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MUSICAL COURIER
February 9, 1922
CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENTS
AEOLIAN HALL
Thursday Evening, Feb. 9th, 1922 at 8:15
PIANO RECITAL
ASHLEY PETTIS
Steinway Piano used Vlgt.: Antonia Sawyer
further stated that from start to finish she seemed to win the hearts of her hearers and to make them forget what worldly cares and worries were. This recital resulted in three engagements for Mrs. Lawson.
Huberman’s Third New York Recital
Bronislaw Huberman’s program for his third New York recital at Carnegie Hall on February 15 will include Respighi’s sonata for piano and violin (its first performance in America) and adagio and fugue by Bach, unaccompanied; Tschaikowsky’s “Souvenir d’un liue cher,” which includes the famous “Melodie,” etc. Paul Frenkel will be at the piano.
Mr. Huberman will give a recital at Salem, N. J., on February 27, when he will play the Saint-Saëns B minor violin concerto and several groups of short pieces, as well as some of the Bach unaccompanied works, of which he is one of the greatest interpreters.
Allen McQuhae on Tour
The young Irish-American tenor, Allen McQuhae, who but recently returned from Texas as a bridegroom, has just made another success in Fall River, Mass., where, the local papers say, he broke all precedents by appearing before a house which was not alone “sold out,” but which also had seats on the stage to accommodate the many who would not be denied admission.
According to the Fall River Evening News, he gathers at each appearance a larger audience than at the preceding one, and is accorded the fullest praise for his singing. Mr. McQuhae is at present enroute for a very full tour of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
The Fusons in Unique Program
Ethel Wright Fuson, contralto, and Thomas Fuson, tenor, appeared in recital at Hawthorne, N. Y., January 21. Mr. and Mrs. Fuson were engaged to give an entire program of negro spirituals and folk songs. The singers and their program proved so popular that the concert ran over time and they were barely able to catch their train.
Melville-Liszniewska Again with Cincinnati Orchestra
Marguerite Melville-Liszniewska has been engaged as soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for its concert in Washington, D. C., on March 14, repeating the Ysaye concerto which created such a stir at its first performance in America in Cincinnati on November 11 and 12.
Hofmann to Play Here February 22
Josef Hofmann’s third and last piano recital of the season takes place at Carnegie Hall at 2:30 on Washington’s Birthday, February 22. He will play the Beethoven sonata in C minor, op. 3, and his shorter pieces include a berceuse in B flat major by himself, the twelfth rhapsody of Liszt, and “Birds at Dawn,” by Fanny Dillon.
Theodore Kittay in New York Recital
Theodore Kittay, known in this city as well as throughout the country and in Europe as an opera singer, will make his debut in a concert at Aeolian Hall on the evening of March 9. Mr. Kittay is under the management of Haensel and Jones.
Caryl Bensel on Southern Tour
Caryl Bensel was soloist recently with the Pittsburgh Apollo Club, and, according to the dailies of the following day, she was one of the best that organization had ever had. Miss Bensel now is on a Southern tour.
Hempel Wins Ovation in Havana
(By Telegram)
_	Havana, February 5, 1922.
Musical Courier,
437 Fifth Ave., New York.
Tremendous ovation. Sensational success Frieda Hempel debut today. Concert Capitolic Theater.
(Signed) Garcia.
idly written works, effective enough, but considering the variety of subject they seemed surprisingly alike in character. A better chorus might have gotten more out of them.
Next came a setting of Schiller’s “Der Abend,” for women’s chorus, two solo voices and chamber orchestra, by Sam Thewman, who has been stage director at the Metropolitan for the last two years. The composer conducted. It was thoroughly uninspired, often commonplace, Kapell-meistermusik. The pleasantest thing of the whole program was the singing of the two young women from the Metropolitan who had the solo parts, Alice Miriam and Marion Telva, both of whom have unusually beautiful voices and know how to use them. To end with, Mr. Bodanzky led the orchestra through the fifth Schubert symphony, B flat, a work written when the composer was only nineteen. It is bright, jolly, frank music, often reminiscent of Mozart, and, as was the case with much of Schuberts’ orchestral music, much longer than the musical content justifies. The encouraging sign was that the smallest audience the present writer ever saw at the Friends assembled for this tedious afternoon.
Nina Tarasova
It is two or three years now since New York first learned that Nina Tarasova has a remarkably expressive way of singing Russian songs, both art songs and folk songs, but it was only at her last recital previous to the one she gave at the Town Hall on Sunday evening, February 5, that she ventured to sing the art songs of other nations. The experiment was well worth making then and showed that Mme. Tarasova had made long strides in developing what was at first mere native talent into a finished art. On the program of last Sunday evening she gave a group which included an aria of Gluck’s, a Venetian serenade and two old English songs, and in singing them proved that she had learned much even in the two months or so that separated the two recitals. She carried the long line of Gluck’s “O del mio dolce ardor” excellently, her handling of the breath being especially good; she put the right grace and charm into the serenade, without mistreating it musically, and she sang the old English songs with the right verve and dash. Her pronunciation of English, too, has distinctly improved. For the rest there was a group of Russian songs by Glinka, Varlamoff, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Gonziloff, and, to end with, a lot of the Russian folk songs that first won her reputation here, all of which she sang with the impulsive spontaneity and freshness which have always marked her work. A large audience called on her for many extra folk songs.
Claire Dux
Carnegie Hall held a large throng of Claire Dux admirers^ on Sunday afternoon, and those who did not go there in that capacity became such long before the lady had finished her concert, because she proved to be not only an apparition pleasant to gaze upon, with her pretty face and her snow^ white clothes, but also she demonstrated ability of a very high order as a singer of songs demanding interpretative intelligence and musical command.
In an aria from Mozart’s “Zaide,” the Dux legato (one of her notable assets) was in welcome evidence as was also her unfailing sense of style. Gluck, Pergolese and Giordano were represented by classical arias which were sung with breadth, fine restraint, and a beautiful use of the pianissimo whenever it was appropriate.
A Schubert group of familiar numbers, including “Wohin,” “Du bist die Ruh” (both of which had to be repeated) and “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen,” showed the concertgiver at her best, the delivery being filled with fervor, lovely phrasing, deep musical sensibility, and delicate and moving use of tone color as an aid to emotional expressiveness.
Two new songs by Sjogren, “Silent” and “Forever,” cannot be numbered among the distinguished pieces of that Swedish master, while the other novelties, Kromolicki’s “I Once Saw the Wind,” and Hans Herman’s “Lullaby,” at least had definiteness and spontaneous tunefulness to recommend them upon the quartet of new songs as well as the concluding aria from “The Pearl Fishers,” Mme. Dux lavished a wealth of feeling, vocal art, and temperamental impetus. She was made the recipient of attentions from the audience which must have warmed her heart and convinced her that she had established herself here as an artist of honored merit in the Lieder singing division.
Another New -York Recital for Erza
Berthe Erza, the young Algerian dramatic soprano, is busy making her first test records for one of the leading phonograph companies. Her success in Aeolian Hall, New York, on January 13, has attracted so much attention that her managers, Arthur and Helen Hadley, have decided to present her in another recital in Carnegie Hall, provided a suitable date can be secured. In addition to her appearance with the Beethoven society on January 24, Erza will be heard with the People’s Institute concerts on February 19 and in concerts in Stamford, Conn., and Middletown, N. Y. Several important orchestral dates are pending.
Lawson Appearance Leads to Engagements
Francaska Kaspar Lawson sang in Alexandria, Va., on December 15, and, to quote the Gazette of that place, for an hour and a half the artist held her audience of music lovers spellbound throughout her recital. The same paper
OPPORTUNITIES
NEW YORK CONCERTS
(Continued from page 6.)
she increased the splendid impression made previously and came in for much applause.
Mme. Pareto was, perhaps, the center of interest. This attractive artist carried away the audience with her charm of manner and poise. Her voice, although not a tremendously big one, is of a quality that appeals to her hearers. It is also one of delightful sweetness and clarity and she uses it with ease and skill. The “Sonnambula” aria was superbly rendered as was also the “Dinorah” selection and in a group of well selected songs the singer was especially convincing and charming. As a concert artist, Mme. Pareto ought to be very successful; she has all the requirements.
Ward Lewis and Charles Gilbert Spross were the accompanists.
FEBRUARY 3
Fanny Rezia
On Friday evening, February 3, at Aeolian Hall, Fanny Rezia, soprano, gave an interesting and artistic song recital. In her singing she displayed a voice of excellent quality and brilliant high tones. Her program consisted of several opera selections and a French and English group. “Do Not Go, My Love,” by Richard Hageman, was so exquisitely sung that an ovation followed.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra: Erna Rubinstein Soloist
Mr. Mengelberg’s first entire program of the season, at Carnegie Hall, on Friday afternoon, February 3, was decidedly reactionary. It began with the Pastoral symphony and ended with the “Freischutz” overture, and in between it had the Mendelssohn violin concerto. The age of even the youngest member of this program is seventy-seven years, but to make up for this Mengelberg brought an artist of only fifteen years to play this grandfather of concertos. Her name is Erna Rubinstein. She plays exceedingly well. Fingering difficulties are nothing to her, bowing is second nature and she certainly did full justice to the musical possibilities of the Mendelssohn concerto, finding more in it than many an older soloist. In a word, she is a child prodigy with much more than the usual equipment and, it seems, also more than the usual mental ability. Whether she is anything more only the years will tell. The audience was evidently very much pleased with her playing and called her back repeatedly.
For Mr. Mengelberg it must be said that he conducted the two old war horses with almost as much enthusiasm as if it were the first time he had played them. The orchestra did well, but even its veteran horns were a trifle nervous under the new conductor’s baton.
FEBRUARY 4 Ignaz Friedman
In a program of Chopin works, Ignaz Friedman attracted a houseful of matinee auditors to Aeolian Hall, and if their noisy and prolonged demonstrations are to be taken as an indication of their delight—and the present chronicler so takes them—the Polish pianist threw his hearers into veritable ecstasies of musical happiness. He played a number of Chopin’s lesser pieces, including mazurkas, the undyingly popular berceuse, and the rarely played but beautifully delicate “Andante Spianato and Polonaise,” but the great heights of his performance were attained in the two sonatas, into which he poured all the large resources of his interpretative, tonal and technical powers. He held the listeners spellbound in every measure, and when he had finished no doubt could have remained in any mind or heart that Ignaz Friedman ranks with the world’s chosen in the realm of keyboard artists. Than this there is no higher praise, and the writer of these lines does not intend to go into detailed description of the Friedman achievements in musicianship, finger and wrist execution, tone shadings and gradings, nuances of phrasing, accents, etc. Altogether it was an afternoon of memorable piano art, and as such it will be set down by all those who were privileged to experience it.
FEBRUARY 5
Friends of Music: Alice Miriam and Marion Telva, !Soloists
One sometimes wonders if the Friends of Music really are friends of music—for instance, after such an uninteresting program as they presented at Town Hall on Sunday afternoon, February S. The forces engaged were an orchestra and chorus under the direction of Artur Bodanzky. The program began with the overture to Weber’s one-act Singspiel, “Abu Hassan,” dating from 1811, gay and trifling music. Then came four sacred songs for chorus, with orchestra of strings, trumpets and horns, by Lazare Saminsky, conducted by the composer. Two of them, “El Hibne Hagalila” and “Ani Hadal,” are based on Jewish folk tunes; “To Zion’s Heights” is to a poem by Poushkin, and the other is a Sanctus. They are all sol-
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