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March 8, 1923
M 11 S 1 C /1 L C OU R 1ER
the Schumann quartet ill F major, op. 41, No 2. Ilya Schol-nik, first violin; William Grating King, second violin, and Philipp Abbas, cellist, are the permanent members of the organization.
Ina Bourskaya Scores in Habanera.
The second of the Twilight Musicales given by the College Club, at the Hotel Statler, was given February 11. Ina Bourskaya, a soloist with the symphony earli r in the season, was presented. Her program included three arias and numerous songs. For an encore she sang the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen, eliciting^ the greatest applause of the afternoon. The high lights in her songs were Sleepless Nights and Serenade, by Tschaikowsky; The Blind Ploughman, by Clarke, and A Feast of Lanterns, by Bantock. Margaret Carlisle was the accompanist.
Notes.
On February 13, Kreisler made his annual appearance at Arcadia, under the auspices of the Philharmonic-Central Concert Company. Carl Lamson assisted at the piano.
Guy Bevier Williams, head of the piano department of the Detroit Institute of Musical Art, was the object of many favorable notices after his performance of the Liszt E flat concerto with the orchestra at the Capitol Theater.
Muriel Magerl Kyle, soprano, gave a recital at Memorial Hall, February 4, under the auspices of the Philharmonic-Central Concert Company.
Harriet Story Macfarlane was one of the soloists at the concert of the Tuesday Musicale which was given at the broadcasting station of the Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, February 6.
Mrs. Frederick B. Stevens, president of the Tuesday Musicale, gave a paper on Music and Musical Life in Literature before the music group of the Twentieth Century Club, February 13. The paper was illustrated by living pictures under the direction of Sara Moore McLean and the Drama Group.	J. M. S.
Washington Heights Musical Club’s Junior Branch Year Book
The year book of the junior branch of the Washington Heights Musical Club gives an interesting insight info the extended activities of this most useful and efficient organization. It invites young people under seventeen years of age and not far enough advanced to enter the main body of the club to become members of its junior branch. The condi-tions_ are that these members shall play at one “closed” meeting and one “open” meeting of the club, except in case of illness or by written request of their teachers that they be excused. The closed meetings, of which there are three during the season, are for members only, no guests admitted; the open meetings, two in the season, are for members and their invited guests.
It need hardly be pointed out that this is the finest sort of incentive. Members are not permitted to sit back and do nothing, like the rooters at college athletic events who get nothing but cold feet while the boys on the field get tte training and the exercise. Members of the Washington Heights Musical Club, whether juniors or seniors, must perform ! Miss Cathcart, the president and organizer and her associates, are perfectly right in this endeavor. They help teachers get good work out of their pupils by providing a definite goal, and by bringing them into contact with other students out for the same honors.
Nor_ should teachers overlook this opportunity. Though there is probably no intention on the part of the club to exploit any teacher, it is evident that the success of a pupil must bring the teacher’s name-into prominence. And no favoritism is shown. The pupils of one particular teacher are not especially favored. All have an equal chance all that is required of them being that they shall live up to the rules of the club and do their best.
Atlantic City to Have Series of March Musicales
A series of five Saturday Evening Musicales being held in Atlantic City, at the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall began on the _ evening of March 3. Arrangements have been made with R. E. Johnston, manager of the Biltmore Friday Morning Musicales, to. furnish the artists. Among those already engaged for these musicales are׳ Paul Alt° house, Rudolph Bochco, Magdeleine Brard, Giuseppe De Luca, Clara Deeks, Beniamino Gigli, Helen Hobson, Suzanne Keeney Queena Mario, Erwin Nyiregyhazi, Lucile Orrell, Pau1 Ryman John Charles Thomas, Cyrena Van Gordon and Raoul Vidas.
A. _T. Bell, manager of the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall who conceived the idea of the Saturday Evening Musicales for Atlantic City, is an ardent devotee of music.
Easton’s Train a Day Late But She Opens Tour
Florence Easton, now on a western concert tour left New York recently in plenty of time to arrive at Astoria Ore., on February 19, when she was scheduled to ־rive her first performance on her itinerary, but bad traveling made the train out of Chicago just a day late arriving on the coast. Fortunately, however, Miss Easton got to her destination just in time to make her announced appearance.
good phrasing by Dorianne Bawn, soprano. Lenore Van Blerkom, mezzo soprano, put much spirit into the Segui-dilla from Carmen and sang with admirable rhythm.
A voice of exceptionally beautiful quality was that of Robert Johnston, baritone. He sang Handel’s Where’er \e Walk with delightful smoothness and regard for cor-rect phrasing. Sylvia (Speaks) and Punchinello were also well interpreted. Rose Dreeben, who has a soprano voice of fine timbre, was heard in a duet from Lakme with Lenore Van Blerkom, their voices blending well. Ruth Kemper gave much enjoyment with her spirited performance of a Brahms-Joachim Hungarian Dance (No. S) and the Polonaise Brilliante No. 2 by Wieniawski and a beautiful rendition of the Meditation from Thais. The program closed with the quartet from Rigoletto, sung by Rose Dreeben Lenore Van Blerkom, Edward Beckman and Leo Bernstein, given in a manner which brought great credit to their instructor. The excellent diction, the artistry and intelligence with which all the pupils sang and spoke much for their training.
DETROIT SYMPHONY PLAYS
BRAHMS’ DOUBLE CONCERTO
Popular Concerts Offer Attractive Items—Detroit String Quartet Gives Second Concert with Cleveland Violist —Bourskaya Much Liked—Notes
Detroit, Mich., February 17.—The ninth pair of subscription concerts given by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, February 8 and 9, had as soloists Ilya Scholnik and Philipp Abbas, both of the Detroit Orches-tra■ They played the Brahms double concerto in A minor, op. 102, for violin, cello and orchestra. This was played two seasons ago and in response to numerous requests was repeated. The Detroit orchestra is fortunate in having such fine artists in its membership. There was no mistaking the pleasure of the audience in their work. The orches-
tral numbers were the symphonic poem, The Fountains of Rome, by Respighi and the Schumann third symphony in E flat, op. 97.	Jr j
High Points of Popular Concerts.
The popular concert, February 4, presented by an all-Wagner program consisting of Bachanale from Tannhäuser, Love Music and Brängane’s Warning, Tristan and Isolde; Walter’s Prize Song, Die Meistersinger; Good Friday Spell, Parsifal; Entrance of the Gods to Walhalla, Das Rhein-gold; Siegfried’s Funeral Music, Götterdämmerung, and Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music, Die Walküre.
The concert on . February 11 introduced Harriet Eells, mezzo-soprano, of Cleveland (pupil of Marcella Sembrich), and James Braekey (head of the piano department, State Normal School, Ypsilanti), as soloist. Miss Eells distinguished herself in her singing of O Don Fatale from Verdi’s opera, Don Carlos. Mr. Braekey played Liszt’s concerto in E flat, displaying good technic and interpretative ability. Aside from the solo numbers the program consisted of the overture to Der Freischütz, Weber; the Largo from Dvorak’s symphony, The New World; the third movement from the Schumann Rhenish symphony and the ballet suite from Delibes’ Coppelia. These two programs were skilfully conducted by Victor Kolar.
Cleveland Violist Aids Detroit Quartet in Second Concert.
On February 12, the Detroit String Quartet gave the second concert of its season at Memorial Hall. Samuel Litschey, of Cleveland, was the viola player on this occasion. The difficulty of having a new viola player has been most admirably surmounted in the two concerts given, the choice of the players being particularly fortunate. The program consisted of the Brahms quartet in A minor, quartet in E flat major by Carl Ditters Von Dittersdorf, and
VIENNA
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instructive and unconventionally amusing characterization of Tannhäuser which is apt to disturb some existing notions on this Minnesinger fostered by Wagner’s opera.
Rivalry for Strauss.
Another experiment, if a less daring one, at combining historical interest with modern methods, was an exceedingly fine production of Gluck’s Orfeo, on an improvised stage erected in the Grosser Konzerthaussaal. The whole affair was mounted along the principles of the Stillbiihne (conventionalized stage) in a beautifully artistic manner. Emmi Leiner, though histrionically inadequate, was vocally fine in the title role, and Felicie Mihacsek-Hüni, stepping in on one day’s notice, made an׳ ideal Euridice. Paul von Klenau did wonders with the otherwise miserable Symphonieorchester, and the whole thing was so eminently artistic as to make one forget the antics of the chorus, formed of musical amateurs.
The marvel of the evening, however, was the work of Ellen Tels, the eminent Russian dancer, who supervised the staging, and her pupils. The poses and the dancing of these lovely Russian girls was a ravishing vision of beauty and • natural, unstilted charm, and an effective antidote to the antiquated, petrified pirouettes of our Staatsoper ballet.
The Staatsoper, meanwhile, has brought out a very polished production, at the beautiful Redoutensaal Theater, of Boieldieu’s Jean de Paris, with Oestvig in the title role, and Selma Kurz displaying her waning vocal powers to good advantage in the role of the Princess. This opera is an old hobby of Richard Strauss, and he had himself written some new coloraturas for Mme. Kurz. In spite of its fine performance, however, the opera has failed to catch Vienna’s fancy; and empty houses have greeted the all-star cast which presents it. The Staatsoper’s next novelty will be Fredegundis by Franz Schmidt (for long years a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra) ; and elaborate revivals of Tannhäuser, Weber’s Euryanthe, Schiilings's Mona Lisa, and Gluck’s Iphigenia in Aulis will follow shortly.
Rare Birds—and Sham Novelties.
Individual artists generally evince the same indifferent attitude towards new composers as our conductors and orchestras. Very few of them have the courage of their convictions, and fewer still have any convictions at all. Aside from Rudolph Polk, who brought us the new Concerto Gregoriano by Respighi, with much success, Francis E. Arâni, the Hungarian violinist, was a pleasing exception to the rule of hackneyed programs. The Sibelius D minor concerto was a novelty, to Vienna at least, and it displayed Aranyi’s fine, big tone and his splendid technical equipment. In a semi-private circle he proved his musicianship by playing, virtually at first sight, an immensely intricate new violin sonata by Paul A. Pisk—a truly original and virile modern composition. The new cello sonata by Zoltán Kodaly added special interest to the program of Wilhelm Winkler, of the Schônberg group. It is a strong work of predominantly national character. Bernhard Tittel, formerly a conductor of the Staatsoper, gave us Respighi’s dazzling Fontane di Roma, with its brilliant orchestral colors, and we were grateful to hear it.
Some new works—new though not novel—may be dismissed in summary. A hitherto unperformed string quartet by Guido Peters and his octet for strings, woods and horn were played by the Gottesmann Quartet, and a manuscript string quartet by E. N. von Reznicek by the Rosés. Rudolf Serkin played a piano sonata in C major by Adolf Busch, who has heretofore attracted more attention as a violinist than as a composer, and Helene Lampel introduced, for the first time, a Dance Suite for piano by Wilhelm Grosz. Most of these works, though of varying worth and importance, showed no particular distinguishing traits. Even less may be said for a violin sonata by Giorgio Federico Ghedini which the composer (a prize winner in Italy) presented with Aldo Ruggenini, an Italian violinist, and for a new manuscript sonata for violin and piano by Serge Bortkiewicz, the Russian, for which Frank• Smit had the pianistic assistance of the composer. Bortkiewicz’s sonata, like his piano pieces, are just simply Salonmusik of the common order, but they were excellently played by the composer in an adequate drawing room style. As a pianist, Jeffry Reynolds, an Anglo-American pupil of the late Raphael Joseffy, showed some commendable qualities.
Paul Bechert.
Operatic Program at A. Russ Patterson Studios
Another of the series of interesting recitals being held at the A. Russ Patterson studios was offered February 22. A number of artist-pupils from the studios, assisted by Ruth Kemper, violinist, presented an attractive program.
Herman Neuman opened the program with a group of piano solos, artistically rendered. A Novelette by Mac-Dowell was especially pleasing. Janet Watts, coloratura soprano, sang the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, her work in the florid passages being given with ease and brilliancy. In E lucevan le stelle (Tosca), Edward Beckman found opportunity to display some tenor tones of lovely quality. Marya Rachinskaya revealed dramatic ability and a voice of power and excellent range in her interpretation of O mon Fils (Le Prophete). II est doux, II est bon (Herodiade) was interpreted with considerable feeling and
FONTAINEBLEAU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU, FRANCE
DIRECTORS: CH.—M. WIDOR AND MAX D’OLLONE. SUPERVISED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT
FOR AMERICAN ARTISTS, TEACHERS AND ADVANCED STUDENTS ONLY. JUNE 24 TO SEPTEMBER 24, 1923
The greatest French Teachers, including Widor (organ), Philipp (piano), Bloch, Vidal and Nadia Boulanger (composition), Rémy (violin), André HekkW Demougeot (voice), Grandjany (harp). Opera Classes.	s v ceiio;,
Tuition, board and lodging, 1,200 francs monthly. Special rates on French steamers
American Office: NATIONAL ARTS CLUB STUDIOS	119 East Nineteenth Street, New York City
FRANCIS ROGERS, Chairman