11
MUSICAL COURIER
London String Quartet James Levey Thomas W. Petre H. Waldo Warner C. Warwick Evans Philharmonic Society of New York
Rene Pollain Sergei Rachmaninoff Jacques Thibaud Gustav Tinlot Reinhold Warlich Eugene Ysaye Efrem Zimbalist Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler Paul Kochanski Jascha Heifetz Susan Metcalf Alexander Schmuller Wilhelm Bachaus Michel Piastro Ludwig Manoli
May Peterson Elena Gerhardt Bronislaw Huberraann Louis Graveure Ernest Schelling Alexander Siloti Georges Grisez George Hamlin Florence Hinkle Josef Hofmann Ernest Hutcheson John McCormack Margaret Matzenauer George Meader Hans Kindler Hugo Kortschak Fritz Kreisler Letz Quartet Hans Letz Sandor Harmati Edward Kreiner Lajos Shuk Mischa Levitski
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
David Mannes Pierre Monteux Kurt Schindler Hiram W. Sibley O. G. Sonneck Frederick Stock Leopold Stokowski Arnold Volpe Arthur Whiting
Artur Bodanzky George W. Chadwick Elizabeth S. Coolidge Frank Damrosch Walter Damrosch Rubin Goldmark Alfred Hertz Sigmund Herzog Franz Kneisel
One story of the influence of the idealistic attitude of the Beethoven Association is worth telling as told by Mr. Bauer. It is about a small town (never mind where!) and a big audience. The town has about ten thousand inhabitants and the audience that turns out and supports all of a series of six artist concerts numbers one thousand—one in ten. Not only that, but they have built a hall in which the concerts can be given. Mr. Bauer’s curiosity was aroused and he asked one of the ladies who headed the music committee how it was accomplished. “Well,”. she said, “we owe our success to the Beethoven Association.” At that Mr. Bauer confessed himself all the more puzzled. What in the world, he wanted to know, could the Beethoven Association in New York have to do with concents in this town which is far away . from New York? And so he got the story.
The women of the town went to their husbands and asked them to build a hall and to guarantee the concerts. But the husbands, being business men, could not see why they should give the artists, who are also business men, a lot of money to take out of town. The thought back of this refusal was that the artists were just “out for the money” and had no further interest in the matter—an idea that it would have been impossible to disprove but for the Beethoven Association. Here was an instance of the artists giving their services gratuitously for the sake of art—art for art’s sake. It proved to be an unanswerable argument and won over the men of that town, who put up the necessary guarantee and made the concerts possible.
It cannot be doubted that the influence upon art and artists and students of. art in America will be equally effective.	F. P.
ation. For it was with the idea of “getting together” more often and under more favorable circumstances that the association was formed. “There is no one,”. says Mr. Bauer, “more completely cut off from social intercourse with people of his own kind than the concert artist, especially when ‘on the road’ or traveling in a _ foreign country. Even artists who live more or less continuously in New York meet only on rare occasions and play together almost never. And, as for the newcomer, he is completely lost. He sees his public and his manager, perhaps a few strangers by whom he is entertained but who scarcely speak his language and with whom he has almost nothing in common. Nor has he any means of learning anything about the American taste. He comes here oftentimes with an entirely false impression which it takes time to correct,”
At first the Beethoven Association was scarcely what could be called an organization at all. It began in the way of nothing more than a friendly conversation between Harold Bauer, Fritz Kreisler, Pablo Casals, Franz Kneisel, Willem Willeke, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Louis Svec-enski, Sam Franko, Oscar G. Sonneck, Stokowski and a few others, when the thought was suggested that it might be a good idea to give a few concerts of the sort of music they loved to play, where the players would give their services gratuitously and trust to the financial support of the music lovers of New York to meet the costs of a series of chamber music concerts. With this understanding the concerts were undertaken. Later on a constitution was drawn up and the association regularly inaugurated. Still later on it was decided to incorporate club features into the plan and either to buy or lease a house which would be a meeting place for members and their friends and perhaps even a living place for visiting artists who might be invited to make it their home while in New York.
The concerts have been successful from the start, and even the sale of the Beethoven biography has surpassed all expectations. American publishers have always hesitated to publish this biography because of the great initial outlay, but this outlay has almost been covered by the sales already, although the book has been out only about half a year.
The Membership.
The present membership of the Beethoven Association is as follows:
ACTIVE MEMBERS
Flonzaley Quartet Adolfo Betti Alfred Pochon Louis Bailly Iwan d’Archamb^au Eva Gauthier Alma Gluck Leopold Godowsky Walter Golde Olga Samaroff Ernestine Schumann Heink Albert Spalding Emmeran Stoeber Josef Stransky
Symphony Society of New York
Georges Barrere Harold Bauer Coenraad V. Bos Pablo Casals Julia Culp Erno Dohnanyi Florence Easton Mischa Elman Elshuco Trio Aurelio Giorni Elias Breeskin Willem Willeke Sam Franko Ossip Gabrilowitsch Rudolph Ganz
May 18, 1922
THE BEETHOVEN ASSOCIATION
What It Has Accomplished—Its Ideals
Let there be no misconception as to the importance of the Beethoven Association. It stands alone and _ unique as one of the most valuable contributions to musical art that exists today in America. Its importance does not derive from the fact that it makes good music—there was good music in America before the Beethoven Association came into being. Its importance does not derive from the fact that programs are presented by some of the world’s greatest artists, or from the fact that works of the great classic masters are presented—we had all of that before the Beethoven Association was born. Its importance is owing solely to the fact that those who give the concerts of the association do so without remuneration, and that there are two conditions that must be met before one can become a member, the first being that one must be a first rate artist the other that one must have actually played at one of the concerts or have volunteered׳ some other service of equal value.
Equally important is the guiding impulse, which is not that of drawing audiences but of self-gratification and service to art. In this the activities of the association differ essentially from any charity concert, where artists also play without remuneration. At the charity concert the one idea is to tie faithful to the cause, to draw money into the box office, to please the public. At the concerts of the Beethoven Association the one idea is to be faithful to art, and the artist’s one idea is to please himself by giving himself over for the time being to art ideals irrespective of their drawing power. It is furthermore important that the money that is earned is to be used not for some philanthropic or charitable purpose in the ordinary sense of the word, but solely for art purposes of some sort—of some abstract, impersonal sort.
Thus the first outlay has been for the publication of the biography of Beethoven by Alexander Wheelock Thayer, the work of an American, which had never been published in the language in which it was written. However, the fact that it was the work of an American did not presumably weigh with the members of the Beethoven Association, but only the fact that it was the most exhaustive and complete Beethoven biography. The proceeds of last season’s concerts have been allotted to several important musical interests. A large sum has been sent to Salzburg to help towards the building of the new Mozart Festspiel-haus there. In acknowledging the receipt of this contribution the Salzburg committee announced the election of the president of the Beethoven Association, Harold Bauer, as a member of its Honorary Presidency. In addition to this the Beethoven Association made an important gift of money to the New York Public Library for the purchase of works of musical reference which are lacking in that institution. The rest of last season’s proceeds were set aside as the nucleus of a fund to build a clubhouse.
And thereby hangs a tale—the tale, indeed, of the very beginning of the thought and conception of this associ-
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