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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
There was a great attendance of music
lovers, and the affair was justly considered
by the critics one of the notable events of
the musical season in the Western Metro-
polis. The magnificent tonal qualities of
the new organ, abundant in volume and
coloring, delighted every one. It stands as
a splendid example of Western enterprise
in the manufacture of pipe organs.
*
NOTWITHSTANDING thedisagreeable
*
weather, the concert given by Sig. Gia-
como Quintano on the evening of Feb. 16th,
at Knabe Hall, was fairly well attended by
appreciative music lovers who enjoyed Sig.
Quintano's delightfully artistic interpreta-
tion of numbers especially adapted • for
such masters of the violin. He was assist-
ed by Guarini, tenor, and Tagliapietra,
baritone, who contributed much to the en-
joyment of the evening. The next Quin-
tano concert takes place on March 9th.
An unusually interesting program has
been prepared for the occasion.
*
T H E success of Mme. Carreno during
her present tour of the West and Pa-
cific Coast, is unprecedented. It is the
opinion of all that she has now reached the
very pinnacle of her art. Her interpreta-
tions have been marvelous and have been
enjoyed by enthusiastic audiences.
*
T H E great orchestra was one of the mar-
*
vels of the World's Peace Jubilee, held
in Boston in 1872, and as a distinguishing
feature was second only to the mammoth
chorus, writes Luther L. Holden of "The
Most Wonderful Musical Festival in Amer-
ica," in the March Ladies' Home Journal.
The great body of players was no mere
aggregation of numbers, but a carefully
organized force of picked musicians from
all parts of the country. The orchestra
was augmented by brass bands in certain
pieces, when artillery was added for really
"stunning" effects, as, for example, when
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was brought
out with the full musical force, or in the
"Anvil Chorus," from Verdi's "II Trova-
tore," which had an auxiliary force of fifty
anvils, beaten by twice that number of
Boston firemen. A great organ was built
expressly for the festival.
There were four foreign bands, the crack
musical organizations of their respective
countries, and the musical glory of Amer-
ica was upheld by the Marine Band of
Washington and twenty-eight other brass
band organizations.
Thus there were,
counting both foreign and American
bands, eight hundred and sixty instrument-
alists who were independent of the grand
orchestra, except that some of the Ameri-
can players also assisted in the latter force.
The orchestra proper numbered eight
hundred and twenty-nine players. In the
grand chorus, as it was finally mustered
for the Jubilee concerts, a hundred and
sixty-five choral organizations were repre-
sented, and the total number of voices was
seventeen thousand two hundred and
eighty-two. The solo singers numbered
one hundred and ninety-nine, and they in-
cluded the most famous vocalists of the
day. For the three weeks the total atten-
dance was 476,000, upon three occasions
the audience numbering fifty thousand.
The total receipts were $1,076,000, which
was about $150,000 less than the aggregate
expenses.
*
T TALY'S new musical wonder the oratorio
1 composer Perosi is soon to be heard in
England. His "Resurrection of Lazarus"
will be performed for the first time in Lon-
don at Queen's Hall on May 13th. His
" Passion of Christ," the first of the set is
down for the Norwich Festival, and the
second work of the series ' ' The Trans-
figuration of Christ," which was produced
in Vienna in April, will probably be per-
formed during the summer under imposing
conditions at Covent Garden.
These
three dramatic oratorios were all produced
last year, and they are portions of a cyclus
of a dozen oratorios which the young priest
of Tortona hopes to compose upon various
incidents in the life of our Saviour. The
next of the series is to be entitled " T h e
Holy Sepulchre."
Perosi's oratorios are
avowedly features of a religious propagan-
da, and are warmly supported by the
clerical fraternity on the grounds that they
act as a sort of antidote to the sordid
libretti of the school of "Cavalleria Rusti-
cana." Now that London is scheduled to
hear these works, when oh, when can we
expect to hear them in New York? That's
the question.
*
\ / E R Y recherche invitations and programs
were issued this week for the formal
dedication of Knabe Hall, which takes place
next Monday evening at 8.15. The ar-
tists, as announced in last week's Review,
are: Clara Henley-Bussing, soprano; Henry
Lincoln Case, tenor; Jane Feininger, ac-
companist; the Dannreuther Quartette,
and Leopold Godowsky at the piano. The
program is as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Quintette in A Major
Dvorak
Aria "II mio tesoro"
Mozart
Variations and Fugue on a Handel
Theme . ,
Brahms
Aria
Bach
a Impromptu, F sharp |
Chopin
b Scherzo, C Sharp Minor \ ' '
c Waldesrauschen . . . .
Liszt
Aria, "Ah fors e lui" . . .
Verdi
Quartette, op. 17, in F Major
Rubinstein
Allegro Assai.
a Valse Idylle
1
b Badinage (combining in one the
two studies, op. 10 No. 5 and op.
25 No. 9, Chopin).
c Concert arrangement of Hen- Godowsky
self s Study, op. 2 No. 6.
d Weber-Tausig Invitation to the
Dance. (With new contrapun-
tal additions).
the anniversary of Anton Seidl's
death, March 28, the Seidl Society
purposes to give in Brooklyn's Academy
of Music a concert, at which the members
of the former Seidl Orchestra are to play.
The program will be of a memorial char-
acter, like that of the first concert of the
same sort given by this society shortly
after Mr. Seidl died last year.
The
memorial book to which Seidl's friends
have contributed is also, it is understood,
to be issued on or near next month's anni-
versary.
H
R. HUGH A. CLARKE, of the Broad
Street Conservatory of Music, Philadel-
phia, delivered a lecture last week on "Liter-
ary Men and Music," in fhe course of which
he stated that the views entertained by poets
and writers of literary eminence as a rule
display a total ignorance of the subject, es-
pecially an ignorance of the fact that the
construction of great musical works requires
as much intellectual effort as the construc-
tion of any great work in any of the sister
arts. The lecture was illustrated by quo-
tations from works of acknowledged stand-
ing in poetry and literature.
*
A NEW YORK friend of Xaver Schar-
•'*• wenka, who has been seriously ill in Ber-
lin, received news Saturday from the mu-
sician's family that his condition was rather
improved. What was at first believed to be
paralysis appears to have been rather a
sudden and alarming weakness of the heart
due to overwork.
THE
distin-
*• guished nov-
elist and lecturer,
Ian Maclaren (the
Rev. John Wat-
son, D. D.), arrived
in t h e U n i t e d
States last week
for the purpose of
lecturing a c r o s s
the Continent, un-
der the management of Major J. B. Pond.
He gave his first lecture in New York last
evening at the Waldorf-Astoria, and judg-
ing from the success of his previous tour
it is safe to state he received a right royal
reception.
The author of "Beside the Bonnie Brier
Bush" is a delightful speaker—at once a
raconteur, an orator, and at times an actor
of no mean order. As Dr. Lyman Abbott
says, "he will have the freedom of the
Continent without any formal ceremony or
presentation of the keys."
*
A CORRESPONDENT of the Sun
**• speaking of the popularity of inane
songs says:—Songs absolutely vile are dis-
played in store windows, warbled in our
theatres, and in devious ways soon are
found in homes to pollute our daughters
and sons. The many pretty little love
songs and old-time ballads are seldom
heard where formerly they exerted such
an influence for good.
There must be a fearless and general
crusade against the unholy plague of the
debasing song miasma. One would sup-
pose the nuisance would have exhausted
itself ere this, but, "coon song" singers
and similar twitterers appear never to
reach the end of their tether; au contraire,
their bawdy mouthings are stimulated
with each successive sewer exudation.
' ' Cry ' havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war."
A CCORDING to a new musical directory
**• there are over 18,000 professional
musicians in New York.