27
MUSICAL COURIER
which displayed more fully the lyrical qualities of her art.
Mr. Levitzki was no less successful; his masterful interpretation of Rubinstein’s Staccato Etude was greeted with prolonged applause while his other numbers gave much pleasure to his auditors.
George Roberts, the composer-pianist, the singer’s sympathetic accompanist, and A. H. Nachbar, the well known local flutist, both ably supported her. The recital was under the local management of L. J. Laverock. A. J
Leone Kruse to Go on Tour
Among the April engagements for the dramatic soprano, Leone Kruse, were an appearance at the Commodore Hotel for the Criterion Society and an engagement in Norfolk, Va., on April 25 under the auspices of the Treble Clef Club. Miss Kruse was heard by a member of the latter organization recently in New York and was immediately engaged for the Norfolk concert. A tour of Michigan has been booked for the month of May.
Erna Rubinstein to Play in Akron
Owing to the fact that she is remaining in America late this season in order to fill festival engagements in May, Erna Rubinstein will not be available again before January 1 next, because of the many appearances awaiting her in Europe. She has been engaged by the Tuesday Musical Club, of Akron, Ohio, for a recital there on February 6 next.
Photo by Mishkin, N. Y.
Norman Johnston
-------"Baritone-------
“Norman Johnston, baritone, gave a song recital yesterday afternoon in Aeolian Hall. This newcomer revealed merits which commend him to the consideration of observant music lovers. He sang songs of varying sentiments and styles with intelligence and with a finish which proved that he had studied each lyric carefully. His phrasing and shading were good. His tone production was free and in the delivery of head tones he showed the kind of skill that many singers seek but fail to find.’’
—W. J. Henderson in New York Herald.
Direction of
EVELYN HOPPER
Aeolian Hall, New York City
are Mrs. A. Green, chairman, and Ruth Cohen, secretary-treasurer. An opening address was made by Dr. Leopold Glushak, a tenor recently returned from abroad, and he later sang the Flower Song from Carmen. _ Mr. Bleicher, baritone, rendered the prologue from Pagliacci. Prof. Green, teacher of voice culture and repertory, and his wife were heard in a duet from II Trovatore, accompanied by Mr. Markoff, a Russian tenor and composer. Mr. Markoff, who returned from Russia recently, sang a Russian folk song. Prof, and Mrs. Green were also heard in solos, the former singing an aria from La Boheme and the latter an aria from Giaconda. Miss Berger rendered My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice, from• Samson and Delilah.
Dancing followed the program and refreshments were served. The aim of the society is to promote grand opera in the Bronx. Bernard Cantor will- have charge of the staging.
Ghalif School’s Children’s Recital
It must have been a tremendous undertaking to get up a dance recital such as that arranged for the closing exercises of the children’s classes of the Chalif Russian School of Dancing at Carnegie Hall on the afternoon of April 14. So many children took part in the program, from the very tiny tots to the older girls, that it is greatly to their credit that everything went off so smoothly.
Part one consisted of a new ballet in one act by Louis Chalif called Once Upon a Time, in which a beggar, prince, princess, peasant children, elves and fairies took part. Of course, there was the happy ending. The malignant spe'.l over the beggar being broken, he is transformed into a prince and is restored to his princess, presumably to “live happily ever after.” Mr. Chalif not only wrote this ballet, but all of the dances on the program—and there were some forty of them—are his compositions. One could not help but notice the variety of steps which Mr. Chalif uses in his dances and the very effective grouping which he attains in many of the numbers.
Part two was devoted to character dancing, part three to interpretative dancing, and part four to national dancing, and on the whole there was much grace, beauty, and feeling for rhythm displayed by the youthful dancers. There were too many participants to mention them all by name, but a word of praise should be given to Sylvia Blank, for during one of the intermissions she played piano selections by Lavellee, Mozart and Bach with assurance, and she also caught the proper spirit of the dance solos in which she appeared.
The costumes for the entire performance were very appropriate and some of them very beautiful. The children taking part in the program appeared to enjoy themselves just as much as their audience.
The aim of the Chalif School in teaching dancing to children is not primarily to give exhibitions, though these have their value, too, in developing poise and eliminating self-consciousness. Mr. Chalif’s real aim is to cause children to grow up straight and strong with a noble, erect bearing. According to a program note, another aim is to impart grace of movement and habitual charm of posture. But the final and crowning achievement is the bringing out of the child’s personality, so that not only in dancing, but in every-day life, she may have the gift of self-expression, and may reveal that precious something which makes her different from all other children.”
Society of the Friends of Music Under New Management
Announcement has recently been made that the management of the Society of the Friends of Music has been undertaken by the Universal Concert Bureau of New York. The plans now in hand for the coming season are of vast scope׳ and will provide for ten subscription concerts, the number having been increased as a result of the eager response and interest in the activities of the season just past. Among the artists engaged up to the present time for the series are Mme. Charles Cahier, Mme. Rethberg, Orville Harrold, Paul Bender, Jacques Urlus; pianists—Carl Friedberg, Harold Bauer, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, and Bronislaw Huberman, violinist.
A special concert is planned for the opening of the season on October IS, at which time Pfitzner’s cantata will be given with an orchestra of one hundred and five, chorus of two hundred and the following quartet: Rethberg, soprano; Cahier, contralto; Harrold, tenor, Bender, bass. This marks the first performance of this work in America. Mr. Bod-anzky will again be the conductor and the chorus will once more be under the able direction of Stephen Townsend for the coming season, which from all indications bids fair to eclipse any in the history of the organization.
Toledo to Have Fine Concert Series
Grace Denton has arranged a splendid series of six evening concerts to be given at the Rivoli Theater in Toledo, Ohio. Appearances have been booked as follows: Ernestine Schumann Heink, contralto; John McCormack, tenor; the Cleveland Orchestra, with Nikolai Sokoloff conducting and Renato Zanelli, baritone, as soloist; Anna Pav-lowa and her Ballet Russe of eighty members; Charles Hackett, tenor, in joint recital with Lionel Tertis, viola player, and Frieda Hempel, “The Jenny Lind of Today,” in a duplicate of the first Jenny Lind concert given in this country.
Mary Garden Booked for Forty Concerts
Mary Garden is booked for a concert tour of forty concerts, opening at Lynn, Mass., on September 30, and going to the Pacific Coast and back. This will include a New York recital at Town Hall.
Miss Garden has cabled that she will sail on the Olympic September 19, arriving in the United States September 25. The concert tour is under the direction of Charles L. Wagner.
Macbeth Delights Vancouver Crowds
Vancouver, B. C., March 27.—Florence Macbeth, coloratura soprano, in a joint recital with Mischa Levitzki, pianist, delighted the large and enthusiastic audience which crowded the Orpheum Theater last Tuesday evening, winning a thoroughly earned ovation after her exquisite singing of the mad scene from Lucia with flute obligato. She also sang a group of old English and Norwegian folk songs,
April 26, 1923
Louise Baer a Favorite with Clubs
Louise Baer, a talented and charming young soprano, has been winning enthusiastic press praise wherever she has appeared in concert this season. In these reviews of her recitals one reads such phrases as “Miss Baer presented a difficult program in a most finished manner,” “The singer possesses a voice of great warmth and clearness,” “She sings ׳with dramatic instinct and feeling,” “Miss Baer entirely
LOUISE BAER,
soprano.
won her audience,” “Every word was clear and well cut,” “Miss Baer possesses a voice charmingly melodious and unusually flexible.”
Among Miss Baer’s engagements mention might be made of February 20, when she sang at Mary Wood College in Scranton, and February 21, when she sang for the Scranton Kiwanis Club. The following day, February 22, she gave great pleasure in an appearance before the Rotary Club of Harrisburg. Miss Baer evidently is a great favorite with clubs, for on February 23 she sang for the Kiwanis Club of Harrisburg. April 24 the soprano was heard at the Plaza in New York, when the Rotary Club gave their annual banquet. May 15 will find Miss Baer filling another engagement in Harrisburg.
Grainger Preparing Compositions for Publication
Having concluded, in December, his European tour of fifty-eight concerts, Percy Grainger is now taking a complete rest of several months from his p’anistic work, in order to complete several major compositions for chorus, orchestra and chamber music, which are promised to publishers in Europe and America. Mr. Grainger is now holding rehearsals of these works in Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany, prior to handing over the manuscripts to the engravers. In addition to this compositional work, Mr. Grainger has been training the Riihlsche Gesangverein_ (one of the largest and finest choral societies in Germany) in The Song of the High Hills, by Frederick Delius, for the Delius Festival, held in Frankfurt early in March. Arrangements for two pianos by Grainger of two of the most important orchestral works of Anglo-Saxon composers have just been published by European houses—Three Symphonic Dances, by Cyril Scott (arranged by Percy Grainger), published by B. Schott’s Soehne, Mayence, and A Dance Rhapsody, by Frederick Delius, (arranged by Percy Grainger), published by Universal Edition, Vienna.
Frieda Klink Re-engaged for Glens Falls
On March 20 Frieda Klink appeared in recital at the First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, N. Y., under the auspices of the Glens Falls Women’s Club. The contralto sang three song groups and a Verdi aria as her fourth number and was forced to respond to numerous encores. Mary Ades, pianist, played a Debussy and Liszt group. Such was the success of the performance that both artists were re-engaged for April 6. Another recent engagement for Miss Klink was in recital at Columbia University, New York, with Edith Henry at the piano. The contralto sang four song groups, two in English and one in French and German, respectively. Many encores were given.
New Musical Society in the Bronx
The newly organized Bronx Musical Society held its first meeting and musicale at the studios of Prof, and Mrs. Arturo Green on April 5. The officers of the organization
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