6
February 2 3, 1922
many other cultural movements in the United States, were married at the Hotel Vanderbilt, New York. After a honeymoon trip of a month Mr. and Mrs. Fisher will be at home at their residence, 5a Arlington street, Boston.
Metropolitan Premiere of “Loreley”
On Saturday afternoon, March 4, New York will see the first performance in the Metropolitan Opera House of the romantic-fantastic opera in three acts, “Loreley,” libretto by A. Zanardini and C. D’Ormeville, musie15״־y Alfredo Catalan¡. The cast will be as follows: Loreley, Claudia Muzio; Anna, Marie Sundelius; Walter, Beniamino Gigli; Hermann, Giuseppe Danise; Rudolfo, Jose Mardones. The opera will be conducted by Roberto Mo-ranzoni.
To Mr. and Mrs. Morisson a Son
Congratulations are being received by Mr. and irs. Charles L. Morisson on the birth of a son on January 28 at the Lenox Hill Hospital. Mrs. Morisson, who is known professionally as Gladice Morisson, has made many friends in this country since her arrival here from France a few years ago and her return to the concert stage, where she is well known as an interpreter of modern French music, will be eagerly awaited.
Offers Debuts for Young Artists
. Albert Sonberg, who appears to be in charge of the Musical Bureau of the Cultural Federation, with headquarters at 225 West Broadway, announces that it will find opportunities for worthy young artists to make debuts without expense to themselves, except for the actual printing. The Federation recitals are held in the halls of the city high schools. Further particulars can be had by writing to Mr. Sonberg direct.
Patterson Engaged for Selinsgrove
The latest engagement for Idelle Patterson is at Selinsgrove, Pa., where she will appear on March 30 in recital for the Ladies’ Choral Club of Susquehanna University. On February 12, Miss Patterson scored a success in Boston when she sang for the Boston Athletic Club. On March 23, she will give her annual New York recital, this season at Aeolian Hall.
Lucchese in Concert Next Season
Josephine Lucchese, the young coloratura soprano, who has been an outstanding feature of the season with the San Carlo Opera Company, will devote next season to concert appearances only. She will make a tour of Texas,, her native State, in November, and is already booked for recitals in San Antonio, Fort Worth and Denton.
Max Jacobs No Longer a Bachelor
Max Jacobs, the well known violinist, teacher and conductor, was quietly married on January 30 in New York to Mile. Therese Reynaud, of Lyons, France. Mrs. Jacobs has been in this country for some time and has attained enviable success as a designer of costumes for successful musical comedies.
Namara Announced for New York “Thai's”
Marguerite Namara, soprano of the Chicago Opera, who recently sang ^ Thais” successfully with that organization in its home city, has been announced to repeat her performance in this same leading role for the first time in New York at the Manhattan Opera House on February 24
Larsen Moves Studios
Rudolf Larsen has moved his studios to 403 Carnegie
MUSICAL COURIER
dramatic expression. His “idealism,” when translated to opera, becomes maudlin, and his attempt at Wagnerian drama cheaply theatrical. Thus his incontestably pure intentions are obscured, and the poignant beauty of such things as the beginning and end of the first act of “Palestrina” largely wasted.
These opinions were only confirmed by the two opera performances of the “Pfitzner week.” The composer conducted both, getting excellent effects from the orchestra and chorus in “Palestrina,” and from the classic orchestra (no trumpets or trombones) in “Christelflein.” In the latter the simple melodiousness of the music atoned, more than at the first hearing, for the childish sentimentality of the text. The singers were barely satisfactory on both nights.
Chamber Music, Too—and Songs.
Between them an evening of Pfitzner’s chamber music was arranged by the “Anbruch” society, at which the composer figured as pianist with Boris Kroyt, violinist, and Ewel Stegman, cellist, and co-adjutors. The impressions gathered here were uneven; movements of great expressive power and superior workmanship alternated with blatantly ordinary or trivial ones. A violin sonata, op. 27, maintains the higher qualities especially in the two middle movements; the string quartet, op. 13, is remarkable for a fine slow movement (Pfitzner is the very opposite of a “brio” man, as someone called Strusss). An immature trio, op. 8, suffered from a rough and unfinished performance. Cesar Saerchinger.
Many College Glee Clubs to Compete Vocally
The increasing interest in the Intercollegiate Glee Club contest to be held in Carnegie Hall March 4 is evidenced, by the fact that the president already has received application for admission from glee clubs representing Bowdoin College, Carnegie Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Institute of Technology, Lafayette College, Cornell University, Stanford University, Tulane University, of Louisiana; Union College and Wabash College. It is anticipated that these contests will soon have to be section-alized geographically in order to give all of the colleges' an opportunity to compete who desire to do so. The glee clubs already entered in the contest on March 4 are from Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Penn State and Wesleyan. The University Glee Club of New York City has furnished a new challenge cup which must be won three times before it becomes the permanent property of the winner.
Rene Benedette Makes New York Debut
On February 13 Rene Benedette, violinist, gave his first New York recital. This young artist was born in Toulon, France, of French-Italian parents. His musical training was received at the Conservatory in Paris under Edouard Nadaud. He won the first prize there in 1918. His debut was made in Paris at the age of eleven, when he played with the Colonne Orchestra under Pierne. There was considerable interest in his recital here. It is understood that a tour is being arranged for him for next season.
Boghetti Artist Scores in Recital
Marian Anderson, an artist pupil of Giuseppe Boghetti, was exceedingly well received when she appeared recently in Baltimore. In reviewing the recital the dailies mentioned the fact that Miss Anderson sings with no apparent effort and also spoke of her remarkable range, stating that from the exceedingly low organ-like tones of her lower register, she rises to the topmost notes of a lyric soprano.
Fisher-Hinckle Wedding
On February 14 William Arms Fisher, well known composer and head of the editorial staff of the Oliver Ditson Company, and Emma Roderick Hinckle, vice-president of the National Federation of Music Clubs, and interested in
INTERNATIONAL TOURS LTD. OFFERS NEW OPPORTUNITIES
FOR ARTISTS IN AUSTRALIA AND IN NEW ZEALAND
are legion—are keenly looking forward to the visit of additional artists of the first rank to Australia.
The successful visits of Dame Melba, Levitzki and Heifetz have just concluded, and we now look forward to you to keep us supplied with regular tours of the greatest living artists.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) Alfred Edward.
Superintendent of Traffic.
As intimated by these letters, Mr. Shipman is in New York for the purpose of arranging for artists of international fame to visit Australia and New Zealand under the direction of the International Tours, Inc., a company that was organized by the leading business men and musical enthusiasts of Australia. The organization of this company marks a most important mile stone in the history of music in the Southern Hemisphere. The head office of the company is in Sydney, the greatest city of Australia and one of the greatest in the British Empire. All tours will start in Sydney with a number of concerts, it being possible in Australia to give many more concerts in a single city than is possible in America. Artists often give as many as twelve concerts in Sydney in a single season.
This new company is more than a mere concert management. Headed by the Lord Mayor, it has become a matter of civic pride to get the best artists to come to Sydney, and Mr. Shipman has been told to go and get them. An interesting feature of the Australian tours is the fact that they come in the off season. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, our summer is their winter, and when everything is dead here it is very much alive there. It is also of interest to note that Honolulu is a link in the chain that connects the Pacific Coast with Australia.
L. E. Behymer, the noted and popular Pacific Coast manager, is a stockholder in the new company and its American representative. ־ He will naturally arrange, whenever possible, to have artists on their way to Australia stop off for concerts on the coast.
The new company was made possible by the advance in interest ^ in music in Australia, thanks to the influence of the National Conservatory and its director, Verbruggen and to the visits of Clara Butt, McCormack, Heifetz, Melba Levitzki and others.
Mr. Shipman is stopping at the Hotel Astor and will be in New York until March 1.	7
Announcement was recently made of the organization of a new concert management to operate in Australia, under the name of International Tours Limited, which will have broader scope than any similar concern in the Far East. The organization is headed by no less a personage than William Percy McElhone, Lord Mayor of Sydney. Other members of the directorate are Alfred Edward (superintendent of traffic), H. G. Musgrove, L. M. Turner, E. E. Brooks, F. E. McElhone (solicitor), and Frederic Ship-man (manager), who is now in New York for the purpose of making arrangements with artists of the highest class for Australian tours.
Mr. Shipman comes armed with letters from the Lord Mayor and the Superintendent of Traffic as follows:
Lord Mayor’s Room, Town Hall, Sydney,
,,	^	״ .	January 1, 1922.
Mr. Frederic Shipman, Hotel Australia, Sydney.
Dear Mr. Shipman:
I take pleasure in wishing you bon voyage and Godspeed on your mission to secure some of the world’s foremost musical artists for a visit to Australia.
In my official capacity of Lord Mayor of this city I desire to assure you of my heartiest co-operation, for I fully realize the benefit that will accrue to Australia in general and to Sydney in particular as a result of the visit of world-famed musical artists.
This city has almost reached the million-citizen standard, and is now the fourth largest city in the British Empire. It has a magnificent Town Hall, while the city organ is the finest in the southern hemisphere, and, in my opinion, the time is opportune for the visit to this country of such artists.
With best wishes to Mrs. Shipman and yourself, I am,
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. P. McElhone.
It may here be noted that the fact that the Lord Mayor is one of the directors of this company serves as a guarantee to artists that the splendid auditorium of the Town Hall, which seats nearly three thousand people and is acoustically faultless, will be available for their concerts, a privilege not always accorded to visiting artists.
Mr. Edward’s letter also wishes Mr. Shipman success in his undertaking:
Inspector General’s Office, Sydney,
December 12, 1921.
Mr. Frederic Shipman, Hotel Australia, Sydney.
Dear Mr. Shipman:
I cannot let pass such an event as your departure from Sydney to secure a visit of world-famed artists to Australia without wishing you success.
I may add that all music-lovers in our midst—and their names
ethical avowals. These verses are allotted now to soloists, singly or in ensemble, now to the chorus. The German “Lied,”—though composed—is the basic form; and the several Lieder are connected by orchestral interludes which exhaust the emotional content of the preceding one and prepare the atmosphere for the next.
The first part, entitled “Man and Nature,” is followed by a second, “Life and Song,” still more artibrary in its construction but no less beautiful. The only extensive orchestral section in this is called “Resignation,” inspired by the preceding poem. The second, greater half is a “song section” in which some typical Eichendorffian visions—an old garden, a nun and an enamoured knight, a soldier returning from the war—alternate with epigrammatic stanzas, ending in a climactic epilogue of idealism and hope.
Music Takes Text in Tow.
The essential novelty is that the musical concert is decisive and that the text is secondary. It is as a spokesman of the older Germany, the “land of the poets and thinkers,” that Pfitzner wants to be heard, and in this he succeeds, with all the virtues and faults of his race. Ascetic, protestant, uncompromising, neglectful of outer appearance—of effect— for the sake of an inner truth and sincerity; ashamed almost of his own accomplishment, sacrificing nothing to sound, he sows the road to himself with obstacles of every sort. If at last he succeeds in reaching his audience (or letting it reach him), his success is all the more significant. It seems to me that this “cantata” of Pfitzner marks an epoch in German music; it will be produced in every German city and town, and it will arouse the same genuine enthusiasm as it did in Berlin, and despite its title it will doubtless be heard in other countries.
A Fine Performance.
The Berlin performance of this difficult work, lasting two hours, was beyond all praise. Conducted by Selmar Meyrowitz, its difficulties were not even apparant (Pfitzner’s
HANS PFITZNER
Latest photo of the German composer whose romantic cantata has been the greatest success of the Berlin season thus far.
music sounds considerably easier than it is!). The Philharmonic Orchestra and the fine Kittel Chorus (excellently trained by its conductor, Bruno Kittel) were equal to their tasks. Of the soloists, Mme. Bertha Kiurina, of Vienna, and Marie Olszewska, of Hamburg, were a revelation to Berlin. Rarely have I heard two such beautiful voices, with flawless production, blend so perfectly. Tenor Krauss, from Munich, and Basso Fischer, of Berlin, if not of such stunning brilliance as their female colleagues, were, like them, ideal interpreters of the Eichondorff lyrics. The orchestral apparatus is, of course, very large. It is supported by the organ, which unlike the usual organ part, does not serve merely to thicken the orchestra, but takes account of the peculiar qualities of the instrument in blending and contrasting with the orchestra. Two performances of the work were given and both times the hall was entirely filled. The ovations tendered the composer at the end took the character of a popular homage._ Altogether no event of the present season can compare with this in importance and significance.
Pfitzner Conducts Two of His Operas.
Pfitzner’s success in this work—his opus 28 (a remarkably low number for a man of fifty-two)—was, of course, not wholly unprepared. All of his operas, from “Der arme Heinrich” to _ “Christelflein,” in fact were partial successes, and “Palestrina” is in Germany regarded as a complete one. In does, indeed, partake of the exalted qualities of Pfitzner’s latest work, and it comprises pages of quite extraordinary beauty. But it has been the opinion of the present writer that Pfitzner is, at heart, a stranger to the stage, and that his inward-looking nature is hostile to real
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