New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-09
Work Not Heard in City for
"a Years Practically
New There.
SINGING OF QUARTET
is HIGHLY PRAISED
21st Festival Shows Itself Peer of
Best of Predecessors in
All Essentials.
by n. T.. KREIIBIEL.


kind to the Music Festival this week.
Only on Thursday afternoon were the
skies bright To-day has been gloomy.
wet cold and clustering. There was no
afternoon concert. and the evening meet
ing was devoted chiefly TO the mass for
the dead composed by Verdi in honor OF
the memory OF Manzoni. This stock piece
If the Worcester festivals and the opera
concerts of New York has figured only
once before In the schemes OF the Gin
cinnati festivals which from the begin
ming have reflected the tastes and affec-
tons OF their founders. Theodore Thomas
Verdls music was not the object OF his
lore. Twenty-four years having elapsed
since the mass was performed at the
ninth festival, 1t was new to the choir and
as good as new TO the majority Of the
people who listened to it, At this late
date II does not call for characterization
at the hands Of The Tribunes music re-
viewer who has been familiar with 1t Ions
enough to have seen the amused contempt
with which It was first received by the
musicians OF Germany turned into some
thing like sincere admiration for the most
Of its pages.
Dr. Won Bulow, ! believe, was among
the first to recant his early opinion and
to apologize to It's composer for some OF
his harsh expressions concerning IT, The
theatricalism OF the beginning and end
OF the sequences Dies Irae" still mill
tates against II as ecclesiastical music
but this is largely offset by the melodic
beauty and obvious sincerity OF all the
other numbers in the work. To the solo
singers II offers splendid opportunities Tor
the display Of voice and art. and in the
singing of the festival quartet. the Misses
Hinkle and Keyes and the Messrs. Will
Jams and Scott. the high lights in to-
nights performance we're found.
I cannot recall a more satisfactory solo
ensemble at any OF the earlier festivals
though the programmes have frequently
borne more famous names. The four
voices blended perfectly. each was ex-
quiste in its distinctive timbre, and the
taste displayed by the singers was I'M
peccable. The singing was, indeed, all
that singing of the character called for
by the music ought to be, and challenged
an equal distribution Of praise among the
composition upon the choir was little
more than trifiing compared with that
made by the Bach Mass on Wednesday
evening, and il was admirably met but
when the festival ends tomorrow even
ing the freshest, greenest. brightest and
most fragrant guerdons won during the
week will be those achieved by the
choristers in the stupcndous music OF the
y minor Mass.
After the praise which has been De
slowed upon the solo singers and that
which has been challenged by the orches-
ira IL is unnecessary TO say that the
twenty-first festival has shown itself the
peer Of the best OF It's predecessors In all
essential things. and that the policy or
the festival association in enlisting the
aid OF the Cincinnati Orchestra and plac-
ing the baton Of authority in the hands or
DIR. Kunwald has been triumphantly yindi-
Gated There has been a great deal OF
sensa tionalism and lurid spectacularism In
the music which has been evoked from
the band and in the conductors manner
of evoking It, but sensationalism and
spectacularism belong to to-day and re-
fleet its spirit
DIR. Kunwald Is not the only conductor
who kills gnats with sledge hammer
and confounds eloquence and noise. We
have occasionally suffered in New YORK
from the fondness of conductors to make
all split whenever a composer gave them
an opportunity to turn Dose the serried
ranks OF brass and the thund ring
drum" and it is because of this perhaps
that visits 70 the metropolis or the Bos-
ton Orchestra and DR.. Muck are ike
benedictions TO US. HAPPY the period ~
din will end before we lose all apprecla-
ton OF euphony and before our eardrums
are utterly destroyed But so long as
things are as they are and what they are,
now and here, let ii be gladly proclaimed
that DR.. Kunwald's zeal and skill nave
produced splendid results with his orches-
ira. He has made II finely responsive, on
the whole a surprising fact, in view VI
his manner Of beating time.
The performance of strauss tone
poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra,' was
bewilderingly brilliant phantasmaSoria
for the ear on Thursday afternoon, while
the Schumann symphony, on the same
day, and the Mozart symphony in + fiat.
which. with the air Watt Her. Angels,
Through the Skies" from Handel's
"Jephtha," preceded Verdi's Requiem
tonight, were fine performances, in spite
Of a few eccentrlcities OF reading, such
as an echo effect in the repetition OF the
Mozart trio and the furious tempo which
destroyed the charm Of the last move
ment.
Financially the festival will be a sue
cess There will be profit for the asso-
citation 20 add to its surplus.