MUSICAL COURIER
14
January 18, 1923
was his final number, and the audience was so enthusiastic in its applause that he played Mighty Lak’ a Rose and Mother Machree as encores. He added ־n inspirational part to a balanced program.”
To quote the Youngstown Telegram: “Max Gegna, cellist, was the assisting soloist. He played a largo by Eccles, Golterman’s cantilena, a serenade by Drigo, a Haydn minuet, Savoyard’s Shepherd Boy, and a rhapsody by Popper. . . . Mr. Gegna played with pleasing tone and good fingering.” And the Youngstown Daily Vindicator felt that “Mr. Gegna is at his best in legato passages.”
Mr. Gegna was very enthusiastic about his trip and said that he enjoyed himself immensely, voting Miss Garden a most delightful traveling companion. Mr. Gegna toured with Mme. Tetrazzini during her last season here.
On February 21, the cellist will be heard in recital at Reading, Pa., this being a re-engagement for the fourth year. He was recently called upon to demonstrate the merits of the Virzi tone producer at Carnegie Hall, New York, his audience numbering such celebrities as Jascha Heifetz, Albert Spalding, Adolfo Betti, Willy van Hoog-straaten and Arturo Bonucci.
Jules Falk, an Interesting Violinist
Jules Falk began the study of the violin at the age of seven. At six he expressed three wishes: firstly, for the opportunity to study with great masters (Ysaye, Sevcik and Hille were his teachers), secondly, to possess a Stradi-varius violin (the “Falk Stradivarius” is now renowned) and the third wish may soon be realized. Falk was born
JULES FALK
on the seventh day of the seventh month at seven in the morning, the seventh child of his parents, and he ascribes ninety per cent, of the rooms bearing the number seven or a multiple of seven, voluntarily assigned him at hotels while on tour, to the mysticism surrounding the numeral under which he was born. His diary discloses Friday as the day on which important matters are usually undertaken.
Tours of the United States have taken Falk to every State in the Union, often necessitating as much as 20,000 miles of travel in a season, for his services are sought by the foremost organizations. He will return to Mexico for a tour during February and March and will play in Denmark and Sweden during the early fall, later filling winter engagements in the States. He is devoting time to teaching several gifted pupils, among them a prodigy of six who will be heard from later. Falk’s collection of violins comprises rare masterpieces by Antonius Stradivarius 1723, Joseph Guarnerius filius Andrae 1710, Carlo Bergonzi 1741, Joannes Baptiste Guadagnini 1726, Ferdinando Alberti 1756, Paolo Antonio Testore 1736 and a Vuillaume.
Deeks and Thomas in Joint Recital
Clara Deeks and John Charles Thomas are very popular as joint recitalists. They were engaged to sing in Newark on January 7 and at Aeolian Hall on January 11 (for the benefit of the Reconstruction Hospital). They will appear in Baltimore on January 22, and in Brooklyn on March 2.
These two artists, with Alberto Salvi, were the attractions at the Biltmore Musicale Friday morning, January 5, where they had a warm reception.
One Month’s Engagement List for Middleton
From a typical list of Arthur Middleton engagements for one month the popularity of this American baritone is made evident. This month the artist is singing in Fresno, Oakland, San Francisco (with the Symphony) and San Rafael, Cal.; Medford, Ore.; Tacoma, Everett, Pullman, Wash.; Lewiston, Mont.; Greeley and Grand Junction, Colo.; Houston, Port Arthur, and Dallas, Tex., and two other places in the Lone Star State not announced as yet.
butterfly and tambourine dances, dagger dance, skip-rope dance, polonaise, etc.
Mr. Emery has engaged C. Hassler Capron of Boston to give the special lighting which the various scenes demand, and Clara I. Austin to direct the dancing of the principals and chorus. Little Agnes Dailey, one of Mrs. Austin’s best juvenile pupils, has been engaged as solo dancer, and she will appear, not as an “extra,” but as Kowska, a legitimate part of the plot. It was this same little Agnes who first danced to Mr. Emery’s Little Toe Dancer, one of those miniature piano compositions so well known among teachers.
Runaway Tom is to be published this spring and undoubtedly will fill a need among boy choirs throughout the country.
Gegna Returns from Tour with Mary Garden
Max Gegna recently returned to New York, after a brief concert tour with Mary Garden, which included Bloomington, 111; Cincinnati, Akron and Youngstown, Ohio; Lexing-
Л1ЛХ GEGNA,
who recently returned from a tour with Mary Garden.
ton,	Ky.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Springfield, Mass.; Lynchburg, Va., etc. His work pleased wherever he went, to judge from the comments which appeared in the various newspapers.
“Artistically the honors of the evening went to Mr. Gegna,” declared the Springfield Union. “Max Gegna, cellist, was delightful. He drew a large, beautifully modulated tone from his instrument, and his last number, a rhapsody by Popper, was given a delightful reading. He,
too,	was wise in his encores, playing superlatively well Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Chanson Indoue, the beloved Humoresque and Mighty Lak’ a Rose. He also played the obligatos for several of Miss .Garden’s songs, making the hackneyed Berceuse from Jocelyn especially pleasing.”
The Springfield Daily Republican, in speaking of Le Nil of Leroux, said: “It has, too, an exceptionally good cello obligato which Mr. Gegna played with feeling and a true singing style.” The same paper also stated that “The pleasure of; the concert was increased by the melodious playing of Mr. Gegna,” remarking about his “broad, singing style and a full warm tone. . . His closing number was the brilliant Hungarian rhapsody of Popper, in which he did some excellent playing.”
In the words of the Lynchburg News, “Max Gegna, cellist, shared the program and the applause. . . . The cellist reached the climax of his program in a rhapsody which
Emery’s Runaway Tom to be Produced
Moritz Emery, composer-pianist, best known through his unique Fifty-Minute Recitals, has not. been heard yet this season in that capacity, owing to his giving his entire time to Reaching and composing. Mr. Emery’s aim, in whatever he undertakes, is to fill a need, and now he is preparing to produce his latest composition, Runaway Tom, the* Choir Boys’ Operetta. The plot, dialogues, etc., as
Photo by William Shewell Ellis
MORITZ EMERY
well as the music, are his, and will be presented by his choir of boys and men and a few friends on February 2 and 3 at the Little Theater, Philadelphia.
The operetta is in four acts, and the situations as well as the songs are so designed that they are easily conceived and ably interpreted by the young choristers.
All of the scenes and songs are short, in order that (as the Fifty-Minute Recital announcements read) “the public may enjoy a large variety of numbers in a very short space pf time.”
The characters are strongly contrasted and are many in number, so that as many as possible of the performers may have some individual part. An added interest in the whole production is thus given to both performers and hearers.
The characters include Aunt Eliza, Pete, Admiral, Bishop, Jane, Mayor, Cupid, Father Time, Slim Jim, etc., also
Management of
Luella Meluis
14*25 Broadway-New York
DE LUCA
Baritone of the Metropolitan Opera Co.
Available for concerts from April 26 to June 1, 1923 also from October 1 to November 5
Management: R. E. JOHNSTON L. G. Bretd and Paul Longone—Associates 1451 Broadway, New York, N. Y.
(Knabe Piano)
(Victor Records)
THE INTERNATIONAL SOPRANO
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