MUSICAL COURIER
50
January 12, 1922
CARL ROSA OPERA COMPANY CLOSES ITS
EIGHT WEEKS’ SEASON IN LONDON
Too Many Half Empty Halls and Listless Audiences Discouraging to Concert Givers—S. R. O. for Cortot—Freyer Has No Fads—Monotonous Leonard—Holbrooke Recognized at Last—A New Cellist—Noisy Adila—The Growth of Spalding—Samuel and Bach—Myra Hess Coming to America
ing some chamber music by Josef Holbrooke, a composer who has received much recognition, especially of late. His larger orchestral works have been played by several of the leading orchestras here during the past year and his songs are constantly on recital programs. Last week I received a printed circular from Germany announcing a whole concert of Holbrooke compositions. It does not seem very long ago since I used to see young Holbrooke in the students’ classes at the Royal Academy of Music, and he is now one of the best known composers of England.
Famous and Infamous.
I hear so many inexperienced, or inadequate, or indifferent singers attempting recital programs far beyond their powers that at times I feel as if I could find no interest whatsoever in singing. A visit to a Chappell Ballad Concert in Queen’s Hall, however, restores my equilibrium, and I come away with' the satisfaction of knowing that I have heard some fine singing, even though the compositions sung were not always up to the Schumann-Brahms-Wolf level. If the famous singers can sing ballads, why must the infamous singers sing Brahms?
A New Cellist and His Mother.
Ricart Matas, a new cellist from Spain, has made his appearance in London. His two recitals in Aeolian Hall gave promise of an established reputation here before long. His tone, like that of his famous compatriot, Casals, is small but beautiful. He plays strictly in tune and his rhythmical sense is perfect. His accompaniments were played by his mother.
Noisy Adila.
It is certainly better to produce a small and beautiful tone than a big and coarse tone on a stringed instrument. I could not help thinking that Adila Fachiri would be more successful than she is if she did not force her violin to produce so robust a tone. She is not the only female violinist to sacrifice beauty of tone for volume. There is probably a psychological basis for the feminine admiration of strength. The male, who is naturally strong, admires beauty. My ear could hear no beauty in the overstressed, raw tones of Adila Fachiri—tones which were four times as full and noisy as the sounds of liquid beauty Sarasate whisked so deftly from his violin. Adila Fachiri is an excellent violinist. Her bowing and technical facility are of the best. Her long rectal in Wigmore Hall this week was listened to by an audience which was exceptionally large in this lean season.
The Carl Rosa Season Ends.
On Saturday evening, December 10, the eight weeks’ season of Carl Rosa opera came to end at Cov'ent Garden. And the last work on the last night was by the great com-
“SODER-HUEGK
THE EMINENT VOICE TRAINER AND COACH
Maker of many Singers now prominent before the publie. Famous for her eorreet Voice Placement and Tone Development. Engagements secured.
Write fop Booklet
Metropolitan Opera Honae Studio■ 1425 Broadway, New York
London, December 22, 1921.—A history of London’s concerts during the past month would be an almost unbroken record of half empty halls and listless audiences. One of the most prominent concert managers told me that the entertainment slump was due to the wrong people having the money and the right people being without it. This statement made such a strong personal appeal to me that I was forced to believe it. Many persons of considerable musical culture cannot pay living expenses, taxes, and buy concert tickets. As hunger and thirst are insistent in their demands, and as the government tax collectors have the army and navy and air force and poison gas factories behind them, it follows that music gets the cold shoulder. Nevertheless, there have been several crowded houses which deserve special mention. The capacity of the Queen’s Hall was taxed by the crowds which came to Katharine Goodson’s orchestral concert on November 14. The popular English artist played two concertos, one of which was Brahms’ in D minor, and the other was by Arthur Hinton. This Hinton work has already been played at a London Philharmonic concert and at a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert. It consequently needs no praise from me, ,but I must say that Albert Coates hardly treated it fairly by placing it after the gorgeously brilliant scoring of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “Scheherezade.” But both pianist and composer were tumultuously applauded.
S. R. O. for Cortot.
Cortot is a prime favorite with many London lovers of piano playing. I do not see eye to eye with this brilliant young Frenchman in the interpretation of several compositions I could name; but I gladly testify to his ability in delighting his hearers. He has played several times of late in Wigmore Hall and I have heard the ticket seller tell scores of people that all the tickets for the recitals were “sold long ago”—long ago meaning a few days, and not times remote, T presume.
Thick and Thin.
It was an unusual experience to see huge crowds of music lovers struggling in vain to get into the capacious Albert Hall. Ticket holders who came even five minutes before the appointed time were unable to get to their seats until the concert had been under way for ten minutes or quarter of an hour. The attraction was Kreisler and the date was December 11. Everybody knows who and what Kreisler is. I need say no more. But I wondered if Kreisler would have filled the Albert Hall if he had played only in the Albert Hall every time he appeared in London. Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata, with its old fashioned piano part and its frequent passages of pizzicato for the violin sounded woefully thin at times in the great hall where the oratorios and the prize fights divide the honors equally between them. Kreisler gave a third recital before he left for America, playing to a large audience in the more serviceable dimensions of Queen’s Hall.
Freyer Has No Fads.
Herbert Freyer, once a resident of New York, gave a series of three recitals in Aeolian Hall, playing mostly classical works, in which he particularly excels. I found his Schumann and Chopin a little more sedate and solid than they seem when some of the foreign visitors with more impetuous temperaments play them. I do not know which way is the right way. Freyer has no fads, however, and does not go in for musical ethics and moral musical culture.
Walter Distorts.
But Walter Rummel gave special titles to his three recitals. The first one was called a “Religious” program, and the second, a “Profane” program. The third recital was plain Chopin, without religion or profanity, though I think Chopin might have risen to the heights of profanity had he heard some of Walter Rummel’s revisions of the original rhythms as selected by the composer. Why the pianist should have wrecked and ruined the rhythms of Chopin’s mazurkas I cannot imagine. Walter Rummel, nevertheless, is a striking personality in the piano world. He is a poet to his finger tips and could never by any chance be dull.
Monotonous Leonard.
I could find no fault with Leonard Borwick except the great fault of monotony. The absence of evil does not necessarily make an attractive saint. Borwick played some Bach, followed by some Mozart, followed by six sonatas by Scarlatti one after the other. Every thing was neat and correct and uniformly commendable, but dull and monotonous as a whole. He continued with too much Brahms, and ended up with only his own transcriptions of Debussy. The program reminded me of the traveler who went into a foreign restaurant and pointed to the first item on the bill of fare. The waiter brought a plate of soup. He pointed to the second item and was given another plate of soup. He then tried the third item and received still another plate of soup. In despair he pointed to the last item and the waiter brought him a toothpick. If after all these many years of playing before the London public Leonard Borwick cannot get more than a small audience in Aeolian Hall there must be something lacking in the man himself. I can discover no faults in his piano playing.
Josef Recognized at Last.
I left the beaten track a few evenings ago and journeyed to the sedate borough of Chelsea, in Old English called Ceosel-ize, meaning “pebble isle.” There has been an attempt made of late to decentralize some of the concerts in the hope of bringing music to the doors of those who do not care or dare to travel as far as Wigmore and Queen’s Halls. The experiments succeed in proportion as the concerts are attractive. A poor entertainment near home is not as luring as an excellent concert in a distant hall. The chamber concerts in the Chelsea Town Hall, however, have been enjoyed by many music lovers and have proved a wise venture. I went to Chelsea for the express purpose of hear-
JESSIE MASTERS
THE ALL AMERICAN CONTRALTO
Mintfemtnt: HARRY H. HALL, 101 Park Ann», N«w York
Teacher of Singing
STUDIO:
333 West End Ave. (76th St.) Phone 5217 Columbus New York
ZERFFI
DR. CHERUBINO RAFFAELLI
From Royal Conservatory. Florence. Italy TEACHER OE SINGING AND PIANO 602 West 137th Street, New York City Telephone Audubon 5669
SCHILLIG
OTTILIE
Recital
Concert — Oratorio
Management: Wolfsohn Musical Burean	8 East 34th Street, New York
Jean de Reszke 53 Rue de la Faisanderie Paris
GIUSEPPE
AGOSTINI
Original Rudolfo In “Boheme״״
GUEST-ARTIST SAN CARLO OPERA COMPANY UNTIL MAY.
Address Communications:
A. BAGAROZY, 35 West 42d St., New York
HARRY H. HALL, Manager
and
GABRIELLE ELLIOT, Associate
101 Park Ave., New York City
PRESENT FOR SEASON 1921-22
Ellen Beach Yaw, coloratura soprano; Hermina West, dramatic soprano; Lydia Lyndgren, dramatic soprano; Franklin Cannon, the distinguished pianist; Ann Thompson and Earl Meeker, pianist and baritone, in joint recitals; Marguerita Sylva, mezzo soprano; Antonio Rocca, dramatic tenor; Georgiella Lay, pianist, interpretative programs; André Polah, Belgian violinist; Mrs. George Lee Bready, in opera recitals; Jessie Masters, All-American contralto; Leila Topping, pianist and Vladimir Dubinsky, cellist in joint recitals.
GAY MacLAREN
“The girl with the camera Mind.”—New York World.
Re-Creation of Famous Plays
1921-1922 Dates Now Booking
Management: CAROLINE EVANS 709 Colorado Bldg.,	53 Washington Square,
Denver, Colo.	New York City
PALMGREN
COMPOSER-PIANIST
BON Cl ־	TENOR
De LUCA ־ BARITONE
JAERNEFELT soprano McCREERY SOPRANO BALLON ־ ־ pianist
AND
THE GOLDMAN CONCERT BAND
EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT:
ROG E R de B R U YN
1540 BROADWAY. N. Y.CITY
NEW YORK RECITALS ARRANGED