Books › Musical Courier 1928-12-13: Vol 97 Iss 24, 1928 › scan 28
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Musical Courier 1928-12-13: Vol 97 Iss 24, 1928
87 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1December 13, 1928
3the first movement proved to be especially effective. The second movement, variations on the Negro Pilgrim Song, and the final rondo contain bits of beautiful melody, and with the proper orchestral background the entire work should prove a worth while addition to the piano literature.
5Margaret Northrup, with Minabel Hunt at the piano, provided an excellent contrast for the second group. She was heard in numbers by Howard White, Winter Watts, Richard Hagemann and Frank La Forge, and displayed a clear soprano voice of excellent quality. She also made an attractive stage figure.
7The climax of the program came with the presentation of A. Walter Kramer's A Rococo Romance. This is a choral cycle for women's voices, solo soprano and two pianos, and for this performance a double sextet of solo voices from the New York Matinee Musicals was used, and the pianists were Miss Hunt and Mr. Kramer. The poems for the cycle are by Frederick H. Martens and include The Forest Glade, Gavotte, The Hunt and Flight. One of the outstanding features of the score is the splendid manner in which the composer has caught the spirit of the words and fitted his tuneful music to them.
9Martha Attwood
11A full house greeted Martha Attwood at her song recital in the Gallo theater on December 9. Her four groups were sung in Italian, German, French and English, with excellent diction in each language; starting with Mozart's L'Amore saro she showed nice legato and fine dignity. Exquisitely colored middle voice was in Friedhof, charm in Standchen, clever interpretation in the child's song, Heiny and Lotte. An encore followed this German group. Very unusual, mysterious tones were heard in the French Arpeggio, with fine delicacy in Eh! Bonjour, which had to be repeated; her encore was a chanson by Marie Antoinette. Old and quaint is the Granger Sprig of Thyme, which preceded two Brockway Kentucky Mountain songs, of which A Frog Went Courting, with its sixteen stanzas, immensely amused the audience, and was much applauded. No less than six encore songs followed, among them At the Well (Hagemann); Wings (Johnson), and Johnny at the Fair. Herbert Dittler played a beautiful violin obbligato to a Mozart air, and Stuart Ross proved a very sympathetic accompanist. Renee Hagemann afterward gave a reception to Miss Attwood, at which some 150 guests were present, among them Fraser Gange, Rafaelo Diaz, the Beebe sisters, Laurie Merrill, Helen Morrill, and Robert Simone, eminent Italian sculptor.
13John Charles Thomas
15John Charles Thomas was heard again at Town Hall on Sunday afternoon and again was enthusiastically welcomed by a distinguished audience. While this reviewer was sitting and enjoying the many sides of Mr. Thomas' art, he kept wondering why this baritone is not a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company? Certainly that organization has no better baritone than his. Why does this excellent American artist have to go abroad each season to sell his vocal wares to European impresarios? There is certainly a place for him at the Metropolitan. His singing fully warrants his engagement.
17Mr. Thomas' rise in the musical world is praiseworthy. This reviewer had the pleasure of interviewing him some years ago when he was starring in light opera and then he was already working on his concert and opera repertory and forging ahead toward his goal—serious music. His recital on Sunday was another gratifying result.
19From the outset the baritone had his audience. His fine stage presence, poise and absolute savoir-faire are arresting. Then his voice! It is one of the greatest baritone voices of the day. Beautiful in quality, it boasts of ample range and resonance. His technic is such that he manipulates his voice with surprising skill. There is no forcing, pushing or tightness anywhere; the tone is produced freely and beautifully. Even in the more dramatic moments of his song, Mr. Thomas does not entertain his audience with all sorts of facial gymnastics, as is so frequently the case. He just stands on the platform and sings in his own wonderful way—and sweeps the audience with him. While Mr. Thomas was equally successful in the lighter song, it seemed to us that the audience liked him a little more in the operatic arias from Faust and Pagliacci which came as encores, and which, incidentally, were superbly done.
21With his sympathetic accompanist, Eric Zardor, who also was cordially received in two Chopin solos, Mr. Thomas opened with the Beethoven In Questa Tomba followed by Che Fiero-Costume from Legrenzi's Etocele; Sapphische Ode, Brahms; An die Leier, Schubert, and Zueignung, Strauss, all sung with beauty of tone and dignity of style. The diction, whether in German, French, Italian or English, is intelligible. His phrasing equally commendable.
23The French songs by Duparc, de Bourguignon, Pessard and a stirring one called Au Pays by Augusta Holmes showed the singer at his best. The English group represented Peter Warlock, O'Hara, Lord Berners, Easthope Martin and the singer's own Wie Einst Im Mai. It was Geoffrey O'Hara's new song, Guns, that made the big hit. It is an unusual song, martial in nature, carrying with it the moral of a peace in the future without the Guns of war. The song is cleverly constructed and works up to a most effective climax. Mr. Thomas gave it a worthy performance.
25Lillian Benisch
27A very charming singer is Lillian Benisch who gave her debut recital at the Guild Theater before a large and responsive audience. Miss Benisch is a natural contralto; her voice is lovely in quality and it has been trained by a master of the art of bel canto. As a result the tones are produced with a real freedom and noticeable breath control; she is able to color her production for emotional expression and humorous detail and, because of her mastered breath, is able to make interesting contrast in her pianissimi and climaxes. Miss Benisch also has a wide range which is evenly developed; one hears the same sonority in her deep tones as there is in the higher register, and when the singer reaches a passage of passion, such as is found in Rachmaninoff's In the Silence of Night, and she expands vocally, it is a real emotion that she conveys.
29The singer opened with a group by classic composers including Caccini, Donaudy, Caldara, Cesti and Gluck; these were delivered with a fine line of balance, dignified poise, qualities which are a part of Miss Benisch's inherent character and which are obvious no matter what she attempts.
31The listener particularly enjoyed the Strauss group, music to which the singer seems to be particularly adapted; her German diction is a decided asset to her interpretation of lieder. Schumann and Schubert were also featured and songs, in English, by Gretchaninoff, Condon and Farley. Needless to add there were encores . . . and many beautiful flowers.
33Miss Benish is the product of Vittorio Versé, who assisted her at the piano. Maestro Versé should have felt indeed gratified to see his efforts bring him such results, for there is no doubt that his training is obvious in all that Miss Benisch does; his accompaniments were part of every song, bearing the stamp of finesse and long experience.
35The Hall Johnson Negro Choir
37The Hall Johnson Negro Choir which made its bow to the New York public about a year ago and has rapidly sprung into fame, gave a recital at the John Golden Theater on December 9 before an audience which filled the theater and which was lavish in its applause. This organization has a director who is wise enough not to try to make white people of his negro singers. Himself a negro, he understands them and shows exemplary taste both in their direction and in the matter of the arrangements which he uses, some of which he makes himself. The program included the sort of music which has made their choir so deservedly popular and the works need no special description. They are so selected as to provide great variety of mood, and the arrangements also are such that bits for solo voices alternate with the choral passages so as to provide unflagging interest. This choir is one of the most remarkable organizations now before the public and will undoubtedly make its way to universal fame.
39Philharmonic-Symphony
41A Wagner-Beethoven program constituted the musical fare of the Philharmonic-Symphony at the Metropolitan Opera House, Sunday afternoon, with Mr. Mengelberg wielding the baton.
43The first half of the program was devoted to three short Wagnerian excerpts—overture to The Flying Dutchman, graphically rendered; Waldweben (Forest Murmurs) from Siegfried, played with great restraint; and Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Scene from Die Walküre, which brilliantly closed this group. The second half of the program was devoted to Beethoven's symphony No. 7 in A major. With true Mengelbergian artistry the four movements of this lovely symphony were conducted with taste and feeling, to the keen enjoyment of the huge audience which taxed the Metropolitan to the limit, even its standing room area.
45Josef Hofmann
47Carnegie Hall crowded to the door, with extra rows of listeners accommodated on the stage! Only a few artists are able to attract such a throng of listeners in New York. Josef Hofmann did it last Sunday afternoon. He always does.
49The master pianist, in his usual lofty and compelling form, won the unreserved admiration of the vast audience which coaxed the player into adding many encores to his regular program.
51Hofmann's art remains extraordinary. His command of the keyboard is overwhelmingly magical. No technical consideration mars the clearness, speed, and brilliancy of his execution. His touch is purling purity itself. His tone has every dynamic degree from whispering lightness to forte thunderings.
53As an interpreter, Hofmann stands on that lonely height to which only a few of the greatest pianists ever have attained. His mental and musical grasp are prodigious, and he fuses intellectuality and emotion in a welded whole that serves as a perfect medium for the presentation of every phase of a composition. One realizes constantly that Hofmann's readings are those of a giant in musical thought and delivery. He represents sublimated artistic powers at the piano.
55And everything that comes from under Hofmann's fingers is produced with almost unbelievable ease and aplomb, the player using no physical flourishes, no "see how I do it" manner, and impressing with his dignity as much as he does with his greatness.
57The program comprised Handel's E major Variations, the Schumann Carneval, a Chopin group (including the Fantasie), Dvorak's The Sanctuary, a Prokofieff March, and Liszt's Venezia e Napoli tarantella, dashed off with sheer indescribably glittering dash and bravura.
59Ithaca Conservatory Granted Charter in National Music Fraternity
61A group of students in the Ithaca Conservatory and Affiliated Schools recently were granted a charter to establish a local chapter of Kappa Gamma Psi, National Music Fraternity. This chapter, known as Iota Chapter, was organized and sponsored by George W. Hathaway, director of the organ department of Ithaca Conservatory, who is a member of Alpha Chapter of this fraternity. Kappa Gamma Psi is an exclusive music fraternity and numbers among its honorary members such well-known artists as Paderewski, Bauer, Gabriowitsch, Kreisler and Casals.
63The charter members of Iota Chapter of Kappa Gamma Psi are Alfred Patten, Gloversville, N. Y.; Ward Hamm, Columbus, O.; Donald Dewhirst, Hamilton, O.; Harris Dersham, Sterling, Colo.; John Bonavilla, Rochester, N. Y.; Reginald Sweet, Granville, N. Y.; Fred Morse, Oneida, N. Y.; Allen Ostrander, Cliffondale, Mass.; Joseph Roman, Kingston, Pa., and Erwin Steuclce, Camden, N. J.
65Yale Wins
67Under the auspices of the Franco-Belgique Tours Company there was a prize competition on the afternoon of December 8 at the Junior League Club of which the fortunate winner is to have a trip on the Caronia to Cuba and back during the Christmas holidays. The competitors were the student dance orchestras of three universities, Columbia, Princeton and Yale. The boys gave a good account of themselves and played some amusing jazz, and Yale, the winner, also added variety to the program by offering some vocal trios. The judges were Ben Bernie, S. B. Diggs, Pierre V. R. Key, Frank Patterson and Doron K. Antrim.
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85STEINWAY HALL
86109 West 57th Street, New York
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