NEW YORK, THURSDAY, April 6, 1922.
|V\VS1CAL(ÔVRIER
VOL. LXXXIV—No. 14. Whole No. 2191.
public ; not in the least blasé. It is a public willing to sacrifice both its hard-earned money and its time; and it applauds with zest that makes you forget the traditional English reserve.
The "English״ Music Lover.
One may go, in London, to an orchestral concert conducted by Richard Strauss, or a wonderful recital by Mischa Elman, and find—a half-empty house. But go to a concert of (Continued on page SO)
LONDON’S MUSICAL LIFE CHANGING
MANY CENTRAL EUROPEAN
OPERA HOUSES SUSPEND
Berlin, March 6, 1922.—During the past few weeks a few more artistic institutions have fallen victims of the economic crisis which Germany is now undergoing. Of foremost importance is the dissolution of the Königsberg Opera, which was the last opera house functioning in eastern Germany after the Breslau Opera collapsed last fall. The Königsberg Opera has for some time been supported by two private persons (Messrs. Dumont and Meyerowitz), but these have found the burden too heavy in the face of the great salary increases demanded by the artists.
Another institution of some importance that has recently been closed is the Hagen Municipal Theater, which made an unsuccessful appeal to the municipal authorities for a special donation of four million marks.
There are several in-
-The English Singers—
that the largest city in the world, capital of a powerful and victorious nation, cannot “afford” grand opera, and has little to spare for the support of the arts. It does not support the artist, surely; for the great and famous artists who have earned money in England in the last two years might be counted on the fingers of one’s hands. Yes, and this applies to the “Great Names.” They come and go for the sake of “prestige.” The worst is said to be over.
Mitropa and Musical Life.
The persistence of the said Great Artists is responsible for the fact that—on the surface—London’s music is still
stances where two theatrical institutions have had to unite under one management in order to withstand the financial stress. Thus, the Landes-theater in Gotha will be run jointly with the Eisenach Theater. Similarly, the municipalities of the free city of Danzig are uniting with the municipal authorities of the sea resort Zoppot in the support of one theater.
In Bayreuth, too, there is an opera crisis. The city authorities have decided to close the opera at the end of this season as they cannot cover the present deficit. The the ater will probably be given on lease to some private theatrical concern.
Vienna and Graz.
A similar situation has been observed in other central European countries. The press reports, for instance, that the estimated expenditures of the Burgtheater and State Opera in Vienna for the year 1922 will amount to sixty million crowns. Yet it is feared that the actual expenses will reach the figure of two milliards of crowns. And the latest report is that the Graz Municipal Theater, the second important opera in Austria, has gone by theboards. Other failures are bound to follow, and there will have to be a general tightening of the belt, in an artistic sense, throughout central Europe.	L. K.
These two New York musicians have firmly established themselves by successful demonstrations of their art in numberless concert appearances and by the presentation of many finely trained pupils. Their monthly noonday musicales at Aeolian Hall, the first Fridays of each month, have proven welcome features in the concert season of New York. Mr. La Forge was associated for ten years with Mme. Sembrich and gained the highest recognition all over the world as pianist-accompanist and composer. He also toured extensively with Mmes. Schumann Heink, Alda, Gadski and Mat-zenauer. Mr. Berúmen has given five successful New York recitals, toured from coast to coast as soloist with Mme. Schumann Heink and appeared with leading orchestras. Mr. La Forge and Mr. Berúmen will conduct summer courses at their attractive New York studios.
(Photos by Apeda.)

I


Szigeti, Judge of the Paris Goncours
Advices from Paris confirm the appointment of Joseph Szigeti as the foreign member of the jury in the Concours for violin virtuosos held by the Conservatoire. The prize to be awarded is 4,000 francs and the contest takes place on April 7. Only the winners of first prizes during recent years at the Conservatoire are eligible for the present virtuoso contest. The selection of M. Szigeti by the French authorities is not without significance, considering that he is a Hungarian, and therefore an “ex-enemy,” He is the successor of Henri Marteau at the Conservatory of Geneva.
New York to Have Municipal Conservatory
New York City will soon have a municipal conservatory for music, drama and the other fine arts. See story on pages 22 and 23.
National Element Strong Under a Surface of Internationalism—The Fad for Bach and Old Music
Popularity of Sullivan Operas
London, March 17, 1922.—It is good to be back in London again. To an American exiled in Europe, London is. after all, the nearest approach to home. For, notwithstanding H. L. Mencken, the language is—essentially—the same (though it takes you a while to find it out). Already, when you approach the chalk cliffs of the South Coast, for the fortieth time in your life, you are conscious of a distinctly pleasant, homelike sensation; and as soon as you are lolling in a Pullman car you know that some of the blessings of God’s Own Country are yours once more.
But London is homelike for its own sake, as well. It is so refreshingly free from hysteria that it must appeal unfailingly to people of middle age. Its lack of unnecessary noise, its moderated though not sluggish movements, its very mists that envelop you so caressingly—all give you that sense of privacy which is the essence of personal liberty. One is glad to be rid once more of official and unofficial— interference, of police supervision, of annoyances by people who make everybody’s else business their own. One is rid, too, of that mid-European atmosphere of polyglot luxury and postwar profiteering, of nationalistic intolerance and distrust. One is pleasantly conscious of the ruling doctrine of “live and let live.”
Toward Normalcy.
What strikes you most in England today—and strikes you pleasantly—is a certain resolute spirit among the people to “have done with it” and get down to normalcy.
AH signs of post-war hysteria are gone; construction and economy are the watchwords— thought rather than uttered. You realize it by the gradually sinking prices of all commodities (the tradesman’s proudest boast being “almost pre-war”) ; in the general willingness to sacrifice and restraint. The whole country, feeling its tax burden of “six shillings in the pound,” is on a ration as stringent as the “tightened belt” of the war. “The war is over; let’s get it paid for,” is the motto, rather than “the war is over; let’s make ’em pay,” or “the war is over; let’s have a good time.” There is no attempt to make things look better than they are.
Of course, you feel this in everything—in business, and most of all in the “luxury trades.” And music, alas! is a luxury trade in the Anglo-Saxon world. Amusements in England are faxed from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. Concert and theater tickets, which were always higher than in America, now appear exorbitant to the foreigner.
A good seat at the average recital costs twelve shillings (normally three dollars), the cheapest seat is about $1.35 at the present rate of exchange. Even “admission” costs seventy cents. At special star recitals the prices go up as high as a pound. At that rate, with business bad and money tight, an artist can count on very little patronage.
Why There Is No Grand Opera.
That English “society” feel.s anything but rich these days is proven by the plenitude of “To Let” signs on the mansions of Mayfair and West End. It becomes patent when a “gallant captain” of the war and his wife, both members of the idle and blue-blooded rich, try to cheat bookmakers by antedating betting telegrams. And the E. P. D. (Excess Profits Duty) has been most successful in keeping down the number of the newly rich.
This, then, explains the apparently anomalous condition


FRANK
LA FORGE
AND
ERNESTO
BERUMEN
much the same, differs but slightly from the international “musical life” of other capitals fed by the Cosmopolitan Virtuoso Supply distributed by the Compagnie Générale des Wagon-Lits. I say “on the surface,” for underneath that surface there is steadily growing a more genuine musical life, as different from the other as steak-and-kidney-pie is from the average entrée at the Ritz. Almost unnoticed by the average visitor, that characteristic element which is gradually also affecting the surface of things, must in the future be reckoned with.
If you were to take a cross section of that essentially English musical life (which shows the influence of the provinces upon the capital, rather than the other way about) you would find many surprising things. But the most surprising is the public that feeds upon it. There is little sign of “economy;” not a suggestion of satiety here. It is an eager
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