New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-29
Half a Score of Concerts
in a Day Approach
City's Record.
DELIUS AND HIS
ORCHESTRAL MOODS
European Pianoforte Players
Find New YOrk'S Chinese
Wall" Fallen.
BY II. Z. KREHBIEL.

York were accustomed 20 have critical
dissertations on the musical doings of
each day served up 10 them in the
German style by solemn-faced review
ers whose names were made 70 loom
large with PROFESSIONAL and doctorial
titles and who were burdened with the
conviction that their entrances and
exits from the concert rooms were
momentous and essential parts Of the
record we should expect this morn
ing's journals to be largely filed with
accounts Of journeyings from hall TO
hall. Occasionally there would be a
comment on a fraction OF perform
ance, occasionally an expression Of re-
greet that the slipping Of tramway
coz had interfered with the hearing
of q symphonic movement and possibly
some supremely conscientious egotist
might confess that concern about his
bodily comfort had prevented him
from going to a concert at all. We
nave IeCOLieCtlOu VI pVi'Ao'
cism which told in detail Of half a
concert lost because the critic did not
know that it was raining when he
started from home and had to return
for his galoshes, wherefore he could
not give an account Of how the early
music went. The loss to history was
irreparabie, Of course.
Critical discussion in detail OF yes
terday's concerts would nave enllsIeu
the services OF nalf a dozen reviewers.
simultaneously orchestral music Of the
highest order was performing al
AeOiian Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Madl-
son Square Garden in the afternoon
and one of the many refugees from
Europe was giving recital OF piano
forte music in one of the theatres. IN
the evening an orchestra, quite the
equal of the other bands, gave con
cert of magnitude, aided by singers
from the opera and a pianist OF high
renown in the Metropolitan Opera
House, the devotees of Victor Her
bert's light-waisted muse were enter
tanned by a theatrical orchestra in the
Cort Theatre, and Sousa's Band, which
is amply described and qualified by It's
name, gave popular concert, with dis
tinguished assistance, in the hippo
drome. The Educational Alliance sought
TO spread knowledge OF Russian cham-
Der music among the art-hungry masses
Of the East Side in Intervening, Samuel
A. Baldwin played organ music Tor
hundreds in the fine hall of the College
of the City of New York in the after
noon, and the choir of the Cathedral
< T-E az "
service at which one of the greatest OF
choral masterpieces was sung
Brahms's oratorio called "A German
Requiem"
A day full Of incidents, truly, but not
all of them needful of comment Music
lovers curious 70 hear new things had
TO 20 TO the concert Of the Symphony
Society at Aeolian Hall in the after
noon. There, after a most refreshing
artistic atmosphere had been created
By a capital performance Of Haydn
Surprise" symphony and Miss Culp
had burdened and enriched it with her
voice, two pieces by Delius were
brought forward for the delectation OF
those who have cultivated taste Tor
the strange eruptions in which diseased
art as well as nature oftentimes breaks
forth. They were set down on the pro
gramme as mood pictures, the tlrst de-
lineation of Summer Night on the
River" the second Of the emotions felt
by the composer "On Hearing the First
Cuckoo in Spring" A gracious an
notator added geographical data to in
formation provided by the titles. The
river was the LONG, on the banks OF
which the Teuton-Anglican composer
used to live when in France; the cuckoo
sang for him in Jotunheim, Norway,
which we are in the habit of associat-
ing with the giants of Morse mythology
rather than with cuckoos. We are not
sure that anybody ever heard the
cuckoo as far north as Jotunheim IN
the spring, but that doesn't matter.
The ingenious Mr.. Delus found the
simple motif of the gowk's song in a
Norwegian folksong and exercised a
poets privilege in assOciating the bird
with the song, the song with his emo
tons and his emotions with his pencil
ant for novel harmonies and instru-
mental colors. And so he gave us a
bit of music which Is frequently Of
ravishinc charm. II seemed peculiarly
uleasant, coming Immediately after the
delineation of the LONG River, which
we fancy must be sluggish sort OF
stream, rather quagmiry and without
anv particular current in any direction.
Since il makes no melodic progress,
we fancy il flows backward. And the
Jassoons say that there are frogs in
il. Possibly; we are quite as willing
to accept the frogs as the river and
the summer night. The cukoo piece
is a very different matter. Here the
folk musician put pretty egg in the
composers nest, and out OF 1t there
came pretty bird-call it cukoo or
"a wandering voice." which pursued a
pleasantly vagrant flight through keys
and tonalities. We shall be glad to
hear its song again.
Miss Culp sang most delightfully."-
Schubert's "Sei mir gegrusst' with
orchestral Accompaniment, then an
arioso by Handel (also with orchestral ,
and after the Delius numbers a group
of songs by Brahms. Her second num-
Der brought look Of mystitication into
the faces Of the cognoscenti. The pro-
gramme gave no hint as TO its source,
nor did the text, which was in German
and was a prayer of Thanksgiving for
Israeps passage of the Red Sea. As a
matter of fact. we believe il is tran
scription made by Siegfried Ochs. the
Berlin conductor, Of an instrumental
movement from one of the composers
many early Italian cantatas. IL is most
obviously fashioned after the Largo
which, i'm Hellmesberger's arrangement
for instruments, went around the world
for years before singers found they
had ii ready to hand for their uses in
the opera "Xerxes." Whatever its
origin. however, Miss Culp has in it an
extremely effective concert piece.
A few years ago one Of the foremost
Of living panoforte virtuosi sent n
1o.tor "a this writer complaining that