April 20, 1922
MUSICAL COURIER
14
MANFRED MALKIN TALKS AS WELL AS HE PLAYS
ITie Pianist, He Claims, Must Keep in Touch with Present Day Affairs if He Expects to Function as a 100 Per Cent. Artist—Discusses Music Week and Refers to His Coming Engagements Here and Abroad
MANFRED MALKIN pianist.
DENVER’S MUSIC WEEK
ATTRACTS ATTENTION
Denver, Colo., April 3.—The promoters of Music Week this year, which event will be held May 14-21 inclusive, are determined to duplicate the success of last year and improve upon a general program. Civic pride was greatly touched last year by the overwhelming success of the Music Week, so that it is comparatively easy to secure co-operation of all classes of citizens this year. The Mayor and the City Council agreed, without a dissenting vote, to give more than twice as much financial support as was received last year.
Among the outsanding features of Music Week is the proposed state band contest in which it is expected that most of the organized bands of the state will be represented. There will be a special class for juvenile bands and another for bands organized during the past year. Numerous bandstands will be erected on strategic points of the down-town streets and daily concerts will be given. These stands will also be used by some of the larger choruses, and at certain hours of the day community song leaders will join with the bands and choruses in community sings.
A locally written opera, “The Awakening,” will be produced. The libretto is by E. C. MacMechan and the music is by Henry Houseley. A music memory contest is being fostered by the Tuesday Musical Club in co-operation with the music supervisors of the schools. The Municipal Chorus will present the light opera, “Robin Hood,” two nights, with a matinee performance.
A contest for piano-playing with a concert grand piano as the first prize, and other suitable prizes for second and third places, is being fostered. Any pianist under twenty years of age in Colorado, Wyoming, or New Mexico is eligible. A second piano and vocal contest has been organized by the Musical Society of Denver. Contestants are limited.to Denver only in this contest.
Several out-bf-town choruses will appear on the final night of ‘ the program with ten or twelve local Denver choruses. Greeley, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and other towns will be represented by choruses.
Concerts will be given in all the charitable homes and hospitals by the women’s clubs. Men’s clubs will feature special musical programs at the regular weekly meetings. Most of the pastors of the city ate planning to preach special sermons on music. The city schools will hold daily programs of music throughout every grade. Radio concerts will be broadcasted of all principal events. Teachers of classic dancing will present their pupils in an evening of interpretative dancing.
All concerts and entertainments will be free to the public. The expense of Music Week is being borne by the city, school board, and by private contributions. The organization work is being carried on by the Denver Music Week Association in co-operation with Denver Community Service.	T.
Arthur Kraft’s Dates
Arthur Kraft, tenor, filled the following engagements during the month of March:	S, Hamilton Club (after-
noon), Chicago; S, Chicago Beach Hotel (evening); 8, Hinsdale Women’s Club, Chicago; 12, Chicago Athletic Club (afternoon) ; 12, Irving Park Memorial Church (evening), Chicago; 13, Nineteenth Century Club, Oak Park (111.) ; 14, Highland Park (111.) ; 16, Presbyterian Church, Oak Park (111.) ; 17, joint recital, Elkhart (Ind.) ; 19, Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago; 21, Grand Rapids, (Mich.); 23, Shawnee (Okla.), recital; 24, Shawnee (Okla.), “Messiah;” 26, joint program, Springfield (111.); 27, 28, 29, Consistory, Springfield (111.) ; 31, Musicale, Glencoe (111.).
Mr. Kraft’s engagements in April take him through Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, with three appearances at Orchestra Hall, Chicago.
and get it. However, I expect to. ‘bring home the bacon,’ as the saying goes, provided the foreign critics are as kind to mè as our own press has been in the past.”
Mr. Malkin then played several excerpts from the Schumann concerto, and went off into lavish praise of its beauty, charm and elegance, illustrating these points on the piano. “Schumann,” he remarked, “is the real poet of the piano, and the Schumann concerto is the most romantic work of its kind.”
Mr. Malkin expects to be rather busy thè week of April 30, known as Music Week. “We have so standardized ourselves in this country that we pigeonhole our emotions by the week. Thus there is a ‘Fire-Prevention Week,’ ‘Cleanup Week,’ ‘Smile Week,’ and now it’s ‘Music Week.’ The only exception is prohibition, which is served by the year. However, April 30 is ‘Music Week,’ when music ‘red-hot’ will be served to the American public, which will be gorged with music whether it wants it or not. To the musician, music week is the bona-fide ‘smile week.’ The truth is, the week of April 30 should hand any serious musician a laugh.”
The writer hastened to disagree with Mr. Malkin, but then hesitated, as he feared to be made the butt of his humor.
Throughout our talk, Mr. Malkin showed a keen appreciation and individual opinion on all topics. This is not startling to one who is familiar with his interpretations. He believes in individual expression as the only basis of ascertaining truth. What he speaks on he has so thoroughly digested that his feelings on the subject become spontaneous. And so it is with his playing. In his own words, “What makes an artist is not only the thorough understanding, musicianship, culture and imagination that one brings to a composition, but also a certain sincerity which makes assimilation possible; and that sincerity is the personal content that revivifies a composition and makes it flow directly from the soul of the artist, as his own inspiration.”
Mr׳. Malkin ventured that the pianist must be thoroughly conversant with present-day affairs; in short, he must be a good citizen if he expects to function as a one hundred per cent, performer. “The pianist,” he explained, “must keep in touch with life if his readings are to have any real value. The soloist who isolates himself from mankind places himself in a spiritual desert. One cannot limit oneself to four walls and then expect to breathe love, warmth, outdoor atmosphere and freedom into his work.”
Mr. Malkin by his outward appearance showed every indication that he had taken life at its full value. F. W. R.
Another New York Recital for Rose Florence
Rose Florence’s early fall dates will include a New York recital at Aeolian Hall on November‘21, under the management of the Wolfsohn Bureau.
Concertgoers seldom realize the vast amount of work giving a recital program entails. The interpretive artists, like geniuses in many other fields, must combine inspiration with hard work.
This thought flashed through the mind as the writer waited outside Mr. Malkin’s studio and heard him practicing passages of the Schumann concerto. Entering the studio, he was greeted effusively by the artist.
“Working hard?” was the first question, and he nodded assent.
“Always working,” he said. “The artist is never a member of the unemployed, for he must always work to be ready when called upon to fill an engagement. Of course,
I am not advancing piano playing as a solution for the problem of unemployment! What I meant was that my managers, Haensel & Jones, are booking me, and so I must be able to answer a call at a moment’s notice.
“The artist,” he continued, “is the modern prototype of the minute-men of Revolutionary days. From what I have said, you can judge that I am a believer in preparedness. By the way,” he quickly exclaimed, “lest, you misundertand me, I do not mean that I am a believer in military preparedness. If there is one thing I have no intention of doing it is to mix music with politics, though there is a Paderewski as precedent.
“Speaking of Paderewski,” Mr. Malkin said, apart from extolling his pianistic achievements, “Paderewski must be given credit for being the first to advocate and inaugurate the eight-hour day in the piano-working world. Today, however, we find artists who are even more radical and espouse a six-hour working day.”
It is also true that there are some artists who apply themselves for ten hours at a stretch, but Mr. Malkin said he did not care to discuss them, as that was outright “scabbing.” No one, he ventured, should sabbotage the eight-hour day unless he was paid double for overtime.
“How about yourself ?”
“Oh, I work every spare moment I can find, and those I don’t find I manage to make. You see,” he added, “in the parlance of the war-lords, ‘this calamity has been forced upon me,’ for besides being booked by Haensel & Jones I have been invited to play the Schumann concerto abroad. At present I have accepted two invitations to appear abroad, with the Vienna Philharmonic, under Wilhelm Furtwängler, and with the Mannheim Philharmonic Orchestra. Since you are writing, you might add that negotiations are under way with other leading European orchestras, and also some in this country.”
Referring to these engagements, Mr. Malkin said: “There is one thing that pleases me immensely, and that is that I may be said to have the unique distinction of having made my European reputation in America. Now,” he mused, “all that remains for me to do is to cross the■ deep blue and try
ÑAMARA SCORES
On Tour With
ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY
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1922 APR 10 AM 1 04
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AEOLIAN HALL NEWY0RK NY
GANZ AND MYSELF WANT TO CONGRATULATE YOU UPON THE UNUSUALLY BRILLIANT SUCCESS OF MME MARGUERITE NAMARA DURING HER TOUR WITH THE STL0UIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA THE PAST FEW WEEKS THOUGH SINGING SIX TIMES EACH WEEK SHE WAS ALWAYS IN GLORIOUS VOICE AND BY HER MUSICIANSHIP FINE ARTISTRY AND CHARMING PERSONALITY CAPTIVATED EVERY ONE OF OUR AUDIENCE AND WON THE ENTHUSIASTIC PRAISE OF ALL THE CRITICS WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD WITH KEENEST PLEASURE TO HER APPEARANCE WITH THE ORCHESTRA AT OUR REGULAR SYMPHONY CONCERTS IN STL0UIS NEXT SEASON
ARTHUR J GAINES MANAGER
Management; HAENSEL & JONES, Aeolian Hall, New York