New-York tribune., 1906-10-09
MUSIC.
sIGNoR LE0NCAvALL0's CONCERT.

1t is not unlikely that some future historian Of
music IN America. some sosspy chronicler OF
local musical doings IN the first decade Of the
twentieth century. will note the of 1soS'o7
as that marked by outaneous eruption Of foreign
composers The gentlemen have come 10 us be-
fore. few of them in nnble pursuit Of the dollar,
which. when they at home. they deory as the
visible symbol Of what the rude people OF this con-
tnent called Art But there is TO be an unwonted in
iux of them this season. and It was therefore quite
in the line OF propriety and the fitness OF things
that the first concert OF the season should present
one OF the visitors. 1t took place last night In
Carnegie Hall, and the distinguished guest was
Leoncavallo, the composer OF "Pagliacci-" As such
he has been known to benighted Americans for a
decade. and with this badge of distinction he IS
likely to be marked until a gracious muse leads
him again to the fountains which he hunted IN
vain TIL 1883 and has sought TO return TO, also IN
vain since. His concert last night with vocal
and instrumental forces brought from once prolific
Italy, plainly designed to broaden the knowl-
edge of his audience; and 1t did. but It
did not bring the conviction that the
sation Of being a one-opera composer was
Ill founded. With orchestra which did
valorous deeds calculated to bring the name OF La
Scala which 1t is bearing into disrepute. and a
company of singers which could only bring back
memories OF the many operate wrecks that
have been stranded on our shores by winds
blowing from Mexico end South America. he pre-
sented excerpts from his earliest as well as his
latest works-trom 'Chatterton." which brought
taught him the vanity Of trying take a leaf out
of the big gothic book of Wagner; from "Zaza,'
from 'Pagliacci." which gave him large fame and
some fortune, and from "Rolandc di Berino,
which the German Emperor commissioned. out OF
q vain desire glorify his house and play a trump
card in European politics the time. Yet
when all done the judicious listener went away
from the concert loom with his early suspicion
grown 10 conviction that the genius of the visitor
had thus fa- spent itself upon the one opera that
4Vtr &c audh kent IL
and grateful memory ever since
1t evening of operatic tune. long drawn
out and made hot. strenuous and wearisome by the
style of the singers. In way the concert was
progressive object lesson in the growth of the pas
sonate melody of the younger (but not younseso
school of Italian opera composersits origin. deveI-
oprnent into tiresome formulary and It's decay.
Diluted Verdsm its beginning In the excerpts
from "Chatterton." impotent striving for return
to perodicity. and thematic, harmonic and
orchestral enrichment It's end in the fras-
ments OF the opera which the German En-
peror in vain attempted TO exploit In It's best
estate the style which has attributes OF
individuality disclosed IN the fragment from
"Zaza"; but these betrayed only too plainly the
fact that all such music Is made ever q uniform
last and that extravasant and therefore tnartsttc
utterance is relied upon to give It It's life blood Ah
that tenorl Who viii forget his tearfuly vocifer-
Gus mai pl,'' his stony stare across the foot
lights and his deathly grip Of his crush-hat? His
name not perish-it is BaTbaini- Happy COM
bination of the verbal symbols for rude force and
lachrymaI infancy. And there We're others, TO
characterize whom would take too long, and very
much, too much. space.
AS for Signor Leoncayalio. he seemed strangely
out of place in the surroundings in which his en-
thusiastio coUntrymen on the stage and in the
stalls had put him. dgnifed. earnest, unimportu-
nate modest. serious minded musican-equally un-
conscious Of himself and the things which stand for
musical excellence IN the American metropolis
Whatever may be the fate of the seemingly quixotio
undertaking which has brought him TO our shores
there will be many who will be glad that they have
been privileged to him and note his unaffected
manlneSS. II. 4. h