The record-union., 1899-10-22

/
| Herbert A. Kidder of Sacramento
and we'll known as concert manager,
will the coming winter, conduct a series
/ of concerts in twelve interior cities. He
/ has some new stars under enga gagement,
] and some old favorites such as Mrs
! Birmingham, contralto: Henry Girar d
! of New York, baritone and pianist; Mr..
| McCauley, tenor; Robusto, late of New
York and notable singer; Homer Hen
/ ley, baritone; Mrs. Weaver McCauley,
! soprano and whistler, late of the Chi
cago Ladies' Quartet. Such concert
series ought to win, and will we have
no doubt
1t is expected that Calve, Melba, the
De Reszkes and other singers who are
usually too expensive for the Parisians,
will be heard at the exposition next
year. In the meantime Melba will make
concert tour of Germany, Austria and
Russia, finishing at Constantinople
Anton Rubenstein says: THE public
ordinarily learns to know one, or at
most two compositions of a modern mu-
(
present more interest remaining entire
| ly unkonwn. Performers, Professors of
piano or singing are for the most part
| too lazy or too busy, or too timid or
| too envious (being for the most part
/ composers themselves, to reveal un-
known works by assuring them a per-
feet, impeccable execution. This would
| be an advantage for all-the composer,
the public, the publisher"
In commenting upon this, the Musical
| Courier agrees with the great artist,
but thinks the fault lies in the public,
who cares for that with which it has
| become familiar. ''To the public" the
Courier says, music lives only while
| it is being performed and therefore it
| is absolutely necessary to have oppor-
tunities of hearing, and hearing again,
any composition, before we can Judge
| it at its true value or admire or love
! it. A literary work has. an advantage
over a musical composition-the book is
! always accessible, if a chance phrase
occurs to ones memory he can turn to
the book and gain by a fresh perusal
a fuller understanding of the phrase
! itself in the first place, and of it's
! appropriateness to the context, in the
next. In music it is different The pub
| lie gains nothing from reading the
score, whatever the professional musi-
clan of genus may gain.
!
Divide Musin of the Musin Violin
! School has just returned to New York
| from Liege, Belgium. Of his four pupils
! who won the highest prizes in the Liege
! conservatory of music, two We're
! Americans
| At his last recital in London NJ
! Ysaye played a "Poeme" by the unfor-
/ tunate French composer Chausson, who
had been killed by a bicycle accident in
Paris only few days before.
'Berlioz lies buried under the ruins
Of his own machines wrote Wagner
Berliozs ideal orchestra would have in
cluded 461 performers; and now word
comes to us from Paris that such an or
chestra will be heard in that city during
the exposition year.
r
Manager Young has secured Frank
Pollock, the tenor, among his array of
artists for the coming season
Joseph Newman, "the Colorado song
humorist," is in London and is said to
be creating quite a sensation by his M
usual gifts.
"The Hungarians have developed no
school of composers though their char
acteristic music has long exerted a
charm upon the composers of Germany
Haydn felt the influence of the Magyar
folk songs (see the Rondo Ali Orgarese
in his first trio) but not so powerfully
as Schubert. who, while he was for
merly music master for Count Ester
haZy, wrote down melodies from the
performances Of gypsy bands and the
singing of the servants One of the
themes Of his advertisement a la Hon
groise,' op. 81, he found in the song of
a housemaid. Weber not only put
gypsy music into his 'Preciosa,' but
wrote also a 'Rondo Ongarese,' and an
Allegro Ongarese.' Had Beethoven
been less a cosmopolitan, or lived after
the romantic movement had directed
attention to folk music as offering
characteristic modes of expression, we
should doubtless have seen Hungarian
tunes put to good account in his music
to 'Konig Stephan but, as it is, char
acteristic Magyar color is missing To
Brahms, in his Hungarian Dances
Liszt, in his Hungarian Rhapsodies,' in
a much smaller degree, to Joachim. in
his Hungarian Concerto for violin,
but chiefly to the ubiquitous gypsy mu-
sician, the world at large owes it's ap-
probation of Magyar music; and it is
the performance of the gypsies, which
Liszt has initiated to a greater or less
extent, that the characteristics of the
music are most vividly exemplified. 1t
is true that Erkel wrote an opera, Hun
garl Laszlo,' on a national theme, and
Doppler another, Ilka,' but the rela-
tion of these works to the true national
style is like that of Glinko's Life of the
Gar to the folk music of Russia. as
eXemplifed in the music of Rimsky-
Korsakow and his confreres of the
young Russian school. They are Ital-
ian music with a mild influence of folk
tune"
Vladimir de Pachmann has returned
once more to the scene of his former
triumphs, New York City, after an alb
sence of several years. He reappear-
ed on the evening of October 18th and