New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-29
Philharmonic
Society Closes
Its 18th Season
Ninety-eight Concerts Given
in Is Cities Since Last
November Leave Imprint,
of Toll ON the Artists
Two Composers Favored
Krehbiel Compares Present
Offerings With Those
Conducted 20 Years Ago

The Philharmonic Society OF New
York brought it's seventy-eighth season
10 close with u concert in Carnegie
Hall yesterday afternoon. The pro-
s-~m was composed of excerpts from
a. ner's dramas and the pathetic
S. ebony of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
n ,ic and much to the taste of the
audience which crowded the hall to
hear it. 1t is not necessary to say
how it was played beyond this; thxt if
The performance reflected Mr., Stran-
sky's conception Of what Wagner put
into the scores from which the drafts
were made it is deplorable that the
conductor has not enjoyed the educa-
ton which the representations of
Nibelung tetralogy and "Parsifal" at
The Metropolitan Opera House offered
New York's music lovers in the course
of the last thirty odd years.
Society Had Long Season
But we can easily imagine that this
may not have been the case and that
there would have been more clarity,
poetry, dramatic effect and euphony in
SHe IL tilC PidyCIo ndQ IO@
peen concluding period of labor. the
contemplation of which is little short
Of appalling, The society gave its first
concert of the season on November g.
Since then 146 days have sped, and
within that period the orchestra has
given ninety-eight concerts in twenty
i've cities.
Outside of the Boroughs of Man
haitian and Brooklyn, it has visited
Poughkeepsie, Albany apd Niagara
Falls, in New York State; Princeton, in
and Waterbury, Conn; Worcester,
Holyoke, Springfield, Boston, Northamp
ton and Pittsfeld. Mass; Wilkes Barre,
Reading and Erie, in Pennsylvania;
Washington, in the District OF Column
bia; Springfield, Youngstown and
Cleveland in Ohio. and Detroit and
Grand Rapids, in Michigan.
Consider the days spent in travel and
the time devoted to rehearsals in the
home city and try to reconcile the la
Dor done by Mr.. Stransky and his men
with the conception which we are ac
customed to associate with artistic
activity. Is there any wonder that so
many concerts have sounded as if pro-
duced by the dull labor of galley slaves,
patient of toll, perhaps, but with as lit
tie of the artists spirit as is possessed
Dv the TOuS tdDOulS union.
1t is 10 this complexion we have been
brought by the latter day developme nts.
and the unknowlng call it musical
progress" affecting, thinking or hop
ing TO see a measure OF popular appre
citation of the art in the number OF
concerts which can be forced down the
capacious nav of the community and
the amount of labor which can be ex-
tracted from the scrapers of strings
bn >f @vhHIaO nd
brass tubes at steadily mounting
weekly wage.
What is true OF the Philharmonic
Orchestra is true of the band of the
Symphony Society and next year will be
rue also of a third organization-th he
National Symphony Orchestra-which
by adding sixty concerts more to the
present "enough, with overmeasure"
will surely bring in the Golden Age of
music.
Two Composers Favored
The circumstance that the last meet
ing of the Philharmonic Society was
given over wholly to music by Wagner
and Tschaikoffsky invites to con-
Sideration of the character of the con-
certs which have been given this year.
Leaving the performances in Brook
Ign and other places and the
Saturday and Sunday concerts, which
have been purposely given what may
be called q popular tinge, we note
that in the Thursday evening and Fri
LAY afternoon subscription affairs
there have been nearly half as many
performances of works by these two
men as by all the other composers com
bined.
Wagnerian excerpts have been heard
twenty-five times and Tschaikoffsky
numbers twelve. Eight performances
were given to Beethoven symphonies.
three in number, and five TO four COM
postions by List. Brahms was given
a place between Beethoven, to whose
Legitimate artistic progeny he belongs,
and List, with whom he has nothing
in common. Schubert. who received
apostolic benediction directly from the
great master, stands side by side with
Bruckner, Hayden, Mozart, Rubenstein
and Henry Hadley in the number of
symphonic performances accorded to
him.
Schuman was wholly ignored as
symphonist and had repre- sentation
only twice by his pianoforte concerto.
In all, seventeen symphonies had
twenty-four performances at the Thurs
day and Friday concerts, and Tschai-
koffsky Jared as we'll as Beethoven in
this respect and better in the number
of compositions performed. These con-
eerts compared with the public re-
hearsals and concerts of twenty odd
years ago. and to enable the curious
to make study in taste between now
and then We have compiled table in
which the programs of the twenty
eight Thursday and Friday affairs of