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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
CROCHETS AND QUAVERS.
Aug. Hyllsted, the Danish pianist and
composer, will make a tour through Can-
ada in the early fall.
Plunket Greene, the Irish basso, who is
highly esteemed in Great Britain and
America, will be with us again this season.
Since closing at Manhattan Beach Mr.
Sousa has been taking a short but much
needed rest in Washington, D. C.
E. C. Towne, the popular tenor, returned
last week from a European trip. A num-
ber of important engagements for oratorio
and concert have already been booked.
Sir Arthur Sullivan not long ago ex-
pressed a desire for a libretto. The news-
papers printed a reference to it, and three
days later 280 opera and operetta texts
were lying on his table.
Clementine De Vere-Sapio has just ar-
rived from Europe and will make a concert
tour of the country this fall. She is booked
for the next season at Covent Garden,
London.
Mme. Eugenie Pappenheim, the dis-
tinguished vocal teacher, has returned to
the ' ' Strathmore " from her country home.
The number of students this year promises
to be larger than usual.
David Bispham, the operatic baritone,
who sang last week at the Worcester Fes-
tival, will return to England for the Bir-
mingham Festival and will return again
this year for a concert tour.
The Theodore Thomas Chicago orches-
tra will be heard at the Metropolitan Opera
House, this city, during its spring tour on
the following dates: March 1,2, 9, 12, 14,
16, 19.
"Rip Van Winkle," a new operatic ar-
rangement of the old story, by Sig. Leoni,
which served to open London's musical
season, has proven a flat failure. The
presentation was not a strong one. It has
been replaced by "Hansel and Gretel."
Siloti, one of the younger school of
pianists and " a favorite pupil of Liszt,"
will come to America shortly and be heard
in orchestral concerts and recitals. His
first appearance in New York will be in
the beginning of January with the Seidl
orchestra.
The Carl Rosa Co. are making prepara-
tions for their production of "Diarmid,'
the new opera by the Marquis of Lome and
Hamish McCunn. The principal part of
the Celtic heroine is being studied by the
new American soprano, Miss Cecile Lor-
raine.
The German emperor threatens to pro-
duce a new musical composition. He made
Archduke Frederick the repository of his
views on music, literature and art during
lunch a week ago, when he mentioned that
he would shortly compose something. This
is alarming news.
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flLLE. CARLOTTA
DESVIQNES.
Mile. Carlotta Desvignes,
contralto, who has won such
splendid success wherever
she has appeared in this
country as an oratorio and
concert singer, has been en-
gaged for £ number of im-
portant events the coming
season. Miss Desvignes is
blessed with a beautiful
voice. It is a pure contralto,
particularly rich in the mid-
dle register, and with high
notes that are crystalline in
their beauty. Her method is
admirable and her enuncia-
tion a delight to those who
can appreciate pure English.
Her phrasing and expression
are that of a finished artist.
Miss Desvignes possesses in
addition to a beautiful voice
a personality that is delight
ful. She is under Mr. Wolf-
sohn's management.
MLLE. CARLOTTA DESVIGNES.
BEETHOVEN'S LAST IMPROVISATIONS.
The following incident connected with
the last days of Beethoven, which as the
world knows were days of disappointment
and deprivation, is full of pathos:
He had been deaf for twenty-five years,
nearly half of his life, when, in 1827, a
letter reached him at Baden from his ne-
phew, the being dearest to him on earth.
The young man wrote from Vienna, where
he had got into a scrape from which he
looked to his uncle to extricate him. Bee-
thoven set out at once; but his funds were
so low that he was obliged to make the
greater part of the journey on foot. He
had gone most of the way, and was only a
few leagues from the capital, when his
strength failed. He was forced to beg hos-
pitality at a poor and mean-looking house
one evening. The inhabitants received
the exhausted, ill-tempered looking, dark,
gruff-voiced stranger with the utmost cor-
diality, shared their meager supper with
him, and then gave him a comfortable seat
near the fire. The meal washardly cleared
away before the head of the family opened
an old piano, while the sons each brought
forth some instrument, the women mean-
time beginning to mend the linen. There
was a general tuning-up, and then the mu-
sic began. As it proceeded the players,
the women, all alike, were more and more
deeply moved. Tears stole down the old
man's cheek. His wife watched him with
moist eyes and a pathetic, far-away smile
on her lips. She dropped her needlework
and her managing daughter forgot to find
fault. She was listening too. The sweet
sounds left only one person in the room
unmoved. The deaf guest looked on at
this scene with yearning melancholy.
When the concert was over he stretched
out his hands for a sheet of the music they
had used. "I could not hear, friends," he
exclaimed in hoarse tones of apology, "but
I would like to know who wrote this piece
which has so moved you all." The piano-
player put before him the "Allegretto" in
Beethoven's symphony in A. Tears now
stole down the visitor's cheeks. "Ah," he
exclaimed, "I wrote it; l a m Beethoven!
Come and let us finish the piece." He went
himself to the piano, and the evening
passed in a true delirium of pleasure and
pride for the dwellers in that humble mu-
sical home. When the concerted music
was over he improvised lovely songs and
sacred hymns for the delighted family,
who remained up far into the night listen-
ing to his playing.
It was the last time he ever touched an
instrument. When he took possession of
the humble room and couch allotted to him
he could not sleep or rest. His pulses beat
with fever. He stole out of doors in search
of refreshment, and returned to bed in the
early morning chilled to the heart. He was
too ill to continue his journey. His friends
in Vienna were communicated with, and a
physician was summoned, but his end was
at hand. Hummel stood disconsolate be-
side his dying bed. Beethoven was, or
seemed to be unconscious. Just before the
end, however, he raised himself and caught
the watcher's hand closely in both his own.
"After all, Hummel, I must have had some
talent," he murmured, and then he died.
0
Edward Baxter Perry, whose lecture
recitals have made him famous, has sailed
for Genoa, Italy,*for a season of concert
work abroad. He will give recitals in the
leading German cities and introduce the
lecture recital to London. He will also
visit Italy and France, returning to Amer-
ica around the first of June. It is worthy
of remark that while abroad Mr. Perry will
use the Henry F. Miller Artists' grand
piano.