MUSICAL COURIER
May 31, 1923
THE past musical season has brought new and high honors to Ernest Schelling honors which re-affirm his title as one of the greatest musical personalities that America may claim and as one of the outstanding figures in the world of music today.
Mr. Schelling’s pianism may be summarized in the words of Richard Aldrich in the New \ ork Times:
“Mr. Schelling’s playing was of the most brilliant kind, that nevertheless did not let the poetic basis of the music escape him; a superb exposition of technical accomplishment directed solely toward the interpretation of the music, and not at all to the exploitation of the player. Mr. Schelling was enthusiastically applauded and many times recalled.”
The production of Mr. Schelling’s orchestral work, “A Victory Ball,” by the Philadelphia and Philharmonic Orchestras, conducted by Messrs. Stokowski and Mengelberg respectively, within a few weeks, was the high point in American orchestral music this season. A subsequent performance by the C hicago Symphony Orchestra under Dr. Frederick Stock deepened the impression of this composition. As Henry T. Finck said in the New York Evening Post, “Like Liszt and Rubinstein and Paderewski he handles the orchestra with the same brilliant virtuosity as his own keyboard instrument.” Mr. Finck notes that “A Victory Ball” will be played next season “by orchestras from New \ ork to San Francisco,” and he might have added in Europe, for it will be produced there shortly.
Another honor accorded to Ernest Schelling was that bestowed by the United States. Mr. Schelling’s services as a Major in the A. E. F. won for him the Distinguished Service Medal, which was awarded to him at Governor’s Island, New York, on May IS, by Major-General Robert Lee Bullard. In the photograph, Mr. Schelling’s teacher and warm friend,
Ignace J. Paderewski, is shown as a proud spectator of a ceremony which brought to a close a year of honors for a great pianist, a great composer, and, in the finest sense of the word, a great American.
Mr. Schelling will start his next season on December 1, and will be in the country throughout the musical year. He will be heard as recitalist, orchestral soloist and conductor, and his compositions will be played throughout the country. The interest already manifested in Mr. Schelling’s 1923-1924 tour proves that Americans are quick to recognize greatness in their own people.
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(Photo by Bain News Service)
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