Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-09
NEWS OF MUSIC
Show's Acid Reviews
Launched His Career

oOCAA4S 90 ~ bAAC oCAACo WAL VIC q
reasonably interesting, if con-
servatively programmed affair.
The first concert, scheduled
for October 1917. will keynote
the season.: All-Beethoven,
with Jose Iturbi as soloist in
the Fourth Piano Concerto,
and the orchestra. under DR..
Mitchell, offering the Leonore
No. / Overture and the Seventh
Symphony.
A Quote From 1892
This is the sort Of concert
that Como di Bassetto attended
by the dozen and wrote about
with such grace. bitterness and
power. For instance, IN June.
1892, GBS went to hear the
London Philharmonic, where
''Mr. Lamond was the pianist.
and he chose that beautiful
fourth concerto of Beethoven's,
as great in a feminine way as
the fifth is in a masculine way.
I thought it a curious selection
for so rough a player; but /
never dreamt that he, or any
musician, could miss the grace
and tenderness of the opening
phrase, even if Beethoven's
dolce were erased from the
pianoforte copy. However, Mr..
Lamond saw nothing in it
but a mere battery of chords.
He smacked it out like a slater
finishing a roof, and / paid no
more attention"
No comparison between Mr..
Iturbi and Mr.. Lamond is i'm
plied-but Washington has
heard pianists like the latter.
Some 10 days before the Ma
tional Symphony Orchestra
gets "the greatest concert series
ever presented" under way, the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
under the baton of Herbert Won
Karajan, appearing under the
auspices of the Hayes Concert
Bureau, will be heard in Con-
stitution Hall in the first Of
two concerts to be given here.
The distinguished visiting
ensemble will offer Strauss,
Mozart and Beethoven in its
October 7th presentation and
Cherubini, Wagner and
Brahms in its october 18th
concert. Here, too. Como di
Bassetto might well have been
present.
Obs heard the London SYM
phony under Sir George Hen
schel give the Eroica in Feb
ruary, 1893. 1t suffered for a
few moments in the middle of
the last movement by express
sive whipping up; otherwise
it went admirably, especially
the funeral march, but always
excepting the first movement.
which we shall hear in its
glory. I suppose. when we get
an orchestra of heroes to play
it and a demigod to con-
duct it.
Nothing will ever persuade
me that Beethoven meant it to
begin in a hurry, with the
theme stumping along to
catch the last train, and the
syncopations for the violins
in the fifth bar coming in like
the gasps of a blown pedes-
trian."
Disliked Brahms
He was merciless with
Brahms Second.
'Euphuism," he wrote,
which is the beginning and
end of Brahms big works, is
no more to my taste in music
than in literature. Brahms
takes an essentially common
place theme; gives it a strange
air by dressing it in the most
elaborate and far-fetched har-
monies; keeps his countenance
severely (Which at once con-
vinces an English audience
that he must have a great deal
in HIM; and finds that a
good many wiseacres are ready
to guarantee him as deep as
Wagner, and the true heir Of
Beethoven.
1.-THE spectacle Of the British
public listening with it's in
churchieSt expression to one Of
the long and heavy fantasies
which he calls his symphonies
always reminds me of the yokel
in AS You Like It quailing
before the big words of the
fool. Strip off the euphuiSm
from these symphonies and
you will find a string Of in
complete dance and ballad
tunes, following one another
with no more organic coher-
ence than the succession Of
passing images in a shop win
dow in Piccadilly during any
20 minutes in the day.
That is why Brahms is so
enjoyable when he merely tries
to be pleasant or naively senti-
mental, and so insufferably
tedious when he tries to be
profound. His symphonies are
endured at the Richter con-
certs as sermons are endured,
and his Requiem is patiently
borne only by the corpse :"
And much, much more.
If Shaw on music is to your
taste, you can find a represent
ativa SannlinO Of HE foviauya