8
January 2 5-, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
ho- 4 (Haydn), and quartet in A minor, op. 51, No. 2 (Brahms). The Flonzaleys have been heard here in programs of greater variety and interest. The quartet of Novak is conventional, well written music, generally agreeable hut by no means of significant import. The charming smooth-flowing measures of Haydn were a welcome relief. Mr. Betti and his confrères have added to their familiar virtues a virility which makes their playing pleasurable and convincing. A good-sized audience welcomed them back to Boston. Their next concert in this city will take place Wednesday evening, February 14, in Jordan Hall.
Dupre Soloist at Symphony.
Marcel Dupré, French organist, made his first appearance in Boston Friday afternoon and Saturday evening, January 12 and 13, when he was heard as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall. Mr. Dupré handicapped himself needlessly by his choice of pieces. He played Bach’s concerto in D minor for or״an and strings, a long and relatively dull composition, and Wallace Goodrich’s excellent arrangement for organ and orchestra of the Cesar Franck B minor choral, neither piece giving the soloist much opportunity for individual display of his genius. However, there was ample evidence in his performance to show the complete mastery of his instrument. He was warmly received.
The program opened with Beethoven’s eighth symphony, which is generally regarded as inferior to the others, and closed with Liszt’s dramatic symphonic poem, Les Preludes. Between these pieces came the stirring prelude to Parsifal. The Wagnerian number was played with tonal beauty.
Ebell and Pupils in Concert
The high standards of the Boston Conservatory of Music were notably exemplified in Jordan Hall Thursday evening, January 11, at a concert of pianoforte music by Hans Ebell, director of the piano department of the conservatory, and three artist pupils, Marguerite Morgan, Leon Tumarkin and Frank Ramseyer. The program was	an interesting one, including the first per-
formance in Boston of Godowsky’s contrapuntal paraphrase on Weber’s Invitation to the Dance, for two pianofortes, effectively played by Miss Morgan, Mr. Tumarkin and Mr. Ramseyer. Miss Morgan was also heard in preludes and fugues from the Well Tempered Clavichord of Bach, Ravel’s Ondine and Chopin’s scherzo, op. 39. Mr. Tumarkin played preludes and fugues in A flat major from Book I of the Well Tempered Clavichord, a nocturne, op. 27, No. 2, and an etude op. 25, No. 2 of Chopin and Scriabin’s etude op. 8,^ No. 12. Mr. Ramseyer played prelude and fugue in G major, book I, Well Tempered Clavichord, Liszt’s Sonetto 123 del Petrarca and Debussy’s Jardin sous la pluie. Mr. Ebell himself contributed a scholarly performance of Brahms’ sonata op. 5, and for a brilliant closing number, Liszt’s concert etude in A flat major.
Children’s Concerts at Symphony Hall
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, January 16 and 18, in Symphony Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave (Continued on Page 48).
BOSTON TURNS OUT EN MASSE TO
SEE THE POPULAR DENISHAWN DANCERS
John Powell a Favorite—Louise Homer and Daughter Please—Flonzaleys Open Boston Season—Dupre Heard-
Other News
noon, January 14, in Symphony Hall. Mme. Homer sang old arias of Gluck and Bach and pieces by Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Chadwick, Deis and Homer. Mme. Stires sang an aria. from Handel’s Messiah, Strauss’ displayful Voci di Primavera, and pieces by Homer, Brahms, Hadley and Carpenter. Together they were heard in duets from Mozart, Brahms, Tosti, Chausson and Blangini.
The years have hardly impaired the beauty and power of Mme. Homer’s voice, while her skill and experience combine to make her a singer whose work always satisfies. Of her daughter, the charming Mrs. Stires, it may be said that she has improved since her last appearance here. The
RAYMOND SIMONDS
voice is fresh and generally agreeable. In songs of archness like the winsome, Don’t Ceare, she sings prettily and wins her hearers.
Flonzaleys Open Boston Season The Flonzaley Quartet gave the first of its series of three Boston concerts Thursday evening, January 18, in Jordan Hall. These compositions were played: quartet in G minor, op. 22 (Novak) ; quartet in B flat major, op. 76,
Boston, January 21.—Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and the Denishawn Dancers came to the Boston Oper- House Wednesday evening, January 17, for a single performance. The house was filled from pit to dome and many were turned away. The dancers were seen in “visualizations” of music from Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Mana-Zucca; Spanish dances with music by Granados, Jonas and Moszkowski; a garden scene to music by Levitzki, Bond and Moszkowski; Xochitl, a Toltec dance drama; and in versions of Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Egyptian, Javanese, Siamese and other Oriental dances.
The performance was an unusually entertaining one. Miss St. Denis and Mr. Shawn, who are well remembered here, have added to their abilities during their long absence from Boston. The dances were all well conceived and beautifully executed. The costumes used by the principals and their supporting company were gorgeous, the scenery startling though appropriate, and the lighting effects admirable. The performance moved with a snap which reduced waits between scenes to a minimum, indicating efficient management. Perhaps the most effective numbers were the “visualization” in which graceful ,young ladies danced to the Schumann music, the Spanish suite for Miss St. Denis and Mr. Shawn and most of the Oriental dances.
The huge audience was very enthusiastic throughout the evening, Miss _ St. Denis and Mr. Shawn being recalled again and again. Music was furnished by a quartet and the Ampico, under the general direction of Louis Horst.
John Powell in Recital
John Powell, pianist, gave a recital here Saturday afternoon, January 13, in Jordan Hall. His program included these pieces: sonata, op. 53 (Beethoven) ; nocturne, C sharp minor, scherzo, C sharp minor, polonaise, A flat major (Chopin) ; Three Country Dances (Beethoven-Seiss) ; The Banjo Picker, from At the Fair (Powell), Turkey in the Straw (David Guion), Slumber Song and Rhapsodie Hongroise, No. 13 (Liszt).
Mr. Powell won a brilliant success with the symphony here a few weeks ago and his recital was eagerly anticipated by a rapidly growing number of local followers. His playing impressed again through its tonal beauty, infectious rhythm and superior musicianship. He gave a splendid performance of the Waldstein sonata and a brilliant reading of the thirteenth rhapsody. Turkey in the Straw and the Banjo Picker were played sympathetically and had to be repeated. Mr. Powell was vigorously applauded throughout the recital.
Homers Give Concert
Louise Homer, contralto, and her daughter, Louise Homer Stires, soprano, joined forces for a concert Sunday after-
ALCOCK
MERLE
and artistically they made anything done by Farrar, or by Galli-Curci for that matter, in their concerts here seem quite colorless. Genuine contralto quality that comes not from the possession of deep lower tone contrasting sharply with the higher ones but from a range, every tone of which is closely akin in character to every other. This superb voice Miss Alcock uses with an art so skillful as largely to conceal itself, and with a delightful sureness of expression.—H. A. Bellows, Minneapolis News, November 22, 1922.
A contralto voice of pure timbre which has that quality beyond all—human appeal.—Minneapolis Star.
Mme. Alcock came to Louisville a stranger to :arry for a night, but she left in the minds of several hundred music lovers a grateful memory which augurs her future welcome.—A. L., Louisville Her-ild, November 29, 1922.


The businessmen of Fargo last evening presented Merle Alcock, contralto, in song recital for the North Dakota State Teachers’ Association. The singer was greeted by a large audience, which applauded her frequently and vigorously, and she responded by singing encores to every group. At one stage of the recital Dean Vernon P. Squires of the University of North Dakota called upon the audience to give her a rising tribute, and they all stood and cheered till the singer came forward and spoke a brief word of thanks. It was a scene seldom enacted in a concert hall. . . .She reached real imaginative heights in her singing of the simple old-heart melody, “Nellie Gray,” giving to that old song a new beauty.—Fargo Forum, November 25, 1922.
Merle Alcock has not only a splendid voice of great scope and sensitive beauty, but she is beautiful, she is charming, she is all that an American singer should be, with no flare for the exotic of the alien or the temperamental. Many must come before she will be disturbed in our heart as the perfect singer. She sang marvelously the Saint-Saëns'
“My Heart at They Sweet Voice,” a beautiful memory.—James G. Thurber, Columbus Dispatch,
January 13, 1923.
The phenomenal violin playing of Toscha Seidel blended with Merle Alcock’s radiant contralto last night in one of the most delightful concerts yet sponsored by the Women’s Music Club. Merle Alcock we nominate for grand opera. Her singing of “My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice” eclipses that of any of the operatic contraltos, who have sung this great French classic here. The high B flat at the climax, shunned even by Matzenauer, she essayed with no hesitation and poured it forth in thrilling style. In fact her greatest vocal asset is a remarkably wide range. The singer was gowned in blue and silver and with her jet black hair and creole type of beauty presented an entrancing stage picture.—Nelson H. Budd, Ohio State Journal,
Columbus, January 13, 1923.
Miss Alcock proved herself the possessor of the most perfect instrument yet heard this season in song.—Victor Nilsson, Minneapolis Journal, November 22, 1922.
Throughout its range there is not an unpleasant tone in the voice. The singer had valuable assistance from her accompanist, Edgar Nelson.—James Davies, Minneapolis Tribune, November 22, 1922.
Merle Alcock’s first five songs were superb; they were by Haydn, Franz, Schubert, Strauss and Chausson, and they were beautifully sung. Vocally
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