The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
NINE. SCHUMANN-HETNK SINGS.
UELCOMED FROM OPERATTA-
LAND 10 REALM or HIGH ART.

The singer Appears in a song Recital
at Carnegie Hall tn Accompanies
Proves Unsatisfactory Three Religious
Songs Among the Afte moons Numbers
Under the salmon lights of Carnegie
Hall Yesterday afternoon Ernestine Schu-
mann-Heink came back to her own. She
had revelled in her fling in comic opera
For a brief period Of intoxication she had
pirouetted among the silken hosed laun-
dresses and the bediamonded dairy maids
Of Broadway libretto land. h had kicked
over the traces of serious art and gone
rioting out into the grass fields OF so-called
popularity. She had had enough Of it.
She had wept her repentant tears and
promised TO I've good forevermore. She
had gone back to Germany and in Munich's
Prinz Regenten Theatre had sung Wdltraute
a. Of old, nobly, co~mmandingly.
Then she had given song r~ecitals, and the
astonished German critics, ignorant Of her
old time deeds of this kind in America,
praised her ability to step from the opera
stage to the concert platform. She has
come back to her adopted country. Yes
terday she gave her first song recital in
llllN OAOhkh eAbNh hDF TN AONV iAHA
went out To greet her. Later we shall hear
her as WdLtrdUte in Mr.. Conried's temple
Of monumental art. She may step from
opera stage to concert platform here as
often as she desires. We know how ma
,iestically she makes the strides. We need
no Berliner TdgcbIdt, no Hamburger Mach
richtCn 10 tell us.
But let her daily no more wi tn operetta
a. gEo 1nyoa ~ Sha halOnyG apnnnn the
nero ngures, not among the m~arionettes.
Let her be as funny as she can but in Die
Meistersinger." We love her there. In
operett Ia We grieve for her. such a waste
OF grand material! Schumann-He ink ex-
pending the riches of her stupendous voice
on the tweedledee of a catchpcnny merry
andrew! Let us have no more Of that.
How could she ever do it again after such
an afectionate welcome back to real art
as that of yesterday afternoon?
Nine. Schumann-Heink 3 style of singing
has not changed since h rambled amid
the weeds of the operetta field. She has all
her old merits, all her old defects. She
still INDUCES occasionally in bad attack,
in ~spasmodic and ejaCulatory phrasing in
the midst OF cantabile passages and in
failures to take certain intervals faultlessly.
But on the other hand she has still the
splendor of tone, the magnificent sweep of
%utterance, the broad lined defamation
and the stimulating appearance OF reserve
power which made her singing a constant
10Y in lays now well remembered.
Added to these traits of her singing are
her power 10 express emotion and the lofty
sincerity of her art. In such works as Schu-
mann's cycle, "FTauen Liebe n Leben,
which was the central feature OF her
programme yesterday, she can touch deep
springs of feeling and communicate the
message of the songs to the audience. She
could do this more effectively If the surface
enthusiasts, who always hOld their hands
ready, did not continually interrupt the
flow of the cycle with i'll timed applause.
Again, she would probe the heart more pro-
foundly if she had an accompanies who had
some slight linking Of the task before her,
which Miss Helen SChaul certainly did not
IL ia seldom that singing and piano playing
are so i'll mated as they were in the Schu-
mann cycle yesterday.
The distinguished singer introduced a
new element into the song recital when she
despoiled the sanctuary of three Sabbath
songs with organ accompaniment. The
first was Rebling's declamatoTy setting of
the fifth Psalm, the second Joachim Raff's
sentimental funeral dirge, B Still, y and
the third Krebs's mellifluous version of the
Lords Prayer. The audience took much
Joy from these sanCtimonious tidbits and
even tried hard to encore the funeral num-
Der.
Here is a suggestion for other song re-
citers. Let them give people a chance to
applaud in the concert hall some ofathe music
they hear in church, where they must not
applaud. Nine. Schumann-Hei cir concluded
her entertainment with Strauss -Befreit
and -Heimliohe AufforderlnR," in neither
of which did she do herself justice. Here
again the pianist was sorrowfully unequal
20 the music before her. But on the whole
10 was a good song recital and il was GER
tainly a pleasure to welcome back to the
field Of legitimate art so great a singer as
Nine, Schumann-Heink.