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MUSICAL COURIER
Jessie Fenner Hill Studio Notes
During the past year Jessie Fenner Hill has been happy in seeing the results of her teaching come to success.
Julia Silvers, of the Greenwich Village Follies, continues to draw admirers because of her beautiful voice and stage presence, wherever she is heard. Miss Silvers received her training under Mrs. Hill. Gertrude Lang, who, in the early summer of 1922, arose from studio recitals after two and one-half seasons’ of study to a prominent place among the singers of the Capitol Theater, and subsequently to the possession of a fine contract with the Shuberts, is an interesting testimony of Mrs. Hill’s teaching. Berta Donn, of the Sun Shower, is adding laurels to the Hill studios by her excellent work. Josephine Martino’s recent concert in Paterson, N. J., called forth praise for her artistic singing and beautiful voice. Miss Martino is a concert singer.
West Hears Chamber Ensemble of New York
The Chamber Ensemble of New York—Louise Iarecka and the Trio del Pulgar, directed by Tadeusz Iarecki—has returned to New York from a short tour in the West, having appeared in Chicago on March 4 under the auspices of Bohemian Arts Club, and in Grand Rapids, Mich., on March 7, 8 and 9, in a series of three successive concerts. Their programs included works of Debussy, Ravel, Moussorgsky, Goossens, Bax, Szymanowski and Iarecki, received with great curiosity and interest by the Western audiences.
Onegin and Harold Bauer in Carnegie Hall. Among the other pianists with whom he has played are Gabrilowitsch, Schnabel, Hutcheson, Cortot and Levitzki. Next season he will appear jointly with Ernest Hutcheson in a number of recitals, the first to be the opening number of the course of the B Sharp Club of Utica, N. Y., on October 31.
Foerster Prelude at Heinroth’s 2000th Recital
Adolph M. Foerster composed a souvenir prelude for Dr. Heinroth’s 2000th free organ recital, Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, the theme of which is based on the two letters, C and H, standing for the German nomenclature initials of Charles Heinroth. One notes with interest a footnote on the Pittsburgh program to the effect that “talking during the playing is prohibited, and ushers are instructed to enforce this rule. Doors will be closed as soon as a number is begun; no one will !be seated; there must be no loitering in the corridors nor in front of the building.” (Good!)
Another Duval Pupil Scores
Another Duval pupil, Louisette Armande, has just made a success in Italy in Madame Butterfly, in Bergamo at the Sociale Theater. The Gazzettino said as follows : “Louisette Armande was tremendously applauded as Madame Butterfly, of which she made a magnificent incarnation. Her success was most pronounced and a brilliant future is assured the young artist, who is gifted with a voice of exceptional quality and much charm.”
April 12, 1923
DETROIT MUSIC NOTES
Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn Appear.
On March 10, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn and the Denishawn dancers attracted a capacity audience to Orchestra Hall. These fine exponents of the art of Terpsichore gave a colorful program which was found eminently satisfactory. The Detroit Concert Direction, Isobel Hurst, manager, presented the dancers.
Third Concert by Detroit String Quartet.
The Detroit String Quartet gave the third concert in its series of four on March 12, at Memorial Hall. Ilya Schol-nik, William Grafing King and Phillip Abbas, of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, assisted by Hugo Kortschak, viola, of New York, comprised the quartet for this concert. The Beethoven quartet in E minor, op. 59, No. 2; nocturne from quartet, No. 2, by Borodine; Humoresca Scherzando, by Ippolitow Iwanow, and the Grieg quartet in G minor were the numbers given.
E. Robert Schmitz Presented by Tuesday Musicale.
The Tuesday Musicale added to its laurels by presenting E. Robert Schmitz, French pianist, in recital at Memorial Hall. The club opened the concert to the public and a large audience gathered to hear him. At the close of his first number, fantasie and fugue in G minor, Bach-Liszt, the spontaneous applause showed how immediately he had won his audience. A group by Chopin was followed by Debussy’s Children’s Corner, Pell Street, St. Patrick’s Chimes and Times Square from New York Days and Nights, by Whithorne, and a group consisting of Tarentelle, Mosz-kowski; Pavane pour une Infante defunte, Ravel, and toccata, Saint-Saëns. The entire program was one of unalloyed pleasure. At the close of the program, Mrs. Frederic B. Stevens, president of the club, entertained Mr. Schmitz, his host, Guy Bevier Williams, and the Executive Committee of the Tuesday Musicale at luncheon in the Century Building. The place cards bore appropriate sentiments and were surmounted by tiny American and French flags crossed, while the decorations were red, white and blue. In the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Guy Bevier Williams gave a reception for Mr. Schmitz at their home on Delaware avenue.
Maria Jeritza Charms Vast Audience.
Maria Jeritza, presented by the Philharmonic Concert Company, James E. DeVoe, manager, attracted an audience that filled the vast Arcadia to its capacity. Expectations were fulfilled to the uttermost if one might judge by the enthusiasm manifested. Her first number, Divinites du Styx, by Gluck, was followed by a group of German songs. Then came a group in French and English including Mrs. Beach’s Ah Love But a Day and the suicide aria from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Straightforward, legitimate singing brought each number its own atmosphere. William Wolski, violinist, assisted and also found favor with the audience. Walter Golde performed his duties as accompanist for both singer and violinist in a very satisfactory manner.
Guy Filkins Gives Request Program.
For the closing recital of the series which Guy B. Filkins has been giving on the organ of the Central Methodist Church, a request program was presented. It included prelude in C sharp minor, Rachmaninoff-Martin; Romance san paroles, Bonnet; Rhapsody, Silver; Largo (New World symphony), Dvorak-Shinn; La Concertina (Suite Umo-resca), Yon; By the Waters of Babylon, Stoughton; Cathedral Shadows, Mason, and the Pilgrims’ Chorus (Tannhäuser). Alfred S. Cowperthwaite, basso, assisted and sang If Laws Severe (La Juive), Halvey, and The Horn, by Flegier.	J. M. S.
Letters of Appreciation for De Horvath
Cecile de Horvath has received many letters of appreciation as a result of her success in the East and Middle West. James A. Bortz, the Pittsburgh manager, writes:
Your work at Sewickley was most beautiful and I am going to get you more dates on the strength of that wonderful performance. The women of the Sewickley Club told me they enjoyed your work among the very best of all the fine artists they have presented there. Since I have had the treat of hearing 5rou personally I can now talk up your fine work to others.
The president of the Philadelphia Music Club writes:
I want you to know how very much I appreciated your beautiful work. You certainly are a little artist and everyone there felt the same as I do.
The head of the music department of Penn Hall, Cham-b.ersburg, Pa., writes:
I cannot tell you how sorry I am not to have seen you in Philadelphia and heard you play again.־ We enjoyed your recital so much and my pupils still speak of you in such enthusiastic terms.
One of the most prominent Philadelphia musicians wrote Mr. de Horvath:
How delighted we were over Mrs. de Horvath’s success last Monday night, showing very beautifully an immense advance and a great charm of manner which would have pleased you indefinably.
More Festival Engagements for Althouse
Paul Althouse has been engaged to sing another Samson and Delilah performance (in English) at the Springfield, Mass., Music Festival on May 4, thus adding to the list of festival engagements for the popular tenor this season. Incidentally, Mr. Althouse has already sung many performances of the Saint-Saëns work on various occasions.
Mr. Althouse will sing the tenor role in Goring Thomas’ Swan and Skylark on May 15 at the Canandaigua, N. Y., Festival in the afternoon, and follow this performance with a miscellaneous concert program in the evening. He has been engaged to appear with the Waterbury, Conn., Choral Society in a performance of Hauser’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow on May 17.
After an appearance recently in Mexico, Mo., George May, director of music at Hardin College, wired the tenor’s managers, Haensel & Jones, as follows : “Althouse concert great success. Crowd gave artist sensational ovations. Congratulations and best wishes.”
Salmond’s Fourth Time in Beethoven Series
Felix Salmond, cellist, and Jascha Heifetz, violinist, will be among the artists who will appear in the final concert of the Beethoven Association on April 16. This will mark Mr. Salmond’s third appearance in this series this season and the fourth time since his arrival in America last spring. Mr. Salmond has been associated with many noted artists in New York this season.־' He was heard with Sigrid
LEGINSKA
COMPOSITIONS WIN PRAISE IN FOUR COUNTRIES
ENGLAND
“As a composer Leginska was represented by an orchestral work, ‘Beyond the Fields We Know.’ She shows a gift for handling a big orchestra and her music has many original ideas with much that is effective and interesting. The Nursery Rhyme Settings were also very cleverly done.”■—London Daily Chronicle, Nov. 25, 1922.
“The chief work of her compositions performed was a Symphonic Poem. Its orchestration and phraseology are derivative, but often exceedingly clever. In a group of ‘Nursery Rhymes’ for voice and small orchestra she showed a sense of humor as well as of tenderness.”— London Evening Standard, Nov. 25, 1922.
“There can be no question regarding her claims to recognition for her skill in handling modern harmonies and writing for a big orchestra.”—The London Era, Dec. 14, 1922.
“Leginska’s ‘Four Poems for String Quartet’ are based on verses of Tagore. They are whimsical in the extreme and convey the atmosphere of passionate longing, of the poignant mystery of living, of the fugitive happiness of love and of perennial frustration.”—Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 10, 1920.
“Appropriately poetic are the ‘Poems’ of Leginska, of which it should be recorded that they elicited a heartier applause than anything else on the list.”— Philadelphia Inquirer, April 10, 1921.
“ ‘The Gargoyles of Notre Dame’ of Leginska is one of the most radical works among even the modern category of compositions. It is picturesque and fantastic, but does not lack form.”—Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1921.
“Her ‘Dance of the Little Clown,’ a descriptive, effective piece in present day style of writing, she played with much brilliance and it was much liked.”— New York Herald, Feb. 21, 1923.
“ ‘Cradle Song’ had a Russian atmosphere about it that highly pleased the audience. The ‘Dance of the Little Clown’ was so entertaining that Leginska was forced to repeat it. The music of the piece was decidedly weird and original and clearly told the story it was intended to. ‘At Night,’ a muffled, nocturne-like melody, closed the works of Leginska on the program.” —Washington Evening Star, March 2, 1923.
GERMANY
“Werner Wolf conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra in two compositions by the international artist Ethel Leginska—‘Beyond the Fields We Know’ and a ‘Scherzo’ (after Tagore)—which are built up with the knowledge of modern harmony and interpretation and are full of feeling and color. She herself played the piano obligato.”—Berliner Borsen-Courrier, Nov. 22, 1922.
“She proceeds with great daring. ‘Beyond the Fields We Know’ opens the way to dreamland. One wanders, enchanted, through the fullness of the pictures—even London appears—but dreamland is the goal to which she steers. Leginska is surely a woman of vigorous enterprise and marked ability of expression. The bright colors she enrolls she can put together as she wants. Here speaks an individual personality.”—Berliner Zeitung am Mittag, Nov. 20, 1923.
“Ethel Leginska has outgrown the stage of a traveling virtuoso. She presented herself as composer of symphonic poems for orchestra with the Philharmonic under Werner Wolff, which gave a brilliant performance. Leginska has schooled her ear to the most modern and has received decided inspiration. She is not afraid of any daring combination of tones. The themes of her compositions are very significant.”—Berlin Nach-richten, Nov. 20, 1922.
^1 Photo by Arnold Genthe, N. Y.
“Leginska’s compositions attract attention by their uncompromising earnestness and by the complication of their emotion and technique.”—The London Morning Post, Dec. 11, 1922.
ITALY
“No less applause was bestowed on her own compositions. As a composer, Leginska is an ultra-modern and her works, among which we would instance especially the Scherzo inspired by a poem of Tagore and a lively and humorous dance ‘d’un petit Bouffon,’ show as much variety and rarity of rhythm, dissonant and simultaneous tonality as can be found in the most advanced German composers, of Hungarians (like Bartók and others), of Russians (like Stravinsky and Proko-fieff), of Americans (like Ornstein).”—Ildebrando Pizzetti, Florence La Naztone, Nov. 1, 1922.
AMERICA
“Her work shows distinct independence, some of her patterns, rhythmic and harmonic, being extremely ingenious, and more than this, hers is a music vivid and salient, speaking with her own voice just as she plays, an individual who seems no less individual as a creator.”—J. Percival Davis, Flint, Mich., Journal, Feb.
11, 1923.
“Two of her own compositions, illustrating the ultramodern music, delighted the audience perhaps more than any of the other selections. These were ‘Dance of the Little Clown’ and a brief, enchanting ‘Cradle Song,’ which reflected all the warm, sweet tenderness in a mother’s heart as she watches the sandman close her baby’s eyes.”—Norine Wintrow, Lansing, Mich.,
Capitol News, Feb. 3, 1923.
“Two of her own pieces were played. Both were done in the modern style and both were delightful.
She is the inspired composer reaching out with her thought: the modern, scoffing at convention, eagerly making mental pictures for her listeners, using dissonances, too, if she thinks it necessary to her task. She makes them like it.”—Robert Kelly, Detroit News,
Jan. 31, 1923.
“The second half of her programme was the more interesting, including as it did two works of her own—
‘Dance of the Little Clown,’ ineffable, wistful, impressionistic picture, and ‘Cradle Song,’ a fragment of twilight reverie, touched, too, with the sadness and seeming to fade away without ever getting back to its keynote.”—Detroit Evening Times, Jan. 31, 1923.
“Leginska’s ‘Poems’ sound as mature and expert music. She speaks with her own voice—an individual interpreter. She seems no less individual as a creator.
Hers is a music vivid and salient.”—Boston Evening Transcript, April 26, 1921.
Leginska Compositions Are Published by G. Schirmer, 3 E. 43rd St., New York, John Church Co., 318 W. 46th St., N. Y. DUO-ART RECORDS	KNABE PIANO	AMPICO RECORDS
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