Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
. . . Carreno and the Chickering. • . •
THE FAMOUS ARTIST MAKES HER FIRST APPEARANCE THIS SEASON IN CINCINNATI, JAN. 13
A TREMENDOUS AUDIENCE ACCLAIMS HER THE NEW SCALE CHICKERING CONCERT
GRAND WINS NO SMALL SHARE OF THE HONORS A MAGNIFICENT INSTRUMENT.
Mme. Carreno, the Valkyrie of the piano,
achieved one of the great successes in her
distinguished career on the evening of Jan.
13th, at Music Hall, Cincinnati, when she
made her first appearance this season in
this country with the Symphony Orchestra
under the direction of Frank Van der
Stucken. She played Rubinstein's Con-
certo in D minor, using the new scale
Chickering concert grand.
The audience
which crowded the house to the doors was
aroused to such enthusiasm as has been
rarely witnessed in Cincinnati. The tri-
umph of Mme. Carreno overshadowed
everything else, although the program was
an excellent one and ably interpreted.
It must be a source of extreme pleasure
to the Chickering firm to realize that in the
success attained by Mme. Carreno, the
Chickering piano was an important factor.
Under her magnetic fingers the wonderful
wealth of tone, rich in quality, was revealed
as never before. The Cincinnati Commer-
cial-Tribune well says: " At no time in the
Concerto did the instrument—where the
master had designed it to be so—lose its
pre-eminence in the hands of its interpre-
ter."
In her encore pieces, the piano
seemed like a veritable orchestra so beauti-
ful in coloring, so varied in effects was the
tone. It can be said that Mme. Carreno's
appearance in Cincinnati was not only a
great success for that artist, but a tremend-
ous triumph for the new scale Chickering.
The Cincinnati papers have contained
lengthy and most commendatory notices
anent Carreno's appearance.
Space will
not allow us to give them all; we select a
few as a sample of the many critical trib-
butes that have appeared:
CINCINNATI COMriERCIAL TRIBUNE, Jan. 14.
The most satisfactory of the season's
performances of the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra, viewed from a box-office as well
as an artistic standpoint, was given at
Music Hall yesterday afternoon.
An
audience, whose size was evidently affected
by the weather conditions, but was, never-
theless, considerably more profitable to
the association than in the past, listened
with a marked show of appreciation to the
program rendered by Conductor Van der
Stucken. In the case of the soloist, that
appreciation reached the proportions of a
genuine ovation. Mr. Van der Stucken's
reading of the Beethoven Symphony was
intelligent and masterful.
Madame Carreno's rendition of the
Rubinstein Concerto aroused the most in-
tense enthusiasm on the part of the mu-
sicians present, many of whom followed
her carefully through it with open score
books. The usual apathy of an afternoon
audience resolved itself into a show of the
most approved satisfaction, even before
the magnetic Carreno appeared, which
proved conclusively that the beautiful
Fifth Symphony has lost none of its charm
with a Cincinnati audience, and that Con-
ductor Van der Stucken manifested a wise
choice in his selection—a number that has
been given already three times since the
inauguration of the orchestra as a perma-
nent fixture in the local musical forces.
As is usual, the women predominated
yesterday afternoon, and it must have
been a pleasant reflection to the magnetic
soloist who, before she had bowed her
final adieu, was compelled to respond to
three encores ere they would permit her to
retire.
The performance of the concerto aroused
the slumbering fires, and the beautiful
little themes which she gave afterward,
unweighted with the heavily charged
melodies of modern orchestration, showed
her in all her masterful strength and rich
musical temperament, and brought her
hearers to her feet.
Madame Carreno's first encore was the
Chopin Berceuse; the second, "Etude in
G-flat major, Op. 10," and for her third
she played the delicious little bit of senti-
ment, her own composition, "Kleiner
Walzer," dedicated to her own little girl.
Here is a woman who has no fears of
the modern orchestra and its occasional
habits of drowning the solo instrument.
At no time in the concerto did the instru-
ment—where the master had designed it
to be so—lose its pre-eminence in the hands
of its interpreter. The performer's phras-
ing in the second movement was exquisite.
Her coloring is beautiful, varied to the
needs of the score, and if there was some-
times a suggestion of note caressing, it
was always in good taste and never verged
on exaggeration.
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, Jan. 14.
Madame Carreno played the Rubinstein
Concerto such as only Carreno can play it.
She, above all other pianists of the present
day, seems to possess by inheritance all
the fire and virt'uosic impact of Rubinstein.
But to his warmth and impetuosity she
adds her own feminine grace and delicacy.
Such a combination is entirely unique. Her
playing of the two cadenzas in the first
movement was most brilliant, but bril-
liancy is lost sight of in the warmth of her
interpretation. Her dynamic force is won-
derful, and it is as prominent in pianissi-
mo as in fortissimo passages. It simply
revels through all her playing. Her oc-
tave passages are as clear-cut and rounded
as a single note. Her legato playing is
equally marvelous and marvelously sus-
tained. Tonal purity in her playing as-
serts itself- supreme. Such a combination
of virtuoso strength and feminine delicacy,
added to the faculty of musical interpreta-
tion, can only, it would appear, be found
in a Carreno.
The audience gave her an ovation. She
was called out a dozen times and responded
to three encores—the Berceuse and Etude
in G flat major, by Chopin, and a waltz,
"Theresita," of her own composition.
She played the Berceuse with a peculiar
flavor and melody of her own—round and
full, yet delicate.
CINCINNATI TiriES-STAR, Jan. 14.
The performance of Mme. Carreno of
the Rubinstein concerto was a memorable
one.
In no pianist before the public is
that rare art of appealing directly to the
senses more highly developed than it is in
Mme. Carreno. It is a trite and common-
place remark to say that a pianist sings.
In the case of this remarkable woman it
means that the touch of the soul is at the
end of her fingers just as it often hovers in
the singer's throat. Mme. Carreno may
be said to have reached the maturity of her
art. With all the dignity of her art, her
marvelous control of color and varying
moods, she has lost nothing of the fire and
impetuosity of youth, that -ft^st brought
her into prominence.
Tile pianist aroused
extraordinary enthusiasm and wks obliged
to give three additionalviminbers. \
. Erd
The wedding Wl^Sfc^fSutin Saginaw,
Mich., the early p^Kof the month when
Mrs. F. H. Erd was wedded to Mr. F. H.
Beach, one of the prominent young business
men of Saginaw. Mrs. Beach occupies the
unique position of being the only lady
piano manufacturer in the music trade. She
has for years attended to the manufacture
and sale of pianos and harps from the Erd
plant in Saginaw. She will still continue
MRS F. H. BEACH.
to maintain an oversight over the manu-
facture of the Erd instruments.
For the
past few days she has been stopping in
this city with her husband at the Waldorf-
Astoria.
Attractive Veneers.
We would call special attention to the
announcement made in another part of The
Review by the Grand Rapids Veneer Works
of Grand Rapids, Mich. This concern
have the most extensive yards and plants
in the world in their special line. They
have the most extensive and varied line of
veneers that can be found in this country.
Manufacturers who have done business with
this concern have found them not only reli-
able in all of their dealings, but they have
found that they can always rely upon the
Grand Rapids Veneer Co. to supply a class of
veneers which are not only attractive but ex-
ceedingly rare. Such a complete and varied
stock as can always be found at the head-
quarters in Grand Rapids is of great value
to the purchasing trade, who have not been
slow to appreciate the assortment of woods
always carried by this distinguished con-
cern.
Lyon & Healy are having a tremendous
trade with Dorians and Pianolas, thirty-
one of these having been sold during De-
cember. This is an average of one a day,
certainly a great record.