MUSICAL COURIER
44
March 22, 1923
¡sts, enjoys giving recitals of compositions by one composer and his all-Chopin program, heard in part by this reporter last Sunday, was in many respects a revelation. Gabrilo-witsch, a poetic pianist par excellence, played with that surety, delicacy and virility that bring so many^ contrasts as to make the works of one composer a most interesting recital. Gabrilowitsch won the approbation of his listeners, who, throughout the course of the program, asked for many encores.
Beethoven Trio Plays at Art Institute.
A well arranged and especially well played program was that given by the Beethoven Trio at the Art Institute on Sunday evening, March 11, in Fullerton Memorial Hall. Consisting of the Rubinstein B flat trio, the Quasi Variazione from Rachmaninoff’s Trio Elegiaque, Faure’s Pavanne, Goos-sens’ The Water Wheel and The Village Church and Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue, the program made up a most enjoyable evening and, judging by the enthusiastic response of the audience, added another success to the long list of this splendid organization. Many are the appearances of the Beethoven Trio in Chicago and therefore it is deemed unnecessary to dwell at length on this performance. Suffice to say that their playing was up to their usual high standard.
Maxim Brodsky Engaged by Thaviu.
A. F. Thaviu, musical director of the Grand Opera Pageant, has engaged for a thirty weeks’ tour, Maxim Brodsky, the distinguished tenor, who will make his first appearance with the organization in New Orleans (La.) on April 6 next.
Columbia Chorus and Walter Spry.
The Columbia Chorus of Women’s Voices, under the direction of its leader, Louise St. John Westervelt, was heard at its sixteenth annual concert at Kimball Hall on Tuesday evening, March 13. Walter Spry, pianist, appeared as soloist. Louise St. John Westervelt, a very serious musician, has, with her choristers, brought out many new compositions that probably would otherwise have awaited other opportunities to be heard in this locality. Miss Westervelt searches far and wide to bring to the patrons of her organization yearly treats in presenting to them unhackneyed numbers, and in this, since the foundation of this women’s chorus, she has succeeded admirably. This in itself calls for praise, but, added to this the Columbia Chorus is a body of female voices as is seldom encountered, for all the voices are fresh, show the result of careful training and the balance of the different choirs is homogeneously good—nay, perfect. Miss Westervelt, with the slightest indication of a finger, can manipulate the many voices under her control as though they were but one instrument, so quickly do the young women respond to her most minute demand. This reviewer reached the hall as the choir was singing Brahms’ How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me, O Lord? and from the first it was discerned that the choir was at its very best. It sang that number, like all the others, with great tonal beauty, fine contrast, elasticity, and especially noteworthy was the splendid enunciation of the text. The Columbia Chorus knows how to sing English; likewise, the various soloists taken from its ranks who were heard in Debussy’s The Blessed Damozel, Kramer’s Song Without Words, in folk songs of the Belgian and Breton countries, and in the Czecho-Slovakian numbers. Due to lack of space only the names of the soloists are here mentioned, while otherwise each would have been paid the homage due their beautiful singing. Marion Capps, Geraldine Rhoads, Lola Scofield, Irene Barstow, Elma Creighton, Vivian Rankin and Elizabeth Houston, associated with the Columbia Chorus, reflected credit not only on themselves but also on the organization and its conductor. The stage of Kimball Hall looked radiant with the sixty-five young women beautifully dressed in colors that harmonized, as though the choir had decided to fete St. Patrick’s Day on the thirteenth. Flowers, were tendered the conductor over the footlights amidst thunderous plaudits. It was a big night for the Columbia Chorus, for all its members as well as for its soloists and most efficient and energetic conductor, Louise St. John Westervelt.
Walter Spry, the popular pianist whose recent public recital brought him again many new encomiums from the critics, was in splendid vein as was reflected in his playing of Haydn’s Andante from the Surprise Symphony (transcribed by Saint-Saëns), Rubinstein’s Romance, MacDowell’s From an Indian Lodge and Moszkowski’s Air de Ballet. So charmed was the audience with his playing that after insistent demands added selections were played by the soloist. Mr. Spry’s pianistic ability needs no further endorsement. Yearly he is heard in recital and annually his vogue goes on unabated, as, if Mr. Spry is successful in the concert hall, he is as happy in his studio, for his many pupils have helped to make his name known all over the country, one of them this week having won a competition. Genevieve Davison, accompanist for the chorus, did her part especially well.
Columbia School Summer Faculty.
The faculty of the Columbia School summer session will include Clare Osborne Reed, Director of the School, and
CHICAGO COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Esther Harris Daa, President	A. G. Dna, Mgr.
Mark Oster—member Chicago Civic Opera—Voice Culture. Dramatic Opera Coach.__________________________1234 KIMBALL HALL
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CHICAGO’S SUNDAY CONCERTS CONTINUE
TO ATTRACT LARGE AUDIENCES
Galli-Curci, Hempel, John Charles Thom4s, Gabrilowitsch, Paul Althouse and Arthur Middleton, and the Beethoven Trio Attract Large Gatherings the Same Day—Brodsky Engaged by Thaviu—Columbia Chorus and Walter Spry Heard—The Columbia School’s Summer Faculty—Rosing Scores—Young Artists’ Contest Arouses Interest—Last Week of Russian Opera—Chicago Opera Re-engages Bolm
—Other News
clever and astute impresaria, Rachel Busey Kinsolving, as the audience found at the Blackstone Theater was one of great musical discernment, enthusiastic, even though refined. To that audience John Charles Thomas gave of his very best, and this today cannot be surpassed by any male singer. Thomas is in a class by himself and he gave to the connoisseurs an afternoon of the greatest musical enjoyment that has been encountered in many a day. Thomas is a sincere artist, whose stage presence and deportment should be taken as a model by students and by many professionals. He sings equally well English and French, Italian and German, and his glorious voice of velvety quality is used with consummate artistry to depict the mood of the various compositions inscribed on his program. After each number the rapturous plaudits of the audience showed unmistakably to the recitalist the pleasure they derived from his singing, and the insistence for repetitions as well as encores was well understood, as it was with deepest regret that after hearing Thomas in his German, French and part of the English groups, this reporter had to tear himself away from the Blackstone to move on towards another hall, where other distinguished artists appeared at the same hour.
Amelita Galli-Curci.
Galli-Curci in song recital means a sold-out house, the vast capacity of the Auditorium taxed, with the stage and orchestra pit put into service to accommodate the throng anxious to hear this beloved prima donna, also thunderous plaudits, and innumerable encores. This is the invariable rule when Galli-Curci sings here, and last Sunday was no exception. What she sang or how she sang should make but little difference since her large army of hearers were so pleased as to accord her a tremendous success, continually demanding more and more. That her popularity is transcendent cannot be doubted. As ever, she had the able assistance of Homer Samuels at the piano, and Manuel Berenguer, flutist.
Frieda Hempel.
Frieda Hempel proved a great favorite also, for there was a very large audience at the Studebaker Theater to hear her Jenny Lind program, which showed the prominent coloratura in what esteem she is held here. During this reviewer’s stay Miss Hempel sang an aria from Weber’s Freischiitz, Schumann’s Widmung, Schubert’s An die Laute and Unge-duld, and a Norwegian melody, The Herdsman’s Song, which were so well liked by the listeners that the artist was asked for more and sang encores after each group. In her crinoline costume of by-gone days, the soprano was a picture to behold and as charming to the eye as to the ear. Though not at her very best in the Freischiitz aria, Mme. Hempel came into her own in the group which followed and sang her way into the hearts of her listeners. Later she sang an aria from Benedict’s Carnival of Venice, with flute obligato, and a group of Mendelssohn, Taubert and Bishop. These were not heard.
Gabrilowitsch.
At the Playhouse, Ossip Gabrilowitsch made another appearance here in piano recital, under the management of F. Wight Neumann. A masterful interpreter of all piano literature, Gabrilowitsch, like many of the other great pian-
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Chicago, March 17.—The Sunday concerts were more numerous than ever on March 11 and many concert-goers were very much perturbed by the appearance on the same Sunday of so many popular artists and found it difficult to decide to whom to give their patronage. Galli-Curci appeared at the Auditorium, which, of course, she filled to capacity; Frieda Hempel sold out the Studebaker Theater; Ossip Gabrilowitsch packed the Playhouse; John Charles Thomas was listened to by a very large and most appreciative audience at the Blackstone Theater; the Elshuco . Trio held forth in the Blackstone Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom, gand those two sterling singers—Paul Althouse and Arthur : Middleton—gave a joint recital at Cohan’s Grand.
Middleton and Althouse.
It is unfortunate to relate that such famous master singers as Althouse and Middleton should have consented to appear here under the management of Jessie Hall, who has made a name for herself as a fine manager for young students, but who has failed miserably whenever she has endeavored to compete with the big managers of Chicago, who, as we have often said, are F. Wight Neumann, Wessels & Voegeli and Rachel Busey Kinsolving. A very scant house was on hand—one which did not reflect poorly on the artists but on the manager, as there are no more popular artists who come to Chicago than Althouse and Middleton. Heard in their first group, they made an unforgettable impression, as they sang with such purity of tone, such exactness in enunciating the text, such refinement as to call forth the use of many superlatives. The recital of that unique combination should have been well patronized, as their joint efforts were of such excellence as to pronounce their recital one of the big events of the present musical season.
John Charles Thomas.
Happy indeed must John Charles Thomas have been to appear in Chicago again, under the auspices of that very
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