Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-10
The Musical World
By 0cnevra Johnstone- Blshop.

NHEODORA STURKOW RYDER,
the pianist, intends to tour the
II musical circles of Los Angeles, l
hear. She has had great success in
Chicago and Pittsburg, both in recital
work and lecture recitals-
The following from the Berlin critic
to the Leader will be of interest to
musicians:
twenty-five years have gone by
since the news of Richard Wagner's
sudden death at the Palazzo Vendramin
in Venice (February 49, 1889 flashed
through the civilized world.
"Visitors at Bayreuth In the summer
of 1882 had no presentiment that they
were listening to the swan song OF the
beloved master. But the strenuous task
of finishing and presenting to the world
his last musical drama, 'Parsfal,' had
proven too much for Wagner's highly
excitable nature and he was obliged for
the second time to seek an asylum In
Venice, the most noiseless city In the
world Exactly twenty-five years be-
fore, in 1858, he had proven the efficacy
of this silent city, when he was seeking
the quiet necessary for the completion
of his Tristan and Isolde At that time
he wrote to Franz List: You will be
glad to hear that am not disappointed
in my expectations of Venice; the mel
anchoIy quiet of the grand canal, my
stately palace with its broad apart
ments. is Just what 1 needed Not to
the same palace, but to the same mel
ancholy quiet of the grand canal he
went in his second period of mental
exhaustion, but this time it was the
drama of Wagner's own fitful life upon
which the curtain went down.
.
Af+ar n IonSa of twanfv-fiVe wears
opinion as to Wagner's significance to
the art world may safely be assumed TO
he well crystallized. The Lokal AnZe1-
ger. with its usual enterprise, inter-
viewed a number of distinguished per-
sons on this point and their testimony
makes interesting reading. Inc two
expressions which follow are chosen on
account of their being the extremes OF
favorable and unfavorable judgment.
The first is from Engelbert Humper-
dinck loyal follower of the house OF
Wagner:
"When Richard Wagner came to die
he could look back upon life rich in
creative activity, more than rich IN dis
appointment and reunciation, with no
certainty that his life work would out
live him. It has taken quarter of a
century of devoted labor to bring his
festival idea to its highest develop
ment. Today we may ask: What have
we achieved? Have we reached the
| goal?
"Optimists are already welcoming the
dawn of a new German art. Skeptics
answer them with: What do you wish
Let it remain as 1t isl!
But say to you: If our art should
| temporarily sink back into barbarism,
the name of Richard Wagner will ever
serve as the beacon light which VIII
lead us back again to the right path:
For 1t was he who awakened ana
strengthened the artistic conscience or
the nation, as once Luther did the
moral. and he remained true to the
motto: TO be German means to do
thing for it's own sake.
| Wager Swayne is making an en-
viable reputation for himself in Paris.
The critics speak highly of this Ameri-
can pianist.
| Slowly but surely the musical season
| in Los Angeles is drawing to a close.
On last Friday night Fritz Kreisler.
| the wonder man of the violin, drew one
of the most representative AUDIENCES
| it has ever been the pleasure OF this
| city to see, each thinking that this was
| to be the one opportunity of hearing
| this greatest of all violinists. So en-
| thusiastic did the patrons become and
! so urgent were their demands for an
other recital that, as has already been
announced in these columns, another
matinee recital has been arranged for
| Saturday at Simpson auditorium.
| Most of us have forgotten by this
time that Kreisler, the violinist, was
once a prodigy and that he stands with
Josef Hoffman, as one of the few
wonder children of music in our gener-
alton who has brought to fulfillment
the offerings of their childhood.
~ hn aor m
country with Rosenthal under very diff
ferent musical conditions to those which
prevail today. In due course, after the
reviewers had given him some praise
for his work, he went back to Europe,
back to study as he had already studied
in his native Vienna, and not merely
his instrument and one school of play
ing. but the whole art of the violin and
the whole art of music, as was evinced
in his supreme art last Friday night.
Saturday matinee he will play pro-
gram which if anything will exceed in
actual musical tone-if that were pos
sible-the one he gave to the people of
our city last week, the program being
nearly all requests" including Han
del's ''Sonata in A Major" with it's four
movements, and Bachs prelude and
Gavotte, e Major"
81
Madame Lillian Blauvelt is an Ameri-
can. Born OF old Dutch and Welsh
stock in Brooklyn, she was destined by
her parents for a career as "a violinist.
At the age of she gave a public per-
| Torrance in New York. and thereafter
| for some years appeared as precocious
yiolinist. At Is she made the discovery
that she had voice, and with charac-
| teristic energy she set about cultivat-
| ing it. In New York and In Europe she
| studied under the best instructors, and
| II was not long before she attracted the
attention of Leo Delibes, the composer,
who selected her to create the role of
| Kassia in the opera of that name His
death. however, delayed the production
of that work. Madame BlauYelt there