MUSICAL COURIER
50
May 3, 1923
concert duet and organ fantasy; and an original improvisation. Petri and Zadora are two of the most brilliant pianists in Berlin, and the enthusiasm and skill displayed by them—they are always inspired when interpreting Busoni—aroused great enthusiasm in the audience, who recalled them time and again. Zadora, by the way, added nothing to his reputation by bowing with a lighted cigarette !	A. Q.
[The music critics of the New York dailies constitute the jury in the appended extracts from criticisms which have appeared in our local newspapers. Many concerts and operas are given in the metropolis, and the following day the critics agree or disagree on the merits or demerits of the performer. However, on most occasions the writers do not agree, and this department is run for the purpose of reproducing some of the flat contradictions, showing that, after all, the review constitutes but the personal opinion of the critic who covers the performance.—Editor’s Note.]
The Brassard Choir, April 17
Herald	Evening Globe
The lofty and mystical spirit of They seemed to aim at little the score was approached with a more than the singing of notes, remarkable^ feeling of reverence by the choir.
Philadelphia	Orchestra,	April 17
Evening Post	Evening Journal
The Tschaikowsky	fantasy-	Tschaikowsky’s Romeo and
overture, Romeo and Juliet, ex- Juliet overture-fantasia preceded ' * ' ' ' 1 ' ׳ r‘ ־ ‘‘
_
noble Liszt symphony even more sky; but now we think it quintes-appreciated.	sential genius.
Marie Mikova, Pianist, April 19
Herald	Sun
.... showed much good school- In these selections lurked much
of interest . . . rather less of taste and less of discretion.
ing and taste.
Delia Reinhardt, Soprano, in Lohengrin, April 20
World
There was no ready palliation for the rather perfunctory and colorless acting that she brought to the part.
American
Her portrayal of the mystic maiden .	. . was dramatically
satisfying.
Sun
She acted with sincere regard for the traditions of the role of Elsa, and made a personable Bra-bantian.
Fleta a Favorite Everywhere
Miguel Fleta, the Spanish tenor, who is, so a well substantiated rumor says, coming to the Metropolitan Opera next season, sings an' extraordinary range of roles, from the light lyric Duke in Rigoletto to Samson in Samson and Delilah. During his season in Mexico City, December, 1922, he sang in fourteen performances including Tosca, Aida, Carmen, Rigoletto, Mefistofele, Pagliacci and La Dolores, the last a Spanish opera. Immediately afterwards he went to Havana to sing in concert, meeting with so much success that no less than ten concerts were given to crowded houses within the space of a month.
Macbeth Delights Portland
Portland, Ore., April 20.—Florence Macbeth, coloratura soprano of the Chicago Opera Company, and Mischa Levitzki, pianist, appeared at the Heilig Theater in joint recital recently, as a Pangle attraction, captivating their audience and responding to many encores. Miss Macbeth, who was accompanied by George Roberts, was especially pleasing in the Norwegian echo song, Kum Kyra, and Roberts’ Pierrot, which had to be repeated, while Mr. Levitzki was heard at his best in the Rubinstein staccato etude and two Chopin etudes.	S. D.
Virginie Mauret to Appear in Asbury Park
It is announced that Mile. Virginia Mauret and her ballet will be the feature number at the St. James Theater of Asbury Park, N. J., on Friday evening, May 4, during the Asbury Park Music Week.
Guthbert Engaged for Oratorio Performance
The well known Mendelssohn Choir, of Pittsburgh, will have Frank Cuthbert, the baritone, in oratorio, on December 28 next, the work to be announced later. The artist recently returned from the Maritime Provinces where he won exceptional success at a series of music festivals.
tion and her somewhat too ample stage presence—ameliorr able faults, both—she would be a recitalist of , popular possibilities.
Cornelia Rider-Possart.
A California woman Germanized by her marriage, but nevertheless American still, Mme. Rider-Possart has again presented herself before the Berlin public with encouraging success. She played an excellent and none too hackneyed program, including Mendelssohn’s E minor prelude and fugue op. 35, which she played with manly strength, imposing tone and great clarity; Haydn’s little D major sonata and other classics, as well as the Schumann G minor sonata and a Chopin group. An amiable personality and a musician, as well as a pianist, of parts, Mme. Rider-Possart quickly regained the sympathies of the Berlin public, which applauded her generously.
Lubka Kolessa.
This young Ukrainian blonde with the flapper smile already has Berlin by its ears. No doubt she is a phenomenal talent—a pianistic prodigy—with a true native instinct for music. One cannot expect a girl at eighteen to be a “finished” artist in every respect, of course, and for some things she is immature. But she plays her Chopin ravish-ingly and again captured a large audience with it by storm. Her Liszt, however, needs polishing up.
Rudolph Reuter.
This American pianist is. a sterling musician and a prodigious worker, who moreover manages to hold his audience’s interest through a long program of the most varied sort. His third Berlin recital ranged from Bach to Dohnanyi, taking the Schumann Carnaval and a big Chopin group, including the Barcarole on the way. I heard a most interesting piece of Granados, and two lovely bits of impressionism, Cyril Scott’s Lotus Land and Palmgren’s Isle of Shadows, played with sensitive touch and color sense, also the tremendously difficult Paderewski Caprice genre Scarlatti, which had to be repeated—a trying physical task at the end of a long recital, which gave Reuter, no trouble whatever. The American composer is, by the way, never absent from the programs of this American artist, and this time two MacDowell etudes won generous applause.
The English Singers.
Whenever the English Singers strike Berlin there is excitement in the musical (mark the word) ranks. Passing through to Prague they sang on a fine Easter ¿unday night and almost filled a fairly large hall. The critics, who are jealous of every holiday, were there in full force—not to criticise but for “sport.” For this music of the sixteenth and seventeenth century is an amusing affair, and to hear six singers sing with the precision and finish of a string quartet is a delight to delicate ears. What makes the work of this unique ensemble fascinating, however, is the intelligence and humor of each and every member, a faculty which expresses itself in the diction, the phrasing and the most delicate inflections given to the words. It is the art of the musician and diseur combined. The program was the . usual one of English and other madrigals and folk songs, with a duet and trio or two thrown in, in which especially the cultivated singing of Clive Cary, baritone, stood out.	C. S.
Roderick White.
Roderick ^Vhite, the young American violinist, gave his first recital since the war in Bechstein Hall on April 3. He was heard in sonatas by Mozart and Grieg and a number of shorter pieces. Just recovering from an attack of the grip, Mr. White’s program was necessarily rather light, but proved nevertheless to be very entertaining. His charming personality as well as his thoroughly individual style won him unstinted applause from a select audience, which insisted on no less than five encores. These consisted of selections by Cecil Burleigh, Samuel Gardiner, Cameron White and others. Mr. White had the able assistance of Waldemar Liachowsky at the piano.	A. Q.
Jenny Sonnenberg.
A program which revealed discriminating taste was given by Jenny Sonnenberg, contralto, in Bechstein Hall on April 6. Beginning with a group of old classic masters—Peri, Monteverde, Gluck and Haydn—Miss Sonnenberg at once commanded attention by reason of her dignified manner and a voice of rich, warm timbre. The slight restraint noticeable at first soon wore off as the program progressed, and in the Schubert and Brahms group Miss Sonnenberg was delightful in every respect. Four songs by the English composers, Rutland Boughton, Frank Bridge, Frederick Keel and Martin Shaw, and an aria from Verdi’s Don Carlos completed the program.	A. Q.
Egon Petri—Michael Zadora.
Two disciples of Busoni—Egon Petri, a teacher in the Hochschule, and the American, Michael Zadora, now a resident of Berlin—appeared in a recital for two pianos devoted entirely to works by their master, Busoni. There was the Fantasia Contrapuntistica, on a fragment of Bach’s, with its four fugues; two arrangements from Mozart, a
Rudolph Polk.
In his fourth appearance this season, Rudolph Polk, the American violinist, presented a conventional program, containing a Handel sonata, the Mendelssohn concerto and numerous short pieces, the most ambitious being Paganini’s Perpetual Motion. It was an evening of good, solid^ and musical playing by a deeply sincere, ambitious and indefatigable artist. The audience was lavish in its approval and insisted on a number of encores.
Walter Gieseking.
Gieseking’s third recital, like his first this season, was devoted to a classic program. Only three works—the third partita of Bach; the Schumann Fantasy, and Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Bach theme—were on the program. These afforded ample opportunity for Gieseking to display his wizardry for exploiting the resources of the piano when played as such, and also to captivate his audience by reason of his sensitive interpretations.
Carl Flesch-Edwin Fischer.
A packed house greeted Carl Flesch and Edwin Fischer for their evening of sonatas in the Singakademie. Individually, both of these Berlin favorites are sterling-musicians, but as a team they do not appear to the best advantage. Fischer is too loud, too wild, too dry and hard for Flesch, and in his turn, Flesch is too reserved, too dignified and perfect for Fischer. In the last movement of the Bach, and in most of the Brahms sonatas, the violin was prac-. tically drowned out. It is questionable whether Fischer will be able.to take the place of Arthur Schnabel, who, with Flesch, became famous for the wonderful sonata evenings which, at one time, were high water marks in Berlin’s musical life.
Ingeborg Lacour-Torrup.
The Danish dancer, Ingeborg Lacour-Torrup, has recently returned from America, where she has lived 'for several years. Her_ programs given at the time of her last visit here are still fresh in my memory. The artistry and the marvelous plasticity of her dancing at that time made a deep impression on all her audience and her success with the press was practically unanimous. Miss Lacour-Torrup does not resort to gorgeous costumes in presenting her interpretation of the dance, but appears in a most unassuming attire. The attention of the public is therefore _ never diverted from the dance itself, but on the contrary is held by the poise, gesture and expression of this gifted artist. At her last concerts the press was again enthusiastic in its opinion.
Cynthia Davril.
An English singer, Cynthia Davril, of London, made her first appearance in Berlin a few evenings ago, and surprised her audience by the intelligent and thoroughly musical interpretation of songs by Hugo Wolf and other German writers. Her German pronunciation, too, hardly betrayed the foreigner even to the practised ear. Most interesting, however, were her selections by composers like Donaudy, Respighi and Falla, as indeed, her whole program (shared with a young Portuguese pianist, Varela-Cid) was distinctly out of the ordinary. Mme. Davril has a very liquid, richly colored mezzo, and the sweetness of her pianissimo shows that there are even more possibilities in her voice than she now exploits. Except for a slightly “thick” voice produc-
GIULIO CRIMI
Tenor, Chicago Opera Company
“It is no grateful task to take the place of the greatest tenor, but Signor Crimi gave a performance of Canio that earned him six curtain calls after the ‘Vesti la Giubba’.”—New York American.
Available before and after the Opera Season 1923-1924
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Mezzo Soprano
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CLAIR EUGENIA SMITH
JOSEPH SCHWARZ
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