The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-03
EVENING OF MUSIC.
Faculty Concert at Washburn Given
Under Disadvantages.


The extreme cold and the blizzard
of last night interfered seriously with
the success of the concert given by the
faculty of the school of music of
Washburn college in McVicar chapel
last night. The audience was of
course small, though not particularly
SO in consideration of the state of the
weather but with the temperature
some eight degrees below zero it was
impossible to keep the chap as warm
as it should have been and the artists
and the audience alike struggled
against the disadvantages of these
unfavorable conditions. All the sing
ers who appeared in the second part,
Liza Lehmann's song-cycle TN a
Persian Garden," were more or less
hoarses and Mrs. Parkhurst whose
flexible soprano and artistic vocaliza-
ton would under the right circum-
stances be heard to excellent advant-
age in her parts of the cycle, was al
most i'll with an attack of tOnsilitis.
Nevertheless the first part of the pro-
gram, Chopin's Sonata in B fiat minor
played by Mr. AIf Klingenberg, head
of the department of piano of the
Washburn school Of music, was of ex-
traordinary excellence and more than
REPAID those who braved the storm
So finished and satisfying a pianoforte
performance has rarely been heard in
Topeka. Mr.. Klingenberg has
varied repertoire but is probably at
his best as an interpreter of Chopin
and the poetry, mysticism, passion and
melanchOlic grandeur of the superb
3 fiat minor sonata were admirably
expressed by him last night He has
in rare degree the ability to penetrate
the composers meaning-aI its sub
TEST shades and shadows-and the
technical ability, embracing the whole
range of tone production, to repro
duce it. 1t is not merely as an able
pianist, competent technician, that
he excelS. He is before all an able
musician with a comprehensive intel
lectual grasp, a thinker and an
analyzer, with an intense and vital in
dividuality and a subtle and respon-
sive temperament Not soon will his
rendition of the especially Fascinating
and characteristic scherzO, or the
third movement, the familiar Funeral
march, be forgotten by those who
heard the sonata last night. His per-
feet control of all parts of the tone
his unusual mastery of the
art of overcoming the instruments
natural deficiencies in sustaining
sound giving his playing a vocal
character which few Dianists heard in
Topeka are capable of made his a
luminous and mem Orable exposition /
of the possibilities of the pianoforte.
The parts of I'm a Persian Garden"
Liza Lehmann's musical setting of
some of the quatrains of Fitzgerald's |
translation of the Rubiayat of Omar |
Rhayyann, were taken by Mrs. George |
ParkhurSt. soprano; Mrs. Florence /
Fox Thatcher, contralto; Mr.. H. L. |
Shirer, tenor, and Mr.. Ernest 3. /
Conant, bass. The music is beautiful |
and appealing and the spirit of the
was faithfully revealed |
by the interpreters. It was a source |
of much regret to the audience that |
the singers performance was marred |
by the hoarseness with /
which they all suffered more or less
and it is hoped that the song-cycle /
will be repeated when the weather |
permits them to do justice to them |
selves and a larger audience to avail /
of the opportunity to
hear it.