MUSICAL COURIER
January 12, 1922
37
Mme. Davies Returns from a Flying Trip to Europe
Clara Novello Davies, the distinguished voice specialist, returned recently on the Olympic from her sad and lightning trip to England occasioned by the death of her father, Jacob Davies, to whose grave in Wales the musician made a pilgrimage of love and remembrance.
On being interviewed Mme. Novello Davies said: “When the news of my father’s serious illness was cabled to me in New York, I simply cut everything dead and sailed on November 30, on the Adriatic, having only a couple of hours to catch the boat, in the hope of seeing my father alive—I owe him everything that I am musically—before the end came. But it was not to be. In mid-Atlantic the vessel picked up a wireless message from my son, Ivor Novello, to say that my father had passed on and I arrived even too late for the interment. When I visited his grave I realized more than ever the loss that my father is to the world of music. He was my only teacher; he was a great musician. I only had a few days over there as I felt I could not leave my teaching in New York longer now for I feel at the present time New York is in the throes of a great revival, a wonderful renaissance. That is more apparent in art than anything else. New York is like a huge magnet, attracting to itself the culture and genius of the Old and New World. Music in particular is feeling the urge and surge of a great new spirit, the basis of which is a wonderful wave of religion that has New York as its temple.”
In reply to the query to whether she considered the wave was another such as gave to the world the Fox Sisters and modern Spiritualism and later the cult of Yogi worship, “No,” she said; “it is a genuine deep pietistic Christianity that is strangely moving and appealing. What I am so impressed with is to find the theaters and hotels turned into religious meeting houses on Sundays. It is revealing itself in every phase of life, but particularly the arts. The opera is the greatest in the world; New York seems to me to be attracting the musical genius of the world as Vienna, Berlin, Leipsic seemed to attract them before the war. It is marvellous.”
Marie Novello,' the pianist, arrived with her.
Olga Sapio, Pianist, with Calve
On the occasion of her first appearance in Boston, December 25, Mme. Calve engaged as her assisting artist, Olga Sapio, pianist, to play her accompaniments and two groups of solos. It was a very flattering choice, and the ap-
OLGA SAPIO, pianist.
pended notices show how well the young artist discharged her task:
The singer was assisted by Olga Sapio, pianist and accompanist, who played selections by Debussy, Scott and Chopin, with brilliance and expression. The applause which she received would have warranted an extra number.—Boston Herald.
Mile. Sapio, an excellent accompanist, proved that she had abilities as a soloist by several numbers from Debussy, Scott and Chopin.—The Boston Globe.
After the concert Mme. Calve autographed a program with the following: “A ma chere petite amie Olga, en cou-venir de notre premier concert que j espere etre suivi de plusieurs antres. Emma Calve.” (׳Translation) “To my dear little friend Olga, as a souvenir of our first concert, which I hope will be followed by many others. Emma Calve.”
Miss Sapio was to have played again for Mme Calve at Carnegie Hall, January 8, but other engagements in the West prevented.
Louise Davidson Traveling Representative for International
Louise Davidson, recently press representative for the International Concert Direction, has been appointed special traveling representative for that organization. Miss Davidson’s former duties in the press department will be assumed by Robert A. Simon.
Bushes,” which he will play at the piano, with the orchestral parts played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, directed by Frederick Stock. This will take place on Friday evening, May 26, while the choral work will be performed on Tuesday evening, May 30 (Memorial Day). Among the works to be given will be Goring Thomas’ “Swan and Skylark” and Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” and Elgar’s “Caractacus.” The second night of the festival, known as Artists’ Night, will have as soloist, Lucien Mura-tore. For the third concert, known as the Children’s Concert, Tamaki Miura, the Japanese soprano, will be the soloist. The fifth concert, known as “Operatic Night,” will have as soloist Margaret Matzenauer. As heretofore, Dean Lutkin will conduct the choral works and the orchestral conductor the symphony numbers. Again this year the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been chosen, with Stock at the helm.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Concert
The first concert of the season of a series of four donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and given by an. especially selected orchestra under the direction of David Mannes, was presented on Saturday evening, January 7.
These concerts (free to the public), inaugurated three years ago with the sole purpose of benefiting serious music students and giving pleasure to real music lovers, have already fulfilled their mission. First and foremost, the selection of Mr. Mannes as conductor and artistic director, who is well known as a musician of high ideals, was a wise move on the part of the sponsors.
At the close of last year’s series of concerts (there were eight) the Musical Courier ventured to predict that the vast auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art would in a short time be inadequate to accommodate all anxious to attend. This prediction seems to have already reached a point of realization. The hall was filled to overflowing, but despite this, there were thousands clamoring for admittance. Unfortunately seats are only provided for about 1,000, but this seemed in no way to decrease the attendance, as at every concert last year 5,000 to 6,000 stood throughout each performance. To many, this appears rather strange, but when carefully scrutinized one^ finds that there are innumerable music students and music lovers in the metropolis who will gladly sacrifice convenience, and at times comfort, to hear programs interpreted by a fine orchestra under the guidance of so capable a conductor as Mr. Mannes. In presenting his programs, Mr. Mannes employs especial care and produces only such works which tend to educate and please his audiences.
His program at the opening concert on January 7 was:
..............W eber
............Beethoven
....Rimsky-Korsakoff
.................Bach
...........Boccherini
Suite”.. .Tschaikowsky
...............Wagner
...............Wagner
Overture, “Oberon” .......................
Symphony No. 2 in D major................
First Movement from Scheherazade Suite..
Adagio in C major.........................
Minuet (For Strings) ..................••••
Waltz of the Flowers from the “Nutcracker
Prelude to “Lohengrin”....................
“The Ride of the Valkyries” ..............
Joseph Schwarz “Stops the Show״
The following notices tell for themselves the success of the baritone, Joseph Schwarz, in his first Chicago appearance in “La Traviata”:
Joseph Schwarz sang Germont pere for the first time here. It scarcely needed the “Di Provenza” aria to confirm and strengthen my already profound and sincere admiration for the art of this great singer. Even at the risk of repeating myself, I must say that Schwarz singing is a lesson in the art of shading, nuance, expression. After his duet with Mime. Galli-Curci, he lived the role to the minutest detail. The audience gave him such an ovation after the aria that the “no encore” rule trembled in the balance.— Herman Devries, in Chicago Evening American, December 21, 1921.
And there was even a third to win clamorous acclaim. Joseph Schwarz, baritone, appeared as the father, Giorgio Germont, registering in his countenance the tragedy of the youthful pair even more forcibly than they were willing to register it for themselves, and putting a mellow enthusiasm into “Di Provenza” that caused a temporary cessation of operatic activities.”—Edward Moore, in Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1921.
One member of the cast, Mr. Schwarz, was new to Chicago in his occasional role, that of Germont; and he succeeded in proving, if after his Wolfram and his Rigoletto this was necessary, that he is one of the very finest of all baritones. Schwarz put new, red blood into the thin and sore blue veins of old Germont. He cast aside the carefully restrained and more or less operatico-conventienal emotion, supposedly appropriate to mid-nineteenth century Italian opera, and became a tender and feeling father, doing a very disagreeable duty with a deep and unconcealed pity in his heart for the inevitable victim. But the pity was not only in his heart; it was also in every gesture and on every tone. If the “Di Provenza” has ever been sung better than he sang it last night, it must have been some time ago. Schwarz was most enthusiastically applauded at the end of the second act.—Paul Bloomfield Zeisler, Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 21, 1921.
In Memory of Peter Ilitch Tschaikowsky
To the Editor Musical Courier:
Without doubt, Peter Ilitch Tschaikowsky would be selected by a large number of music loving Americans as the most appealing of modern composers.
He is a modern as well as a classic artist. His exquisite melodies, wonderful rhythms and glorious harmonies have always produced in his hearers feelings of uplift almost spiritual in their nature.
At this moment, in Russia, his countrymen of the valley of the Volga, a veritable “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” are in terrible distress.
Is it not pertinent, therefore, to ask Tschaikowsky’s American friends to help these unfortunate people as a grateful remembrance for all the satisfaction and pleasure his music has given?
The Russian Famine Fund, 15 Park Row, New York City, will receive contributions for this cause—ten dollars will care for ten people a month.
Those who may be moved by this appeal, because of^ his service to art, to contribute to this Relief Fund, might state with their gift that it is made as a tribute to the memory of Peter Ilitch Tschaikowsky.
(Signed) J. B. S.
Cincinnati, January 1, 1922.
Gerhardt Engaged for Pittsburgh Course
The first artist announced as engaged by the Art Society of Pittsburgh for . the season of 1922-1923 is Elena Gerhardt, who will give a recital in this series on December 15 next in Carnegie Music Hall.
WHAT THE JURY THINKS
[The music critics of the New York dailies constitute the jury in the appended extracts from criticisms which have appeared in our local newspapers. Many concerts and operas are given in the metropolis, and the following day the critics agree or disagree on the merits or demerits of the performer. However, on most occasions the writers do not agree, and this department is run for the purpose of reproducing some of the flat contradictions, showing that, after all, the review constitutes but the personal opinion of the critic who covers the performance.—Editor’s Note.]
Max Kotlarsky, Pianist, December 29, 1921
Herald
His tone . . . was not so rich in warmth and color as it might have been.
World
He is weak on dynamics, sticking too closely to' the middle road of expression.
World ־
His tone has variety of color. Herald
A certain ease and freedom of style.
T imes
Played with taste and skill.
Heifetz, Violinist, January 2
Times
There was the added “Hava-naise,” too, played in memory of Saint-Saëns, but the player’s memory of the late composer seemed lacking in imaginative sparkle.
World
Mr. Heifetz’s program at Carnegie Hall yesterday afternoon was not worthy of a violinist of his reputation.
American
But there was something about his carefully ironed manners and methods that breathed diffidence.
Herald
He was not entirely at his best in* Goldmark’s^ A minor concerto, especially in the first movement. Probably the cold affected his violin.
ianist, January 2
Herald
Then followed Saint-Saëns’ “Havanaise,” in memory of the composer, which was given with rare feeling and brilliant execution.
American
At his second recital heard by a huge audience yesterday afternoon in Carnegie Hall, Jascha Heifetz presented a program distinctly more acceptable than his previous one.
Evening Mail
Those captious concert goers who complain of the detached, impersonal Heifetz must have been converted to another opinion if they were in Carnegie Hall yesterday afternoon when he played the Goldmark concerto. In the andante his tone was warm; it even glowed.
George Smith,
Herald	Evening World
His most engaging . quality Mr. Smith’s tone is not al-was his tone, which was always ways musical, and frequently, good and often beautiful.	in the upper end of the keyboard,
it sounded drab in forte passages.
Vera Poppe, Cellist, January 3
Tribune
Vera Poppe gave a cello recital, but such was the immaturity of her performance that her playing did not invite discussion.
Sun
Her tone was continually sacrificed to her digital technic, the result being rather scratchy.
Pianist, January 3
Sun •
In the Bach and Mozart Miss Taglione showed more courage than discretion.
American
Gowned in green but possessed of ripe artistry, she gave an interesting and convincing portrayal of the possibilities of the instrument.
American
Her tone was smooth and warm.
Evelione Taglione,
Herald
She . . . played numbers by Bach and Mozart with an understanding which bespoke a rare musical talent and much taste.
A Reception to Strauss
On the afternoon of Thursday, December 22, Dr. Richard Strauss and Mme. Elizabeth Schumann were guests at a reception tendered in their honor by William Knabe & Company, in the Ampico Studios of that concern, 437 Fifth avenue New York. The occasion was marked with the first public playing of Dr. Strauss’ recordings for the Ampico reproducing piano which he had made during the course of his recent tour in this country.
The musical program was opened with the reproduction of Strauss’ “Beside the Spring,” played by the composer and given by the Ampico. Mme. Schumann then sang five Strauss songs—“The Star,” “Ich Trage Mein Mmne,” “Freundliche Vision,” “Schlechtes Wetter,” and “Devotion, to the accompaniment of the composer, the accompaniments to his “Devotion” and “Serenade” later being reproduced by the Ampico from his own recording. The final number was the reproduction by the Ampico of Elly Ney’s recording of the Schubert-Liszt Impromptu.
Among those who were present were Mr. and Mrs. Selim Palmgren, Kurt Schindler, Arthur Schnabel, Mr. and Mrs George G. Foster, Florence Reed, Marguerite Sylva, Miss A W. Marion, Elly Ney, Cornelius Rybner, Helene Bark, Mrs. I. T. Burden, Mrs. T. A. Marshall, Dr. Edward Pinkham, Baroness Katharine von Klenner, Victor Herbert Germaine Schnitzer, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson O’Shaugh-nessy, Mr. and Mrs. Pavenstadt, B. W. Huebsch, Dr. and Mrs George L. Brodhead, Mrs. Harvey Murdoch and Miss Murdoch William B. Armstrong, Mr. and Mrs. Hemrich Meyn Mr. and Mrs. Henry Goldman, the Duke and Duchess of Richelieu, Mrs. Alfred B. Wade, Victor Harris and James Speyer.


inorili Oliv»! W J. WO	v
The orchestral composition contest for a prize of $1,000 announced by the Chicago North Shore Festival Association has just been closed. Some seventy-four manuscripts were sent to Carl D. Kinsey, who in turn will submit then! to the three judges—Rubin Goldmark, Philip Hale and Percy Grainger. The winning composition will be played at the final concert of the 1922 North Shore Music Festival. The best five numbers will be played at the public rehearsal and will be directed by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The five compositions se lected for performance at the public rehearsal will be played without the identity of the composer being made known to the judges or the public. If in the opinion of the festival orchestra conductor, the successful contestant is capable of directing his own work, that contestant may do so, it he desires.
Speaking about the North Shore Festival, it may be stated that rehearsals have־ already begun • Among t novelties will be Percy Graingers Brides Tragedy for chorus and orchestra, and the same composers Green