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^' REVIEW
''''
OF THE
New
York Musical Season
1889-1890
Containing Programmes of Noteworthy Occurrences, with
Numerous Criticisms, and in
AN APPENDIX
A Survey of Choral Work in America
BY
KREHBIEL
H. E.
NEW YORK & LONDON
NOVELLO, EWER & CO.
1890
COPYRIGHTED, 189O, BY
H. E. KREHBIEL.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Printed and Bound by
THE ALDINE PRINTING WOKKS,
No.248 Walnut Street,
Cincinnati.
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TO
ANTON SEIDL,
Conductorai the Metropolitan Opera House, New Tori:.
"Was deutsch und echtwiisst' Keiuermehr,
lebt's nichtin deutscher MeisterEhr'."
;
REVIEW OF THE
NEW YORK MUSICAL SEASON
889- 890
1 1
OCTOBER
Monday, Seventh.
Metropolitan Opera House. First concert of a German Festival
'of Song, projected by the Mannergesangverein Arion. Over-
ture, " Tannhauser," Wagner; Scenes from the " Frithjof
Sage," for solo voices, men's chorus, and orchestra, Max
Emma
Bruch [Ingeborg, Miss Juch Frithjof, Mr. Emil Fischer
;
quartet, Charles Kaiser, Oscar Saenger, Max Treumann, and
Franz Remmertz) Romance and Rondo from the Concer-
;
to in E minor, Chopin-Tausig (Rafael Joseffy) ' Jagdmor-
; '
gen," Rheinberger; " Legende," for orchestra, John Lund
(conducted by the composer); " Sans-Souci," minuet for
strings, Arthur Claassen (conducted by the composer)
;
" Festzug," for orchestra, with final chorus on " Ecce
quam bonum," Frank Van der Stucken ; Scene and air from
" Der Freischiitz," Weber (Miss Juch); " Altniederlandi-
sche Volkslieder," Edward Kremser (solos by Jacob Graff
and Emil Fischer). Conductor, Frank Van der Stucken.
(O
;;;
October.'] The Musical Season 1889-1890.
The chorus was composed of the Arion Society of New York,
Arion of Newark, Germania of Baltimore, Harmonic of Baltimore,
Junger Mannerchor of Philadelphia, Liederkranz of Baltimore,
—
Orpheus of Buffalo, and ZoUner Mannerchor of Brooklyn in all
about four hundred voices. The compositions for orchestra by
Messrs. Lund and Claassen were novelties, the minuet being based
on the three measures of a melody by Quantz, to be seen in the
music-room of Frederick the Great at Sans-Souci.
Tuesday, Eighth.
Metropolitan Opera House. Second concert of the German
Festival of Song. "Coronation March," op. 13, Svendsen
"Morgenlied," Julius Rietz (Baltimore Liederkranz, F. Mitt-
ler, conductor); "Halt!" Carl Zollner (Brooklyn Zollner
Mannerchor, Arthur Claassen, conductor) ; first movement of
the Violin Concerto, op. 61, Beethoven (Miss Maud Powell)
"Wiichsenmir Fliigel," Max von Weinzierl (Baltimore Har-
monic, Nicolas Tillman, conductor); Songs: " Der Wanderer,"
Schubert, " Der schonste Engel," Graben-Hoffmann (Emil
Fischer); " Ritter's Abschied," Johanna Kinkel (full chorus);
Hungarian Fantasia for pianoforte, Liszt (Mrs. Julia Rive
King); " Todtenvolk," Friedrich Hegar (New York Arion,
F.Van der Stucken, conductor); " Nachtzauber," A. M. Storch
(Buffalo Orpheus, John Lund, conductor); " Nun muss sich Al-
les wenden," Wilhelm Sturm (Baltimore Germania, D. Mela-
met, conductor); " Pagina d'Amore," for orchestra, F. Van
der Stucken; "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from
the Suite "Peer Gynt," op. 46, Grieg; " Waldmorgen," Edu-
ard KoUner (Newark Arion, F. Van der Stucken, conductor)
" Friihhng," Rheinberger (Philadelphia Junger Mannerchor,
Maurits Leefson, conductor); "Jung Siegfried," Heinrich
Zollner (full chorus and orchestra). Conductor, Frank Van
der Stucken.
(2)
The Musical Season 1889-1890. {October.
Wednesday, Ninth.
Academy of Music, Brooklyn. Testimonial concert to Theodore
Thomas. Overture, "Tannhauser," Wagner; Andante from
the Symphony in C minor, Beethoven Hungarian 'Fantasia,
;
Liszt (Rafael Joseffy) Orchestral excerpts from "La Dam-
;
nation de Faust," Berlioz; Overture, " WilHam Tell," Rossini;
"Traumerei," Schumann (for strings); Pianoforte solos: Ber-
ceuse, Chopin, Valse Impromptu, Joseffy, and Marche Mili-
taire, Schubert-Tausig (Mr. Joseffy); Waltz, " Hochzeits-
klange," Strauss; Torchhght March, B-flat, No. i, Meyerbeer.
Conductor, Theodore Thomas.
Thursday, Twenty-fourth.
Amberg Theatre. "Der Vice-Admiral," comic operetta, words
by Zell and Genee, music by Millocker, first time in New-
York, by Gustav Amberg's Company, Carl Streitmann " als
Cast." Conductor, E. Polz.
"The Vice-Admiral" had been performed by another company
outside of New York but was new in the metropolis and had not
been given in its original shape. Save that it afforded Herr Streit
mann (an operetta tenor from Vienna, who effected his entrance on
the American stage in Strauss's " Zigeunerbaron " on September
20th) an opportunity to don a showy uniform, and added to his
other poses that of a composer (for a wretchedly poor song attribu-
ted to him was interpolated in the first act), the new production did
not commend itself very forcibly to the approval of the audience
that heard it. Herr Genee seems disposed to save his best books
for original musical settings, and to turn over those of minor effect-
iveness to his colleagues. He and his literary co-worker have deft-
ness enough to make almost any subject which they undertake to
treat fairly interesting, but they can not win more than the ordinary
degree of success when they attempt to make a whistle out of a pig's
tail, and this proverbial task was much like that which they at-
tempted in constructing the book of "The Vice-Admiral." The
humor of the plot is summed up in the idea that a young nobleman,
vice-admiral of the Franco-Spanish fleet, who is compelled to marry
(3)
^
October. The Musical Season i889-1890.
before he reaches the age of twenty-five, goes ashore to seek a wife,
and exchanges characters with a common sailor who accompanies
him. The boor of a sailor is courted by the two daughters of a
Spanish grandee, on the supposition that he has exchanged uniforms
with the nobleman in order to deceive the enemy. The nobleman,
in turn, loses his heart to a lovely young woman in the grandee's
palace, who, of course, possesses all the virtues that the grandee's
daughters lack. The sailor is captured by the English, who have
heard of the intended disguise, but succeeds in establishing his
identity in time to bring the comedy to an end with the result that
is obvious from the beginning. The action moves slowly, and there
is but a modicum of diversion in the operetta. There is an equal
paucity of pleasing music in the score, two numbers only in the
prologue and first act rising above the level of dull mediocrity.
These numbers are a sonorous sailors' chorus, which opens the pro-
logue, and a unison trio between the sailor and the ambitious
daughters. Of course, as was to have been expected, a good deal
of play is made with Spanish rhythms and cadences, but the score
wants freshness and spontaneity.
Saturday, Twenty-sixth.
Metropolitan Opera House. First concert by Otto Hegner, the
child pianist, under the management of Henry E. Abbey and
Maurice Grau. Overture, " Egmont," Beethoven; Spanish
Song (Mrs. Pemberton Hincks) Concerto in E minor,
;
Chopin Allegro from a Quintet in E-flat, Mayseder (Men-
;
delssohn Quintette Club); Creole and Spanish Songs (Mrs.
Pemberton Hincks); Solos: Rondo Capriccioso, op. 14, Men-
delssohn, Spinning Song from ''The Flying Dutchman,"
Wagner-Liszt, Valse Caprice, Rubinstein; Overture, " Carna-
val Romain," Berlioz. Conductor, Walter Damrosch.
J.
The little Swiss lad who entertained the New York public for the
first time on this occasion is surely an incipient pianoforte virtuoso.
He has gifts which fit him for the career foreshadowed in such a
designation. Whether he also has intellectual and emotional graces
of the kind whose possession marks the distinction between a
virtuoso and an artist it is not so easy to declare. This much may
(4)
;
The Musical Season i889-1890. \Octobe):
be said if he has them they are still lying dormant, for the poetic
:
charm which is their sign in artistic utterance is not a feature in his
—
playing at least not in the degree in which it was noticeable in
the playing of his predecessor, to whom he owed much of the pub-
lic attention which he commanded.
The fact that he came because the precocious child Josef Hof-
mann had preceded him,^ justified any amount of criticism or esti-
mate by comparison, but it was not necessary to enable the judi-
cious to form an opinion of his merits. Comparison forced itself
upon the public mind, however, as soon as that mind undertook to
discover why the litde Pole was musically more engaging and inter-
esting than the little Swiss; and the reason was found by many to
lie in the fact that, while Hofmann's precocity was that of a child-
musician, that of Hegner was that of a child-pianist. In both cases
it was extremely early fruit; the only question was as to the com-
A
parative value of the fruit. little reflection on the lines suggested
by such a comparison might tend to lessen the artistic significance
of young Hegner's performances, but it can not make them less
wonderful than they are. His playing seemed to me to be the prod-
uct of a highly developed faculty of imitation, coupled with other
natural aptitudes of an extraordinary kind. These aptitudes, how-
ever, are predominantly mechanical. He has great flexibility and
strength of finger, and a large hand for one so young. He has, too,
a fine sense of time and of rhythm. So far as the mere ability to
manipulate the keys goes, he is a marvel; but he is entirely repro-
ductive. Much of his playing is monotonous and devoid of poetic
vitality. His resources of tone-color are limited, his touch, except
when he plays soft music, unyielding and dry. It is wonderful
that he should do what he does, but a listener who is not disposed
simply to gape and marvel thoughtlessly will be apt to find his
admiration pretty evenly divided between the boy and his teacher
for whatever there is of interpretation in the boy's playing is obvi-
ously the reproduced idea of his teacher. Every experienced lis-
tener knows how the conviction of such a fact is forced upon one's
mind; originality of conception discloses itself in spontaneity of
expression.
*See Review optheNewYork MusicalSeason, 1887-1888, page44.
(5)
Oc^oder.] The Musical Season i889-1890.
Thursday, Thirty-first.
Grace Church. 3 p. m. Mr. Samuel P. Warren's one hundred
and fifty-sixth organ recital. Toccata in D, and Bergamasca
in G, Frescobaldi; Fantasia in G (Book IV, No. 11), Bach;
Andante in A, S. S. Wesley; Organ Symphony No. 7, in A,
C. M. Widor.
(6)
