MUSICAL COURIER
June 15, 1922
IG
After-Thoughts of the 1922 Bach Festival
In the Musical Courier for June 1 and 8, the Bach Festival at Bethlehem, Pa., May 26 and 27, was reported, but the following after-thoughts still will be of interest to the thousands of Bach enthusiasts. The attendance this year at the festival was even larger than in any previous season, the seating capacity of the auditorium having been reserved weeks in advance. Through the generosity of Mrs. R. P. Linderman the public rehearsal of Thursday evening, May 25, was made possible.
It is the consensus of opinion that to hear the Mass in B minor is to hear the famous Bach Choir at its best. The audience was a particularly reverent one this year. The Mass has been given by this organization at each festival held since 1900. As far as is known, it was given its first complete American rendition by Dr. Wolle’s choir in that year.
The 200th anniversary of the composition of the "St. Matthew Passion” chorus will occur in 1929.
Bach enthusiasts from thirty States of the Union were represented at this year’s festival.
T. Edgar Shields is to be congratulated upon his fine work at the organ.
Mrs. R. R. Hillman, Gertrude Spencer, Lucy Bricken-stein, Anna Reinhard, Marie Hesse, Mrs. George W. Hal-liwell, Elizabeth Schwab, Helen Shields, Clinton Zerwick and Howard J. Wiegner have been members of the Bach Choir since its founding twenty-four years ago.
The Bethlehem, the new hotel, proved to be a very comfortable home for the many visitors fortunate enough to secure rooms there during the festival.
The Moravian Trombone Choir, of which George E. Sig-ley is the leader, as usual gave much pleasure with its playing.
There was much _ commendation for Dr. Wolle for the occasional bits of piano accompaniment inserted by him in the “Passion.”
The principal soloists heard at this year’s festival were Mildred Faas and Emily Stokes Hagar, sopranos; Mabel Beddoe and Merle Alcock, contraltos; Nicholas Douty and Lambert Murphy, tenors; Fred Patton, baritone; Charles Trowbridge Tittmann and Henri Scott, basses. Incidental solos were furnished by the following choir members• Geneva Morgan, Mary E. Wehr, Katie E. Hess, Frances Trexler, Walter T. Mitchell, Howard J. Wiegner, Harry B. Miller, Dan Kocher, H. Donald Elya, Theo Shields and William Evans.
The Bach Festival of 1923 is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 25 and 26.
W. O. Forsyth Surprised
The Toronto home of W. O. Forsyth was the scene of much pleasant excitement on a recent evening, when over sixty of his pupils and former pupils gave him a surprise party, the occasion being his birthday. The event was a complete success, the surprisers taking occupation while Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth were motoring with friends. An event of the evening was the presentation by W. H. Coles, who acted as spokesman for the entire company, to Mr. Forsyth of a very fine club bag and a huge and very fine hammered antique brass bowl. Gwendoline Curry, who engineered the event, presented Mrs. Forsyth with a’string of pearls. Both Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth were deeply affected by these tokens of the regard in which they are held. Their daughter, Marjorie Forsyth Barlow, was the recipient of an armful of Brussels roses. During the evening Josie McAlpine, Elsie Bennett and Myrtle Webber played several of Mr. Forsyth’s compositions.
Levitzki in New York Recital November 8
Mischa Levitzki’s first concert in this country, since his concert tour of Australia and New Zealand, will be given at Wells College, Aurora, N. Y., where he will open his season at the end of October. This will be the third recital given by Mr. Levitzki at Wells College since the fall of 1919 In November, an eastern tour is scheduled for this popu-ar pianist. He will give his first New York recital since his departure for Australia on November 8 at Carnegie Hall and will present an entirely new program on that occasion. Later he is booked as soloist with practically all of the leading symphony orchestras of the country, and he is to tour California and the northern Pacific Coast states m March of next year.
Iva Krupp Bradley Arranges Program
An interesting program was presented at the concert arranged by Iva Krupp Bradley at the West Side Y M C. A., on the evening of May 22. There were quartet numbers, duets and solos, and most of the singers who took part in the program were coached by Clifford Vaughan Mr. Vaughan was heard in the Chopin ballade in A flat and was encored.
Mr. Graveure introduced as a new acquaintance to the German public (although some of them, no doubt, were written in the nearby “resort” of Ruhleben during the war) met with considerable success. Especially so “A Bird Sat Lonely on a Bough,” which had to be repeated. The audience was unstinting in its expressions of approval, one enraptured lady throwing Mr. Graveure her bouquet. Singers of his type are somewhat of rarity here, and the demands upon him were such that, although our own capacity for good singing is very large, hè was still giving-encores when we left.
“La Valse” Hissed and Acclaimed.
Georg Schnéevoigt, the Finnish conductor, is another stranger who has received a stormy welcome at the hands —and throats—of the Berlin public upon his reappearance here. His readings of Brahms’ third symphony and Tschai-kowsky’s sixth were especially applauded. The feature of his recent concert, however, was Ravel’s poeme choreo-graphique, “La Valse.” It was its first performance in Berlin- and called forth not a few hisses, which, however, were effectively drowned in a burst of applause and shouts of “bravo !” to which the whole orchestra was made to respond. The piece was inspired by Ravel’s visit to Vienna last year, and reflects the artist’s impression of the tragic condition of one-half of the city’s population which looks on while the other half dances.
Berlin Opera Tries American Material.
The Staatsoper has not slackened in its activities. It has recently taken to trying out foreign—especially American—“material,” of which Ethel Frank was the first example some weeks ago. This week saw a performance of “Cavalleria Rusticana” with an American, Eleonora Sawyer, as Santuzza, preceding the première of a new ballet arranged by Heinrich Krôller, entitled “From Shadow to Light.” Miss Sawyer has a beautiful voice which easily filled the house, and she enjoyed considerable success. This would have been even greater, no doubt, except for her somewhat stilted acting which may have been explained by nervousness and the unfamiliar environment. The same excuse could, however, not be made for her most modern style of hair-dressing, which effectively destroyed the illusion of the peasant-character.
Mr. Krôller’s new ballet was an ingenious playing with silhouette effects that is bound to find favor with the public. It cannot, however, make any serious artistic claims, especially as it relies upon a patchwork of rather hackneyed music selected from Mendelssohn and others. It is distinctly “summer fare.”
Marion Saerchinger.
Germaine Schnitzer “a Real Artist”
Germaine Schnitzer, “the popular pianist of popular programs,” played on May 9 at the Town Hall, and was exceedingly well received. So enthusiastic was the audience that she had to respond with several encores at the conclusion of her group of solos. That night she left on the midnight train for Rochester, N. Y., in order to give a recital at the Eastman School the next day. After hearing the pianist play, a prominent critic stated that even in the selections which, through familiarity, have become known as popular classics, Mme. Schnitzer showed that she was a real artist. He further said that perhaps the greatest test came when she played the hackneyed “Spring Song” of Mendelssohn. Mme. Schnitzer was able to make one forget generations of amateur pianists and find that there is real beauty in this trifle of Mendelssohn. Germaine Schnitzer herself had the following to say in regard to this composition: “What could be more popular than Mendelssohn’s ‘Spring Song’? Millions have heard it with delight; yet it is a classic of classics. The world will never be free from the controversy as to what constitutes popular music. The great composers wrote for the people, if not necessarily for the rabble. Their function was not to get along in the world, to build themselves fortunes, but to democratize beauty and truth.”
Rafaelo Diaz Vacationing
Rafaelo Diaz, tenor of the Metropolitan Opera Company, is enjoying a well earned rest in his home town, San Antonio, Texas. He will soon leave for California where he intends to remain but a short time, and later go to Italy. Mr. Diaz expects to return to New York for :the fall rehearsals with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
Selwitz to Be Wylie’s Western Representative
William Wylie, the Columbus, Ohio, tenor, has arranged with Samuel D. Selwitz of 1512 South Trumbull Ave., Chicago, 111., to act as his Western representative for the coming year. Mr. Selwitz has already booked a number of early Fall engagements for Mr. Wylie.
BERLIN HEAT-WAVE FAILS TO
KILL ENTHUSIASM FOR MUSIC
Kreutzer Applauded in All Beethoven Concertos—Graveure Packs Philharmonie—Schneevoigt Introduces Ravel’s “La Valse”—Another American Debuts at Staatsoper
Berlin, May 25.—Though the city is sweltering in •the grip of a heat-wave that would do honor to the reputation of New York in July, the music season refuses to abate. With the summer festivals on in full swing and many of the critics away from Berlin, those that are left behind are still kept busy every night.
Thus Leonid Kreutzer has given two Beethoven evenings with the Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustav Brecher conducting, comprising all the master’s piano concertos. The popular German diet of three concertos a night would have proved tiresome—as it usually does—if served up with anything but the consummate art we have learned to expect from these two musicians. As it was, we counted the evening among the most enjoyable of the season, and the delighted audience recalled Prof. Kreutzer many times.
Graveure Gets Lady's Bouquet.
An equally enthusiastic public crowded the Philharmonie on Monday to hear Louis Graveure’s third Berlin recital. Graveure has had to resort to a larger hall with each recital and has now reached the virtuoso proportions of a sold-out “Philharmonie.” He sang an interesting program consisting of groups of Schubert, Dvorak, Bryceson Tre-harne and Richard Strauss. The songs of Treharne, whom
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