. She should show to much better advantage under less trying circumstances.
54Miss Shuchari played the Brahms Concerto, an ambitious undertaking, and showed that while perhaps not yet ready for recital appearances, she possesses talent far above the average. Her tone for the most part was excellent, rich and warm with an almost sensuous quality, and her technic unerring. She is also a Juilliard product, being a pupil of Paul Kochanski at that institution.
56The program was introduced by the playing of the Rosamunde overture, followed by a brief address by John Erskine on the purposes and ideals of the Schubert Memorial, Inc.
58Mrs. Edwin Franko Goldman
59Lohengrin was the subject of Mrs. Edwin Franko Goldman's second music-dramatique evening on December 5—the second in a series of five which she is giving at Aeolian Hall on The Life and Works of Richard Wagner. Mrs. Goldman, whose five years in this particular line of activity lends added authority to a natural aptitude for such presentations, is a fascinating speaker. From the introductory connecting links in the narrative throughout her entire story her presentation was colorful and graphic. Her attentive listeners could feel at the conclusion a more intimate acquaintance with the chosen Knight of the Holy Grail; the winsome, but ill-advised Elsa; the scheming Ortrude, the base Telramund, the puzzled King Henry the Fowler, not to mention the other characters. The operatic stage setting was in the picture throughout. The approach and disappearance of Lohengrin left real mental pictures as vividly sketched by Mrs. Goldman.
61Ralph Leopold's fine musicianship coordinated well with Mrs. Goldman's picturizations. His original transcriptions of the score were exquisitely presented. The ensemble delighted in its artistic appeal to both the intelligence as well as the emotional sense of the listener.
63Rhea Silberta
64Despite the inclement weather, Rhea Silberta's lecture recital at the Plaza on the morning of December 5 attracted a capacity audience. This was the second lecture in the series for this season on The Romantic School of Music and dealt with the French Romanticists.
66After stating that France and romance go together, Miss Silberta traced the operatic growth of that country from the early beginnings of opera, through the burlesquing of everything "grand," to the entrance of the Italians with their Opera Buffo and the founding of the Opera Comique. She also mentioned the Theatre Lyrique, where Wagner's Rienzi was performed in 1869.
68An interesting point brought out was that foreigners have had a tremendous effect on the French school of music, just as they have on American music, while Italy, Germany and Russia might be said to have created their own music and musicians. However, Miss Silberta declared that with all this dominance by the foreigner, the peculiar softness and richness of the French music and the charm of the French school in turn influenced the foreigner who has come there; for instance, Meyerbeer, Gluck and Donizetti. The French Conservatoire, Miss Silberta stated, also has had a very prominent part in the musical life of France.
70As always, on the heels of opera have followed the great symphonic writers, the writers of absolute music, and in her inimitable manner Miss Silberta told her audience of the
72(Continued on next page)
74CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENTS
76SOLOMON PIMSLEUR
77ENSEMBLE CONCERT
78OF ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS
79Saturday Evening, December 22, 1928
80ENGINEERING AUDITORIUM
8129 West 39th Street New York
82Tickets: From $2.00 to 50c. on sale at Box Office
84Two words that tell the whole story—
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86of the
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91Recognizing it as the most complete and most modern of any piano method yet published, the greatest piano virtuosi, and the most prominent piano teachers and music critics the world over, have lavished praise on this extraordinary work. Progressive teachers everywhere are using the Master School.
92Send for free descriptive booklet.
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