The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-18
Praise Powerful Singing Of
Red Songs by Freiheit Chorus

When the rnaSsed Freiheit chorus
doomed out the final lines Of the
'Internationale" Sunday night in
the great hall OF City College, a con-
cert ended that needs discussion from
top to bottom. Here was an affair
publicized and advertised extensively
as first performances of new Soviet
music 1t drew p large audience, in
GLIDING many outsiders and sy1npa-
thiZerS come to hear music Of the
Workers Republic.
To majority OF the audience it
was first contact with music made
in new life-the freest, sanest, most
vigorous life since history began. The
captions said and stressed that this
was music Of today grown out of the
blood and sinews Of the first Soviet
state, worthy representatives OF So
Wet culture. The audience had a
right to hear 81 nething with the
steel and fire and heroisn, with the
humor and valid romanticisn that
goes with the words New Soviet
Music A great deal Of this music
Of the highest artistic quality, has
been written Instead, this is what
they heard:
/. Popoff's "Chorale." When Ash
ley Pettis sat down at the piano and
put his capable pianist'S fingers to
the keyboard, the written interpre-
tation he had had included in the
printed program flew out of the vim
dow. Instead we heard weak mod
ern shadow of List, empty monot-
onouS sonorities, a plodding, zestless
rhythm. The whole. short work was
violently dull. In this stodgy "Chor-
ale" we we're asked to see, first, the
historical background Of Russia; Sec
ond, the terrific struggle of the revo-
lutionary period, and, lastly, new
spirit OF determination and hope.
There was not the slightest correla-
ton between the ambitious program
note and the theatrical banality of
Popoff's "Chorale." The concert had
started with a false, downward note.
Then came the third quartet Of
Miaskowsky. Chronologically this is
supposed to be recent composition
Nevertheless this quartet has been
composed at least a hundred times
since 1850. This is not paradoxical.
The quartet dates in form to the
Mendelssohn era, while its harmonic
content is SO undistinguished that IL
even failed to reflect the personality
Of any great composer except 2
sugary hand-me-down variety of
Cesar F'ranck. It's all Miaskowsky
and all sentimental triviality. The
opening allegro" even gets tired of
being fast and goes for a rest into
a boudoir hung with pictures of the
three Uncle Vanyas Of Russian music
Medtner, Rechmaninoff and Gretch-
aninoff. The second movement, |
Theme and Variations" takes a
simple folk-like theme and puts it
through academic capers and a stage
prop-moon ronanticisrn. This is
Miaskowsky unsteady hitched to the
past, unsteady unaware of civil war,
Of famine, Of Socialist construction,
Of the roar Of steam shoyels and the
laughter Of Soviet children in fac
tory nursery. We honor him for
having stayed on in the U.S.SR., for
his faith in the new life that
wrenched him from the old. But this
pretty, i1ane music with its polite
ness and embroidery, its crutches Of
the past, is surely not music Of the
revolutionary proletariat.
Next came vitacek's Sonata" for
violin and piano. Here was young
Soviet composer-24 years Of age
all his education received in Russia.
The same hopes and the same let
down. dramatically weak and un-
original, It drew its substance, such |
as it was, from assorted troughs. A
little bit of French modernism with |
emphasis on Ravel, little bit of
Scriabine, memory Of Wagner, a |
little bit of Viennese operetta and a |
whole lot of movie dramatlcs. No |
where bite, thrust, living pulse,
nowhere even the occasional great