The record-union., 1899-11-05

l
An Australian who was offended b,
some reflection recently cast on thu
musical taste of his countrymen by {
London journal, wrote to it by way O
retaliation that he had been present a
organ recitals in London which wer,
attended by only two orSthree dozel
persons, whereas at Sidney the aver
age attendance at an organ recital is {
Thousand, and he has seen as many al
three thousand.
Grieg hopes to have his oratorit
Peace ready for performance mex
year at the Paris Exposition.
Bonn has a Beethoven museum, Else
mach a Wagner museum, and Weimar &
Liszt museum, and now Frankfurt ha:
received from Nicholas Manskopi q
collection Of manuscripts and auto.
graphs of Haydn, Weber, etc, sufficient
for the starting Of general museum.
Siegfried Wagner has been invited te
conduct a series of performances of his
opera, Der Barenhauter," at the In..
perial Opera in Vienna. It has beer
pointed out that Goldmarkl has never
been asked to conduct one of his own
operas at that house; but perhaps he is
not a good conductor.
The committee of the Lszt-Denkmal
of Weimar has just offered three prizes
for the best commemorative designs
The first consists Of 1000 marks, the
second Of 1000, and the third of 500
The monument will cost about 10000
marks and a good many contributions
have already been collected.
A series of hitherto unpublished let
ters from Carl Maria Won Weber to his
friend Heinrich Lichtenstein appear in
Westermann's ''Illustrirte Deutsche
Monatshefte, commencing from Octo-
Der.
The well-known pianist and composer
Mary Wurm has founded an orchestral
society of women in Berlin, which wa:
to have given its first concert on Oc-
tober 10th. It began with twenty six
members, all strings and harps, which
seems to indicate that the wood, wind
and brass have not been taken up yet
by the women of the German Capital.
Following the example of Wagner
who made version of Gluck's Inhi-
genia overture for use in modern con-
cert halls, Weingartner has dressed
Gluck's Alcestis overture in a more
modern orchestral garb, and added
some final bars which adapt it for per-
formance aprt from the opera itse.f
which is now anticipated. Among other
recent publications by Breitkopf and
Eartel are symphonies by Berger, Cow
en-, Weingartner, Kauns, violin con-
certoS by Busoni and Matthew, a new
piano concerto by Xaver Scharwenka
(opus so, and a new version Of Bach S
d minor concerto by Busoni An Amer
ican, too, is represented in the list of
novelties-Otto Ffeersheim, whose
Suite Miniature" consists of six short
numbers which the German critics
praise for their clever workmanship.
grace and brilliant orchestration. Mr.
Floersheim has also recently published
group of preludes for the piano, sew
eral of which are real gems
According to the London Truth. .
Professor Parker Of Yale, whose "IIora
Novissima" was sung at the recent
Worcester festival, proved himself per-
sonally very popular-so much 50 that
the choir, learning that he was just
about to celebrate his Both birthday,
voluntarily subscribed sixpence each,
and to the great astonishment and de-
light of the American musician, pre-
sented him with a vase of Worcester
ware. But if the 'Hora Novissima'
had been written by an Englishn. an y
the same critic adds, II doub. whether
it would have stood much chance of q
festival hearing" It is also reported
that Professor Parker Complimented
the choir on having sung his canrata
better than it had ever been done in
America, which led another critic to
reflect that American choruses must
be pretty poor. What q pleasant world
this would be If there were no critics
in it.
New York Post: While New York
has been having a very prosperous sea-
son of summer might concerts-so pros
porous that it extended into the au-
tumn-London has just witnessed the
failure of a series of promenade con-
certs at Covent Garden, after only a
fortnight's season. Yet the New ! ork
orchestra-Mr. Kaltenborn' 's--rlayed
only good music by the great masters,
whereas in London they stopped to the
vulgar, by making a speciality of vocal
waltzes in costume, and introducing
military bands in the "Tannhauser''
and TELL overtures, and the like. The
London journals consider the failure of
this scheme a good sign, indicating
that the public wants something better.
In former years the promenade con-
certs were supported by the sale of
drinkables but the portion of the audi
ence who came for those had evidently
found a more congenial place this
year. Robert Newman's concerts at
Queens Hall, which appeal to the gen.
uine musical public, have been i'm
mensely successful, like our own.
BY some odd chance it happens that
until lately no theater in Vienna pos
sessed the exclusive right to the per-
formance of the most popular and
profitable of Strauss operettas, "Die
Fledermaus" The Imperial Opera
tried some time ago to secure these