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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
INNES CONCERT BAND.
PROF. FRANZ RUnriEL'S REAPPEARANCE.
Innes and his concert band left the city on
After six years absence from the United
Monday last for a ten weeks' tour through States, Prof. Franz Rummel made his debut
the West and South. They will spend two at Chickering Hall last Tuesday night. A
weeks between here and Cincinnati and go brilliant audience which packed the house
South from there to New Orleans, returning was in attendance, and the great pianist de-
through the group of Southern States and monstrated to his hearers that he possesses
finishing in Washington, D. C.
great and intelligent artistic ability. He has
Innes is universally known as the father of materially broadened with the years, and is
trombone music, he being the first to do solo to-day one of the world's great pianists.
work on that instrument. He was a sensa- Mr. Rummers numbers were Beethoven's
tion with Gilmore some years ago, contem- concerto in E fiat major and Liszt's concerto
poraneous with Levy the cornetist. This is in E fiat major, two numbers which enabled
his tenth year at the head of the band, and him to display the varied phases of his art,
for the past three years he has averaged forty as well as the remarkable tonal qualities of
weeks on the road. He has made some ad- the Chickering grand. Truly a great pianist
mirable innovations in band music which have and a great piano.
contributed much to his success. He has
W. J. Henderson in his book "Preludes
brought his organisation almost to the level and Studies" writes as follows of Prof. Rum-
mel. This excerpt is so pertinent to the man
to-day that it is worthy of reproduction: 1< I
confess without hesitation that I do not know
just where to place Rummel," said Mr.
Henderson. "If it were not for a certain
hardness of style, which obtrudes itself at
times, and which seems to us to be the out-
come of an over-elaborate adjustment of
technical means with a view to reaching just
the exact effect sought by the player, I
should put Rum el ahead of all pianists.
Perhaps he ought to be placed there anyhow.
He certainly is a great pianist and belongs to
the front rank. His development has been
notably sane and logical. In former years
he was all emotion. He had no self-control,
and his temperament fairly ran away with
him. All that is past, however. I had the
good fortune to hear him frequently in the
season of 1890-91, after not hearing him for
three years. It was immediately evident that
the old accusation of a lack of symmetry and
FRED INNES.
repose could no longer be brought against
of a symphony orchestra without changing its him.
character as a military band. This he has
"At the first concert in which I heard him
done by novel instrumentation and by rear- he played Beethoven's G major and Liszt's
rangements of orchestral numbers, providing E fiat concertos. The newly developed quali-
combinations of his reeds to produce neces- ties of the artist's work were shown in a high
sary orchestral effects.
light in the first selection. His reading of
Mine. Linde, the well-known contralto, the noble composition was scholarly in its
formerly of Col. Mapleson's old company and justice, masterful in its sympathetic warmth
recently of the Nordica-Linde Concert Co., and wide scope of feeling, luminous in the
will be one of the soloists with Innes. Miss varied picturesqueness of its color and
Bertha Webb, the violiniste, will be another. stamped with the finish of lofty art in its dig-
nity and repose. All the fiery impetuosity of
0
the man's temperament remained. His emo-
The fourth edition of the late Dr. Billroth's
tional force was as strong as it ever had been,
letters contains a curious contribution to
but the period of defiance of government was
musical history-—namely, the news that
passed. The emotional power was held in
Brahms wrote fourteen bars of Schumann's
the grasp of a strong and commanding intelli-
opera "Genoveva." It happened in this way:
gence, which guided it with firmness and wis-
When the opera was to be produced at Han-
dom. It would have been an impossibility
nover, in 1874, Mme. Schumann sent to one
for any hearer to rightly measure the amount
of the singers a version of Siegfried's song in
of study and self-control displayed in such a
the third act with fourteen added bars by
performance as Mr. Rummei gave on the oc-
Brahms, which had met with her cordial ap-
casion under consideration. To approach
proval, as she agreed with Brahms that that
such a judgment would require an intimate
song ended too abruptly and needed a few
acquaintance with the pianist's methods of
additional bars.
private labor as well as with the changeful
o
nature of his strong moods. But remember-
Owing to the illness of Mrs. J. Williams- ing that the player but a few years ago had
Macy the song recital to have taken place at been a creature of unbridled emotion, play-
Memorial Hall, Brooklyn, on the evening of ing from impulse rather than idea, I could
Feb. 1st, has been postponed to a future date. not avoid marveling at the breadth and depth
of artistic devotion which this growth, accom-
It will be announced later.
plished in three years, plainly revealed.
Subsequent performances
confirmed and
deepened the admiration aroused by this one;
and when I heard Rummel play Bach's
'Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue,' demon-
strating his complete comprehension of that
work as an inspired prophecy of neo-roman-
ticism, as a miraculous projection of immortal
genius into the far future of music, I was sat-
isfied that the artistic period of the player's
career was at its climax, that intelligence had
acquired the true mastery over emotion. Let
me add to these words of appreciation the
opinion that Franz Rummel is,in the language
of athletes, the ' best all-round pianist' now
before the public. By this I mean that he is
more thoroughly at home in all schools of
music, from the days before Bach to the
present, than any other player with whose
work I am acquainted. His scholarship is
wide, profound and sympathetic, and a
chronological recital becomes, in his hands, a
deep and subtle exposition of the develop-
ment of his art. The same thing is true of
Von Bulow, if you are content with music for
your brain; but it needs Rummel to make
musical history for the heart."
The American musical public is under ob-
ligations to the great house of Chickering &
Sons for the great privilege of hearing Franz
Rummel this season. That his tour which
was opened last Tuesday night will be a great
success is certain.
On Feb. 2d, Prof. Rummei played at
Hartford, Conn., and yesterday at Boston,
Mass. On next Tuesday, the 8th, in compli-
ance with the general request, he will give
another concert at Chickering Hall this cit)\
On the 10th he will play at Montreal, Can.,
and on the 12th at Portland, Me.
0
Arthur Nikisch has signed a contract with
the Leipsic Gewandhaus which precludes his
return to America. The closing of this con-
tract means a high remuneration and a life
pension of a snug sum to his widow and chil-
dren in case of death or incapacitation.
Gaeb,
Solfc on
, IRentefc, also
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