34
March 15, 1923
pitiable piffle no hireling of the daily press dares to say.”
Richard Aldrich in the New York Times writes: ”Mr. Mengelberg gave a remarkably fine and finished performance of it, as a performance. The better it was, the more pitiless^ was the disclosure of the poverty of the work in 'd®as, i^s w®akness 'n structure and workmanship, its un-skillfulness in orchestration. This is a shocking term to use about Mahler, the symphonist, but every movement enforced its truth. Unskillfulness in orchestration results in sound that is by turns hollow, thin, airy, overladen, raucous, fragmentary, noisy and strident. There were moments when Mahler’s orchestration had none of these qualities, but they were not many.”
The New York Tribune comments: “Of course, there is no essential crime in a length of an hour and a half if that period of time contains ninety minutes work of musical matter, but it would take a fervid Mahler devotee, blessed with an unusual wealth of charity, to claim this for the symphony. To one not so blessed it seemed dull, deadly-dull, incoherent, with ideas becoming lost in instrumental confusion, or spun out to interminable length. Mr. Mahler seemed to have tried everything and accomplished nothing.”
FRIDAY, MARCH 9
JOSEPH SCHWARZ
Joseph Schwarz, baritone, gave a song recital at Aeolian Hall on the evening of March 9 before a large and very enthusiastic audience. He sang a program of songs by Wolf, Strauss, Schumann, Grieg, Sinding, Grechaninoff, Rachmaninoff and Moussorgsky, very wisely omitting from his program the usual boresome group of ancients, and the usually no less insipid group of contemporaries. He launched himself directly into the modernism of Wolf, and instantly won his audience with his exquisite voice, his fine musicianship and his striking personality. His interpretation of Strauss Traum durch die Dämmerung was especially Wely and he was forced to repeat it, and to Schumann’s rwo Grenadiers he added the same composer’s Nuss-baum.
Mr. Schwarz is a singer of unusual virtuosity. He uses his voice with a skill that must be partly the result of natural gifts and partly the result of long and careful thought and study and a high intelligence. But above all his great force of personal appeal would appear to be the result of his exquisitely limpid but powerful voice, and his deeply intense emotional expression. Even in the most striking fortissimos his voice is always deliciously colored, yet it is never anything but vigorously masculine, and this is a combination so rare as to be quite unique. His song is refined and polished to a degree, and with no visible effort he accomplishes gradations of tone from the softest whisper to the most powerful fortissimo without becoming ponderous or heavy or jarring upon the nerves. A remarkable artist whose success is highly deserved.
SATURDA Y, MARCH 10
CITY SYMPHONY: DE GOGORZA SOLOIST
The City Symphony Orchestra, Dirk Foch conductor, with Emilio De Gogorza, baritone, as soloist, gave its regular Saturday evening concert in Carnegie Hall on March 10 ihe ha 11 was wed filled, and the audience manifested its approval by bestowing sincere applause.
Mr. Foch selected as orchestral numbers Liszt’s symphonic poem, Mazeppa; two Debussy numbers—Apres midi d’un haune, and Fetes—and as a closing number gave Brahms’ Symphony in C minor, No. 1, op. 68.
Emilio De Gogorza was in unusually fine voice, and gave with excellent effect Where’er You Walk, from Semele (Handel), and Arioso from Le Roi de Lahore (Massenet). His singing was marked by musicianship and artistry Applause bordering on an ovation was accorded him During the intermission Mrs. Louise Ryals de Cravioto delivered a short address in which she pointed out what has been accomplished so far by the City Symphony Orchestra as well as announcing its plans for the future.
BENNO MOISEIWITSCH
Benno Moiseiwitsch began his program at Carnegie Hall on Saturday afternoon with a Bach Prelude in C major He played next Carrillon de Cythere by Couperin and fin-lshed his first group with a brilliant exposition of the Brahms Handel Variations.
. Ti’.e secT0״d group was a light affair. There was the fascinating Jeux deau, of Ravel, and a charming Menuet Antique, by ׳ the same composer, marked “first performance.” E. Goossens Bacchanale was as bacchanalic as the title would lead one to suppose, and Medtner’s Conte was a story good to hear Palmgren and Chopin ended this group.
hor the final one he went to Papa Liszt, playing Wagner Scliute and Paganini transcriptions with such resource and effect as almost to convince one that they are a legitimate part of piano literature. The Campanella, to end with was a dazzling bit of fireworks. Mr. Moisiewitsch, as usual’ attracted a large audience and there was applause which de-manded numerous extra numbers.
ANNA LODATO, PASQUALE ROMANO AND ANNA PINTO
On Saturday evening, at Aeolian Hall, a concert was by^AAnna Lo.׳0‘13׳ ,s9Pi־.ano; Pasquale Romano, baritone, and Anna Pinto, harpist. The audience seemed to enjoy the contributions of each and was liberal in Tts applause. The program follows: Soprano Solos_Valse
Musetta (Puccini) Romance, Because I Love You (Woods) Carnival of Vemce-flute obligato by Sarah PosselTnd Attone Pesce at the piano; Harp Solos-suhe op. 34
n,Vrd7rbl a barlt0״e solos—Monologo, from Andrea Che-ri? (Giordano), Visione Venezione (Brogi), Romanza (Respighi) ; harp solo—group of musical gems from Wagners masterworks transcribed for harp solo; soprano solSL Valse from Romeo et Juliette (Gounod) ; harp solo-sfflm (A. Francis Pinto); baritone solo-Serenade from Don Juan (Mozart), Ana, from Ernani (Verdi); duet—soprano
(Mozari)	3 C1 d3rem 'a mano’ from Don Juan
MUSICAL COURIER
Mme. Marni, who has studied with Samuel Marg'olis for a number of years, and still studies with him, revealed in her work exceptionally fine tone placement and general vocal development which reflects great credit upon her. teacher.
The New York Herald says: “Mme. Marni’s voice was well used and flexible, but it did not reveal a great deal of lyric freshness.” The New York Times states; “She revealed a soprano voice of pleasing quality, limited power and flexibility .	.	. and the sincerity of her manner of
singing held the close attention of her hearers. The audience enthusiastically expressed its enjoyment.”
NEW YORK TRIO WITH NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Mahler’s symphony No. 7, was introduced to New York audiences by the Philharmonic Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg at its pair of concerts in Carnegie Hall,
I hursday evening, and Friday afternoon. This work was first performed in Prague, September 19, 1908, by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by the composer Its first performance in America was on April 15, 1921, by the Chicago. Symphony Orchestra, under Frederick Stock, where it has been repeated. It is in five movements.
“The least said, the sooner mended.” After listening for one and one-half hour to this tiresome composition, the Mahler adherents (although always small in number) have undoubtedly become materially decimated. Many of the themes (very discordant) appear in fragmentary forms, while others are unnecessarily long drawn out. In both cases the effects were unpleasant. There may have been people m the audience who enjoyed the work, but if so they were m the minority. Why such stuff is forced upon the public, seems incomprehensible. It certainly does not elevate, educate or amuse. There are innumerable orchestral works by old and modern composers, whose compositions are never performed, but deserve a hearing. Why pick on Mahler’s seventh?
At the end . of the symphony, the writer overheard the following: “What is it all about?” and “How bad can music really be, and still be called music?”
In direct contrast to the Mahler work, and greatly to the delight of the entire audience, the New York Trio consisting of Clarence Adler, piano; Scipione Guidi, violin, and Cornelius \ an Vliet, cello, played with accustomed finish and charm the rarely heard triple concerto for piano, violin and violoncello with orchestral accompaniment, op. 56, by Beethoven.
Deems Taylor in the New York World says: “The reviewer s estimate of the work and its performance should ™1״w the facts. This will not take long. Merely because Mahler wrote a symphony one and one-half hours long scoring it for a mammoth orchestra and had it played last night in a large hall by a first-class orchestra under a first-class conductor—granted these facts we still fail to see why we should devote much precious space to saying that we found the work to be emphatically the most stupid 'piece of music that we ever heard ... We could find no single musical idea in the whole affair that possessed a vestige of significance or vitality—with the possible exception of the theme of the Merry Widow waltz, which the composer writes into the last movement and develops with the utmost solemnity. We found most of the themes not only incredibly banal, but vulgar, we found their development long-winded and inept, and we found the scoring scrappy muddy and ineffective . . . The performance by the orchestra was beyond praise. The players showed evidence of devoted and skillful rehearsing by Mr. Mengelberg the horns in particular giving a wonderful exhibition of perfect playing.”
W• J. Henderson in the New York Herald states: “The Mahler cult is something forever incomprehensible to the common mind. There were undoubtedly people who enjoyed listening last evening to this symphony which filled an hour and twenty minutes. Mr. Mengelberg conducted like a high priest pontificating in the holy of holies of some majestic religion far beyond the ken of mortals. But what; it was all about and why any mere man could have taken such a stupendous amount of trouble to write such
. detract little f rom the sterling worth pf the work. Even the art of Eva Gauthier assisted by Frederic Persson was insufficient to make the four songs of Alexander Steinert or the three songs of Clifford Vaughn seem interesting-songs in which the voice part plays the role of. a vague obligato to a wandering piano improvisation. Nor was much more to be said for the encore, a song by Lois Mills.	,
Five violin pieces by Samuel Gardner were played by the composer assisted by Miss Barnard, and several well-deserved encores were insisted upon. Mr. Gardner’s music proved to be a great success, which only goes to show that the public still loves sane melody. Mr. Gardner’s idiom is,: strangely enough, American, not only in pieces like his famous Canebrake where he evidently intends to follow the Negro idiom (and falls into the Scotch in the second subject) but in everything he does. So much for heredity' He was born in Russia and educated in New York.
The program terminated with Ornstein’s sonata for two piànos, played by the composer and Ethel Leginska, an interesting and powerful work. Very advanced it is, of course, and full of dissonance, but direct in its deveìop-ments, built upon themes that one recognizes as themes, and not overloaded with meaningless modulations. In this matter Ornstein differs from most of thè futurists, for the great mass of futuristic music has no recognizable themes and disassociates itself entirely from any appreciable tonality, or basic harmonic flow, if that term is preferred. The result is that Ornstein’s music has. not that detached character of so much modernism, and that he builds real climaxes. The sonata is too long, much too long for in so complex a score the mind becomes tired (and the nerves too.) But too much of a good thing is better than none at all.
This ends the season of the American Music Guild, which has done excellent work and deserves every encouragement. American composers are invited to submit compositions to the Guild for possible use at future concerts.
THURSDAY, MARCH 8 FRANCESCA MARNI
Francesca Marni, soprano, attracted a large audience to her song recital in Aeolian Hall on Thursday evening. Her program was made up of four groups comprising numbers by Orlandini, Pergolesi, Gluck, Schubert, Sinding, Brahms Georges, Gretchanmoff, Gurileff, Moniuschktì, Carbonaro Braun, Hageman, Curran and Silberta.
Mme. Marni’s renditions were unusually appealing both as to tonal delivery and interpretation. Her voice is one of great beauty, pure and mellow, and her singing reveals intelligence. Her first group was devoted ■to Italian songs which was followed by a Gernuur group. Group three contained French and Russian songs, the latter by Gretchanmoff, Gurileff and Moniuschko being sung in Russian and repeated. The closing group comprised songs by American composers. Of this group Gerard Carbonara’s Calm (dedicated to Mme. Marni) and Rhea Silberta’s Yohrzeit'won the greatest admiration. Frank Braun was accompanist.
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