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VOL. XXVI.
Published Every Saturday, at 3 East Fourteenth Street.
No. 7
Inventor Norcross Wins.
A DEVICE TO PLAY THE HARP LIKE PIANO
CAPITALISTS BACKED OUT.
[Special to The Review.]
Syracuse, N. Y., Feb. 9, 1898.
Judge William G. Cady has made a
decision in a Municipal court case that
gives Edwin R. Norcross a judgment for
$225 against Charles E. Remick, James
Chapman, Jr., and William A. Beach. It
seems that Norcross had an idea of an instru-
ment to play a harp like a piano, and inter-
ested the defendants in it. The result was
that a contract signed and under seal was en-
te'red into. By this contract they were to
advance the necessary money and also to pay
the inventor $roo a month, he to complete the
invention. When its practicability was de-
monstrated, Mr. Norcross was to build a sec-
ond instrument which was to be placed upon
exhibition. The capitalists were then to take
an option of three months in which to form a
company with $100,000 capital stock for the
purpose of manufacturing the harp and plac-
ing it on the market. Then there was another
contract, that it was maintained by the de-
fendants modified this contract, and pay was
stopped under that. That was what was sued
for, and Norcross won.
Impresario
Bent.
Geo. P. Bent, who is making a tour of the
East accompanied by Miss Alice Smyth, giv-
ing a series of recitals for the purpose of
showing off the possibilities of the orchestral
attachment and practice clavier embodied in
the "Crown" pianos, is commanding most
favorable notices in the daily papers in all
places visited. In recent issues of the Wil-
mington, Del., papers, the concert which he
gave at Robelen's Music Store in that city
was commented on at length.
The Cable Piano Co.
The different branches of the Chicago Cot-
tage Organ Co. which have been operated
under the titte "the Conover Piano Co.''
have issued notices, that in order to make all
branches uniform in name, and to distinctly
separate the retail from the wholesale busi-
ness, the companies will hereafter use the
name "the Cable Piano Co." instead of the
"Conover" as heretofore used.
New York, February 12,1898.
fa.oo BER4YEAR.
SINGLE c/>PAsr§^ CEKTS.
was a revelation. It was "classic " playing ii
fullest and best sense, but classic as to the manner
born, without academic dryness.
Franz Rummel's concert at Association
Space will not permit us to give in full this
Hall, Boston, on the evening of Feb. 4th has
admirable and highly complimentary estimate
evoked innumerable critical notices of a flat-
of Rummel, which closes as follows:
tering character in the daily press. The Bos-
Judging from last evening—for our memory of
ton Advertiser has much to say in praise of Mr. Rummel goes back so far, and it is so long
the program and its performance, which is since we have heard him, that he is virtually a new
characterized as "of well nigh flawless perfec- apparition—we should say that he is, as Mendels-
sohn once said of himself, a "wholesale pianist—
tion." Speaking of the man it says:
There is a power in this calm emotion that ein engros Spieler," for he certainly did his great-
moves as do old poems and old scents, it is far re- est work last evening in the larger compositions,
moved from the neurotics that so often now are in the works "de longue haleine." In the re-
made to appear in even Beethoven and Schumann. mainder of the program we liked him best in the
If Mr. Rummel is distinguished by his sentiment, Brahms pieces, which he gave exquisitely, and the
his sincerity, his wide sympathy, he is no less a Chopin Barcarolle. In the Liszt rhapsody he was
technician of high accomplishment, blending wonderful, and must have delighted all lovers of
power, flexibility, grace and delicacy in happy pro- that extraordinary piece.
Upon the whole, here we have a great and
portion. These epithets do not imply genius, but
that their object possesses high poetic and artistic original artist, one from whom one can learn much
gifts, that he is, in a word, one of the musically and enjoy more. May we soon hear him again.
elect.
The Boston Transcript devoted almost a Ownership of Pianos Determined.
column to the same concert. It is an able
[Special to The Review.]
critique and the program is highly praised for
Cleveland, O., Feb. 8, 1898.
the " freshness " of its make-up. In this con-
The suit of Koblitz & Co. against Behr
nection it says:
Bros. & Co. of New York, and the House &
The program, if important in itself, is not the Davis Piano Co. of Chicago, was decided
whole battle; the playing must count for some- Saturday. Behr Bros, recovered a judgment
thing. Mr. Rummel as a pianist seems to us to
stand somewhat apart from the great virtuosi whom for $528.04, and House & Davis a judgment
we have heard here of late. No doubt every great for $416.87. The suit was over a number of
player has his own individuality; in this no two pianos which Koblitz & Co. purchased from
men could be more diametrically opposite than, Moritz Bernstein of Berea shortly before the
say, Paderewski and U'Albert. But making allow- latter's failure. These goods were r.eplevined
ance for such differences in individuality,one finds,
upon the whole, that most players to-day have by the other firms mentioned above. Koblitz
much in common, that they reflect more or less & Co. then gave a re-delivery bond and the
vividly what is called the "spirit of the age." court was called upon to decide who really
Mr. Rummel, on the other hand, strikes us as wned the pianos.
bringing a new note into contemporary piano-forte
playing, or perhaps reviving an old, well-nigh for-
Offers a Site of Twelve Acres.
gotten one. We hardly dare to say it, for fear of
being misunderstood, but he is the first pianist we
The business men of Detroit are making
have heard here for years who reminds us at all of
great
efforts to keep the Votey Organ Co.
Biilow. He has not Biilow's often fantastic cranki-
ness, his fondness for happy "finds;" he has not in their city. This week Stephen Baldwin
his often dry touch. But he has much of his intel- volunteered to give a free site, comprising
lectuality—it might be more accurate to say that some twelve acres on Michigan avenue, near
his intellectuality seems much of the same sort—
he has his wide scope of musical vision, his enor- the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Road,
mous power of long-developed climax; he has his with the proviso that the property shall revert
jeu perle. Besides, and apart from these resem- to him whenever the company shall cease to
blances, he has much that is wholly his own.
use it for manufacturing purposes. It is said
His playing of the Beethoven sonata was admir- that Mr. Votey is favorably impressed with
able ; there was throughout a depth of senti- the site, but nothing definite has yet been
ment too sure of its own genuineness to seek for decided upon.
trivial modes of expression,a vivid sense of rhythm
that was like a strong supporting arm to the listen-
Chas. H. Steinway and Nahum Stetson,
er from beginning to end; above all, a simplicity
who
journeyed West to attend the Lyon,
of style that interposed no barrier between com-
poser and hearer. His tone was beautiful through- Potter & Co. meeting, extended their stay
out, but without finicking contrasts. The way he somewhat by calling at several cities en route.
worked up that terribly taxing fugue at the end They are expected in town to-day.
Prof. Rummel in Boston.