Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-24
ALL-WAGNER PROGRAM
The Orchestra Heard in Excerpts From
Music-Dramas of That
Composer

There is a stock phrase OF theatrical
criticism in which plays are described as
leaving nothing to be desired" Usually the
misuse of hyperbole brings its own penalty
with it, but the concert yesterday by the
Philadelphia Orchestra lis entitled to some
such designation. Wagner programs are
frequent and popular in this city, as in
others, and the unconscious tendency Is to
treat them as reCurrent and unimpor-
tant flow of soul, minus the feast of rea-
son.
The Orchestra disabused the untdy think
er OF any such notion. Yesterdays con-
cert was not without its little technical
errors. 1t wasn't always quite perfection
in It's contrast of numbers But as an
elucidaton of Wagner, as torch In the
gulf of that composers strange Individual
ity, II was superb.
The men seemed at times, a little weary
and not always was the tempo kept with
metronomic accuracy. Mr.. Stokowsii, usually
erring Of it is an error) on the side of the
emotional fux. rather than that of the
precise notation, gave performance that
was all the same full of inspiration. But
he has, too, in reading Wagner that ca
pacity for infinite pains that illuminates and
makes precious even the usual things" So
his work is never slipshod, nor does the
meaning of what he plays vanish In a froth
of nervous excitement. 1t is spenddly vi
tal but it is also polished and rounded
One hears a great deal about program
music these days. and its deleterious effects
on the structure of concert programs. The
distinction between the program music of
Richard Wagner and, for instance, Richard
Strauss (as in the Sinfonla Domestica) IL
the difference between an opal and a dia.
mond. The first is picturesque, and mirrors
fire and grandeur of color and a score of
shifting. burning thoughts. The latter NAV
be picturesque, but it exists for its own
sake alone. 1t has no body, no reason for
contemplation.
The correspondence in the wagnerian
music between the beauty of the thing itself
and what the thing stands for is brilliantly
brought out by Mr.. Stokowski. From the
sweet throats of the violins Especially
lovely yesterday the reeds, the brasses
| he conjures up landscapes and seascapes
throngs Of men and women. vivid flashes
of incident and crisis. But all these con-
jurations are interesting and thrilling quite
| aside from their outer pictorial qualities
They are informed by deep and Searching
spirit-the spirit that abides In all lands
and people-and the spirit OF divininr
melody that lifts the wells from the hun,an n
heart, and renders TO every searcher for
the CLEAN" a common tongue and a com.
mon impulse. II this be program music
It Is the music OF an eternal program
Phlladelphians have heard the Venns
| music from "Tannhaeuser" SO often ,h,s
| season that they might complain of lie
repetition were II not played by the locs,
orchestra as 1t Is. To shake the sensss
with the sort of ecstatic madness M
stokowski educes from II is no petty ac.
compiishment. When to such demon won
ders he adds the celestial power ~ ~.
knightly "Lohengrin" prelude, realized wi,h
poetic infection of ma jesty and deIicac,
there V sstie to be said. Adjectiyes a -.
so cheap. die Meistersinger." .nsr
Flisgsnee Hollaends-," Tristan una Iso,a.a
ana the siesfried ldyl were also drawn
on for me progrAm u was not u1con.
ssnssece. ~ '.2, efeEn up y graadsnr