Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-03
PASQUALE EAMATO
! HEARD AT ACADEMY
WITH BOSTON BAND
Beethoven and Strauss
Played to Perfection by
Doctor Muck and His
Orchestra.

The Soth season OF the Boston Sym
phony Orchestra In Philadelphia began
last night at the Academy of Music. DR..
Kari Muck brought his entire band of
100 musicians, with but two substitutions
caused by the war. The personnel of the
orchestra, with Messrs. Witek, Longy,
Warnke and Maquarre, is as familiar and
as grateful to Philadelphia as the buff
covered program with Mr. Hale's de-
llghtfully inconsequential notes. And
last night. when that familiarity was
justified by the perfect performance
which the orchestra gave. the enthusiasm
of the audience touched even DR.. Muck
TO an unwonted movement of sympathy
with his players.
What the Boston Symphony has above
everything is perfect tone, not only in
the superb wind choir, not only In the
solo oboe or In the horns, but in It's en-
semble, vastly more difficult thing to
attain. Last night there was perhaps
but one second OF time In which the tone
fell OF. The rest Of the evening II was
impeccable, and although the pieces they
played is none of them dependent wholly
on tone, the fulness and the grandeur OF
each was realized through that quality.
To single out the work OF Mr.. Warnke
and Mr.. LonEy In the funeral march of
the "Eroica," of the horns In the Don
juan" and Of the strings In the delicate
fusal interludes of the "Bartered Bride
Is only to indicate that in the most diff
cult OF parts the Boston players are at
their best.
Doctor Muck's program was wisely, al
most cleverly. arranged. Its symphony
Is familiar, but Doctor Muck chose to
play 1t because he was able to make a.
new thing OF II. Against 1t he placed the
tempestuous Don Juan" and evoked mel
odious beauty and sensuous '9peal of an
extraordinary power. The quaSty in the
Don Juan" which makes 1t so power
Iul is that unlike the Beethoven, It's
emotional appeal is centered through the
burning glass of the intellect while Bee
thoven Is pure sunshine, fire and air. 1t
is generally considered that the injection
OF the mind into an affair of passion is
ruinous. The appeal of last nights tone
poem was adequate answer to this ILL
considered opinion. Then, to slacken the
strain, the orchestra played Smetana,
Bloriously humorous and healthy, played
It with joyous spirit and almost reckless
enthusiasm.
Pasquale Amato was the sololst Of the
evening. and very good he had to be TO
make himself a place there. That Mr..
Amato's triumph was personal, while that
of the geniuses of the orchestra was So
cial, Is hardly to be held against him. He
was tho soloist and not a member of the
playing organization He assuredly tri-
umphed, in spifo OF some difficulties with
the second verse of his Saint-Saens aria,
because his voice was rich and robust,
his tones we'll sustained, and his dra-
matte feeling, again in Saint t3aens, ir-
reproachable. In the Handeb1air, known
familiarly in what Mr. He : calls "the
preposterous arrangement" II the Lar
CO." Mr.. Amato could noe be dramatic;
the song is pure flow of easy, almost
expresslonless feeling. and Mr.. Amato
was artistically just In his singing. He
sang easily, without a trace of labored
production" That he made great
many people think Of Titta Ruffo. and
think without prejudice to himself, is
sufficient compliment to him.
The Beethoven symphony was by
divine right the triumph of the evening.
The fact that it was heard In the same
place week ago contributed to the
further glory of Doctor Muck and his
men. From the moment the 'cellos gave
out the sonorous first theme, to the ex-
uberant apotheosis OF the last moment,
the playing was of the highest order,
and that being said, there remains only
consideration OF the Interpretation which
Dr. Muck put upon the music, II Is
more than a century since the "Eroica'
was nrst played, and 1t is very possible
that many conductors have played 1t cor
rectly before. 1t Is certain that most
have played 1t vilely. Last night 1t was
played as Beethoven might have wished
1t. and played so as to end forever the
rather silly discussions as to what 1t
stands for" In all the meanings
ascribed to It. Wsgner's alone has sense.
The "Erolca" is Napoleonic because at
the time II was written Napoleon ap-
peAred to Beethoven aB the complete
man. the balancing of all human powers
into titanic perfection. That is all. But
what life meant TO Beethoven is even
moro important than the individual who
represented life at its best to him. The
meaning OF the funeral march with the
dAshing, fearless scherso placed after II,
was made beautifully clear last night
Il is that In the midst OF death we are
in llfe-and that is more glorious
truth than that in the midst OF death
We are In lifo. That is why the "EEoica"
Is the brRvest, the sublimest OF SYM
phonies. Played as It was last night II
made the ordinary affairs OF existence
things OF precious and wonderful i'm
portAncs 1t achieved what all great
music should, what Mahlers Fifth Sym
phony, for example, achieves In the
same way-the transformation OF life
into a more splendid thing than II seems.
That achievement marks the greatness
OF Doctor Muck. He conducted last
night with all his old aristocratic power
passlonless and proud, apparently, but
moving his orchestra and his hearers
70 passion and to pain. The restrained
and ordered power OF his leading, the
nnAl ability to command the rarest
subtleties OF feeling, were his. His
KAunt Msphistolean graces stood apart
from the orchestra; he seemed TO COM
nand and to listen with all the air or
4 eonqueror. His conquest, for that was
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