March 23, 1922
MUSICAL COURIER
18
LONDON WATCHES WITH INTEREST THE
BRITISH NATIONAL OPERA COMPANY VENTURE
Success of New Organization a Matter of Speculation—Prices to Range from 24 Cents to $1.80—Several Pianists Heard —Also Toscha Seidel—Anent Edward German—Marie Hall’s English Program—Stradivari¡
CURRENT MUSICAL PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Manuscripts ora submitted at the risk of the composer
[The Musical Courier will endeavor to keep this department up to date and to that end requests that all notices and prospectuses of musical prize contests be sent to the Musical Courier so as to be included in this department. It will be found that in each contest the name and address are given, to which intending candidates may apply directly for further information.— Editor’s Note.]
Mrs. F. S. Coolidge—$1,000 for a string quartet. Contest ends April IS. Hugo Kortschak, Institute of Musical Art, 120 Claremont avenue, New York City. William Burnett Tuthill, 185 Madison avenue, New York.
National Federation of Music Clubs—Nine prizes for American composers, amounting in all to $2,750. Contests end December 15. Mrs. Edwin B. Garrigues, 201 Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, Pa.
Male Chorus of Swift & Co.—$100 for a musical setting (chorus of men’s voices, with piano accompaniment) for Sir Walter Scott’s “Hunting Song.” Contest ends July 1, 1922. D. A. Clippinger, 617-18 Kimball Building, Chicago, 111.
The National American Music Festival—$3,800 in contest prizes at the 1922 festival to be held at Buffalo, N. Y., October 2 to 7. A. A. Van de Mark, American Music Festival, 223 Delaware avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.
The American Academy in Rome. Horatio Parker Fellowship in Musical Composition, the winner having the privilege of a studio and three years’ residence at the Academy in Rome, besides an annual stipend of $1,000 and an allowance not to exceed $1,000 for traveling expenses. Executive Secretary, American Academy in Rome, 101 Park avenue, New York.
Ithaca Conservatory of Music—One Master Scholarship (valued at $600 a term), ten full scholarships and forty-two partial scholarships. Ithaca Conservatory of Music, Ithaca, N. Y.
Chicago Musical College—Seventy-three scholarships. 624 South Michigan avenue, Chicago, 111.
Baylor College—Scholarships ranging in value from $105 to $225 for high school students only. Contest ends in the spring. Baylor College, Belton, Tex.
New England Conservatory of Music—$450 in prizes to students of the school. Ralph L. Flanders, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Mass.
New York School of Music and Arts—Ralfe Leech Sterner offers scholarship to voice student and Frederick Riesberg offers scholarship to piano student. New York School of Music and Arts, 150 Riverside Drive, New York.
Institute of Musical Art—A number of free prizes and scholarships awarded to students whose talent is backed up by intelligence, ability, hard work and character. The Faculty Scholarship is annually awarded to that graduate from the regular courses who has proved himself to be the best student during the year. Dr. Frank Damrosch, director, 120 Claremont avenue, New York.
Art Review for March Proves Interesting to Musicians
The late Arthur Nikisch contributed a most interesting article to the Art Review for March, entitled “My Reminiscences of Richard Wagner,” recounting, interestingly and in much detail, events in the old days before Bayreuth when Wagner was still struggling for proper recognition. Other articles are by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who made the librettos for some of the Strauss operas; Franz Schreker, noted composer of operas, and Charles D. Isaacson, who thus finds himself privileged once in a way to consort with the mighty.
There are numerous other articles of high interest, and the magazine is richly illustrated with full-page portraits and scenes from plays, as well as a number of delightfully modernistic impressions. It is a valuable addition to the literature of art and music in America.
Erna Rubinstein Has Many Accomplishments
Excelling as a violin virtuoso is not the only one of Erna Rubinstein’s accomplishments, although the most important of them. This little fifteen-year-old Hungarian artist, who will give her second New York recital within a month at Carnegie Hall, Saturday afternoon, March 25, is also a caricaturist of no mean ability, and before she became a violinist she performed in public as a dancer in Budapest from the age of five to seven. In addition, Miss Rubinstein’s mother claims Erna is very telepathic, and can read a person’s character and even his profession by studying his physiognomy.
of the tone poet’s heart. He is one of the elect, but of what the future has in store for him I cannot know. I believe America is soon to have the opportunity of comparing him with the dozen great pianists now on the western side of the Atlantic.
Versatile Seidel.
A curious feature of a recent Chappell Ballad Concert was that all the newspapers said the most successful numbers on the program were the violin solos of Toscha Seidel. After winning unstinted praise from everybody for his superb interpretations of the two great violin concertos by Beethoven and Brahms, this young Russian wizard completely captivated the public at a vocal concert by playing short and lyrical pieces with the utmost daintiness and distinction. He had to play encores to his encores.
Anent Edward German.
I believe that the “Nell Gwynn” dances by Edward German, which were played by the orchestra at this concert have in them the quality that will cause them to be played as fine samples of Old English music two or three centuries hence, when all the present output of imitation Czecho-Slavo-Montmartrism shall have vanished into nothingness. Those who disagree with me will have the kindness to wait 200 years and see.
Marie Hall Gives an English Program.
Marie Hall, an English girl who has been playing the violin to the great delight of her fellow countrymen for twenty years or so, gave a concert in Wigmore Hall a few days ago for the express purpose of encouraging British music. She played a number of new works by unknown composers and by her beautiful art and her personal charm she presented the music in a way that created much interest for it. The violinist told me that the greatest difficulty she had was to find pieces that were neither as light as cradle songs nor as long as sonatas. Composers for the violin will please make a note of this. Concert solos of moderate length and medium difficulty are in demand.
Marie Hall is fortunate in possessing the Stradivarius on which the famous old master Viotti used to play a century and a half ago. What would Viotti have thought of the modern international harmonies of the new British music Marie Hall played? In 1783 Viotti had the reputation of being the greatest violinist then in France. In 1824 Viotti died in poverty and deeply in debt in London and no one knows where he was buried. His violin passed into other hands and now sings another kind of melodies.
Stradivarii.
A famous follower of Viotti was the French violinist Baillot. I heard his Stradivarius played by another French violinist, Thibaud, in Wigmore Hall soon after Marie Hall had played there on Viotti’s instrument. The great Cremona master binds together in a kind of sacred brotherhood the violinists of the past and the present who played and play his instruments. Like the angel Israfel of the Koran, his “heartstrings are a lute,” and all the violinists truly play on a Stradivarius.	Clarence Lucas.
Nelle Richmond Eberhart Entertains for Gadman
Nelle Richmond Eberhart, who has taken a house on Washington avenue, Brooklyn, has been giving a series of musical Sunday afternoons. Two recent guests of honor were Yvonne de Treville, the coloratura soprano, and Charles Wakefield Cadman. Naturally, the music rendered was drawn largely from the works of the composer honored. Florence Otis, soprano, sang, beside a Russian group, his “Dream Tryst,” “From the Land of the Sky Blue Water” and “The Moon Drops Low.” Constance Eberhart sang “The Fount of Bimini,” “The Spring Song of the Robin Woman” and the “Canoe Song” from “Shanewis.” Mr. Cadman himself played excerpts from the new opera he is finishing and the four numbers of his “Oriental Suite,” just off the press.
Rachmaninoff to Play for Russian Relief
A concert will be given Sunday evening, April 2, at Carnegie Hall by Sergei Rachmaninoff, with the assistance of Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra. The entire proceeds of the concert will be donated to the American Relief Administration for the benefit of Russian musicians, composers, artists, and men of letters in Russia. Among the patronesses are: Mrs. Walter Damrosch, Mrs. Harry H. Flagler, Mrs. J. Horace Gallatin, Mrs. Charles E. Greenough, Mrs. John Henry Hammond, Mrs. William P. Hardenbergh, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Mrs. Adrian Iselin, Mrs. V. Everett Macy, May S. Palmer, Mrs. S. R. Pendleton, Mrs. William M. Polk, Mrs. James Lowell Putnam, Louise Sands, Mrs. Hiram W. Sibley, Mrs. Charles Robinson Smith, Mrs. Hokan S. Steffanson, Mrs. Frederick Steinway, Anne Thomson, Mrs. Frederick W. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Whitney Warren. Mme. Sergei Rachmaninoff is chairman of the committee, Courtlandt Palmer is the treasurer, and Dagmar de C. Rybner the secretary.
London, February 11, 1922.—Musicians, like every other class of human beings, are inclined to judge the world from their point of view. They heard that England had no opera and they at once concluded that the English were not musical. Fortunately neither England nor any other country needs my puny defense. But before England is condemned as an unmusical country there are certain items which should be noted. England has no grand opera season because England has reduced her national debt during the past year by the enormous sum of £250,000,000. In dollars that sum looks nearly five times as large.
Another country in Europe supports its opera houses generously, while its national currency has almost reached the vanishing point and its government is sending out frantic appeals to the world for food and a small loan. Is it better to fiddle while Rome is burning or to put the fire out before the concert begins? I shall be glad to find the history of a country where music and art in general prospered without commercial solvency. My reading, such as it is, has taught me that art follows business and never precedes it.
Opera Redivivus.
The eyes of all musical England are turned at present on the venture of the British National Opera Company last week at Bradford in Yorkshire. A beginning has been made. Members of the defunct Beecham companies, together with other musicians, have formed themselves into a company. Will it last? Would a grand opera company last in America without any financial backing? I do not know. I saw in the newspaper today that the Liverpool theater in which the British National Opera Company is to appear is so large that the prices of admission are to range from 24 cents to $1.80. The future of the British National Opera Company, at such prices and without a subsidy, does not look rosy. I am reminded of the old lady at sea who told the captain that without an almanac she could only hope for the best.
The new company began its labors with “Aida” and continued with “Carmen,” “Magic Flute,” “Parsifal.” Olga Haley, formerly of Yorkshire and now of London, covered herself with operatic glory by making her first appearance on any stage in the difficult role of “Carmen.” Maggie Teyte was specially engaged for “Magic Flute.” The conductor in chief is the veteran Percy Pitt, of Covent Garden. Report speaks very highly of the venture thus far.
Busoni Improves Bach.
Several pianists have come and seen and more or less conquered London during the past few weeks. Those who have conquered most are Busoni and Brailowsky. Twenty-five years■ ago or so I heard Busoni play in very much the same way that Brailowsky now plays. Today he (Busoni) seems to have lost his sense of proportion. Perhaps it is a case of mistaken identity. He may not really remember whether the composition announced on the program was written by the composer Bach and played by the pianist Busoni or written by the composer Busoni and played by the pianist Bach. Sometimes the music seems very old fashioned for Busoni and sometimes very modern for Bach. The “Goldberg” variations, for instance, as interpreted by Busoni, appeared to be an interesting novelty. With the help of the printed score I was able to follow the main improvisations of the pianist, noting the passages transposed an octave higher, the basses embellished with a weight and dignity the gentle Bach never imagined, the full chords enriching Bach’s poor octaves, the glorious pedal effects to cover up the tinkling of Bach’s wretched harpsichord, the generous omission of those weak movements which Bach knew no better than to retain and the magnificent climaxes of sound which had never yet been dreamed of in Bach’s sleepy old eighteenth century Leipsic. A passion for fair play all round made Busoni grant Beethoven and Chopin an equal share in his open handed improvements, each in proportion to his respective need. My eyes were opened to the possible truth of the literary critic who maintained that Shakespeare intended “Hamlet” as a comedy and not as a tragedy. Why not? Have we not had Busoni-Bach instead of the usual Bach-Busoni? The first recital in Wigmore Hall was crowded to the very street doors. A second recital was immediately announced. Its success was so great that a third one is announced, and the popular pianist is also to play Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto in Queen’s Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch. It is plain, therefore, that Busoni’s piano playing is a source of genuine musical pleasure to hundreds of Londoners.
Brailowsky “One of the Elect.”
It is hard for me to write soberly of Brailowsky. His playing has such a peculiarly personal charm for me that I sometimes wonder if this young Russian is as free from faults as he appears to me to be. Rarely does piano playing make such an appeal to me. The passion seems so natural and spontaneous that the interpretation is more like an inspired improvisation than a carefully prepared performance of printed music. Yet the printed notes will show that the pianist is absolutely faithful to the text. Emerson speaks of “nestling into Plato’s brain.” In my opinion Brailowsky knows how to nestle into Chopin’s brain and feel the beating
AT THE COMING SPARTANBURG FESTIVAL, MAY 4th
Baritone
SIMMONS
William
has been engaged to sing “Pagliacci” and “Cavalleria Rusticana”
SOLOIST 1921 ASHEVILLE 1(FESTIVAL, NEW YORK ORATORIO SOCIETY FESTIVAL Available Spring Festivals and Recitals	Direction: M. L. Fullerton, 229 Fourth Avenue, New York
© Underwood & Underwood