New-York tribune., 1907-10-28


repute who has won favor in America but will he
before the public from till the end of sprfag
ebeir programmes viii all be rs alike as two peas
and except for the exploitation the instruments
n different manufacturers it VIII be difficult to
and any reason for the multitude Of concerts which
Will be given And interest in the rivalry of piano
forte makers ought not to be consuming so far
as the public in general is concerned; il is enough
that # should be felt by musical agents who profit
by It and teachers who are the hunt for COM
missions.
With dozen or more virtuosos striving for pom
uar patronage IL would be interesting if few
new devices should be adopted to give zest to tber
entertainments. New elements might be intro
6uced in the lists. and new PRINCIPLES of selection
and arrangement applied.
But this Is not likely to be the case. II Is the
rule that virtuosos make careful preparation
every season 10 play Just as MANY pieces rs +bex,
ere likely 10 be called to play in the Mace Of
their greatest activity, rigidly confine Them
selves TO those They do not trust themselves
further afeId. lest some keen observer discover
shortcomings in their performances-technicaI
shortcomings especially. for autona tisnn has much
10 90 with digital brilliancy. and this must be
maintained by unremitting practice This practice
does not always require an exercise Of the intel
lectual faculties. Mr.. Rosenthal is wont 10 tell
how be spares himself fatigue while practising his
ringers by the hour by reading a book the while.
MY PaoereWski Is composer as well per-
former and can freshen his lists with an infusion
OF his own works, which require only a modicum Of
attention 10 anything beyond the technical details:
for II is easy 10 see that a composer must know
intuitively how he wants his music 10 sound But
though nearly all Of his colleagues who are 10 be
with this season write q little none Of them has
succeeded in placing. even tried to place him
self alongside the Polish master as q creative
musician Were one Of these TO feel the desire 70
add a few works Of real pith and magnitude by
other composers to his list he would have TO go
s--a as-op-
ginning his tour: for once 'on the road he has
time Only TO keep up the habit OF responsive obedi-
in his fingers. Mind and emotions must be
permitted as much rest possible between con-
certs.
II ought not to be difficult TO add 10 the variety
and interest OF recital programmes. There are
more good sonatas by Beethoven than the hack
neyed few which all pianists have made their
property. There more things in Bach than the
transcriptions Of organ pieces made by List.
There are examples OF graceful fancy in the pages
OF the English virgnalists of the seventeenth
tury and the French clavecnists the eighteenth;
and the fact that they do not admit of the thun-
derous tone OF the modern panoforte and call for
a style of technique which that instrument does
not encourage ought not to prevent them from
getting occasional hearing. The virtuosos have
not exhausted either the German rcmantcists or
the Nendelssohn-S n-Schumann period or the
posers who after them. There is more in
the Brahms repertory than the one sonata (Which
a
rhapsodies and capriccios. which hear TOO
often.
Of only one master composer for the pianoforte
inclined to say that his contribution to our
recital lists IS ample That composer is Chopin.
There idoiaters who would have believe
that all that Chopin wrote is OF the finest gold and
Deserving Of purlic performance, but their judg-
ment IS not worth considering their taste
worth consulting. Last Saturday afternoon Mr.
Josef Hofrnann az his recital IN Carnegie Hall
treated his audience-very numerous and marvel
lously syTupathetc-to the twenty-four preludeS
which make up Op o. and then TO make a clean
sweep Of the matter, threw in the in sharp
minor which focks ~ itself Op 45 The num-
bers followed fast upon each others heels. and,
with the applause with which those were greeted
manner IN which their difficulties we're overcome.
consumed forty-two minutes. The feat is not orig
snal with Mr. Hofmann; It has often been per-
formed, and quite as often has left a multitude
wondering what good purpose had been served by
serving them all Up at a sitting. Is it necessary
in order that the fragmentary, hocculent char
acter Of many of them should be made a2parentT
Scarcely. Everybody at all familiar with them
knows that while Of them embody Chopins
finest fancy others void Of poetic content
and barren Of beauty as a sum in arithmetic One
purpose only seemed 10 have been served: Hun
Creds Of the listeners had studied one or more Of
the preudes and felt special and curious inter
est in Mr.. Hofnnann's performance Of the familiar
strains WHO offers much. brings something
unto many" says the theatre manager in Goethe's
Faust They, al least, could endure the expert
Inent with equaninity, which something Of a
trial those who 10 hear music simply for
the sake OF musical enjoyment. AS for Mr.. Hof-
nlann's playing Of the compositions it like his
playing in the rest of the programme-curiously
uneven. In the preludes which have sustained
melodies that float and above their har-
Tnonic accomplishments, Ike those in z minor. A
major. sharp major. fat major. c minor and
3 fat major. his tone raVishingly rich and
luscious, his legato exquisite; but in all the agi-
tated ones his tempo was furiously precipitate.
and emotion was stirred except wonder at the
feetness and strength of the flying fingers.
The middle Of Mr.. HoEnann's scheme given
up the Preludes the third part TO Lszt and
the first part Beethoven. Mendelssohn and
schUmann. Mendelssohn's contribution was the
minor Scherzo and in IT, tempted, very
strongly tempted. indeed. to say that the player
gave the exposition of his command OF the
panoforte. A shallow piece Of music with the
tripping the fairy folk interrupted occasionally
by the horns OF elfland. but IN nothing else that
Mr.. Holman played did he exhibit fresh.
oewy, glittering and transparent q web. in nothing
else such lovely tonal colorings. There were
splendid moments in the first two movements OF
Schumann's Fantasia in c, but they sep
arated by long stretches IN which the spirit of
SchUmann-a profOunder and gentler and more low
able poet than the Chopin whom he greatly ad-
mred-was sought for in vain. And the feet OF
Beethoven's last sonata remained middle earth
when they should have been treading the regions
wrra II