Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1899 Vol. 29 N. 19

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
"Lords, indeed!—why, at one of her
szvarrys I saw one of 'em speak to a damn
fiddler—a fellar I despise!" The Great
Cynic would now have to seek some other
profession for his scornful comparison.
So much has the musician of late years
progressed in general esteem. Let us hope
that at the dawn of the Twentieth Cen-
tury, now so close at hand, the American
musician will stand where the nature of
his calling certainly entitles him to be—
upon the very pinnacle.
*
pvESPITE the critics, Abbe Perosi still
*—' continues to produce oratorios with
remarkable fecundity. His latest oratorio
"Noel," which is about to be produced for
the first time at Como, is drawing the at-
tention of the entire Italian public. Perosi
has worked upon it much longer and more
carefully than he did upon its forerunners,
and the critics who have seen the score say
that this extra work has not been wasted.
"Noel" has a unity and "fitness" which
were lacking in his other productions. It
is now claimed that the defects in his ear-
lier work were merely those of undue and
unnecessary haste. The music is con-
sidered much more varied, much more
dramatic than that of the "Resurrection
of Christ." The first public rehearsal was
a great success. The numbers that at-
tracted most attention were the duets be-
tween the soprano and contralto, the Alle-
luia, the descriptive music of the birth of
our Lord, and the twilight of the night
that followed the event. All these caused
enthusiastic applause.
*
OME well deserved criticisms of entr'acte
music, as performed by the orchestras
of many of the theatres in this city, ap-
peared recently in the Sun. We are glad
to see this matter taken up. In many of
our theatres the orchestras not only play
poor music but they do not attempt to
play it well. A disposition is manifest to
kill time rather than to afford enjoyment
to those who attend the theatre. One
manager some time ago made it a feature
of his house to employ a good orchestra
and to play first-class popular music. The
comment was frequently made by theatre-
goers at the time that if the play at this
theatre should prove to be a disappoint-
ment to them they knew they would find
the music entertaining. A point worth
considering by managers.
*
A MONO the distinguished array of ar-
**• tists who will appear with Mme. Ne-
vada, at the Metropolitan Opera House,
Nov. 12th, on the occasion of the first of
Manager Chas. L. Young's series of con-
certs, will be Miss Anna E. Otten, the
well-known violinist. Although Miss Ot-
ten has spent considerable time abroad, she
is one of the many Americans who are now
making their way to the front, and is a native
of New Jersey. Miss Otten will introduce
during the season a number t>f musical
compositions not heard in this country.
*
'"THE Philharmonic Society announces
*
this year its customary eight public
rehearsals and concerts. The dates se-
S
lected are Nov. 17 and 18, Dec. 8 and 9,
Jan. 5, 6, 26 and 27, Feb. 16 and 17, March
9, 10, 23 and 24, and April 6 and 7. The
soloists so far engaged are Alexander
Petschnikoff, Mark Hambourg, Leonora
Jackson and Mme. Schumann-Heink. The
symphonies to be played are Brahms' No.
4 in E minor, Mendelssohn's No. 3 in A
minor, Beethoven's No. 4 in B flat minor,
and No. 9 in D minor, Mozart's "Jupiter,"
Dvorak's No. 4 in C minor, Tschaikow-
ski's No. 5 in E minor and Schubert's "Un-
finished Symphony." The only novelty
announced is the " Moorish Rhapsody " of
Humperdinck.
*
TPHE Society of American Musicians and
* Composers, the successor of the Manu-
script Society, has issued a prospectus in
which it formulates its purposes. Its aim
it several years, submitting it to experts,
and sparing no pains to improve the weak
spots. However, we shall have him as a
pianist, and that will be the chief glory of
our season. Real musical geniuses are
scarce, and we cannot often have them on
our concert stage.
JV/l ME. EMMA NEVADA, the American
* * * operatic star who went abroad four
years ago and whose voice has not been
heard in New York city for twelve years, re-
turned on the St. Louis Saturday. She will
first appear in the Metropolitan Opera
House, Nov. 12th, following this appear-
ance she will sing at the Academy of Mu-
sic, Philadelphia, Nov. 17th; Metropolitan
Opera House, N. Y., Nov. 19th; Columbia
Theatre, Washington, D. C., Nov. 22; New
York City, Nov. 26. After this time Mme.
Nevada will leave on an extended
tour and her manager Mr. Charles L.
Young has arranged appearances for
her at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago,
St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Den.
ver, vSalt Lake, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Portland, Ore., Seattle,
Victoria, B. C., Vancouver, B. C.,
Spokane, Butte, St. Paul, Milwaukee,
Boston and New York.
MASSENET has finished
J ULES
his oratorio, " T h e Promised
Land," on which he has been at work
for some time. It is divided into
three parts, "Horeb," "Jericho" and
"Canaan." He has just conducted
the first performance of "Cendrillon"
at the Theatre de la Monnaie in
ANNA E. OTTEN.
Brussels, and is now in Milan to super-
is to foster the interests of American com- intend the preparations for the production
posers. Its methods will be similar to there by Sonzogno. After Ernest Van
those employed by the Allgemeine Deut- Dyck's recent appearance at the Imperial
sche Musik-Verein of Germany and the Opera House in Vienna for the last time,
Societe des Compositeurs Fran^ais of Conductor Mahler announced that no more
France. Almost every prominent musician of Massenet's operas would be sung there.
in the country is represented in this organi- Hitherto his works have been more popular
zation. New offices have been taken at 26 in Vienna than any other place outside of
West Twenty-third street, this city.
Paris. "Werther" was sung there first.
HTHE announcement that Paderewski's
*• opera would be produced in New
York and London the coming season is
pronounced "hopelessly premature" by the
London Daily News. There can be little
doubt that when it is produced, it will
be a good opera. / He has been at work on
Mous-
taches
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PIANOFORTES
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alone have attained an
Unpurchased Pre-Eminence*
Which establishes them as UNEQUALED
in Tone, Touch, Workmanship and
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No. 21 East 14th Street,
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WM. KNABE & CO.
WAREROOMS
48 5th Ave., near 20th St., New York
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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
""THAT there is considerable similarity
between the folk songs of Servia and
Ireland—is apparent from the following
example of a Servian love song:
Nightingale, sing not so early. Oh
nightingale, sing not so soon. Wake not
my lord for me. To sleep I did rock
the babe, and I alone will rouse him. Now
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
n
placid and filled with peace and happiness.
In the midst of Chopin's florid composi-
tions is a vein of sadness, a melancholy
tinge, even in his dance music, where it is
plainly apparent, or rather felt.
And so through the entire list of the
truly great ones of music, whose individu-
al characteristics are sufficiently marked to
cause their works to be colored
by them. And as most men of
genius have been persons of
strongly marked characteristics,
most of our great music is clearly
tinged, beautified or blighted by
the reflections of the composers
whose live> are thus perpetuated
and carried on down through the
ages.
ing with his father, who is a well-known
violinist. He created quite a furore at the
concert given by Bach Assembly No. 1,
Order of Registered Musicians, on the even-
ing of Oct. 20th.
J\ A USICAL critics sometimes
* ' * make strange discoveries
when they are without the need-
ful firearm with which to bag the
game. But of all strange things
thus seen or heard the strangest
is that which a writer for the The
Montreal Evening Star has cap-
tured and Mr. Lederer's press
agent is exploiting. It is a bass
singer who produces tones like
the harmonics or flageolet tones
of the violin. These tones add
nearly two octaves to the compass
of his voice. Prodigious.
of high noon recitals
A SERIES
will be given at Sherry's
BARRON BERTHOLD.
will I go to the garden, there to pluck a
spray of sweet basil with which to tickle
his cheek. Then shall the darling wake.
Hasn't it a Gaelic flavor ?
*
T T has been said that a great deal of mu-
* sician's character is shown by the style
and manner of rendering a piece of music;
by the way he interprets the composer.
The characteristics of the composer may
certainly be even more apparent in his
work. In Handel, for instance, we see
the lofty influences of an intensely devo-
tional nature. His mighty choruses are
overwhelming in their religious fervor, and
his celestial solos stand unmatched in their
exultation. Beethoven, through the mar-
velous melodies of his later years, throws a
shadow of his own gloomy forecasts. His
growing infirmity which denied to him the
pleasure of listening to his own music, the
recollections of his earlier disappointments
and even the petty annoyances which filled
his life seem to find a place in some of the
deathless works of his great mind and fer-
tile imagination. And how the restless,
defiant and resistless character of Wagner
speaks forth in his music. There is all
through it the challenge and the fear-
less cry of the knight in armor whose
way can not be stopped. In Mendels-
sohn we have, on the contrary, the
calm and lovely music of one who has no
opposition to fight; no need of any fear or
anxiety concerning the result of his work
or of his place in history. It is the beau-
tiful music of a contented mind whose ma-
terial needs are secure and whose life is
Tuesdays, Dec. 5 and 19, Jan. 9 and 23, and
Feb. 6. under the management of Mr. Vic-
tor Thrane. At these salon musicales es-
pecially ar ranged programmes will be ex-
clusively presented by the following artists:
Alexandre Petschnikoff, violin; Elsa Rueg-
ger, 'cello; Leonora Jackson, violin; Ham-
bourg, piano, and eminent vocalists will
assist. Tickets of admission will be obtain-
able only through a committee of promin-
ent New York society women.
*
NUMBER of leading cities in Great
Britain are now supporting municipal
orchestras. The latest to fall in line is
Leeds. At a recent meeting presided over
by the Lord Mayor steps were taken to
form an orchestra of forty performers with
an eminent musician, as conductor. It is
planned to subsequently increase the or-
chestra to ninety. The enterprise is to be
supported partly from the city funds and
by private subscription.
A T the first of the Kaltenborn orchestra
**• concerts to be given at Carnegie Hall
to-morrow night, under the management
of Victor Thrane, the soloists will be Elsa
Ruegger, Louise B. Voight, soprano,
Marguerite Stillwell, pianist, and Emilio
de Gorgoza, baritone. Franz Kaltenborn
will conduct. The orchestral numbers will
be selected carefully by Conductor Franz
Kaltenborn, who has shown ability as a
programme maker. The concerts are to be
continued throughout the season.
*
\17ILLIAM LUDWIG,the Irish baritone,
** was the chief attraction at the Irish
Musical Festival given by the Gaelic So-
ciety at the Lenox Lyceum on the evening
of Oct. 17. At this concert the Gaelic
renaissance in the musical field was em-
phasized by the singing of old Irish songs
by a number of eminent artists.
*
HP HE following excerpts from John Rus-
* kin's works are excellent reading:
" The end of art is not to amuse. . . . The
end of art is as serious as that of other
beautiful things—of the blue sky, and the
green grass, and the clouds, and the dew.
They are either useless, or they are of
much deeper function than giving amuse-
ment."
" The best music, like the best painting,
is entirely popular; it at once commends
itself to every one, and does so through all
ages. The worst music, like the worst
painting, commends itself at first, in like
manner, to ninety-nine persons out of a
hundred; but after doing them its ap-
pointed quantity of mischief it is forgotten
and new modes of mischief composed. The
A
the cleverest violinists for his
O NE age of which
we have heard in some
time is Master Andrew Byrne, a young
American who is winning no small share
of public notice these days. Although
but in his fourteenth year he has an ex-
tended repertoire, embracing some of the
most difficult numbers, which he has ren-
dered with orchestra. He reads at sight
the most difficult music. His technic is
wonderful, while his expression and breadth
of tone, combined with singing quality,
shows a maturity of musical comprehen-
sion that surprises. Master Byrne is study-
E. N. KNIGHT.
less we compose at present the better; there
is good music enough written to serve the
world forever."
"The airs of songs by great composers
must never be used for other words than
those they were written for. Nothing is
so destructive of all musical understanding
as the habit of fitting a tune that tickles
the ear to any syllables that it will stick on."

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