June 28, 1923
12
THE MACDOWELL COLONY FUND
Contributions to the MacDowell Colony Fund for this summer’s work amounts now to something over $2,500, but the fund is by no means closed or the Colony’s needs met. The Musical Courier will continue to act as collector. Contributions of any size are welcome. They should be sent to the MacDowell Colony Fund, care Musical Courier, 437 Fifth avenue, New York City, and will be acknowledged in these columns.
Since the list of contributors was published in the issue of June 14, $100.00 has been received from the Matinee Musicale of Ann Arbor, Mich., through Mrs. H. Bacher, president, and contributions have also been sent in by the Junior MacDowell Club of Oklahoma City and the Music Department of the Palmetto Club, Dayton, Fla.
Mabelle Addison Justifies Advance Reports
In announcing Mabelle Addison for the recent Ann Arbor May Festival, the Bulletin of the University School of Music stated: “No finer artist could have been chosen as a vocal interpreter of Bach’s great musicianship than this splendid American girl, who has won so much renown in this particular field. Perhaps no greater tribute can be paid to her than to state that for the third time she has been engaged in this special capacity for appearance with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, under Director J. Fred Wolle, known as the most distinguished interpreter of Bach music in this country. She possesses a glorious voice, is an attractive and intelligent young woman and altogether is a most acceptable addition to the long list of artists who have graced Ann Arbor’s May Festivals.” That Miss Addison justified the advance reports of her art was demonstrated in the splendid press criticisms she won from the critics following her appearances at the Ann Arbor Festival May 16 to May 19. The Bethlehem press and public were equally enthusiastic in their praise of Miss Addison’s art when she was soloist in the Bach B Minor Mass with the Bach Choir at the Bethlehem Festival on Saturday, May 26. It was the consensus of opinion that her artistic singing at this festival was an_ undeniable proof of her ability as a vocalist. She gave stirring renditions to her solos, and especially was she praised for her singing of the Laudamus Te.
May Peterson Sails
Among the notables sailing on the SS. George Washington from Hoboken on June 23 was May Peterson, soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company. After finishing an unusually successful season in this country, Miss Peterson is going to France for a rest and vacation and in the early autumn will appear in a series of guest performances at the Opera Comique, Paris, where before her advent at the Metropolitan she scored one of the most sensational successes of any American artist since the debut of Mary Garden. She will return to this country in early October to resume her many musical activities.
Willis Ailing to Teach at Saenger Studios During Summer
Oscar Saenger left for Chicago June 21 to conduct a master class at the Chicago Musical College for a term of five weeks, from June 25 to July 28, and will resume teaching at his New York studios on October 1. During his absence, Willis Ailing, who has been Mr. Saenger’s associate teacher for many years, will accept pupils in singing, coaching and repertory.
MUSICAL COURIER
SPAIN BECOMING MUSICALLY INTERNATIONAL
End of Madrid Season Brings Music of Many Nations—Modern Frenchmen the Favorites—Spanish Music, Real and Denatured—Enter England and Spanish-America, But Not the U. S. A.
Harold Eisenberg Conducts Summer Classes
Harold Eisenberg, eminent violin teacher, will conduct special classes during July and August at his studio at 588 West End Avenue. Despite the number of pupils which he taught all winter, he will have to forego his vacation until the first of September, so great was the demand for summer classes. He will take a couple of weeks’ much-needed rest and his studio will be opened again after the middle of September.
Aside from Mr. Eisenberg’s reputation as a violinist and teacher, he gained considerable prominence last year through his book, The Art and Science of Violin Playing. There has rarely been a work offered the public which created so much favorable comment or one which was endorsed so readily by great violinists of the world. When this first volume was published, Mr. Eisenberg announced that he had barely begun his subject, and it was his intention to bring the set to five volumes. The writer learned just recently that volume two is practically completed and ready for the press, and that by September it would be on the market.
It is rare indeed for a young musician to compile such a technical work as Mr. Eisenberg has, and it is almost unprecedented that such a work should receive the flattering statements from such eminent masters as Auer, Kreisler, Walter Damrosch, Elman, and dozens of others. As soon as volume two is ready, a detailed report will be found in the Reviews and New Music column of the Musical Courier.
pared for performance in Seville, under cover of absolute secrecy, and suddenly, without notifying anyone _ in the capital or inviting the press, had it produced. This is probably unprecedented in the annals of the operatic composer.
What has been heard otherwise in the way of Spanish music is hardly of interest to American readers. Remarkable only was a tasteful, orchestration of Albeniz’ Rapsodia Española (originally for two pianos) by Georges Enesco, and six orchestral sketches to Gheon’s sacred drama, Saint Cecilia, by Padre José Antonio de S. Sebastian. This rather naive but technically well constructed music is more notable for its piety than its effectiveness in the concert hall. Only the little angels’ chorus at the end, which had to be repeated, showed traces of high artistic accomplishment. _ It had something of the atmosphere of Raphael’s St. Cecilia in the Bologna Academy. Touching in its charming simplicity is the way in which the angels’ voices, floating away, call the name of the saint.
Enter South America.
Spain’s relations to the sister nations in America are becoming closer of late. In consequence of this political fact, South American musicians are coming more often to Madrid. Chile seems to be especially active, having sent several of its composers here for purposes of study. Señor Allende, who gave some lectures here recently, has been followed by Enrique Sorio, the director of the Chilean National Conservatory in Santiago de Chile. Despite his youth (he was born in 1884), he has written no less than 400 works, some of which are published by Ricordi. He conducted a movement of his Sinfonía Romántico for us, Señor Arbos having yielded the bâton of his orchestra to him for this purpose. It is well made and attests a high artistic ambition, not wholly fulfilled.
—And England.
The sudden prominence achieved by English composers here is especially surprising. Arbos recently played two pieces, Goossens’ At the Brook, which made no particular impression, and Percy Grainger’s Molly on the Shore, which had to be repeated. Vaughan-Williams’ London symphony, which Perez Casas performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra, had a downright non-success, since the Spanish public in the nature of things could not understand it. A whole English evening was given by Carmen Alvarez, the Spanish pianist, with works by Frank Bridge, Cyril Scott and Eugène Goossens, whose March of the Wooden Soldiers had the greatest success and to satisfy the audience it had to be repeated.
American Music Conspicuous by Its Absence.
Worth mentioning, finally, is the Portuguese element, since the Or feo of Coimbra (students’ chorus) in its picturesque national costumes, sang a number of Portugese folksongs, closely related to those of the Spanish province of Galicien. We have had, then, Russian, German, French, Italian, English, Polish, Spanish, Chilean and Portuguese music, and the only nation that is missing to make the picture complete, is the United States of America. May it come in the not distant future.
Edgar Istel.
Madrid, May 25,—The season is over, already the heat of the tropics floods the towns, and one avoids concerts and operas like the pest. Nevertheless one thinks about what has happened. As I do so, I realize how international Spanish concert life, formerly so exclusive, has become. The opera, of course, was always more Italian, German and French than Spanish; but it, too, has been enriched by the addition of Russian works. I have already reported ho.v popular Rimsky-Korsakoff has become. The reception of the third act of Miada, produced in concert form by Arbos, was such that it had to be repeated at the very next concert of the orchestra.
While the German influence is solidly founded on the great symphonists and on Wagner in the opera, the modern German manifestations, with the exception of some works of Richard Strauss, have a pretty cool reception here (neither Bruckner nor Brahms nor Mahler, not to mention Schonberg, have gained a foothold) ; the French impressionists, Debussy and Ravel, have become very fashionable. Nevertheless the attempt to transplant the taste for the extreme French modernists, propagated by the Spanish advance guard, such as Poulenc with his Promenades, has not been successful. Béla Bartók, too, for whom the same modernist enthusiasts have fought, is little appreciated and experienced a real “turn-down” when the Budapest String Quartet introduced his opus 7, while the same ensemble had a tremendous success with the Debussy Quartet.
A far more pleasant acquaintance is that of the Polish composer, Szymanowski, a number of whose extraordinarily interesting pieces were played here by Paul Kochanski and Arthur Rubinstein. The Nocturne for violin for instance, is one of the most poetic and technically effective modern pieces I have heard. Rubinstein played the Serenade of Don Juan, from Szymanowski’s Masks, and for the rest Chopin, as well as Spanish' composers—Albeniz and Falla.
Denaturing Spanish Music.
As far as Albeniz is concerned, the evidence is complete, and he is internationally recognized as one of the finest, melodically and harmonically one of the most charming tone-poets of Spain. All the more remarkable, therefore, that one now tries to discredit him in his own country, because— forsooth—he is too Spanish, that is, he has a style that is recognized outside of Spain as Spanish. Some of the young know-its-alls now want to tell us that the real Spanish style is to compose so that no foreigner (and, I believe, also no musical Spaniard) can recognize the national origin of the piece!
If that was the purpose of Señor de Falla when he composed his Andalusian Fantasy, dedicated to Mr. Rubinstein and played by him here for the first time, he succeeded admirably. Unfortunately, however, he has escaped not only all characteristically “Spanish” turns but all interesting melodic elements whatsoever. It is a most tiresome though beastly difficult finger exercise which may interest the pianist and the composer but which bores the audience to distraction. If Señor de Falla, who lives on the mythically beautiful Alhambra Hill in Granada, receives no other inspirations than these, he is to be pitied.
De Falla’s Opera Has a Secret Premiere.
Falla, by the way, seems to become queerer and queerer. He had his latest opera, El retablo del maese Pedro, pre
LISA ROMA
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