New-York tribune., 1920-01-05
record of $50 . Season Is
Far More Than Capitals
md Leading European
Musical Centers Hear
Dan,rosch in Stronghold
tsSokes Thunderous Crashes
Of Sound in pathetic
nphon at Aeolian Han
By H. E. Krehbiel

Dy 4. e. NYenDlcl
There were three orchestral concerts
h New York yesterday, and within the
next sf days there will be six more,
making line in all.
IN Be lin there are ten Philharmonic
ceacert in the season from October to
March, inclusive. and about half as
many icerts by the orchestra of the
0pera ouse. The Prussian capital
used ,e concert-ridden, and may be
still; fifteen symphonic concerts
were $ posed to suffice its music low
ers. re were other affairs in which
orches $ took part, but they were
usual 4 the kind. plentiful enough
IN Ne ok also, at which half-fiedeed
arts esirous to achieve metropoli-
tan :, hired halls and orchestras.
and times complacent critics. and
had their fling. >'
In vienna, the erstwhile home of
Haydn. Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.
the last IN apostolic succession, eight
philharmonic concerts by the orche estra
Of the Royal Imperial Court Opera:
three OF four by the Society of the
FRIENDS OF Music. in which choral music
was dominant, and two concerts for the
fund maintained for the benefit of mu-
s,clans WIDOWS have heretofore been
snougnt sufficient to satisfy the popu-
lar hunger for music in the large
forms
y Concerts in Leipsic
The famous Gewandhaus concerts in
leipsic number Twenty-Five in season.
Mciuolng one for the pension fund of
tne orchestra and one for the city's
poor. and they include choral music
We are not talking by the card, but
chiefly from memory records, and there
may be errors in our figures, but we
oeiieve that they are substantially cor
rect Budapest. the capital of Hun
gary. is privileged to hear ten Philhar
monic concerts annually; Prague hears
tour Philharmonic concerts by the or
chestra OF the National Czech Theater.
ana the same number by the orchestra
Of the National German Theater, be-
sides twenty popular afternoon con
eerts; the Gurzenich concerts in Co.
iogne number twelve each season; the
oourt Orchestra concerts in Dresden
Twelve. The aristocratics concerts Of
the Conservatory Orchestra in Paris
are few in number, but there are many
concerts of the popular order The or
ehestral concerts in London vary in
number and character frequently, and
We do not know how many the vast
population is expected to support at
the present time. 1t is not necessary
20 be scrupulously exact in any case in
order to realize the fact that record
OF three symphonic concerts in one
day, nine in one week and at least $50
IN a season of five months gives New
York an extraordinary position in
musical annals.
Record Not So Meritorious
Is the record as meritorious as it is
Extraordinary? We should hesitate to
say SO. Perhaps when he is allowed
line for reflection some chronicler of
the musical doings of the present
metropolitan season may undertake the
task of trying to fix the relation be-
musical culture. Just now it is enough
10 call attention to the fact that
despite the large attendance on the
concerts we are contemplating they are
all dependent upon the patronage of a
few persons of large wealth and gem
erous public spirited impulses. We
add, regretfully, that observations
made at one of them yesterday con-
hrmed the conviction reached long ago
that popular taste and understanding
are diminishing as the concerts in
crease in number. The most enthusi-
astic applause at the concert of the
Symphony Society in Aeolian Hall fol-
lowed the performance of the march
movement of Tschaikowsky's oPathetic''
symphony, in which Mr.. Walter Dam
rosch evoked such thunderous crashes
OF sound as we might have expected to
: near had We been standing on Battery
wall listening to a bombardment Of
Castle Williams by feet of dread
/, noughts.
In Strenuous Mood
The effect could scarcely have been
greater had there been an explosion
of ship of the line. Mr.. Damrosch
seemed to be in one Of his strenuous
moods, for even in the last movement,
with its proclamation Of hopeless de-
spair and dissolution, he made US think
Of murder rather than death. 1t is a
pessimistic preachment which this
symphony makes at best, and it is a
pity that Mr.. Damrosch refused TO per-
nit even an errant CLEAN Of light to
illumine it's sometime gracious Sec
ond movement and laid iacerating
stress upon the already too poignant