MUSICAL COniU E R
February 8, 1923
Interesting Innovations in Maine School
Auburn, Me., January 20.—This city is the first in Maine to have a circulating record library in its rural schools, due to the efforts of E. S. Pitcher, supervisor of music in the public schools. The manual training department in the city schools made a carrier in which two dozen double-faced records could be sent by mail. In Auburn there are nineteen one-room rural schools, covering a territory of many miles.
The records have a regular routing so that after they have stayed two weeks at one school they are forwarded to the next one on the list. At present there are twelve cases of records, but by the end of the year, Mr. Pitcher expects to have the set completed so that there will be no doubling. Schools are encouraged to earn extra records and are advised as to what is good music.
Mr. Pitcher, director, stresses the importance of having the biennial State school operas and the intervening school music festivals entirely student affairs. The operas are always giver, by the secondary schools whose best singers and players are listed and sent to him. He then makes up the personnel of the orchestra from the instruments at command.
Most school orchestras lack basses. Mr. Pitcher thinks that the child who aspires to music should be diverted from studying only the violin or piano. One of the easiest instruments to introduce after the child has studied violin is the viola. One of the present members of the Tufts Musical String Quartet is a graduate of Edward Little High School, who took up the viola at Mr. Pitcher’s suggestion and now in college finds himself the only one able to play that instrument. In the interschool operas Mr. Pitcher generally has to draw on the string basses in his own schools for necessary balance.	L. N. F.
Metropolitan Museum Concert
The fourth and last of the January series of concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, given by David Mannes and his excellent orchestra of selected musicians, attracted another very large and enthusiastic audience. The program on this occasion included:	Overture to
Iphigenie in Aulis; first movement from the symphony in D minor, César Franck; theme and variations from quartet in A major, Beethoven; Norwegian Artists’ Carnival, Svendsen; •Nutcracker Suite, Tschaikowsky • Coq d’Or, Rimsky-Korsakoff; Adagio, Lekeu, and overture to Tannhäuser, Wagner.
Mr. Mannes holds the distinction of having played to a bigger number of music lovers at four indoor concerts than has been done before by any other conductor, in these regions, at least. On January 6 the estimated attendance was 8,000; on January 13, 8,000; January 20 (a stormy night), 6,000, and on January 27, 10,000, making a total of 32,000.
In March, Mr. Mannes will conduct another series of Saturday night concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
sody. Anton Homer, who plays the French horn, and Mr. Kincaid, the flutist, won special notice.
Flonzaley Quartet
The Flonzaley Quartet was the attraction at the meeting of the Chamber Music Association, January 14, at the Bellevue-Stratford. These artists presented the A minor quartet, op. 51, No. 2, by Brahms; the Londonderry Air, by Frank Bridge, and the G major quartet, op, 22, by Novak.
Louise Homer and Louise Homer-Stires
Louise Homer and her daughter, Louise Homer-Stires, appeared together in a recital at the Academy of Music, January 16th. Madame Homer opened the program with an aria from Orfeo, by Gluck, and the Mermaid’s Song, by Haydn. These were followed by duets by Mozart and Brahms. Louise Homer-Stires captivated her audience with an aria from the Messiah, one of Sidney Homer’s songs, and Botschaft, by Brahms. The program closed with three duets and Sidney Homer’s Banjo Song as an encore.
Matinee Musical Club
The Matinee Musical Club gave a fine program, January 16, at the Bellevue-Stratford. It was International Day and a number of countries and cities were represented by characteristic music. The number representing Philadelphia was If There Were Dreams To Sell, which is dedicated to Elizabeth Gest, who accompanied the chorus in its rendition under the direction of Helen Pulaski Innes. The club orchestra, conducted by Thaddeus Rich, gave six numbers from the Water Music of Handel. Dr. Rich played the violin obligato to Wagner’s Dreams, sung by the chorus. Robert Braun, pianist, and Martha Pettit, pianist, offered solos. Florence D. Bowes, mezzo contralto, and Helen Allen Hunt, contralto, also rendered pleasing solos.
Settlement Music School Concert
The Settlement Music School, an institution doing a large and excellent work by giving children of very moderate means a musical education, gave evidence of its accomplishments at a concert given in the foyer of the Academy of Music, January 18. The program opened with Bach’s Chorale, The Spacious Firmament on High, and Brahms’ Christmas Song, sung by a chorus of fifty children, accompanied by an orchestra of thirty-five, conducted by John Grolle (head of the school). Nine pupils representing the various departments, from the elementary to the master course, took part in the program.
Maria Ivogun with the New York Symphony
The New York Symphony Orchestra presented a delightful program at the Academy of Music, January 18, with Albert Coates as guest conductor. Maria Ivogun appeared as soloist, singing the aria, Sweet Bird, by Handel (assisted by George Barrere, flutist), and Martern Aller Arten (Mozart). The orchestral numbers were Don Juan (Strauss), On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (Delius), and the symphony No. 6, in C minor, by Glazounoff.
M. M. C.
66
THADDEUS RICH CONDUCTS
PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Concertmaster Assumes Baton and Is Presented with Wreath —Free Concerts Given—Jacobinoff Soloist with Philharmonic—Flonzaleys and Louise Homer and Louise Homer-Stires Give Delightful Concerts
Philadelphia, Pa., January 21.—Thaddeus Rich, concert-master of the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted the orchestra concerts given January 19 and 20. The program consisted of Tschaikowsky’s fourth symphony, Impressions of Italy (Charpentier) and the Tannhäuser overture. After the symphony Dr. Rich received a large wreath from his colleagues.
Free Sunday . Afternoon Concerts
The usual free Sunday afternoon concerts are being held at the Academy of Fine Arts this winter and are largely attended. The soloists, January 14, were Evelyn Tyson, pianist; Reinhold H. Schmidt, baritone, and Morris Braun, violinist. It may be remembered that Miss Tyson, a former pupil of Maurits Leefson, was the winner of the first Stokowski medal of the Pennsylvania State Contest last year and also holds a Philadelphia Music Club gold medal. Her numbers included a Chopin group and compositions by Rachmaninoff, Laurens and Liszt. Mr. Schmidt was heard in songs by Schubert, Debussy, Handel, Hyde and Dens-more, and Mr. Braun played compositions by Schubert-El-man, Schumann-Auer, Sarasate, Tschaikowsky and Wieni-awski.
Jacobinoff with the Philharmonic
The Philharmonic Orchestra, under Josef Pasternack, is offering remarkably fine concerts this season. Sascha Jacobinoff, violinist, appeared as soloist, January 14, presenting the Brahms concerto. The orchestral numbers included a Mendelssohn nocturne and scherzo, the Prelude and Love-Death from Tristan and Isolde and the Chabrier Rhap-
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