Presto

PRESTO
AMPICO CONCERT IN
NATIONAL CAPITAL
Famous Reproducing Playerpiano the Attrac-
tion Before Audience of Washington Mu-
sic Lovers at Sunday Afternoon Con-
cert at Belasco Theater.
An item in the Washington, D. C, newspapers last
week of extraordinary significance was the report of
a concert where the Ampico was offered as an at-
traction at the Belasco Theater on a Sunday after-
noon performance. At this concert Godowsky,
Levitzki, Rubinstein and Ornstein appeared with the
Ampico Reproducing Piano before an appreciative
Washington audience.
It was a repetition of the program, which the
American Piano Co. gave at Carnegie Hall during
Music Show Week, with the exception of the Moisei-
witsch number. This artist could not appear owing
to an engagement elsewhere.
It is. the first time on record that a mechanical
piano had been featured as an attraction in a con-
cert for which the public paid admission, a fact
which adds strongly to its importance and signifi-
cance. The same management, that of M. F. Kline,
is to repeat this concert in Washington, so great
was its success. ]t has also been arranged to give it
in Baltimore on March 13, and arrangements are
pending for other cities.
Two press notices from the Washington papers
which follow show the appreciative attitude of the
music critics:
What Times Said.
An exceptional opportunity was given yesterday at
the Belasco Theater to hear, in a single program,
the playing of four of the famous pianists of today.
An unusual experience was "hearing the ghost walk''
as it were, when these artists were reincarnated by
the Ampico Reproducing Piano that, in absolute
characteristics of the soloists, played just as Go-
dowsky, Levitzki, Ornstein and Rubinstein had
played.
A capacity audience was enthusiastic even to the
point of shouting "bravo" when Mischa Levitzki,
who was playing a dramatic, eloquent and finely
delineated interpretation of the Sixth Hungarian
Rhapsody of Liszt, suddenly pushed his chair back
from the piano—and in the identical spirit and tone,
the piano continued, with no break in the playing,
this virtuoso example of pianistic art.
That was amazing! But more so was the return
of the soloist to the keyboard. Expectancy was in
the air. as Levitzki drew his chair forward. It went
out in a shout when he plunged into a vigorous
chord ; during a fast tempo, picked up the work with
his own hands with no perceptible change in it and
concluded the Rhapsody in a brilliant sweep of big
octave passages.
A thing of wood and steel and felt, with man's
brain and genius added thereto, the Ampico has
evoked the soul of the pianist's art and "fixed it in
a moment thus"—like a sculptured tone-poem that
future music halls may know these gifts. The genius
of the pianist will no longer "pass away." His "re-
production," as it is called, is the book he leaves be-
hind to fill with his presence the composer's thoughts.
Poems, alone, in the past, reincarnated this elusive
art.
"Of all the operas that Verdi wrote,
The best to my mind is the Trovatore,
And Mario can soothe with a tenor note,
The souls in Purgatory."
Today we have them for us and for posterity.—
Washington Times.
Opinion of Herald Critic.
A large and very appreciative audience witnessed
one of the most remarkable feats of modern inven-
tion yesterday afternoon at the Belasco Theater. It
has always been a source of regret that our great
pianists have had no means of passing on to pos-
terity their accomplishments in the realms of art.
The Ampico Reproducing Piano has been evolved
and is the means by which the works of these fa-
mous artists will survive them, when they, unhap-
pilv, have passed from us.
The Ampico is really a marvelous instrument.
Yesterday its possibilities were demonstrated when
four of our greatest pianists, Ornstein, Godowsky,
Levitzki and Rubinstein, played upon it and their
productions were repeated by the mechanism of the
instrument. In one case, during the playing of Liszt's
Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody, by Mischa Levitzki, the
artist ceased playing while the Ampico began; after a
short while Levitzki reseated himself at the piano
and finished the composition. The change was im-
perceptible, it being impossible to tell when the
artist was performing and when the reproducing
mechanism began.
Ornstein opened the program with Chopin's "Noc-
turne in F Sharp" and it was repeated exactly by the
Ampico. Godowsky's rendition of "Etude de Con-
cert. No. 2," bv Liszt, was reproduced, and like-
wise Arthur Rubinstein's playing of "Triana" by Al-
beniz. and Levitzki's rendition of "Danse Humor-
esnue" bv Stojowsky.
• In addition to these numbers there were "13th
Rhapsody" by Liszt, played by Ornstein, "Triakon-
tameron" by Godowskv, played by the composer and
Schubert's "Marche Militaire" by Rubinstein. Each
of the artists was greeted by a great storm of ap-
plause and each responded with a short encore.—
Herald.
LARGE BUSH & QERTS SECTION
IN GREAT TEXAS DAILY PAPER
W. L. Bush Pushing Sales of Instruments from His
Factory to Limit.
Readers of great dailies are familiar with sections
of the Sunday issues of such publications in which
a line of industry is promoted, such as the automo-
bile manufacturers, but to find a whole large section
devoted exclusivel yto one retail piano house—that
of the Bush & Gerts Piano Co., of Texas, is un-
precedented in the annals of anv trade.
The Sunday Times-Herald, of Dallas, Texas—
one of the leading publications of the Lone Star
State—on a recent Sunday published a nine-page
section which it styled the Bush & Gerts section,
which told of nothing but the Bush & Gerts in-
struments and enterprise. Of course, the other Dal-
las dailies were not idle; but the Dallas Morning
News gave the house only one page at a time, owing
to the shortage of print paper which was affecting
it at that time.
The Sunday Times-Herald's Bush & Gerts sec-
tion was fully illustrated, there being specially-
drawn designs and borders, and also portraits of
many men and women who had been, or are at
present, connected with the house.
And William Lincoln Bush, who was responsible
for this flood of advertising, was the center of pro-
moting energy. It was his conception and designs
that were put over, and he was seen among the
salesmen as large as life in the big sales that fol-
lowed the advertising.
General Manager W. S. Miller of the Bush &
Gerts Piano Company, Weed and Dayton streets,
Chicago, says that grands are being made largely
now for the trade at the factory. It was a Bush &
Gerts grand, with the company's special mode of
stringing, that made the "hit" of the evening at the
recent dinner of the Chicago Piano Club at the Ho-
tel Morrison, Chicago.
A. S. BOND IS IN FLORIDA.
A. S. Bond, president of the Packard Piano Co.,
Fort Wayne, Ind., is now enjoying a vacation in
Florida. His exact whereabouts at the present time
are not known at the Chicago Packard office, but
he is presumably at or near Tampa. Mr. Bond
has been hard at it for many months, and his loyal
staff are glad that he had the chance to get away
for a recreation in the sunny peninsula.
March 11, 1920.
FOR MORE THAN A THIRD
OF A CENTURY IN VIRGINIA
Name of Hobbie Associated with Pianos in Lynch-
burg and Roanoke for That Period.
The firm of Hobbie Bros. Co., Inc., Roanoke, Va.,
dealers in pianos and musical instruments generally,
at 9 Church avenue, West, may be considered the
largest and, by succession, the oldest exclusive piano
house in Virginia, the name of Hobbie having been
identified with the business since about 1881, hav-
ing originally opened in Lynchburg. In 1888 the
main store was removed to Roanoke, and the Lynch-
burg store operated as a branch.
The officers of the present firm are: J. D. Hobbie,
Jr., president; W. N. Hobbie, secretary; T. D. Ho-
hart, Jr., treasurer. The above officers, with Hon. R.
Holman Willis and John A. Pilcher, constitute the
board of directors.
Messrs. J. D. Hobbie, Jr., and W. N. Hobbie are
both men of a lifetime experience in the handling
of pianos and other high grade musical instruments,
having been identified with their father, J. D. Hob-
bie, who first began handling pianos in Lynchburg
approximately forty years ago. The Hobbie broth-
ers are well known in Roanoke, where all their lives
have been spent, and where they enjoy the distinc-
tion of possessing the confidence and esteem of
their fellow townsmen to a marked degree.
The name "Hobbie" has been identified with lead-
ing pianos, including the Chickering, Marshall &
Wendell and Packard. For more than a third of a
century the firm has controlled the sale of the Chick-
ering in this territory. The Hobbies have sold ap-
proximately 15,000 pianos to as many satisfied cus-
tomers. This gives them a knowledge of piano
quality and piano value such as few men possess,
and all pianos handled by them are selected with
that knowledge. Therefore, piano purchasers get
the benefit of their long experience.
In addition to the large line of pianos carried,
Hobbie Bros. Co. is headquarters for the Columbia
Grafanola and records.
OPENED PIANO STORE SAFE.
After breaking the combinaiton of the safe at
the United Piano Co. store, 220 Third avenue,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, J. E. Leming was arrested
and confessed to his crime. A search of Leming's
premises revealed the fact that he has also been
obtaining money by fraudulently writing checks.
Leming's craving for money seemed all the more
unusual when it was discovered that he has been
holding three positions in town at the same time
and last week made a total of $90. His wife also
works.
FINE DISPLAY IN MICHIGAN STORE
The handsome window display here shown was
arranged by Horace Prentice & Son, Kalamazoo,
Mich. It would be hard to improve on this display
of goods, the phonographs on the left being placed
in a most advantageous position for public inspec-
tion, and the team-work exemplified by the living
picture of the manufacturer's trade-mark being slev-
erly conceived and well executed. Another interest-
ing view is shown on page 25. The instruments dis-
played are "Puritans."
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