Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
1745.--EIOHTEENTH
STREET.
The musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
C O M E suggestions in a London paper
^
regarding Winter concerts for the
people bring to mind that it would be an
excellent plan were some such provision
made by our city council for indoor con-
certs on the same plan as those given in the
parks during the summer months. The
city armories could, no doubt, be utilized
for this purpose, and the total cost of
hiring musicians would make but an in-
significant addition to city expenditures.
If necessary a small fee could be charged
to meet expenses, but we incline to the
belief that a system worked out on the
same lines as the free lecture course
established some years since by the city,
would be preferable.
The beneficent and refining influence of
music on the masses is too well known
to need any detailed argument. Winter
concerts for the people would lead toward
higher aspirations and would unquestion-
ably be a step in the right direction to-
ward inculcating a love for music—and
that implies a love for law and order, in
other words, good government. Of course
we have considerable politics in our muni-
cipal administration—too much, perhaps;
nevertheless we feel confident that a great
movement of this kind, which is designed
for the enjoyment and uplifting of the
people, would meet with a favorable re-
ception at the hands of the Council and
Aldermanic Boards were the matter pre-
sented in proper form.
*
T H E splendid work accomplished by
* Frank Damrosch in stimulating the ap-
preciation of good music, through the aid of
the Peoples' Singing classes, affords an
idea of the possibilities and wide scope of
influence resulting from the inauguration
of winter concerts for the people on the
plan outlined. A prominent writer well
says that it is doubtful if there is any fac-
tor so effectual in elevating the morals and
contributing to the spiritual good of so
many persons as are these singing classes
under his care. "It is not only that those
who attend them are taught to appreciate
the precious gift of a good voice, and are
trained to use it properly, but they are
given a taste for music that goes a long
way to win them from coarse and hurtful
amusements, and they find in it a delight-
ful occupation for hours that would other-
wise be spent in idleness or in questionable
company and pleasures. And, then, too,
the music is of the highest character, and
cannot fail to cultivate the taste for what is
purest and best."
And this just as aptly and as forcefully
shows the strong influence for good which
would be exercised through the medium-
ship of municipal winter concerts.
The writer just referred to also utters
these sensible words: "If what Lorenzo
says of ' the man who hath no music in
himself ' be true, then the converse of the
proposition must be equally so, and ex-
perience goes to prove that one who really
loves good music has in his heart a
great safeguard against evil. It is not
at all probable that he who is ' moved
with concord of sweet sounds,' especially
if he be capable of producing them
himself, will be found in the list of
criminals and law breakers or be addicted
to low vices. It is true that we have
known cases of persons whose musical tal-
lents appeared to have been the cause of
their ruin. But for one who has been led
astray by his love of music, because it
brought him into contact with harmful
companions, hundreds have found it to be
a saving grace that led them away from
temptation and changed all their ideas re-
garding the sources whence true pleasure
may be derived."
*
TT is now known that Mr. Grau has de-
cided to make a radical departure from
tradition in the selection of his opening
opera at the Metropolitan. It is not to be
" Romeo and Juliet." This decision must
have staggered the genial manager, for he
immediately made an amende honorable to
established custom by selecting "Faust."
So we are to have Calve, Alvarez and
Edouard de Reszke in Gounod's opera,
and with the advantage of an early start
this work may beat all records at which
has been called wittily the "Faust Spiel -
haus."
That some of the recently announced
"novelties" will not materialize during the
season is safe to assume. Already the pro-
posed revival of Verdi's opera, "Falstaff,"
has been given up, although there is still a
promise that Nikolai's version of the
Shakespeare play will certainly be given.
The striking incident of the year will un-
doubtedly be the performance of "II Flauto
Magico" with the wonderful collection of
famous singers. But "Le Nozzede Figaro"
will certainly offer as fine a production
when the three female roles are%ung by
Mmes. Sembrich, Calve and Eames. It is
not probable that any of these great com-
binations of singers will be revealed to the
public outside of New York, although
Boston and Chicago usually enjoy the lux-
ury of one or two so-called all-star pro-
grammes. The financial prospects of the
tour seem good enough. The expense in-
volved is tremendous, and the difficulty of
carrying such a company about the country
is greater than most people realize. Al-
ready there are assurances of profitable
returns in most of the cities.
*
U 7 H A T E V E R may be said of the lack
* * of musical culture on this side of the
water, there is at least one case to which
the musical community here can point
with pride as an instance of critical acumen
in advance of that shown in Europe. Amer-
ica may be said to have discovered Pader-
ewski. For it was not until his first appear-
ance in this country that his right to a
place in the very front rank of living
musicians was recognized. The enthusi-
asm he awakened here communicated itself
to the rest of the world: and from being
one of an army of pianists, to each of
whom concert-goers listened with equal in-
terest, he became the central figure in a
group of a half-dozen or so whom all men
accord the homage due to genius. Natu-
rally the American public's interest in one
who might almost be called their protege
has been only intensified by his triumphs
elsewhere; and his return to our shores
this coming winter will no doubt be the
signal for demonstrations even greater
than those that attended his previous visits.
At least such are the indications.
Paderewski will give four recitals at the
Carnegie Hall, the first on Tuesday after-
noon, Dec. 12th, and the others on Dec.
16th, Jan. 6th and 20th, besides playing
here probably with the Boston Symphony
and Philharmonic Orchestras. His tour of
the country will carry him to the coast, in-
cluding in the itinerary most of the large
cities of the United States. The net re-
sults of Paderewski's last season in Ameri-
ca (that of 1895-96) were something over
$220,000, and there is a likelihood that even
these tremendous takings will be exceeded
this year.
*
T H E events of the past eighteen months
* have involved greater changes in the
American spirit than any other events since
the time of Lincoln, but despite the mo-
mentous quality of these changing con-
ditions our poets have been silent, and it
is wholly proper to ask why. Can it be
that there is none among them who ap-
proves? asks Literature. We can not be-
lieve that the brotherhood of poets is
unanimottsly unappreciative of the great
national stride forward that has been made
by the American people. The small cot-
erie of Boston statistical sonneteers surely
do not voice the sentiments of the whole
mass of American poets—yet they are as
still as the voice of conscience at a meet-
ing of Tammany braves; as unproductive
as though they had been ordered out on
strike by a grand-master poet representing
Pegasus Union No. 66.
Our poets are evidently thinking not of
what they shall say, for that lies close at
hand, but of how they shall say it, and
meanwhile the tide which leads on to fortune
and fame is beginning to ebb, and the op-
portunity is slipping away.
It is either this or one other possible ex-
planation that is the true one. In a period
of technic and obscurity as the prevailing
notes of our current poetry, if the technical
care of the poets is not responsible for the
oversight of which we have spoken, it
may be that it is obscurity that seems to
place our poets in an unfavorable light.
It is quite possible that some one has
written a great poem of commemoration of
these momentous days, but has expressed
himself so vaguely, after the prevailing
habit, that the reader has mistaken his
lines for a poem on spring, hope, immor-
tality, or some other popular abstraction.
If this be true, it is to be hoped that the