New-York tribune., 1921-11-01
Strauss Given
Welcome Here
Only as Artist
Big Audience lis Cordial to
Composer, but Except for
One Floral Piece. Greet
ing Lacks National Tinge
New Power as Conductor
invests His Don juan With
Delicate LONELINESS, but
Brings No Fresh Message
By H. E. krehbicl

we thought that there could be little
purpose in going to the concert in
Carnegie Hall last night beyond the
qualification of curiosity to look upon
great composer in the flesh. Mr.
Strauss speedily put that notion out
Of our noddle. Two of the compost
tons which he played have been made
as familiar as household tales to the
local patrons Of symphony concerts.
They We're Don Juan" on of the most
admirable creations, and "Till Eulen-
spiegel," which has long seemed to us
the finest thing which he has COM
posed, the most spontaneous and the
most ingenious, the most exquisite in
humor, the clearest in line, the richest
in color, the most poetical in feeling,
the most ingenious in pathos. It's fun
has often seemed to us boisterous, a
forerunner of the vuigarity which
marks some of the scenes of "Der
Rosenkavalier" but we know now that
that impression was created by the
manner in which, as rule, it has been
played.
Under the continual, careful, uncon-
strained, unaffected direction of it's
composer it became a thing Of ir-
descent lovelness, full of delicate
wtchcries, pellucid as the waters of
2 mountain brook, sparkling as
mountain cascade. Toscanin once
presented it with much of the same
clarity and beauty Of detail, but he
did not have the co-ope tion of svr-
tuoso orchestra such as the PhiIadel-
phia band became under the inspiriting
guidance OF the composer. 1t marked
high tide in the evenings enjoyable
The Don Juan" was brilliantly per-
formed, and so was the 'Sinfonia do
mestica." which brought the concert
to close; but the performances
brought no new preachment, no reve-
lation of things hitherto concealed.
They revealed, outside Of their music,
only the fine, strong power of Mr..
Strauss as conductor. We had been
taught something of his puissance as
an interpreter when he was here
His attitude toward his own compo-
sltlons then seemed to us one of in
difference. Almost we were persuaded
that he thought contemptuously Of his
hearers, considered them unsuscep-
tible to artistic Impressions and merely
commercially minded, like himself.
He assumed a different postare last
night, as we'll he might, for he was
honored by the presence of an extraoS-
dinary audience; one so numerous that
1t could not have been Accommodated
within the walls of Carnegie Hall had
not the fire laws been impudently
violated; an audience Of cultured
nusic-lovers largely composed of prac-
titioners of the art, dilettante and pro-
fessional. It's taste and it's knowledge
were evident from it's raps attention,
its discriminating silences and discrim-
mating expressions of approval. There
was no rude boisterousness in It's
greeting such as rasped the nerves of
the decorous in the same room on Sun
day evening, but it was cordial in the
extreme, glowing and irresistible as a
stream of lava hot from volcanic
crater, yet it proclaimed only honor
for the artistLnot political or ma
tfonal tone could be heard in it unless
one chose to perceive a dissonance in
the circumstance that one. of the two
magnificent floral offerings laid at his
feet was decorated with what may have
been German colors and was certainly
not American.
For some reflections prompted by the
music there is no time for present pub
lication. There will be ample oppor-
tunity hereafter.