Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
given with Henry Waller's assistance on
Tuesday evening, April 4th, at the Wal-
dorf-Astoria, for the benefit of the Indus-
trial Colony Association. Maud McCarthy,
the little violinist, will have Arthur Whit-
ing's help in a recital at the Astoria on
Saturday afternoon, April 8th. Lilli Leh-
mann will be heard in songs on April 10th
at Carnegie Hall. Lady Halle gives a
violin recital on April 5th at Mendelssohn
Hall, where piano recitals by Madeline
Schiller are appointed for April 6th and
20th. Edgar Stillman Kelley, composer,
gives a series of illustrated musical talks
on Tuesday afternoons at private houses.
And thus runs the season of 1898 99
a\va) r .
*
A MUSICIAN died, and his sleeping soul
**• waited at the gate.
Then said the angel: "Has this man
sinned? "
'' Yes," answered the voices of the neigh-
bors; "he has played his own works all
day."
" What shall be his punishment? " asked
the angel.
"Let him hear those works for ever,"
cried the voices.
So the soul was awakened in Hell .by the
chanting of its own music.
'
." This must be Heaven," it said.
*
T H E success of Mine. Carreno during
* her present tour of the United States
has exceeded all expectations. This fa-
mous artist has not only emphasized her
position among the few really great pianists
of the world but she has displayed a
ripened comprehension of her art that has
delighted a host of admirers. Her superb
technique, elegant finish of touch and dif-
ferentiation of tone is a delight, and it is
only possible where an indefinable quality
of genius prevails. The critics throughout
the country have properly wedded Mine.
Carreno's unprecedented success with the
superb Chickering concert grand piano
upon which she played, and have paid that
instrument many compliments in this con-
nection.
Mine. Carreno played in Providence with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Wed-
nesday and gave a recital in Boston on
Thursday. Her itinerary up to April 21st
is as follows:
Recitals in Rochester, April 5; Toronto,
April 4; soloist with the Philharmonic
Society, New York, April 7 8; recitals,
Philadelphia, April 10; Washington, April
11; Boston, April 12; Syracuse, April 1^;
New York, 15 and 18; Baltimore, April 17,
and Nashville, April 21, with the Thomas
Orchestra.
*
T H I S country is supposed to contain
* about 70,000,000 inhabitants. Among
them all there is no one that could dupli-
cate the feat Prof. MacDowell has accom-
plished— create such poetic pieces for
piano as he has, and at the same time play
them so poetically as he did at Mendels-
sohn Hall recently, says the critic of the
Evening Post. The combination of these
two faculties is of the greatest importance,
for real loyers of music—as distinguished
from pedantic professionals — know that
there is no pleasure comparable to that of
hearing a creator recreate his own crea-
tions. To music-lovers who have enough
sensibility to appreciate genius in life and
action, there is more delight in hearing
such pieces as the "Eroica" sonata, "To a
Water Lily," or "In Mid-Ocean," as Mr.
MacDowell played them, than there is in a
dozen recitals a la Rosenthal, which owe
their interest mainly to qualities of bril-
liant execution that are now far surpassed
by the semi-automatic pianola, which will
soon drive out of the field the large class of
pianists who depend for their success more
EDWARD
MACDOWELL.
on their fingers than on their brains or
hearts.
Mr. MacDowell, too, has mastered the
secrets of technique, but no one thinks of
them while hearing him play. There are
some extremely difficult things in his Eroi-
ca sonata and some of the other pieces he
played—difficulties which he surmounted
brilliantly; but the great charm of his
playing lay in the revelation of tempera-
ment.
LORENZO PEROSI, the young
priest-composer, " the Wagner of
church music," as one of his enthusiastic
admirers has called him, is still the sensa-
tion of the day in Italy. A few weeks ago
his new oratorio, "The Resurrection," was
produced in Milan, and, like its three pred-
ecessors, made a tremendous impression.
Not only musical Italy, but all musical
Europe, is stirred up over the remarkable
work of this youthful clerical musician,
who, for the time being at least, has thrown
in the shade his fellow countrymen, the
opera composers of the new Italian school,
the Mascagnis, the Leoncavallos, the Puc-
cinis, and their associates. Unfortunately,
the American public may have to wait
some time before it will have an opportu-
nity of hearing any of Don Perosi's orato-
rios given \n full, with adequate yocalists
and orchestra, as it is said his publishers
demand $5,000 for the rights, a sum which
no manager has thus far seen fit to pay.
T H E chief characteristics of his new
oratorios are that one notes the ab-
sence of set recitatives and airs, and the
preponderance of irregular phrases, either
fluent or declamatory, designed to enforce
the meaning and sentiment of the words
delivered by the soloists. Sometimes these
are supported for a while by a consistent
instrumental figure; sometimes it verges
on the amorphous. The works are divided
into parts, and each part shows an abun-
dance of sections which, al-
though "full closes" are fre-
quent, are intended to follow
one another without a break.
The choruses, many of which
have a Gregorian foundation,
give the works their chief
grandeur, and must needs be
most moving in performance.
Perosi has not resisted mod-
ern influences, and the most
superficial examination of his
music will establish this fact.
With a show of severe counter-
point he mingles dissonances,
some of which are too harsh
to be even touched upon a
pianoforte, and call for all the
softening that strings can
give them. In the freedom of
his wanderings from key to
key, too, he follows his oper-
atic compatriots.
The new oratorio is orches-
trated with none of the lav-
ish color to which young Italy
is addicted. Perosi chooses in-
stead a sober and dignified
manner, which becomes his music well.
What will Lorenzo Perosi do with his
victory? Will he remain the priest-com-
poser, or will the day come when we shall
speak of him as the composer-priest? Will
his Church or his art hold him faster?
Thus far the Church has the mastery.
Perosi has taken his triumph with becom-
ing modesty, and he remains firmly set in
his intention to devote his gifts to the sole
service of his Creator. That he may con-
tinue in this spirit will be the desire of all
who hear and consider his music.
*
T H I S century has been the greatest of
*• all in the opinion of Robt. G. Inger-
soll, the famous orator and apostle of free
thought. The inventions, the discoveries,
the victories on the fields of thotight, the
advances in nearly every direction of hu-
man effort are without parallel in human
history. He says: " I n two directions
have the achievements of this century been
excelled. The marbles of Greece have not
been equalled. They still occupy the niches
dedicated to perfection. The sculptors of
our century stand before the miracles of
the Greeks in impotent wonder. They
cannot even copy. They cannot give the
breath of life to stone and make the marble
feel and think. The plays of Shakespeare
rjaye neyer been approached, He reached