Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-02-01
A QUAINT MUSICAL CRITICISM.

Edouard Remenyi, the violin cOntortionist,
was in Austin this week. Edouard is a great
artist in his line, probably the greatest violin
player in the world If he had lived in A. D.
GA he could have fiddled Rome into ashes in
one third the time that Nero did. On second
thought, he couldn't, for Remenyi can't play
where there is any noise or confusion in the
audience That is one of his peculiarties. He
is {. genius or supposed to be one, which is all
the same. All men of genius have eccentric
tiles, which in them are admired, but in Or
dinary mortals would be called affectation,
or worse Remeny insists on perfect quiet
when he plays He says that his old Stradiv
arus will not respond to his spirituoso touch,
or words to that effect, unless the quiet sur
rounding him is so intense that you could
hear a heel tap, He opened his concert, We'd
nesday night with Senate Pattetique, by Bee
thOven. Everything went along smoothly at
first, until he got in the crescendo part of the
sonate where the fiddle seemed to be trying to
get the audience to understnd that, aided by
the young man at the piano, it was describing
pack of wolves pursuing a man through
boiler factory. Then Remenyi stopped and
looked puzzled. Something had evidently gone
wrong. We felt sure that the fiddle had got
a hot-boX or that the rosin had given out, but
were mistaken. Signor Remenyi said he could
not account for it, but there was something
unsympathetic somewhere in the surround
ings. Then, as he looked around the building
a sort Of Eureka expression stole over his
face, and pointing to stove hole in the wall
under the gallery, he asked the usher to be
so kind as to stop it up, as the vacuum it
caused spoiled the acoustic properties Of the
violin-did violins to its feelings, as it were.
Then the concert proceeded until the violin
arrived at that part Of the ''sonate pathet-
ique" where it tries to express the low, soft
gurgle of the early cocktail ripping down a
thirsty throat Everything was so quiet that
you could have heard a pickle jar. At this
point man in the gallery, in attempting to
adjust his paper collar, dropped a pin. 1t fell
into the parquet. Signor Remenyi stopped,
laid his violin on the piano, folded his arms
and striking a Napoeon-in-exile attitude,
stated that such an interruption would not be
tolerated, and that he would decline playing
until a policeman removed the man with the
paper collar, and also the pin. He said that
the man could get his money back at the door.
The man went out. (He proved to be a coun-
try editor who had got in on complimentary
ticket, but he didn't refuse the fifty cents ten
dered him at the door. The concert proceed
ed until the senate was finished, without any
other interruption, except that Remenyi stop
ped for moment to say that there was bus
tie in the audience somewhere that must be
suppressed. Several ladies blushed, but no
farther notice was taken of the matter
Next we had Violin ObkgatO, or Atrocito,
or something of that character. There was
breathless attention in the audience. The
violin seemed in the hands of the master artist
to be a thing of life. 1t moaned, then it emit
ted a cry of triumph, and the next moment it
poured out despairing howls, as if somebody
had stepped on it's sore toe Just then Signor
Remenyi stopped. He said it was "impossi-
beel" to continue unless ''absoleet" quiet was
maintained. There was he said, a person in
the house whose corns were aching; as long as
those corns continued to ache and the owner
refused to 60 out and take the obnoxious corns
with him, he 'must positively refuse to play"
If the person had no respect for the player, he
would certainly have some consideration for
the ladies and gentlemen who came to hear
the "moosic.''
We left the theatre after this, fearing that
the entente cordiale between the Signor and his
old Stradivarius might be spoiled by something
we might do. In our pocket was a note Of
hand that man in Houston had given us.
The interest was accumulatng on it very rap
idly. We were afraid that Remenyi might
detect the note in the act of drawing interest,
and that it might disturb him and cause him
to cease playing, so we left. Remenyi is a
great musician, but we doubt if there is any
place this side the dark and silent tomb, un-
less it be at the bottom of deserted coal
mine, where his tall and lofty genius will have
room to shake itself out The rude noise Of
the caved in peanut, and the stentorian eating
of cloves in a theatre are fatal to it. Remen-
vi, if you 60 further west you wont make
dollar week fiddling in cow countries and if
you don't put cotton in your ears, you will have
your ear drums frayed at the edges by some
body dropping a remark over the edge of the
gallery SJtings.