Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
1745.--EIGHTEENTH STREET.
The musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
T H E closing month of the year which
came to an end last Sunday night,
was in every respect a notable one in the
musical world. In the operatic and in-
strumental fields we renewed many old ac-
quaintances, and made new friends when
the curtain rose on what will be in all
probability the most extraordinary of the
many remarkable seasons of grand opera
which have made New York the virtual
operatic center of the world. Taking the
opening performances as a criterion, reck-
oning the repertoire, the list of singers
which represents, with few exceptions,
the aristocracy of operatic art—the assured
patronage, the financial cost and return,
the social brilliancy, as the determining
elements, the season promises in all these
respects to outdo all its predecessors.
Times are good and money is plentiful.
The love of pleasure and the passion of
display are having full freedom.
Fashion
is in one of its happiest moods—a mood of
fascinating forms and brilliant colors. The
evenings in the Opera-House are visions of
splendor. The age is luxurious, and these
functions will continue to be gorgeous cele-
brations in its honor.
It has been decided to make the season
at the Metropolitan Opera House seventeen
weeks instead of the fifteen originally an-
nounced. In spite of the sickness among
the singers the season has so far been pros-
perous enough to make this change advis-
able. Last year the season ran to seven-
teen weeks and Maurice Grau believes that
the public will patronize the opera just as
long this winter, to judge from its present
attitude.
A MONG the constellation of stars in the
* * musical firmament during December
there has been one of particular mag-
nitude in the person of Paderewski.
The attendance at his various recitals as
well as at his concert last Sunday night
demonstrates that the musical public of
New York has not been unfaithful in its
affection for this artist.
To listen to Paderewski is to revel in the
superlative perfection of musical interpreta-
tion through the medium of the pianoforte.
A great artist, a master, a dispenser of
the beautiful in bounteous way is this
player, and if the world falls at his feet
and renders him homage which seems ex-
aggerated he wins it fairly, and let no one
begrudge him his triumphs.
Whatever
else may be said of his art, it is unfailingly
amiable, and the personality which per-
vades it is lovable.
Much has been written to the effect that
Paderewski does not play exactly as he
iised to. The only change perhaps is that
he plays with greater breadth, with more
authority, with more repose than ever
before. In the fundamental qualities of
his art, Paderewski has not changed. He
is still the poet of the piano, idealizing
every phrase of the music which he evokes
from the mechanic's achievement of wood,
iron, felt and ivory in a language in which
there is no suggestion of the material. His
tone is still golden, his melodies still
glow with rich luminosity, his interpreta-
tions—such as they are—are clean, eloquent,
formulated with taste and distinction and
expressed in the rhetoric of an educated
man. His playing has all of the exquisite
symmetry, the firm pose, the balance which
inspires respect, and which were recognized
some years ago. He still lures you to for-
get opinions, to forego reflections and to
dream away in the serene enjoyment of the
music to which he has given life. He is
sui generis.
John C. Fryer, who is responsible for
the itinerary of Paderewski's present tour
in America, deserves credit for the execu-
tive ability he has shown in his. arrange-
ment of concerts. He is taking the pian-
ist west to the Coast, south as far as the
City of Mexico, and North into Canada.
In all, the dates are closed for about eighty
concerts in the large cities of the Union.
It has been a source of congratulation to
New Yorkers that the schedule of concerts
was flexible enough to permit an additional
one at Carnegie Hall last Sunday evening.
The affair was a triumph for the artist, for
the magnificent Steinway piano which he
used, and a keen pleasure to all who at-
tended.
Speaking of Paderewski brings to mind
that the receipts for the first tour in
America were $95,000. The second tour
brought in $160,000, and the third $248,
000. It will be manifestly impossible to
keep up this ratio much longer, but the
present tour will no doubt equal if not ex-
ceed the last one. The figures given here
do not include the receipts for the charity
concerts in which Paderewski appeared.
I TNKNOWN aspirants to musical fame
*-' have often complained of the difficul-
ties which must be overcome before they
oan get before the public. Americans pre-
paring abroad have found this trouble
greater than it was ever supposed to
be here, and those who are not willing
to pay for a debut there are at least con-
tent to sing for nothing or for a compensa-
tion merely nominal. These conditions have
been thought hitherto a part of the system in
Europe, where every profession is more
overcrowded than it is in this country and
the task of the beginner more severe. The
foreign situation seems, however, to be lit-
tle different from what exists now in New
York. Unknown performers who have ac-
quired their skill here or at the hands of
European teachers, find it nearly as diffcult
to get a hearing for the first time. One
instance of this recently occurred, and,
rather fortunately for the profession, is by
no means the experience always to be en-
countered. In a concert given under very
ambitious circumstances, a youthful instru-
mentalist who is presumably in her pro-
fession to earn a living, paid $300 for the
privilege of taking part. Most of the names
on the program were not of a character to
help her ambition on account of association
with them, but she had the same mistaken
idea that leads so many beginners into the
same error. Others on the program with her
that night had also paid for the privilege
of being there and one rather pathetic
instance is that of a woman who is said to
have given every cent of her savings for
the privilege of an appearance. The diffi-
culty in the way of a musical career and
its probable poor reward have been fre-
quently discussed, yet the lesson of such
examples has evidently no influence.
Neither would the experience of another
performer do much toward emphasizing
the small reward likely to come even after
a long period of preparation and some
reputation. This pianist wrote to a music
hall and said he would be happy to take
part in the Sunday night program. The
management answered that it would be
very glad to have him, offered $5 for his
services as the limit it could afford to pay,
and requested his answer by return mail
that his name might be put on the program.
j*
IN connection with the recent football
* game between the cadets of Annapolis
and West Point, an incident occurred which
is certainly significant and worthy of espe-
cial mention. The different players were
"fooling" around the field before the game,
when the band of the Annapolis academy
began to play the "Star Spangled Banner.'
At once every cadet within sound of the
music, whether sailor or soldier, stood at
attention and uncovered, as he was bound
to do by regulation. Every other military
man present obeyed the instincts of his
training immediately. Then all present
followed this example and the assemblage
of nearly 25,000 persons stood in silence
and in the attitude of respect until the
stirring sounds ceased. It was an unusual
and impressive feature of a great athletic
contest.
T H E criticism has been made, with some
*
degree of justice, that the people of
the United States are sometimes lacking in
their show of respect for national symbols.
Apparent indifference in pose and manner
when the national air is played or sung, or
when the national colors are displayed, is
shown too frequently. People of other
countries are not so neglectful of the pro-
prieties in this respect as those of the
United States. Travelers and newspaper
correspondents have made frequent men-
tion of the fact that even in Cuba it is a
common sight to witness hundreds, or
sometimes thousands, standing uncovered
at the close of an evening concert in a
plaza when the American national air is
played by one of our military bands.
DROBABLY the impression, altogether
*• too general, that this country has no
real national air is the cause, to a large ex-
tent, of this condition of affairs. The Star
Spangled Banner, however, is officially our