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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
1745.--EIQHTEENTH
STREET.
The musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
I T is welcome news that Rafael Joseffy
*• has decided to return to the concert
platform actively again. The public ap-
petite has been unappeased since hearing
last season this great artist on his only
appearance after five years absence. Joseffy
has emerged from his seclusion one of the
world's greatest virtuosi.
As might be
expected from such a profound student he
is a master of all the intellectual and tech-
nical resources of the piano. His readings
are characterized by dignity, power and a
catholicity that demonstrates his remark-
able musicianship and his ability to get at
the heart of his art. He combines pheno-
menal technique with a poetic or spiritual
expression that is in the power only of the
few.
Commencing the early part of November
Joseffy will make a tour covering the prin-
cipal cities of the United States. He will
appear in recitals only. The programs
selected from his extensive repertoire will
be interesting as well as instructive, as he
will combine the classics with novel-
ties. He will be heard in works which
have not been played by any other pianist
before. L. M. Ruben, of the Metropolitan
Opera House, who is arranging the Joseffy
recital tour, states that Joseffy will limit
the number of his appearances to fifty, al-
though applications for Joseffy recitals al-
ready far exceed that number. He will
not travel further west than Kansas City,
and will end his tour in New York City,
the latter part of April, 1900.
The cover page of this issue contains an
excellent portrait of Joseffy, who for
twenty years has been a resident of this
country.
"THERE is "music" and "music" in
* New York these humid days of August.
In every sphere of amusement—on every
stage, on every roof, the performances are
substantially musical. There are coon
songs and coon dances, ballads of yore, and
up-to-date ditties, topical verses with catchy
refrains, instrumental selections, bur-
lesques and satires with points empha-
sized by melodious devices—it is all
music of a kind. Through it all there
run, however, a touch of levity. The art
is made to serve a lower purpose. It is
robbed of its dignity. It is made to speak
in flippant tones, in dialect and in slang.
It is forced to stimulate laughter, to appeal
to the grosser emotions—to degrade itself,
in a word—and yet its refining influences
assert themselves, and joke or gibe of
doubtful purport are made neater and bet-
ter by the association. In these dog days
there is perhaps no cause for complaint in
all this. The average human mind does
not care to be moved or affected, or even
unduly interested, when the body is not
comfortable. A superficial distraction is
sufficient.
*
C O R those who want to enjoy an evening
* of "good" music New York is not barren
this summer. For the first time in many
years a scheme to give popular summer
concerts is meeting with a fair degree of
success, enough to establish the fact that
there is a summer concert constituency in
New York, and that when all the problems
involved have been solved in a satisfactory
manner it will have prosperity.
The performances of the orchestra now
playing at the St. Nicholas Garden, under
the direction of Franz Kaltenborn, are ad-
mirable. The orchestra, composed of com-
petent musicians, is well balanced, is actu-
ated by a common spirit and plays with
evident recognition of its leader's abilities
and enthusiasm.
The programs are well selected. They
are diversified in character and are marked
by many compositions which seldom figure
at local concerts. Works by American
composers are given a good show by Mr.
Kaltenborn, an act for which he deserves
credit.
*
JUDGING from the advance announce-
^
ments, the coming season affords
promise of being a particularly brilliant
one in the musical world. Many well-
known and popular musical celebrities will
be with us. In the pianistic field, Pade-
rewski, Hambourg, Joseffy, de Pachmann
and Sieveking head the list; other instru-
mentalists and vocalists who have won
fame in Europe are also scheduled to make
their appearance. Home talent will be
strongly in evidence — perhaps more so
than in previous years. The prominent
musical caterers are displaying more en-
thusiasm than usual in bringing this fact
to notice. The public is realizing year
after year that the foreign celebrities do
not possess a monopoly of ability, and that
a little appreciation and some of its dollars
should be reserved for les Americains.
We trust the "realization" will develop
into actuality.
*
A MONG the artists already secured by
* * Maurice Grau for his coming Ameri-
can campaign are: Sopranos: Mmes.
Calve, Sembrich, Ternina, Nordica, Adams
and Susan Strong; contraltos: Mmes.
Schumann-Heink, Mantelli, Olitzka, Bau-
ermeister, Van Cauteren and Broadfoot;
tenors: Van Dyck, Saleza, Alvarez, Dip-
pel, Salignac, Bars and Vanni; baritones:
Van Rooy, Bertram, Campanari, Albers,
Scotti, Muhlmann, Dufriche, Meux and
Pini-Corsi; basses: Edouard de Reszke,
Plangon, Devries and Pringle; conductors:
Mancinelli, Hinrichs and Paur.
Although the list contains few names
absolutely new to the American public,
still, as far as New York is concerned,
Mme. Ternina will practically be a new-
comer; Mr. Alvarez has not yet been
heard in New York; Mme. Calve returns
after an absence of nearly three years, and
Sig. Scotti is an Italian baritone, who has
never sung in America. He was engaged
by Mr. Grau because of his great success
at Covent Garden in "Don Giovanni" and
"Aida." Herr Bertram is a celebrated
German baritone, who for years has been
engaged at the Royal Theatre at Munich,
and is particularly well known as a Wagner
singer.
:•
*
1\/I R. GRAU has decided to begin a pre-
*" • liminary season of grand opera on
Oct. 9 at New Haven, visiting such cities
as Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, Provi-
dence, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit,
Cleveland, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louis-
ville, Cincinnati, Chicago and Boston be-
fore the regular season in New York,
which will begin Dec. 18. It will last
fifteen weeks and will consist of forty-five
evening and fifteen afternoon subscription
performances. If the conditions are favor-
able twenty special performances will also
be given in Philadelphia.
The repertoire is not yet decided upon,
but it is sure to include the best works of
our schools of music. Mr. Grau's policy is
eclectic, and operas will be given, as here-
tofore, in French, Italian and German.
A novelty that promises to be interest-
ing will be a complete cycle of Wagner's
work in chronological order, beginning
with " Rienzi " and ending with "Gotter-
dammerung." This will be followed by a
short cycle of Mozart's works, particular
attention being paid to the mise-en-scene
of "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don
Giovanni " and " The Magic Flute."
One or two novelties, as well as some
interesting revivals, will also be introduced.
*
AND so the composer of " Cavalleria"
**• has become inoculated with the
virus — Americanitus. Dispatches from
Rome say: " Mascagni's hymn in honor
of Admiral Dewey was performed at
Pesaro on Sunday for the first time be-
fore an audience of 2,000 persons. It was
greatly appreciated, and is considered one
of the finest hymns Mascagni has written."
The subject is a great one—great enough
to inspire and stimulate the talents of the
most eminent of the Admiral's countrymen
who aspire to a standing among the leading
composers. Outside of Walter Damrosch's
scholastic yet commendable effort, and
the production of tons of rubbish in song
form, we have yet to report the appearance
of a musical work in any form by an Ameri-
can that can be considered worthy of the
hero of the Battle of Manila Bay.
This country has yet to pass judgment
on Mascagni's hymn, yet worthy or un-
worthy of the subject and the writer, he
must be honored for the motives which
prompted this form of honoring the gal-
lant Admiral Dewey.
*
TN literary and musical spheres Ireland
* nowadays seems to be experiencing a
renaissance. That delusive element, the
Celtic Spirit, is the subject of much dis-
cussion, but so far it has evaded any thing
like definition.
Early Irish literature,
both in prose and verse, reveals many
phases of it, all abounding in a strange