Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-22
An Interesting Question Brought For.
ward by a Bostonian
WHICH WILL CAUSE DISCUSSION.
A Sketch of the Two New Favorites of the
Local Musical Circles.
THE HENsCHELs AND THEIR CAREER

4
into piece a feeling incompatible with the
period in which it was written. If we were
| to play simple, unpretentious, yet charm
| ing, gnvotte of Sebastian Bach with the
same fire, energy and dash which it is quite
| right TO infuse into the execution of WeDer's
| brilliant Polacca in major-if we were to
| play HandeIs Harmonious Blacksmith" in
| the same style as Thalberg's "Home, Sweet
| Home"-this would be an anachronism; be-
| cause We should be employing certain
means which the state OF the instrument in
Bach's time did not admit, and therefore
those effects could not have possibly en-
tered into the composers mind and inten-
ton.
Even If we DO not 20 so far as to lay down
rule that the soft pedal ought not to be used
for delicate passages in Scarlattfs, RAM
eau's, Bach's, and Handels works, for the
reason that the pedal was invented at a
much later period than that in which they
wrote we must protest against the growing
and pernicious fashions OF substituting for
the venerable, quiet, sedate and dignifled
expression of these masters, the modern,
rather exaggerated, and sometimes spas
modic character which most of the present
performers consider the exponent of real
feeling. Regard il as sonactting aoonatr'abIe,"
says Schumann, ito meddie ,0ith the pieces Of
good aUrifers either bv alteration by omission, or
bU the Introduction Of neU tangled ornaments
This Is the greatest t'ldi0nity you can frytict
art"
To clear away the underbrush, it should
first be pointed out that Schumann's in
junction, italicized by Mr.. Petersilea, has
nothing to do with the main question. Of
course no one but Mozart or Franz has
any business to tamper with q masters
score, and then only with the same reverent
spirit in which they approached Handel's
Messiah" But the matter of altering,
adding to or omitting the notes q master has
written is wholly apart from the question
of what feeling shall be put into those notes
in playing them.
So, too, the matter of "employing certain
means which the state of the instrument in
Bach's time did not admit" is distinct
from the question of what feeling shall be
expressed through that mechanism, i'm
tique clavichord could put just ''the same
fire, energy and DASH into his interpreta-
tion that the modern pianist puts into his.
Though tonal effects be quite different in
degree and quality, according to the limita-
tions of the sound-producing mechanism
employed, yet the same spirit may be in
fused into them all.
"Anachronism in feeling" Is what Mr..
Petersilas is fighting. And really that is
much like fighting a shadow. The Nine
teenth century has no monopoly of feeling
least from age to age is the heart. Human
feeling remains essentially the same. Men
have always lived and loved, and struggled
and suffered with feelings just like ours to-
day in the same relative conditions.
And Art has always voiced human feel
ing as eloquently as her resources and
mechanism at the time would permit. The
Book of Job and the Epics of Homer lay
bare human hearts that might have beat to-
day with the same emotions. No more in
tense portrayal of feeling has been achieved
than the writhing figures of Laokoon and
his boys in the serpent's coils. Rameau's
Confessions show that music, youngest
of the arts, was even then made the vehicle
of the liveliest and most intense emotions
known to the ever-beating heart Of the race.
No, sir, Mr.. Petersilea; there is no such
thing as "anachron1sm in feeling" There
is inappropriateness in feeling, lots of it.
All "rather exaggerated and sometimes
spasmodic" expression is inappropriate.
But it makes no difference whether the
music be old or new. If it was the kind of
poraries expressed their liveliest and most
intense feeling, we of to-day should inter-
pret it with the liveliest and most intense
feeling we can express through its medium.
The development of muscs resources,
both mechanical and theoretical, is in itself
sufficient to distinguish the new from the
old in its power Of expression. The per-
formers emotional nature need not be
shrunk in going back to the early masters
He should rather be urged the more to con-
slider the matter of feeling, inasmuch as the
early ijioms are less likely to seem express
sive to modern ears.
This conventional notion of invariably
giving venerable, quiet, sedate and dig
nifed expression" to all works of the old
masters is the very thing that most fire.
quently robs them of all charm. 1t makes
a musty relic out of what should be a thing
of beauty and a joy forever.
~
Tho Career of tho HenscheIs
The extraordinary pleasure given by Mr..
and Mrs. George Henschel to their au-
diences, as we'll at the Mozart Club con-
certs as at the yet more delightful Art
Society reception. lend interest to this
sketch of their lives, compiled from the |
Musical Courier's columns:
Georg Henschel was born at Breslaa Feb |
ruary IS, 1850 At the age Of he began to /
study the piano; at II he studied theory |
with Dr. Shaefer, and year after played,
with orchestra, Weber's concerto in f
minor at public concert. In 1867 he went
to the Leipsic Conservatory, studying with
Richter and Reinecke and sing
ing with Goetze. In 1870 he sang in Wei
mar at the Beethoven festival of the GAIL
yemeine Deutcshe Musk Verein. "and there
became acquainted with List. This and
subsequent visits to Weimar<-Rubinsteln
Bulow and Tausig were there at the same
him to remove to Berlin, where
he entered the Hochschule, in which he
afterward became teacher He studied
with Kiel, and at that time
and performed his beautiful sere-
made for strings in canon form and the one
hundred and thirtieth psalm for chorus,
,oli and orchestra After a great success as
singer at the Cologne Festival in 1874 his
reputation was assured, and from that time
hat he has since held. His most notable
appearance as conductor abroad
,eiore coming to this country was
n London, at the first performance
here of Brahms Triumph Lied"
IN 1875 he gave concerts with Brahms, in
Austrian and German cities, and then went
o England, which has since been his home
Except for the time he spent in this coun-
ry, to which he came in 1880. In 1881 he
vas called upon to organize and conduct
he Boston symphony Orchestra, which
lnder his three years labors achieved a
position among the great orchestras of the
world.
Mrs, Henschel Gillian Bailey) is a ma
i've of Columbus, D. Her musical studies,
which were begun at an early age, were
ontinued in Boston under Mrs. Rudersdorf,
Inder whose auspices she made her debut
t q concert given by Mr.. b. j. Lang in
876 Her success was instantaneous and
omplete, and for two years she was in con-
tant demand in Boston, New York, Phila-
elphia and other cities Atterward she