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MUSICAL COURIER
May 24, 1923
“WHAT IS BROAD CULTURE FOR MUSIC STUDENTS?”
A Talk with Walter Spry
and a most interesting number, When I Was Seventeen (Kramer), arranged from a Swedish melody, which brought the young singer much enthusiastic applause from the large audience. She offered as an encore a Russian selection, The Steppe, for which she received a request from several of her listeners.
MINNEAPOLIS NOTES
U. of M. Choral Society Makes Initial Bow.
The University of Minnesota Choral Society, under the experienced and competent baton of Earle G. Killeen, made its initial bow on April 16 at the University Armory. Anna JBurmeister, soprano; Edna Indermaur, contralto; James Price, tenor, and Walter Greene, baritone, were the soloists, and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra furnished the instrumental background. They all united successfully in a splendid performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Mr. Killeen had his forces well in hand. The University of Minnesota has been very much in need of an organization of this kind and now that this need has been met, it is undoubtedly destined to play an important part in the future activities of the university. Mr. Killeen is the right man for the place, and the university is to be congratulated upon having obtained his services.
Mme. Bailey-Apfelbeck Heard in Recital.
Mme. Bailey-Apfelbeck, the distinguished pianist and teacher, brought her three piano recitals to a close on April 9 with a program devoted to compositions by Schubert and Schumann. As at the two previous recitals, a large and discriminating audience enjoyed Mme. Apfelbeck’s artistic offerings.
St. Olaf Lutheran Choir Appreciated.
Musical art in its purest and most exalted form was in evidence at the auditorium recently, when the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir gave one of its excellent concerts to a large and appreciative audience. That its director, F. Melius Christiansen, is a genius in his line, is amply proven by the perfect work of the choir. Beauty of tone, power, whenever required, most exquisite pianissimi, perfect phrasing, shading, diction, in fact everything that goes into perfect choral work was there to make an artistic whole which would be difficult to excel. Over it all there seems to float a spiritual quality and a sort of glorification which make a concert by this choir more a sacred rite than a musical entertainment. The program contained the usual contrapuntal masterworks and closed with a fine setting of the fiftieth Psalm by Mr. Christiansen. A Magnificat by Stanley R. Avery, a Minneapolis composer, was finely sung and gave evidence of his contrapuntal skill. Modern French idioms, undoubtedly due to Mr. Avery’s recent sojourn at the Fon-taineblau school, gave the number a note of refreshing piquancy.	G. S.
Unique Recital at the Möller Little Theater
Heien Möller’s Little Theater for the Greek Dance, atop the Lexington Theater, held another enthusiastic audience, May 11, when a recital was given, this time by vocal pupils of Oscar Saenger, the well known vocal teacher and coach. These pupils have been under instruction of Helen Möller in a new creation of dance and song, and that they showed the results of painstaking work was immediately noticeable.
Those who have frequented Miss Möller’s unique theater with its artistic hangings and lights, know the delightful times always to be enjoyed there. This event, however, was exceptional, and especially noteworthy as being, as far as the writer knows, the first time a well known vocal teacher and mistress of the terpsichorean art have combined in such a presentation. Both Miss Möller and Mr. Saenger are to be congratulated!
Louis Robert Succeeds Walter Henry Hall
Louis Robert, who came from Holland to New York last fall, and is warmly endorsed by Mengelberg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alphonse Mailly (Belgian organist), has been chosen as successor to Walter Henry Hall as organist and director of Holy Trinity P. E. Church, Brooklyn. Mr. Hall’s predecessor was Dudley Buck, and from this the importance of the position may be gauged. Mr, Robert conducted a selected women’s choir from the Schola Cantorum in a concert of the Thursday Evening Club, at Mrs. Stephen Clark’s house, New York City, May 19. He also accompanied Dusolino Giannini in Italian, Russian and French songs.
Miss Farr’s recent performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra compared favorably with the best foreign soloists who appeared in Chicago last season. She had less than three months to prepare a Saint-Saëns concerto and the public may await a still more brilliant performance when she appears next season, as I expect she will, after proper preparation. I would not be misunderstood that I do not believe in broad general culture, in fact I urge my pupils not only to attend various recitals, instrumental and vocal, but to go regularly to the orchestra concerts, become acquainted with the orchestral scores, study the operas and read good books besides becoming acquainted with the great painters represented at our Art Institute. Incidentally, if the pupils happen to be young ladies they could take up a little domestic science. If they will follow out this general line of study, there is no reason why American teachers cannot produce just as good pupils as come from the studios of European masters. I am willing to place not only Miss Farr but also, other pupils of mine beside those who come from the great teachers in Europe today.
“But I urge teachers to take drastic measures regarding the possibilities of their pupils and consider whether they will submit to the curriculum offered in our public schools or map out for themselves a course of study their pupils should have. As a nation we do not need to take a back seat with other musical peoples, but there are more talents going to seed in this country than are developed because of the facts mentioned above. When Miss Farr appeared March 22 at the ‘popular’ concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she played the Saint-Saëns G minor concerto, under Frederick Stock, and received an ovation from the immense audience present. No greater praise, however, could have been given to Miss Farr or her teacher than when after the performance Frederick Stock said that ‘Miss Farr has great talent and shows excellent training.’ ”
R.
“Miss Kemper, though young, already has command of a good style” (New York Evening Post), these are but a few of the many splendid press tributes which Miss Kemper has won since her debut as a concert artist.
One of Miss Kemper’s forthcoming appearances is a reengagement, at the request of Elbert Hubbard, II., for the Roycrofters’ Convention at East Aurora, N. Y., in July next.
May Peterson Sings for Mu Phi Epsilon
May Peterson, of the Metropolitan Opera Company, was the soloist at the musical tea for the benefit of the Club House Fund given by the New York chapter of the Mu Phi Epsilon, national honorary musical sorority, on the afternoon of May 7 at the Netherland Hotel. Miss Peterson, charming as always and in splendid voice, sang Nuit d’Etoiles, Debussy; Le Coeur de ma mie, Dalcroze; Memory, Ganz; Homage to Spring, MacFadyen; Maria’s Lullaby, Reger; Hans und Crete, Mahler; Wings of Night, Wintter-Watts, and Pippa’s Song, Black. She added to the understanding of the songs by saying a few words about the text in a most graceful and informal manner. Her interpretations were inspired by deep feeling and genuine sympathy and understanding for the music as well as the dramatic value of the words. The warm lusciousness of her voice lent an indescribable charm to every number and moved her distinguished audience to hearty applause. She was accompanied with skill by Charles Touchette, who gave her effective support. The tea was a pronounced success under the chairmanship of Mrs. Arthur Hackett.
Haywood Presents Artist Pupil in Recital
Frederick H. Haywood, the well known vocal teacher, presented his artist-pupil, Margaret Summerhays, in a recital on Sunday afternoon, April 29, at his Seventy-first street studios. Accompanied by Emil Polak at the piano, Miss Summerhays offered a varied collection of songs in French, Italian and English. She possesses a clear soprano voice of excellent quality and wide range, quite capable of doing justice to the short but difficult program rendered. Opening with Haydn’s Del mio core (Orpheus e Euridice), she included Wolf-Farrari’s Angiolo delicato; Respighi’s Razolan sopra a 1’Aja, Le Galline; Debussy’s 11 pleure dans mon coeur; de Fontenailles’ Roses d’Hiver, as well as an aria from Thais. Perhaps her English group proved the most popular, consisting of Gliere’s Ah, Twine No Blossoms; Twilight (Dobson); April, My April (Milligan),
The recent contest under the auspices of the Society of American Musicians in Chicago revealed to the big public some talents of extraordinary ability. Of these, Margaret Farr received the highest markings among the pianists, both in the preliminary and final contests, and the fact that she has received her training only in this country is something of which the American public should be proud. It might be of interest at this time to follow the incidents that led up to Miss Farr’s success, and the writer asked her teacher, Walter Spry, to give him some facts regarding the training of his talented pupil during the last eight years. Mr. Spry said:
“It was about this time that I was listening to a concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in which Tina Lerner was the soloist. In the program book it stated that she began her career at eighteen years of age with the various European orchestras, and she was about twenty-one when she made her first American tour. It occurred to me that Miss Lerner, who was not in my opinion more than ordinarily talented at that time, could not have attained this state of development unless her education had been different from most of our American young people. So I wrote a letter to the ‘Voice of the People’ column of the Chicago Tribune, in which I stated that talented pupils would better give up their high school course and devote themselves to music rather than wait until it was too late. I realized the radicalism of this view but since then I have been convinced that our high schools are not at all what they could be and the curriculum is not practicable for those who wish to achieve great distinction in artistic lines. The demands are so enormous that it is necessary to spend the main part of one’s energy in study in his special line. From this letter to the Tribune I had a call from Mr. Farr, who placed his daughter with me.
“The success of this venture may be measured from the fact that one of our leading teachers in Chicago stated that
Ruth Kemper Plays at D. A. R. Convention
At the special request of President General Mrs. George Maynard Minor, Ruth Kemper, violinist, played at the opening of the thirty-second Continental Congress of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution on Monday morning, April 16, and again on Tuesday afternoon, April 17, at the Memorial Service. The young violinist won hearty congratulations on the evening of April 20, when she played a group of solos to take the place of General Pershing, who was scheduled to make an address. Mabel C. Linton was Miss Kemper’s accompanist at these appearances in Washington, D. C.
A large and enthusiastic audience heard Miss Kemper in Fairmont, W. Va., when she was presented recently by the Women’s Music Club. Following this concert there was a successful appearance in Salem, W. Va., “Brilliant Young Violinist Heard in Concert at Scottish Rite Chorus,” so read a double column headline in the Wheeling Register of March 19, the day following Miss Kemper’s appearance in Wheeling, W. Va. The writer of that paper then stated: “Miss Kemper demonstrated the fact that an American girl, wholly educated and trained in this country, can reach a degree of artistry that is a credit to all concerned.” The critic of the Wheeling Intelligencer was equally enthusiastic, stating that “With her opening number she demonstrated her mastery of the bow and as the program proceeded she further established her art. She has a winning personality and a mature mental grasp of her numbers. It is hoped that Wheeling will hear more of her in the future.”
Miss Kemper’s appearance as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra prompted the critic of the Baltimore News to comment thus: “Miss Kemper is a young artist who possesses many excellent qualities. Her tone is musical and her technic clean. Her intonation is also pure, but the chief point about her playing lay in her ability to present a really difficult work with comparative ease.” “She plays with the authority and repose of an experienced artist,” such was the opinion of Mary M. Howard in the Lockport Union-Sun and Journal after the violinist’s appearance in Lockport.
“Miss Kemper is a violinist of indisputable talent and marked ability” (Boston Herald), “Miss Kemper is a violinist of unusual natural ability” (Toronto Saturday Night), “Miss Kemper evidenced considerable ability in expressing on her instrument the more subtle and complex emotions” (Elizabeth, N. J., Daily Journal), “Miss Kemper is an artist through and through” (Clarksburg, W. Va., Exponent),
Will Teach in New York the Entire Summer
Studio: 124 Waverly Place, New York
Telephone: Spring 4557
RUDOLF LARSEN
Assistant to LEOPOLD AUER tor six years
VIOLINIST
Mezzo Soprano
410 Knabe Building New York
CLAIR EUGENIA SMITH
JOSEPH SCHWARZ
Exclusive Management:
S. HUROK, Aeolian Hall, New York
Distinguished European Baritone