42
March 15, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
Morris Goldberg (Mr. Spiering, teacher) and Martin Schlesinger (Mrs. Mix, teacher), the latter being accompanied by the youthful Samuel Prager.
Mirovitch Scores in Northwest
Alfred Mirovitch, the Russian pianist, went out in January for a tour that extended to the Pacific Coast and back through the South, meeting with most unusual success wherever he appeared and being reengaged for next season in a large proportion of the cities. Here are a few notices which he received in the northwest:
Alfred Mirovitch, who takes his place among the foremost Russian pianists of the day, was heard in concert for the first time in Seattle last evening. A brilliant pianist, his playing of the various numbers was greeted with full appreciation. His technic, power of interpretation and tonal coloring were very commendable.—The Seattle Star.
In Alfred Mirovitch, Portland music patrons have found a new pianist to talk of and praise. They heard him last night at the Auditorium and applauded so enthusiastically there can be no room for doubt as to the warmth of his reception. Mirovitch is Russian, with balanced temperament and poetic inspirations which he understands so clearly to express through his playing that the audience becomes inspired and seemingly, follows him in thought and mood every minute of the program. His hearers seem to feel spontaneously the emotions lie experiences as his fingers tempt from the piano tones that sometimes one things would not be obtainable from an instrument of wood and metal.—The Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, Oregon, January 9.
Alfred Mirovitch, the eminent Russian pianist, was presented in recital last night at the Auditorium. The opening number, a Toccata and Fuga in D minor (Bach-Tausig), showed an exquisite balance of tonal values. Every note sang under Mirovitch’s fingers. The orderly measures flowed like a lovely fountain of musical sound. His playing as a whole is perhaps more crisply accented than that of most artists of the piano. The logic of what he plays is never obscured. His playing was full of markedly unusual effects, notably at the end of the second number and others. But it was in the interpretation of Chopin that Mirovitch shows himself a transcendant artist. It was marked by the utmost subtlety. His playing of the familiar Marcia Funebre made one feel that one had never really heard it played before. The whole conception of this movement and of the Finale was original, poignant, fateful, and at the same time full of beauty. One must conclude that here is an artist who approaches Chopin in a mood, new, vital, and comprehending.—Morning Oregonian, January 9.
Heavy Demand for Bach Festival Tickets
Bethlehem, Pa., March 9.—The eighteenth annual Bach Choir Festival will be held in Packer Memorial Church at Lehigh University, May 25 and 26, when, under the direction of Dr. J. Fred Wolle, who founded the noted chorus in 1898, the 250 singers will give Bach’s two great works, The Passion of Our Lord According to St. John, and the B Minor Mass. The first will be sung at two sessions the ,first day and the Mass at two sessions the second day. A Iarge_ section of the well known Philadelphia Orchestra will furnish the instrumental accompaniments, as has been the case at every festival for some years.
The Bach Choir, in a sense, is twenty-five years , old this year, although there were six years from 1905 to 1911 when no festival was held, Dr. Wolle being head of the music department of the University of California those years. During that period, however, most of the singers were kept together in other local choral unions, one of these directed by T. Edgar Shields, the Bach organist for some years. There will be a celebration of the choir's twenty-fifth year on April 4 in this city, when the chorus will sing in the Liberty High School. This event will also mark the sixtieth birthday anniversary of Dr. Wolle. Several thousand citizens will attend and the entire community is co-operating. in making the dual celebration a big event in the musical history of the city.
The annual festival this year will Ire attended again by a throng of music lovers and Bach devotees from all over the eastern section of the country, as is indicated in the early and heavy demand for tickets.
Lee Simonson on Master Institute Faculty
Lee Simonson, one of the organizers of the Theater Guild, has been induced to teach some of his ideas to the younger generation and has joined the faculty of •the Master Institute of United Arts, (New York), of which Robert Edmond Jones is also a member.
Among the productions that Mr. Simonson has to his credit this year is the brilliant stage of Peer Gynt which has been counted one of the most memorable theatrical events of the season. R. U. R. and the insect comedy, as well as the Adding Machine which is soon to appear, are also from Mr. Simonson’s fertile imagination. Back to Methuselah, given last season and marked as one of the real innovations in American productions, was also the work of Mr. Simonson.
Since the beginning of the Theater Guild, Mr. Simonson has been one of the active workers and. one of the forces of bringing it to its present position in the theatrical world.
Engagements for Arthur Middleton
Among other engagements filled recently by Arthur Middleton, the American baritone of Metropolitan Opera Company fame, was a joint recital with Paul Althouse in Chicago on March 11 and also an appearance with the same artist in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on March 13. He is booked for a joint recital with Mildred Dilling, harpist at Myerstown, Pa., today, March 15.
Alice Louise Merten’s Lecture Recital
Alice Louise Mertens, contralto, will give her original lecture recital, Music of the Orient by Oriental and Occidental Composers, at the Wurlitzer Auditorium 120 West Forty-second street, New York, Thursday evening, March 22
Gray Lhevinne for Penn Hall
Estelle Gray Lhevinne, the violinist, will give a recital at Penn Hall, Chambersburg, Pa., next December.
NYIREGYHAZI
(Pronounced N EAR - E DGE- H AR2I)
“A POET OF THE PIANO”-
Management: R. E. JOHNSTON	14S1Broadw־
Associates : L. C. Breld and Paul Lonqgne New York City Knaho Plano U««d	Ample, R00״r,
YOLANDA MERO BELIEVES IN AMERICA
“Some of the greatest failures on the American concert stage have been the result of playing down to the supposed ignorance and lack of culture of American audiences. An artist who makes that sort of mistake has no chance here. Americans insist upon the very best.”
“But,” objected the interviewer, “surely you will not claim that the average American has the technical knowledge to judge of comparative merit?”
“All the better,” said Mme. Mero. “All the better. That very technical knowledge is possessed by audiences in some European countries—very small audiences. And the result is that they do not, often enough, appreciate the big thing. They judge by certain traditional standards. They will hiss off the stage certain new, works that the American will listen to with interest and curiosity.
"Not that the.fAmericau is in the least deceived. He is willing, as the saying goes, to try anything once. But he does not take sides in the matter and stand up for a bad thing just because it is the fashion, or turn down a good thing because it is new and opposed to old accepted ideals.
“That is why playing for American audiences is such a test. The player must have something to give that is real. Substitutes count for nothing, and a dry, studied, cold art, no matter how traditional it may seem, will not move the American audience.
“And after all is not that as it should be? Art is not the repetition of formulas but the giving of something personal, feeling aroused by feeling.”
“The American likes the emotional artist,” suggested the interviewer. But that was a statement to which Mme. Mero refused to subscribe.
“No,” she said. “I do not feel that way about it. Some of the most successful artists here are not what I would call emotional.” She mentioned several of the very great, and the interviewer began to see that the meaning of the word “emotional” might have different shades of meaning. To Mme. Mero it appeared to mean a certain lack of control. Speaking of one of the great pianists she said that he “stood above his art,” meaning, perhaps, that he never gave way to his emotions. The meaning was rather involved and left the interviwer decidedly puzzled. But one thing was clear: Mme. Mero considered emotional playing rather less than the highest type of artistry, and would not acknowledge that the American public was any less low than the very top in its appreciation of art values.
Speaking of programs, Mme. Mero said she played “everything,” and then made a reluctant reservation— “except the modern French.”
“And that,” she added, “is not because I do not like it but because of their system of charging a performing fee.”
That is a thing the Musical Courier has often protested against, and it is easy to understand Mme. Mero’s point of view. For such an artist to play any work is a recommendation for the work that should be worth more than any performing fee. To charge the artist for this obligation is unreasonable. Mme. Mero finds it so. The amount, she points out, is small, but for the modern French to try to put itself above all the rest of the world, charging a fee for the use of its music where the composers of all other nationalities are only too glad to have their works performed, is certainly not tactful, to say the least of it.
Even at this early date Mme. Mero’s managers ׳ have already received demands for her time, although she does not begin her tour until after the first of next year. As soon as the announcement was made that she would be available, requests were received for date reservations, a fact that cannot be suprising in view of Mme. Mero’s former successes.	׳-..־׳.■	P.
Students’ Recital at American Institute
One of the frequent students’ recitals given at “The Chittenden School,” as some people call the American Institute of Applied Music, was that of February 26, when piano, vocal and violin music was performed in a program of twelve numbers. Methods taught at this school involve a definite procedure; consequently excellent results are obtained, especially evident in the piano playing of Thelma Cassem, Miss Bertuch, Geraldine Bronson, Veranelle Batson, and Esther Arnowitz, pupils respectively of Mr. Moore and Miss Chittenden. Vocal numbers were given by Cyril Pitts, Rose Malowist, Walter Preston, Thomas Curley and Charles Brandenburg, who are the pupils of Messrs. Kliban-sky, Lanham and Tebbs. Violin music was played
As has already been announced, Yolanda Mero, after playing in Europe this spring, summer and fall, will return to America for concerts after the first of the year. Her return to the American concert stage has already aroused much interest and her limited time is being rapidly engaged.
It is right that it should be so, for Mme. Mero is a forceful and gifted artist and has a personality worthy of expression and a technical mastery that renders its expression possible. She is also a forceful talker if she is approached upon subjects which arouse her interest, and it was upon one such subject that a Musical Courier interviewer happened to touch in conversation with Mme. Mero recently.
This subject, which aroused her interest, and, it may be added, . her ire, was that of American programs—that is, programs to be offered to American audiences.
It came about in this way : We were talking of the recent season of German opera at the Manhattan Opera House, and the interviewer expressed regret that American audiences liked Wagner so little that the heavier Wagner operas were rarely given at the Metropolitan.
“No !” exclaimed Mme. Mero. “That is absolutely not so! The Wagner performances at the Metropolitan are always sold out, crowded to the doors, whether they are what you call heavy operas or not. Just the other day I read a letter in the Times written by somebody who signed himself ‘A Subscriber’ and who stated that regular subscribers to the Metropolitan always gave their seats away when the heavy Wagner operas were given.
“That is not true,” repeated Mme. Mero. “Anybody who makes a statement, like that is underrating American musical taste most stupidly. There may be a few people who do not understand Wagner, or any music, for that matter, and for whom opera is only a society function, but they are not in a majority. .The majority of people in America not only understand, but they are, of all people in the world, the most anxious to increase their understanding.
“Why, do you know that there is no country in the world, with, perhaps, the possible exception of Germany, where small towns in rural districts-support the highest kind of music as the small towns do in America? I tell you, every European artist who comes over here to play is amazed, whether lie'or she acknowledges it or not. There is a widespread culture in the cities and outside of the cities' that is truly astonishing.
“Part of it is due to complete understanding and part of it due to a desire to understand. And this desire, which is not new, has led to understanding. The artist can tell by the applause. Do you think it is necessary to play ‘light’ programs for Americans, even in the rural districts? We all get an idea sometimes that it is -necessary to play down to the Americans. Americans think that themselves.
“But it is applause that tells, and the spontaneous applause that greets what some people might call heavy works on recital programs is the best proof possible that the works have been understood, that the audience has felt the work, which is the best kind of understanding.
“In America it absolutely does not matter how heavy a work is if only.it is real. If it is dull, of course.it will not give pleasure, but a work full of real ideas, no matter how heavy it is, will be received with acclaim. Of course, it is true that familiarity adds to people’s love for certain pieces. It is only natural that it should—the old tunes are the best loved. But let an American audience only hear a great work a few times and it accepts it fully and completely.
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A Distinctly American Song
I	“LAZY SONG”	I
By CORINNE MOORE LAWSON	?
=	Sung by a Favorite American Singer
FLORENCE MACBETH
PUBLISHED BY
I	THE WILLIS MUSIC CO.	1
Cincinnati, O.
137 West 4th Street
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Eastman School of Music
of The University of Rochester
Alf Klingenberg, Director
SUMMER SESSION JUNE 25 to JULY 28, 1923
COURSES for TEACHERS of PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSIC
Courses for PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
NORMAL COURSE for PIANO TEACHERS
COURSE in INTERPRETATION for PIANO STUDENTS
Private Lessons in COMPOSITION and COUNTERPOINT PIANO VOICF VIOLIN, VIOLONCELLO, ORGAN, HARP, ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS, ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT of MOTION PICTURES
REGULAR FACULTY OF SCHOOL ON DUTY AT SUMMER SESSION
For Catalogue and Infprmation, A ddress
The Secretary, Eastman School of Music,	Rochester, New York