Gablonz, Bohemia, is about to erect a statue to Schubert.
Berlioz’ “Damnation of Faust” was played in Stuttgart for the first time last month.
Berlioz’ “Prise de Troie” has lately been given (November 16th) as a novelty in Paris.
Humperdinck’s “Hansel und Gretel” has reached its hundredth representation in Vienna.
Edvardo Soldi, composer and pianist, has recently died in Florence, in his eighty-first year.
It is announced that the Indianapolis May Festival Association will not give a festival next spring.
William Shakespeare is to give a short series of lectures and song recitals in America beginning in New York.
Heinrich Zoellner’s music drama, “Die Versunkene Glocke,” was successfully given in Lübeck in November.
In Aix la Chapelle Bach’s “B-minor Mass” has just been given for the first time, under the leadership of Schwickerath.
E. Tinel’s music drama, “Godoleva,” has been performed for the first time in Germany by the Museum Society in Crefeld.
Recent discussion claims to have decided that Chopin’s birthday was February 22d. That day is already famous in this country.
Madame Melba is singing in Berlin. She opened the season December 4th at the Royal Opera House in “Lucia,” with great success.
Sir Arthur Sullivan has set Kipling’s poem, “The Absent-minded Beggar,” to music. More than 50,000 copies were sold in three days.
Sophie Menter has lately given a piano recital in Munich in which she eclipsed all previous success. The public is described as “positively electrified.”
Walter Damrosch and Emil Paur are to have charge of a big concert, February 6th, in New York, to raise funds for making the Dewey Arch permanent.
A foreign correspondent says that Mme. Patti has yielded to the “coon song” craze and entertains her guests in that way, even insisting on their joining in the chorus.
“The Warsaw Echo” published in its Chopin number a polonaise which that composer had written when eleven years old under the direction of his teacher, A. Zwiny.
“Endymion,” a new vocal scena by Madame Liza Lehmann, was sung on November 2d in Queen’s Hall, London, by Miss Esther Palliser, and created a great impression.
The National Conservatory Orchestra, composed of fifty pupils accepted on account of their merit and instructed free of expense, announces its second season of concerts under the direction of Mr. Emil Paur.
Arthur Sullivan’s new comic opera, “The Persian Rose,” text by Captain Basil Hood, has had an overwhelming success at the Savoy Theater in Dresden. It will be given soon in the Central Theater in Dresden.
The musical world celebrated on December 17th the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Domenico Cimarosa, the composer of “II Matrimonio Segreto.” He was born in Aversa, in the province of Caserta.
Pablo Sarasate will undertake a long concert tour through Germany, Belgium, and Austria, beginning with the new year, and playing in more than thirty cities. He will be supported by Mme. Bertha Marx-Goldschmidt.
Cincinnati people are considering a project for the Performance of Wagner’s “Nibelungen” operas on a large scale. Mr. Van der Stocken is to be the conductor, and it is the intention to reproduce Bayreuth conditions as nearly as possible.
The famous Hellmesberger Quartet has celebrated its fifty years’ jubilee. It was organized November 4, 1849, at Vienna, by Josef Hellmesberger, Sr., who, in 1887, handed over the leadership to his son, Josef Hellmesberger, Jr.
The authorities of the British Museum, London, have in preparation an interesting series of musical treatises, the first on Beethoven and Wagner, and including everything on the subject to be found in the Museum library. Other composers will be taken up later.
Since Mascagni has been in Leipzig with his orchestra, Leoncavallo has also been there on a similar errand: viz., to direct his “Bajazzo” and his own orchestral pieces and songs with orchestra. Leipzig did not welcome either composer, or appreciate his music.
Alfred Reisenauer, the pianist, gave a concert in Leipzig on November 23d. His critics found everything “good enough” in his playing; and when they considered the force of his octave playing, it was even “too much of good.” How could a gentle critic go further?
The grand festival of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester, lately held at Worcester, found its chief musical success in the “Hora Novissima” of Horatio Parker, of Yale University, which was received with wild applause. Mr. Parker directed his work in person. He is a pupil of Rheinberger.
Ferruccio Busoni, whose personality seems exactly satisfactory to his German audiences, has been winning fresh approval by his Bach, Liszt, and Chopin playing in southern Germany. But of late it has been hinted that if he lacked anything in any particular, it might perhaps be feeling.
Eugen d’Albert’s concerto for the violoncello has been played for the first time in Vienna, by Hugo Becker, with overwhelming success. The great ‘cellist was recalled five times. D’AIbert’s song scena, “Die Seejungfrau,” sung by the composer’s wife in the same concert, was also received with great enthusiasm.
The Kansas Musical Jubilee Association has issued a circular giving information concerning the contests at the next meeting in May, at Hutchinson. Mr. B. S. Hoagland is the secretary. About $1500 has been offered as prizes in the various contests. Mr. E. R. Kroeger, of St. Louis, will be one of the adjudicators.
Otto Hegner, the well-known pianist, who left such an excellent reputation in America, which he visited as a child pianist, and his young sister Anna, who has already begun her career as a violinist, have been playing with the Winderstein Orchestra. They have already made the classic field of Beethoven and Brahms their own.
A number of musical copyrights were sold in London last month. Cantor’s “O fair, O sweet and holy,” sold for $200; Faning’s “Song of the Vikings,” $3390; “Album of Songs,” by Kjerulf, $3050; Maude Valerie White’s “Absent yet Present,” $2370. An “Album of Russian Songs,” with guitar accompaniment, sold for $1750.
Mr. Ernst Dohnanyi, a pupil of D’Albert and composer of the concerto which took the first prize at the recent competition at Vienna, has arrived in this country for a concert trip. He is a young Hungarian of great promise, whose future is watched with expectation in Europe, where he has obtained the most cordial recognition.
A committee has been formed in Cracow to procure the removal of Chopin’s remains to Poland. It is proposed to give the composer his last earthly resting-place in the old royal castle, Wawal, in Cracow. As the transportation will be costly, a subscription list has been opened which is already well filled. Paderewski alone gave 5000 francs.
Alexander Siloti, having returned to St. Petersburg, has begun his piano recitals there with great éclat. It is an open secret that Mr. Siloti has gone to the Russian capital under the direct inspiration of royal approval. He was summoned to play before the Czar some months since, and his presence in St. Petersburg is the result of the delight he caused on that occasion.
According to a New York contemporary, several famous musicians are decidedly bucolic in their recreations: Paderewski is proud of the wine made on his Swiss estate; Salignac has an estate near Marseilles which yields a fine quality of wine; Scalchi is also interested in a vineyard; Saleza was photographed on his estate, wearing wooden shoes, blouse, and straw hat.
Mr. Mark Hambourg’s début at the New York Philharmonic concert was a popular success. He immediately attracted his public and kept their sympathy. He is a pianist of decidedly fiery and tempestuous organization; in the “Sturm und Drang” period of his musical career. His execution is great and his tone incisive. His interpretation is frank and sincere, and, as such, well worth hearing.
A very admirable season of symphony concerts for young people is announced for the coming season in New York, under the direction of Mr. Frank Damrosch; and an additional series of orchestral concerts for young children. Miss Laura Post is chairman of the Executive Committee of the latter. These concerts will be given Saturday mornings; the young people’s series in the afternoon of the same day.
Believers in Max Nordau’s degeneracy will do well to reflect on the theme of what his admirers call his genial tone-poem, “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.” Eulenspiegel was the work of the German imagination when at its lowest ebb—a country bumpkin whose low cunning found congenial vent in bringing his employer’s orders to miscarriage by an affectation of stupidity; a Handy Andy with malignity instead of wit as the basis of his character.
Mr. Louis Breitner arrived in New York on the 21st inst., from Paris, where he leaves an extremely large and choice teaching connection to make a new home in America. Mr. Breitner has children, whose fortunes are best insured in America under American institutions; and the family removes to New York on their account. He is regarded as Anton Rubinstein’s best pupil, and possesses many pupils and friends on this side of the Atlantic. He will play in a limited number of concerts in New York.
Lamoureux, the famous French orchestral conductor, died in Paris last month. Thus is taken away another of the strong men of French music. He was born at Bordeaux, in 1834, and was trained as a violinist. He filled various engagements as director, and in 1878 was made chief conductor at the Grand Opera. In 1881 he established the popular “Lamoureux Concerts,” the most important in Paris. He resigned this position in 1897. It is a matter of note that this fall he conducted a concert in Berlin, the first time he ever appeared there.
A subscription has been raised in England for a memorial to Mr. Foli, to be placed in the Catholic church of his native town, Cahir, Tipperary, Ireland. It would be more to the purpose to place it in the Park Congregational Church, Asylum Street, Hartford, Conn., where, having been discovered and trained by Mr. Chas. Huntington, an excellent singing-teacher and choirmaster of the city, he sang for a long time. “Foley” carried on his musical education under Rivard in New York, supporting himself by his church position and his trade in Hartford. He is only one of the many excellent singers which Connecticut has given to the musical world, of whom Miss Clara Louise Kellogg is the most famous.
The great work of Mr. Damrosch in the people’s singing clubs in New York can scarcely be comprehended. These clubs are divided and subdivided into independent societies, under the charge of a number of excellent musicians, and have a membership of thousands. There are all varieties of organization—mixed voices, male voices, and female voices. Besides the connection with the general federation, each club arranges its own musical life to suit its own social and financial interests. Thus the People’s Male Chorus, under Mr. Platon Brounoff, lately gave a concert, with a classical program, in the Lexington Opera House, assisted by Miss Fanny Hirsch, Max Karger, Edward Bromberg, and the Concordia Society.
