Presto
Issue: 1922 1901 - Page 6
Pk£sfo
AMERICAN DEBUT
OF WAGNER'S PIANO
It Was Shown and Heard at American Piano
Co.'s Warerooms, New York, Where
Large Group of Famous Musicians
Had Gathered.
A number of the world's most celebrated artists
and prominent patrons of music in New York City
were guests of the American Piano Company on
Thursday evening, December 21st, when Richard
Wagner's famous piano was given its premier show-
ing in this country at the Knabe Studios, 437 Fifth
Avenue, New York.
How Discovered.
This instrument, on which Wagner composed the
famous "ring" of music, was recently brought to this
country by Robert H. Prosser, the present owner.
December 30, 1922.
the most famous "Isolde" New York has ever
known; Maria Jeritza, Maria Samson, late of the
Budapest Opera; Marie Sundelius.
Cornelius Rybner and Alexander Lambert, well-
known pianists, were among the representative edu-
cators, and the list of patronesses included: Mrs. Otto
Kahn, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Douglas
Robinson, Mrs. Nelson O'Shaughnessy, Mrs. Henry
Martin Alexander, Mrs. E." H. Harriman, Mrs. Chas.
S. Guggenheimer, Mrs. Samuel Untermeyer, Mrs. P.
Justin White, Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, Mrs. Felix
Warburg, Mrs. Adolf Ladenburg, Mrs. Morin S.
Hare, Mrs. Arthur Bodanzky, Mrs. George Leary,
Mrs. Robert L. Montgomery. *
Gift of King Ludwig.
This is the famous piano on which Richard Wag-
ner composed the most of his Ring music and which
was presented to him by Ludwig, King of Bavaria,
when the great composer was at the lowest ebb of his
fortune. It marked the turning point of his .career.
In the ten years following, his financial troubles van-
ished, he became a world-personality, Bayreuth was
founded and the Wagner music drama established. The
piano, which experts say is the foremost musical in-
strument in the world, because of its unduplicable
historic interest, is fully authenticated by legal docu-
ments. It was discovered by an American soldier,
Robert H. Prosser, who was with the American
Army of Occupation.
Prosser discovered the instrument in a little old
drawing room of Berlin, the music salon of an aged
music teacher, Theobold Guenther, in whose posses-
sion the piano had been for one-half a century, it
having been, presented to him by the maker, the fa-
mous Bechstein, to whom Wagner turned the piano
back for a new instrument when he was settled in
Bayreuth, and on the high road to prosperity.
This piano not only witnessed the "mad com-
poser's" artistic triumphs, but it was in every detail
each chapter of the most famous love story of the
world, the infatuation of Wagner for Cosima, the
wife of von Bulow, the daughter of Liszt, and his
eventual marriage to her. On it also the famous
"Siegfried Idyl" was composed.
SWAN PIANOS
SWAN ORGANS
are of the highest grade
t h a t c a n be obtained
through over 50 years of
p r a c t i c a l experience in
piano and organ building.
Illustrations a n d c a t a-
logues of various styles
will be furnished p i a n o
merchants on application.
The tremendous superi-
.«,.**• s *' A \ < g ority of the SWAN Reed
% ^ a m « Organs over all others lies
i / g s i g a l in the absolute mechanism
an(
Jk^Uw§
* scientific perfectioni©
V ^ ^ H ^ S ) the bellows action and stop
^ «£*«%* ^ action, making it the best
"'
value in modern o r g a n
building.
S. N. SWAN & SONS, M - * ™ * FKEEPORT, ILL
(A New One Every Week.)
By The Presto Poick.
WE SELLTHE]
E£ZYWAY
PIANO
HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY!
A man who sold pianos went down to the store
And figured results of the year just before,
For now 'twas the new year, just born to the world,
With all sorts of promising banners unfurled;
The old year had worried him some, as it passed.
But here he was safe with the new year at last!
Why worry at all, now that Fate's shafts were spent,
And he didn't owe any man a darn cent!
RICHARD WAGNER'S PIANO ARRIVES.
He discovered this piano in the home of a Berlin
music teacher while a member of the American Ex-
peditionary Forces. The instrument was made by
the famous old house of Bechstein, in Berlin, and
was presented to the master German composer by
Ludwig of Bavaria.
The ceremony in the Knabe Studios was in the
nature of an unveiling of the Wagner piano. The
celebrated artists present were given an opportunity
to inspect the instrument. A number of the best
known Wagnerian singers of the Metropolitan Opera
Company sang to its accompaniment. Practically
the entire Wagnerian contingent of the Opera House
were invited to be guests of honor and included:
Guests of Honor.
Marguerite Matzenauer, Paul Bender, Florence
Easton, George Meader, Clarence Whitehill, Edward
Johnson, who created the role of "Parsifal" at La
Scale in Milan; Morgan Kingston, Olive Fremstad,
WAREROOM WARBLES
The man who sold pianos got out his old books
And found himself free from the threatening hooks
Of debts and of banks—not a cent did he owe.
"Ye gods!" he cried gaily, "I'm all set to go!
The skids are all greased, the way is all clear,
I'll leave all my fellows so far in the rear
They'll think I'm a rocket that's fallen, red hot,
From spheres of Good Fortune in worlds that are
not!"
The man who sold pianos then opened his mail,
And in all his letters found checks, without fail,
Till all the delinquents and slow-boys had paid,
And then scads of prospects of sales to be made!
"Great luck!" cried the man, "and 'tis plain to be seen
That he who would prosper must keep the score
clean;
The man to whom fortune in plenty is sent
Is he who at new year don't owe a darn cent!"
The Greatness of a Piano should be Measured
by its Scale, not by the name on the Fallboard.
The scales from which we build
are designed and originated by C. C. Chickering who
commands a fund^of piano tradition and experience reach-
ing back into the very beginnings of the piano industry.
CHICKERING BROTHERS
Office a n d Factory J
South Park Avenue and 23rd Street.
WESER BROS., Inc.
WRITE FOR CATALOGUE AND DETAILS
OF TERRITOR Y A VAIL ABLE
I
520 to 528 W. 43rd St., New York
Manufacturers Pianos—Player-Pianos
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
/-ii»
l^niCagO
AMERICAN DEBUT
OF WAGNER'S PIANO
It Was Shown and Heard at American Piano
Co.'s Warerooms, New York, Where
Large Group of Famous Musicians
Had Gathered.
A number of the world's most celebrated artists
and prominent patrons of music in New York City
were guests of the American Piano Company on
Thursday evening, December 21st, when Richard
Wagner's famous piano was given its premier show-
ing in this country at the Knabe Studios, 437 Fifth
Avenue, New York.
How Discovered.
This instrument, on which Wagner composed the
famous "ring" of music, was recently brought to this
country by Robert H. Prosser, the present owner.
December 30, 1922.
the most famous "Isolde" New York has ever
known; Maria Jeritza, Maria Samson, late of the
Budapest Opera; Marie Sundelius.
Cornelius Rybner and Alexander Lambert, well-
known pianists, were among the representative edu-
cators, and the list of patronesses included: Mrs. Otto
Kahn, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Douglas
Robinson, Mrs. Nelson O'Shaughnessy, Mrs. Henry
Martin Alexander, Mrs. E." H. Harriman, Mrs. Chas.
S. Guggenheimer, Mrs. Samuel Untermeyer, Mrs. P.
Justin White, Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, Mrs. Felix
Warburg, Mrs. Adolf Ladenburg, Mrs. Morin S.
Hare, Mrs. Arthur Bodanzky, Mrs. George Leary,
Mrs. Robert L. Montgomery. *
Gift of King Ludwig.
This is the famous piano on which Richard Wag-
ner composed the most of his Ring music and which
was presented to him by Ludwig, King of Bavaria,
when the great composer was at the lowest ebb of his
fortune. It marked the turning point of his .career.
In the ten years following, his financial troubles van-
ished, he became a world-personality, Bayreuth was
founded and the Wagner music drama established. The
piano, which experts say is the foremost musical in-
strument in the world, because of its unduplicable
historic interest, is fully authenticated by legal docu-
ments. It was discovered by an American soldier,
Robert H. Prosser, who was with the American
Army of Occupation.
Prosser discovered the instrument in a little old
drawing room of Berlin, the music salon of an aged
music teacher, Theobold Guenther, in whose posses-
sion the piano had been for one-half a century, it
having been, presented to him by the maker, the fa-
mous Bechstein, to whom Wagner turned the piano
back for a new instrument when he was settled in
Bayreuth, and on the high road to prosperity.
This piano not only witnessed the "mad com-
poser's" artistic triumphs, but it was in every detail
each chapter of the most famous love story of the
world, the infatuation of Wagner for Cosima, the
wife of von Bulow, the daughter of Liszt, and his
eventual marriage to her. On it also the famous
"Siegfried Idyl" was composed.
SWAN PIANOS
SWAN ORGANS
are of the highest grade
t h a t c a n be obtained
through over 50 years of
p r a c t i c a l experience in
piano and organ building.
Illustrations a n d c a t a-
logues of various styles
will be furnished p i a n o
merchants on application.
The tremendous superi-
.«,.**• s *' A \ < g ority of the SWAN Reed
% ^ a m « Organs over all others lies
i / g s i g a l in the absolute mechanism
an(
Jk^Uw§
* scientific perfectioni©
V ^ ^ H ^ S ) the bellows action and stop
^ «£*«%* ^ action, making it the best
"'
value in modern o r g a n
building.
S. N. SWAN & SONS, M - * ™ * FKEEPORT, ILL
(A New One Every Week.)
By The Presto Poick.
WE SELLTHE]
E£ZYWAY
PIANO
HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY!
A man who sold pianos went down to the store
And figured results of the year just before,
For now 'twas the new year, just born to the world,
With all sorts of promising banners unfurled;
The old year had worried him some, as it passed.
But here he was safe with the new year at last!
Why worry at all, now that Fate's shafts were spent,
And he didn't owe any man a darn cent!
RICHARD WAGNER'S PIANO ARRIVES.
He discovered this piano in the home of a Berlin
music teacher while a member of the American Ex-
peditionary Forces. The instrument was made by
the famous old house of Bechstein, in Berlin, and
was presented to the master German composer by
Ludwig of Bavaria.
The ceremony in the Knabe Studios was in the
nature of an unveiling of the Wagner piano. The
celebrated artists present were given an opportunity
to inspect the instrument. A number of the best
known Wagnerian singers of the Metropolitan Opera
Company sang to its accompaniment. Practically
the entire Wagnerian contingent of the Opera House
were invited to be guests of honor and included:
Guests of Honor.
Marguerite Matzenauer, Paul Bender, Florence
Easton, George Meader, Clarence Whitehill, Edward
Johnson, who created the role of "Parsifal" at La
Scale in Milan; Morgan Kingston, Olive Fremstad,
WAREROOM WARBLES
The man who sold pianos got out his old books
And found himself free from the threatening hooks
Of debts and of banks—not a cent did he owe.
"Ye gods!" he cried gaily, "I'm all set to go!
The skids are all greased, the way is all clear,
I'll leave all my fellows so far in the rear
They'll think I'm a rocket that's fallen, red hot,
From spheres of Good Fortune in worlds that are
not!"
The man who sold pianos then opened his mail,
And in all his letters found checks, without fail,
Till all the delinquents and slow-boys had paid,
And then scads of prospects of sales to be made!
"Great luck!" cried the man, "and 'tis plain to be seen
That he who would prosper must keep the score
clean;
The man to whom fortune in plenty is sent
Is he who at new year don't owe a darn cent!"
The Greatness of a Piano should be Measured
by its Scale, not by the name on the Fallboard.
The scales from which we build
are designed and originated by C. C. Chickering who
commands a fund^of piano tradition and experience reach-
ing back into the very beginnings of the piano industry.
CHICKERING BROTHERS
Office a n d Factory J
South Park Avenue and 23rd Street.
WESER BROS., Inc.
WRITE FOR CATALOGUE AND DETAILS
OF TERRITOR Y A VAIL ABLE
I
520 to 528 W. 43rd St., New York
Manufacturers Pianos—Player-Pianos
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
/-ii»
l^niCagO
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).