Evening star., 1927-04-17

seven days of Easter week will more
than provide compensation. 1t i,
quite probable that there has nevel
IN the entire musical history of the
Capital City been a week so full oi
musical events, amounting in guam
tlty and quality to festival proper
tions.
Also the nature of this musical
week is unusual III that it combines
the most theatrical and snowy OF
musical entertainments with that
most subtle and aristocratiC. The
week opens tomorrow with the first
OF a series of seven programs by the
London String Quartet. to be pre-
Sented in the Elizabeth Sprague
Coolidge Auditorium, at the Library
OF Congress All 10 string quartets
written by Ludwig van Beethoven
and the famous Grand Fugue' will
be performed.
Tomorrow night Stuart Ross, pian-
ist. has the temerity to present a
recital of piano music in a week al
ready filled to overhowmg. Not but
what Mr.. Ross recital may be cN-
ceptionally interesting, but simply
that it offers another example of
the extreme lack of cooperation
among our local managers, private
and public, that such an indigestible
feast as the coming week offers
should be set before an intelligent
music-loying public. 1t is almost an
insult TO our capacity. And then the
end of the week the Metropolitan
Opera Co. offers four operas in two
days! Not to mention the Harvard
Glee Club
II this were New York, with its
multitudinous audience for musical
events, the coming week would be
quite appropriately filled In New
York there IS an average of a dozen
concerts day and an opera once or
twice daily. But New York has a
population of millions. Moreover, i'm
mediately following this week OF
Seasting In Washington there will be
q long stretch of musical famine, ex-
4ept Tor minor or student events.
1hiS IS the third or fourth time that
such lack of balance has been shown
IN the spacing of musical events on
the local program Washington GER
tainly needs clearing house for
dates, some one entirely disintercsted
IN any OF the events to be presented
and some one in authority.
Surely any suggestion that may be
Forthcoming to the writer of this
column concerning this matter will
be read with interest and offered for
general consideration.
THE chamber music written by
= Ludwig van Beethoven, the CEN
tenary of whose death has been so
celebrated that it looks as though
the survival of his compositions, BY
now played multitudinously all over
the world in every conceivable COM
bination and type of festival pro-
gram, would be a miracle, shows
some of that composers finest in
spiration and also indicates clearly
the development of his famous three
styles. His first six quartets, opus
is, which will be played tomorrow
and Tuesday afternoons, are gener-
Ally considered to be typical OF his
first style. in which the influences
and traditions of Handel and Mozart
are clearly noticeable.
The next two sets of three quar-
tets each--the three in opus 50 being
played Tuesday evening. and opus "a,
in E fiat major; opus 95, in F minor,
and opus 127. in Z fat major, which
will be played Wednesday afternoon
show the transition from first TO
second style, and again into the third
style, which is most completely to
be recognized in such passages as
the adagio movement of the fifteenth
quartet, which comes in the final set
of SIX string quartets. Then Thurs
day and Friday afternoons the last
uuartets and the Grand Fugue" will
be played. r..
Prince Galitzin ordered three quar-
tets from Beethoven, and his inspira-
tion and genius worked SO fluent
ly that he soon had the material for
six at hano-the final six. During
IA years the composer had not writ
ten for string quartet, and when
he did write these last works for
four Instruments there were many
musical authorities who could not
comprehend them. They contain a
serene grandeur with remarkable
polyphonic effects The adagio of
the twelfth quartet was first con-
ceived as sonata for four hands
and never completed. Beethoven
himself IS quoted as having said of
The cavatina in the thirteenth quar-
tet: No melody which ever came
from my pen has had such an eff
feet on me and caused me so pro-
found an emotion" And it was the
purely instrumental finale which he
first planned for the Ninth SYM
phony," later replacing it with the
choral Hymn of Joy which is en-
bodied in the grand fugue of the ff-
teenth quartet. The sixteenth quar-
tet the last, was heard here earlier
IN the season as played by the Cur
tis String Quartet.
Such are Just a few notes on out
standing features of the Beethoven
chamber music festival to be offered
here this week. The great composer
IS quoted as having liked the COM
position of this type OF music, for
he said to {. F. Peters December 20,
1922, according to an article on Say
ings Of Beethoven" published in the
special centenary issue of the Musi-
cal Quarterly: Were it not that
my annuity is so unsubstantiaL
should compose only operas. sym
phonies, church music and possibly
in addition, quartcts."
NEARLY : score OF years have
y passed since the Metropolitan
Grand Opera Company gave its last
season of opera in Washington
In 1907, Holy Week, March q and so
three performances OF opera were