18
February 1, 1923
a player piano record furnished by Richard Strauss, with the composer-pianist gracefully and smilingly leaning against the instrument, and, at the close, directing all applause towards the wooden virtuoso. Personally, I do not share the public resentment against such “stunts,” especially when, as in this case, the proceeds go to charity. It may be advisable, perhaps, to choose a more suitable locality for them, but I do not object to a good joke. In the present instance, however, the joke was far from good, and, aside from any fault one might have found with the proceedings themselves, the whole affair was “langweilig” to an appalling degree.
Speaking of freaks, Tenor Tauber, who was one of the participants in this so-called entertainment, acted as his own accompanist to songs of his own, and the best thing one might say for them is that they were well suited to
MUSICAL COURIER
VIENNA REVIVAL OF HAENSEL UND GRETEL
A FINE STRAUSS CHRISTMAS PARTY
Vienna Opera, After Finance Reform, Reduces Prices—A Bad Viennese Joke—New Music for Piano, Violin and Piano Heard—Wiillner Returns—Dancer’s Beauty and Horror Excites the Viennese
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A CLEVER CARTOON OF RICHARD MAYR, star bass of the Vienna Staatsoper and Lieder singer.
He was a principal singer at the Salzburg Festival and has regularly sung at Bayreuth. Drawn by Arthur Stadler, Vienna. (From Musikalischer Kurier, Vienna.)
the occasion. Tauber, talented and musical as he is, is a sad example of the flippancy now prevalent among our artists. Let them make money, by all means, but let them not lose all sense of dignity! Money is, after all, the one thing that counts here nowadays, even in music. It has enabled a lady named Grete Dflucker, the wife of a prominent banker, to engage a Felix Weingartner ״s orchestral leader for her vocal antics, presented to an overflowing house consisting almost exclusively of millionaires—and of critics who showed enthusiasm. And again money enabled a young and justly unknown composer named Richard Schwarz to get the Gottesmann Quartet to produce his string quartet in B flat major. But, conservative as this new Republic of ours is in its regard for society and aristocracy, high birth sometimes helps and is as much of an asset as money. A Baron Pereira, heretofore known, to some at least, as a former high military official, suddenly discovered his ambitions as a composer, and the result was a “Composition Concert,” the more splendid part of which took place in the audience. It was a most luxurious affair somewhat on the order of a court ball. Yes, there was some music too, and also a long printed program which made allusion to Moussorgsky as “also having been a cavalry officer.” This, however, was the only similarity discernible between Moussorgsky and his ambitious “colleague,”• August Amadé, alias Baron Pereira.
Son of Liszt.
Some freakishness, though on a more legitimate plane, is conspicuous in the work of Paul de Conne, who counts among the the more prominent members of the local pianistic fraternity. ^ Some claim that he must have dropped an “h ’ from his name somewhere, though he is a Russian by birth, and he himself claims (with what accuracy no one has been able to ascertain) that his father was no less, a person than Franz Liszt. At any rate, it is the style of his^ celebrated would-be father that de Gonne has adopted both in appearance and manner; and in his programs he prefers the brilliant element. His recent performance of the piano concerto in B flat by Sergei Bortkiewicz there-fore provided a welcome diversion for the admirers of his pianistic abilities. This is a decidedly “Frenchy” piece, half-way between César Franck and Debussy, and he played it with a vengeance.
Another piano concerto new to Vienna, though the newly-arranged opus 1 of its distinguished author, was the highly effective one in F sharp minor by Rachmaninoff, which Leo Sirota, the Polish _ pianist resident in Vienna, played with great success. This was the one redeeming feature of an orchestral concert intended for the re-entrée of Vaclav Talich from Prague who had recently made a splendid impression as visiting conductor with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from Prague. At the first rehearsal, however, Talich decided that it was impossible for him to work with a crowd of Ersatz players which the Vienna Symphony Orchestra had delegated for the occasion, and he fled m disgust, relinquishing his place to a less exacting local conductor who was more accustomed to the peculiar methods practised by our orchestral organizations. The anarchy prevailing with the members of the Vienna orchestras is undoubtedly a grave danger to the reputation of this musical metropolis. Vienna’s orchestral players prefer playing in 'cafés to interpreting Beethoven, just as our singers prefer music hall engagements to their regular work at the Staatsoper. Money talks. .	.
Violin and Cello Novelties.
Speaking of pluck : Mary Dickenson-Auner, the Irish violinist who sponsored Béla Bartok’s now famous violin sonata at its very first performance here last spring, made another bold bid for musical progress with her last recital
(Continued on page 51)
part in that memorable première. She was present again this time, watching the performance from the Strauss directoral box and, with her customary temperamental display, accompanying it with visible (and audible) hilarity. (Bella Alten, by the way, familiar to Metropolitanites from the portrayal of Gretel, and now relegated to complete obscurity at the Staatsoper, was close by.)
On the whole, the performance was a sort of a Strauss jubilee, and Strauss went through it with heart and soul, though, as is his custom, he had stepped in to conduct it only at the last rehearsal, and after all preparatory work had been done by another one of the Staatsoper’s conductors. There was a spirit about the production which made it little short of an event. The new scenery, by Roller, was fanciful and lovely, the orchestra covered itself with laurels, and the stage management (done by Woldemar Runge, the new man) proved excellent. Elisabeth Schumann was a sprightly Gretel, Anday better than usual as Hansel ; the piece de _ resistance of the performance, and a piquant little sensation by itself was the appearance of Marie Gutheil-Schoder, the Staatsoper’s famous Rosen-kavalier and Salome, in the part of the Witch, which received a new and surprising significance at her hands. Humperdinck’s little work, uncompromisingly Wagnerian as it is in its idiom; was delightful as ever. It made one wonder that so typically Teuton a work (Teuton in the best sense of the term) has found so much favor in Anglo-Saxon countries, with their vastly different mental aspects.
The Staatsoper has saved this fine little opera from a local oblivion of several decades; let us hope now that Kônigskinder will follow shortly. For the moment, this theater is preparing a revival of Boieldieu’s all but forgotten opera, Jean de Paris, to be followed by Fredegundis, the new opera by the Viennese Franz Schmidt, whose Notre Dame has survived a decade at the Staatsoper— though nowhere else.
Freaks.
Exactly one week prior to its lovely revival of Hansel und Gretel, which atoned for many of the. Staatsoper’s former omissions, this theater had committed another little sin against good taste by giving a freak performance of the second act from Johann Strauss’ immortal Fleder-maus. Singers from the local comic opera houses were permitted to trod the sacred boards of our great National Opera House, Staatsoper singers, such as Jerger and Duhan, turned to conducting, alternately, and Strauss, the conductor, appeared on the stage as one of the gay party.
An interpolated concert presented the “treat” of hearing Alfred Piccaver, the American tenor, and justly famous for his Italian roles, abusing Wagner’s Prize Song, and the acme of “sensationalism” was reached when Elisabeth Schumann sang a Strauss song to the accompaniment of
Vienna, January 3.—New Year has started pretty badly for the Staatsoper—badly, yet in a sense promisingly. The Austrian State Reconstruction Committee has at last taken what is virtually the first decisive step toward reducing the Staatsoper’s tremendous expenses. This is a difficult problem, of course. Though one is sometimes inclined to share the judgment of those who claim that “a beggar needs no frock coat”—which is to say that a bankrupt state has no right to maintain one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, of all European opera houses— yet let us not forget that music is too integral a part of Austria’s very life to justify the complete abandonment of our Staatsoper. _ Surely the zealous government officials who are now trying to interfere with the management of the house are wrong in advising too radical a cure. Yet there is no doubt that an equally high (if not a higher) standard could be maintained by the Staatsoper at smaller expense.
There are, to quote one instance, seven or eight dramatic sopranos, which is exactly five or six more than Mahler required for his infinitely better performances at the same house, and two new ones have been added this season. The main trouble, it seems, is this: there are too many officials, _ each of whom is bent on carrying out his particular ideas at the expense of the State. There have even been rumors that one “high up man,” who is the real Power Behind the Throne at the Staatsoper, has a purely financial interest in engaging as many new singers as possible.
Such talk, however, has never been verified. The fact remains that there are too many heads and not enough hands at work at our National Opera, and it is a good idea on the part of the government to reduce the personnel both of officials and artists. From a purely business point of view, this is dire necessity, for business is terribly poor at the Staatsoper and—this is the promising part of the new situation—prices have undergone a material reduction, starting last night. This is a welcome New Year’s gift to Vienna’s music lovers.
A Strauss Christmas Party.
The Staatsoper had prepared a most pleasing Christmas gift for its patrons as well. Christmas Eve saw a revival at the Staatsoper of Humperdinck’s charming Haensel und Gretel, which counted among the most gratifying experiences of the current season. Strauss himself presided at the desk with evident pleasure. It is well known that his particular love goes out to this work, which received its very first performance anywhere at his hands exactly twenty-nine years ago (on Christmas Eve of 1893), when Strauss, still a young man at the time, was Kapellmeister at .Weimar. Pauline de Ahna, now more familiar to the musical world as Frau Dr. Richard Strauss, sang the boy’s
THE NORFLEET TRIO
gave their Mew York concert at Aeolian Hall, «Jan. 22. Press comments follow:
An abundance of color.—Times.
■ . . Brought to their work much musical intelligence and sympathy.—W. J. Henderson, Herald.
The group played with a commendable sincerity and smoothness of ensemble.—Deems Taylor in The World.
The ensemble work of these artists is noticeably cohesive and harmonious.•—Frank H. Warren, Evening World.
There was an agreeable freshness and energy in the performance of the three young artists . . . with plenty of spirit and no lack of expression.—Tribune.
The Norfleet Trio has acquired an ensemble as unified in spirit as in technical accomplishments. . . . Evident seriousness in preparation and mutual sympathy of purpose fused the three into an unusually well-disciplined body.—The Sun.
The ’cellist seemed perhaps the ablest of the three.— The Sun.
Highest individual honors rested over the head of the pianist.—Katherine Spaeth, Evening Mail.
The dominant spirit seemed to be the violinist whose tone in calmer moments flowed out clearly and strongly.—Tribune.
THE NORFLEET TRIO IS GREAT
The Norfleet Trio—Catharine, Helen and their brother, Leeper—gave their recital at Aeolian Hall yesterday afternoon to a fine audience that was amply rewarded, and, I think, surprised by the surpassing excellence of this youthful family of highly gifted and splendidly trained artists. Trios come and go, and their pretensions as well as their performances are seldom deserving of all the newspaper space they get. But here is the Norfleet Trio, modest in its printed promises, and therefore all the more happily surprising in the delivery of a recital which has not been surpassed this season in the unison, musicianship and beauty which distinguished yesterday’s performance.
The mutuality of understanding, the sympathy of tonal co-operation and the individual skill of the Norfleets come very near deserving the praiseful designation of “the three-in-one” of chamber music playing and it is gratifying to be able to report that the keenly attentive audience which heard them yesterday was thoroughly aware of the very superior performance. Miss Catharine Norfleet, violin, and Leeper Norfleet violoncello, displayed the finest artistry in both the Smetana Trio (G minor) and the lovely “Neue Ausgabe” Trio in B major by Brahms, which constituted the all too brief program. Miss Helen Norfleet, piano, showed thorough mastery of the meanings^ of her music as well as of her instrument, and the result was ׳as well-balanced, as facile and as impressive a trio recital as has been heard here this season.—John H. Raftery, Morning Telegraph.
Tel. 0211 Morningside
Address: Norfleet Trio Management, 200 Claremont Ave., New York