At Home
Mr. Judson W. Mather will conduct the special performance of The Messiah, which will be given in Spokane this year. Mr. Mather is a graduate of Oberlin, and of the Sterne Conservatory in Berlin.
Francis Macmillen, the distinguished American violinist, met with great success on his appearance in Boston, his first concert after returning from Europe.
Miss Flora Wilson, the daughter of the Secretary of Agriculture, is going to use her voice to aid her father in securing votes. She is a pupil of Jean de Reszke, and has a fine reputation as a singer.
Wilhelm Bachus, a well-liked Anglo-German pianist, will come over to this country next year. He toured with Mme. Melba in England, and she has a very high opinion of the young artist.
Elaborate preparations are being made for an opera season in Montreal. Among the musicians who have been engaged to appear in the Canadian city are Jacchia, von Wahnschaffer and Edmont Clement, the French tenor.
Mme. Marie von Unschuld has opened the von Unschuld University of Music in Washington with an increase of pupils. She has also established an extra branch of the institution.
Clarence Eddy has recently played for the first time a new composition for organ, entitled Evensong, composed by Edward F. Johnston, organist of Cornell University.
Mr. William C. Carl, who returned from a visit to his teacher, A. Guilmant, last summer, reports that the aged organist is wonderfully active. His penmanship and manuscripts, it is said, seem incredible for one of his years.
The old order changeth! A French pianist named Borchard has decided that it is better to make a reputation in the United States before appearing in Europe. He has accordingly placed himself under the management of Mr. M. H. Hanson, and will appear with the leading symphonies of this country.
Campanari’s son has been urged by his father, the famous baritone, to make his first appearance in opera abroad rather than in this country. Otherwise Campanari believes his son would be condemned to playing only small roles for a few years.
Mr. David Bispham met with another distinct triumph at his recital given in Carnegie Hall in the latter part of October. Mr. Bispham’s keen intelligence, broad experience and perfect English make his recitals a delight.
Henry Schradieck, the eminent violin teacher, is now head of the violin department of the American Institute of Applied Music in New York, of which Miss Kate Chittenden is the dean.
The last concert of the Denver Symphony Orchestra under Raffaelo Cavallo’s direction is devoted exclusively each year to the compositions of Colorado composers. Only orchestral numbers of the highest standard written by musicians in the state are produced.
Mr. and Mrs. W. S. B. Mathews have removed to Denver, Colo., where their teaching will be done in the future. Mr. Mathews is very well known to Etude readers for his excellent contributions, and for his able work as editor of the “Mathews Graded Course.” Mr. Mathews has been located in Chicago for a period of forty-three years.
The new building of the Institute of Musical Art has been dedicated. The more formal exercises were opened and closed by Mr. Gaston Dethier at the new organ. Besides the customary transfer of the building to the trustees, addresses were made by the president of the board, and by President Francis Brown. An inspection, followed by a concert, completed the ceremony. All success to Dr. Frank Damrosch in his new building!
Henry L. Mason, well known in American musical affairs, and a nephew of Dr. William Mason, has recently published a very delightful little collection of opera stories. This book gives the story of the operas in very clear and very concise terms at a popular price. It will doubtless prove of much interest to all those who enjoy attending the operas.
Mr. Edwin Lemare, the brilliant and scholarly English concert organist, will arrive in America during the second week in January, and commence a lengthy tour. Mr. Lemare has always been extremely popular in America, not merely because his playing is polished and scholarly, but because it is filled with a warmth and majesty which some over-academic players never seem to secure.
The third year of the New Orleans Music Teachers’ Association promises to be of considerable benefit to music in Louisiana. No efforts are being spared to aid the cause of music. Last year a series of lectures was given on “Folk-Song and National Music,” illustrated, by music and stereoptican slides, and similar lectures on the lives of famous musicians will be given this year.
There is an interesting feature for music lovers in the Pennsylvania State Museum at Harrisburg, in the form of a free loan collection of lantern slides that will be sent to any part of the state for educational purposes. These slides illustrate the music of various periods; evolution of musical instruments; collections portraying musicians, their homes, achievements and illustrations of their works. Many slides are on hand from which sets can be made to illustrate songs.
Music is put to queer uses at times. Not so long ago we reported efforts being made to aid lunatics by the use of music. Music was also used at a shipwreck to cheer up the unfortunate passengers. The latest function of music is to aid New York’s water supply. A band of musicians are employed in the Catskills, where the Ashokan dam is being built, to interest and amuse the laborers engaged on the work. These men are mostly foreigners, of an uneducated type, who would spend their leisure hours drinking and fighting if it were not for the music, which, as all the world knows, has charms to sooth the savage breast.
Mr. Albert Ross Parsons has recently accepted the position of director of the pianoforte department of the von Ende School of Music. He is one of the foremost of American teachers, and has had a great experience as an educator. Mr. Parsons was born at Sandusky, O., and studied in Leipsic and Berlin. He has been located in New York Since 1871.
Somebody over in England has made a brilliant suggestion for enabling the police to detect motorists exceeding the speed limit. It is suggested that as a car goes at its fastest allowable pace, a low D should be sounded, and directly this is exceeded, the pitch should be raised automatically, and this would call the attention of the police. This is an excellent idea, especially as it is also suggested that the police should be provided with tuning-forks to enable them to detect the difference. If this idea comes into general acceptance, we shall be reading accounts of motorists being fined for exceeding the speed limit by a diminished fifth. There will also be a new field for musicians as members of the police force.
In The New Music Review, Ernest Walker, a well-known English writer, has been calling attention to the fact that the late Dr. Joachim is suffering from neglect as a composer. He asks, with justice, why it is that we never hear the great Hungarian concerto of Joachim, while every violinist insists on playing the Bruch G minor, or the Saint-Saëns in B minor. One reason for this he gives is that Joachim’s reputation along other lines overshadows his work as a composer, and the other is that the music is of a kind which requires familiarity in order to be appreciated. No more sincere musician than Joachim ever lived, and none better equipped with knowledge. It seems strange that a man who exerted so profound an influence on his generation should be neglected in this way.
The orchestral concerts of the New York Philharmonic Society, under the direction of Gustav Mahler, certainly one of the three or four greatest living conductors, have commenced with great success in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra this year is under the direction of a practical business and concert manager, Loudon C. Charlton, and this may in a measure account for the extensive advertising and the consequent large attendance at the opening concert. It is human to forget, and the best concert attraction in existence may fail to draw if insufficiently advertised. Visitors to New York should not fail to hear the concerts under Herr Mahler’s direction, since his term in this country is limited to the present season, and he may not be induced to come again for some years.
The death of Charles Gilibert, while still at the height of his career, has come as a great shock to many of his friends. He was born in Paris forty-three years ago, and received his musical education at the Conservatoire. After appearing at the Opera Comique, he went to Brussels, where his first successes were achieved. A Covent Garden engagement followed, and Gilibert became a great favorite with English opera-goers. He first appeared at the Metropolitan in 1900 in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, but it was as Sargeant Sulpice in The Daughter of the Regiment that he became a New York favorite. Later he deserted the Metropolitan Company to join the Hammerstein forces until the Metropolitan got the better of its rival. This year he was to have appeared in one of the roles in Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West. He was a jovial, kindly man, and a great artist, and his loss at this time is a great one to art. Though he died in New York, his body has been returned to his beloved France for burial.
Abroad.
D’Albert’s Tiefland has been favorably received in London.
A concert has been given in Dresden in honor of the seventy-fifth birthday of Felix Dräseke, the composer.
Rudolph Ganz is much impressed with the piano concerto of Hans Huber which he recently produced in Zurich.
Mrs. Kullak-Busse has achieved a considerable reputation for herself as a singer. She is a granddaughter of Kullak, the eminent pianist.
The famous composer Svendsen recently celebrated his seventieth birthday.
Emil Paur’s Symphony, In Nature, has met with success at European presentations of the work.
Mr. Albert Spaulding continues his lengthy series of “triumphs” in Europe. The latest was in Berlin, where he played with the famous Philharmonic Orchestra.
The four hundredth performance of Lohengrin was recently given at the Royal Opera in Dresden. Lohengrin was presented for the first time in Dresden, August 6, 1859.
Oscar Hammerstein has acquired a ninety- nine year lease on a site of ground on which to build his London opera house in Kingsway, London. The rental will be about $23,375 yearly.
Reports of the work Elgar has put into his new violin concerto lead us to hope that it is a masterpiece. It is to be performed by Kreisler with the London Philharmonic.
Camille Saint-Saëns recently celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. Few composers living have shown such consummate mastery of the musical art as the veteran French composer.
Dr. Hans Gregor will succeed Felix Weingartner as head of the Vienna Royal Opera. Dr. Gregor is at present director of the Komische Opera in Berlin.
Beecham’s Covent Garden season is proceeding merrily. The productions are magnificent, and the prices reasonable. The price of a seat in the gallery (or the “gods” as the English euphemistically describe that eminence) is only thirty-six cents!
Max Reger has been made a Doctor of Medicine by the University of Leipsic, where he was at one time Professor of Music. He is also a Doctor of Philosophy. Just why a musician should be made a Doctor of Medicine we fail to understand. Perhaps his music has been found a useful cure for insomnia!
Lelia S. Hölterhoff, a blind singer of American birth, has been attracting wide attention in Europe lately. Miss Hölterhoff has a fine concert presence, and her affliction is not noticeable to her audiences. The German and French papers praise her work in the highest terms and the number of concert engagements she has ahead speak in more certain terms than newspaper criticism.
Paris does not possess a representative concert hall reserved exclusively for musical purposes, like Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Royal Albert Hall in London. The Trocadero served for this purpose for many years, but the building has many drawbacks, one being the acoustic properties. Now it is proposed to build a fine concert hall near the Palace of the Tuilleries. The building will be thoroughly modern, and will have a seating capacity of 3000.
In Tokio there is a royal Conservatory of Music, possessing what is described by the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung as a “very fine symphony orchestra,” composed exclusively of Japanese players under the direction of a German named A. Junker. Leading symphonic and concert works of Bach, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, etc., are given. The account does not say whether the little brown music-makers have attacked the music of Tschaikowky (sic), Rachmaninoff or Rimsky-Korsakoff. We doubt, however, whether Japanese fiddles would conquer the Russians as easily as Japanese warships.
The “champion” piano players have gone over the seas to Australasia, and now we learn that some gentleman, with the insane idea that the keyboard of the instrument is a kind of race-track, is contesting for the world’s championship in New Zealand. He already has the glory of having played 74 hours and 12 minutes continuously. (Laws ‘o me! that was only about three days or so!) These performances did not take place in an insane asylum, but in a concert hall of some sort. (The “Stadium.” next door to the Calidonian Hotel, if you please.) The admission was one shilling for men, while ladies were permitted to view this blood-curdling and dangerous achievement for the very reasonable price of sixpence. (N. B. The Etude does not offer a diamond-studded belt for the world’s championship in long distance pianoforte playing.)
One of the most astonishing musical literary works of our time is Franz Pazdirek’s “Universal-Handbuch der Musikliteratur aller Volker” (Universal handbook of the Literature of All Nations). This gigantic work is composed of thirty-two volumes, and includes not only the names of the great composers, but those of the piano composers of all countries, and somewhat detailed descriptions of their compositions, together with the price of the piece. While this information is principally of advantage to music dealers and others who require an index of musical publications, the work is a most necessary one, and reflects great credit upon the compiler. The music for voice and instruments other than the piano has been treated with the same thoroughness and care. The reader is somewhat astonished to find that over one thousand music publishing houses are in existence.
