AT HOME.
Max Fiedler has been re-engaged to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra for two more years—much to everybody's satisfaction.
An American opera called Sarrona, by Legrand Howland. has been produced at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York. It is not quite another Elektra, as it is said to be very melodious.
A new French opera, entitled L'Attaque du Moulin, by Bruncan, has been produced at the New Theatre, New York.
Orville Harrold, the American tenor whom Mr. Hammerstein discovered in vaudeville, made his début in Pagliacci recently. He was very successful.
There will be no opera at the New Theatre in New York next season, and the theatre will be used solely for the drama.
Mr. William H. Sherwood, assisted by Miss Virginia Listemann, has recently been making an extensive concert tour of the Southwest.
Mr. Frederick Maxson, the well-known organist, has recently completed a short concert tour, meeting with pronounced success in several cities.
Mme. Liza Lehmann, the English composer, has met with great success upon her American tour, and will return next year.
Los Angeles has successfully made the experiment of giving opera in English, and giving full opportunity to local singers.
Mr. J. Harry Wheeler, well known to the readers of "Vocal Department" of The Etude, died on November 23d, 1909. Mr. Wheeler was an excellent teacher and a valued writer upon vocal subjects.
Oscar Hammerstein promises that there will be even more opera in New York next season than this. Philadelphia, however, will not get so much. Many singers have been re-engaged, and many more new ones will be heard.
Mr. Oscar Hammerstein has long been telling us that opera "does not pay," and is now issuing fervid calls for help in the form of a New York guarantee. We hope he will get it, as the more opera we have the better off we are.
Rachmaninoff's symphonic poem. The Isle of Death, has been arousing considerable interest wherever it has been played. There seems to be a growing conviction that Rachmaninoff bids fair to become the foremost of living Russian composers, and that he is the legitimate successor of Tschaikowski.
At the second annual band concert of the Tuskegee, (Booker T. Washington) Institute, numbers from Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti and Rossini were played. The institution is said to possess one of the best negro bands in existence.
Owing to a disagreement with Josef Weiss at rehearsal. Gustav Mahler was obliged to find a substitute to play the Schumann concerto at a recent Philharmonic. Paolo Gallico responded, and gave an excellent rendering entirely with out preparation. He had to have the score near him for fear of a breakdown.
The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore has sustained a loss by the death of W. E. Heimendahl. As a director of orchestra, composer and teacher, Mr. Heimendahl had considerable influence in the musical life of Baltimore. He was also a very fine violinist. He came to America in 1879, after a sucessful (sic) career in Europe.
The first opera of Ernst Dohnanyi, the Hungarian composer and pianist, will shortly be produced in Vienna. The work is entitled, The Veil of Pierrette.
Mr. Ernest Kroeger has just completed his eighteenth annual series of Lenten piano recitals. Mr. Kroeger's artistic services to his home city (St. Louis, Mo.,) certainly entitled him to the earnest support of his fellow-citizens.
A gentleman from Pittsburgh has invented a machine designed to age violins by playing upon them. Violins are attached to a rotating wheel, and as the wheel goes around the violins each in turn come in contact with what takes the place of the bow. The machine is worked by electricity, so that it can be kept going for months at a time. Thus overworked, the violins age very quickly, so, doubtless, does the attendant who looks after the machinery and listens to the noise.
The recent production of Elektra may be said to have been, literally, a howling success. The audience was so profoundly impressed that it frequently applauded at the wrong moments, and Mme. Mazarin, who undertook the part of the bloodthirsty heroine, fainted when she appeared in answer to the applause after the fall of the curtain. Strauss' music is often profoundly ugly, but it has an abominable beauty of its own.
One of the musical trade journals prints a picture of a piano surrounded by a group of conductors and motormen employed by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. It states that this was placed in one of the car barns to make the building more attractive to the men. Right on top of this announcement has come one of the most disastrous traction strikes ever known in this country. Evidently the men find a piano a poor substitute for a raise in wages. Nevertheless, the principle of making the quarters of the workman more comfortable and interesting is one of the vital considerations of advanced thinkers upon sociological subjects.
ABROAD.
Two cycles of Wagner's Ring have been given in London and Edinburgh.
Yvonne de Tréjville. the American soprano, has been delighting Viennese opera-goers with her singing and acting.
Enrico Bossi's latest work, an oratorio entitled The Lost Paradise, received its first production in Wiesbaden under the direction of Gustav F. Kogel.
Ernest Schelling's Suite Fantastique for piano and orchestra, has been performed recently at many important concerts in Europe.
Mr. Albert Spaulding, the Russian violinist, is making a brilliant success in Russia, according to reports received from abroad.
The first production of August Bungert's Odysseus Heimkehr, an opera of epic type, took place in Cologne. The reports of German papers credit the performance with great success.
Paganini's violin bow has been sold by auction in Florence. The municipality of Genoa bought it for $160. Genoa was Paganini's birthplace, and the bow will be preserved with the famous Guarnerius violin which Paganini bequeathed to his native city.
One of the most successful of American women pianists in Germany at the present time is Miss Marguerite Melville. She had great success at a concert recently given by her in Dresden, and is highly gifted as a composer and author as well as a pianist.
Among the festivals which are to take place at the exhibition in Munich, 1910, there will also be a "Beethoven-Brahms-Bruchner-Cycle." The affair will take place in the early fall, and there will also be symphony concerts, and Wagner and Mozart festivals.
A curious incident is reported from continental Europe. During an opera chorus strike, the singers went on the stage and opened their mouths without emitting a sound. But the management soon had a chance of retaliation, for when pay time came they went through the process of handing-out money—without, however, handing out any cash.
The library of the late Professor Prout has been acquired by Trinity College, Dublin. It includes some hundreds of full scores, and is satisfactory that a collection which is the fruit of many years' gathering should have been saved from dispersal at a public auction, and will find a permanent home at the university which the departed musician had served so long.
Jean de Reszke, the famous Polish tenor, celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of his birth upon the 14th of January. He was originally trained as a baritone but had the good fortune to realize that his voice was really that of a tenor. His last engagement was at the Paris Grand Opera. Since then he has been teaching in the city of Paris.
Preparations are being made in Bournemouth, England, for a gigantic musical festival, in celebration of the city's centenary. Many of the most prominent English musicians will take part, and Tetrazzini, Melba, de Pachmann, Paderewski, and many other noted soloists have been engaged to appear. Bournemouth is a beautiful summer resort on the South coast, and at all times enjoys unusual musical advantages.
Paganini's uncle, the Baron Paganini, of Parma, has sold some valuable souvenirs of the great Italian violinist to the city of Florence. Among these are many medals, etc., conferred by royal personages, and, of more permanent value, various manuscripts of some of the great masters. Some of these manuscripts have never been published.
The London Symphony Orchestra has recently tried the experiment of giving a concert of well-rehearsed works without a conductor. They did this with success, but the idea is not altogether new. Sousa has a way of leaving his band to do their work for a few measures without guidance, and Hans Richter, the celebrated Wagnerian conductor ocasionally (sic) shows his confidence in his orchestra by leaving them without any beat at times, when the rhythm is complicated.
American singers, pianists and composers are taking an active part in the musical life of Berlin. Mary Münchhoff, an American coloratura soprano, sang at the Singakademie recently; a young American pianist, Cecile Ayres, made her debut successfully; Anna Otten, an American violinist, has appeared with the Philharmonic Orchestra, and other Americans are worthily upholding the musical honor of the United States.
A dealer in manuscripts in Munich has just offered for sale the manuscript score of parts of Richard Wagner's early attempt at opera writing, Die Hochzeit. Anyone desiring it may have the interesting testimony of Wagner's youthful industry for $5,000.00. When Wagner wrote this work he was engaged as chorus director in the city theatre of the beautiful little Bavarian city of Würzburg. His salary in this post is said to have approximated ten dollars a month.
A recent issue of The Musical Times of London, discloses the interesting fact that considerable facilities are being offered for musical education by various universities in Australia and New Zealand. We are rather apt to lose sight of the fact that in those far distant lands is working a vigorous race who are developing a strong lore of music. Already they have produced more than one singer of world-wide fame, Mme. Melba being the most conspicuous example. Can it be possible that the Anglo-Saxon race, freed from the constraints of the conventional English life, will find voice in the land of the Southern Cross? The vigorous Northern blood and the warm Southern sun should produce a good musical temperament.
The famous "Rubinstein" prize contest will be held this year at the St. Petersburg Conservatory on the 22d of August. This Contest, founded by the great pianist, Anton Rubinstein, is open to young men between the ages of 20 and 26 years. Women are not permitted to compete. No restriction is placed upon nationality, religious belief, or where the musical education was received. There are two prizes of 5,000 francs each, one for composition, and the other for pianoforte playing. The contests are held at intervals of five years in the following capitals: St. Petersburg, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. This year the contest falls to the Russian capital. Those desiring to compete must communicate with the Bureau of the St. Petersburg Conservatory prior to July 18th.
In order that American readers may gain an idea of what is required of contestants upon such an important occasion we print the following. Competitors in composition must present:
1. A concert piece for piano and orchestra with two copies or examples of the score and one transcription of the score for second piano, and in addition to this, three copies of the score arranged for first and second violin, viola violoncello and double bass.
2. A trio for piano, violin and violoncello, with two copies of the work, and separate parts for the instruments.
3. Three small pieces for piano, (2 copies of each).
The piano contestants must prepare the following for performance :
1. A concert piece for piano and orchestra with two copies or examples of the score and one transcription of the score for second piano, and in addition to this, three copies of the score arranged for first and second violin, viola violoncello and double bass.
2. A trio for piano, violin and violoncello, with two copies of the work, and separate parts for the instruments.
3. Three small pieces for piano, (2 copies of each).
The piano contestants must prepare the following for performance :
a. 1st and 2d movements of the piano concerto in D minor by Rubinstein.
b. A prelude and a four-voiced fugue of J. S. Bach.
c. An Andante or an Adagio from Haydn or Mozart.
d. One of the following Sonatas of Beethoven Opus, 78, 81, 90, 101, 106, 109, 110, 111.
e. A mazurka, a nocturne, and a ballade of Chopin.
f. Two numbers from the Phantasie-stücken or the Kreislerianna of Schumann.
g. An Etude of Liszt.
The Signale of Leipsic, one of the foremost of European musical papers completes this list with the following exclamation: "And now, ye young seekers of fame, to arms! to your writing tables! to your keyboards !" Alas for a battle in which all must fall but two.
