55 MUSICAL COURIER April 26, 1923 unsophisticated awkwardness and confidence of the children with their faces turned towards the roses and knowing nothing of the thorns that beset the path. Of course, the older the pupil was and the better she played the more conscious she became of nerves. Shakespeare knew all about it when he wrote: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. ’ March Hares. Other artists whom I heard during the month of March include Mary Congreve, Elsie Ratcliffe, Sammons, Murdock, Adela Delines, Sarah Fischer, Annabel _ McDonald, Dambois, Harry Field, Lily Zachner, Edith Robinson, Betty Polischuk, Michael Doré, Mischa Léon, Dr. Lierhammer, Rae Robertson, Wilfred Ridgeway and Jessie Snow. Gershwin in London. I ran across George Gershwin, of New York, the other day. He is over here to furnish the music for a great revue at the Empire Theater, and from all accounts I hear the Gershwin music will soon be sung and whistled all over London. Clarence Lucas. (winner of the Nora Seeley Nichols’ prize given by the Musicians’ Club of Phoenix). A vocal number by Mrs. Adamson of Willcox (State winner of the national young artists’ contest) ; two vocal trios by Mrs. John Newcomer, soprano; Mrs. George Dawe, second-soprano, and Mrs. C. E. Pettingall, contralto, an instrumental trio by Leona Pomeroy, Irma Jordan and Mrs. O. E. Fergueson, and harp selections by Mrs. H. L. Partridge, of Globe, completed the list. T. N. A. Lillian Gustafson Wins Artist Diploma A distinguished music jury awarded the artist’s diploma to Lillian Gustafson, coloratura soprano, at her trial concert at the Institute of Music Art on Wednesday evening, April 18. The jury, which consisted of Mme. Sembrich, Frank LaForge, George Meader and W. J. Henderson, attached the further prize of “with honest honors” to Miss Gustafson’s diploma. She gave a program of wide range, from Bach to Handel, through Schubert and Chopin, to Debussy, assisted by Arthur Loesser at the piano, and Arthur Lora, flutist. Mr. Loesser, who is a graduate of the Institute, was accompanist for Mischa Elman on his recent Oriental tour. There are six other contestants for the artists’ diplomas at the Institute this year. The jury awards on their work will be made on Saturday afternoon, May 5, when they will all appear on one program. Sundelius, Edwards and Forsberg for Brooklyn Marie Sundelius, the Metropolitan Opera soprano; Elizabeth Edwards, soprano, daughter of United States Senator Edwards, and Conrad Forsberg, pianist, will be heard in Brooklyn in concert on May 12. NYIREGYHAZI (Pronounced NEAR-EDGE-HARZI) “A large audience wildly enthused over this poetic youth’s marvelous playing.”—New York Telegraph. Management: R. E. JOHNSTON Associates: L. G. BREID and PAUL LONGONE 1451 Broadway, New York City see scores of people offer good money in vain at the box office long after the hall was completely filled! Klein on Mozart. Herman Klein’s lecture in Wigmore Hall on How to Sing Mozart, illustrated by the delightful singing of Leonie Zi-fado, was one of the most enjoyable as well as illuminating entertainments I ever attended. The lecturer explained clearly how the great decline in the vocal art happened and why the art of singing is at such a low ebb today. He pointed out that Wagner was only too glad to get the services of. the great singers at the beginning of his career, but that Wagner’S־ dramatic style and powerful^ accompaniments had been mainly responsible in preventing the development of the young singers. It is to be hoped that the lecture will be put into book form so that the musical world may read it. Roses and Thorns. I turned aside from the beaten path a few days ago and went to a recital by eight piano pupils of Mrs. Augustus Milner in Steinway Hall. It was refreshing to see the Mesa, Ariz., April 14.—The third annual convention of the Arizona Federation of Music Clubs was held April 9-10, in the High School Auditorium. The address of welcome was made by Myra Raymond (Mesa Club) at the Monday morning session and was responded to by Mrs. II. D. Ross (Musicians’ Club, Phoenix). Besides the various reports and transaction of business, two piano numbers were played by Thora Allen. The Junior Department gave a “Statewide Program” in the afternoon. Piano, violin and dance numbers were given by Jack Murphy (Phoenix), Jean Frances Cleary (Temple), Louis Vaughn (Osborn district), Betty Bernard (Tucson), Margaret Hooker (Alhambra), Francis H. Redewill, Jr. (Balsz), Harriet Griffith (Tucson), Ruth Steele (Tempe), Isabelle Caldwell (Tucson), June Weber and Edna Browning (Chandler), Luisa Gabaldon (Safford), Dorothy Attaway (Mesa), Helen Wolpe (Phoenix) and Genevieve MacDonald. A talk on the activities of the Tucson Junior Branch was given by the president, Ann Eve Mansfield, and the orchestra of the Mesa Club and band of the Phoenix Club opened and closed the program. The Saturday Morning Musical Club, of Tucson, gave the evening program, which included vocal numbers by Constance Miller Silverton, Nita Galneh Post and Je.re Metzger, a duet by Mrs. Simon Heineman and Lois Whis-ler, •and piano numbers by Heloise McBride and Mrs. Martin L. Girton. The last half of the program was devoted to operatic numbers; arias were sung by Mrs. R. A. Bushman, Mrs. Milton Burnett, Mrs. Ernest Upshaw, Mrs. H. W. Gill and Armida Pacheco; the quartet from Rigoletto was presented by Armida Pacheco, Mrs. Milton Burnett, Joseph Reisner and Fred J. Desch and the sextette from Lucia by Mrs. R. A. Bushman, Mrs. H. W. Gill, J. Riesner, V. Ayers, D. L. Lias and F. J. Desch. The Tuesday morning business meeting was entertained by piano solos played by Musette Brown. An All-State program was presented in the afternoon by Lenore PurceJl, of Casa Grande; Claire Canon, of Phoenix, and Mrs. J. L. Bedwell, of Tucson, pianists; Mrs. Cedric Burwell Davis, of Bisbee; Mrs. John Newcomer, of Douglas, and Mable Angle, of Tempe, vocalists, and Marie S. Szyperski, of Globe, violinist. The evening program comprised ensemble numbers by Miss Rebeil and Trio, of Tucson, and the Vil-lagrana Opera Class with Rafael Villagrana, conductor; piano numbers by Violet Stallcup of Miami (State winner in the national young artists’ contest) and Eleanor Lewis no sonata so called, though Schumann’s Fantasia in C is far more like a formal sonata than Beethoven’s last sonata Mitja Nikisch also played a concerto with orchestra and afterwards gave a piano recital in. Queen’s Hall. But his program, with the exception of two small pieces by Rachmaninoff, was composed entirely of sonatas. The pianist was apparently bent on defying popularity. He began with Schumann’s little known sonata in F sharp minor—a work which is little known, mainly because the public has shown no desire to become familiar with it. Then came a sonata by Scriabin, which was not rapturously applauded, to say the least. I hold myself entirely aloof from the English critic who says that Scriabin is the most striking personality in music since Bach, and from the other critic who says that Scriabin will be forgotten in ten years. I will kindly allow the next generation to settle the fate of Scriabin. Mitja Nikisch ended his recital with Liszt’s B minor sonata. The pianist again proved himself to be an artist of the most exalted type, with a keenly analytical mind, a very fine sense of tone variety, great power and the utmost delicacy and a splendid technical equipment. Craxton Plays Old English Music. Harold Craxton, a pianist who spends most of his time with his pupils at the Royal Academy of Music and nearly all the rest of it playing accompaniments superbly for vocalists and violinists in recitals, gave two recitals in Wigmore Hall very recently which call for much more than a passing notice. He played a little Bach and Chopin, presumably to show that he could perform the familiar recital compositions as well as anybody else if he chose to do so. But the greater part of his programs were given to the old English works of Byrd, Farnaby, Dowland, Bull, Blow, Purcell, Arne, nearly all of which were composed before the days of Bach, Scarlatti and Couperin. English music suffered a grievous check during the civil wars in the days of King Charles and in the triumph of Puritanism under Cromwell. Before it could revive it was brushed aside by the German Handel and left to be forgotten in its old fashioned notation. A few years ago the Mss. were collected from libraries and museums, transcribed in modern notation and published for the piano. They are now in a much more durable and satisfactory condition than when the composers wrote them for the twanging lute and the tinkling clavichord. Their history is curiously like that of the architecture—ptherwise frozen music—of the oak supported roof added to old St. Stephens’ Hall of the Houses of Parliament by King Richard II in 1399. During the past ten years the worm eaten oak beams have been taken down, one by one, saturated with chemical preservatives, hollowed out, filled with steel girders, and replaced where they look exactly like the beams the splendor-loving Richard II erected more than five centuries ago. Harold Craxton has demonstrated that English pianists need not play foreign works exclusively. No one wishes to hear a recital of Scarlatti, or an entire program of pieces by Couperin or Rameau. Neither is a concert of old English music cheerful to contemplate. But pianists need no longer ignore completely the composers of the Elizabethan and later old English schools. Another, pianist who played here recently was Irene Scharrer, who gave a recital at Wigmore Hall early in March before an audience that filled it and showed much enthusiasm over her playing. Schumann seems to have a call with pianists this year and her ambitious program included the G minor sonata, a Chromatic Fantasy of Bach, the César Franck prelude, chorale and fugue, and works by Debussy and Ravel. I understand she will be playing for you in America next winter. The Cherniavskys Successful. The concerts by the Cherniavsky Trio in Wigmore Hall have been uniformly successful, both from the artistic and the financial point of view. Large audiences and unstinted applause have been the constant experience of the three brothers who play the violin, the cello and the piano. Their programs are admirably put together to give the variety of solo, duet and trio works, and the solos always get encores. The Cherniavsky brothers are now making a short ’ visit to Egypt before their next London concert prior to an extended tour of the United States and Canada. Charles Hackett Sings Brilliantly. The American tenor, Charles Hackett, passed through London on his way from Spain to his native land and sang a few numbers at one of the Albert Hall Sunday concerts. His brilliant voice and dramatic style were best heard in the modern operatic music in which he has made his name. Spanish audiences had the good fortune to hear him in opera, but the London Sunday afternoon audience had to judge of him as best it could from a miscellaneous selection of religious, lyrical and dramatic, excerpts sung in a hall which is about as large as any five opera houses. But what is a great operatic tenor to do in a land which is temporarily without opera? John Bull, however, probably consoled himself for his operatic shortcomings by reading_ in the newspapers of yesterday: “Huge Surplus on Nation’s Revenue £101,515,000.” Some of the more brilliantly operatic nations of Europe will not find such a statement in their newspapers this year. Gerhardt a Great Favorite. Elena Gerhardt has unquestionably had the greatest success of any vocalist in London this season. She has packed Queen’s Hall three times and now announces a series of recitals in. May. Her first recital was all Schumann. The second recital consisted of songs by Beethoven, Franz, Brahms, Grieg, Liszt, Jensen and Strauss. The third program contained nothing but Schubert:. What more need be said of Elena Gerhardt than the eloquent wail of the business man who told me it was heartbreaking to KNABE PIANO USED AMPICO RECORDS m vALLI~/׳''UBCf A• J־fomer> Samuels ,Pianist ^ JAanagement