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M arch 16, 1922	MUSICAL COURIER
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERMAN THEATER
AMAZES THE VISITORS TO BERLIN
A Departure That Does Not Happen—Still More Quartets—Hugo Kaun’s “Mother Earth”—Mozart Still Modern•—
Weingartner at Nikisch’s Pult—A Good Cellist
effectively combining features of both, ,is the charming orchestral suite by Korngold, written as incidental music for Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” played for the first time in its transcription for violin and piano by no less an artist than Fritz Kreisler, and by several lesser violinists since then. Extremely effective, witty, tasteful and individual as they are, they serve to show that the true field of this richly talented composer lies in this sort of light musical characterization and not in the pseudo pathos of the post-Wagnerian opera, which is using up some of the best sources of musical inspiration in Germany.
Hugo Kaun's “Mother Earth.”
The weightiest novelty since Pfitzner’s cantata is a new secular oratorio, “Mutter Erde,” by Hugo Kaun, for many years a resident of Milwaukee, which received its first Berlin hearing by the Singakademie chorus under Georg Schumann. The ambitious score, for chorus, orchestra, soli and organ, was well received, owing to a number of effective choruses, splendidly sung. Kaun’s skill in the treatment of chorus and of matters pertaining to composition in general is evident everywhere in this score. Clearness of construction, impressiveness of the melodic line also have to be mentioned as distinguishing traits of this new oratorio. Whether, however, in spite of its popular tendency it will be destined to hold a high rank among modern works of its kind, seems somewhat doubtful to me. The text by G. P. Sylvester Cabanis, gives various opportunities to music, but can hardly be judged a model of oratorio style, owing to its lack of characterization.
The acting persons are vague abstractions of philosophical, pantheistic ideas, not living characters. Thus the listener cannot take any interest in the doings of the romantic prince Harald, who leaves his splendid palace in order to find out why God rules the world with injustice, and who after many disappointing experiences finally finds rest through the sermon of “Mother Earth,” who convinces him that every particle of the world means life, that everything is a part of the soul of the universe.
These lofty ideas needs a different style of poetry as well as of music, in order to become convincing. Little genre pictures of rural life, rough soldiers’ songs, amorous ballads, are not a fit frame. No doubt Kaun has given an effective setting to all these different pieces, but they are separate pieces of small dimension (in a spiritual sense) and do not unite into a whole of such breadth and majesty as is attained approximately in some parts. The score climbs to its culminating height in the second part, Harald’s dialogue with Mother Earth. Of the solo parts the most impressive is that of Mother Earth, sung with real loftiness by Anna Reichner-Feiten. The other soloists were Jeanne Koetsier, Fritz Huttmann and Sidney Biden, the American baritone.
Mozart Still Modern.
In the Berlin symphonic concerts the novelty element is much scarcer than in chamber music. Furtwängler at the last concert of the Staatskapelle repeated the “Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Berlioz,” by Walter Braunfels, already known in America, but failed to win additional sympathies for the composer. This concert, as hundreds of others all over Germany, was, in part at least, a memorial for Nikisch, in whose honor the “Masonic Mourning Music” of Mozart was played, a piece of remarkable color, effects, which even today arouse the musicians’ admiration.
“Le Roi est Mort
At Nikitsch’s Pult in the Philharmonic there have stood, since his death, Fiedler and Furtwängler. Weingartner is
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mann’s concerto in A minor, but he was prevented from appearing by the nation-wide railroad strike, and Prof. Wille of Dresden stepped into his place, playing Schumann’s cello concerto.
Interesting Novelties.
Of the recent chamber music concerts that of the Have-mann Quartet is worthy of notice for introducing, as a novelty, a quartet by Alois Haba, a young Bohemian composer. The composition reveals spirit, temperament, great warmth of conception, stirring rhythms and harmonies.
Another interesting novelty was given in Paul Aron’s second recital in a series devoted exclusively to modern composers, such as Bela Bartók, Egon Wellesz and Wilhelm Cross. The most prominent number was without doubt Wellesz’ “Geistliches Lied,” for contralto, violin, viola and piano, an imposing composition of masterly construction and great artistic values.
Ruth Klug and Other Foreigners.
Among recent recitals there were some interesting ones given by foreign artists. Ruth Klug, a young American pianist of great promise, was especially successful. Her Brahms selections stood out as samples of rhythmic pregnancy and vitality. She was very favorably treated by the entire press.
An equally interesting recital was that of Mme. Rostin-Svendsen (a Russian by birth and married to the Swedish composer Svendsen), a dramatic soprano of fine qualities. Her noble voice, of a sympathetic timbre, seems particularly adapted for strong effects. Her interpretation of songs, as well, reveals high musicianship and individuality of conception. Another coloratura singer, who at once captured the audience, is Mrs. Hagbo-Petersen, whose brilliant virtuosity was richly displayed in selections by Mozart, Verdi, Gounod, Alabieff (the famous “Nightingale”) and other songs. She was assisted by Lindner and his orchestra.
Two Stars.
Besides these, two stars from Vienna, Berta Kiurina and Richard Mayr, captured Dresden completely as soloists with the Philharmonie. Mme. Kiurina’s delivery of Constanze’s aria from Mozart’s “Entführung” was perfection itself.
Marianne Seile, a young violinist, is also worthy of mention. A student of Prof. Gustav Havemann, she is technically well equipped, and, as for her emotional expression, she took the audiences at once. She was heard in selections from Mozart, Bach and also in ensembles by various composers.	A. T.
ones. It is a pleasant sign of the times that these recent quartet foundations ignore the sex-line.• Women play the first fiddle in so many walks of life, why not at least second fiddle in a string quartet? Three of the most recent additions, the Kulenkampff, Wietrowitz, and “Anbruch” quartets, have this and other decidedly modern trends. Modern music, being predominantly chamber music, needs these exponents of its numerous novelties.
There is, it is true, no dearth of these “novelties” in recent concerts, though to be frank there is in them little that is essentially new. This is true, for instance, of a string quartet by Emil Bohnke, op. 1, played by the new Kulenkampff Quartet, as well as of the same composer’s trio, op. 5, recently played. It is true, too, of a string-quartet in E major by Otto Taubmann (op. 33), the creator of the massive “Deutsche Messe,” made known in America by the Oratorio Society of New York, which nevertheless is masterful in the handling of its material. This is of a somewhat hardy nobility that inspires respect rather than love. Played by the Klingler Quartet, it achieved a genuine success with the more conservative section of the public.
Similarly, the new serenade for oboe, horn and piano by Robert Kahn, the Berlin brother of Otto H., appealed to the musical bourgeoisie rather than to the radicals, but by its amiably melodious character won more immediate sympathy with the laity, being beautifully played by two members of the chamber-music ensemble of the Berlin Opera, with the composer at the piano.
Somewhat more venturesome, the “Anbruch” quartet introduced to Berlin the fantasy quartet of Eugene Goos-sens, which is probably well enough known in America not to require comment. It had quite a favorable reception, though there was not enough “depth” in it to suit the average German. His violin sonata, played at the Musical Courier’s rooms a few days before by Nora Drewett and Geza Kresz, had a favorable reception.
Rising in the scala of modernity, we reach the young Frankfort composer, Paul Hindemith, whose reputation as an ultra-modern is connected with the Donaueschingen Festival and some “crazy” one-act operas recently performed in his home city. His introduction in Berlin, under the auspices of the “Melos” Society, showed him to be milder in his radicalism than one expected. A string quartet and a sonata for viola alone shpwed honest workmanship, combined with the ecstatically bizarre melodic fragments of the Schonberg school. Hindemith shies at no dissonance in the carrying out of his emotional or contrapuntal problems, but does not go out of his way to be ugly. To us the most impressive samples of his style were some songs, excellently sung by Nora Pisling-Boas.
Hindemith, at any rate, belongs to the expressionists of the most modern type, who in Germany—and I believe also in France—have gone far to prick the impressionistic bubble for good and all. An example of the opposite school, as represented in Germany, is the fanciful piano suite by Walter Niemann, tastefully played by Celeste Chop-Groenevelt. Niemann is a neo-romanticist of the genre style, who flirts successfully with the French impressionists, but lacks imaginative vitality. Between the two styles,
Dresden, February 2, 1922.—The outstanding event in our recent musical life was a Weber Festival Week, which the Dresden Opera had arranged in memory of the 100th anniversary of the day on .which the Dresden première of Weber’s “Freischütz” took place. Performances of the “Freischütz,” “Preciosa,” “Abu Hassan” and “Euryanthe,” as well as concerts presenting “Peter Schmoll,” "Aufforderung zum Tanz,” “Andante and Rondo Ongarese” (for viola and orchestra) and the “Jubel-Cantate” were given at the opera house with great success.
It was originally intended also to revive “Die Drei Pintos,” Weber’s posthumous opera in the genial rearrangement of Gustav Mahler. For some reason or other, ■!however, this production did not come off. On the whole the week was well patronized and the performances excellent. The festive character of the occasion was further accentuated by a ceremony at the base of Weber’s •statute (which stands in front of the opera) where the present functionaries of the institution deposited laurel wreaths in homage to their great predecessor. Aside from this slight variation, the repertory of the Opera has been rather dull of late. Korngold’s ''Tote Stadt,” however, continues to crowd the house. ״■:-
An Impressive Event.
The memorial concert in honor of the late Arthur Nikisch, which Edwin Lindner, director of the Philharmonic Orchestra, gave on February 4, was a deeply impressive event. The Geweberhaus, in which the concert took place, was decorated with wreaths ; the hall itself was darkened and only Nikisch’s bust, in front of the orchestra, stood out prominently in a single patch of light. The funeral march of Beethoven’s “Eroica” opened the concert, and Tschaikowsky’s “Pathetic” symphony closed it. The audience, dressed in black, listened in deep silence and withdrew slowly without any applause. One had the impression of having witnessed a leave-taking of the most ׳ touching kind. The orchestra surely never played better.
A New Hausegger Work.
On the same evening Fritz Busch, Dresden’s new Generalmusikdirektor, conducted in the Opera House the regular symphony concert of the State Orchestra, introducing a novelty by Hausegger, entitled the “Aufklänge,” which did not achieve great favor either with press or public in spite of Busch’s inspiring conducting. His reading of Brahms’ first symphony which followed was fine. Carl Friedberg should have been the soloist, and was to have played Schu-
Berlin, February 13, 1922.—Every foreigner, and especially every American who comes to Berlin, is astonished and delighted by the wonderful development of the German theater in respect to acting and ensemble, to original decoration and novel effects of mechanism, and, most of all, to its apparent “idealism,” which prefers Ibsen and Strindberg, Wilde and Shaw, Hauptmann and Wedekind (not to mention Shakespeare, Goethe and Molière) to Broadway legshows and Paris revues. One curses one’s luck in being a music reviewer when one reads the theater announcements, and contrasts the progressiveness of this field to the monotony of the weekly concert plan. And with the fiendish delight of a truant one plunges into any “show” that offers the excuse of an unusual musical accompaniment.
That is exactly what we did in the case of Strindberg’s “Dream Play,” produced in masterly, transcendentally artistic manner by Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater. But the play itself proved so . gripping that the incidental music by Pant.scho Wladigeroff was almost unnoticed (a good sign both for the music and the acting). A mysterious rumble of an organ here, the weird homesick melody of a violin or the forlorn tinkle of a harp there, gave a reticent but wonderfully mood-inspired background to Strindberg’s mystic philosophic fantasy.
Next we fell for a dramatic offering with the musical title of “Die wunderlichen Geschichten des Kapellmeister Kreisler” (“The Strange Tales of Kapellmeister Kreisler”), a “fantastic melodrama” after E. T. A. Hoffmann’s life and works. This surely would be excuse enough for “playing hookie” once. But׳ there was more, for the music was written, with partial use of motives from Hoffmann’s “Undine” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” by E. N. Von Reznicek, the composer of the most gruesome “Bluebeard” in all opera.
Let it be stated at once that these wonderful tales were not merely as wonderful as the original “Tales of Hoffmann” by one Jacques Offenbach, and that the new art-form which Messrs. Meinhardt and Barnauer announced, did not get born that night. By trying to be a little of everything—play, pantomime, ballet and opera—it succeeded in being .a first class imitation of a movie. But then, after delighting in a movie-imitation of the drama so long, people seem to be about ripe for the reverse. Besides, the new and patented lighting system which the enterprising managers introduced, virtually cuts out all waits between changes, arid if there is anything a modern civilized audience hates, it is waiting, i. e., being left alone with his thoughts. ... Hence these wonderful tableaux vivants, parlants and dansants (even chantants!) are a huge success.
Next to the electrician, who is the real star in this mechanized mélange, the musician—the composer—is certainly the most valuable factor. For Reznicek has used, a very deft hand in illustrating the strange, bizarre and fantastically romantic happenings on the stage with suggestive music, held together by motivistic relationships. The revival of a bit of the forgotten opera of “Undine” (Hoffmann’s, not Lorzing’s, of course) he managed to make really effective, while the Donna Anna aria from “Don Giovanni” furnished him with the most beautiful melodic material, which he artfully varied and applied to the changing situations.
Modernistic, coloristic, realistic effects, obtained by means of a chamber orchestra, are linked to classic motives, without creating a disturbing heterogenous effect. The music is certainly the most artistic part of the show, and if the latter were transformed to its legitimate domain, the cinematograph, one. would come near to the ideal solution of the movie-music problem.
A Departure That Doesn’t Happen.
An invitation from the State Opera to witness the revival of d’Albert’s trifle “Die Abreise,” brought us back to more legitimate fields. This “Abreise” is a ‘Departure which does not come off and unfortunately does not _ get over,” either, charming and delightful, musically, as it is. It is, indeed, delightful, much in the same sense as Wolff-Ferrari’s “Secret of Suzanne,” and in both cases one regrets that the composer has later fallen victim to the blood-and-thunder of modern opera realism. And yet one can not blame them when one considers the mild success with which these modern chamber operas—musical comedies in the noblest sense—have met. It is their fate to be used as “fillers” in mixed bills, as appetizers to the real feast, which in opera must somehow be tragic, or pseudotragic at least.
D’Albert’s maiden-opera still has melody, rhythmic grace and smiling harmonies, all suggestive of the semi-classic renaissance on a developed scale. The plot, however, is so delicate as to be almost inane—if the details of the conversation are not understood. That, alas, is not always the case in this Berlin production, although the three characters, especially Desider, it ado r and Waldemar Henke, as the husband and the friend respectively, were excellent actors and sang exceedingly well. Perfect enunciation, however, is the acid test of the really superior singing. The scenic production, as usual, was in the best possible
13One was glad to stay, after this somewhat spineless and spiceless comedy, for a performance of. Miascagni s masterful melodrama, “Cavalleria” so hackneyed and therefore avoided, that it appears as refreshingly new. This performance, as a sample of what the much maligned opera does day in and day out, was surely somewhat of a revelation to the critics who are rarely there except for premières. Excellent singing for the most part, especially in the case of Richard Tauber from Dresden, the Turiddu, and Gertrude Bindernagel ; fine naturalistic ensemble work on the stage, the excellently detailed and animated acting of the chorus, and the always splendid work of the orchestra, made a wonderfully vivid and polished performance such as one rarely sees in “all-star” opera houses.
Still More Quartets and Novelties.
Turning to the concert field, it is time to remark upon the evident renaissance of chamber music in Berlin. To the locally settled string quartets, the Klingler, Busch, Wag-halter etc there have recently been added several new
DRESDEN ENJOYS WEBER FESTIVAL WEEK
Performances Well Patronized and Excellently Given—Nikisch Memorial Concert—Interesting Novelties—Ruth Klug,
American, Pleases—Other Concerts