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THE
REVIEW
ARTISTS' DEPARTMENT.
TELEPHONE
NUMBER, 1745.-EIQHTEENTH STREET
The Artists' Department of The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
WHY NOT FREE INDOOR CONCERTS?"
A T the recent meeting of the League for
•**• Political Education in this city, John
Martin, a former member of the London
County Council, delivered a most interesting
address, in which he showed that New York
was behind London in many things. He
referred to Mayor Van Wyck's scornful al-
lusion to playgrounds in the parks, and his
declaration that it was vaudeville that caused
the ruin of Rome. He thought the Mayor
had a more accurate classical knowledge.
London, he said, had thirty-eight outdoor
gymnasiums.
Another suggestion was that music for
the people was just as good in winter as on
summer evenings.
"If the city should assist in this matter,
as it provides music in the parks in the sum-
mer," said Mr. Martin, "it would help to
keep the young men out of saloons and the
low music halls."
It is interesting to note, by the way, that
there seems to be a fair prospect of putting
to a practical test this winter the scheme of
giving free indoor concerts in the poorer
districts of London during December, Jan-
uary and February. The Parks Committee
of the London Council have, according to
our English namesake, so far accepted a
proposition by Stewart Sankey to this end
that they have requested the Bands Sub-
Committee to settle details, and the whole
matter will very shortly be submitted to the
Council itself. The proposal is to utilize the
bands which perform in the open spaces
during the summer. Also amateur musical
societies and others will be invited to assist
in the performance of choral, instrumental,
and solo vocal music, and the Borough
Councils will be asked to grant the free use
of their halls. The County Council indoor
concerts will necessarily be of a not too am-
bitous character, but they will be given in as
large a number as possible of the working
class districts, and they will certainly be
keenly appreciated by the very poor during
the three joyless winter months.
Here is a "pointer" for the incoming ad-
ministration of Mayor Low and his Borough
chiefs. Why not free indoor concerts for the
poor of New York?
TGNACE PADEREWSKI, who will be
* over here early in January to superintend
the rehearsals of his new opera "Manru,"
which will be produced by the Grau forces
at the Metropolitan, recently gave two con-
certs in Vienna, where he has never in the
past enjoyed the same degree of success that
he made in the other cities. Some time ago
he vowed he would never play there again,
and his recent visit was entirely due to the
solicitation of Leschetitsky, who was ex-
tremely anxious that he should capture the
good will of the Viennese public.
7VTVSIC TRKDE. REVIEW
like position the percentage is high. These
MISS BROWER'S SUCCESS.
/Wl ISS AILEEN BROWER, soprano, who young people are chiefly equipping themselves
*• * *• made her formal debut at the Astor to teach. It is clear that the time is near
Gallery of the Waldorf-Astoria on Nov. 15th, when Americans will not need to leave home
achieved a most pronounced success. Her to acquire that instruction which is at pres-
program embraced the Recitation Aria from ent only to be got in Europe.
"Iphigenie en Tauride," by Gliick; an air "The attempt to make coon songs the foun-
from "Louise," by Charpentier, and a group tain of American musical inspiration is alto-
of songs by Von Fielitz, Richard Strauss, gether misguided. Ragtime is a bad imita-
Victor Harris and Edward German. This tion of European 'volkslieder' brought to
the United States by German, Italian and
Russian emigrants. Sousa's stirring works
will live. Theodore Thomas, Walter Dam-
rosch, Emil Paur and Anton Seidl lend shin-
ing glory to American music. The land
which raised and supports such talents will
not be content until still higher artistic ideals
are reached."
j*
MR. MANSFIELD'S CLEVER SATIRE.
A T a dinner to Richard Mansfield in Bal-
* * timore last Saturdaynight some one read
the article in the St. James' Gazette attack-
ing the taste of the American public and la-
menting the deterioration of the foreign act-
ors and amusement-makers through their
visits to America. Mr. Mansfield spoke in
satirical comment upon the article.
"Think," he begins, "if the newspaper's
contention is true, what a vast crowd of
coarse and clap-trap actors, readers, singers,
musicians, there must be on the other side
of the ocean by this time!" And he went
on to discuss the more conspicuous persons
in that throng—the Irvings and Terrys and
MISS BROWER.
program was sufficiently catholic to reveal Kendals, Duse and Bernhardt and Coquelin,
the range and beauty of Miss Brower's mar- Patti, Paderewski, the De Reszkes, Calve
velous voice. She was received with enthu- and Melba. He warned Paderewski to keep
siasm by the large and fashionable audience away from us lest he "sink out of sight ex-
in attendance. The critics of the leading cept as a rag-time performer," and he sug-
papers without exception spoke most flat- gested that the singers "will have either to
teringly of this talented artist, who is already turn their backs upon us altogether or be-
booked for a number of other important en- come performers for the ubiquitous Mr.
gagements this season in widely separated Keith."
parts of the country under the management
Mr. Mansfield treated the attack, which
of Chas. L. Young.
has been so widely quoted in this country,
with
the good-humored irony which it de-
PRAISE FROM' "SIR HUBERT."
served.
He might have added, says the
I T is a good thing once in a while to "see
World,
that
the St. James' Gazette is a little
* ourselves as other see us"; hence the
afternoon
newspaper
with a circulation of
value of the following remarks by Dr. Wil-
less
than
two
thousand
copies.
helm Klatte, the distinguished critic of Ber-
lin, who, in a series of lectures recently given " F H E Marquis Souza, who disdained all
on the history of contemporary music, ac-
offers to appear in the vaudeville thea-
corded a high place to American composing, tres here, has recently been singing at the
orchestral, instrumental and vocal talent. Winter Garden in Berlin, where he is said
"The United States will be teaching Europe to receive $100 nightly for shaking the raft-
music within twenty years," said Dr. Klatte, ers. He would have been able to command
"it is undoubtedly on the threshold of a great more here.
musical career. Native composition is only
I N Germany, as in this country, other art-
emerging from its infancy, but the works 1 ists of note have gone into the vaudeville
of Nevin, McDowell, Parker, Foote, Chad- field, much to the horror of the good people
wick and Sousa afford rich promise. As yet of the fatherland. The innovation is de-
German, Italian and French influence is plored as a degradation of art. But then, it
marked because most American musical ex- depends upon the point of view.
ponents are fresh from European schooling.
This influence will decrease as the body poli-
tic loses cosmopolitanism and becomes typi-
cally American.
"The records of our own conservatories
AUBTJEIT, 3JT. 3T.
show that out of an average class of 500
All oar Instruments contain the full iron framo and
one-fifth is composed of yankees, while the
patent tuning pin. The greatest invention in the history
remainder are Germans. Never fewer than of piano making. Any radical changes in the climate, heat
or dampness, cannot affect the standing in tone of our to.
forty-five Americans obtain first honors, struments,
and therefor* challenge the worl4 thai
while if 200 Germans manage to secure a •ill excel any otbeft.
ufcctum*