New-York tribune., 1910-11-23
MUSIC
The Philharmonic Concert.


At the third evening subscription concert
of the Phiinarrnonic Society, which took
place in carnegie Hall last night. the pro-
grau1me consisted of Cherubini's cias-
! sicaIiy oeautitul Anakreou'' overture,
kSchumahh symphony in G, three songs
with orcHeSIldi accompaniment. sung by
Nine. Anna 1luck Dvoraks "Carnevar'
| overture and Smetana's '.Vltsva musical
defneatloh OIL the Bohemian river Moldau.
All Of the music. except the songs. looked
familiar on the programme. though the
symphony which ought to have been the
most familiar. inasmucb as - hos ig,,red
in the Philharmonic's schemes for nearly
fifty-seven years. disclosed some un-
wonred features due to the revision which
1t has received at the hands of Mr. Nah
Ter. Nearly all the symphonies. symphonic
poems and overtures which figure in the
society's programmes nowadays should be
accepted as the works OF the composers
plus emendations. alterations and addi-
tons made by Mr. Mailer It is all one
whether the original author be Bach, Bee
thoven, Schubert. Schumann. or even
TsChafkowsky, the modernizng hand Of
Mr. Mailer has touched his crea-
tions- The effect Of these revisions
has generally been felt pleasurably
by the audiences the most notable example
being the Schubert Symphony in { some
weeks ago. and, therefore. so far as the
audiences assembled for the transient en-
ioyment of an evening are concerned. the
changes made by the conductor scarcely
call for discussion in a popular review A
question of what might be called moral
aesthetics is involved of course. All the
classic works Of art might be revised so
as TO bring them closer to the sympathies
Of q large element of the public as it exists
to-day. Shakespeare's tragedies especially
their comedy sCenesp might be brought up
10 date to the delight OF some listeners,
and no doubt there are readers of the Dec
aIogue who would find the old page of
moral law more piquant and accordant to
their tastes and iucliuations by SO slight a
! revisorv change as the elimination OF the
little word not: but that fact has not Vet
( been accented as q license by any literary
editor. Ony purists. perhaps. will contend
! that the pages of the masters in music are
/ equally sacrosanct with those of the mas
/ ters in poetry and prose: but that the pa
| irons of orchestral music have not felt
! a compelling charm in the innovations
! Of Mr. Mailer seems TO he indicated by
the small attendance on the evening
! concerts of the Philharmonic Society. The
/ Schumann symphony sounded very well
! indeed and perhaps if somebody had
/ pointed ont 10 the composer that the
/ motto theme" as il may he called. might
| have been used once again where Mr..
NahIer interpoIated it last night in the
! last movement he would have accepted
/ the suggestion. though while composing the
work he probably thought he had used
! It as often as he thought necessary for his
! purposes It is also undoubtedly true that
! Mr.. Mailer is a greater adept at orches-
] tration in the modern sense than Sc1U-
mann was. and could add brillanCy to
tie work by rewriting it ab i1itjo. The
only question is the one touching which
a popular audience is necessarily careless
ought Schumann re permitted TO utter
his thoughts in his own language? Under
/ the circumstances we shall not undertake
70 answer II.
The songs which Nine. Click sang
though Of character which never before
had 4 place IN a Philharmonic progra mme
were accepted as delightful intermezzo by
TIE audience. Two Of them she had pre-
vlously sung this season at her own con
cert in Mendelssohn Hall, though with
p-anoforte accompaniment They were q
t cradle song from Smetana's opera "Hu-
bicka.' and Mr.. Mahier's setting of the OLD
German fo1ksong, Bald gras ich am Neck
az. bald gras ich am Rhein." Both bene-
| fted greatly by their orchestral dress. The
/ third number was also in the fo1ksong vein
! and Mr. Mailer is the author of both the
words and music He has strong feeling
toward the romantic element in music
which such songs exemplify and his utter
ances are Of singular eIoquence when not
! TOO sophisticated by the harmonic and in
| strumental habiliments with which he is
! prone 10 Ciothe them. The songs aroused
great enthusiasm last night. and had Nine
! GIiick. who sang them exquisitely. repeated
! them all. she would still have left tbs
/ audience IN uSa tisfIe,l