New-York tribune., 1921-12-04
Orchestral Music
In TwOCOncerts Is
OF Pictorial Sort
Suggestion Made That Gin
ema Might Have Aided
Two Programs That We're
Given i'm Carnegie Hall
BY H. E. Krehbiel

The two orchestral concerts given
in Carnegie Hall yesterday were
largely occupied with pictorial music
not picturesque music, but music
the effect Of which might have been
intensified had it been accompanied by
the scenes which were in the minds
OF tho composers when it was written
Charsdes and action were suggested
by the three pieces by Liadoff in the
afternoon concert of the Boston Or
chestra, and also by the fragments
from Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe" !"
and spectacle at least by the finale
from "Die Walkure," which was one
OF the numbers of Mr.. Stransky's eve
ming program.
mime, is, Of course, excluded from our
notions Of what concert should be,
but we are not so certain that pictures
need be, now that the photo play is be-
coming an art-form worthy of serious
consideration. A suggestion Of this
kind was made in review of a con-
cert by the Boston orchestra when
some music by Stravinsky was played
season or two ago, but was not gen
orally accepted as having been offered
in earnest. Nevertheless it was, and
the wish that it might be tried as an
experiment, at least, came back to
ling to Liadoff's music.
The music was agreeable to the ear
and stimulating to the fancy as it was,
but it would have been much more SO
if the senses had been helped by pic
lures. The titles "Kikimora" and
"Baba-Yaga" were sufficiently illu.
ninative to persons familiar with the
folktales of Russia; but the Russian
Grimm and Anderson Is yet to come,
and meanwhile music like that of Lad
off, fascinating and suggestive as 1t is,
must yet remain enigmatic to the vast
majority Of our concertgoers.
So, in all seriousness, we say that we
wish we might have seen the old witch,
with her body thin as straw, her head
no bigger than thimble, listening to
tales to tell, spinning and reeling her
yarn and weaving wicked plots as we'll
as her silken dresses. We have heard her
before and also Baba- Yaga, who, If we
arc not mistaken, also flies through the
air in druggists mortar with pestle
as propeller and broom, causing con-
sternation among the stars and planets,
in one of RimskyKorsakoff's pieces;
but we should much like to see the
precious pair. Ought not Mr.. Eastman
to take this to heart?
There was also an enchanted lake in
Liadoff's music which must have ap-
peared as wonderfully charming
vision to the mind Of the composer. IN
manner it found a companion
picture in the slow movement of
Dvorak's symphony, "F'rom the New
World" with which Mr.. Stransky
opened the concert of the Philharmonic
Society-though the latter conjured up
the mood which we fancy might be
evoked by nocturnal picture of our
own Western prairies. There is a
suggestion of animated nature in both,
but quiet lovelincss lies on both with a
benediction.
Mr.. Monteux gave his audience also
Franck's D minor symphony and
Brahms's Tragic" overture, work
instinct with the spirit of Attic story,
and Mr.. Stransky after the symphony
stirred the pulses of his audience with
excerpts from "Lohengrin," "Die
Walkare," "Die Meistcrsinger" and
"Tannhauser"-music which refuses to
pay the customary toll to familiarity.