The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-01
THE AFTERNOON CONCERT.
Ffrangccn Davies, Miss Stein and Divide
Musin the Solosts.


The large audience that attended the
afternoon concert applauded the Haydn
symphony &C major, Is Peters, as If
they liked it. 1t was all so clear and
cheerful The almost comical opening
allegro, the lovely adagio and the jolly
whirl of the final rondo served to put
the people in a oomplacent and happy
mood 1t required no exertion. Taken
! as a whole, the orchestral playing was
| extremely good during the afternoon
Ffrangcon Davies was very cordially
greeted when he came on to sing the
prolog from II Pagliacci." which Giu-
seppe Campanari introduced to a fes-
tival audience in the Italian few
! years ago. Ffrangcon Davies sang 1T
in English, and with all due respect to
his commanding and fawless art, the
piece sounds more impressive in the
vernacular, when q majority of the
audience do not understand what the
singer is saying. Mr.. Ffrangcon Da-
vies deserved all the vociferous ap-
plause he won by the exquisite beauty
of his tones, as much as by the rhe-
torlcal style of his delivery of Canios
lines. The recalls were so frequent
that at last he consented to repeat the
third section Of the address. He is in
every respect most finished and sat-
isfylng artist.
Mr.. Divide Musin, head Of the violin
school of the royal conservatory at
Liege, Belgium, and of his own vio-
lin school, in New York. U. S. A..
played with a very scr atchy tone.
which was too often out of tune with
the orchestra was marred by various
impurities and lacked both breadth
and fullness. Only in the cantabile
movement was he entirely satisfactory
Some portion of these iYnperfectionS
must be charged up to the atmosphere,
which was very trying to the strings
as was shown by their frequent break
ing in the orchestra However that
may be, the vioHnist's playing makes
| one feel uncertain that there may not
be more beauty in Lalo'3 Concerto
Russo than appeared. The lento is a
melody of inexpressibIe sweetness and
sadness, and Mr. Musin played it
with tender sympathy and musicianly
feeling. His tone was good, and the
charm of the music was undeniable-
There were occasional iasnes of beau
ty Of the other movements, and some
times a. bit Of novelty that bordered
on the sensational, but for the most
part these made no lasting impression
There was some show OF virtuosity, but
when tonal beauty is lacking, this
counts for little. This was the first
performance in America, so far as
known 1t appears that 1t was origi-
nally played by Marsick, to whom also
it was dedicated, but Mr.. Musin did
not mention the fact in the letter
which he wrote at the request of the
editor of the program book The vio-
linist was several times recalled to the
stage, yesterday, for this was an en-
thusiastic audience. Mr.. kneisel con-
ducts finely.
Miss Stein gave another Of her high
strung dramatic performances in an
aria from Berlioz's double barrelled
opera, '~Fhe Trojans." 1t was not Dido's
air, as represented, but Cassandras,
Les Grecs disparu," a much more
forcible explosion Of the erratic
Frenchmans genius Miss Stein proved
q very efficient exponent of King
Priam's daughter, the Trojans' pro-
phet Of evil, except in one respect. No
body believed Cassandra's inspiration.
but all who heard Miss Stein felt sure
she sang the truth, the whole TRUTH
and nothing but the ruth, SO far al
it is contained in the nlasic. She we'll
deserved the persistent applause.
Massenet's theatrical suite, Les
Erinnyes," is by no means so porteA-
tous music as its name implies. On
the contrary, 1t is altogether delight
full. 1t is melodlous and sometimes
has q suggestive flavor Of the an
tique. The flute solo is pretty, but the
crux. for the popular ear at any rate.
Is the suave cello solo. which was
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