Evening star., 1933-10-22

~ SlOiA 10 w painting. AAS eOOAA
NV the orchestral palette OF his
Y time and by his genius made
1t produce in music colors OF
a brilliance, and variety. and intensity
and descriptiveness such as had not
been known or believed possible until
then. He did this, first Of all, by avail
ing himself of the peculiar characteris-
tics OF each instrument. He realized, as
no one before him had, the possibilities
of each instrument. the brilliance of the
high register of the violins, the warmth
of the "cantabile" of the celloS, the
melancholy of the violas, the omnious
quality of low notes in clarinets, the
purity Of flute tones the pastoral sound
of the oboes, the solemnity of the from
bones But he did more than that: He
mixed those tones with such skill that
the particular brilliance which he there
by acquired served as a never-to-be-
forgotten lesson from which Berlioz
and Liszt and Wagner learned and
profited. No wonder that Berlioz in his
book on Instrumentation, whenever he
.,lentions Weber, becomes lyrical in his
admiration and praise! At one moment,
when he describes the felicitous use
Weber made of the clarinet Gn, if I
remember correctly the Agathe theme
Of the "Freischutz'D and how, at every
hearing 1t brings tears to his eyes, he
stops suddenly, with just one eyclama-
ton of reverence and homage: "Oh,
Weber. Weber, followed by number
of exclamation marks.
But Weber was, OF course, more than
just a great orchestrator. The vitality
of his elastic and harmonic invention
is as admirable as his colors are bril-
liant and apt. For that reason no over
lures have ever been more deServedly
popular, in the fullest and best sense OF
the word. that his "Oberon." his 'F'rei-
schultz" and his "Euryanthe the one
/ We have on our program for our opening
| Thursday concert. And when We think
of the difficulties of his rowing life. OF
/ his early diSappointments, Of the hap
hazard education he picked up. Of his
chronic i'll health, resulting in his death
in a strange country at 80, one cannot
think of him and his work without ad-
miration mixed with tenderness and
melancholy
The "Euryanthe" starts with a long
| passage of great brilliance for the en-
tire orchestra-ending with tympani
roll of dominant note. After four
Introductory bars in the cellos the sec
ond theme (pianissimo in the vlollns),
| one of the loveliest in all music, on the
words, % Seligkeit ich fasz dich kaum"
ooh. Blessedness, l scarce can grasp
Thee!') is heard A short climax, and
then a passage of unearthly nearly
ghostly, quality for eight muted solo
violius is heard. A fugato transition
brings us back to the main theme and
the overture ends on triumphant note
with the re-entry fortissimo OF the glo-
rious second theme We mentioned above.
symphony in E Flat Ma jor". Chausson
Lent, allegro motto.
Tres lent
Anime.
Chausson, the most promising pupil of
Cesar Franck. died at the relatively
early age of 43 due to a fall from
bicycle This loss to music was great
The small but admirable output he left
us consists principally of the SYM
phony. the we'll known "POeme for Vlo-
lin and Orchestra" superb Concerto
tor Piano, Violin and String Quartet
piano quartet, songs. etc. But his prom
ise was such that We cannot help but
accuse fate Of having dealt music, IN
the sudden death of this fine talent.
cruel blow His music speaks for it
self While the symphony does not
have the transcendental mysticism of
Franck master work. it aSpireS toward
it. and in several instances views the
heights Even then. however. it is of a
more joyous worldly nature, compatible
with the virile youthfulneSs OF its Gre
ator. who was "a when he wrote it. The
technical mastery (partly because OF the
simpler nature of the contents) is ad-
mirable. The symphony sounds" as
musicians say.
The work consists of three movements
without the customary Scherzo. The first,
allegro. full of passion. is preceded by
an impressive. Sombre introduction. 1t
is followed by superb adagio move
ment The finale, with a note of con-
quering joyousness. reminiscent OF
Cesar Franck's final symphony move
ment. concludes a work which. in my
opinion. is not heard often enough in
this country.
"Oriental Impressions. ..... Eichheim
Henry Eichheim has done for Oriental
music what List did for Hungarian,
Grieg for Norwegian. Smetana and
Dvorak for Bohemian, and De Falla and
AlbeniZ for Spanish music. BY the
nature of the difference in both har-
monic and melodic background Of ORR
entail music. as well as of the Oriental
instruments he introduces to create
certain atmosphere, Mr.. Eichheim has
been accused (horribile dictuD of be-
longing to that scandalouS aggregation.
the vanguard of modern composers"
Nothing is farther from the truth. Mr..
Eichheim is a completely inoffenslve
gentleman OF GO or thereabouts. born
and raised in America. for a time
member of the Boston symphony, who
at q certain moment in his life became
interested IN the music of the East.
He went there a number of times,
studied it with loving care and in
tenSely absorbed 1t, and then set about
to translate" it. so to speak, for our
occidental orchestra.
He has done this with patience and
skill and a number of charming tone
pictures. eminently reminiscent of the
East and its peculiar music, has been
the result.
In 1929. during a tour in Java. Ball,
and Sumatra had the joy of listening
tras and. although that of course is the
real way of hearing this music, Mr..
Eichheim's recreations are SO carefully
done that no better idea could be gained
of the intense qualities of this interest
ing music as well as of the atmosphere
of sounds in the Orient, than by the
hearing of some of the works of this
musical 'Lafcadio Hearn."
"Tasso," symphonic poem. ....... List
The final work on our program of
Thursday is "Tasso," by Liszt, in my
opinion the most important of all Of
his symphonic poems, the art form in
music which Liszt gave to the world
LISTS idea was that music should
have poetic subject This later on
was carried by Strauss to its final point.
Honegger in Pacific 231." Mossolow in
his Iron Foundry and Lazar in
Round" "a description of the COM
poser's sensations and excitement at a