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June 20th, 1882.
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
357
•owing everything that has yet existed here. Prof.
THE FIBST EVENING
Fritz Fincke will continue as conductor, although of the festival was devoted to Dudley Buck's can-
the eyes of young Hameriok, of the Peabody, tata, "Don Munio," the rendition of which
have been casting coquettish glances at the chief failed to arouse any great enthusiasm.
members.
overture was poorly rendered, the "Festi-
Hamerick would destroy the Society in less than val The
Orchestra"(!)
consisting of about twenty
six months after his dominion began, or the So- pieces, augmented by
the seemingly indispensable
ciety would have to destroy him.
I have few personal notices to write; all can be piano.
The chorus, "Jesu Dulcis Memoria," and the
condensed in a few short paragraphs.
"It is the Lot of Friends to Part," by
Prof. Hamerick is busy conducting rehearsals quartette,
Misses Wallace and Weber and Messrs. Balph and
for the festival chorus, to take place at Phila- Zimmerman,
were the best numbers of the even-
delphia.
ing; but throughout the performance there were
Prof. Mittler is anxiously awaiting vacation.
evident to a painful extent the inadequacy of the
Prof. Gaul, Jr., is practicing the variations of orchestra, and a lack of confidence on the part of
Auber's "La Muette de Portici."
the orchestra and chorus, and the absence of that
Prof. Fred. Eversman, Jr., is out fishing. Some ourage on the director's part which usually im-
one told me he caught a whale weighing twenty bues a ohorus with spirit and boldness for its
pounds. I think it was an eel.
work.
Prof. Schwing is studying up the German song The rehearsals of the orchestra must have been
composers, as he has been selected as one of the "fearfully
few" and superficial, as there seemed to
judges at the Philadelphia Saengerfest.
be no understanding of the director's beat, which
Prof. Gens is putting his cloali away in camphor itself was undecided and wavering. It is need-
for the hot season, prior to its use for a cold less to say that not a little "see-sawing" between
snap.
baton, piano, and orchestra was the result.
Prof. Schmoll is composing four-part songs for As predicted in my last, Miss Cary did not
Catholic church service. He says if the Churches appear at
will not abandon the Gregorian chant, and accept
THE SECOND CONCERT,
iiis offerloires, etc., he will build a church of his
own to have them produced.
as announced, her place being taken by Miss
Prof. Odend'hal is studying Gilbert and Sulli- Winant.
van's "Pinafore," to appear as Dick "Deadeye early This lady created quite a furore, and received a
next season.
well-merited ovation on her rendition of Bee-
Prof. Winterbotham is soliloquizing on the re- thoven's "In questa tomba." The strength and
mote possibilities of the diminished seventh chord. roundness of her voice, together with her artistic
Prof. Courlaender is expecting a decoration delivery, almost caused Miss Gary's absence to be
from the King of Denmark.
overlooked for the time being.
Prof. Fred. W. Wolff is deploring the ignorance Expectations of Mr. H. F. Trask's abilities,
of the masses regarding Mowskowski's composi- based on the terms in which his appearance had
tions, and the quantity of rain-fall during a been announced, were not realized, while his sing-
month.
ing was not wituout merit; in fact, his intelligent
Prof. Gehre is reflecting why people do not oneeption and tasty rendition of his solos were
consider him a pianist; the people are not re- decidedly praiseworthy.
flecting.
Miss Maud Morgan gave evidence of perfect
Prof. Tannhauser is practicing batting, to join mastery of her instrument, the harp, playiag with,
a base-ball nine this Winter that will give ex- great skill and much expression.
hibition games on the ice.
Miss Jean Wallace, Mrs. J. S. McDonald, Mrs.
Prof. W. M. D. R. Muller will spend his time Scott, Mrs. Palmer, Misses Lucas and Weber, and
in the family circle, thus showing the influence Mr. Balph, all local talent, deserve special mention
music exercises on married happiness.
for the excellent rendition of their respective num-
Prof. Udelle has advanced his price, and will bers at this and
hereafter charge $3.75 for one quarter of sixty
THE THIKD CONOEBT,
lessons, payable quarterly in advance, singing in-
cluded.
Thursday afternoon, which consisted principally
Prof. F. X. Hale will soon furnish the second of organ solos, by Prof. Whiting, of the Cincin-
Yolume of his work, "What I Know About Church nati College of Music. The matinee was rather a
Ghoirs, and the Manner in which They are Con- wearisome affair, and the vocal numbers were all
trolled by Outsiders." Racy developments are the more enjoyable from their juxtaposition to the
expected.
organ solos, which were se plentiful as to become
Prof. Grist is going to compose a series of monotonous.
"Funeral Marches" for the Young Men's Chris-
THE FOURTH CONCERT
tian Association, which will be danced in the
large hall, when the mortgage is paid off. on Thursday evening presented another miscel-
The first one will be in double C sharp major. laneous programme, and was given before an audi-
No croBS-eyed people will be permitted in the ence of unusual proportions.
hall.
The male chorus rendered the Vintage Song
Prof. Roemer, who is a wealthy bachelor, is go- from Mendelssohn's "Loreley," with an utter lack
ing to donate a large part of his property for the of unanimity of pereeptien, and consequently
purpose of erecting a home for disabled mu- "sans verve. Mrs. Osgood sang Buck's "Are
sicians; twenty -two applications have already been Maria" admirably, and used her splendid voice
filed.
throughout the evening in a most artistic manner.
Prof. Beckner will accept the position tendered
Mr. Myron W. Whitney made his first appear-
to him as engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio ance at this concert, sang Schumann's "Two
Railroad, in order to enable him to get away from Grenadiers," and Mendelssohn's "IamaRoamer,"
the bad music the parents of his pupils want him and elicited the amount of applause deserved by
to bring.
and usually meted out to him.
Prof. Emerich has borrowed Prof. Feldman's The evening's programme concluded with Ros-
•other eye for the excursion season.
sini's "Stabat Mater," and while the soloists were
Prof. May wants to keep his change the next excellent, yet, taken all in all, there were many
time he swaps violins.
crudities to deplore.
More or less, our professors are rather active,
j o u see.
You TEBPE.
PITTSBUEG.
, PA., June 12.
T)ITTSBURG'S May Music Festival was inaugu-
_L rated on Tuesday evening, May 30, at Library
Hall, by the unusual proceeding of an "op ning
address" by Rev. Dr. S. F. Scovel.
In this address Dr. Scovel made the remark,
that "the success, already assured, of this festi-
val, heralds the musical future of our noble old
city."
I quote this remark in particular from the ad-
dress, because I shall take occasion to dwell on its
purport at length in the course of my to-day's
communication.
THE FTPTH CONCEBT
gave us Haydn's "Creation," the solo numbers
of which were all rendered with more or less ex-
cellence, whilst the chorus numbers varied from
excellent in "Awake the Harp," to indifferent in
the fugue, "Achieved is the Glorious Work."
The orchestra, although better than at the first
concert, was "up to" or "down to" what could be
expected from a score of musicians, good as they
may individually be and were, who had the fewest
possible rehearsals, and who, as I have it from
several of their number, had no confidence what-
ever in Mr. Whiting's baton.
In fact, even some of Mr. Whiting's friends now
admit that he is not a conductor for such a mu-
sical event. His inability in handling the baton
was evident in every recitative, and throughout
the festival he showed a lack of that knowledge of
the score and of that courage in handling his
forces in which other local conductors have been
successful.
PITTSBUBG'S MUSICAL FUTUBE.
And this brings me back to Dr. Scovel's remark,
that "the assured success of this festival heralds
the musical future of this city."
The festival, according to the manager himself
(Mr. Fred. A. Parke, who has done hard work to-
wards its success), was by no means a '"bonanza"
financially.
And to claim success for it musically, one would
be compelled to place on the word "success" a
more liberal construction than even I intended,
when in my last I referred to our limited facilities
for such an undertaking.
Now let us take into consideration, whether
under any circumstances the musical history of
our city should date from the May concerts of
1882.
Many years ago there was organized in this city,
by Prof. Clement Tetedoux, now in Chicago, a
vocal society called the "Gounod Club," com-
prising in its membership list nearly all our local
talent. This society nourished for a long time and
did some excellent work.
In 1877, when Mr. Carl Retter was director of
our foremost German singing society, the "Froh-
sinn," he organized a small orchestra to take part
in an operetta, and it continued to exist under the
name of "Carl Retter's Orchestra."
It also flourished, thanks to Mr. Retter's zeal
and the enthusiasm of its amateur members, and
became what was known as the "Symphonic So-
iety."
Three years ago the two societies mentioned,
"Symphonic Society" and "Gounod Club," com-
bined and gave a May Festival in our Exposition
Building which was the grandest event, musically,
n the history of our city, and compared with
which the 1882 festival was but a series of indif-
ferent concerts.
The chorus on that occasion numbered some
hundreds, the orchestra sixty, and the baton was
in the hands of Prof. Tetedoux and Mr. Retter
alternately, both gentlemen directing with marked
ability and success.
From the programmes then rendered such
works can be quoted as Verdi's "Requiem," Men-
delssohn's 95th Psalm, "The Messiah," "Elijah,"
Beethoven's "Symphony Pastorale," Mozart and
Haydn symphonies, etc.
Since then Prof. Tetedoux has left Pittsburg to
take up his residence permanently in Chicago,
and the Gounod Club was left and has remained
ithout a leader and become dormant—which, for
a lack of support and encouragement, was also the
fate of the Symphonic Society.
Along comes Prof. Whiting, who takes hold of
material drilled and polished by Prof. Tetedoux,
and the late concerts are the result.
Then why treat the recent undertaking as the
genesis of Pittsburgh Musical History? "Honor
to whom honor is due." And right here let us re-
member that the Toerge brothers, as long as eight
or ten years ago, had organized the "Germania
Orchestra," whose performances have never been
excelled, and that Zitterbart, and Foerskr, and
Gittings, and Lohmann, and others have for years
past been- alive to Pittsburgh musical interests.
Prof. Whiting, as stated in my former letters,
deserves much praise indeed for having under-
taken and consummated what other musicians were
not courageous enough to attempt, and I repeat
the hope formerly expressed, that "the festival
will at least give an impetus to the good cause."
Let us hare another festival next year. Prof.
Whiting is fully competent to drill a chorus; now
let him cooperate with some musician who can
organize an orchestra and direct a festival (and
we have such in our midst), and I am sure that in
'83 we could have a May Festival deserving of hon-
orable mentien, as well as those of New York, Cin-
cinnati, and Chicago.
HILABIUS.
INDIANAPOLIS.
INDIANAPOLIS, June 6.
HE "Olivette" of the Corrinne Merrie Makers
at English's, May 26, is best described as
Mark Twain describes the music of the "Arkansas
Bride," which was perfection in its way: It was
the worst performance that has ever been achieved
on our planet by mere human beings.
Corrinne in the title role was all that could be
expected from one ef her age, but at best it seemed
very like a farce.
Jennie Kimball, who assumed the character of
the Countess, made no attempt to sing the music,
but entrusted it to the tender meroies of one of
T
(Continued on page 359.;