MUSICAL COURIER
48
March 29, 1923
playing of the solo violin part. The orchestra, under Mr. Mannes’ efficient direction, plays with admirable verve and spirit. It is surprising to see how well handled a large crowd like this is in such a place and how it appreciates the privilege of hearing this fine music there.
SUND A Y, MARCH 25
NEW YORK SYMPHONY: JOHN BARCLAY SOLOIST
On Sunday afternoon, at Aeolian Hall, Walter Damrosch closed his thirty-eighth year as conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. The novelty of the program was the hearing for the first time of Edward Burlingame Hill’s new symphony, a sequel to his Stevensoniana Suite. There are three parts which have been inspired by Stevenson’s poems, Armies in Fire, The Dumb Soldier, and the Pirate’s Story. When the first composition was heard several years ago it received most favorable comment, and after listening to the second suite last Sunday, it seems to be the consensus of opinion that the second is even more forceful than the former number.
The orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Damrosch, played splendidly and brought out all the fine color, dramatic fervor, and oftentimes brilliancy of the suite. The audience was really enthusiastic and Mr. Damrosch refused to accept all of the ovation and gracefully pointed to the composer, in a box, who naturally was forced to rise and acknowledge the friendly greeting. The other numbers on the program were an early Mozart symphony and Ravel’s Symphonic Poem, Daphnis et Chloe, from his ballet.
The soloist for the afternoon was John Barclay, baritone, who disclosed an excellent voice, splendid diction, and a keen appreciation for musical values. He offered two numbers, the Madamina aria from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and as a second number, La Cloche, by Duparc. This latter number perhaps was more effectively rendered than the first. The concert in its entirety was excellent.
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Carnegie Hall was crowded with a tremendous audience to hear the music of the two Richards, Wagner and Strauss. Richard I was represented by several selections from Parsifal, but even in combination they did not take so long as the one from the pen of Richard II, which was Heldenleben. Conductor Mengelberg gave temperamental and beautifully colored renderings of the Wagner pieces and, of course, he was in his very best element when he undertook to set forth the vivid measures of the Strauss tone poem for which the Dutch leader always has been famous. It was Richard Strauss himself who said that nobody understood or conducted Heldenleben better than Willem Mengelberg. This dictum of a certainty bears a large degree of truth as evidenced by the performance of last Sunday. Mengelberg put a world of fantasy and feeling into his baton and the orchestra played with all the fire and fury required by the music. _ The impression made upon the auditors was overwhelming. An ovation greeted the Amsterdam conductor and he had to bow acknowledgments a countless number of times.
GEORGE REIMHERR
For the second time this season, George Reimherr, tenor, attracted a large and representative audience to the National Theater, on Sunday evening, when he offered a well constructed program of Russian master songs, which included a most delightful cluster of four numbers harmonized by Oscar Schminke. In fine spirits and voice, the young artist seemed to_ give much pleasure to his interested hearers, through his skilful interpretation of the varied numbers, which offered difficulties that he surmounted with little or no effort. Among the most favored of these Russian numbers, all of which were given with perfect English diction, were Thou Art an Angel Earthward Bending, Gretchaninoff, In Silent Woods, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Waves Dashing and Breaking (by request) also from Rimsky-Korsakoff. The final group consisted of some gems, all of which could have been repeated, so enthusiastically were they received: a Hebrew Melody (Karganoff), Burning Out Is the Sunset’s Red Flame (Balakireff), In the Silence of the Night (Rachmaninoff), Lilacs (Rachmaninoff), Ah, Not With God’s Thunder (Moussorgsky). At the close of the program, Mr. Reimherr was called upon for several additional songs before the large audience would allow him to depart.
Mr. Reimherr’s singing is too well known to New York music lovers to need detailed comment; it is sufficient to say that he rendered his program in a manner that bespoke his artistry, and was heartily endorsed by his audience. Frank Braun furnished sympathetic accompaniments.
The Herald, in commenting upon his singing, said in part: “He used his vocal assets well, displaying good enunciation and an artistic and commendable style.” The Times said: “He sang with clear enunciation and artistic shading of tone.” The Tribune’s opinion in part was: “His audience was large and approving.”
Mr. Reimherr’s program in full was:
O’er the Distant Mountains, Russian folk song; I Think As I Gaze On the Skies (Russian), O, Thou Winter Grim and Cold (Siberian),
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to express itself. All of the easy skill which makes Mr. Bachaus’ musical diction so eloquent was brought to ■bear on the Mozart concerto, with excellent results.
The first performance in New York of a symphonic poem, op. 39, for piano and orchestra by Pick-Mangiagalli, was introduced as a novelty. Although the composer is a naturalized Italian and has received his training there, the composition shows a graphic conception decidedly Teutonic in its long lines and architectonic scheme. The gaiety, humor and choice of subject is typically Latin, however. The title of the work is Sortilegi (Sorcery). The score was prefaced by quotations from an old Oriental tale. The story depicted has to do with Danesch, the King of Enchanters, who is goaded by the Sultana Dugmes’ incredulity into a display of his power. The magic words are spoken and gnomes and elves gather and dance with ■increasing fury. At one violent gesture all vanish and Danesch conjures up a dream garden full of fairy creatures, flowers and dripping fountains. This again is changed into a desert where will o’ the wisps and hobgoblins roist about in boisterous tumult. Having fully convinced the Sultana, the wizard banishes the spirits with a satirical peal of laughter and vanishes. After an introduction of mysterious low-lying harmonies the magician speaks (in a whole tone language). The ensuing dance is humorous, with constantly shifting dynamics. The piano is quite submerged in the general orchestral effect but emerges to paint the picture of the dream garden with seductive melodies and much helter-skeltering about. Brilliant octave passages and broad lines designate the hobgoblin broil and the piano’s mocking glis-sando laugh concludes the work. The work is full of suggestion and fancy, the usual hobgoblin tricks and captivating dance rhythms. The orchestra and Mr. Bachaus gave it a splendid rendition and were heartily approved by the audience. Strauss’ Merry Till Eulenspiegel closed the concert in appropriate vein.
Of the new composition the Herald says: “It proved to be well made and ingeniously scored. The piano part was brilliant and really signified in the general scheme. It took a lot of playing too, but Mr. Bachaus did not for a moment seem to tax his extraordinary technic.” The World says: “Surely Haydn never in his lifetime heard his symphony played with the solid, beautiful tone that came from the Philharmonic strings, nor would he have recognized the oboes, so much sweeter and smoother in tone must they have been than the rasping little hautboys to which he was inured.”
FRIDAY, MARCH 23
LOU STOWE
Friday evening, March 23, was a night on which very few people ventured out unless they had to, because of the downpour of rain, but those who braved the elements to attend the costume recital given by Lou Stowe at the Metropolitan Auditorium were indeed well repaid. This charming young ■artist is from the studio of Fay Foster, and that she has a marked talent for her chosen work is undeniable. She was heard in five groups of numbers, but whether as childish Cynthia Ann, whimsical Virginia, tragic Mary, humorous Lon Toy or lovable Shamrock O’Dare, she was equally effective. Miss Stowe is a clever and versatile artist, she has the dramatic instinct and is capable of conveying her emotions to her audience. Her ability as an actress was perhaps shown to greatest advantage in her third group, called What Life and Third Avenue Did to Mary. In this she portrays four stages—at the age of eight, eighteen, twenty-eight and thirty-eight—in the life of ■an unimaginative girl from the slums. Two of the poems in this group were written by Miss Stowe, the Fairy Tale and Heart Throbs, both of which are worthy of praise. She also wrote the poem of one of her numbers in the fourth group, Oriental Patience, to music by Whithorne.
Fay Foster was at the piano for Miss Stowe, which means that artistic ■accompaniments were furnished, and in addition she gave great pleasure in the capacity of composer. Miss Stowe’s first group, ■Cynthia Ann and a Smile and a Dimple, contained three of her numbers, each one with a decided appeal. In Swinging one went back to childhood days and held one’s breath while the swing went higher and higher and then felt the “old cat die out.” In Virginia and Hoopskirts and Magnolia Blooms there were several Foster slave songs which Miss Stowe rendered with such pathos that the audience was moved .to tears. The two last numbers on the program, Irish songs, were also by Miss Foster, The Daughter arousing sympathy, and Ould Dr. McGinn causing a good laugh.
SATURDAY, MARCH 24
DAVID MANNES ORCHESTRA
The last concert in the March series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by David Mannes and his symphony orchestra was given Saturday evening, March 24. The popularity of these concerts was well attested to by the huge audience. The average attendance at these concerts has been estimated at seven or eight thousand, and at this one the number probably climbed toward the ten thousand mark. The people eagerly absorb the excellent music provided for them and the artistic atmosphere adds to their enjoyment.
A program of spring-time music was presented on Saturday evening. It included the Goldmark overture, In Springtime; Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, No. 6, in F major; the overture to Semiramide, by Rossini; The Death of Siegfried, Wagner; two movements from the concerto for bassoon, by Mozart, and excerpts from Wagner’s Parsifal. In the Mozart concerto, Louis Letellier rendered effectively the bassoon solo part. The excerpts from Parsifal consisted of the prelude to Act 1, the Processional of the Knights of the Holy Grail and the Good Friday Music. In these selections Mr. Mannes gave great pleasure with his excellent
NEW YORK CONCERTS
(Continued from page 30)
companiments and gave a number of piano solos with much taste and color.
She began her recital with an explanation of Oriental music in its broader sense, and added explanations before each song or group of songs, so that the whole idea was brought together into a concrete whole. She speaks well, and what she had to say was evidently the result not only of careful research but also genuine enthusiasm, and was highly interesting.
Best of all, however, was her singing. She possesses a voice of extraordinary beauty, warm, luscious, sonorous, and thoroughly well trained. She was at her best in the bigger things, the things that displayed her power of passionate utterance, those Oriental laments that speak of the misery as well as the mystery of the unfathomable Eastern soul. Her intonation throughout the peculiar Oriental augmented intervals and chromatics was perfect, without a flaw, and was a remarkable, exhibition of technical skill and musician-ship.
It would seem to us that Miss Mertens would do well to omit the nursery rhymes from her programs. She is too fine an artist to waste her time on such puerilities. She is, however, to be highly commended for gathering together all of this Oriental music on one program. Her selections are most excellent and the arrangements such as will appeal to the average listener. It is not surprising that such an offering should be received with enthusiasm, for it is both instructive and entertaining.
NEW YORK SYMPHONY: SCHNABEL, MAIER AND PATTISON, SOLOISTS
One of the last of the season’s New York Symphony concerts at Carnegie Hall also proved to be one of the most interesting of the entire series, for Walter Damrosch had engaged Messrs. Schnabel, Maier and Pattison, that trio of sterling artists, to play the Bach concerto for three pianos with orchestral accompaniment, and their reading proved to be a veritable delight to the listeners. They adjusted their tonal and musical talents into a wonderfully artistic whole and there was not a detail of the performance either in accent, phrasing or dynamics which could not be called perfect. It is to be hoped that this trinity of artists will appear again in New York in the same work. Mr. Damrosch and his orchestra contributed a large proportion of art toward the splendid ensemble and when the number was over both the conductor and the soloists were acclaimed heartily by the audience. The program opened with a particularly warm and sensitive reading of the ancient William Tell overture and the climax was one of the best things the present writer ever has heard Walter Damrosch achieve. The New World symphony of Dvorak also received a sympathetic delivery and it made its usual pronounced impression, even though in spots the work does not appear any longer to be markedly virile, or epoch making. The close of the program consisted of Johann Strauss’ Tales from the Vienna Woods, and Mr. Damrosch took particular pains to make the sweetly tuneful selection a big success. A zither player delivered the chief strain of the composition in solo fashion both in the introduction and in the coda of the work and his contribution added largely to the naive enjoyment of the hearers. The Musical Courier believes with Henry T- Finck that the Johann Strauss compositions belong on the best symphonic programs and Mr. Damrosch has taken a step in the right direction by reviving those works, works which Theodore Thomas and Anton Seidl and other great conductors of the past did not disdain to cultivate.
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: BACHAUS, SOLOIST
“Bach—um—maybe; but Haydn and Mozart—urn??” (Business of shrugging shoulders and lifting eyebrows). One hears it on every side in these days of rhythmic battles and harmonic wars—even does it himself upon occasion, no doubt. However the Philharmonic Orchestra, under Willem Mengelberg’s direction and assisted by Wilhelm Bachaus, swept such sophisticated snobbishness into the trash heap by the irresistible renderings of the Haydn symphony in G major and Mozart’s A major piano concerto at the pair of concerts, March 22 and 23.
Approached as they were with heartiness and spirit these works revealed physiognomies unwrinkled by the ramping of modern developments. Mr. Mengelberg did an especially good turn by the peasant-footed minuet in the symphony and also gave the usually over-conducted largo ample ■time
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