New-York tribune., 1905-09-24
H Fl 1ELY MUSICAL C0IN1l~1lE21lf>d nj LEI Ff>67 2 If

It's pity that there are many miles Of
water between New-York and Paris. Otherwise
1t might be possible for the Kneisel Quartet to
crafty desire expressed by the Societe Phil
harmonious Of the latter city and give the
Parisians taste Of their quality. Mr.. Kneisel
has just received a letter from M. Emanuel Rey,
secretary of the society, asking him to give
a chamber concert in February next under the
auspices of the Philharmonic Society. which
stands for the best that is to be heard in the
way OF chamber music in the French capital.
Other requests have come from London and the
other English cities visited on the tour which
was begun in the spring of 1904 and mournfully
interrupted by the death OF Mr. Kneisels SON
The engagement of the members Of the quartet
by the new Institute Of Musical Art however.
VIII prevent the acceptance of all such fatteT-
ing Invitations from abroad Mr.. Kneisel viii
conduct the orchestral and solo numbers at the
Worcester Festival this week, and then return
for a few days to his summer home In Blue
Hill, Me. whence he will come in fortnight
20 take up a residence IN New-Yorlz City, which
Will be the future home OF all the members OF
the quartet
The busiest conductor in America during the
summer was Mr.. Walter Damrosch. Mr.. Ge-
ricke of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has
been resting and preparing programmes for the
coming season at Seal Harbor; Mr.. Van der
Stricken, of the Cincinnati Orchestra, has been
with his family in Hanover. Germany; Mr.. Fritz
scheeI OF the Philadelphia Orchestra, has sum
111ered at Castine. Ne: Emil Paur of the Pitts
burg Orchestra. has been in Europe since the
beginning of June. Meanwhile the orchestras
have been disbanded Only the New-York SYM
phony Orchestra remained intact. After the
close Of the regular concert season It gave
nightly concerts for three weeks in New-Yorlx.
eFE In Sr Al
phia and two weeks In Pittsburg In all Mr..
Das11rosch has conducted about one hundred and
seventy-five concerts while his colleagues were
recuperating from their labors Of last season.
He Is now seeking rest in the woods Of the Adj
rondacks and Canada
Tarnagno Is said 70 have left g. fortune of
100000 urs or pretty close to $1,000, 0O0
This, &c is said, might have been more had ne
not given ali his Italian earnings TO the poor
during the last eight years. In his will he
directed that his body be embalnled placed in
q lead coffin, and this be permanently deposited
In chapel to which his admirers were to have
sccesss so that they might look upon his face as
oftsn SIS they pleased. To this end the cover of
the coffin was to be made Of heavy plate glass
lThe provision. it is said. is not likely to be full
filed, for sanitary reasons Some philanthropic
1lstttutions IN Varese received requests. but the
6llk Of the large fortune is left to his married
daushters TO whom the tenor was passionately
devoted. It was for her sake. says his German
manager in an article printed in the Berlin
'Tageblatt." that Tamasno was so niggardly In
his expenditures He would begrudge the toll
which he had to pay on telegram; but once,
On hearing OF his daughters Illness, he broke an
engagement at St Petersburg and hurried to
her bedside in Milan, though it cost him 40 900
rubles
The same writer makes some interesting con- |
trihutions to the stock of stories touching |
Tamagno's parsimony- He sat with the tenor |
supper at the Hotel Bristol. in Berlin, after |
the first performance of lie Prophete' at the |
Royal Opera in 1897. Tamagnos order was two |
eggs and a bottle Of water. To the latter he |
added some wine from bottle which he drew |
from his pocket and which he had carried away |
from dinner given in his honor at Prague two !
days before! At hotel in Moscow he became |
incensed because new candles were placed in his |
rooms every DAY, Notwithstanding that the old /
ones were but little burned. He suspected that |
the scheme had been contrived by the servants |
in order to squeeze money out of him, and re- |
solved to get even with them Every morning |
he hid away the slightly used candles. and when |
at the end Of his stay of four weeks the servants
gathered about him to receive what they sup
posed would be princely tips he presented them |
with the candle ends ds-one twenty, another !
thirty, another ten, and so on. as he had esti-
mated their various deserts. His frugal meals
were not all due to his greed for money how
ever. He had simple tastes and his manager
relates that at a banquet given in his honor in
Paris, which cost 1900 francs he ate a ham
sandwich and drank win ordnaire, while the
other guests were eating the best that Paillard
could provide and drinking Mouton- -Rothschild
of the vintage of 1858. Tanagno admired Wag-
ner, but did not beteve that his music could
ought to be suns by italians. In private
however. he frequently sang the music of "sieg-
mund" and "Tannhause-," and he admired
Schubert and was especially fond of Brahms.
The vanity displayed by Tamagno in the order |
ing Of his final resting place is characteristic of
singers and may serve well anything to |
illustrate the effect upon his character Of the !
fattery OF the public He who could wash his |
own socks in Broadway hotel to avoid a laun- |
dry bill and carry wine from a banquet table to |
drink in public in a hotel restaurant two days |
later rather than order fresh bottle, though |
he had Just earned 5000 marks by singing
single evening. was nevertheless such an egotist
that he thought posterity would desire to gaze
on his dead features. His conceit prompted him
TO the wish to be HIS own monument. He
dreaded to become merely a memory and a
name. In way he recalls the famous Caffarelu.
who was the great Farinellfs successor in Lon
don fn the first half Of the eighteenth century
He. too, earned fortune by singing growing
wealthy enough 10 buy italian dukedom for
his nephew. For himself he built a ma agnifcent
palace. the doors of which he put an in
scription, modestly nkening his powers to those
OF fabled Amphion
Amphion Thebas. ego dornum.
Few music students aware Of the wealth
al fcyS WI baS baa,,