Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1899 Vol. 29 N. 15

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
usually those who have succeeded in
mastering the tricks of ''musical poli-
tics." The man who sits inside may
be a better artist, and the fact that he
accepts a place considered less import-
ant may be due to his modesty or to
his ill-luck. The rows in the orchestral
family usually originate with the first
violins. The men who play second violin
are apt to be far less obtrusive. Destined
to play "second fiddle" for a livelihood,
they yield more easily in all matters. The
viola players also act in company like men
not accustomed to being first. Their in-
strument, like that of the second violin is
what is called a "filler." It is essential,
but does not lead.
'Cellists are usually large, fine-looking
men, who give the impression that they
are as profound, noble and sympathetic as
their instruments.
The bass players
frequently appear heavy and phlegmatic,
like their huge "fiddles." Flutists as
a class are charming, kindly and re-
fined, and the bird-like quality of the
instrument they play suggests all that
is cheerful and delightful in life. The
oboe, the most trying of all the reed
instruments, sometimes has a peculiar
effect on the men who play it. If a
colleague wants a favor of the oboe
player he will not forget to ask it before
the concert, for after the performance the
oboeist emerges from the stage snarling
and generally out of sorts. The oboe has
a narrow, peculiar mouthpiece, and the
fragile, lovely tone which the instrument
is capable of emitting depends on the flex-
ibility of the muscles of the player and his
control over them.
That queer-shaped member of the wood-
wind family, the bassoon, has been referred
to by one writer as the "humorist of the
orchestra." If the men who play the bas-
soon are humorists they are of the quiet,
solemn type. The men who play the awk-
ward-looking trombone are sometimes as
awkward in appearance as their instru-
ment. The horn players look calm and
dignified, like the tones they get from
their instruments, and the cornetists are
sometimes heard before they are seen. The
drum players are apt to be merry fellows.
The player who sits way back with the
great bass tuba rolled about his shoulder
and arms like an immense pretzel is gener-
ally a large, fat man who corresponds in
all respects with the ungainly but neces-
sary brass instrument he has learned to
fondle as tenderly as a good mother does
her babe.
*
I T is rarely that an impresario has the
I good fortune to secure so many brill-
iant artists under his direction as has fallen
to the lot of Charles L. Young. As has
already been announced in these columns
Mr. Young will direct the forthcoming
American tour of Mme. Emma Nevada,
the peerless prima donna soprano, and
Rose • Ettinger, an American girl, whose
brilliant colorature soprano voice has been
the sensation of Europe and as a fitting
climax arrangements were made during
the past week whereby Clara Butt, the
famed European contralto was secured
for a limited number of engagements.
Miss Butt, who is recognized as Patey's
successor in oratorical and ballad singing,
has been the sensation of all Europe dur-
ing the past few years. She studied under
Mons. Bouhy in Paris and later under
Etelka Gerster in Germany. That Miss
Butt will prove the sensation of the com-
ing season goes without saying. She will
make her American debut at the Metro-
politan Opera House at the same time as
Mme. Nevada on November 12th and will
this clever, interesting opera-comique has
been coarsened, the lyrics have been translat-
ed into slang and the dialect of the street, the
music has been treated—that is, its charac-
teristic eloquence, its ingenious elaboration
in details, its charm to educated ears have
been twisted and turned into melodic triv-
iality and rhythmic commonplaceness. The
public refuses to recognize Francis Wilson
other than as the mirth-provoking come-
dian of olden days.
All this is sad, and the principal cause
for regret is that such a fine musical score
should h a v e been
"doctored." Those
who heard it before
it underwent treat-
ment must have en-
joyed its many beau-
ties of expression, its
harmony with the
varying spirit of the
scenes, its illustrative
cleverness, its formu-
lation of the fact that
music is a language
for comedy as well
as tragedy.
JV/IUSIC is one of
also visit Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati,
Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Washing-
ton, Philadelphia and Boston. Manager
Young is to be congratulated on his great
success in securing such artists. His series
of concerts to be given at the Metropolitan
Opera House are already being looked for-
ward to with great anticipation by lovers
of the higher art. On this occasion only
the best known vocalists and musicians
will be heard and inasmuch as the pro-
gramme will be augmented by the presence
of a celebrated orchestra, the rarest treat
is in store for all.
of the most delightful and musi-
cianly compositions ever turned out
by Victor Herbert is the score of the opera,
"Cyrano De Bergerac" now playing in this
city and which, owing to its refinement, has
unfortunately failed to catch the popular
fancy. As a consequence the dialogue of
* * * the many and
related forms of edu-
cation that together
have made possible
and so enriched the
high civilization of
the present that the
world would be poor-
er if, in its march,
any one of these
would be left behind.
It might be possible
for many things to
c o n t i n u e without
music. Legislation,
law, medicine, lan-
g u a g e , literature,
science, building and
the thought and work
of the world might
go on if there were
no musical college,
no singers, no players. Yes, that might
be. One can not certainly say in refer-
ence to music, as one can in mathematics
or chemistry, just what it has done,
or enabled man to do; but this we do
know, that music has journeyed along
with and been a part of the life and growth
of civilization, and no one can say what
the world would have been without it.
Music has rocked the cradle and blessed
the homes and gladdened the ears and
lightened the toil of each generation; it
has cheered the lonely, soothed the sor-
rowing, and inspired the worship of the
millions. It has gone with the soldiers to
the battle and the mourners to the grave,
and mingled with all earth's dreams and
hopes of heaven.
Boston Symphony Orchestra an-
T HE nounces
the following soloists for its
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Rusticana," with Mme. Sembrich, and in
either "I Pagliacci" or "La Fille du Regi-
ment. "
*
T H E most remarkable cast presented
* during the entire season will sing
Mozart's "II Flauto Magico." Nine prima
donnas will draw the public with a potency
that Mozart's work would never possess if
it were sung in the fashion common abroad.
It was given nearly forty times last sum-
mer by an opera company that contained
T H E advance guard of . Grau's opera not one singer of eminence, but the audi-
* forces have been arriving in the city ences were satisfied with the work and did
this week, commanding the usual notices not demand that all its interpreters should
from our enterprising newspaper men. be stars. Mme. Sembrich, who is consid-
According to present arrangements they ered the greatest Mozart singer of her
will make an artistic raid on several of the time, will be the "Queen of the Night,"
smaller cities, giving single performances, Mme. Eames should be a beautiful sight as
and gradually recruiting itself by later ac- "Tamina," and Zelie de Lussan ought to
cessions until it reaches Chicago, and then be well suited to the role of "Papagena."
after a brief season there conies to New
York in its full strength.
New Haven is to have the first per-
formance on Monday, Oct. 9—Calve in
•'Faust." Springfield will be the second
halt in the tour, and there on Tuesday,
Oct. 10, Sembrich, whose success at the
Worcester Festival last week was most
emphatic, will sing in "The Barber of
Seville."
As a prelude to this campaign a concert
will be given at the Metropolitan Opera-
House to-morrow night. The singers will
be Suzanne Adams, Andreas Dippel and
Giuseppe Campanari, and Emil Paur will
conduct the orchestra. Mme. Nevada will
be heard first on Nov. 12 in another series
of concerts which begin on that night at
the Metropolitan.
* *
home concerts: Mmes. Sembrich, Terni-
na, Miss Aus der Ohe, Mme. Bloomfield-
Zeisler, Miss Heyman, Miss Leonora
Jackson, Miss Ruegger, Messrs. Paderew-
ski, Dohnanyi, Petschnikoff, Hambourg,
Kneisel, Schroeder, Loeffler and Adamow-
ski. This announcement contains the first
authoritative statement that the already
famous young pianist, Dohnanyi, is com-
ng to this country.
P M M A CALVE posed for the statue
*—' which is to ornament her tomb, just
before she sailed for this country. She
went up to Paris from Cabrieres dressed
herself as Ophelia, and assumed the atti-
tude in which she wants to be perpetiiated.
Maurice Grau is to make once more the in-
teresting experiment that has so far met
with little success. Mile. Calve's great
talents are appreciated by the critics in
every role; but for the public there are
but two operas in which she is interesting.
These are, of course, " Carmen " and
"Faust." The list of works in which she
has been heard is rather long for the
Metropolitan, but scarcely one of them has
ever reached more than two or three repre-
sentations. Beginning with "L'Amico Fritz"
the list includes "Hamlet," "Les Pecheurs
de Perles," "La Navarraise" and "Mefisto-
fele" among others. But the piiblic re-
mained away until Mile. Calve appeared as
the heroine of the Bizet or the Gounod
opera, in which her drawing powers were
always great. This year Mr. Grau is to
see what can be done with Massenet's
"Herodiade," which has never been sung
in this city, and is indeed heard rarely any-
where. Cherubino and Juliette will not be
sufficient to alternate with the roles in
which Mile. Calve is popular, and so "He-
rodiade" has been selected because that
opera provides also a good role for M.
Saleza. Mme. Mantelli and MM. Plancon
and Scotti are to be in the cast. Mile.
Calve will, of course, sing in "Cavalleria
will not give the performances all their
quality. In "II Flauto Magico," for in-
stance, MM. Saleza, Edouard de Reszke
and Pini-Corsi will appear.
*
M A R K HAMBOURG'S first recital at
* * * Knabe Hall will occur about Nov.
11, a few days after his appearance with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra which is
set for Nov. 8.
*
A CRITICISM which may be quoted as
**• throwing a new light upon certain
forms of music appeared recently in the
Sydney "Bulletin." It was written, no
doubt, by an Australian of the impression-
ist school, and is almost equal to some of
the work of his confreres in this country:
"Curly-headed Louis Hattenbach, the 'cel-
list, appeared at the Brahms concert. An
evening of Brahms music might be expect-
ed to be headachy; for Brahms is, above
all others, an intellectual musician. In
Brahms's concerted music the instruments
seem to be constantly arguing with each
other, as in Beethoven. The argument
starts in the allegro movement; heads are
broken and the combatants jump on each
other in the allegretto; and in the final
movement they trudge off to the hospital,
arguing all the way."
•
T H E London Daily News remarks that
* "the fact that the leading British
opera composers — Sullivan, Mackenzie,
McCunn, Stanford, and the rest—are ig-
nored at Covent Garden is probably not
the fault of the management; for the last
word in such matters is mainly with the
leading vocalists, who, as a rule, do not
speak English." That is the trouble in
America, too, wherefore the outlook for
our opera-composers (if we have any) is
not bright. There are plenty of first-class
prima-donnas who could sing an opera in
English, but tenors and basses are scarce.
EMMA NEVADA.
The remaining six prima donnas are Mmes.
Schumann-Heink, Ternina and Mantelli,
who will sing the three ladies, while the
three genii will be Mmes. Adams, Olitzka
and Broadfoot. The season offers the
promise of some interesting revivals.
Nikolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor,"
which has not been given here in years,
could be presented with a splendid cast.
Mme. Sembrich and Schumann-Heink
have frequently sung in the opera together
abroad; Theodore Bertram is a famous
"Falstaff" in his own country and Fritz
Fredricks, the famous "Beckmesser" of
Bayreuth, has made some of his greatest
successes in Nikolai's work. The dialogue
is the only drawback to the performance of
the opera. In the Italian versions of the
work recitative is used, and in case the
opera is sung, will certainly be used.
Mme. Eames, who has completed her
study of "Aida, ' may be heard in that
opera during the year. There is every
promise of a brilliant season whether all
plans for a new performance are carried
out or not. "Lucrezia Borgia" is even dis-
cussed as a Saturday night possibility, with
Mmes. Schumann-Heink and Ternina in the
principal roles. In spite of Jean de Resz-
ke's possible absence, the women alone
' ' A S for those who admire or profess ad-
/"\ miration for the 'Master Lunatic of
Music,' it is a significant fact, says the
expert, that, 'whereas, there is a brigade
of musicians, all lunatics, detained in Ger-
man mad-houses, every last man of them,
when questioned on that point, professed
himself a loyal adherent and admirer of
Wagner.'"—Conservative Review.
Are philosophers and critics to be in-
cluded? If so, this "expert" overlooks the
case of Nietzsche. He is in a madhouse
and he hates Wagner.
*
T H E R E are five thousand theatres in the
1
United States if we count all kinds,
writes Franklin Fyles, in the first of a
series of articles on "The Theatre and Its
People," in the October "Ladies Home
Journal." More than two thousand are
fairly classable as legitimate, and over
one thousand more are devoted to vaude-
ville. The two thousand others taper off
in various ways. To estimate the capital
invested in all this theatrical property
is difficult. But about $100,000,000 is in-
vested in the three thousand first-class
legitimate theatres which will be consider-
ed in this article. That is an average of
$33,333 each, which is low enough, some
costing as much as $500,000 each. It is

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