MUSICAL COURIER
24
May 3, 1923
state of doubt. It is interesting nevertheless to find the critics on our dailies, some of whom have always seemed to doubt the suitability of English to song, all according Mr. Hemus the burden of proof. The Herald says: “This baritone knows so much about vocal technic and uses his voice with so much interpretative skill that he interests music lovers in all kinds of songs. He sang everything in English last night and made everything intelligible. He gave a clear demonstration of the possibility of conveying to the audience the words of every song with English text.1’ This is by no less an authority than W. J. Henderson, and he adds that the audience “was large and rewarded him with abundant applause.”
The World says: “The vernacular came back into its own last night at Aeolian Hall when Percy Hemus, who will be remembered for his activities in behalf of opera in English, gave his annual song recital. The house .	.	. appar-
ently enjoyed hearing its own tongue again from the platform for the length of an entire program. .	.	. Par-
ticularly well done was our old friend L’Heure Exquise, appearing under the novel title of The Hour of Peace. In any tongue it has, and had last night, color and placid beauty. Like many who champion the native language, Mr. Hemus has a diction which is excellent, which in itself is enough to confound the objectors who say, ‘You can’t understand what they’re singing, no matter what language they sing.’ ”
The American says: “Mr. Hemus is a lusty singer with the assurance that comes of experience and a simple, direct manner of presentation. He is particular as to diction and proves by his excellent enunciation of songs in the vernacular that English is an easy and musical language. .	.	. He
sang with good quality, smoothness and splendid phrasing.”
His program included works from the old masters as well as the new, American and foreign. It might be said that the high point of interest of the program was Rupert Hughes’ vocal scena, Cain. It is a long dramatic poem which one might have expected to be attached to music of the most dramatic and emotional sort. However, the music was missing, and the impression remained that Mr. Hughes is a better scenario writer than a musical scena composer. In spite of all that Mr. Hemus could do, the work remained unimpressive to this critic. Not so the public, however, which g:ave it an enthusiastic hand and forced Mr. Hughes to rise in his box, and bow his acknowledgments.
FRANK FARRELL
Frank Farrell, a New England pianist, assisted by Emily Rosevelt Chadderton, soprano, was heard in recital at Rum-ford Hall Thursday afternoon, April 26.
Mr. Farrell played as opening number Beethoven’s sonata, op. S3, and later gave two groups comprising Eccossaise, Beethoven-Busoni; Pastoral Varie, Mozart; Perpetual Motion, Weber; Clair de Lune, Debussy, and Etude C major, Rubinstein. His playing was received rather coldly.
Mme. Chadderton sang two groups; Aria, Handel-Bibb; Contemplation, Widor; Chanson Provencale, Dell’ Acqua; Life, Curran; Wings of Night, Watts; To Capri (manuscript) Elizabeth Harrington; The Windflowers, Josten, and The Blind Ploughman, Clarke. She was warmly applauded after singing Dell’ Acqua’s Chanson Provencale.
The New York Tribune writes in part: “Mr. Farrell, opening with the Beethoven Waldstein .sonata fared passably in the first movement, but his good intentions were marred by a heavy hand in the finale with an often confused effect.”
Miss Chadderton, beginning with Handel’s Sommi Dei, had a good-sized voice with capacity for expression.
FRIDAY, APRIL 27
SOLON ROBINSON
The enthusiastic applause bestowed upon Solon Robinson at his piano recital at the National Theater, Friday afternoon, April 27, was well merited, for one found here a sincere and well equipped young artist, who had an interesting program and something to say in its performance. To his first number, the Bach-Busoni chaconne, he gave a dignified, musicianly reading and he furthermore displayed an excellent technic. His dynamics are well controlled and he has a good sense of values and variety of tone coloring. The Chopin sonata, op. 58, which offered more opportunity for interpretive skill and contrast in mood, was rendered with artistic effect and understanding. Intelligent musician-ship, earnestness and sensitiveness mark Mr. Robinson’s playing. Ravel’s sparkling Jeux d’eau was a delight. The accuracy, clarity and evenness of rapid scale passages is one of the commendable points of this young pianist’s adequate technic. Two of Rachmaninoff’s preludes, B minor and G major, and two Liszt numbers, Etude de concert in F minor and the Mephisto waltz, completed the printed program, the last named being given with energy, brilliancy and power. The audience remained for a number of encores.
Mr. Robinson has appeared during the past season as soloist with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, under Cad Busch, playing the Liszt E flat concerto, and in the Rubinstein D minor concerto with the Detroit Symphony.
SATURDAY, APRIL 28 WINIFRED BYRD
Winifred Byrd was heard in her annual piano recital at Aeolian Hall, Saturday afternoon, April 28. It was postponed from April 13 because of illness but she showed little trace of it in the taxing program. Her first number, the Brahms B minor rhapsody, was rendered with dramatic fire and rich ׳coloring. Following this was an exquisitely delicate performance of a presto by Scarlatti, The Schumann symphonic etudes were given with vigor, intelligence and skill. But it was in the lighter pieces such as Paderewski’s nocturne and Debussy’s Danse de Puck that Miss Byrd was at her best. Here shone a vivid imagination and feeling for color. A Chopin group included the G minor
lingame Hill, Edward MacDowell and John Powell. The program of the graduation concert was made up of Beethoven’s Egmont overture, Tschaikowsky’s overture-fantasia, Romeo and Juliet, and John Powell’s Rhapsodic Négre for orchestra and piano. The Beethoven overture was given a musicianly reading. The Tschaikowsky overture-fantasia showed to advantage many of the orchestra’s excellent qualities, particularly the smoothness and good tone of the string sections.
There were pleasing contrasts, varied nuances, good technic and feeling in interpretation. Mr. Clifton, a young American conductor of skill and authority, gained effective results in his readings and had the players under admirable control. John Powell played the piano part of his Rhapsodie Négre with brilliancy, energy and spirit and marked rhythmical feeling. It is an interesting composition and was well liked by the audience. The orchestra also should be commended for its rhythm. Mr. Powell was recalled several times, and he insisted on the orchestra’s rising to share the applause with him.
One of the biggest things the orchestra will do is to supply well trained symphony players to other large orchestras. Franklin Robinson, chairman of the executive committee, announced that the society was graduating into the ranks of professional orchestra players thirty-one young men and women in all departments of the orchestra, who would now go out and try to fill places in various orchestras throughout the country. Mrs. E. H. Harriman is the president of the society and it is largely due to her interest and generosity that it has been possible for the organization to continue.
MME. KOSHETZ
Mme. Nina Koshetz, Russian soprano, who has been heard here in both concert and opera during the last two seasons, gave a program devoted entirely to songs of Rachmaninoff at Town Hall on Wednesday evening, April 25. The program began with a group of those dedicated to the
singer. The middle group was made up of Faith, Dissonance—called by the program “probably the most difficult vocal work ever composed,” and the wordless Vocalise. The final group included some of the better known songs.
Mme. Koshetz is an artist to her fingertips, particularly fine in the interpretation of anything dramatic. The program itself seemed to become a little monotonous toward the end, as all one-man programs are apt to. She was accompanied by a young Russian, Sergi Barsukoff, who played with marked pianistic talent and with decided sympathy the oftentime difficult accompaniments. It was his American debut and he promises to be a valuable addition to the ranks of first-class accompanists.
THURSDAY, APRIL 26 PERCY HEMUS
It only requires such singing as Percy Hemus did at his Aeolian Hall recital on April 26 to convince people, for the moment at least, that English is not only a singable language but that the words can be understood without the aid of printed texts. Why it is that people so easily forget such proof of the singability of our language is one of the mysteries, and always will be, presumably. They listen to and applaud Hemus, and understand and enjoy all that he does, and are convinced. And then they hear some other singer use English texts, find them impossible to understand and ugly to listen to, and are thrown back into their old
NEW YORK CONCERTS
MONDAY, APRIL 23 HELEN AND CONSTANCE HULSMAN
Helen and Constance. Hulsman were heard in a piano recital at the Wurlitzer auditorium, Monday afternoon. Their program was varied, consisting of solo numbers and two-piano selections. Helen Hulsman was heard in By the Brookside (Stojowski), Moonshine (MacDowell), Cracovienne Fantastique (Paderewski), Romance (Schumann) and a Chopin Waltz in A flat, revealing a good touch and technic and thought in interpretation. Constance Hulsman also revealed a facile technic, good tone and rhythmic feeling in her playing of MacDowell’s Shadow Dance and a Song, a Chopin waltz in B minor and Arabesque (Schumann). The two sisters were heard in the first and third movement of the Saint-Saëns concerto in G minor, rendering it with good feeling for ensemble.
HERTA SCHMIDT
On Monday evening, Herta Schmidt, a seventeen-year-old pianist, appeared in a recital at Aeolian Hall. Her program consisted of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique, op. 13, Debussy’s La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin, and To the Sea; Hungarian Study, and An Old Love Story, by MacDowell, and various other well, known. compositions by Grieg, Schumann and Schubert. Miss Schmidt is a pianist of skill, with a light and graceful touch; a young artist who proved herself promissory of many future successes.
The audience was well pleased with her performance and applauded׳ each number enthusiastically.
TUESDA Y, APRIL 24
MARIA CARRERAS
Maria Carreras, who made her first recital appearance in New York in January, gave her third program at Town Hall on Tuesday evening, April 24. Those same splendid qualities which were in evidence at her two other recitals and which have won for her the unstinted praise of press and public, were again in evidence. The intensity of her application and the depth of her interpretive insight caught and held tense the attention of her audience. There was withal a spontaneity which could not but charm. Whether it was in the four Chopin preludes with which she opened the program, the same composer’s fantaisie in F minor, op. 49, the. Beethoven Appassionata sonata or the group of brilliant numbers which closed the program, Mme. Carreras gave to each work an individual interpretation which left its indelible stamp. After the final group, which consisted of Sgambati’s Toccata, Neia and Vecchio minuetto, Rachmaninoff’s Polichinelle, Nepomuceno’s Gallofeira, with its marked Brazilian dance rhythms, and Saint-Saëns’ Etude en Forme de Valse, the enthusiastic audience refused to be satisfied with repeated bowings, demanding and finally obtaining an addition to the program. A huge laurel wreath, tied with the Italian national colors and presented after the Beethoven work, testified to the place accorded Mme. Carreras by her admirers.
The New York papers gave her enthusiastic praise, the Herald speaking of her as an “artist of temperament, musical instincts and intelligence;” the Times referred to her as “a pianist whose personal touch of Spanish romance impressed Berlin as recalling the late Teresa Carreno,” and the World declared that “she played with her wonted brilliance and ripe artistry.”
ARTHUR KLEIN
At Aeolian Hall on Tuesday evening, Arthur Klein, an American pianist, was heard for the first time this season. Mr. Klein has been known in this vicinity for some time as a musician of considerable ability. He gave an interesting and comprehensive performance of all his numbers.
The World considers that Mr. Klein “made a most favorable impression. His playing revealed considerable feeling, reposeful style, good technic and well balanced musician-ship.” The Mail said: “Mr. Klein is not sentimental; intelligence and understanding predominated.” The Sun considers him “a musician of no mean ability. He was dexterous, certain and fleet.” The Globe said that he “not only disclosed a lot of technic, but genuine musical feeling.”
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25 AMERICAN ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY
The American Orchestral Society, Inc., Chalmers Clifton conductor, gave its graduation concert at Aeolian Hall Wednesday afternoon, April 25. This society of young Americans is a post-graduate educational organization. It was noted there were a few young women in the orchestra. Its aims, stated recently in the Musical Courier, are to aid young American symphony players, orchestral conductors, soloists, composers and listeners. The directors of the orchestra feel that it has passed the experimental stage and is ready to give regular concerts of a high standard. And indeed in its performance on Wednesday it proved that it has much to offer and has a good reason for existing. It was received with great enthusiasm by a near-capacity audience which included many persons prominent in social and musical circles. The repertory of the orchestra includes a varied list of works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, Borodine, Brahms, Chabrier, César Franck, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, Rubinstein, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, Tschaikowsky, Vivaldi, Wagner and Weber; and five American composers are represented: Blair Fairchild, Henry Gilbert, Edward Bur-
Grand Opera Tenor
TEACHER OF SINGING
Master of Tone Production and Repertoire
M. E. FLORIO
For appointment write Secretary FLORIO STUDIOS, 170 W. 72nd St., New York City
Will Conduct a Special Master Coijrse in Singing All Summer