The sun., 1903-05-13
level Of the festival Of two

| the inspiring level Of the festival of1two
years ago.
made on the singing OF the choruses OF
last night will apply to that OF this evening
| and this afternoon. y.
Something has come over the spirit OF
the dream Of Bach in this lovely town,
and the chorus sings as II 1t were over
trained, Certainly that indescrioaoiiee titie VI
element of the last precious festival has
thus far been wanting Two causes may
! be assigned for this, in no far as the con
! certs themselves are concerned Inc Irst
! Of these is the orchestra, which Is enough
| to dsconcert much sturdicr veterans
! of choral art than these Lehtgh valley
! amateurs
The intonation of the orchestra is some
! thing not 10 be imagined. The man VINO
! has come her" with music in his soul ana
expected to be moved by concords OF sweet
| sounds suffers the pangs OF hitter disiiiu.
| sionment when he hears his aggregation OF
instrumentaists discoursing discords IN
almost as many tonalities as there are de-
partmcn,s in the orchestra.
As for smoothness and precision tnese
have vanished in thin nir and left in Their
places rude and unpolished method,
| suggestive of the orchestra class III su-
burban conservatory.
Tho second factor in the creation OF un-
satisfactory conditions is the good Mr.. Wolfe
himself. He is decidedly overtrained, and
his nerves are in 10 state to stand the triai
of Leading the uncertain footsteps OF ms
little host through tie nazes OF Bach &
plyphony. Sometimes he holds back the
orchestra when the soloists are trying to go
ahead and at other tines he hnrries his
PAYERS.
Two or three times this afternoon singers
and instrumentalists were measure or
two apart, and at this, disaster seemed
imminent.
In some matters of detail in the reading
of Bachs music Mr. Wo le adheres to
ideas which give rise to dispute. He ex-
cites the ire OF some music lovers by his
treatment of the grace notes in the vocal
parts and he persists in his heavy ritardandi
on all leading cadences. But what is the
most serious thing of all is his omission
of strict attention 10 matters OF tempo
and expression
An andante becomes largo when the
trumpet parts are difficult and an adagio
is shipwrecked in the allegro when il occurs
in chorale.
The soloists heard to-day were those of
yesterday with the exception of the tenor.
can be said in his favor that he sang in
tune and enunciated the text clearly, though
too often at the expense of quality of tone.
But the tenor part in the Christ mas Ora
torio is extremely difficult and in the f1orrd
aras wholly thaniiess.
Marguerite Hall was. on the whole the
most satisfactory of the solo singers
though il cannot be said that there was
much variety in her delivery. Miss Stewar,
the soprano, has such a hard quality Of
tone in her upper register that she was
generally unhappy in her airs, and to-
night, in the Echo Song, there was offered
the phenomenon of n voice improving
greatly. when echoed.
The echo in his case was Lucy Brcken-
stein. Mr. Witherspoon, the basso, an
admirable singer in song recital, is alto
gether out of his element in the Bach music,
which he sings without beauty OF tone and
in a cumbersome and colorless manner
On the whole, however to-day's concerts
were emphatically better than that Of last
night Still, the peculiar churchly feeling.
the attitude of worshippers in the sanctuary,
was not generally in evidence The town
is working itself into the spirit of the occa-
sion and some jocular spirit has registered
Johann Sebastian Bach as a visitor at two
hotels The newsbovs tonight announced
Bethlehem paper all about Bach"