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48 PAGES.
With which is Incorporat
VOL XXIV.
No. 10.
Published Every Saturday, at 3 East Fourteenth Street. New York, March 6, 1897.
CARRENO TO THE STUDENT.
During her present tour, Mrne. Teresa
Carreno, "the Valkyrie of the piano," as
she has been so happily termed, has created
a perfect furore. She seems to be in the
maturity of her artistic career. Her play-
ing is a revelation; her success truly carries
hope to the army of patient and hard work-
ing women who are striving for " place " in
the musical world. In an interesting chat
recently with a representative of Leslie's
she said,'' Yes, I look upon America as my
real home. It was in this country that I
first entered upon my musical career, and
it is to the American people I have always
felt I owe so much. Only to-day I passed
by again the spot where Irving Hall once
stood. That was where my first concert
was given, when I was eight years old.
How often my heart has been fill|d with
gratitude for the kindness the American
people showed me then."
" Will you tell us something of how your
talent was discovered? "
" I t was when I was but three years old;
we were living in Venezuela then—for that
is where I was born. One day, as I had
perched myself upon the piano-stool and
was playing a piece I had heard my sister
play, my father came into the room. With
my tiny fingers I was making out the big
chords. As I turned round, tears of emo-
tion were standing in my father's eyes, for
he himself was a remarkable musician.
Mistaking his emotion, I jumped quickly
off the stool. ' I will never do it again,
papa,' I said, ' ! promise you.'"
Her father, overjoyed at the remarkable
talent evident in so small a child, devoted
himself from that time to her instruction.
He gathered together all the most techni-
cally-difficult passages from the master-
pieces of piano music, and arranged them
into exercises which became for the little
Teresa her daily bread in piano work.
When she was quite young she had already
composed several pieces, and she it was
who wrote the music of the Venezuelan
national hymn.
With great fervor she speaks now of her
father's devotion. Another of the remark-
able influences over her life seems to have
been that of the great master, Rubinstein,
with whom she was thrown into close asso-
ciation during his visit to this country. It
Ij.oo PER YEAR
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS
railway porter at Marseilles, and was sing-
ing to his fellow workmen at the station at
Marseilles one night when Gounod arrived
there by train and happened to hear him. He
invited him to his hotel and advised him to
cultivate his voice. The result was that
the railway porters at Marseilles contributed
a small sum weekly to send him to Paris.
There Gounod got an entry for him at the
Conservatoire, and the result we all know.
He was probably the. greatest Marseilles
favorite. Campanini was lowly born. He
was at one time a blacksmith. His voice
attacted somebody's attention—we forget
whose—and the result we know. Jean de
Reszke was never intended by nature to be
a tenor at all. Up to middle life he was a
baritone and attracted no particular atten-
tion. He may be said to have almost forced
his voice into a tenor register. For many
years he sang in the small towns of Europe
without particular notice, and it was his
sister, Mile, de Reszke, who made the first
hit of the family at the Grand Opera House
in Paris. She was a soprano singer of
great gifts. She is now dead, but her in-
fluence got.the de Reszkes to Paris, and there
Jean de Reszke made his first hit singing
with Patti. The papers at the time praised
the tenor more than they did the great
prima donna, and it is a matter of operatic
history that ever since she has refused
to sing with him. De Lucia was a drum-
mer boy, and the great Patti the daughter
TKKESA CARRKNO.
of
an itinerant fiddler,
the air the Germans breathe. And the or-
o
chestras of Germany ! even the last violins,
to say nothing of the first, are the most
An exceedingly interesting concert was
finished artists. Most of all, after the given at the Mendelssohn Glee Club Hall
student has learned all that can be taught on the evening of February 13th, by the
personally, he must develop himself and his Woman's String Orchestra of New York,
own talent. My own pupils, one of whom under the directorship of Mr. C. V. Lach-
is traveling with me now, I treat as a doctor mund. Gustave Jensen's " Sinfonietta "
treats his patients; each requires the instruc- Op. 22 was given its premier introduction by
tion fitted to his or her own special case." the orchestra, and this work as well as ex-
o
cerpts from Moszkowski, Massenet and
MOST TENORS ARE ACCIDENTS.
Krug were delightfully interpreted. The
Musical history demonstrates the fact ensemble was perfect and the work of the
that like Wachtel, who began life as a orchestra throughout praiseworthy. Frau-
postilion, most tenors are accidents. That lein Gaertner, 'celliste, and Sig. De Anna,
is to say, the men who have made the most tenor, the soloists, contributed some charm-
stir in the world in this line of work have ing numbers to an interesting program
had a natural gift that was little suspected which was enjoyed by a large and fashion-
until they were pretty well along in life. able audience. We congratulate the or-
Lafranc, the phenomenal tenor, who made chestra and its able conductor on the suc-
quite a stir about twenty years ago, was a cess of this concert.
is not difficult to trace, in the masterly
force and abandon of her wonderful play-
ing, the inspiration that has remained with
her in the memory of those happy days. It
is one of Rubinstein's masterpieces that she
plays on her present tour.
" Thereare many young musical students
in this country. What words of advice
would you address to them ? "
' ' Tell them first of all not to go abroad
to study until they have learned all that
can be learned here; then the musical at-
mosphere of Germany will be a new and
valuable experience to them; for music is
V.