New-York tribune., 1906-12-12
MUSIC.
THE KNEIsEL QUARTET.

1t is fortunate for the lovers of chamber music
that Mr.. Kneisels educational processes not
numerous. and fortunate for him and his excel
lent fellows that his patrons are well panoplied
with good nature. Il IS also doubly fortunate that
after administering such drastic dose OF worm
wood and assafUtida he did last night he was
quick with his antidote, though this occasion
ne left the gracious task of administration to
others. Last season. unless our memory plays US
taise' he soothed the irritation caused by some
II INDY music with lotion Of Haydn; last
night after causing a horripilation OF the nerves
with quartet by Maurice Rave he withdrew with
MS men to the privacy Of the artists rsom In
Mendelssohn Hall and left Mr.. Walter Damrosch
and four members OF the New York Symphony
Quintet Club to allay the irritation with Bee
thoVens Quintet in fat for panoforte, oboe
clarinet, bassoOn and French horn Let the nar1es
De mentioned, for they performed their work well
and deserved much at the hands of the audience
1hey We're Walter Damrosch. pianoforte; Caesar
Addirnando, oboe; Leon Leroz. clarinet; Herman
Fand horn, and Auguste Mesnard, bassoon. The
equanlmity OF the audience being thus restored.
Nlessrs' Anetsel. Theodorowfcz, Svecenski and
Schroeder ventured again on the stage and
Played as only the Kneisel organizat ton can
pay Schumann's Quartet in r op Al No. 2
HauI1ce Ravel is one Of the younger school of
frehch composers. Somebody must have accused
nm oh DelHs a disciple of Debussy, but the in
senlous Mr. Philip Hale, of Boston. who loves
Soune frenchmen and their singular musical
uuations' assures us that. like another who has
P'1SoU d part IN the history Of France, he sits
grand. gloomy and peculiar wrapped in the soI-
tuoe OF his own individuality It is likely that
MT hneiSeIs patrons will ever want that solitude
disturbed again. NJ d'Indys quartet last year
hao a well worn motif at its base, but blended
Win II was a wealth of thematlc invention,
anu IN at least one movement the listeners
were carried OF into a world OF imagination
and feeling. NJ Ravel IS content with one theme
which has the emotional potency of one of those
tunes which the curious may hear in a Chinese
alrad ant
rms theme serves him for four movements during
which there is about much emotional nuance
as warns a problem IN algebra In the second
movement which stands for the old fashioned
scherzo, the four viOls essay the noble langraga
or the banjo effectively, This, we suppose is the
cerebral music. and the psychical music that
we read about in the dithyrambs sung by
ule young men Of France. who chant
the praises OF each other joyo,1sly
passing the candied stick from mouth 10 mouth
ana praising God that they are not as other men
the Beriozs. Massenets and Gounods Of a childish
age or even as the simple-mInded saint-Saens
The audiences Of the Kneisel Quartet are gentle
and weI-bred folk. Even when music revolts them
they 90 not utter catcals or throw missiles at the
performers Instead they give a respectful hand
10 the musicians, evidently crediting them, with
good intentions, and then show their delight IN
music OF a purer sort by a double measure Of ap-
plause. So they did last night Mr. Danrosch
and his associates received two recalls after the
first movement of the Quintet. and again at fits
close. It was music OF the OF innocency, with
Mozart's smile, and even fragnsnt Of Mozartian
melody C'Batti. battI" IN the Andante) nlumining
1t; but IL all ear-flling and heart-warrning
music; and IL swept through the room like the
South wind breathing through q garden and dis
trtbuting its sweet spices.