NEW YORK, THURSDAY, January 18, 1923.
/V\USICAL(ÔURIER
VOL. LXXXVI—No. 3. Whole No. 2232.
haps half a dozen at a time, but none ever made a collection.”
“And why do you suppose that was?”
“That—as they say—is another question. I don’t know. At least, I am very happy to have mine.”	H. O. O.
To Aid German and Austrian Musicians
EFREM ZIMBALIST NOW OWNS PROBABLY THE
LARGEST PRIVATE COLLECTION OF OLD VIOLINS
Distinguished Violinist, Discussing His Interesting Visit Last Spring to Japan, China and the Philippines, Tells for the First Time of His Important Purchase—Many Famous Instruments in the Collection—His
Experiences in the Orient
With Theodore Spiering as chairman, a committee has been gathered together with the object in view of obtaining aid for the musicians of Germany and Austria. Those who have agreed to serve on the committee up to the present time are Florence Easton, J. Lawrence Erb, George Fergusson, Ignatz Friedman, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Rubin Goldmark, Edwin Grasse, Henry Hadley, Victor Herbert, Josef Hofmann, Bronislaw Huberman, Ernest Hutcheson, Alberto Jonas, Francis Maclennan, Daniel Gregory Mason, George Meader, Yolanda Mero, John Powell, Marcella Sembrich, Alexander Siloti, Arthur Shattuck, David Stanley Smith, O. G. Sonneck, Mortimer Wilson, and a number of others have been asked to serve but have not yet been heard from.
From this imposing list of names it will be seen that the leading musicians of America fully appreciate the pressing need that this worthy endeavor proposes to alleviate. There can be no possible doubt as to the present emergency. Musicians in Germany and Austria are actually starving to death. This is not a mere phrase used for the purpose of arousing sympathy. It is fact—cold, hard, inexorable fact. Some private aid has already been given, but it has never been sufficient, and if musicians are musicians in the true sense of the word, faithful to the cause, they will do collectively and individually, their bit.
Even the Smallest Donation Is Acceptable.
And let no one imagine that a small donation will not be appreciated. At the present rate of exchange even a small donation will be׳ a God-send to some starving German or Austrian musician', and it is greatly to be desired that the musicians of America should show themselves a unit in this matter, should prove by their generosity that they are musicians who believe in the unity of the musical world and the sacredness of their duty to support the cause and increase this feeling of unity until the musicians of the world shall be a solid bloc.
The above committee has requested Prof. Wilhelm Klatte in Berlin to act as chairman of the distributing committee in Europe. Prof. Klatte will select an executive committee from a list of names submitted to him and which will be given in these columns later.
time they had assembled what—I do not think I am exagger1 rating when I make the statement—is probably the finest private collection that has ever been gotten together.
“There are thirty items. Only a few of them are already in this country. I brought those over myself and the rest are to follow when I have a safe place for them. I shall have a big, fireproof safe made, of course. I don’t know where to find a place for it in our home and I think it would be better to have it somewhere outside in any case. But I shall not allow the splendid instruments to die in the safe. I love them too much. I play on those I have here constantly, first on one and then another. They will
!1111
Chicago Civic Opera
Season Extended
The Chicago Civic Opera Company will extend its season next year many weeks. The season in Chicago, which has always been of ten weeks’ duration, will be prolonged one and one-half weeks, making a road total of eleven and a half weeks, and the road tour will be extended from three weeks to ten weeks, making the total engagement of the Chicago Civic Opera Company twenty-one and one-half weeks. Although this important announcement has not the official stamp of any executive of the company, the Musical Courier gives the news as a fact, and it may be ! taken by readers as authentic.
It has been announced in another musical publication that some changes will be made in the business department of the ; company and that Jesse Scheinman, the effi-:	cient treasurer, will become the business
I manager of the organization. No such i change has ever been contemplated. Clark Shaw remains as business manager, taking charge also of the road tour of the com-J pany; and as previously announced, George lllilfir T. Hood, who has already begun his duties as assistant business manager, will be the only new associate that Mr. Shaw and the Chicago Civic Opera executives have added to _ the business department of the company. At this writing many artists already have been reengaged. Their names are known to the writer, but in justice to others whose contracts will not be renewed until next week, and as President Insull will issue to the press for next Saturday or Sunday, January 20 or 21, the complete list of artists reengaged, no names will be mentioned at the present time. Be it said, however, that the favorites will return, the present personnel of the company being retained practically in_ its entirety with the exception of two or three of the principals who will not be reengaged. Singers who were given small roles may in one or two cases be advanced to more prominent positions next season and others replaced by singers ™ore routined. A well known Belgian tenor will in all probability be added to the roster and more German and French operas will be produced next season.	Rene Devries.
Apeda Photo	BARBARA MAUREL,
an American mezzo-soprano, known on both sides of the Atlantic. Miss Manvel began her career here as a member of the Boston Opera Company and later sang extensively in concert throughout the country. Last summer she spent in France and England, giving, quite unheralded, a recital in London which brought her notable praise from the leading critics of the English capital. Her New York recital in November also attracted most favorable notice, the critics especially praising her artistic work as an interpreter of modern French songs. Her rich, warm mezzo-soprano voice is controlled by a thoroughly developed vocal technic and guided by unusual musical intelligence.
always be on view for those who love good violins and I shall see that they are not allowed to dèteriorate from disuse,
What the Collection Contains.
“Here is a list that is not quite complete, but includes all the best instruments—and I may say that there is not one single poor specimen in the whole collection. Every maker is represented by his best work. The complete list of instruments in the collection is as follows:
Violins—Stradivarius (3), Niccolo Amati, Bergonzi, Tononi, Orbiti, Guarneri (f. Andreas), Guadagnini (L.), Montagna, Gagliano (3), Guarnieri, Grancino, Landolfi, Gobetti, Vuillame (3), Bursan; Violas—Gagliano and Storioni; Cellos—Stradivarius, Guadagnini, Testore.
The writer rose to go. “As far as I know, Mr. Zim-balist, you are the first violinist ever to make a large collection of his favorite instrument. Isn’t that so?”
“I think you are right. Some of them have owned per-
Efrem Zimbalist, violinist, played last spring in Japan, China and the Philippines. Sitting in the beautiful combination living room and studio of his New York house one day last week, he told of it.
“Never have I had a more interesting experience than my Eastern tour,” said he, “especially the trip in Japan. I played eight times in Tokyo, twice each in Yokohama, Kioto, Nagoya and Osaka, and once each in Okayama and Hakata. In Tokyo the concert hall was the Imperial Theater, which seats about 2,000, and every seat was filled for all the eight recitals. Never have I had more interested and attentive audiences and I was surprised to find that they wanted the most serious things in violin literature. By request I played both the Kreutzer Sonata and the Bach Chacconne several times during the eight programs and they were the favorite numbers.
“In Okayama and Hakata, two of the more remote cities, they had never heard an Occidental violinist before. There were no concert halls with platforms and seats of course, so the audience all sat on the floor. You can imagine how interesting that was for me! And in those cities there were no hotels in the European style, so we had to sleep on mats, as the Chinese do. The large cities, however, all have fine hotels, which are kept as scrupulously clean as everything else in that country.
Japan is certainly the cleanest land in every way I have ever seen and also as beautiful as any country I know. Some of the scenery is exquisite and I shall be very glad to go back there and play again.
“China was having a civil war—as _ it still is, I believe, so I was unable to give the concert scheduled for Pekin and Tien-Tsien, but I played at Shanghai and Hong-Kong.
“And how was it in our own country, at Manila?”
“Oh, my recitals were very satisfactory, but I shouldn’t select Manila for my home town. The cigars are excellent, but it is too hot for comfort, and we had a typhoon while I was there that was not my idea of either comfort or safety in the way of weather. I must say I prefer Fisher’s Island to the Philippine Islands. We went up there to our summer home as soon as I got back from the East.
“The best fun I have there is tuna fishing off Block Island. That’s some excitement ! I landed a twenty-six pound one with rod and reel this summer and fought twenty-five minutes to get him up to the boat. The biggest one I ever got weighed fifty-six pounds. Luckily we got him on the trail rope, for I should have hated to try to land anything as big as that with a rod. The only trouble with the Block Island tuna fishing is the sharks. Often enough, before you get a tuna alongside you find there is nothing but the head left. The sharks are about in shoals and take the rest of him in one bite while he is fast on the line and can’t escape them.
“You played in Germany this Fall didn’t you?”
“Yes, for the first time in ten years and I was delighted to find that they hadn’t forgotten me. I gave recitals in Berlin,
Leipsic, Frankfort, Hamburg and Cologne, and everywhere splendidly received. But that wasn’t all that happened on my German trip.”
“Well, what did happen then?’
“I purchased a collection of old violins—־ almost all Italian—splendid violins; I don’t think it is too much to say that it is the finest private collection ever assembled.”
“That’s quite a bit of news. Mr. Zimbalist. The Musical Courier has heard no hint of it.”
“No, I have told only a very few friends.
This is the first public news of it I have given out.
“Thank you. The Musical Courier will be very glad to print the story. Did you go to Germany with the express intention of acquiring the collection?”
Discovered Collection by Accident.
“Not at all. In fact, I had no idea of purchasing even a single violin until one of my friends among the Berlin dealers came to me and told me that a certain famous firm of violin dealers in England seemed to be out to buy up every old and valuable violin in the German market. So I thought to myself ‘If they, why not I?’ I always loved fine violins and here seemed an opportunity to acquire some fine ones at much better prices than one would have to pay after they had come on the market, for every instrument in my collection was acquired from a private owner, most of them coming from four separate private collections. So 1 commissioned several dealers to purchase for me and in a short