The Washington times., 1921-07-21
STANLEY OLMSTED.

touched the winged imagination of i
pensman.
And now Stanley olmsted is re-
turning to his mountain retreat With
new pen-worlds to catch and to re-
veal. Far from the sophistication of
Broadway that brought out one Of
his recent literary successes, The
i'osturer," a novelette, published In
The Smart Set OF January last, this
musician litterateur is finding a new
'libretto" for his writings az differ
Cnt In caliber from his earlier works
OF book and magazine and newspa.
per as his playing Of the elegant
but highly theatric "Pierrot" Of
Schutt' is from the rugged primal
force OF his unusual imagery in Nc.
Dowells mighty tone study, In
Deep Woods"
A Literary Concert.
simile-perhaps II was an in
stinctive selection Of contrasts in his
literary 'modes"-was emphasized by
Mr.. Olmsted's playing.
''Pierrot" and The Posturer." I'm
Deep Woods" and the Mountain"
tales that are made or In the MAX
ing. bear analogy to each ether.
The former was exquisite in type,
picture of a theater "Pierrot" set
against a Maxfield Parrish garden
and all in his grease-paint and frills
OF a pantomime or a ballet sketch
Individually a character sketch in
tone.
THE Posturer"-he might have
made it plural in his novelette, OF the
false lights in life evoked out of the
artifice of New York-gives a por-
trait Of an actor who cons his little
Part and plays his role in life as we'll
as in drama. 1t Is the stuff out OF
which Missionaries are apt to live,
especially Missionaries who become dill
ettantes.
] His world is environed with the
women such men attract.
"I was never beaTtitul-always
small, dark. Oh, believe me, I've
wept bitter tears over me-" says one
Of the "posturers."
The Oriental type gets by de-
INJURED Willie, calamity.
/ Mere tricks! His hostess snapped
her fingers. L had to learn how TO
distribute my parts"
/ From that world TO Snow Bird
Mountain-3,500 feet above New
York's sea level-puts ozone into an
over-esthetic atmosphere. though
willie" discloses a touch of man
hood and heart and might e-beens
In a finale as lightly touched and yet
as compensatory as the quiet bigness
Of the simple theme that closes I'm
/ Deep Woods"
The Interpreter As Seer"
! The recital had begun with the
wholesome delineation of the Bach
"Chromatic Fantasy" treated, how.
ever, like an Improvisation. When
artists put romance into Bach, with
feeling in his speech. there is a sense
of the seer" in the player.
I The singing notes of Grieg's "PapiI.
Ions fluttering over watery tones,
the haste and elusive lightness of
MacDowell's Motto perpetuo," gave
place to charmingly pianistic MEL.
odie,' by Gabrilowitsch, in which this
great artist seemed to revel in toying
with a theme that wandered willy.
nilly over his keyboard, growing broad
and sometimes melancholy in the Ian
guage of the piano.
What is program music? "Etin-
celles" of Moszkowski was crisp,
soft, gay. While at the opposite
pole OF tone-painting was Debussy's
Gold Fish" all smudged. Here the
touch Of the player was rarely soft
ened, with that sympathy of the
real musician for close harmonies, or
for dissonances that are so sensi-
lively modulated that, like the fairy
tale, they all come out right!
Literature by way OF the piano
forte Is all a matter OF perception,
with the power to hold the image
| fixed. 1t is strange that Debussy
could give anything so intangible as
his darling "Poissons dor" through
such a concrete medium as a piano
key board.
Through this imaginative world OF
music Interpretation, IL is doubly in
teresting to watch the successful
evolution OF an artist whose word
painting has as broad a latitude rs