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THE MUSIC TRADE
THE RICHARD STRAUSS FESTIVAL.
Four Orchestral Concerts to be Given in Conjunc-
tion With the Wetzler Symphony Orchestra
and Mme. Strauss de Ahna-^Festival Under the
Auspices of Steinway & Sons.
The first of the Richard Strauss orches-
tral festival concerts will be given in
Carnegie Hall on Saturday evening, Feb.
27, when Dr. Strauss will make his debut
here in the last of the Wetzler Symphony
Concerts, and which will also be the open-
ing concert of the festival. The other
three concerts will take place on Thursday
evening, March 3; Wednesday afternoon,
March 9, and Wed- 1
nesday
evening,
March 16, and are to
be given under the
auspices of Messrs.
Steinway
& Sons.
This festival is the
first that has been de-
voted exclusively to
the works of any one
musician to be given
in this city in a num-
ber of years.
A similar festival
was given in London
last spring and met
with the enthusiastic
praise of the most
eminent critics. The
Wetzler
Symphony
Orchestra has been
engaged for all the
concerts. The works
to be performed under
the conductorship of
the composer himself
are: "Ein Heldenle-
ben" (A Hero's Life),
the tone poem, "Don
Juan;" Don Quixote"
(Fantastic
Varia-
tions),
"Tod unci
Verklarung," the love
scene from his opera,
"Feuersnoth;"
"Till
Eulenspiegel's Merry
Pranks,"
and
the
new
sinfonia "Do-
mestica." This last work is different
from anything that Strauss has com-
posed in the past, and so much has
been written regarding it that its perform-
ance wvill be one of the chief events of the
festival. It has never been played in pub-
lic and is still in manuscript, Dr. Strauss
bringing the entire orchestration with him
when he comes to this country.
Mme. Strauss De Ahna will accompany
her husband on his visit, and in several of
the concerts she is to sing her husband's
songs. She will not, however, appear in
the first concert. As soloist for this con-
cert Mr. David Bispham has been engaged
Pablo Casals had also been engaged to play
the 'cello solo in "Don Quixote."
In addition to the orchestral festival Mr.
Wolfsohn has arranged for a recital of the
songs of Dr. Strauss, to be sung by Mme.
Strauss De Ahna, with the composer at the
piano, to be given in Carnegie Hall on Tues-
day afternoon, March 1. This recital will
REVIEW
be Mme. Strauss De Ahna's first appear-
ance in this country. Tennyson's poem
"Enoch Arden," which has been set to
music by Dr. Strauss, will be given, with
David Bispham as reader and Dr. Strauss at
the piano. There will also be a Richard
Strauss chamber music evening in Mendels-
sohn Hall on Friday, March 18, when th^
great composer, in conjunction with the
Mannes Quartet, will be heard in several
ensemble numbers.
Dr. and Mrs. Strauss and their agent,
Hugo Goerlitz, will sail for this country
on the 14th of next month and arrive here
about the 24th.
In addition to the concerts in this citv
REPEATING PROGRAMME NUMBERS.
Where the Composition Has Merit the Apprecia-
tion at Second Hearing Always Intensified—
Plan to be Tried at Chickering Orchestral
Concerts.
It is well known that the greatest obstacle
to the recognition of musical creative genius
lies in the difficulty most persons experience
in appreciating the merits of a new composi-
tion at a first hearing. To obviate this diffi-
culty, Henry T. Finck says: The Petri
Chamber Music Club of Dresden, at a recent
concert, played a new string quintet by
Draescke twice. After the first performance
a Beethoven trio was played, and then the
quintet was repeated. The applause after the
second hearing was much more cordial than
after the first, and the composer was repeat-
edly called out.
The experiment was, however, not a new
thing under the sun, for it will be remem-
bered that Hans von Biilow devoted a whole
concert to two performances at Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. On another occasion, when
a Vienna audience damned a new Brahms
symphony with very faint applause, Biilow
remarked: "Ladies and gentlemen, I shall
repeat this work, as you evidently do not
understand it." After the repetition there
was much applause, although, to be sure, a
malicious local journalist hinted that this
was due to the fear that Biilow might repeat
the symphony once more.
It will be noted that in the programme of
the first Chickering orchestral concert
Debussy's Nocturnes for female voices will
be repeated the same evening. It is some-
thing of a novelty but also a pleasure in store
for those able to be present.
"PARSIFAL" PROVING A GOLD MINE.
RICHARD
STRAUSS.
Mr. Wolfsohn has arranged for Dr. Strauss
to conduct the Symphony orchestras in
Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chi-
cago, with the Pittsburg orchestra in Cleve-
land, and when Strauss makes his. debut in
Boston he will do so with the assistance of
the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. A
short orchestral tour, independent of these
appearances, is also being arranged for by
Mr. Wolfsohn, when Dr. Strauss and the
Wetzler Symphony Orchestra will visit
Troy, Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland,
Indianapolis and Scranton. Song recitals
by Dr. and Mrs. Strauss are to be given in
Boston and Chicago, Milwaukee, Minne-
apolis and several other Western.cities,
has composed in the past, and so much has
In a recent lecture on "Italian Opera" in
Venice, Mascagni professed himself to be
an admirer of Wagner, but declared that
the excessive cult of his works now carried
on in Italy is injuring the national art. He
closed his remarks thus: "I have shut my
shop, and shall never do any more compos-
ing." Is this merely an oratorical out-
burst?
The financial success of "Parsifal" prom-
ises to be more than the most striking fea-
ture of the present operatic season. Such
receipts as it has brought are unpre-
cedented in the history of amusements in
the world. Even in comparison with the
receipts of such sensational performers as
Jenny Lind and Adelina Patti in the past
and Ignace Paderewski during the popu-
larity of his earlier visits to this country,
"Parsifal" is still unique.
With the sale of tickets for standees the
receipts of the ten evening performances
and of the matinee to be. announced later
will reach $200,000. Nothing like this was
ever known before in the history of amuse-
ment providing.
Of the $200,000 that will be paid into the
Metropolitan box office for the pleasure
of hearing this opera, probably $120,000 will
be profit.
Speaking of "Parsifal" reminds us that
there will be a special matinee performance
on Washington's birthday. The curtain
will rise at 11:30 in the morning, and the
performance will be over shortly before
five, allowing an hour for luncheon.
Henry Holden Huss and his fiancee Miss
Hildergarde Hoffmann, gave a musicale at
the White House the other day. The
President, in congratulating Miss Hoff-
mann, made special mention of Mr. Huss's
"Song of the Sirens."