The Indianapolis journal., 1903-12-27

Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal.
NEW YORK, Dec. 25.-The KneiseI Quar-
tet and the Kneisel Quartet audience-the
one is as regular and devoted the other
had a special novelty in the programme of
Tuesday evening at MendelssOhn Hall. 1t
was group of musical settings of modern
French verse. The composer is Mr.. G. NJ.
Loeffier, who for years played at the first
desk with Mr.. Kneisel in the Boston Sym
phOny Orchestra. When Mr.. Kneisel and
his associates in the quartet resigned from
the orchestra last spring MIR. Loefler did
likewise it being his intention to devote his
energies entirely to composition. Particu-
larry the poems of Charles Baudelaire and
the later Paul Veraline and other Partisan
writer's of their method have inspired the
musician to cOmpanioning melodies strange
ly pathetic. family aspiring-"bitter sweet"
and "sad, bad, glad, mad" to use phrases
from MIR. Swinburnes ballad to Francois
Villon, the father of all the brotherhood of
hopeless, passionate, perverse and delicate
Iy-fanciful poets that have sung and starved
IN the Latin Quarter.
Mr.. Loeffier was present to play the viola
obligato for two of the songs, La Cloche
F'elee" (Baudelaire) and Verlaines ironic
''Serenade'' to eyes of gold and onyx. These
and three others, with words by Gustave
Kahn-'Timbres Oubliees," ''Adieu pour
Jamais and Les Paons"-were sung by
Miss Susan Metcalfe. who was the happiest
possible choice. Her voice is small and
sometimes ungovernable, but her musician
ship is of an intellectual quality that con-
Veys to her audience a fine sense of the ideal
above the art work. Mr.. Loefier's playing,
whether with viola violin, has the su-
preme charm resultant from deliberate
seeking for the changing beauties of tone
instead of elaborate melodic figuration How
few artists are so wise as TO do the simpler,
easier thingi OF course, the same purpose
Is in the structure of Mr.. LOeffier's songs.
IheIr meaning Is not or pure JOY or grief
IL Is the moods of an eager, anxious, weary,
baffied mind-and the music accordingly
hesitates, mounts. drOops and ends without
concluding. but the admirable artistry and
absolute originality there for all to profit
by. The elusive. uncOnfding piano parts
were played skillfully by Mr.. Heinrich Geb-
hard, OF Boston, one OF the orchestra's solo
lists.
AS a contrast 10 the very modern, wan
dering music of Mr.. Loefier, there was
MOzart's lovely. limpid quartet in d minor
1t was Mr.. Kneisel and his regular asso-
ciates' first number, and two others were
the allegro assai movement in which con-
sists Schuberts unfinished quartet in c
minor, and Schumann's Z fiat piano quin-
tet Mr.. Gebhard assisted in the quin-
tet il was a varied and always interest
Ing programme, for even the most thor
oughly informed, and such a only
the kneisel Quartet can supply in this part
OF the world.
The most recent concert of the Philhar-
monic Society gave opportunity for COM
parisOn Of solely orchestral compositions by
Wagner and Liszt. According to Mr.. Kreh-
biefs annotated programme. "A Faust Ov-
erture was written by Wagner during the
gloomy days of his sojourn in Paris. and
on the back OF one of the manuscript
sheets, preserved in the museum at Else
mach. are 10 be seen fragments of the
TO make potboilers. When the overture
was published in 1855, Wagner gave ii the
following motto from Goethes drama:
The God that in my breast is owned
The God above my powers enthrOned.
lie cannot change external forces
So by the burden Of my days oppressed
Death Is desired and life thing unbest'
?
The Liszt number was the tone poem
1.-THE Preludes." 1t was written about
the same time as Wagners overture and
another similarity lies in the notices. for
Liszt wrote the fly leaf OF the manu-
script OF his work the following passage
from Lamartines "MediatatiOns Poetiques:"
What Is our life else than a succession
or preludes TO that unknown song whose
first and solemn note is intOned by death?
Love Is the glowing dawn Of every exist
ence; but in what destiny was not the first
exuberance OF JOY interrupted by the raging
OF the storm which with rude breath dis
pels its beautiful illusions and with deadly
bolts destroys its affairs? And what deeply
wounded soul does not love. after such tenn
pests 10 lull its memories 10 rest in the
peaceful solitude OF country life? Yet man
does not long endure the agreeable repose