Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-10
Music


Nine. Carreno's Concert.
Madame Teresa Carreno opened Miss
Hopper's series Of subscription concerts at
the Young Women's Christian association
auditorium last evening with a piano re-
cital which for brilliancy and artistic sue
cess would be difficult to surpass at any
time or in any place.
Carreno did her Omaha audience the
honor Of playing a program which she
might as readily have placed before a crit
teal musical gathering In New York or
Berlin. Ii was not tempered to suit the
possible or p-robiemstical demands Of
a western audience, but conformed TO a
severe standard in program building and
contained two sonatas-R thing which does
not occure with any startling degree Of
regularity In this part>of the country. The
Mcdowell sonata was especially welcome,
as II has not been heard here before. 1t
was, of course, expected that Carreno
would play something by Mcdowell, as
she has always taken a great interest in
him and his works, and has done more to
popularize them i'm this country and in
Europe than any other one person.
In her manner Of playing Carreno is pre-
eminently heroic. Her style reveals no
moonlight mawkishness or swooning senti-
mentality, although she we'll knows how
to be tender and, on occasion, is,capable
OF developing a most refined and delicate
lyricism, and is as well able to adapt her
art to the simple but classic contour Of a
Beethoven rondo as to proclaim the mar
tial measures of a Llszt polonaise.
The opening number, Chopin's Buimor
sonata, was played with an admirable
mastery Of the various and shifting moods
and a supreme Indifference to technical
difficulty. The first movement, written In
ChOpin's most eloquent and noble style,
found in Ca~rreno> a worthy interpreter,
and the scherzo, with its playful and
whimsical characteristics, was given with
an absolute fidelity to detail. Carreno
proved, too, that she has grasped the es-
sence of the Chopin style by her finely
conceived and finely executed delivery of
the slow movement. She caught its elusive
moods readily and followed it at will in
its sustained lyric flight,
The Beethoven rondo was interpreted In
a most intimate, unconventional and heart
to-heart manner and seemed to bring the
nearer into close touch with the old mas
ter of Bonn, in one Of his gayer hours.
S~chumann's Bird as Prophet was next
revealed in all it's mystic loneliness and
was followed by the well known Erl-king,
whose impassioned sweep and hair-raising
climaxes were in vivid and startling con-
trast to the romantic and imaginative
oCnunann NUMBER.
The rugged theme of MacDowells "Kal-
tic sonata, which followed, were an
nounced by Carreno with a strength and
authority only possible to one who pos
sesses the most thorough and solid musi-
cianship. The work is extremely difficult
and almost austere in it's character, but Is
individual in the extreme and abounds In
splendid effects. The artists reading Of II
was mastery.
Carreno's bravura In the Llszt numbers,
with which the program closed, was phe-
nomenal. Her soft passages were Of
feathery lightness and her climaxes aston
ishing in their power. When the listener
thinks that she has reached either the
limit of her strength or the capacity Of
the instrument, Carreno quietly pulls out
another stop, and 10, another climax,
stronger than any before, bursts upon the
astonished ear.
Carreno's queenly bearing, as well as her
finished art, was pleasing to the audience
and recalls and encores were numerous.
The audience last evening was so large
as nearly to fill the auditorium of the
Young women's Christian association,
which, by the way, proved to be an al
most ideal recital hall. 1t is beautifully
appointed and decorated and carries sound
we'll. ]. p. d.