6	MUSICAL COURIER
MUNICH HOSTILE TO KORNGOLD’S
OPERA, GIVEN BY KNAPPERTSBUSGH
Ivogiin and Reinhardt Off for America—A Publishers’ Exhibition—Concerts Not Impressive—Boult Conducts English
Works—American Artists—Marcella Craft of the First Rank
January 11, 1923
from _ Tschaikowsky and Debussy. Hartmann will be a big violinist some day, when he has learned to unveil his tone. He has all the qualities to be one: a very smooth and reliable technic, musicianly taste and a certain warmth of feeling, which, however, he seems as eager to hide as the full qualities of his tone. Hartmann plays on a wonderful instrument and one would like to hear it sing out in full; but his tone is like a heavily veiled beauty—and one would like to see more of her face.
Ilse Niemack, an American girl violinist, charmed her audience the moment she appeared on the stage; she is a girl violinist in the full sense of the word, touchingly youthful and sympathetic in her slender appearance and of a certain naive shyness in the way of musical expression. But she has intuitive gifts for what is called conception and it will only be a question of time when she will bring these into full play. At present she charms with her clean cut technic, a sincere warmth in tone and emotional delivery which, despite the artist’s youth, is already above the average. Silvia Lent too, is a gifted violinist but not quite so developed in technic and style as her sister compatriot.
Marcella Craft of the First Rank.
One of the biggest surprises of the season was Marcella Craft, a former member of our opera (and certainly one of the best singers of Richard Strauss’ Salome I have yet heard), who gave a song-recital. Since I heard her last in opera, about eight years ago, her voice has developed in an astonishing degree; it is today a beautiful sounding and perfectly equalized instrument upon which she plays with absolute command and with an ease which is the last proof of perfect mastery. Together with an infallible diction, Miss Craft has also acquired an exemplary vocalization; she has in fact become a Lieder singer of particular rank. Her admirable rendition of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, R. Strauss and Pfitzner was a rare artistic treat and put the large audience into a state of real enthusiasm. It is hoped that this fine singer will again be heard at our opera.	Albert Noelte.
May Peterson Soloist at Algonquin Club Concert
May Peterson was the soloist at a concert given on December 10, by the Algonquin Club of Boston, assisted by an orchestra made up of members of the Boston Symphony. Miss Peterson’s singing delighted the large audience, gathered together by invitation, ׳ and she was obliged to give many encores, among them the Norwegian Echo Song, Cornin’ Thro’ the Rye, Cuckoo Song, Dixie, De 01’ Ark’s Amoverin’ and Little Irish Girl. Her program, well chosen and varied in context, included French, Russian, Spanish, German and English songs.
Louis Stillman Plays at Wanamaker’s
On Saturday afternoon, January 6, at Wanamaker’s auditorium, Louis Stillman, piano pedagogue, appeared as the piano soloist. Others on the program were Janet Bush-Hecht, contralto, with Mabelanna Corby at the piano; Caroline Lowe Hovey, organist, and Margaret Olsen, soprano, with Elsie Ericksen at the piano.
costs about two hundred, the piano score of an opera from about six to fifteen thousand marks!)
Concerts Not Impressive.
In connection with the exhibition, a series of concerts was given and here it proved that the title Deutsche Musik-Woche was a bit too far fetched, for not only were the names of a number of very noteworthy German publishing-firms missing on the list of exhibitors, but also the names and works of a number of very noteworthy composers on the concert-programs. A German music-week can never be complete without the names Strauss, Pfitzner, Schönberg, Schreker and a few others.
Of the works performed a piano trio, op. 28, by Heinrich G. Noren (published by Bote & Bock), deserves special attention; true, it is a bit lengthy but of immense rhythmical charm, imbued with a strange mixture of Slavonic melancholy and fire, lucid in form and sounding exquisitely. Less pronounced personality but a fine sense for coloring and form was shown in sonata, op. 56, for violin and piano, by Paul Graener. Interesting, but not much more than that, were a quintet for wind-instruments by Erwin Lendvai and a sonata for French horn by Joseph Haas (a pupil of the late Max Reger). Of more than passing interest were the songs by Reger (beautifully sung by Anna Erler Schnaudt to the exquisite accompaniment of Alexander Berrsche, who is an authority on Reger music) and Richard Trunk. The latter, who is the favorite protege of the publisher Halbreiter, is in fact about the most popular Lieder composer in Germany today, and the one most sung. And he deserves this distinction, for he is a genial musician, who knows how to turn poetry into soulful sound and above all how to write for the human voice—a gift which is not at all so common among composers as one might suppose. The performance of the various programs was for the most part entrusted to local artists of mainly local repute; their names seemed not to have enough attraction to draw large crowds to these concerts. Only the first concert, where the tenor, Karl Erb, a favorite at the opera, sang rather queer lyrics by Joseph Haas, was really well attended. The final all-around result of these concerts did not quite come up to expectations, but on the whole it was a fair start for an undertaking which deserves imitation and furtherance.
In my last letter to the Musical Courier I referred to the fact that a good percentage of the concert-givers this season are foreigners. This is a welcome fact to all who, like myself, are of the opinion that nothing is so useful in order to avert stagnation as the international exchange of artists; Germany’s musical life certainly was in danger of becoming stagnated during the last eight years. Happily a number of these foreign artists were eager to perform works of their own countrymen and that certainly added zest to their programs, for we are honestly tired of the eternal Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms programs. Of late we have heard song in all languages— only French is tabooed—and a number of interesting instrumental works.
Boult Conducts English Works.
Adrian C. Boult, a gifted English conductor, for instance, performed in his orchestral concert Vaughan Williams’ overture to the Wasps by Aristophanes, which is a remarkably well made and very characteristic piece of music. Although it is on the whole noticeably influenced by the modern French school, especially by Debussy’s preference for the diatonic scald, it shows its author to be a musician of fantasy and culture. The second number of English descent was a ballet suite, The Perfect Fool, in four movements, by G.
Holst. This is outspoken descriptive music, with an occasional side-glance at the orchestration of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but it is harmonically interesting and of a delightful continuous flow. One might call it an effective rhythmical diversion, for there is a good dose of rhythmical “ginger” in it. The program closed with a very good reading of Brahms’ second symphony; its execution differed in some details from what we are used to, but it certainly had a discussable profile of its own. Katharina Arkandy, a coloratura soprano of the opera, was the much applauded soloist in this concert with fragments from Mozart’s Entführung and Handel’s L’Allegro, il pensieroso ed il moderato.
American Artists.
A number of American artists also made their first bow in the Bavarian capital; there was the pianist Harold Henry, who left a very good impression with his rendition of pieces by MacDowell and miniatures by Grieg and Palmgren He also played a composition of his own called Poem, sombre in mood but of good pianistic style He is a pianist with a solid technic and very sound musical training.
The violinist Arthur Hartmann also championed his own muse with an expressive Souvenir and several effective transcriptions
Munich, December 12.—The music season is in full sway; a veritable blast of concerts characterized this last month and the monster bill-boards are almost entirely reduced to the function of announcing concerts and political meetings. For no matter how depressing the times may be, concerts and party-strife go on as serenely as in the happy days of yore. And, strange as it may seem to my American readers, politics and art are, in their relation to each other, not so far asunder in these parts as a thoroughly healthy and unbiased mind might reasonably assume. We have had some rather startling spectacles as the outcome of this strange coupling of the seemingly heterogeneous, spectacles which might have been amusing if they were in the final result less detrimental to art. At present a still latent strife is under way and this time—and this is really amusing—the stroke is being aimed at a man whose active appearance in our musical life was supposed to be of the same effect as oil on ruffled waters. This man is Hans Knappertsbusch, the new director of our opera. As successor of Bruno Walter, who is without a doubt one of the most adored musical leaders Munich ever had, he was at once the object of aversion on the part of many Walter enthusiasts—Walter himself, it must be said, stands far beyond and above such petty strife—who are said to work earnestly for the reestablishment of the status quo; on the other hand Knappertsbusch has incited the wrath of a part of his own supporters, who welcomed in him not only the genial conductor but also the true type of the blond Teuton, because he selected and brought out as the first novelty of the season Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera, Die tote Stadt. And Korngold is not of purely Teutonic descent. (I hope I have made the case perfectly clear). Knappertsbusch is not the man to make concessions in a case where his artistic principles are questioned; and as he appears convinced of the artistic qualities of this work, he put it on the repertory and is ready to take the consequences.
The first performance took place last night and here again political passions took active part in the outward characterization of the final result. The applause was at first anything but enthusiastic, but as the hissing and whistling set in, the handclappers waxed wroth and many pairs of kid gloves must have been split and many lungs strained in the ardent effort to down the opposition. The contest ended with several points in favor of the assenting party. Personally, I see no reason why Korngold’s opera should so hotly enrage the minds; it is without a doubt the work of a remarkable talent, although a talent which constantly overreaches itself in the effort to be dramatically and empirically convincing.
To add a bit of spice to rather heavy repertory, Auber’s Fra Diavolo had a welcome revival. Although this charming work is nearly a hundred years old, it has lost none of its gay sprightliness—thanks to Auber’s genial inventive power.
Ivogun and Reinhardt Off for America .
Maria Ivogun and Delia Reinhardt made their farewell appearances at the opera; the former also in a recital, sold out to the last standing room. Both of these fine singers are off for America and both were the object of a rousing farewell on their last appearance. For Delia Reinhardt, our opera has found an excellent substitute in Maria Muller from Prague, a singer with a beautiful mellow voice and of exceptionally fine stage-appearance; her rendition of the part of Elsa in Lohengrin was a delight in every way. The big conundrum is to replace Maria Ivogun. Coloratura singers of even half the efficiency, of this artist are about as scarce as a German gold coin. Another new singer for lyric parts is Elizabeth Feuge, formerly of Dessau, who promises to become an artist of good standing if she succeeds in developing her undeniable talents to the full.
A Publishers’ Exhibition.
And now we are off to the concerts, but here I hardly know where to begin. However, don’t be frightened (I mean the editor) ; I shall mention only the most necessary items and leave out those which bored me as much as an account of them would bore the reader. The biggest item in the concert-line was a German Music-Week (Deutsche Musik-Woche), arranged and organized by a number of German publishers in connection with a public exhibition of their principal output. In this exhibition which for a beginning was fair enough and yet rather crude in its makeup—Bote & Bock, a noted German publishing firm of Berlin, had the most handsome display: finely engraved opera and orchestral scores, a large assortment of vocal and instrumental music by authors of world-wide fame and well selected, beautifully bound musical literature. Next came the Drei Masken-Verlag (Berlin-Munich), who had some wonderful facsimile-reproductions of original manuscripts by Bach, Beethoven and Wagner (Meistersinger score!) on exhibition besides a large and varied collection of modern literature on music. Munich was further represented by Otto Halbreiter, still a young but very enterprising publishing firm, and by the Wunderhorn-Verlag, which covets especially the output of the Reger school. Other exhibiting firms were: N. Simrock (one of the oldest German publishing houses), Schlesinger & Krenzlin (Berlin), Siegel & Kistner, Steingraber, Max Hesse (the publishers of Hugo 'Riemann’s famous encyclopedia), Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (Stuttgart) and the world-known Universal-Edition (Vien-na-Leipzig), one of the staunchest supporters of moderns and ultramoderns.
The purpose of this exhibition ■was to prove that the German music-publishers, in spite of the prohibitive rates for paper—five million marks for a truck load!—engraving, binding, etc., were and are willing to keep step with the production, to show the high-grade work in design and outward finish and to impress upon the music-lover—as was done in the official opening speeches—the fact, that sacrifices on the part of the consumer are equally as necessary as on the part of the publishers if the high standard of German publishing art is to continue. (These sacrifices are bitter enough, especially if they have to be made by music-students, when one considers that a two-page song
GANNA WALSKA.
Harold F. McCormick’s favorite photograph of his bride.