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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
country was too much Germanized, and for the
"There is another remedy, and that lies with
populace I should say—well, that cheap music the artist himself. He must be true to his art,
had vitiated their comprehension.
true to himself. He must never dupe, never
In Every City—So Says Violinist Ysaye, in
"I mean by cheap music this: It does not do sham. That is the second and the only other
Order to Stimulate a Greater Love for the
to educate the populace too far in the work of one I know.
Beautiful in Music.
the masters, unless it is done in the right way,
"If I had my way, every city in the world through the portals of a Temple of Music of
STRAUSS' SYMPHONIA DOMESTICA
should build a temple of music, a cathedral, so which I have spoken, for example.
"When a boy or a girl is allowed to drum on
to speak, where nothing but the most beautiful
Did Not Bring the Highest Price Ever Paid for
masterpieces should be heard. This is not a mere the piano some of the wonderful music of Bach,
a
Musical
Composition—What
About
Utopian dream," said M. Ysaye, "it is based on the for instance, when the banal interpretation of a
Brahm's
Fourth
Symphony?
laws of experience, of judgment and of feeling. half-educated teacher is taken for the truth, it is
"When you go to church you go to pray, to all wrong. Play a wonderful sonata over as a
The exciting news was cabled over last week
worship. ' There is in that place a religious at- five-finger exercise day in and day out, and
that the honorarium paid Dr. Richard Strauss for
mosphere which is felt even by those who have when you come to hear it interpreted by a master
the score of the "Symphonia Domestica," which
strayed in through curiosity or for some other what does it mean to you? Nothing at all.
"Everybody now is an amateur, and the New York had the honor of hearing first, is $9,-
equally unworthy motive. It is so pervading, so
000. It is described as "the highest honorarium
forceful, that no one can evade it; it influences amateur point of view is a bad one.
"You must remember this—that music is the ever paid in Germany for a musical composi-
in spite of oneself, and for the majority who go
tion." This is not true, however, for a thousand
there from the highest motives no one can meas- voice of the heart. It is necessary to have lived,
to have suffered, to have experienced life in its dollars more was paid by the publisher, Sim-
ure the incalculable good it does to them.
rock, for the score of Brahms' Fourth Symphony.
multiple phases before you can appreciate."
"It would be the same way with a temple of
And that, too, was in 1885, when the marketing
Ysaye
lost
himself
in
a
profound
reverie.
When
music. People would go there because they
of music had not been raised to such a fine a r t
would be drawn by the knowledge that in that he came back he shook his leonine head, with as it has been by Dr. Strauss. Fortunately, as
its
hair
brushed
back
simply
from
his
broad
place they would have only the best. They would
Richard Aldrich so properly puts it, the value of
know what awaited them and they would only forehead, and said solemnly:
music is not measured by what the publishers
"To-day the heart of the public is a prison and give for it, but it would seem to be certain that
go when they were in the proper frame of spirit
it does not open its doors readily to music.
to receive the education offered them.
the worth of Brahms' symphony is more than 10
"Trust more to the primal emotions; take for per cent, greater than that of Dr. Strauss' latest
"You take the chef d'oeuvre of a great artist.
It is hung in a certain place, perhaps in a cathe- your interpretation the test of instinct—it is production.
dra], in a convent, in a special salon. You go mostly unfailing.
"Some of the truest appreciation I have ever
there to admire, you do admire, because you are
WEINGARTNER'S VISIT TO AMERICA.
tuned to that pitch, and you come away with a received has been from audiences in towns in
lasting impression of its magnificence, its lesson, Finland, in upper Norway—people of not much
Felix Weingartner will conduct the pair of
technical training, who were not blase, not over-
its majesty.
"You take that picture from its place, you buy developed, but who had the test of which I speak, concerts that will be given by the Philharmonic
it for your private house, you hang it conspicu- who had the primal feelings unspoiled, who Society on February 10 and 11, 1905. In addi-
ously, and the crowds of pleasure seekers come brought with them emotions freed from the cal- tion to this, the Philharmonic Society will give
two festival concerts on February 14 and 15,
and go; it means nothing to them; they gaze at lous touch of society.
"Remember this again. You. do not approach 1905, when Mr. Weingartner will conduct Bee-
it casually, they stand under it to discuss trivi-
alities, and soon its halo is lost—it has disap- the thoughts of the great masters of old and of thoven's Ninth Symphony and the "Harold"
peared amid the vapors of the commonplace, and those of our own time even by way of a little Symphony by Berlioz. Mr. Weingartner has sent
technical training, a few lessons of commercially his own score of the Ninth Symphony to August
the value of the chef d'ceuvre is no more.
"It is so with the great work of a master mind. inclined teachers, but you approach them by way Roebbelen, one of the directors of the Philhar-
Insert it on a programme amid a lot of trivial of your feelings, your heart, and that means, in monic Society, so that his corrections and anno-
tations may be transferred to the orchestral and
turn, your life."
music, play it to a mixed assemblage, some of
"And the remedies for these difficulties, M. chorus parts of the Philharmonic Society scores.
whom have come there because the artist has-
been advertised, others because it is a fashion- Ysaye?" asked a representative of The Sun.
"La remC»de? Mon Dieu! she asks me la
able affair, others to kill the time, and that, too,
REHEARSALS NOW INTERESTING.
remode. My child, I should have to be a Jesus
loses its aureola of greatness.
Rehearsals at the Opera House have suddenly
"One of the most interesting series of con- Christ—I say it with all reverence—to provide
certs I have ever given was presented during my a remedy. And yet, yet, here is one." He touches become interesting, says the New York Sun.
Cause: Conried. He is always there and noth-
recent visit in Vienna. I played a Beethoven the pencil of the interviewer.
"The press is a great power, greater to-day ing escapes his eye. He does not meddle with
evening, one of Mozart, of Liszt, and so on, each
master in his proper setting, and to a most ap- then ever in the world's history, for to-day more the music, but leaves that to his conductors. But
people read, more are educated, more think. It stage setting, action, grouping, business and all
preciative audience.
"Here it is hard to get up a programme, for is in the power of the humblest scribe to say tha such matters are personally supervised by him.
He is an actor-manager, and no one can fool him
there are so many conflicting tastes. Some like right word instead of the wrong.
"It is the duty of the writer to hold the truth about these things. He can teach a.prima donna
the romanticist style of music, some the purely
classical, some church music, some again the unflinchingly, to attack the bad, to protect and how to make an exit or the ballet how to group
popular; there is no standard of comparison. To help the good. To hold the pen in trust. That is in a tableau. All the prime donne go to rehearsal
now. The cause of this is also Conried.
the music lovers I should say the music in this one remedy.
WOULD HAVE TEMPLES OF MUSIC
To Make Sure of a Prosperous Hew Year:
'WINTER & CO." PIANOS
WINTER h Co.
1014-1020 Southern Boulevard, New York
\: