Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-07
M u S &c
FRITZ KREIsLER's CONCERT.

Fritz Kreisler, held court before his
usual packed audience to standing
room limits at Polls Theater yesterday
afternoon. Many distinguished folk who
fiddle and practically all of the local
professional violinists were noted among
those present. Kreisler was in a
gracious, genial mood, and he gave
encores scattered throughout the pro-
gram, including the most popular of his
monograph record selections, conclud
ing with Caprice Viennois" and THE
Old Refrain"
His opening number was Ysaye's ar
rangement of a rare Sonata in A
Minor" written by Nicolo PaSquali. 1t
had a particularly charming minuetto
as the second movement and the famil-
lar VirtuoSity of the KreiSleT tech
nique was at its best in this and the
Bach "Chaconne," which followed.
There are few violinistS anywhere who
can give vivid, living beauty to this
difficult work as can KreiSler. It Is a
vehicle that often becomes boresome
in less gifted and skillful hands. In the
Tschaikowsky Concerto in D Major"
Carl LamSon, always a most loyal and
alert accompaniSt for Mr.. Kreisler, de-
serves special credit for the way in
which he kept with the violinist in the
many passages that were cut here and
there in the score. An especially happy
memory was the beautiful long drawn
note on the violin that ended the can
zonetta movement and the final move
ment with its exceptionally vivacious
tempo and typically Russian color In
melody and rhythms brought a whirl-
wind OF applause from the audience at
its conclusion.
cial favor with the audience was
kreisler's own arrangement of the
familiar Londonderry Air, Farewell to
Cuchullan" John Mccormack sang
this air with the words, Would God /
Were the Tender Apple Blossom: Nine.
Schumann- Heink made it famous aga in
in Danny Boy; string quartets and
other arrangements have grought it to
concert stars and records. 1t remained
for KreiSler to make 1t an exquisite
vehicle for the violin, showing both
the rich consciousness of his lower tones
and the pure eloquence of his highest
tones on the violin in his ARRANGEMENT
Of this work. He followed it with q
clever Gypsy Caprice" of his own and
ended the regular program with his
arrangement of Rimsky- Korsakoff's
Fantasy on Russian Themes" H.F.
THE AGUILAR Lutte QUARTET.
AS England produced the famous sex
sons ago who swept America with en-
thusiaSm for their revival of the old
madrigals of their native land, SO Spain
now sends this season the Aguilar Lutte
Quartet to play for the preSent-day
audiences music written in the fifteenth
century and later for that quaint in
strument. the lutte. The English sing
erS had their debut In this country at
the Library of Congress in 1925. The
Aguilar Lutte Quartet played there last
night. The colorful variety of music
that they coax from their simple string
ed instruments with only the aid of a
| tiny plectrum or their fingers is amaz-
ing. They won hearty appreciation
/ from the audience gathered there last
night and had to comply with an en-
core, a rondo by Mozart, one of the
most delightful numbers of the entire
evening The lutte seemed ideally
suited to the music Of the master OF
| Salzburg
The regular program was entirely OF
| Spanish music, beginning with de
MenaS Three Caprices." written ir
the fifteenth century and progressing
| 10 an amusing, modern de Murcia,
! by Joaquin Min, one of the interesting
| group of present-day Spanish COM
| posers. Senior Min also arranged 6
Sonata in D." by Soler, who wrote
| it 200 years ago, for this quartet, a:
well as "Orientale," by Granados. o.
| the nineteenth century. "Orgia," b.
| Turnia. living composer, arranged BY
| him for this quartet, was a brilliant
barbaric piece of writing. One of the
| loveliest bits of music was "Copla In
| trusa," by Maria Rodrigo, who dedi.
| Gated this work to the Aguilar Quar-.
| tet. De Falla and Halffter contributed
interesting music on different themes
and AlbeniZ' own arrangement of hi;
Cordoba" (Which was danced here
recently by La Argentina), brought out
particularly clearly the kinship of it!
basic melody to Victor Herbert's kiss
| Me Again"
1t might be of interest to local music
lovers to know that the origin of the
Aguilar Quartet lay in an incident some
years ago. The Spanish gentleman, Dor
| Francisco Aguilar, upon returning home
| from the court of young King Alfonso
where he was the royal physician, wa:
passing through one of Madrid's Oldest
streets in the twilight hour. He stopped
to listen to a blind musician playing
what Don Francisco recognized as the
ancient instrument, the lutte, which hac
its day of popularity from the four.
tenth to the seventeenth century The
playing of the blind man on this delicate
old lutte made deep impression on this
| casual listener and soon four lutes were
ordered from a Madrid maker for the
| Aguilar household. The children
Ezequiel, Pepe, Pace and Elisa, took
their first lessons on the lutte. Today
this quartet from an old Spanish family
come to the New World as ambassador!
of the exquisite, subtle music of theil
home land in the old days. They are {
| add IN orf