... January IS, 1923 his audience. The. delicate gradation of tone, and the exquisitely limpid color of his voice, whether in pianissimo or fortissimo passages, was an artistic treat, and his evident sympathetic understanding of the music, and fine, clear enun'aation, impressed one again with the real greatness of his art. ״MissDeeks displayed an agreeable voice and style, and _ r־ . ir^־z P/ayed with sonorous tone, flowing technic and good intonation. There was a large audience and hearty applause. William Janaushek played the accompaniments with understanding. . The Tribune says of Mr. Thomas : “His voice was full, rich and expressive.” The American speaks of his “splendid voice and intelligent interpretation.” FRIDAY, JANUARY 12 MARGUERITE MELVILLE-LISZNIEWSKA MUSICAL COURIER including the concert valse dedicated to his co-worker. Mr Berumen is a thoroughly sincere artist, who has much to offer. Last year his technical precision and clarity impressed one, but this year added to that is warmth of color and he has a more sympathetic attitude. His phrasing and regard for detail, his feeling for rhythm and a beautiful singing tone are all to be commended. His modest bearing was pleasing to his^ audience and he was recalled many times. _ A large audience evidenced its enjoyment and appreciation. The following review appeared in the American: “Mr. Berumen brought to his performance technical fluency precision and clarity. There was more verve in his playing, too, than he has always disclosed in the past, though his meticulous attention to details of execution tended to break up the broader musical rhythms and lines, creating the effect, as it were; of shortness of breath.” The Herald critic remarked that Mr. Berumen “infused color and warmth into his themes and he played with much style and good taste.” THURSDAY, JANUARY 11 40 NEW YORK CONCERTS (Continued from page 32) the gyrations of the flute and those of Miss Hempel. It was extremely easy to do so, as a matter of fact, for Miss Hempel sang square in the middle of the pitch, whereas the first flute was a trifle sharp. ¥־iss. Hempel sang the Irish songs with a feeling for their simplicity and their inner meaning, that may have proved the folk songs of all nations are kin. Monday, Tuesday, was especially liked and even the rather dreary Minstrel Boy made a most acceptable number. After finishing her program with a bravura singing of the Voce , i Pr'mavera, she added, among the four encores, nothing less than the Blue Danube perhaps just to prove how fresh her voice was at the end of a long program. The. house was filled—and the house was filled with enthusiasm. Had she listened to the applause, Miss Hempel might have given twice as many encores as she did, but there are limits to human possibilities and there are limits as to what an audience, however friendly, has a right to demand from so great an artist. Marguerite Melville-Liszniewska, who used to be one of the late Theodore Leschetizky’s assistants, and is now head of the piano department of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, came to town on Friday evening, January 12, and gave a recital at the Town Hall. Her program reminded one of Vienna. It began with the Godowsky arrangement of a Rameau Sarabande went on with the Schumann b sharp minor sonata, op. 11, and proceeded through a group of Brahms to an interesting final group, consisting of Variations and Fugue (Paderewski), Pavane pour une infante defunte (Ravel), La Serenade Interrompue (De-bussy), scherzo (Edwin Grasse), Prelude No. 1 (Albeniz) and Scherzo-Valse (Chabrier). Mme. Liszniewska’s playing shows in what a thorough school of music she was educated. It is built on big, broad hues, as her program indicates. Technic she has in plenty but one does not think of it. It is the finished, logical’ musician-like interpretation of everything she does that impresses. The Schumann sonata was splendidly played from start to finish. There was special charm and beauty in the scherzo and intermezzo. Mme. Liszniewska does not soften Brahms; she shows all the joints and angles of his piano music in all their roughness, and lights up their occa-sional lyric passages with beautiful legato playing. The Brahms included the seldom heard Edward Ballad, and the pianist had the happy thought of having the poem printed and inserted as a leaflet in the program that the audience might understand the mood of the ballad. In the final group, Debussy’s La Serenade Interrompue was done with real humor, and the final Scherzo-Valse, by Chabrier with true virtuosity. The scherzo, by Edwin Grasse, the American composer, is a charming bit of work in miniature form. Her audience enjoyed her playing immensely and insisted upon a number of encores, the (pleasantest of which was an exquisite delineation of the evanescent beauties of Schumann’s Der Vogel als Prophet. JOSEF HOFMANN Josef Hofmann, pianist extraordinary in many ways is also extraordinary in his programs. He builds them rather short nowadays so that with the between-group encores they do not last more than an hour and a half. And then at the end, when the great storm of applause begins, he comes in and plays what is really another group. Last Saturday afternoon at Carnegie Hall this final group was made up of the familiar Moszkowski Spanish number, the Rubin-stem Melody (with uncanny use of the alternate melody thumbs) and the best known of the Liszt rhapsodies. Now things like the Moszkowski piece and a whole rhapsody are not exactly encores. The applause still kept on and finally J. H. came out for a really final encore, though the lights had been turned down long before that. He began his program with the Brahms B minor sonata, played then a Scarlatti capriccio and pastorale, the eighth’ Schumann Novellette, the Hammerklavier sonata, Debussy’s Soiree de Granade, a Mozart G major Gigue and the Godow- Maestro A. SEISMIT-DODA The successful exponent of sA w««* -aoth —Z—Z— the real lta,ian vocal method 54 West 39th Street, New York Phone 4045 Fltz Roy Ruyal Ac^emy of St, Cecilia of Rome, Italy; formerly of the faculty vocal and coaching department National Conservatory of Music of New York, and of New York German Conservatory of Music. Chevalier of the Crown of Italy.) an HAROLD HURLBUT TENOR - DE RESZKE DISCIPLE 319 WEST NINETY-FIFTH ST. RIVERSIDE 4650 NYIREGYHAZI (Pronounced NEAR-ECH-HAH2I) ‘‘A POET OF THE PIANO”—IÄ״ica״ L C. IÆSdT?aNu, Lon gone Knabe Plano Used Ample Racords WOLDEMAR SCHNEE (of Berlin) Hand Specialist Hand-Training for Better Technique Treatment of “Overplayed” Hands (Recommended by■ Busoni, Joachim, Safonoff Breit-Ä Clarence Adler, Joseph Lhevinne, Ernest Schellmg, Oliver Denton, etc., etc.) NOW IN NEW YORK For Consultations Address : 137 West 86th Street NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: MYRA HESS, SOLOIST There was a novelty on the program of the Philharmonic Society by a young American composer and journalist who is gradually becoming very well known and very universally admired. His name is Deems Taylor. He was born in New York City in 1885 and educated in New York. He has been successively on the editorial staff of the Nelson Encyclopaedia, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Western Electric News, the New York Tribune and Collier’s Weekly and is now music critic of the New York World. His new composition (which is not new but was written in 1912 and won the prize in a competition of the National Federation of Music Clubs in that year) is entitled The Siren Song. This is what Mr. Taylor himself has to say about it in his regular critical column in the World: “The piece takes its name from a poem by Joseph Tiers, Jr.—too long to quote here—that recounts how the mariners at sea hear the siren’s song rising from the gray depths and lose their souls. If one resents her spell he reaches safety and the sunlight again only to be haunted forever by her voice. “As George Bernard Shaw pointed out in the preface of The Irrational Knot, human beings are entirely renewed every seven years, so that an author may properly treat a twenty-year-old novel of his own as the work of a stranger. Such being the case, perhaps a reviewer may be similarly distant towards his own eleven-year-old symphonic poem. So far as we are concerned, The Siren Song is virtually a posthumous work written by a young man whom we imperfectly—if fondly—remember. “We thought it a promising work with a certain freshness of feeling and a disarming simplicity of utterance that partly atoned for its lack of well-defined individuality. It followed the program with clarity and a degree of dramatic effectiveness, although the music did not seem to reach very far beneath the surface of the subtle and rather neurotic poem whose mood it aimed to express. “The thematic material is,, on the whole, good and offers possibilities for development, of which the composer has not always availed himself. The middle section, the Siren theme, was best handled and had flashes of real beauty, and a martial section that followed had vigor and good rhythm. “Structurally the piece is a little naive. The development is neither elaborate nor particularly skillful, for the transitions are not always smooth, and some of the joints gape alarmingly. The spirit of Wagner hovers undeniably over much of the work. We could trace no direct Wagnerian reminiscences, but much of the scoring, as well as the treatment of the themes, showed the hand of Wagner. . “The orchestration was fairly good. There were occasional passages whose effect was probably somewhat different from what the composer had intended, but on the whole the instrumentation, if not brilliant, was sound. “Mr. Hadley and the orchestra gave the new work a colorful and spirited performance that helped it greatly. On the whole, The Siren Song interested us. We should like to hear more works by the same composer.” The Musical Courier is in hearty accord with this last paragraph, but does not agree with all the rest of Mr. Taylor’s estimate of his own composition. He does not do it justice. He understates the case. This is, in fact, technically one of the smoothest American works that it has been our pleasure to hear, and the middle section is really and .honestly beautiful. What the work lacks as a whole is “punch,” and in these modernistic times it seems a little dry (no play on words intended) but it is a fine work and a credit to the American school as well as the composer. It Js not fair to the newspapers, with their limited space, to give programs with so much on them that ought to have extended mention all at the same time. Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto as played by Myra Hess deserves a great deal more attention than it is now possible. to give it. It was in every way a notable performance, poetic and brilliant in turn, played with beautiful sonority and technical clarity. Miss Hess was .warmly greeted. Also Mr. . Hadley’s conducting of these numbers and of the balance of the program should have more praise than can be given it in this limited space. He gave excellent readings, of the ,works already enumerated and of the overture to Humperdinck’s Konigskinder, The Animals’ Car-neval by Saint-Saëns, and Strauss’s Don Juan. JOHN CHARLES THOMAS John Charles Thomas, baritone, gave a recital at Aeolian Hall on January 11, assisted by Clara Deeks, soprano, and Bart Wirtz. cellist, for the benefit of ■the Building Fund of the Reconstruction Hospital, 100th street and Central Park West. Mr. Thomas sang a group of French songs and a_ group of English songs, including Leoni’s Tally Ho, which is one of his greatest successes; a Nocturne by Peral Curran, written for and dedicated to Mr. Thomas, and the famous Danny Deever by Walter Damrosch. The ever popular American baritone was warmly welcomed at his first appearance on the stage, and his singing aroused great enthusiasm. His ripe interpretative powers showed themselves in everything that he did, and his personal magnetism and pleasing stage presence delighted WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10 TOM WILLIAMS On January 10 a recital was given at the Town Hall by lom Williams, baritone. His program was one of great variety and interest, including numbers by Strauss, Cossart, Hugo Wolf and various other French, German, English and Italian composers. He sang Chausson’s La Caravane, and the tull tones of his splendid voice and perfect enunciation brought forth enthusiastic applause from the' large audience. The delicate beauty of Rhene-Baton’s Berceuse was particularly suited to his voice and was also well received by his hearers. Special mention must be made of Gossart s Das Meerershahlc im Sonnenschein, sung for the first time in a New York concert, and also a most delightful and interesting selection, Beyond Rathkelly, by H O Osgood. Mr. Williams deserves much commendation, not only for the excellence of his performance, but also for the splendid personality that charmed those who were privileged to hear him sing. Justin Williams at the piano was a worthy associate. ERNESTO BERUMEN Those who go to the annual recitals of Ernesto Berumen (of the LaForge-Berumen studios) at Aeolian Hall have come to know that they will always hear an interesting program of unhackneyed numbers rendered in musicianly style, for it has been, this young Mexican pianist’s aim in the past five or six years to present works that are not very familiar. His programs show the result of conscientious work and of thought in preparation, the one on January 10 being no exception in this respect. Beginning with Handel’s chaconne with variations, he included on his list his own revision of a Haydn minuet and a Beethoven dance, Ballet of the Happy Shades (Gliick-Friedman), a ballade of two Mexican themes, two Mexican folk songs (one arranged by LaForge and dedicated to Mr. Berumen), seldom heard pieces by Granados, Cyril Scott, Debussy, MacDowell and Hugo Kaun, Grainger s Chanty and two LaForge numbers, James HINCHLIFF Baritone Artist-pupil of HAROLD HURLBUT (de Reszke Disciple) 317 West 95th St., N. Y. Riverside 4650 Mrs. Cornelia Colfon Hollister Dramatic Soprano Si1«?1; °l Dreams.” Successfully presented Where ?”Sl