The San Francisco call., 1896-03-27
TWO WAGNER|AN SINGERS
Concert at the Auditorium Where
Materna and Schott
Appear.
Ondricek Makes Another Hit-En.
thusiastic Applause for All
the Performers.

The rain, which clattered outside on the
roof of the Auditorium during a great
part of the Materna-Ondricek concert last
night, had no effect in dampening the
ardor of the large audience within An
exceptionally fine musical treat was in
progress and it would have taken more
than heavy shower to keep the musical
public from attending. None of the adj
mirers of Wagner that were present, and
their name was legion, regretted having
braved the elements to hear the concert.
In addition to Ondricek and Materna,
who arc a host in themselves, the at
fractions included Anton Schott, the
famous Wagnerian tenor, Arth ur Ficken-
scher, pianist, and an orchestra directed
by Isidore Luckstone, with John Mar
quardt as concert-master.
Schott aroused as much enthusiasm as
either Materna or Ondricek, which is say.
ing great deal for the impression be
made. He is an exceptionally big man
for tenor and possesses acorrespondingly
big voice, which is turning somewhat to
barytone. This artist. who has been sing
ing in public for about twenty-five years,
has much more dlstinctively German
method than that of Materna. Heaven
gave him magnificent voice and he uses
1T lovially and Justify, eschews the vibrato
and sings with true artistic feeling.
Ii Herr Schott had had maestro of the
old italian school to 'place" his voice in
his youth it would proba bly, show less
signs OF wear than it does at present 1t
is magnificent organ still, but the voice
is greater than the art. Particularly is
this apparent in the mezza voce,
which is husky, and in the apparent
lack of power to execute the
ouo cua1linn nd dyyin
note, which Materna performs with fin
ished art. However, Schott, in addition
to fine voice, has a numb Der of effective
vocal tours de force, and all his solos were
enthusiastically applauded. His sing
ing Of the "Erlking" was lusty
and impressive, though the piano
passages were decidedly loud, Schumann's s
1.-TWO Grenadiers" was very we'll rende dered
and the audience seemed as if it would
like to hear Herr Schott sing tAh Mier"
for the rest OF the night, so wildly did it
applaud. The same may also be said of
Lohengrin's "Erzaelung una Abschied."
Materna by request sang her grand aria
from Wagner's "Rienzi," and sang it mag
nificently. She was obstinately encored,
and gave "Mein Bote'' with such rich, full
tones and artistic feeling that people
clamored unreasonably for more, until
Materna by signs gave them to under
stand, in very gracious way, however,
that IL vas useless to persist. One of the
great features of the concert was excerpts
from the first act of ''Die Walkuere," Frau
Materna being the Siglinde and Anton
Schott the Sigmund.
Franz Ondricek's playing aroused the
wonted amount of enthusiasm. He
played the Mendelssohn concerto in which
Marsick was heard here recently, and his
verve and brilliancy were remarkable,
particularly in the final allegro motto
Although he did not give so many caden-
zas as Marsick he aroused considerably
more demonstrations of appreciation, and
the audience showed its respect for the
orchestra by hushlng down attempts to
applaud during the orchestral portions of
the work. Luckstone conducted very SYM
pathetically.
As an encore to the concerto Ondricek
played Schumann's might Song" His
Hungarian Airs" by Ernst, were also
enthusiastically encored, as from their
brilliant execution they deserved to be.
Fickenscher proved himself to be fairly
interesting pianist. His best work was
that done in the Liszt mum bers, and in the
sLiebestot," from Tristan and Isolde" "
which he gave as an encore and in which
he produced about the effect of an or
cheStra.
The farewell concert of this gifted
combination will take place tomorrow
afternoon at the AuditOrium