St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-16
The REALM OF MUSIC
st. Paul to Hear SapaSate and
D'Albept the Current
Week.
Blatehford Kavanagh, the Boy
Soprano, to Sing Here
Again.
The Church Choir Choral Club
Preparing for Another
Concert.
Musical Events Pouring in
Thick and Fast During
Lent.

The musical event of the season is
yet to come. Thursday next an oppor-
tunity will be given the people of st.
Paul for listening. at the Peoples
church, to two of the most celebrated
musicians the world has ever produced.
These are Eugene Francois Charles
D'AlDert, of whom Won Bulow once
said: There are but three great plan
lists in the world, Rubenstein, myself
and D'Albert, but the latter Is yet
young, and bids fair to surpass us ALL"
and Senior Pablo Martin M elton Sara
safe. D'Albert was born at Glasgow,
Scotland, April 10. 1864, and will be
less than tWenty-siX years old when he
appears here next week. The life of
the wonderful young artist has been an
eventful one. An an early age his mu-
steal genius made itself apparent to his
father, Charles Louis Napoleon DIAL
bert, himself a successful composer of
dance music, who married and settled
in England at Newcastle on Tyne. The
lad was carefully trained by his father
as far as he chose to trust himself with
the tuition, and in 1876 he obtained free
scholarship in the National Training
school In London, one of the gratest in
situations of the kind OH earth. Here the
boy was taught the pianofOrte by En-
nest Pauer, harmony and cOunterpoint
by DR.. Stainer, orgdnist, of st. PaulS
cathedral; Orchestration by Ebenezer
Prout, ana composition by Sir Arthur
Sullivan. On the recommendation of
the great Sullivan D'Albert got the
MendelssOhn scholarship in 1881, and he
was sent abroad for year OF additional
study. The pupil made most wonderful
progress under his eminent teachers,
whom he at last fairly ecllpsed, and in
1879 an overture of his composing was
performed at a students concert in st.
James hall, London, and created
furOre with the talent. Later he per-
formed an original pianoforte concerto
in a at Richter concert in 1881. At
Richter's invitation D'AIbert went to
Vienna and subsequently to Weimar
where he studied under List. who
was amazed at the wonderfully per-
feet technique of the young player.
His overture Hyperion" was played at
a Richter concert in 1885, and SYM
phony in F, OPP. 4, IN 1886. A string
Quartette of his was played at Vienna
last winter, and dramatic overture at
the TonkunStlerfest at Cologne in 1887.
He is now engaged in the composition
of a grand opera. The st. Paul public,
however, are interested alike in the
artist and the man, and there is no
doubt that when he shall have ap-
peared before them they will be led to
pXcIaim in the language of the Queen of
Sheha concerning Solomon, "that the
half had not been told" although it has
been claimed that the limit of possihli-
ties in technique had been exhausted
until the appearance of D'Albert. The
young genius, however, has
PASSED THE POUNDING PERIOD,
his poetic temperament, like that of
,Joseffy, being reflected in his interpre-
tations of the great tone poets. He will
undoubtedly create genuine sensation
by the display of enormous technical
skill, and at the same time prove all in
calculable advantage to teachers and
pupils as a model of correct phraSing
and admirable style, 1t was a master
stroke in Mr.. Abbey to induce this
Young genius to visit America, and par
ticuarlv to present him upon the same
stage with that other great artist, Senior
SaraSate, the modern Paganini. Nothing
like such a combination has been heard
here since the tour of Rubnstein and
Wieniawski, and probably such com
binatiOn of great performers Oh the
piano forte and violin will not be heard
again in generation.
~
Of Sarasate. the great viOlinist. it may
be said with all truth, that he is the
greatest master of the instrument living
to-day. Sarasate can scarcely be called
performer on the instrument: it may
be said of him as 1t was said of Paganini,
that he Is himself human violin. At
any rate he makes his instrument part
of him, and he holds his bow as if it
were slender lilly he had gathered EN-
PEASANT to play with. The action of it
is very like that of a slight flower sway
ing in the wind, and yet with what
concentrated nervous energy and pas
sion it is welded! Sarasate himself
sways to and fro with the rise and fall,
the ebb and flow OF the music he per-
forms. He will stay indoors whole
day testing strings for his beloved in
strument. Waste of time? Not at all.
WHAT EXPE GIANT BRIDEGROOM
| will not gladly pass whole day in turn
| ing over the choicest gems of jewel
| er's store in order to find the exactly
suitable gifts wherewIh to adorn his
bride on her marriage morn: SaraSate
weds his violin every time he plays, and
| it bebooves him to see that his marriage
offerings are appropriate. And if the
strings we re not perfectly in unison it
would be sheer impoSsibility to dash
off those brilliant and wonderful har-
monies which glisten like so many
points of vivid light in the rainbow
radiance of Beethoven or a Mendels-
s0hn concerto, harmOnieS so clear. bell
| like and pure that one listens to them
| half-bewildered, thinking that there
must be some fairy violin in the dis
lance echoing SaraSate'S wonderful va
riationg.
Nine Berthe Marx, who is Of the com
pany and one of the most graceful and
accomplished lady pianists the world
has ever produced. In the Schubert
| Fantasia for violin, played by Sarasate
with Mile. Marx, the honors are con-
cededly by the best critics of this
country and Europe equally divided.
One writer says of the celebrated twain
in the performance of this difficult com
position: Never before had | an
opportunity of listening to more
| thoughtful artist. and when it is re-
| membered that this fantasia is
FRAUGHT WITH DIFFICULTIES
equally as great as those which crowd
| the copy Of the violinist, it will be at
| OIING ulIlClSlOUO llIdU CNCH w lNdi tilC
score calls for superb musical ability,
while to read it and delineate it that it
might form an appropriate setting for
such faultlesS playing as that of Sara
safe proves that the lady possesses
musical genius of the very highest
order. The critic listened in vain for
an imperfect tone, break, a faulty
note. an imperfect phrase, a lack of in
continuity, the marring of shake. the
imperfection of trill, a liberty with
time, an indulgence in some eccentric
display, raspiness in the harmonic
notes-aII was perfect, faultless, and as
soon as the last notes had died away
there were cries of ''bravo" and clap
ping of hands and stamping of feet,
which all the proprieties in the world
could not restrain.
In the playing of Raff's "Morceau
CharacteriStiQue," Sarasate handles his
bow as though possessed. The work is
c0nfcSSedly one of the most difficult as
well as one of the most beautiful selec-
tons for the violin ever penned. Tech
nical to the point of oddity. it is, not
wthStandiny. replete with delicious
melodies, short, easily defined and eX-