M U S IC AL COURIER 24 February 16, 1922 BALTIMORE HEARS MANY NOTEWORTHY CONCERTS BY LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS Knights of Columbus Choir Gives Musicale—Treble Clef Club Chorus Sings—Baltimore Opera Society Presents “Mignon”—Municipal Pier Concert—Haydn Symphony Orchestra Heard Baltimore, Md., February 8, 1922.—Several excellent local organizations gave noteworthy concerts during January. A musicale was given on the twelfth by the Knights of Columbus Choir, of which Roman Steiner is director. The solo artists at this concert were Matie Leitch-Jones, soprano; Esther Cutchin, pianist, and Herbert Bangs, violinist. Treble Clef Club. The first of the two annual concerts of the Treble Clef Club was given at the Maryland Casualty Company’s club house on January 18. This chorus of women’s voices has made steady progress under the capable leadership of Eugene W. Wyatt, and presented a thoroughly musical entertainment at this concert. There are many fine voices in the club, and the members are all musical enough to enter with enthusiasm into the difficulties of modern compositions, the adequate presentation of which is one of the chief objects of the club. A very interesting example of this was the “Wood Nymph,” by Franz Bornschein, an exquisite composition in the modern idiom, with many difficulties, which was so beautifully sung that the composer immediately p omised to write something especially for the Treble Clef Club. Another well known composer, W. G. Owst, has promised to write something that will ■put the club upon its mettle. The soloist of the evening was John F. Osbourn, baritone. Mr. Osborn has a rich, resonant voice, of good range, with exceptionally good stage presence. He sang “It Is Enough,” from “Elijah;” “The Two Grenadiers,” “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes,” and “Heigh-Ho” (Burleigh), giving “Duna” as an encore. Beautiful accompaniments were played by Else Melamet. Baltimore Opera Society Gives “Mignon.” “Mignon,” the second production of the Baltimore Opera Society, was given before packed houses on January 23 and 24. The chorus, which is so excellently trained by Director David S. Melamet, won fresh laurels by its beautfiul, clean-cut work. This chorus is, after all, the great asset of the Opera Society, as no travelling opera company could assemble over a hundred fresh young voices as a background fo־ the soloist. The operas to be given are always chosen with the object of making the most of the chorus. The title role was sung by Hazel Phillips Pratt, who has a mezzo contralto voice of lovely quality. Mrs. Pratt’s beauty was no mean asset in her presentation of the unfortunate gypsy girl. George Pickering was an attractive Wilhelm, singing and acting with quite professional ease. Morris Cromer’s beautiful voice was heard to advantage as Lothario, in which his acting showed great improvement over former roles. But the outstanding feature of the evening was the Filina of Margarethe Melamet. This difficult part was sung with sparkling brilliancy by the young soprano; her “Titania” aria brought a salvo of applause, at each performance. Eleanor Williams was an excellent Frederick; Earle Colby sang and acted with great aplomb in the role of Laertes; G. C. Turner sang well as Giarno, and Werner Kern was Antonio. An exceedingly attractive feature of the performance was the gyp׳sy ballet in the first act, coached by Louise Shafer, who danced a pas seul with fire and abandon. Her beauty and grace are unusual. Members of the Philadelphia Symphony formed the orchestra, conducted by David S. Melamet. Musical Pier Concert. The Pier concert of Sunday, January 22, struck a high note that will be difficult to live up to during the rest of the season. The participating artists were Matie Leitch-Jones, a lyric soprano of unusual ability, with a voice of lovely quality and great flexibility ; Esther Cutchin, a favorite local pianist; Merrill Hopkinson, baritone, the well known recitalist ; Frederick Gottlieb, a delightful flutist, and Howard Thatcher, who is one of the best accompanists in the city. The Pier concerts attract large audiences, and are a feature of the musical season. Haydn Symphony Orchestra Heard. Under the direction of F. H. Pluemacher, the Haydn Symphony Orchestra gave a concert January 30, at the Maryland Casualty Company’s club house. Frances Compton, soprano, was the soloist. D. L. F. Haywood. Pupils Fill Engagements Mrs. E. Henri Boyd, soprano, sang at the Washington Irving High School, on January 16, under the auspices of the Board of Education. On January 20, Frances Banda-lair, soprano, gave a program for the Evening Mail concert, at Erasmus Hall, Brooklyn. Marcella Johnson, soprano, was one of the concert guests, who entertained the pupils of the public schools of Districts 4 and 5 at the Pageant Party given at the Century Theater, January 21. Robert Murray, boy soprano, gave a program at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Gallery on January 26. George S. Madden in Annual Recital George S. Madden, baritone, will give his annual recital on Tuesday evening, February 21, at the Town Hall. His program, an interestingly arranged one, will range from modern songs by William Reddick and Gennaro Curci, through numbers (all sung in English) by Densmore, Lafarge, Reger, Strauss, Henschel, Grieg, Dvorak, Mous-sorgskv, Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Franz, Schubert, Van Beethoven, Mozart, Jadyn, Pergliose, Handel and Bach. Maurice Lafarge will be at the piano. Benimen Concert Appearances Ernesto Benimen, the well known pianist and pedagogue, appeared at the Masonic Temple of Forest Hills, L. I., on January 20, and four days later he played in conjunction with thé Duo-Art Piano at Tarrytown, N. Y., presenting two interesting compositions for two pianos—“Dream at Twilight” and “French Military March” by the late Saint-Saëns. Mr. Benimen again was soloist at the La Forge noondav musical held at Aeolian Hall on February 3. On March 31 the pianist will give his fifth Aeo'Nn Hall recital. de Paris this is certainly not; but Frenchmen might do worse than come to this obscure Hanoverian to learn to play Debussy. A prophet often lacks other things besides honor in his own country 1 The Polish Group. Two young pianists with Polish names—Romuald Wi-karski and Ladislaw Osinski—deserve honorable mention, not only for their excellent playing but also for their progressive spirit in placing new works upon their programs. The first, in selecting a “Sonate fúnebre” by Leo Schrattenholz, was not particularly fortunate, wasting a lot of good playing and tone-painting upon a rather academic and pompous work. His playing of Schubert, Chopin and Liszt was exquisite in its clarity and purity of tone, brilliant in execution and convincing interpretative quality. Wikarski’s compatriot, Osinski, played nine exceedingly interesting sketches and five imaginative fantasy pieces by Ludomir Rozycki, which combine national Polish elements with delicate French impressionism. These, as well as pieces by Amani and the Schumann “Childhood Scenes,” Osinski played with remarkable rhythmic finesse, beautiful tonal balance and sense of color. And the Rest of Europe. Among the other pianists who have recently appeared here, Luigino Franchetti, Italian, a truly poetic personality; Joseph Pembaur, Austrian, famous as a Liszt specialist; Richard Singer, German, and Theodor Szanto, Hungarian, are the most important. Richard Singer played an all-modern program, ranging from Liszt and MacDowell to Busoni and Maykapar, with masterly command of the instrument and impeccable taste. A group of pieces by himself were heard here for the first time. A young American/ Raymond Burt, who was announced as being from New York, would have done better to postpone his recital to a much later date, for despite evident talent he is in no sense ready for public appearance. America Too. The first violinist of the New Year was Rudolph Polk, American, who gave his second recital in the Beethoven-Saal yesterday. He again showed that he is a player of remarkable finish. Elegant bowing and great left-hand dexterity are the outstanding technical features of his playing. A good tone quality and sound musicianship round off his violinistic character. Besides old Italian classics he played Gernsheim’s second violin concerto in F major, a choice probably explained through the influence of Henri Marteau, Polk’s former teacher, to whom Gerns-heim dedicated this now almost entirely forgotten concerto, which nevertheless especially in the sprightly finale, offers the player some chances for expression and display. César Saerchinger. Macbeth Scores in Boston The demand for seats for the concert given in Boston by Florence Macbeth, coloratura of the Chicago Opera, was such that the sponsors, the Boston Athletic Association, was compelled to announce to its members that each one would be permitted to purchase two tickets only. Another unique feature of the popular singer’s visit was that, in spite of the rule of the association to present an artist only once to its members, the rule was broken in her case on account of the great success she met with at her recital last year. Ritter First Soloist with New Club Due to the efforts of Mrs. Homer McKee and a few musical friends, Atlantic City has a new choral society which has adopted the name of the Orpheus Musical Club. The organization plans to give a concert in the auditorium of the steel pier on February 23, when “May Queen,” Handel-Bach, will be presented with Nora Lucia Ritter as the soloist, assisted by Howard Clemons, tenor; Mrs. Steel, contralto; William Wyeth and Charles Scull, basso. Joseph Schall Lilly is director of the chorus. Success for Marie Sweet Baker Some of the recent appearances of Marie Sweet Baker, soprano, whose delightful singing and artistic interpretation have won for her excellent criticisms from the press and public, include: soloist at the dedication services of the Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, at which she rendered “Gebet Der Elizabeth” from “Tannhäuser,” and at the Cameo Club dinner. Encores were demanded at this last engagement and Miss Baker responded graciously. sian expressionism and French impressionism. In Germany they meet and are tempered by the culture and precision of the classic school. Erdmann played a program that in itself proclaims the individualist, rather wilful and arbitrary, even capricious in his likes and dislikes, but always constructive and original. His first appearances here had given him the reputation of a modernist; and, as if to belie his reputation, he digs out and places at the head of his program a forgotten sonata by Johann Gottfried Eckardt, an eighteenth century classicist. If anyone else put that piece upon his program one would expect a bore, but Erdmann plays each piece as though he were infatuated with it and nothing else in the world. And such infatuation as his is contagious. Eckardt, played by him was delightful, but—for all I know it is dry stuff. ScHUBERT-MOUSSORGSKY-SCHNABEL. Schubert’s rarely played posthumous sonata in C major Erdmann delivered with an ecstatic devotion that was touching, and even the completion of the last two movements, made by the young composer, Ernst Krenek, out of the material left by Schubert, was rendered convincingly. But the whole power of his plastic vigor and his vivid pictorial sense came out in Moussorgsky’s “Tableaux d’une exposition,” those fifteen genial aperçus of the great Russian, which held the audience spellbound. And he capped the climax of his two and a half hour program with a startling novelty : Artur Schnabel’s ultra modern dance suite, which is an outflow of superheated neo-romanticism in terms of modern harmony, polyphony and—the modern dance. Starting with a cleverly dissonant fox trot, it proceeds by way of a wooing “Repose” to a cataleptic waltz, and by a second, intensified “Repose” to a mad whirl entitled “Till Tomorrow.” This work gives undeniable proof of Schnabel’s creative power as well as his prodigious con-structive technic. But it will be a long time before this music will be appreciated by the academics. Chrono-logically—and otherwise—it is “post-Schônbergian. Erd-mann mastered its uncanny difficulties in an amazing de-gree, and altogether placed himself definitely in the great succession of really creative interpreters. His success, with public and press, is almost without precedent. The Other Extreme. A greater contrast to his playing, essentially powerful and plastic, could not be imagined, than that of Gieseking. Gieseking is a master of tone color and of atmosphere—all the delicate, soft aspects of the art. He rarely plays a program without a Debussy group, and it seems safe to say that he is the greatest Debussy player in Europe. I he program of his recent recital—the third this season—comprised Bach’s English suite, No. 6 (D minor), the symphonic etudes of Schumann, the famous six piano pieces oi Schônberg, op. 19, and a finely varied group of Debussy-four “Préludes” and two “Images.” Gieseking is even more definitely a modernist than -tra-mann (he is a specialist, where his colleague is merely a specializer) ; hence he did not seem to feel at home until he reached Schônberg. Never have we heard these “dramas in miniature” to better advantage. For concen-trative conciseness these six pieces are probably unequalled in the realm of art. But it was in his playing of Debussy that Mr Gieseking really showed his capabilities. In his hands “Brouillards” and the “Mouvement” were a veritable fluttering of veils in perfumed gardens, a shimmering of rose and mauve transparencies. It is all too subtle for words and certainly too suggestive to give one any sense of architecture or line. Debussy a la Conservatoire 2nd FREI )ERIC WARREN Ballad Concert Ruano Bogislav, Bonelli, George Schumann at the Maso! SELWYN Theater, New York Sun. Eve., Feb. 19, at 8:20 ARTISTS Pauline Bonelli, Richard Raudenbush and Meta piano. i & Hamlin Plano H eien Teschner Tas Is a musicianly fiddler of intelligence and expressive tonal appeal.” Manager H. GODFREY TURNER 1400 Broadway, N. Y. Quoted from The Troy Record January 19, 1922.