37
MUSICAL COURIER
April 20, 1922
Barbara Kemp, from Berlin. They are effective pieces with the customary Strauss “swing,” and Mme. Kemp sang them with a vengeance to the accompanying orchestra under Max von Schillings, whose “Bell Songs,” with their effective orchestral settings, also formed part of the program. The concert was one of those “brilliant” events with a tinge of the sensational. Society filled the boxes, and the front box was occupied by the Strauss dynasty. After his own songs, Richard II. led the applause, while Schillings and Mme. Kemp graciously directed all honors toward the composer. By v/ay of reciprocity, Strauss expressed his personal sympathies for Mr. Schillings by enthusiastically applauding the latter’s songs. It was a nice little Mutual Admiration party in Public, and the audience liked it.
Paul Bechert.
G. Lombardo’s Career of Interest
Chev. G. Lombardo, Italian dramatic tenor, vocal maestro and author of “The Art of Singing,” has been a resident of New York City for the past six years, where he has gained a large following.
Mr. Lombardo studied in Naples for three years with the noted Italian vocal teacher, Fernando De Lucia, after which he appeared in opera in Rome, Milan, Florence, etc.,
FOREIGN MUSICIANS INVADE VIENNA EN MASSE
MORE QUESTIONS
ANSWERED BY
VOICE EDUCATION
BY
ELEANOR McLELLAN
“Maker of Singers”
Do You Know
The requirements for a successful career?
What makes a voice sound large near by but lacking in carrying quality at a distance? Why few singers are successful?
Why many soprano voices sound thin and squeaky?
Why alto voices often sound hollow and “whoopy” ?
The art of combining technique and interpretation?
Why a voice sounds “bleaty” or “yelly”?
Why many voices last but a short time?
That uncontrolled emotions affect voice technic? That it is possible to have a resonance which is not jammed, pinched or forced?
That dieting affects the breathing?
That there is a science of deep breath taking and breath control?
Why many voices sound too high or too low? Published by Harper Bros.
For sale at all book dealers, $1.75
KOEHL
Native Llement Submerged in International Flood—English in the Van, Cyril Scott Leading—Russians, Italians, Scandinavians, Swiss and Dutch, Too-—Weingartner and Furtwängler Present New Works—And Ancient Ones—
The “Original” Fidelio—Many Novelties
CHEV. G. LOMBARDO, Italian dramatic tenor.
later engaged for Havana, Cuba, to sing leading roles, such as Edgardo in “Lucia,” Radames in “Aida,” Manrico in “Trovatore,” etc., appearing jointly with Tetrazzini, De Luca and Amato. In Madrid he appeared with Barrientos.
After singing in opera with success for twelve years, Signor Lombardo was offered the position as vocal maestro at the conservatory in Milan, Italy, which position he held for five years. Among his pupils are Ciccolini, G. Grasso (tenor), F. Fassano (baritone), and many others of equal prominence.
At the outbreak of the war Mr. Lombardo came to the United States and established himself in New York City as a vocal teacher. His beautiful studio at 120 West Ninety-fourth street is the center of much musical activity and the rendezvous of operatic celebrities from all parts of the world.
Photo © Isabcy, Paris
SWEDISH BALLET
in ‘‘Iberia״ (first scene)
CONCERT PIANIST and TEACHER
Studio: 5S1 East 28th Street. Brooklyn Phone Mansfield 6973 Management: RAOUL BIAIS 1425 Broadway	New York City
situated in the same building, heard the first performance here of a symphonic poem by the same composer, entitled “The Forgotten Rite,” which is by far inferior to the sonata.
Russian Pioneers.
Commercial intercourse with Russia has not been resumed as yet, as far as Austria is concerned, but “peaceful penetration” has been inaugurated by a few plucky pioneers from the home land of bolshevism. A Russian bass baritone named D. Jaroslawsky owns a voice of great range and volume, but one not always wisely used.
Russia, it seems, is the cradle of those- deep, “black” bass voices which have become so rare in Central Europe, and K. Zaporoschetz, who fairly electrified his Vienna audiences with a bass voice of marvelous strengtf^nd beauty, is a strong personality and a singer of uncommon merits.
Vienna, March 21.—1■During the last three or four weeks musical conditions here have taken the development predicted and explained in my last letter. Internationalism has become the slogan in our concert halls. There has been a veritable onrush of foreign artists eager to produce foreign music, with the result that our own artists at present furnish merely a comparatively small percentage of Vienna musical events. Nor will our foreign visitors probably be
satisfied with their local 'experiences, since their audiences have, for the most part, been neither large nor over-enthusiastic. Spring is here and summer is casting its shadows ahead. Concertgoers are weary of all music, which has literally poured down upon them for months past, and the overworked critic, exhausted from a season which has been the most strenuous in the history of this city, is longing for a well-deserved rest, for which, however, he will have to wait another two months at least. In the galaxy of artists from all countries America has been conspicuously absent this month, in fact since the departure of Rudolph Polk who has been so successful here, but practically every other country was more or less ably represented.
Britannia Rules Vienna Concert Halls.
The first English composer to visit the Danube city since the world war is Cyril Scott, who will soon be joined by Arthur Bliss and a number of other English musicians. Mr. Scott, who is no stranger to Vienna, has been sojourning here for several weeks past and has lost no time. His first concert was in the nature of an orchestral concert conducted by Nils Grevillius, of Stockholm, who has made Vienna his second home this season. Mr. Scott on this occasion showed himself in his double capacity as a composer-pianist by a fine rendition of his own piano concerto. Some of Mr. Scott’s piano pieces and songs, heard in another concert, are of unequal value. For the most part the latter were of the “pleasing” sort. ־
Modern English Chamber Music.
Contemporary English music is a thing almost unknown to us and we were therefore particularly grateful to Ernest
THE SWEDISH BALLET
in Debussy’s “Toy Box."
© Isabey, Paris
Whitfield, a young English violinist, who took upon himself the rather ungrateful task of exploiting his talents almost exclusively in modern novelties. Nevertheless, his gifts were quiclcly appreciated and they are all the most remarkable in view of the fact that the artist has been deprived of his eyesight. But so far from impairing his artistic qualities, this adds to his work an almost touching element of fervent sincerity and earnestness. To. Mr. Whitfield we owe the acquaintance with Frederick Delius’ violin concerto, a sonata by Arnold Bax (surprisingly moderate in tendency) , and the sonata, op. 82, by Sir Edward Elgar, which failed to attract any special attention. The most interesting of Whitfield’s novelties, however, was the second sonata of John Ireland, which is full of genuine musical inspiration, if sometimes superfluously complicated in its harmonies. Almost simultaneously with the performance of tlie_ Ireland sonata (which took place in the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal), the audience assembled in the Grosser Musikvereinssaal,
SWEDISH BALLET
in “El Greco” (music by Inghelbrecht).
© Isabey, Paris
Julius
His partner, a soprano named Woronetz, was in fact the exponent of the weaker sex, musically and otherwise.
Italians, Classic, Modern and Supermodern.
Italy, once the land of melody, must have changed considerably in this respect, judging by the offerings of an orchestral program conducted by Edoardo Granelli and containing chiefly music of the most radical sort. Somehow the intellectualism which is the keynote of ultra-modernism does not seem to blend well with the traditional Italian love of melody pure and simple. The outcome of this alliance, at any rate, is most unpleasant. “Two Tragic Preludes,” by V. Rieti, were indeed tragic in their utter lack of musical substance; they seemed to impress the audience as being rather comical, however, even more so than Granelli’s “fantastic symphony,” entitled, somewhat unintelligibly, “The Death of the Moon,” and an aria from the latter’s opera, “Anna Karenina,” which turned out to be second-hand Mascagni. The redeeming feature of the program was Alfredo Casella’s rhapsody, “Italia.” Happily the visit a few days later of Marco Enrico Bossi, the Roman master organist, provided a glimpse of that other Italy beloved for centuries past. Bossi’s beautiful playing of the ancient masters’ compositions for organ made one forget all the sins committed by a mad generation of contemporary would-be composers.
Javanese Instruments.
Probably the acme of “internationalism” in music was furnished by the Philharmonics in one of their extra concerts conducted by Franz Schalk, when they performed, for the first time anywhere, what was rather irrelevantly termed a “symphonic poem,” by Linda Ban-dara, entitled “Rural Mood Pictures.” Strange as her name may sound, the composer is a lady of Austrian extraction now resident at Java, and in private life is Frau Sieglinde Hofland-Leber. The composition itself is a clever piece of work showing the influence—and, according to one version, the active collaboration —of several composers of various schools. Novel orchestral colors are gained by the use of two Javanese original instruments which, it is said, were sent here especially for this performance by His Highness the Sultan of Djocja. The instruments referred to are the “gain-bang” and the “gendher”; the former resembles our xylophone as regards construction, but its sound is rather suggestive of a flute. Of the latter there are three varieties, for soprano, alto and bass respectively, and its tone is that of a bell. This was probably the first time that these instruments were heard in European concert halls.
A Mutual Admiration Party.
The joint recitals of Elisabeth Schumann and Richard Strauss, which have been a feature of the current American season, have found a sequel here before large and appreciative audiences. The two new Strauss “Hymns,” on poems by Hölderlin, were sung for the first time here by