MUSICAL COURIER
46
May 25, 1922
lawsky, fought bravely against the dullness of the work. I fear these two Zionist organizations have not furthered their national cause by reviving it. Why not play Mendelssohn, or Ernest Bloch?
A Ladies’ String Quartet.
In my recent enumeration of Viennese chamber music organizations, a young quartet was unduly omitted. To the Kolbe Quartet, composed entirely of attractive young ladies who are as pleasing to the eye as their playing is to the ear, credit is due for having introduced to us a string quartet by Giuseppe Verdi, which has rarely—if ever—been heard here before. The work of this quartet is on a respectably high level and, together with the Women’s Symphony Orchestra already mentioned in these columns, they make a fine argument for the feminist movement, at least as far as militant musicianship is concerned.
Giesering Leads Among Pianists.
The return here of Walter Gieseking has definitely established for this pianist the supreme position which he deserves. This time his program was so arranged as to satisfy both the connoisseur and the average concert-goer. The latter revelled in his remarkably brilliant rendition of the Liszt dessert pieces, while the former admired the broadness of conception in his Schubert and Reger and the delicacy of the six Debussy pieces. Claudio Arrau, the young South-American pianist, at his recent concert chose some radically modern and rather ungrateful works as vehicles for his splendid gifts, among them Béla Bar-tôk’s Suite, op. 14, which is interesting in rhythm, and a chaotic expressionist piece by Heinrich Knoedt, a local critic, entitled “Moods.” Bruno Eisner’s Vienna following, faithful since the days when he was still a resident of this city, again admired his playing in recital as well as his accompaniments for Olga Eisner-Schàffer who, among other things, sang two pleasing new songs by Gisela Sel-den-Goth, which are still manuscript. Télémaque Lam-brino, too, famous for his watchword “No passes !” gave two recitals before audiences which showed this pianist more faithful to artistic than to managerial principles.
The pianistic surprise of the past month, however, has been Ruth Klug, the young American girl who slipped into Vienna almost unnoticed one day and in a recital, arranged on short notice, completely conquered her hearers by the pianistic perfection of her Chopin, Brahms and Rachmaninoff, and by her wonderfully clean cut reading of Schubert’s B flat major sonata. Whenever she chooses to return to Vienna, Miss Klug may be sure of a hearty welcome here.
Telmânyi’s Growing Popularity.
Pupils’ recitals are generally not a thing of sufficient importance to warrant their critical review. Yet the concert given by the pupils of Prof. Heinrich Christians’ violin master class attracted attention by virtue of its program. We heard Busoni’s concerto, op. 35, which is of a simplicity of style quite incredible -in this former apostle of radicalism. It seems that Busoni has now “gone back” on his own preachings, and has joined the “bourgeois’” again. His recent “open letter” to the Berlin musical magazine, Melos, was another step in that direction.
Adolf Busch once more returned to the city whence he took his sudden rise to fame, playing the Beethoven violin concerto under the bâton of no less a personage than Richard Strauss. Among the violinists, he shared chief interest with Emil Telmânyi, the excellent Hungarian master of the bow, who gave three recitals to audiences which constantly grew in numbers and in enthusiasm. Telmânyi is ostensibly “en vogue” here now, and most deservedly so. His compatriot, Judith Bôkor, is a cellist who completely masters this most difficult among the stringed instruments, and was very well received.	Paul Bechert.
Rose Florence Sings in San Jose
On May 5, at the First Methodist Episcopal Church of San Jose, Cal., Rose Florence, soprano, gave a very enjoyable recital before an appreciative gathering. Her program included such numbers as the air from “Alceste,” Gluck; Menuet de Martini, Weckerlin; “I’ve Been Roaming,” Horn; “Le Temps des Lilas,” Chausson; “Serenade,” Carpenter; “Slumber Sea,” Chisholm; “Vergebliches Stand-chen,” Brahms; “A Fairy Love Song,” Willeby; “The Land of Sunshine,” Waldrop; “The Old Refrain,” arranged by Kreisler, and “Clavelitos.” Of these, “Slumber Sea” had to be^ repeated and the pastor of the church afterwards told Miss _ Florence that he had never heard the song sung so beautifully. Mr. Waldrop, who assisted the singer at the piano, must have been gratified at the success with which his song met, for it also had to be repeated. Willeby’s song was well received and four additional numbers had to be given before the close of the concert. The following Sunday Miss^Florence gave a twenty-minute concert at the Vesper Service.
Miss Florence will sing at the Greek Theater, Berkeley, on June 25. November 21, she will be heard again in New York, at Aeolian Hall, with Coenraad Bos at the piano.
Claude Warford Announces Summer Session
Claude Warford has just returned from his spring vacation, this time spent in Savannah and Atlanta, Ga. In Savannah he renewed his friendship with a colleague of Berlin and Paris days, and in Atlanta was guest of honor at a reception given by Mrs. Carroll Summer (a Warford pupil), one of the teachers of singing at the Atlanta Conservatory of Music.
At the reception Warford songs were featured by Leila Carlton, Naomi Walter, Virginia Moore and Mrs. Fred Beam, all pupils of Mrs. Summer. The composer was at the piano.
As previously announced in the Musical Courier, Mr. Warford will again feature a summer session at his studios in the Metropolitan Opera House Building.
Hans Hess Completes Spring Tour
When Hans Hess, the prominent cellist, returned to Chicago on May 10 from his spring festival tour through the States of Kansas and Iowa, he began his cello classes, which he holds on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 522 Fine Arts Building. Mr. Hess’ secretary, C. Lynn Reyburn, reports a large enrollment for the special summer classes.
three sonatas for cello and piano were splendidly played by Anton Walter (Buxbaum’s successor with the Rosé Quartet) and Severin Eisenberger.
New Conductors.
At one of the “extra” concerts which have recently become the rule with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, George Georgescu, who is “general musical direktor” in his native Roumania, paid his homage to the genius of Brahms with a performance of the second symphony that was temperamental rather than perfect in style. He seemed more at home in his rendering of Strauss’ “Don Juan,” which received the plaudits of its distinguished composer, and even more so in a rhapsody by his countryman, Enesco, which is a brilliant but rather superficial show piece.
The latest addition to the Viennese fraternity of conductors is Hans Duhan, heretofore an idolized and highly artistic lyric baritone at the Staatsoper, who unfortunately has been struggling with some vocal disabilities of late. Rumor has it that he has gone to the oculist to heal his strained vocal cords. His debut as a conductor was a surprisingly authoritative performance of Haydn’s “Seasons.” He is still inclined to overrate the importance of the soloists and the chorus, to the detriment of the orchestral passages, but his debut was an auspicious beginning.
Siegfried der Kleine.
The return of Siegfried Wagner, after a seven years’ absence, was practically in the nature of a first appearance. It was principally a “social” event, rallying a few Pan-Germans, the local adherents of the Wagner family, and some of the most determined Wagnerites, who are ever again surprised at Siegfried’s lack of magnetism as a conductor. Of his music, the overture to his latest opera, bearing the lengthy and rather affected title “An allem ist Hiitchen schuld,” is pleasing with its “folkish” themes and cleverly worked out. It might, perhaps, gain more widespread approval were it not burdened with so weighty a name.
Music and Rubber.
Probably one of the most absurd productions ever presented in a concert hall was an orchestral concert devoted exclusively to “tone poems” by a gentleman named Rudolf Reithoffer, whose name has heretofore been more prominent in the rubber business than in musical affairs. It is worth recording as a strong illustration of the revolution in our musical standards resulting from the war, and especially from the post-war crisis. Such rubbish as these compositions would have been unthinkable in a Vienna concert hall eight years ago, but nowadays our struggling symphony orchestra is compelled to play such stuff for a living, and consequently the author is in a position to make his “Uraufführung” a most luxurious social affair.
An Antiquated Rubinstein Opera.
With all due reverence for the pianistic genius of Anton Rubinstein, it must be stated that the recent performance of his “ecclesiastical opera” entitled “Der Turm zu Babel” was a rather sad affair. It was almost a novelty, having had but one consecutive performance here fifty-two years ago, when even the then celebrated name of its author proved unable to justify its existence. The “Jewish Singing Society” and the Jewish “Hakoah Orchestra,” who had united for this concert under the baton of S. Bras-
VIENNA
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did not miss their chance. Brahms was the rule of the day in all concert^ halts, but palpably these “festivals” were business propositions pure and simple rather than a worship at the shrine of the master. One local agent arranged what aspired to be a survey of Brahms’ life work, yet omitted, among other compositions, so important a work as the Requiem—possibly in an endeavor to "cut expenses.”
Brahms—and Dohnànyi.
As to the chamber music of Brahms, it was fairly well represented and executed by the Rosé Quartet which, however, was not quite up to its usual standard, apparently still suffering from the overwork attendant upon its recent transcontinental tour. When occasion demanded, the quartet was augmented by members of the Philharmonic Orchestra, or by that fine pianist, Severin Eisenberger, and, most frequently, by Erno Dohnànyi, the Hungarian master-player. Dohnànyi, in fact, was the commanding figure of this Brahms cycle, showing himself in all his versatility as a pianist, accompanist and chamber musician of wonderful qualities and, incidentally, as a conductor of highly respectable if not towering accomplishments. At one of the orchestral concerts, the conductor’s desk was occupied by Franz Schalk,^ a leader who embodies the tradition of a former generation and who is at his best in Brahms’ symphonies. Maria Olszewska, from Hamburg, sang beautifully the “Alt-Rhapsodie,” and Richard Mayr, from our Staatsoper, made a deeply pathetic appeal with the “Four Serious Songs”by the sheer beauty of his voice. Gertrude Forstei, soprano, had the benefit of Dohnànyi’s remarkably pliable and finished piano accompaniments in her rendition of some of Brahms’ most popular songs.
The new Mairecker-Buxbaum Quartet, just home from its first successful Scandinavian tour, celebrated Brahms by a cyclical performance of his chamber music, which received a highly artistic and inspiring rendition, and the
MARGOT
HAYES
Contralto
Management: HARRY and ARTHUR
CULBERTSON
Aeolian Hall New York
4832 Dorchester Ave. Chicago
NEW YORK-CHICAGO
DUTCH VIOLINIST
Preparatory Teacher to
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A
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Y
Harold Bauer
Master F״ianlst
Available for Concerts, Recitals, Joint Recitals with Pablo Casals and Jacques Thibaud, Dec. 15th, 1922 to May 15th, 1923.
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Aeolian Hall, IM. V. City	Mason it Hamlin Plano
..	ANNA CASE
	Soprano
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# rjfv	voice.”—N. Y. Herald.
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