The sun., 1903-11-25
THE KNEIsEL QUARTET.
Its Second Concert Given In MendelssOhn
Hall to . LARGE, Audience.

lU SeCOnu NOnceTt, UiNeU III MeIucissohH
i Hall to > Large, Audience.
The second concert Of the Kneisel Quar-
tet. which WAS given Last night in Men,
delssohn HaAis was at18rhihd by large
Audience. To the musically analytic the
r5bgranme was ione of no small interest.
Itcomprised Cesar Franck's D major string
q,artette, Smetana's trio in G minor for
piao2 1SlM anhncehb,, ;nia Dttersdorrs
E nat quartette. Mr.. Kpeisel arranged
the sequence Of the numbers wisely. The
GEAR Franck work is long and complex,
The Smetana trio. heard for the first time
atthese concerts, Is concise, frankly meodic
and easy Of Comprehension. The Differs
dprf music comes once again with the
youthful simplicity of an era when to make
music pretty was all that composers sought
to do. ..-...,.-,.. -.,....,..-
Smetana's trio calls for no discussion
It makes free and pleasing use of melodies
OF folk song character, and passes them
about from one instrument to another
without any earnest search after intricate
contrapuntal effects. 1t is music for the
beginner or the weary one. A child would
not have difficulty in following it, 1t is
agreeable, and those who find in it a pas
sionate melancholy, as some of Smetana's
admirers have done, must rejoice in the
possession of emotions lying very close to
the sleeve.
The qpartette of Franek, which the
Kneisels have played in this town before
last night, is matter Of a deeper sort. This
was the last of Franck's chamber music
compositions. and it bears all the qualities
of hermit-like self-eXamination and search
hat oh,
later writings of this Frenchman. Franck
is gradually coming to his own, and Possibly
the time Is not far of when those of us who
have been at loss to account for the SEEM
ingly extrava CANT praises of Frenchmen
ard Americans of Gallo fancy will ldiscern,
if we do not justify, the grounds of this
appreciation.
In an enthusiastic review OF this quar-
tette, Guy de Ropartz unhesitatingly set it
down as the greatest work of its class since
the last quartettes of Beethoven. This is
saying much, and perhaps it would not be
unwise to quote further from the same re-
view in order to show the foundations of
the writer's faith. NJ. de RoparM points
out that the POGO lento of the introduction,
first proclaimed triumphantly by the prin
cipal violin, reappears in fugal form as the
central idea of the allegro 4the admirable
writing serving but to inten sify the thought
Then the allegro returns in G minor, and
the conclusion is made on the POGO lento
in the original key. -
The scherzo NJ. de Ropartz calls "a fan
in F minor, which key despite many wan
derings is continually forced upon the ear.
The trio is full of charm and poetry"
Then comes the larghetto, 'one of Franck's
sublimest achievements. 1t sprang from the
overfiewing heaItof the master as though Of
eet purpose by its length to give the lie TO
hlch as pretend that theieading character
iStics Of Frenoh'mu arc 'brevity of idea
and fppancy of motive. Now .ensues a
second theme X yailaIRg. sgopnizing' ,p torn
y repeated entire A passionate cry, and
hs first bars; soon itexpands, rises to the
point OF passion and dies away in ecstasy.
Opce more the second motive is repeated
but now in broken fragments, the tones
sinking to pianissino."
The finale is in part a recapitulation,
for. after .repea,ing fragments of the
themes Of the earlier movements, the
dnale itself appears and, going through
massSrly exposition, introduces the POGO
lento'theme Of the first movement to serve
Then "the divers motives Of the work inter-
mingle until. triumphant and sonorous,
the larghe;to brings to a close the greatest
string, quartet in existence after Bee
hoven's later ones 1t was, at any rate
something to have warmed a commentator
to such rhapsodic praise, but the ouartct
endures it tolerably, 1t is possible to
conceive Of its being called great" quar-
tet-after Beethoven.
Cer1 ainly Y courts comment, but a wider
discussion osaits worth srnay be. left for a
future occasion, just now it will suffice
TO say that the first movement is a table
piece OF musical thought, and atones in
lofty intellectually for Us want Of tempera-
may be awarded the other movements