Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-08
ORCHESTRA GIVES
CONSOLATION FOR
MARRIED PLEASURES
The Strange Case of Marcella Craft
and the Stranger Activities of
Conductor and Orchestra

The concert of the Philadelphia orches-
ira yesterday afternoon, last but two in
the series of the year, was one of strange
dlssatisfactions and compensations even
more remarkable. The arrangement and
the composition of II, the correspondence
between the assisting artist, Miss Marcella
Craft, and the Orchestra were all inter-
esting. There was a great symphony.
Beethoven's Fifth and there was much
Strauss, and the concert was far from
great.
One could call the long.standing case
of Leopold Stokowslti. the Philadelphia
Orchestra ct al. VS.. Ludwig van Beethoven,
with the Eternal Spirit of Music as presi-
dent judge and the Spirit of Irony as
prosecutor and defender both The par
ticularly pressing point for discussion Is
whether we have all been wrong Would
II be right then to say that Mr.. Stokowskt
yesterday afternoon conducted rather
interesting symphony, with n very wild
and almost meaningless first movement,
an unimpressve finale and only very
beautiful andante con moto to redeem it7
or are we right in our estimate that
Beethoven, in his Fifth Symphony, pro-
duced work of the utmost clarity and
beauty, profound in conception, magnih-
cent in structure full of the richest and
deepest feeling and thought of humans
kind? II we are right something was
wrong yesterday-has been wrong for
some time. If we are right, and X
Beethoven was right, then yesterdays was
a performance undistingushed in concep-
tion, faulty In execution, redeemed only
by the brillance of the movement mem
toned above, the ineffable andante, popu'
lar and imperishable.
How was It, then, that Mr.. StolSowsh
conducted and his men played the Strauss
tone-poem, Death and Transiguratlon"
with such elan and such precision, with
SO much of the desirable understanding
and the shading of voice? The concert.
which began with Mozart's overture to
"The Magic Flute" always played well
by Mr. Stokowsld, rose actually to its
climax at the end, with Strauss. 1t was
to be expected that intensity should come
then, but beauty might at least have
lifted it's pale, wonderful head before. To
say that the temper of orchestra and
conductor falls in more with Strauss than
with Beethoven, is at best n makeshift
for an explanation. But it is as far as
we can go.
Strauss was by way of compensation for
the sense of dissatisfaction which came
over Miss Crafts auditors, some of them
at least, after her first aria, the "Pleta
Signore" of Alessandro Stradella.
We have seldom heard a voice which
gave such unity of impression-a rather
nice way of suggesting that it gave an
effect of appalling monotony. Miss Crafts
lower register is weak thing and she
uses II little. Her chest tones are not opu-
lent and they are almost unheard. But
she has learned to use the high voice, from
the throat with truly remarkable flexi-
bility and power. That was apparent
more in the final scene from Salome'
than in the "Pieta !" That scene taxes the
voices of artists of far greater range and
n
sang 1t wonderfully well, within her
limitations. She was, moreover lacking
no particle of dramatic sense and intui-
tion, with the proper restraint of the con-
cert stage. Strauss helped her, but she -
helped herself, too, and the total effect
was surprisingly pleasing.
AS for the tumultuous and terrible music
of that last scene, nothing can be said
except that 1t justfles the final line--the
brief command to kill G. V. s.