June 1, 19 22
MUSICAL COURIER
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Denishawn Dancer at Rialto and Rivoli
Music, dancing, the photoplay and color photography have all been fused into a new art form which has been presented within the past month at the Rivoli and Rialto theaters in New York. This has been accomplished through the medium of “dance films,” for which Ted Shawn has created the dance numbers and directed rehearsals. The titles of the dance movies so far presented are “Valse Ballet,” “The Bubble Dance” and an “Egyptian Dance,” in which Martha Graham, one of the Denishawn dancers, is featured.
Marguerita Sylva Under Friedberg Management
Marguerita Sylva, known as a great Carmen, has just signed a contract to be under the exclusive management of Annie Friedberg. Mme. Sylva is already booked for a Southern tour, a series of concerts in Havana and a New York concert, and is starting the fall season at the Maine Festival early in October.
Mr. and Mrs. Mills for Toronto
R. Watkins Mills and Mrs. Mills have been appointed choirmaster and soloist, and organist, respectively, of Knox Church, Toronto. They will assume their duties after the holidays. For the past seven years Mr. Mills has been identified with music in Winnipeg, having been one of the founders of the Men’s Musical Club there, of which organization he was the president for two years. At present Mr. Mills is president of the Manitoba Music Teachers’ Association.
Edith Bennett with Haensel & Jones
Edith Bennett, soprano, is now under the management of Haensel & Jones. This musical bureau is booking the singer for engagements in recital, concert and oratorio. On Wednesday, December 13 next, Miss Bennett will appear in recital at her alma mater, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
States, at the Playhouse, in Washington, May 18. At that time Elizabeth Campanole and Myron Whitney presented a very interesting program. Mrs. Campanole, who is an artist pupil of Mr. Whitney, pleased with the beauty of her voice and her interpretations. Her solo numbers included “O Del Mio Amato Ben,” Donaudy; “Vielle Chanson Espagnole,” Aubert; “Tes Yeux,” Rabey; “Fetes Galantes,” Hahn; “At the Well,” Hage-man; “Do Not Go, My Love¡” Hageman; “Hat Gestern,” “Waldseligkeit,” Joseph Marx, and “The Opium Smoker,” Campbell-Tipton. Mr. Whitney also contributed two groups of unusual numbers including “Biondini,” Gounod; “Todes-sehnen,” “Verrath,” Brahms; “La Chevelure,” Debussy; “Au Temps du Grand Roi,” Tosti; “Amore Amor,” Tirindelli; “Nissun lo sa,” Vannuccini; “Evoe,” Bath, and “To Anthea,” Hatton.
Proving themselves equally - effective in duets, Mrs. Campanole and Mr. Whitney gave “Gondo-liera,” Henschel, and “Baigne d’eau tes Mains,” from Massenet’s “Thais.” The efficient accompanist was Dr. Liszniewski.
Gustave L. Becker’s Bach Inventions
The fifteen two-part “Inventions” by Bach, so well known throughout the pianistic musical world, have been set with harmonic supporting structure, that is, a second piano-part, containing the harmonies of the original Inventions, by Gustave L. Becker.
At one of the Becker lecture-recitals last winter some of them were heard for the first time, and their merits were praised by numbers of musicians present. To make the Inventions more easily understood, Mr. Becker has supplied a four-part supporting harmony, which may be played on a second piano or a small house-organ. Indications of the chords, the harmonies, etc., are printed in the score, now published and obtainable at any music store. Mr. Becker has revised the phrasing, and supplied fingering and expression marks.
The lecture recitals given by Mr. Becker during the winter included a “Russian Evening,” “Rhythm Evening,” one on “Tone-color and Atmosphere,” a Bach Recital, “Valentine Evening,” etc., all of which were largely attended and much enjoyed by pupils and friends.
Mr. Becker’s summer session has begun, his pupil, Zalic S. Jacobs giving a piano recital May 14 and playing works by representative composers, such as Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, etc. Teachers from distant points find the Becker Summer Course most beneficial, for he combines pedagogic principles with practical illustrations.
Rosa Ponselle Captivates San Antonio
Having heard of the success of Rosa Ponselle in Houston on two occasions in former seasons,
San Antonio music lovers turned out en masse on May 2, when the Metropolitan diva appeared there under the auspices of the Mozart Society, and, judging from press reports, the voice which has thrilled Metropolitan audiences for the past four years, completely captivated the Southwestern city.
Miss Ponselle and her party paid their homage to that typical American shrine, the Alamo, during their short stay, and she told a local press man afterward that she entered the sacred edifice a 100 per cent. American and came out at least 103 per cent, after hearing the story of its heroic defense.
The following telegram to National Concerts, Inc., from David L. Ormesher, director of the Mozart Society, indicates the impressions which Miss Ponselle made on her first San Antonio appearance: “Ponselle concert given here under the auspices of Mozart Society on May 2 wonderful success. Greatest voice ever heard in the Southwest. Want to re-engage her again for next season in December as per conversation with acting manager, please send contract.”
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Mabel Riegelman Sings for Radio
Mabel Riegelman, formerly of the Chicago Opera, who has been having unusual success in concert on the Pacific Coast during the present season, sang the closing concert for Music Week in Stockton, Cal., with marked success.
On May 6, Miss Riegelman radiophoned a program to Honolulu from the Stockton Evening Record broadcasting station of the Portable Wireless Telephone Company. Criticism thereafter said that Miss Riegelman’s radio program, which has already been reported from numerous receiving stations, “will go down in radio history as the best thus far attempted—in arrangement, in modulation and consistency, all of which are demanded of successful broadcasts.” The Stockton Evening Record of May 8, speaking of Miss Riegelman’s concert at the auditorium on the evening of May 6, said: “The unqualified success of Stockton’s first Music Week was crowned Saturday evening with the supremely beautiful concert by Mabel Riegelman, prima donna soprano, and her pianist, Constance Mering, of Sacramento, at the auditorium. Magnetic and appealing in personality, possessing a voice of superlative clearness and sweetness, dramatic to such an extent that her entire nature seemed transformed to fit the mood of each song, Mabel Riegelman won resounding Applause during the entire evening.”
Lusk Plays a New Violin Composition
Under the auspices of the senior choir of the First Methodist Church at Wilmette, 111., Milan Lusk, violinist, gave a successful recital in the Methodist Church at Wilmette on May 12. The recital was arranged as a tribute to the talented young man in appreciation of his artistry.
A special feature of the program was the first performance of the violinist’s most recent composition, “Caprice Espagnol.” The piece has a strikingly Spanish character both melodically and rhythmically; it was enthusiastically applauded. In addition, the program contained several Bohemian compositions not frequently played but very effective, such as “Intermezzo Pittoresque,” by Kocian, and “Per-petuum Mobile,” by Novacek.
Immediately after the recital, Mr. Lusk left for Canada where he was booked to appear in Ottawa, Kingston and Hamilton.
Guido H. Caselotti as an Impresario
Guido H. Caselotti, New York vocal teacher, temporarily departed from his regular course of activities on May 21, when he acted as operatic impresario, presenting Verdi’s “Rigoletto” at Poli’s Theater, Bridgeport, Conn., with Maria Caselotti (one of his artist pupils), as Gilda, and Riccardo Bonelli, as Rigoletto. Mme. Caselotti’s singing of this role was highly praised by the Bridgeport Times of May 22.
Mr. Caselotti’s first venture as an operatic impresario was so successful artistically and financially that he has fully decided to present several operas next season in which, besides Mme. Caselotti, other star pupils and a chorus trained by him will participate.
Maine to Have a Kneisel Hall
Franz Kneisel is a musician who has made an enviable reputation for himself since he made his first appearance in public in 1882, when, at the age of seventeen, he played the violin concerto by Joachim with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Soon after he was offered the posi-
© Underwood & Underwood
FRANZ KNEISEL
tion of solo violin in the orchestra of the Imperial Court Theater. Later he was associated with the famous Bilse Orchestra of Berlin as concertmeister, a position of the highest honor, which had been held before him by such artists as Ysaye, Halir and Thomson.
Mr. Kneisel became concertmeister of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1885, resigning in 1903. The Brahms and Goldmark concertos were played for the first time in America by Mr. Kneisel with this orchestra in all the principal cities.
In recognition of his services in the development of music in America, Mr. Kneisel had been honored by the great orchestral societies. The committees of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1907) and of the Philharmonic Society of New York (1910) asked him to consider the acceptance of the conductorship of these orchestras. In 1907, Mr. Kneisel received in Paris an honor rarely conferred on foreigners in his appointment as a member of the jury of the Violin Concours of the Paris Conservatoire National with Colonne, Vidal, Paul Dukas, etc., as confreres.
Mr. Kneisel’s work as leader of the Kneisel Quartet, founded in 1885 by Henry L. Higginson, of Boston, is well known throughout the country. The organization was in existence for thirty-three years and did much toward the spread of the appreciation of chamber music in the United States. The quartet visited England twice and met with great success there also.
Mr. Kneisel has been a member of the faculty of the Institute of Musical Art, of which Frank Damrosch is the director, since it opened some years ago. In an interview in the Baton, a magazine gotten out by the students at the institute, Mr. Kneisel had the following to say in speaking of his‘beautiful summer home at Blue Hill on the coast of Maine:
“Even in the twenty-one times I have gone to Europe, I always arrange to return early enough to spend at least the month of September in that region of enchantment. Many men of learning assemble there, musicians, writers and professors. There I have a colony of students each year, and there has been great need of a place where they could gather.
“A friend, a veritable Maecenas, is now establishing a building to be known as Kneisel Hall, where chamber music and concerts may be held. It will contain a splendid library, large dining room and an extensive piazza. The auditorium will accommodate about three hundred people. The new hall will be in the nature of a club, where every evening the students may congregate for ensemble work, lectures and literature.
“A number of graduate and undergraduate pupils of the institute who continue their study with me in the summer, such as Sascha Jacobsen, Elias Breeskin, Jacques Gordon, Michel Gusikoff, Helen Jeffrey, Amy Neil, William Kroll, Cyril Towbin, Karl Kraeuter, etc., form part of this group.”
The degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon Mr. Kneisel in 1911 by Yale University and in 1915 by Princeton University.
Myron Whitney and Pupil Give Recital
There was a large and enthusiastic audience, which included Mrs. Coolidge, wife of the Vice-President, and Mine. Jusserand, wife of the French Ambassador to the United
American Baritone
Management :
M. L. FULLERTON
229 Fourth Ave., New York
WILLIAM SIMMONS