The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
RECORD OF The DYING YEAR,
IN MUSIC 1905 HAS Nor BEEN
FRUITFUL.
First SIX Months Almost Entirely Bar
ren-The Autumn Brought some New
works hut Nothing That Seems Likely
10 LVe-NO Composer Of Creative
Power I'm sight nj the Present Tlme.

works hut Nothing That seems LIN ely
10 DVe-NO Composer Of Creative
Power I'm sight nj the Present Time,
A ~singularly lean and ~fruitless year in
music comes 10 It's unlamented end to-
morrow. No one will point back adown
the vistas Of the hereafter to the year 1900
and invite the traveller along hfe's pathway
10 consider It's wonders in the field Of musical
creation. At its outset the chorus at the
Metropolitan Opera House entered the
ranks of common laborers and went on
strike for higher pay and less work. The
issue Of this was that Faust" was sung
without a chorus and Tristan und Isolde
with a chorus of stars. These events shook
the earth early in January and they were
really more important than the routine
concerts of that barren time.
At the fourth Philharmonic concert, on
January s, lear Gerardy produced a new
'oello concerto by Joseph Jongen, a pro-
fessor in the conservatory of Liege. This
concerto will doubtless be heard again when
Mr.. Gerardy plays it as a labor OF love.
At the same concert Wassili Safonon reap
peared as a comet conductor and demon
strated how much he did not kno about
Mendelssohn's Midsummer Nights Dream
music.
Or January 0 the world famous, marvel
lous, astounding, overwhelming Rubinstein,
pianist, appeared. Reader, dost remem-
Der him at all? Try to recollect all the press
agent pother that was made about him.
Recollect the concerts and the recitals and
the defiance of critical condemnation.
Where il this second Rubinstein now?
- N Iu- L-. 1.
concert Of his own compositions. In
Boston this was regarded as an event, and
New York was made the subject of scathing
comment by reason Of its utter inability
TO recognize real bean fed genius.
Or January ~ Mr.. .Safonof conducted
the Philharmonic in a programme of Rus
sian music. 1t will be noted that he
is oven still trying to make props ganda
for the fundamentally veneered medi-
ocrities of his own country. and that Modest
Altschuler and the Russian symphony
Society are assisting him. Would not a
performance Of Governs Scandinavian
symphony sound rather agreeable at this
time?
On January IA Mr.. Weingartner, con-
Quoting the New York symphony Orchestra.
revived Berlioz's Fantastic symphony"
Another new work by a young and promis-
ing composer, one of the most interesting
compositions introduced in the course Of
the season.
On January 10 the Kaltenborn Quartet
produced for the first time here Grabert's
piano quartet in F minor. This amiable
old lady of the era Of Mendelssohn showed
a pretty conceit of we'll groomed melody
and a polite disinclination to disturb the
emotions.
At the Metropolitan Opera House-which,
by the way. was openall through the month
Bessie ABBOTT, a young American singer,
made her debut as Mimi in Ia Boheme,-
and received warm applause from that
cultured and discriminating audience which
shows it's delight when Caruso strikes the
sky or Schumann-Heink digs l. the earth.
Charles Martin Loeffier's new rhapsodies
for oboe, violin and limo were produced
by the Kneisel Quartet at Mendelssohn
Hall on January %. These compositions
d splayed what the vast food OF Russian
music pouring over the and at that time
did not. namely, aristocracy. Mr.. Loeffler,
with all his fancy for the decadent, with his
weird scale and his pregnant dissonances,
writes like a citizen of the world. The pro-
duction of these compositions was the most
important incident of this sterile month.
On January 20 the l5Oth anniversary Of
Mozart's birth was commemorated at the
Metropolitan Opera House by an excep-
tionally bad performance of Don Gio-
vanni." Mines. Sembrich and Nordica
and Mr.. Scott struggled in vain to carry
the burden of Nine. Jomelli, Mr.. Journet
and Mr.. Rossi.
The month of February was equally pro-
life in inspiring incidents. Sembrich gave a
sons recital on February 1. and Weingartner
conducted the fifth symphony on February6 8.
Ernest Kunewald of Frankfurt directed
the Philharmonic concerts of February 0
and 10. There was no excitement. At the
Symphony Society's concert of February IL
Josef Suk's orchestral scherzo was pro-
duced. IL proved TO be a pleasing and
graceful moroccan, another inspiration of
pure m~ediocrity. Marie Hall fiddled with
the Bruch concerto in G minor.
A real event" occurred on February Is
Mr.. Conried had a benefit and the Gypsy
Baron" was performed. On the same even
ing Gustave Mahler's fifth symphony was
brought forward az the concert Of the Bos-
ton symphony Orchestra. This edifice Of
architectural music. devised TO puzzle the
brain without touching the heart, was OBJ
served with more or less concern by the
in Intelligent audience. II will in all proba-
bility not soon occur again, unless some
scnductor desines to plead the cause of
Mailer, which needs pleading. He is one
q the large figures in these dull days in
Germany. He is about the same size as
Gyrowetz in the day Of Beethoven.
February % brought a revival of Handles
sgudas Maccabeus" by the Oratorio So
ciety. AT the Russian Symphony So
ciety's concert Of February "a, Glazounoff's
suite From the Middle Ages was given.
II was a middle-aged composition.
Victor Herbert conducted the Philhar-
monte Concerts of March ? and 3, and pro-
duced his own Serena de Romantique.'
His other @Serenade,' made know n to us
by the B~ostonians. is much better.
The New Music Society Of America ,
organized TO perform the works of native
composers, ave its first concert at Car
negie Hall. March 10. America survived.
Henri Marteau on March is played at a
concert Of the Boston symphony Orchestra
the G minor violin concerto os jacques
Dalcrozet. The record Is all that il left.