MUSICAL TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 138, 10 May 1930, Page 7

MUSICAL TOPICS.

PROGRAMME NOTES. (By “Semibreve.” One of tho interesting facts in connection with tho Courtauld-Sargent Concert Club in London, which has provided to some extent a new audience lor London orchostral concerts, is that in rosponso to a demand received from tho subscribers, tho annotated ooncert programmes aro in future to bo available on 6ale at the Queen’s Hall ono week before the date of each concert. This shows a really intellectual interest on tho part of the subscribers who want to be ablo to read and digest tho programme notes before the actual day of the concert. One must not exaggerate tho importance of this, because it is to be remembered that in every art the mind is liable to bo diverted from tho essential direct perception of the art to some commentary, historical or grammatical, upon it. It is far easier to read Professor Blank’s notes to Wordsworth’s “Prelude” than to read the “Prelude” itself. It is easier to learn and remember that Beethoven was born in 1770 and died in 1827 than to develop one’s power of perception up to the point of being ablo to tell definitely whether a piece is Beethoven’s or not.

There aro very few amateurs of music who could say definitely whether an unfamiliar cadenza played by a virtuoso in tho performance of a Beethoven Concerto was really by the master or by another hand. But to be able to do this argues a much more exact knowledge and understanding of Beethoven’s music than to bo able to recount all the facts of Beethoven’s life. But, of course, good programme notes should help the student and the amateur to develop his musical understanding. It may, porhaps, bo surprising to tho layman to hear how difficult good programme notes are to write. It is rarely indeed that one comes across them, and Continnetal programme-note writers are very little, if any, better than our own. The two diametrically opposite kinds of programme notes —tho purely dcscriptivo and the purely technically-analytical—which aro so much in use do little to help the listener to distinguish between the styles of tho composers. Such vaguo terms as romantic and classic are useless. It would bo much better to adopt the methods of Professor Dent, of Cambridge, who writes tho notes for tho Royal Philharmonic Society’s concerts, wherein he treats of the style of tho composer and makes comparisons with other notable composers of tho different periods. For example, at a recent Philharmonic Society concert, when tho French pianist, Alfred Cortot, played the Beethoven G Major Pianoforte Concerto, Professor Dent stated in his notes that this concerto, “although apparently conforming to tho classical model, stands in many ways less near to the concertos of Mozart than it docs to the A. Major Concerto of Liszt.” This might surprise many people, but Professor Dent explains: "Beethoven’s treatment of tho concerto form differs notably from that of Mozart, whose concertos for pianoforte aro the most exquisitely proportioned models of what a concerto should be. Beethoven, in fact, does not seem to have understood at all what were Mozart’s reasons for the form he perfected. Mozart was still in touch with the old Italian operatic area from which the concerto form is derived, and some of his arias are treated in the concerto style. For Mozart, the concerto was an entirely different thing from the symphony and perhaps a more important thing. By Beethoven’s time this old fashioned aria was a thing of the past, and the symphony had attained a new dignity and grandeur. Beethoven approached the concerto from tho symphony, and even foreshadowed the romantic treatment of the - concerto on the lines of tho symphonic poem.”.

CONDUCTORS, TYPES AND STYLES. We all, now and then, have our double as to those signs, gestures, gesticulations and other physical activities wnich are the prerogative of the orchestral conductor, and uistiiiguish him from tho rest of the performers of music. What is it, we ask ourselves, that these activities of his accomplish '! Do they really guide, or inspire, or advise tho players of an orchestra, or are they intended to remind tho audience that tho conductor, who, after all, is making no music himself, deserves at least the credit for doing something ? Occasionally, inijeed, it is our suspicion that these acrobatics are designed to impress tho audience rather than to affect the playing—and it is certain that some conductors' reputations have been advanced by their ability to throw themselves violently into conducting attitudes. But that is only because a section of any concert audience are as much impressed by what they seo as by what thoy hear. No seasoned listener to orchestral music is misled into believing that tho conductor’s gesticulations in style have much to do with his conducting powers. He knows that tho conductor’s chief work has been dono at rehearsals; but he also knows that there are first rate conductors of the acrobatic kind and first rate conductors of the undemonstrative kind.

Mr Arthur Mason, of London, who wroto the foregoing, says: “One of the quietest conductors and one of tho greatest I have ever seen was Richter. Directing a great orchestra ho was truly an old man eloquent. But his baton might have been a lead-pencil for all one saw of it, and ho accomplished miracles by tho lift of an eyebrow. At all events, I can myself testify to tho power of his mere glance, for on ono occasion I sat very close to him at a Covont Garden Wagner performance. Tho entry of the trombones was due for tho Walhalla motive. They sat far away from the conductor, with scores of players between him and them, and at tho appointed moment his arm was not raised an inch and his pencil length baton moved not a hair’s breadth out of its customary orbit. All that happened _ was that Richter straightened himself a little, and turned upon tho far-off trombones tho fiery gleam of an eye that had a truly terrible aspect. It sufficed; those desired chords sang from the bass with magical offcct.” 1 VARIED MANNERISMS.

Nikisch, on the contrary, a similarly great conductor, was all vigour and fire, and made a fcafuro of tho graceful movements of hie hands and arms, and famous conductors of to-day, known in London, vary greatly in style. Tho movements cf Woingartnor’s baton are controlled and precise, and he stands four square liko a military bandmaster. Abendnoth, of Cologne, thows himself at the orchestra in a tireless passion of excitement. Mongolberg, of Amsterdam, combines with great force a fine emotionalism. Furtwangler, of Berlin, affects an impassive stylo, with an infusion of effeotive but not obtrusive, gesture in it. Bruno Walter, late of Berlin, and the idol of Covent Garden, in its German season, is vigorous and masterful. SIR THOMAS BEECHAM. Of English conductors, Sir Thomas Beecham is unquestionably the greatest; a man of genius, whose control of an orchostra is as complete as his masterly interpretations of music are satisfying. And he is ono of the most demonstrative of all conductors. Something of pose there may be in them, but there is no denying either the interest for his audiences or the power upon his orchestra of the 6wayings and bendingß end curvinge, not only of his hands and arms, but of his whole body, with which Beecham works up a climax or compels the players under him to some exquisite turn of a phrase. SIR HENRY WOOD. Sir Henry Y> T ood may not be the most temperamental of conductors, but he i 3 a veteran of unrivalled experience, and, as all orchestral players say who have played under him, absolutely safe even in the most involved moments. His style is moulded on that of Nikisch. It is easy and graceful and a trifle mannered.