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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
garding the opera only as a species of
drama, it is full of absurdities. What can
be more ludicrous than a general on a bat-
tle-field giving orders in song, or a warrior
expiring his last breath in trills, and
shakes, and melodious quavers? Who that
is composed of ordinary flesh and blood,
even though an amateur in music, would
be solicitous, just as he was about to
shuffle off this mortal coil, to pour out his
soul
"In notes of many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out?"
Think of a lovesick cavalier, in a burst
of indignant jealousy, challenging a rival
to mortal combat in strains "as musical as
Apollo's lute!" Fancy to yourself a man
like Othello stalking impatiently about the
stage—raging like a lion, and evidently
wrought up to a perfect tempest of jeal-
ousy and rage—yet coolly turning toward
the audience, striking an attitude, and
modulating the whirlwind of his passion
into a series of melodious quavers! Can
one conceive of the sublime and the ridic-
ulous in a more ridiculoiis juxtaposition?
It has been well said that in Shakespeare's
plays, when a person is told of some hid-
eous calamity, he is either struck dumb
with horror or gives vent to his agony in
some brief, passionate exclamation—which
is all true to nature. In the opera, how-
ever, he would be as musical as a dying
swan.
To all these criticisms the friends of the
opera have a ready reply. An art like
music, which is the child of passion, must
inevitably, they say, take a dramatic form.
Is it not the most natural thing in the
world that the joy and sorrow of the heart
should seek the intense and emphatic ex-
pression which music affords ? Even in
the very rudest states of society the merry,
the droll, the burlesque, and, still more,
love, pity, jealousy, and vengeance, have
their music. Why, then, should not cul-
tivated states of society have a culti-
vated music, the product of the highest
art to which society has attained ? Such
music would naturally be associated with
a story, a plot, with incident, character,
scenery, and costume—in other words
would be dramatic. Hence, we have the
opera, which is simply the form which the
drama assumed among a musically en-
dowed people.
, As to the absurdity of persons singing
their love, grief, anger, or despair—laugh-
ing or crying in sharps and in flats, in ma-
jor or in minor—is this not precisely what
nature does? Does she not sing all her
strong emotions?
Does not expression,
the very moment it becomes passionate,
have cadence, and are not notes of Mozart
and of Weber nearer to instinct than the
blank verse of Shakespeare? What man
in actual life ever gives utterance, even in
his most inspired moments, to such blank
verse as that of Hamlet's or Othello's
speeches? Yet is it not the genuine lan-
guage of passion? " I n the melodies and
the harmonies of music," says a writer,
' ' nature is carried out of the region of the
actual into the region of art, and in the
region of art the musical utterance of na-
ture is not more strange than the poetical
utterance of nature." As to the expense
of the opera, it is owing largely to the fact
that the taste for operatic music is not
more widely diffused, and partly to the
fact that its fastidious and exacting patrons
demand the most world-renowned singers
with large and costly orchestras and chor-
uses, rich costumes, splendid scenery, and
other accessories, which must inevitably
necessitate a large outlay of money.
A N interesting personality is Emil
^*- Sauer, the celebrated pianist who will
make his debut here the coming musical
season. Born in Hamburg October 8,
1862, Emil Sauer very early received his
first training in piano playing from his
mother, an excellent pianist. In 1876
Anton Rubinstein heard Sauer, who was
then fourteen years old, and being struck
by his talent, warmly recommended him
to his brother Nikolaus, and Sauer there-
upon became a stipendiary of Nikolaus
Rubinstein in Moscow two years later and
remained there till 1881.
After making his debut in his native
town and playing in the leading cities of
North Germany and the Rhineland he
crossed over to London in 1882, where in a
series of concerts and recitals his talents
were enthusiastically and generously ac-
knowledged. A year later he concertized
through Spain and Italy. In 1884 Emil
vSauer visited Liszt at Weimar. The great
master immediately recognized his unique
endowments and took a special and extra-
ordinary interest in his artistic develop-
ment and perfection.
Sauer's world-wide reputation may be
said to date from his Berlin debut, Janu-
ary 13, 1885, when, in the presence of the
imperial family his playing moved the
audience to some remarkable evidences of
appreciation. In late years Austria and
Russia joined with Germany in rendering
Sauer homage. In St. Petersburg, the
home of Rubinstein, in Vienna, the musi-
cal city, par excellence, the leading musi-
cians and authoritative journals were unani-
mous in proclaiming him an incomparable
master of his art.
Edward Hanslick, the eminent critic,
thus wrote after Sauer had appeared in
eleven concerts in Vienna, from 1891 to
1S92:
" This still young man played Hensclt's Piano
Concerto in F minor with great virtuosity, beauti-
ful touch and warm, almost girlishly tender senti-
ment. His passages and ornaments, breathed out
in the loveliest pianissimo, attracted attention.
Later Herr Sauer, in four concerts completed alone
a thoroughly many-sided program and proved him-
self an artist of the first rank. While brilliant and
powerful in all problems of energetic bravura, lie
yet played most beautifully in the tender, musing
poetry of Schumann and Chopin. In this, Sauer
is a genuine troubadour of the piano."
England was again the scene of Sauer's
triumphs in 1894, '95 and '96. In a series
of eight recitals in London he created such
a furore as was unknown since the days of
Liszt and Beethoven. The press and pub-
lic of the provinces were also alike in testi-
fying to his unique talents as a genius of
technic and poetical or artistic interpreta-
tion. One and all voted him one of the
most brilliant representatives of modern
piano virtuosity. Lack of space will not
permit us to refer to the tributes paid Sauer
by the most eminent critics the world
over. We have rarely perused testimony
so strong, ancnt his ability — and its
strength lies in the fact that it is true.
The opinion expressed by Wilhelm Tap-
pert, the noted Berlin critic in the Klein
Journal, January 1890, has apparently been
re-echoed right up-to-date. Here is what
Mr. Tappert says:
" We have for many years followed the career of
this excellent artist and pianist of genius, and
were delighted at his continual development.
Saiier is —we stated this a year ago without re-
serve—the best piano player of all artists now
alive."
An excellent portrait of Emil Sauer
adorns the cover page of this issue. Dur-
ing his tournce of the United States he
will play exclusively the Knabe concert
grand piano.
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