New-York tribune., 1901-09-25
MUSIC.
VAL~FRANCK'S LES BEATI-
tubes" SUNG.
rBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.l

rBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIRUNE.l
Worcester Mass. Sept 24-The forty-fourth an
nual festival of the Worcester County Musical AS
sociation opened to-day, very much the festivals
have opened for score more of years,
since the old musical conventions put off their
swaddling clothes and donned festival attire There
was the same amable spirit of joyous expectancy in
the townsfolk and their visitors, the nervous
apprehension on the part of the conductor and the
festival management concerning the outcome, the
same airing OF pretty gowns the part of prin-
cipal singers, women choristers and women listen
ers-the latter forming the majority of the audience
in the hail, they do the majority IN the congre
cations which meet to worship in the churches-and
the gathering of newspaper critics and choir
leaders. who come every year TO hear whatever new
music may be brought forward or to witness the
rise of a new star in the musical armament
To attempt to estimate the degree in which all
the hopes. fears. expectations and curosties were
met at this first concert would be unwise
proceeding and Improbable There will be
opportunities apenty before the week is to
do this. and a general judgment pronounced now
would have to be revised. it is to be hoped and
also TO be feared. before the week is
Disappointment and qualification measured
out in about equal proportions by the concert,
which was devoted TO a performance of Cesar
Franck's Les Beatitudes,' a work which has been
volumnously discussed in The Tribune. II formed
one OF the new features of the Worcester festival
last year. and since then the festival choir has
sung 1t In Boston. 1t ought. therefore. 20 have
been familiar to the chorus and the hearers ought
to have heard better performance chorally than
they did last year. Unhappiy, II cannot be said
that they did. The fact might seem anomalous
were 1t not for old observation made by every
one VINO has concerned himself with the work of
amateur chors, that with them out OF sight is out
OF mind Societies that have performed Handels
Messiah" every Christmastide for the last twenty
years find IT necessary to study the work anew
every year If this be true OF old and familiar
a he under tooI
doubly true of work so different in char
acter as the Belgians oratorlo. Criticism ought
not to precede the record, and there must be a re-
tracing of steps.
Numerically the festival forces were the same
this evening as a year ago-a choir of about four
hundred persons mot four hundred voices It is to
be feared and sixty instrumentalsts. the latter
chosen from the members of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. George W. Chadwick conducted and
Fl. NJ. Dunham played the organ. This ought to
have been done by j. Wallace Goodrich who is
the official organist of the festival but Mr.. Good
rich is Ill and Mr.. Dunham had to take his place.
The solo parts were in the hands of Mrs Sharnah
Cumming. soprano: Mrs. Clara Poole-King and
Miss Adelaide j. Griggs, contratos: Evan Williams
and E. c. Towne. tenors. and David Blspham
and Stephen Townsend, basses
The weather perfect could be wished
and the audience apparently as is
usual at first concert. This gratifying for
a falling off in the sale of season tickets, which
was attributable in part to Nine Eamess with
drawal from the list of solo singers account OF
illness at the eleventh hour, had raised apprehen-
sionS on the part of the management. If so fine
audience as to-night's could be gathered together
on first night to hear work given last year.
there ought to be trouble to fill Mechanics Hall
tomorrow evening, when the performance of
Verdis Requiem will have solemn attractive
from the fact that it will be made memorial
the death of President Mckinley. To emphasize
this fact, the mass will be introduced with the
death march from Wagner's "Gotterdammerung.'
a proceeding which was not contemplated when the
programmes were arranged
The solo performances in the rendering of
Franks masterwork were higher general level
than last year, though distinction in quality or
voice was disclosed only by Mr. Williams and Mr.
Bispham. The provided that satisfaction
which from correct intonation and correct
literal reading of the text but they did not nbue
the music with any special charm, either OF voice
or Interpretation. In these particulars Mr.. Town
send also missed the impressive opportunity which
the composer provided for the singer who pro-
claims the blessings be by the vrtuous
this vale of tears. Franks exalted music allotted
to the voice Christ is easily spoiled by of
emotional affectation, but it not be sung
dryly. The singer should seem to be borne 'as
on angels wings Mendelssohn said of his
Elijah
Mr. Williams nspiriting when he to the
climactic demands made upon the principal tenor
and has seldom sung with more sensuous beauty OF
voice and style than this occasion. Mrs. Poole
King the festival in 1885, 1889 and 1890,
and it pleasant to discover that her English
experience OF seven years has not harmed her.