Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-29
SATURDAY
April 20, 1916
STRAUSS CIRCUS
BREEZES AHEAD
OF OLD B AND B
Philadelphia Orchestra Ends Season
With Most Amusing Production
of the alpine Symphony"

II didn't on the face of II, seem quite
cricket for the Philadelphia Orchestra to
pile on novelty" for the last program
of the season. A last program with a
hrst-tlme-in-America is matter for resent
ment. But your correspondent somewhere
in the Academy is able on high authority
TO state that it's quite all right. The
"Alpne Symphony" Of Richard Strauss
may split few eardrums but no heads
will be broken over II. II is immense,
the grandest circus piece in many moons.
Herr Doctor Strauss's own representa-
tive in this country sat in a box and said
this was the first performances in America.
Palpltant hearts, eager for some new
thing, which were sadly beaten down by
the telegraphed announcement that the
symphony was done Thursday in Cincin-
| natl may beat rapturously again That
was a rehearsal, incomplete, not at all the
thing Yesterday afternoon was Il
But was it7 The program opened with
a requested repetition of '7Tod und Ver-
klaerung." Familiar stuff, but II you
wanted to feel that way about Il. you
could have asked why the program went
on For the exciting process of showing
up the new Strauss the piece played first
was fair, but several others might have
been pressed into service II the ALSO
Sprach zarathustra' had been given the
process would have been scaadalous
success.
In all honesty this symphony of the
Alps Is Strauss alone at Last" The
stock words are all applicable enough II
Is atmospheric, evocative, picturesque and.
as the quaint, telegraphed report of the
Cincinnati per- that is, rehearsal had
IL, high and forceful." But chief interest
to the audience yesterday was in spotting
the parts of the symphony which corre-
sponded to the 20 and 1 distinct notations
In the score 1t is sometimes a puzzle to
determine whether this bassoon means
Might" or Lost in the Forest"
One felt a deal of annoyance at Strauss.
He is still, In this supposedly simpli1ed
symphony, the greatest orchestral master
OF our time-perhaps. of all music to date.
His feeling for instrumental color Is un-
canny; his bold handling, mingling and
separation of that color is simply genius.
But what is the Strauss of Electra" and
'Salome," what is the Strauss of Don
Quixote" and "Zarathustra" and "Iel-
denleben" doing with comic opera Bae-
deker to the Jungfrau? I grant you that
never Baedeker was so aptly written,
never was the fitting phrase so fitly spoken
nor the crags and peaks so weI outlined
In the illustrations But by the soul of
German music, why should he have chosen
to do It? A tribute to few happy hours
spent in the foothills of the Matterhorn?
Why publish? Why all this pother about
q Nei interesting SeCoHu-rdte WORK Oh tne
worlds only first-rate genius in orches-
tral composition?
This Is the last concert of the season,
as noted before. Tonight the audience
ought to be very large and a good time
will be had by ALL But 1t is sincerely
to be hoped that no one will do any
serious thinkip, about the mammoth SYM
phony. Undou. Sndly no man living could
have done II better. There are a few
composers living who wouldn't have cared
to try And, finally, let no one be upset
because to make place for this the fifth
Tschaii<bwsky was dropped. The fifth
Tschaikowsky will live. G. " S.