23
MUSICAL COURIER
June 21, 1923
I SEE THAT
Clyde M. Carr bequeathed $1,000,000 to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Arturo Papalardo has been engaged to conduct the operatic department at the Herbert Witherspoon Studios.
Horace Britt of the Letz Quartet will fill several individual engagements in California in the early fall.
Dusolina Giannini is the only singer announced as soloist with both the New York Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras next season.
Levitzki was applauded for fifteen minutes at midnight at an American Legion concert in Carnegie Hall.
Mitja Nikisch will make his actual American debut at Wells College, Aurora, N. Y., on October 19.
Lucchese was the only woman star of the San Carlo Opera forced to encore an aria during the Havana season.
The Chromatic Club of. Olean, has booked its course of three concerts for next season with Daniel Mayer.
Charlotte Lund will give five opera recitals for the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Mabel Ritch is now under the management of Evelyn Hopper.
Bruno Reibold, conductor from Essen, Germany, is now in New York.
Einar Hjaltested, a tenor from Iceland, is studying with Ethel Watson Usher and Los Kamp.
Mana-Zucca’s new song, Ah Love, Will You Remember, is proving to be a popular number on concert programs.
The Denishawn Dancers have added three performances in Toronto and two in Detroit to next season’s dates.
Frances Hall, pianist, will enter the concert field in the fall under Charles Drake’s management.
The coming season will mark the Flonzaley Quartet’s fifteenth appearance at Wells College.
Gennaro Mario Curci will hold summer master classes from June 25 to August 25.
Lily Strickland-Anderson, the well known composer, has returned from India.
Hassan, a new opera by Frederick Delius, was produced in Berlin on June 1.
Suzanne Keener already has made seventy-eight concert appearances in this, her debut year.
Jean Gerardy will leave for New Zealand on July 10 to fill fifteen engagements.
John Charles Thomas, who recently met with an automobile accident, is recovering rapidly.
One hundred and twenty American musicians will attend the Fontainebleau School of Music this summer.
In addition to Albert Coates, Eugene Goossens and Vladimir Shavitch have been engaged as conductors of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Leonid Kreutzer’s ballet-pantomime, Der Gott und die Bayadere, had a successful premiere in Berlin.
Mischa Elman’s American tour for next season has been booked solidly.
Olga Steeb will open the Olga Steeb Piano School in Los Angeles, Cal., September 4.
Maurice Dambois filled sixty-one engagements in England, France and Belgium last season.
Guiomar Novaes will not sail for Brazil until June 23 so that she can complete her records for the Victor.
Parish Williams, the American baritone, is winning success in recital in Europe.
Arthur Hubbard, the Boston teacher of famous singers, will teach in Los Angeles during July and August.
Franklin Riker is to have a new and larger studio in the Metropolitan Opera House Building.
Vienna will have Passion Play performances along the lines of the Oberammergau productions.
The Russian Opera Company will have an eight weeks’ season in Mexico.
Bruno Huhn left New York on June 16 for Pasadena, Cal., where he will teach until August 1.
The Ravinia Park Opera season will open on June 23.
Ada Soder-Hueck has begun her summer master classes in her Metropolitan Opera House studios.
Mrs. John F. Lyons has been reelected president of the National Federation of Music Clubs.
Elsa Foerster, American .soprano, was well received as Elizabeth in Tannhäuser in Düsseldorf.
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music recently conferred honorary degrees on four eminent musicians.
The International Composers’ Guild has enlarged its ad-misory committee.
R. E. Johnston blames the radio for the decrease in the • attendance at concerts.
Percy Rector Stephens’ classes for teachers will commence in Chicago on June 25.
The fourteenth biennial of the N. F. M. C. will be held in Portland, Ore.
Carmela Ponselle continues to win success in concert.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave a dinner in honor of Emil Oberhoffer.
Unusual interest has been aroused in Louis Graveure’s summer classes in San Francisco.
Mrs. William Arms Fisher has been chosen head of the association of past presidents of the N. F. M. C.
Gustav Hinrichs makes a plea for recognition for the composer of the musical score of motion pictures.
Frank Patterson’s series of articles on Practical Instrumentation is concluded in this issue.
Marguerite D’Alvarez received an ovation in London.
Schipa’s first concert tour of this country was a tremendous success.
Dr. William C. Carl will spend the summer months in Europe.
Anne Roselle will be guest artist with the San Carlo Opera during its New York engagement.
Edna Thomas is booked for appearances in London and Paris this summer.
Margery Morrison recently finished a nine months’ tour with the Doree Operalogue.
Florence Harrison is of the opinion that “the scientific combining of many methods” is the only right method for singers.
Isadora Duncan’s political beliefs are disavowed by her pupils.
L. E. Behymer has recovered sufficiently from his automobile accident to come East.	G. N. ‘
I. S. G. M.
Just for the sake of nailing exactness to the mast, so to say, and not because we imagine it will change anybody’s mind about going or not going to Salzburg this summer, let it be recorded that the International Society for Contemporary Music made a slight slip in sending out its program for the August festival in the old Austrian town. It accused Manuel de Falla, the amiable Spaniard, of writing a quartet in quarter tones, something he never has done and something, one is sure, he . never will do. Alois Haba was the guilty person, and his quartet (the second of the breed) in quarter tones is to be included in the fifth program along with two songs by Manuel de Falla.
Incidentally please notice that the Salzburg festival of the International Society, etc., is to begin sooner than expected, probably on August 2. (Secure your seats early.—Adv.)	Even Friend Saerchinger,
whose middle name is Contemporary Music, volunteered the information that six consecutive programs, total twelve hours, of the C. M. will be about all even the enthusiast can stand. And speaking of that, here is the Saerchinger opinion on “The Salzburg Program,” just arrived by express steamer:
The program of the International Chamber: Music Festival, printed elsewhere in this issue (we printed it last week.—Ed.), will surprise some people by its sins both of omission and of commission. No doubt the International jury which sat for a number of days in Zürich in order to make the final selections, did its duty as it saw it, and solved the problem of giving a review of the contemporary creative activity of the entire musical world to the best of its ability. To do this within the scope of six concerts is not an easy task, and the desire to represent as many nations as possible is apparent from the selections made. It is all the more strange, therefore, why any of the nations whose sections submitted works should have been omitted at all. If room was found for seven French compositions, was it necessary to reject the entire product of the Scandinavian countries, with the exception of one Finnish song composer not hitherto known outside of Finland? If Milhaud and Poulenc were found absolutely necessary additions to Florent Schmitt, Ravel, Koechlin and Roussel, was it not possible to find even a little place for men like Sibelius and Carl Nielsen?
That the name of Ernest Bloch does not appear on these programs is no doubt the result of his doubtful nationality, neither America nor Switzerland having thought themselves responsible for him. Nevertheless it is to be regretted, as is also the omission of Charles M. Loeffler’s name.
The American section submitted very few works and no doubt the selection of Mr. Whithorne’s piano suite is as representative as any one composition could be. After all, we are a young country, musically, and ought to be glad to be ranked with Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and Finland, who are all represented by one composition each. It is interesting to know that Hungary and Italy have two each, while Russia, England, and even Austria and Germany have to be. satisfied with three each. Busoni, Jarnach and Kreneck are of doubtful classification, for while politically Italian, Spanish and Czech respectively, they all live in Germany and belong to the Teutonic cultural sphere. Honegger, too, while Swiss, is absolutely a member of the modern French school. If he is so counted, France ■has no less than seven representatives.
This preponderance of one school is more or less emphasized by the other selections, too. Stravinsky (Russian), de Falla (Spanish), Sem Dresden (Dutch), Malipiero and Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Italian), Bliss and Berners (Englishmen) and Szymanowsky (Pole)—all belong to the impressionist and post-impressionist groups that have their center in Paris. The Salzburg program, then, is a clear victory of these groups.
We repeat, there is no doubt that the jury has been conscientious and fair as far as the artistic bias, which is every artist’s right, allowed them to be. But we cannot omit to remark that, had all the seven members been present instead of only four, the result would not have been the same. It was most unfortunate, especially, that Mr. Sonneck, who went to Europe, was prevented at the last moment from attending, and that the next substitute on the list, Walter Kramer, who held himself in readiness to serve, was not notified in time. It is the business of the American delegate at Salzburg to see that these defects in the central organization of the society are corrected in the future. For the present we shall be grateful for what we have and wish that the first International Festival shall be a great success.
To which last sentence we, on this side of the water, can only say “Amen,” even though we confess to being a little surprised to discover that there is such a thing as a “victory” in anything so unwarlike, so gentle, so peace-spreading as the International Society for Contemporary Music’s program. Possibly Mr. Saerchinger is right. It may be a group victory. But it seems as if the way to classify in an international event would be by nations, rather than by groups. According to the statement issued by the society, compositions were submitted by composers of fourteen different nationalities and, unless our count is wrong, exactly fourteen different nations are represented on the program by composers of either inborn or acquired nationality, so that we cannot see where any nation is omitted, as Mr. Saerchinger states. It may be that men like Sibelius, for instance, did not bother to submit works, feeling that their reputation as contemporaneous was secure without assistance from the I. S. C. M.
And who were the four men of the jury who met? The report sent out mentioned all seven members without stating, that any were absent.
zurka—and that is at least once every three or four years—we have to content ourselves with the only one we know from memory and we don’t even like that particular piece.
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Now the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is busy trying to collect royalties from circuses, carnivals, county fairs, picnics, etc., that use copyrighted music outdoors. Soon they will charge us for whistling, humming, or even listening to the
A Berlin newsgetter reports : “Barbara Kemp has married Max von Schillings and now the Mona Lisa smile never will come off, as they are very much in love with each other.”
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An extraordinary signed cable interview with Siegfried Wagner was published in the New York Times of June 12, extraordinary because of the naivete of the interviewer and the candor of the “great composer’s favorite son,” as the article calls him.' (Wagner had only one son.) The writer, Cyril Brown, explains that Siegfried “is forced to earn his living conducting concerts,” as though ■the occupation came in the category of dish washing, bootblacking, or begging on street corners. N-ikisch also made his living conducting concerts and Weingartner, Men-gelberg, Muck, Stokowski, Reiner and Verbrugghen are doing it today. Siegfried is quoted as saying that he has been offered $750 a week to conduct concerts in America next season, but as he would have to pay all his own expenses the net result would be too small for him to consider. The interviewer comments cynically on this. Why? If Heifetz, Hempel, Galli-Curci, Toscanini, Coates, Monteux, Rachmaninoff, Chaliapin, Martinelli and others, receive large fees in this country, why should Siegfried Wagner labor for a pittance? Simply because he is Richard Wagner’s son? It happened that Siegfried knows how to conduct and has written several passably good operas. It is to be supposed that many persons would go to his American concerts out of curiosity, to gaze at Siegfried, son of Richard. He is entitled to reap all the reward he might be able to get through such means. Thousands of folk have bought Caruso and Paderewski tickets not so much to hear those artists as to look at them. Mr. Brown quotes an ancient friend of Siegfried’s as warning him to remember that Rubinstein and von Billow “left America with empty pockets and shattered nerves.” They did no such thing. Rubinstein received large fees in in cash and was offered an immense sum for a return engagement here, which he declined. Von Biilow visited this country several times, and always took a great deal of money home. Both men were brought here under the auspices and guarantee of prominent piano houses. Siegfried explains in the interview that he wishes to get together enough money to reestablish the Bayreuth Festival—surely no unworthy endeavor. Americans- who antagonize or ridicule him on that account are guilty of chauvinistic and caddish conduct. No discriminative music lover ever doubted that the Bayreuth performances were a valuable factor in the musical life of the world. .Mr. Brown ends his interview with a paragraph surely pathetic enough to make those pause who wantonly attack Siegfried and his aged and justly famous mother for dreaming that they might be able to restore what was and should continue to be the seat of Wagnerian musical art in its finest cultivation:
Frau Wagner told me that the family had been pretty close to the hunger line and knew what real hardship was last year. Last winter they could not afford to buy coal to heat the big Villa Wahnfried, so the fourteen of them lived in the gardener’s six-room cottage. Frau Cos.ima Wagner, Richard’s 85-year-old widow, is unable to _ leave her room on the second floor. She suffers from epileptic attacks. From her second-floor windows she can overlook Wagner’s marble-slabbed grave in the back court.
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Parable for music critics: The fly sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot and said, “What a dust do I raise!”
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Soon the censors and the law will get after the Stravinsky addict.
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We, for one, never will make a correction if the linotyper, when setting the title, International Society for Contemporary Music, leaves out the first three letters of the word Contemporary.
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Real American celebrities—Baseball players, prize fighters, politicians, multimillionaires, murderers, any man with whiskers.
Nilly (disdainfully)—“Money talks.”
Willy (ecstatically)—“No—it sings.”
Leonard Liebling.