Evening star., 1925-11-18
M u S | C.
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
ORCHESTRA.

A program of wonderful music beau
tifully played was presented to a large
audience that sat apparently spell
bound in the National Theater yester-
! day afternoon when Willem Mengel-
berg. the small but dynamic Dutch
conductor, led the New York Philhar-
monic Orchestra. In Washington, the
city of distinguished audiences, the
audience yesterday was the cream of
audiences musically, automatically
and socially. Rarely have the efforts
OF musical organization been more
thoroughly appreciated than those OF
MIR. Mengelberg's aggregation seemed
to be appreciated yesterday. The Cap
ital City has long since acknowledged
the excellence Of the performances Of
fered here by the Philadelphia sym
phony Orchestra. Now, once more
after several years, the New York
Philharmonic. the second oldest or
cheStra in the world, is coming into
its own with recognition of its stand
ing, no less certainly than that of the
Quaker City's orchestra, in the Ma
tional Capital
Mr.. Mengelberg is noted for the
| marvels of his Interpretation of both
Brahms and Richard Strauss. Brahms
himself has complimented Mr.. Mengel-
berg on his playing Of his symphonies.
Surely that great composer could not
have found q flaw in the playing of
all four beautiful movements of his
second symphony in d major. The
shading of every passage, the perfect
unison of violins in the subtle plan
nissimo bits and the fine work in
pizzicato by the cellos with limpid
notes from the horns all showed mas
terly direction and a background of
painstaking rehearsals. Mr.. Mengel-
berg used no notes for the symphony.
and his men all seemed absolutely
sure of their various parts. 1t was
also real achievement on the con-
ductor'S part that the audience for
once took his hint and did not shatter
| the musical spell woven by each move
ment with applause, but waited until
| the end of the symphony, when both
| Mr.. Mengelberg and his men were
given a real ovation.
! Although the Richard Strauss tone
| poem. Don JUAN" and the Weber
overture, Der Freischuetz." were
excellently interpreted, it was the
work OF an American composer,
Ernst Schelling, that was the feature
! OF the afternoon, aside from the
Brahms Symphony. The work was
Mr.. Schelling's fantasy, THE Victory
Ball." based upon Alfred Noyes' poem
| of like title, and carrying on similar
| ideas to those expressed in Mr.. Schell-
ing's Impressions From an Artists
| Life, heard here two years ago, pre-
sented by Mr.. Mengelberg and this
orchestra. with the composer at the
piano. The Victory Ball" was played
| here by Mr.. SouSa's band two years
ago, but its full beauty is only
achieved in the orchestral form, which
| is absolutely superb. 1t is an ex-
tremely programmatic work. with
, postwar theme. written in the mod
, ern style, with many unique dis
! sonances mingling with simple army
bugle calls and a Straussian type of
| dance music as the basic melodic mo-
! tives. The audience was so COM
pletely absorbed in the manner in
which this remarkable music was un-
| folded by the orchestra that not a
| head moved. 1t is one of the finest
| bits of music that Washington audi
ences have heard for years, and the
way in which the audience received
it was the most genuine tribute that
| Mr.. Mengelberg could ask. The only
regret was that Mr.. Schelling was
not present to see the reception of
| his work.
1t is indeed gratifying to know that
| the real music patrons OF Washing
ton have arranged for the New York
| Philharmonic Orchestra to give three
concerts here this year instead of
one. as in the two previous years.
| The others will be given on January
and March 9. Fl. F.