New-York tribune., 1920-11-21
The Critic of the Present
And Composer of the Future
Some acts About Recent Concert; Also Some Prin.
cples of Artistic Judgments; Critical Cant
About New and Old Things i'm Music

! the latter. Each school. whether of
music or painting, has its message to
/ Ceilver, and now and then, as in the
case of Cyril Scott, something very
interesting and important t. say, and
II Is we'll for musical progress that
mere are conductors like Mr. Stokow-
SKI and others who consider that the
rublic should know what is going on in
the musical world outside
SHOULD Mr.. Scott have read Mr.. Kreh-
bleFs fulminations against his music
he may be able TO derive some consola-
tion from the fact that the Brahms L
minor Symphony, for which your critic
has such very justihab admiration.
was greeted with a torn of abuse on
the occasion Of is first production in
Leipsic in 1886. The critics protested
a. 1t as wholly uninteligi gible; and when
Reinecke repeated it at tine beginning
OF the following season Il. audience
trooped out after the third movement
and left the finale to be played to empty
benches. Some of last Tue sday's audi
Ell ce left Carnegie Hall after the lat
movement OF the Brahms symphony
and before the commencement Of Mr.
Scots concerto, which would tend to
indicate either that they had been
thoroughly bored by Brahms or we're
determined that they would not be
'ored by Cyril Scott. There are entv
u people who go 20 hear new com
position with their minds made up to
is.lHe and condemn il, and some Of
hose who stayed on to hear Mr. Scots
composition we're Of that class"
This letter was sent by Mr.. T..
Jerome Hart, VINO has written on
musical subjects for newspapers in
London and New York, and is now
(this is not intended for his disparage-
ment or TO intimate that he has no
right to an expression of opinion) a
press agent, though not, so far as we
| know, for Mr.. Scott, who has resorted
to no Fictitious means to place himself
before the American public.
There are few facts to be disposed
Of before making the only point OIL
which we are disposed to bestow any
words. 1t is possiblc--we do not say it
is true-that Brahms's sy1,phony was
received in Leipsic in the manner de-
scribed by Mr.. Hart. Our impression,
however, based on q long and pretty
accurate memory Of the advent Of
every o"e OF Brahms's symphonies, Is
that the etatement that the audience
trooped out after the third movement
and left the finale TO be played to
empty benches, is, az Mark Twain said
Of the report of his death, "grcatly cx-
aggerated." The music lovers Of Ger
many and Austria then were divided
into cliques that were wildly opposed
/ To each other and the composers they
affected, but no audience that ever
z; thered in the Lcipsic Gcwandhaus
would have deserted the hall after a
Hrahms symphony any more than il
would have done so after q symphony
by Bruc&ncr.
Mr. Hart is indulging here in a loose
statement, as he Is, though guardedly
about the conduct Of the audience in
Carnegie Hall p, the last concert Of the
Philharmonic Orchestra. Having OBJ
served the audience as closely az Mr.
Hart can have done, for the very pur-
pose, indeed, Of studying the effect OF
the music upon IL, we venture TO say
that nothing took place to justify the
assumption that there was q noticeable
number Of persons who left the hal
because Brahms had bored them or be
causc they feared that they would bt
bored by Cyril Scott. There were, how
ever, considerable number who
walked out Of the room after the firs'
movement Of the pianoforte concerto
Il large number after the conclusion oi
that work. and stiil larger numbei
after the performance Of the frs o'
Mr.. ScottH pasaacaglias. We mere
state ne fact and make no deduction'
from . ~ liz not for us 70 assume 4
he able to set forth the operations oil
the minds OF persohs Who either enter
or 70 out of concert rooms But W.
cannot conceive of one lover Of music
much lcss "plcnty" such. sta ing t'
hear new composition with thet
minds made up 70 "dial,kc md cohdcmr
It." The people of New fork have hac
no occasion to dcvslop such = psra-