The Washington herald., 1914-02-11
PHILHARMONIC SCORES
TREMENDOUS SUCCESS
Mime. Julia Culp. Vocal SoIoist. and
Mr.. Stransky Delight Audience
at New National. /
ORCHESTRAL RENDITION FINE


The Philharmonic Orchestra, Of New
York. gave the second concert of its series
for the season at the New National Thea
ter yesterday afternoon. The soloist was
the great Dutch iieder singer, Nine Julia
Culp.
The program offered direct contrast
between the most scholarly formal and
the most emotionally romantic types of
music. The performance opened with a
Prelude, Choral. and Fugue" of bach,
arranged for orchestra by J. ]. Albert
the fugue the great G minor for organ.
and the prelude the minor OF the frst
OF the twenty-fou for ciayier. As piece
OF orchestration it is thoroughly satisfy
Ing. Mr.. Stransky's reading was MASTER
ly in its noble simplicity and the clarity
with which each thread in the complex
weave of voices was made to be heard
Mr.. Stransky yesterday proved himself
easily master of abstract music, of con-
crete programmatic music, and of song
accompaniment. The accompaniments
for Mime. Culp were in the highest degree
artistic. Especially was this true of the
Ave Maria accompaniment. Both the
''Sorcerer's Apprentice" music of Dukas
and the Manfred" Symphony Of Tschai-
kowsky are of the programmatic rider.
To the full appreciation of either, the
poems Ballad OF Goethe" and Byron's
Manfred" must be read. The first is "A
humorous Characterization of a humsrous
poem. 1t must be said that Dukas Is
most convincing in his Scherzo. The
'Sorcerer's Apprentice" has invoked a
power that he can neither suppress nor
regulate One is perfectly aware in the
music of all the tyranny of magic let
loose and accumulative accelerando of
freakish tricks of the supernatural world.
Tschaikowskys Manfred is not so
thoroughly convincing. The theme is
psychological. portraying the sufferings
the supernatural soul sufferings-of a
misanthrope. Spirits of the underworld
are called into being: nemesis, a witch.
and the ghost of his dead love appear;
and the hero of misery finally dies. The
subject is greatly Byronesque. and in
some measure well suited to Tschaikow-
sky's genius. A great deal Of the music
is in perfect keeping with the poem;
a gloomy foreboding. a tragic melan-
choly pervades the piese. The last move
ment is grandly tragic; the first move
ment is problematical; one would like to
know what the composer intends.
Throughout the rhythmic element is the
highest dramatic force. 1t is not beauti
ful music; it is interesting krom a criti-
cal point of view. Mr.. Stransky's read
ing was vital with dramatic meanings,
whenever and wherever these were clear
l. expressed in the music. Unhappily
there are pages on pages of not clearly
expressed ideas.
Mime. Culp sang three Schubert songs.
Soldier Rest, Thy Warfare Ger"
'Huntsman Rest, Thy Chase Is Done"
and Ave Maria TO orchestral accom-
paniment. To piano accompaniment by Mr..
Conrad V. Bos she sang Brahms lyon
Ewiger Liebe,' "Stanchen." and Der
Schmied," and the 'Morgen" and Helm
liche Aufforderuns" Of Richard Strauss
Everything Nine. Culp sings she makes
vivid. In every song she is the actor;
her voice. a perfect organ, in its psyche
logical expression, taking the place of
gesture and facial expression The
hearer forgets, the artistic perfection OF
her voice in her message: the essential
poetic spirit of the song:
The unaffected tenderness of her Ave |
Maria of Schubert was more to be re-
membered than the high artistic skill with
which her voice svells on the long-sus-
tanned notes: and her manly but fine
rendering OF Brahms Der Schmied''
ia lesson to the usual robust style of the
delivery of that charming song) makes
of secondary Importance the splendid
forte voice without the least forcing
of the tone.