The San Francisco call., 1905-04-09

before nor since been painted. And
one wants her when she is there One
no more wants the sexless, colorless
quality of the D'Albert ''Berceuse." the
obstinate masculinitys of his Ballade
Op. 81, than one wants the epicene
Pelleas of Sarah Bernhardt-which all
nice people say she gives. No, D'Albert
before the eternal feminine in music is
as impotent as De Pachmann before
the masculine need of the B minor So
nata of Mr.. Chopin. "Gemuth.' DR..
Wilhelmj owns, that he may lack ito
some" "Gemuth," to me. and to all
that 1 have so far heard express any
opinion, D'Albert here lacks almost
wholly.
Twice in his letter to the Argonaut
the critic ascribes to the pianist the
perfect" plastic sense. 1t is his lack
OF Elasticity, the hard and rigid line.
the angular quality. that to- many of
us is D'AIbert's chief offending. In the
Schuinann "Carneval" for example
"Pierrot" and "Columbine," Chopin
and "Chiarini" were all drawn with
the same harsh pencil, hard blacks.
hard whites, hard angles and posed in
most irreverent haste The outline
only. 20 which DR.. Wilhelmj expressly
says D'Albert does not conflne himself,
was not seldom the only impression
conveyed.
Nor were these outlines by any
means always true. DR.. Wilhelmj
speaks of D'Albert's Compelling logic. {"
| Apropos. he evolves before this some
what mystifying dictum: Even il he
n
part or allows the bass to
the power of his rendering
shakes us to our depths" But
what is logic in piano playing? Is not
the perfect balance of melody and ac-
| compartment of treble, alto, soprano,
| bass q large part of musical logic? DR..
Wilhelmj himself owns that D'Albert's s
bass sometimes predominated un-
duly. 1 should say frequently" The
soprano melody-which the critic evil
| IDENTIFY means by the instrumental
part''-was commonly neglected in ia
vor of any other melody, and as be-
fore said frequently drowned out by
the accompaniment. The effect, with
the lack Of commas in the phrasing.
with the infiexible rhythms, was, again
frequently, anything but logical"
How after this the learned doctor can
say that ''D'Albert evolves everything
from the music, that there is nothing
in his conception that is artificial do
not understand. If Mr.. Beethoven
writes theme for the soprano, and NJ.
d Albert insists upon piling the bass
and everything else on top of it. it
| seems to me that there is a consider
able and highly undesirable obtrusion
of the D'Albert personality.
| AS / have before said. the haunting
| impression that D'Albert can but will
not give you the very tremendously big
thing is at the bottom OF the irrita-
| ton his playing largely arouses. For
| that is what he does give you some
| times. One is silent and adoring be-
fore his colossally impassioned render
| ing of the first movement of the ''Ap-
| passionate sonata. Here everything
falls into magnificent proportion, in a
music drama as classically lined and
poised and passioned as an "Antigone y
His Brahms Variations were magni-
ficent almost all through. The big
sonata. op. Ill. was big in it's biggest
an Alexander, disdainful of his con-
/ quests, hungry for new worlds to con-
/ quer. Perhaps when a new Brahms
/ comes, with a sonata that would take
two men and a pianola to play, DIAL
bert may consider 1t worthy of his
! poW6er and shot