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56 PAGE5
With which is incorporated THE KEYNOTE.
V O L . X X X . N o . 14.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East Fourteenth Street. New York, April 7,1900.
""THERE are said to be only two things wonderful tale of an artist's equipment in
* in the range of art and science, that her profession—the repertoire of a great
the human mind can ever grasp without prima donna. It is enough to stagger an
study; one is music and the other is ambitious beginner who dreams of the
mathematics. It might be added that they glories of artistic fame, the applause and
are also the only two things that some minds adoration of the multitude, the power to
cannot grasp with any amount of study. sway human emotions, to thrill human
It is a singular fact that certain people are hearts, to have jewels and flowers, titles
born without the faculty for understanding and decorations fall in showers, to be
music and others who simply cannot con- patronized by the mighty, worshipped by
ceive the processes of higher mathematics.
They are as much a sealed book to them as
color must be to the blind, and quite fre-
quently both infirmities are combined in
the same person. We run across such
cases now and then. But, on the other
hand, we are all familiar with those strange
musical and mathematical prodigies whose
performances are apparently unaccom-
panied by any process of reasoning and
who defy all efforts at logical explanation.
Outside of their one abnormal faculty they
are often really weak-minded.
'"THE most interesting musical event of
* the month unquestionably has been
Mme. Sembrich's appearance in recital at
Carnegie Hall. Few have a greater per-
sonal following in this city than this great
exponent of the Italian bel canto and the
immense house which greeted her is an
overwhelming proof of this fact. No such
audience gathered there since the famous
Paderewski was heard there for the last
time this winter. It is needless to dilate
on this charming singer's art. It is just
as unsurpassable in song recital as in
opera, and the enthusiasm she excited was
well merited. The merely linguistic achieve-
ment of the concert was remarkable. Mme.
Sembrich sang in Italian, French, English,
German, Russian and Polish. Every one
of these languages the prima donna speaks
with facility. Polish is her native tongue.
German, Italian, Russian and French are
as ^asy to her. English she speaks with
little accent and considerable fluency. Mme.
Sembrich will sing at the Cincinnati Musical
Festival early in May, and it is not unlikely
that she will give another song recital be-
fore she leaves for home. We understand
that a prominent impresario is now mak-
ing arrangements with the gifted can-
tatrice for a concert tour next season.
(STATISTICS are eloquent even in art.
^
Here are some figures which tell a
S I N G L E 0 0 ^ I E S ^ O CENTS
and Peri," Mendelssohn's "Lobgesang,"
Haendel's " Chilian Ode" and Brahms's
" Deutscher Requiem;" seventy-two arias
from operas other than those above re-
ferred to (sung in concert), and an inti-
mate knowledge of hundreds of songs.
Let the reader imagine what it means to
have learned the music of all these roles
and memorized it, to have at her beck and
call the words and lines in the three lan-
guages, to have analyzed
each and every one of these
many characters so as to indi-
vidualize them in represen-
tation. And then the songs
which she has studied not
only of the literature of Ger-
man lieder, of French chan-
sons, of Italian canzonette,
but also the folk-songs of
her native Poland and of
Russia. Truly a herculean
task has been accomplished
by this woman.
j*
PREPARATIONS for the
*• customary s e r i e s of
spring musical festivals are
now under way in various
sections of our land. The
arrangements include par-
ticipation by many noted
artists.
old lady who
A QUAINT
might, from her ap-
pearance, have just stepped
out of a Goldsmith comedy
or a Gainsborough picture,
died two weeks ago in
MME. SEMBRICH.
the lowly, to have wealth, to be in the London at the age of ninety-one, in the
public eye constantly; to be, in fact, a person of Lady John Scott Spottiswoode,
personage of supreme importance. It will the composer of "Annie Laurie" and other
stagger her, for it tells as no words can of familiar melodies.
the hours, the days, the years of hard, in-
cessant study, of the fatigues, the self- OAINT-SAENS complains in his new
book, "Portraits et Souvenirs," that
denials, the sacrifice of many things that ^
the Parisian amateurs no longer seem to
make life worth living.
Take, for instance, Marcella Sembrich, care for intelligible music, but must have
the consummate artist, endowed with beau- something "dark and incomprehensible."
ty of voice, with the perfections of vocal " If I understand it," they say, " i t must
art, with the faculties of expression and be bad; if not, it must be good. "
characterization, and her repertoire com-
prises thirty-three roles, in as many operas, T IKE last year, the musical season in
by eighteen composers. Add to these the *-^ this city will run quite late this sea-
soprano parts in the following oratorios son. There are a number of concerts
and cantatas: "The Creation," "Paradise scheduled for May.