Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Byron had no ear for music while Tom
Moore's love for music never left him but
with life. Samuel Rogers was very fond
of music, but chiefly of simple melodies.
Burns as might be expected was musical,
but like Rogers he rather preferred the
simple melodies to the more ambitious
works. Sir Walter Scott, unlike Burns,
had no ear for music; the only things that
inspired and pleased him were the martial
strains of the bagpipes of his native coun-
try. And who will admit that the bag-
pipes could inculcate a love for music ?
TN the new opera "Germania," for which
*• Illica is writing the libretto for Baron
Franchetti, and which will be produced in
Rome next winter, Alexander von Hum-
boldt, Stein, Blticher, Gneisenau and
other figures in Germany's war of freedom
are prominent characters.
*
T H A T distinguished pianiste, Fanny
* Bloomfield Zeisler, contributes the
following interesting estimate of "The
Subjective Player" to our esteemed con-
temporary, the Etude: "To be a great
*
ILLIAN RUSSELL, who is considered
in Europe to be the typical American
beauty, may add another victory—one of
peaceful import—to those America has
won in the war. She is now singing in
Berlin, where public and press have ac-
claimed her, and where she has been com-
manded to appear at the palace by the Em-
peror. Now comes the news that negotia-
tions have been begun by her manager for
a series of concerts in Madrid.
It will be an interesting event when our
American prima donna appears before a
Spanish audience and metaphorically
waves the flag of the victors in the faces
of the defeated.
•
*
JV A UCH as we may admire Wagner,
' ' * . there are two effects of his popular-
ity that we feel inclined to deplore. In
the first place, his absolute musical genius
has made all the new as well as the stan-
dard operas seem faded, so that the oper-
ative repertoire is narrowed very consider-
ably, and we can only listen to works with
any pleasure that are far removed from
his aims, or from their very antiquity
challenge no comparison with his music-
dramas; and in the second place his pop-
ularity in the concert room has had the
effect of ousting from the programs of or-
chestral concerts many compositions of ab-
solute music that musicians would rather
hear. The first effect time may remedy if
opera is not doomed to stand still, and the
second, it is to be hoped, will right itself
as soon as the public is so familiar with
the master's music-dramas on the stage
that it no longer demands excerpts from
them to be performed in the concert room.
The tide is on the turn even now, and
soon it will be ebbing. Musicians and
those who attend many concerts have long
been weary of the usual Wagner selec-
tions, and in a year or so it may be hoped
that the public will follow the lead.
There are many works of absolute music
that have been unduly neglected, and
when Wagner's name no longer bulks so
largely in the programs of orchestral con-
certs, it may be that some of these master-
pieces will be performed more often. The
decline of popularity of the Wagner selec-
tions may also give place to the perform-
ance of whole acts of his music dramas in
the concert room, and that is a consiim-
mation for which even those of us who
know the Bayreuth master's compositions
extremely well may pray with all sin-
cerity.
HUGO HEINZ.
artist it is necessary to be subjective and
objective both; but if I must choose be-
tween the two, then I say again I place
the subjective artist higher. The more
contemplative arts of poetry and painting
may be studied and their merits ultimate-
ly felt by the unlearned. In music it is
not so, and those flashes of genius in exe-
cution which fire the soul and rouse the
enthusiasm of its auditors completely set
logic at defiance and disarm all criticism.
Intellect, however exalted, without strong
feelings can never achieve the highest pur-
poses of art, and the musician who betrays
no emotion in playing the inspired and in-
spiring chefs (fcruvrcs of the classics is not
to be envied. The subjective player, if
he be a true artist, if he be gifted with the
so-called divine spark, will intuitively
do justice to the peculiar characteristics of
the different composers, and at the same
time allow his individuality to enter into
the performance, and will suffer his feel-
ings to influence, his interpretation suffi-
ciently to give new life to the creation,
and will awaken in the auditor feelings
akin to and not less vivid than the ones
animating himself. Instead of becoming
monotonous, his every new rendering of
the same piece will be shaped according to
the emotions which happen to then sway
his heart, and thus he will really re-com-
pose the composition every time he plays
it. I would liken the performance of the
objective artist to the statue of 'Galatea;'
the playing of the subjective artist, how-
ever, to 'Galatea,' the woman, endowed
with feeling and life. Who will com-
pare the work of 'Pygmalion,' great though
it may be, to the work
of God, the creation of
nature?"
*
TJUGC) H E I N Z , a
^ * baritone, who has
won much fame in Eu-
rope will visit this coun-
try next January and
appear in concerts and
song recitals until May
ist. In London Mr.
Heinz' singing elicited
the most favorable com-
ments from leading
critics. The London
Times spoke as follows
concerning a r e c i t a l
given by him in that
city: " I t is many a
day since there h a s
been heard a concert of
such real musical value
and interest as that
given in Queen's Hall
by Mr. Hugo Heinz.
From start to finish
there was not a blem-
ish worth recording in
view of the uncom-
monly high level of ex-
cellence attained by the
artist. The enthusiasm
with which very many
numbers were received
by a discriminating
audience, proved that the program was
adapted to their tastes. Mr. Heinz sang
with a distinction of style that is all too
rare."
*
PERAS on Shaksperean subjects have
never been popular—not even
moderately successful—in England, ac-
cording to Sutherland Edwards. "Julius
Csesar" and "Hamlet" were converted
into operas nearly two centuries ago, and
since that time most of the plays have
done duty as librettos—" Romeo and
Juliet," half a dozen times. Yet, with the
exception of Gounod's opera on that sub-
ject, and Verdi's last two works, no one of
them have been awarded a high rank in
the list of popular operas.
*
O
TOHANN STRAUSS recently offered a
^ liberal sum for a good libretto to a
ballet. More than eight hundred texts
were submitted to him. Bicycling figured
importantly in more than half of them and
several were based on the story of Ulysses.