The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-11-30
LONDON ID BECOME
 BIG MUSIC CAPITAL
England's Claim to Suprem- acy No Longer Is Dis puted in Berlin and
 Vienna
By K. WALTER

By K. WALTER
 London, November 5.-tReclprocAl News Service. e.)-Musicians and music patrons assert that among the other plums of victory that have fallen into Brittannia's lap will be one big shih- ing fruit labelled Musical Capltal or Europe" Before the war great many Londoners thought this metropolis al ready was the musical capital Of Eu- rope, but still greater number knew that it wasn't. It is true that every thing good had in time to have the London hallmark--for one thing Lon con was a great clearing house TOT America, the only country where musi- clans make fortunes But there was much competition in Europe so much that no one city could fairly claim su- premacy. Paris, Berlin Munich, Vienna Milan, Petrograd, all had claims of individual character, and Londons qualification as the musical super-metropolis rested largely on the fact that, as in New York, it's musical life was essentially cosmo opolitan for lack of native music
 or musicians on its programmes. More
 than four years of patriotic orgies have
 remeded that condition and English
 music and musicians have come into their own. American composers have also taken a liberal share of the pro- gramme space formerly held by the Gcnnans.
 But I find In going about among
 Londoners that this native revival real iy interests them less than the pros- poets of having at command all the assembled excellencies of European composition and performance. Petro- grad has fallen and the once imperial ballet and symphony orchestra, and
 the group of brilliant modern compos-
 CTS who write for them, have made
 London their exile home like many other Russian refugees before them
 Berlin, Munich and Vienna cannot hope for some years to regain their prestige as centers of musical enterprise, nor will they be able to attract the thou sands of musical students who from all parts of thy world flocked to enjoy that enterprise and carry off their little individual share of that pres tige, although with German thorough ness and foresight efforts are already being made to attract them again. Mi Ian is not serious competitor except | in the music of her own artists. Paris remains, and Paris will run London close when the tourist movement be- gins, although at present suffering | from an after -the-season emptiness, l following the brilliant months of the | peace conference.
 | The musical boom in London is-well, ] audible. To begin with, there is at least one symphony concert every day | or the week. frequently two, and on Sundays several Of these the prome- | made series conducted by Sir Henry Wood are the most popular, Queens | Hall being filled regularly six times ! week. It took English people a long
 time to find that in order to enjoy | gcod music one didn't necessarily have l to be stiff and uncomfortable but when | they did find it out. they made these l Promenade concerts the most comforta
 ble and enjoyable thing of the kind. | to be had anywhere. You sit or stand l about and stroll around between Nthe
 pieces and drink drinks, both dry and | liquid. and eat light eats. and smoke | anywhere except in small section of seats reserved Tor abstainers. The l food and drink is served in a com fnodious lounge shut off by soundproof doors from the auditorium. thus agree l ably solving the sometimes disagree able problem of what to do when there f1s something on the programme that | makes you feel it will spoil everything else if you have to sit and listen to it. | This series started some weeks ago and will run until near the Christmas holi- 1 days. It is interesting to note that all the wickedness and hatred of the war have not altered traditional fea- | tuce of these Promenade concerts Mon- | | long will be. reserved for programmes
 exclusively devoted to Wagner. It is
 in the same series that American com | rosers have come to prominence-all because Sir Henry Wood was offered
 the Boston conductorahip, say the dis gruntled pro-Germans. Mcdowell as might be expected, is the leading Amer | ican favorte and not a week goes by 1 without some interesting performances
 of one of his great orchestral compo- | stions
 | It was these promenade concerts too, that Moisievitch was first discovered by now worshiping public. He has gathered together all the pianistic lau- reis that formerly graced half dozen heads and wears them triumphantly on his own, so much so that When Pade
 rewski was reported to have resigned 1 the Polish presidency. people asked if
 Moisievitch was leaving the concert ' field, He is. I understand, leaving ] London shortly--Rot to rule republic, although to capture, am sure, the
 musical republic of America. He is under an apparently passive exterior is
 an impassioned and powerful interpre- ter. It is impossible to get into one l of his concerts now without looking
 far ahead. He is one of those rare 1 people-rare at least among pianists- wfo exert the great popular appeal
 while still retaining all the excellen- cies of his art that endears him to the 1 few His appearances this season may | justly be called popular triumphs.
 But it usually takes a singer here, | as in America, to produce the popular | triumph which runs to tears and hats l in-air an dmorning headlines, and in 1 that metier who can excel Tetrazzjni- Her return to London after several
 years in-safety. with all her pearls
 of high notes still perfect on the string. was the first sensation of its kind that Londoners have indulged in for
 some time, for no matter how great may have been the welcome to Melba | at Covent Garden, or to others at IQueen's Hall, or elsewhere. nobody else for years has lifted the dome off the
 Albert Hall. and that is what you
 must do in London to claim a first rate
 musical sensation. The Albert Hall Is
 the big hall. the hall for that kind of
 thing. while Queens Hall. which seats about a auaNer as many. is still large enough for any strictly artistic suc-