New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-01
Gloomy Music from the
Soul of a Melan-
ChOIiaC.
MANFRED" MUSIC
AND ITS COMPOSER
Phenomenal Performance Of a
PianOforte Concerto by
Mr.. Granger.
BY Fl. +. KREHBIEL.


The second Sunday afternoon concert
Of the Symphony Society at Aeolian
Hall yesterday was concerned wholly
with compositions by Tschaikowsky.
They were the Manfred" symphony, the
Andante Cantabile from the string
quartet, Op. II, and the Pianoforte Con-
certo in B-Aa( minor, the solo part OF
which was played by Percy Granger.
/ Not long ago Mr.. Damrosch devoted an
entire series Of concerts to the Russian
composer. Would such an experiment
be received with enthusiasm now? We
doubt it, And yet Tschaikowsky is
still the most popular composer that
Russia has produced. II there is some
thing paradoxical in this, it is ex-
planned by the fact that our orchestral
conductors have surfeted the public
with the Pathetic" symphony. For
years it was a veritable obsession. Then
the question began to be mooted
whether the symphony in Z minor was
not a more enduring work, and now
there are evidences that the + minor
/ is crowding both Of its successors out
Of the field. That it should do so is
natural, right and proper, for it is the
soundest. sanest and most characteristic
cally national of the three symphonies
which have held their place in the
repertory of symphonic organizations
Man fred" has been known in Ne& York
for twenty-nine years and been played
/ by nearly all Of our local and visiting
orchestras; but it has never won the
popular heart. Yet it is almost as
photographed in spirit as the PA
thetic" symphony, whose title receives
its greatest justification from the story
of its composition and first perform
ance. There was something in the
nature of the man Tschaikowsky which
liEened him to Byrons hero. Those
who knew him recognized in him a
strong man, but one profoundly melan-
choly and a victim OF self-torture; one
who lived in a solitude created by him
self. which TO him was soli-
tude "pcopled with the furies." He
seemed always to be struggling
against crushing weight of spir.
itual and mental gloom which nc
Charm in prayer-nor purifying form
o' pentence-nor outward look-n0r fast.
Nor asony-nor greater than all these.
The innate tortures y that deep desp,:-
Which s. rcmore without the fear u he'll
an all sufficient Itself.
Would make he'll u heaven.
could exercise. In trying TO depict
Manfred he put much of himself into
his earlier work, though he could not
descend into the dark pit of pessimism
as he did in the Pathetic" for the
simple reason that the poet, who was
the Virgil to his Dante, would not LEI
him. After all. there is a ray of com
forting hope in the last words OF
Byron's hero: "Old man. It's not SO
difficult to die" The hero of the h
minor symphony sinks into the depths
Of darkness and despair with shud-
der which the listeners to the music
feel with him.
When Mr.. Damrosch gave his Tschai-
kowsky cycle, We believe, he announced
the "Manfred" symphony tentatively
but did not perform IT, Perhaps he was
not in sympathy with il then; he may
not be now. but if so, the fact was not
betrayed by his performance yesterday,
which was full of warm dramatic blood
and as charged with the spirit of the
poem as il could well be. considering
its verbosity. defect that Tschai-
kowsky himself recognized and de-
plored, and the chasm which must al
ways exist between formal musical
composition and its literary inspiration
when the inspiring work is at once as
interpretive and as externally varied
and magnificently picturesque as
Byron's poem. Mr.. Damrosch omitted
the first section of the fourth move
ment, which aims TO depict baccha-
nalian orgy in the palace Of Arimanes,
and explained in note on the pro-
CRANE that he did so because the move
ment was no gamer by the section and
Byrons poem contained no reference
: TO such a scene. He would better have
/ said that the excessive length OF the
work justified its curtailment. and that
/ the orgy is the weakest part of the
music and could best be spared. There
/ il no justification in Byron's poem for
3 the pastoral merriment either, but its
serene beauty up 10 the agonizing in
terruptIon near the close makes its in
| PRODUCTION an excellent and most well
come device. The two middle move
: ments. which have the least connection
with the tragedy, are in fact the most
convincing and gratifying music in the
work, though they are both program
matte.
The exquisite setting which Tschai-
kowsky gave to folksong in the slow
movement of the quartet made that
piece seem like refreshing breeze in
the heated psychological and artistic
atmosphere of the afternoons music.
1t was welcome intermezzo. Man
fred's fierce thirst of death" had been
slaked and the organ canticle had
brought measure of rest, but until
the serene song of the strings had been
sung the air was still hot with blasts
from the subterranean home of Arr
names. No sooner did Mr.. Granger be-
gin the concerto than the sparks began
to fy like the coruscating cascade from
a furnace when the gateway is opened
TO the molten metal. So impetuous
and irresistible a performance we can
not recall II was like a cavalry charge
over hard earth through dazzling sun
light II excited a special wonder that
the pianoforte could stand the assault
ne tone WAS naru, CLASSY ana brittle,
but the spirit in which the player had
conceived the work required a tone Of
just that quality, and il remained
throughout, full bodied, musical. SPLEEN
didly sonorous. With the conception
there can be no quarrel; for the man
ner in which Mr.. Granger bodied it
forth there must be an expression of
profound admiration. There is nothing
he ole, nothing chivalresque. nothing
lofty in the themes of this concerto.
The principal melody Of the first move
ment, accompanied in its entrance by
the solo instrument as with Changing
cvmhals seems 10 us nnnGalitiedlY trIY-