Evening star., 1932-11-20

in musical circles. TschaikowSky
kept a diary of his visit to the
United States in which he wrote
minutely what he did and what
he thought.
On this short American visit of
about a month, two days of that
time was spent in Washington
upon invitation of the Russian
| Ambassador. This trip to Wash
ington, however, was much mar
red by the sudden loss of a front
tooth as he embraced the sec
retary who was sent to receive
him at the station. He was dis
tresSed that his loss caused him
to lisp when talking and made
him sound like an old man." He
stopped at the Arlington Hotel
and took his meals with the men,
bers of the legation staff at the
Metropolitan Club.
A large reception was given for
him at the Russian legation,
which was then located at what
is now known as the Draper
Building, and the invited guests
were mostly from the diplomatic
corps. The evening was dedicated
to music at which his trio was per-
formed and he found other oppor-
tunities, during the short time of
his visit to make music infOr-
mally.
Although extremely homesick
TSchaikowsky enjoyed his Ameri-
can visit and hoped to return later
for a longer stay, but death came
before he had an opportunity.
When thinking of Grieg'S piano
concerto, which will be performed
today, it is almost impossible to
disaSSociate it from the name of
Percy Granger who spent the last
months of the composers life with
him in an intimate study of this
work. Grieg was always inter-
ested in Granger and on visit
to London himself asked to be in
troduced to the young man who
was already prominent as a COM
poser.
He also asked that he be the
interpreter of this work at feS-
tival in England. This concerto
has been played practically by
every great pianist and is conSid-
cred to be one of the most effec-
tive in the piano literature. It
is also very characteristic of
Grieg's style of composition. Eu-
ropean critics could not under
stand why Grieg would prefer to
limit himself to his national idiom
when composing instead of using
an international medium of eX-
preston. Grieg, however, attrib-
uted some of his melodic lines to
a remote Scottish ancestry of
which he was very proud.
Ever since Percy Grainger'S ap-
pearance in England he has made
the Grieg concerto a feature of
his concert programs. Even dur
ing the war, in the uniform of
a soldier, he played this concerto
with famous orchestras in the
United States. Since identifying
himself definitely with American
life, Granger has developed
enormously as composer. Two
of his compositions, Life Bells"
and "Gumsuckers' March," will be
performed today on the National
Symphony program.
4 X X
THE Metropolitan opens tomor-
row it's fiftieth season of
grand opera under conditions
that have never been known in
that historic shrine since the days
when HammerStein threatened its
supremacy. At that time the
difficulties were chiefly artistic,
but this year the financial side
which heretofore was so well
taken care of has become all i'm
portant.
The season has been consider
ably shortened and most of the
personnel have agreed, more or
less, willingly to accept a reduc-
ton in their salaries Those who
felt their talents still worthy of
the pre-depreSSion price have
been courageouSly dropped from
the roster and their places filled
by other equally good artists who
were willing to accept less money
in order to have the coveted honor
of being on the opera artists list.
The first week as usual brings
debutS of some of the new singers.
Two American artists will be
heard, Miss Gleason, appearing
for the first time on Friday, No
vember 25, in ANDRE Chenier,"
with Rosa Ponselle and Lauri
Volpi, and Margaret Halstead on
Saturday evening, November 26. in
"Tannhauser," with a German
cast.
This year also marks the
tWenty-fifth year of Gatti- -Casazza
as general manager. 1t is not
often that grand opera has an
opportunity to celebrate a CEN
tenary and SO much will be made
of the Tooth anniversary of the
first performance in 1882 of Doni-
zetti's "EleSir d'Amore," which
took place in Milan. 1t will also
be the means Of introducing Tito
Schipa to the Metropolitan audi
enceS in the role in which Caruso
proved he could be a great artist
as well as a great singer.
There will be no Metropolitan
season in Washington this Winter
or, IN fact, any opera season as
lar as is known at present. Al
fredo Salmaggi, who announced
a short time ago that his newly
organized Chicago Opera Co. will
give several performances at the
Auditorium. has abandoned the
| idea,