MUSIC

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1851, 28 August 1907, Page 28

MUSIC

(BY "G” STRING;) Mr William Green, ;the tenor of the Albani concert company which shortly visits New Zealand, is now regarded as in the very front rank of English vocalists. He was born at Bolton, Lancashire, and at an early age displayed a remarkably fine voice. He was trained for some time by a local musician, and subsequently became solo tenor in the Bolton Parish Church. After a successful career for some, few years as an amateur, during which he sang in all the standard oratorios, Mr Green won a scholarship at the Royal College of Music, and became a pupil of Signor' Gustave Garcia. His career at this institution was of a brilliant character, and while there he took the tenor role in several operas performed by the-stu-dents at Drury Lane and the Savoy Theatres. As soon as he left the college he became in request for oratorio and concerts, and has appeared at important engagements at the Royal Albert Hall, St. James’s Hall, the Queen’s Hall orchestral concerts, Mr Percy Harrison’s tours, and the Crystal Palace concerts.

Magnus Laing, the clever New Zealand .pianist, is to make his first appearance in England in the Bechstein Hall, London, on July 6th, when he will give a recital (writes a London -gossip on June 27th). Laing was born at Timarti, New Zealand. It was at the instigation of Paderewski, who heard Laing in New Zealand, that he went to Europe to study under Eisenbeyer and Leschetizsky for two years in Berlin, and also Bersoni, who thought so highly of the young pianist that he taught him for nothing. During his recent visit to London Paderewski again heard Laing play, and expressed to his young protege the confidence he has in his future as a pianist. * * A#

A Florentine collector has just bought a manuscript of Beethoven for the enormous sum of over .£2OOO at a sale by auction. It is a sonata for the violin, of four pages, and the reason -why so long a price was given for it is .that it is the only music manuscript which was signed by .the master. The irony of the purchase is that while he was alive Beethoven sold to a'publisher seven important manuscript, a symphonie, a septette, and five sonatas for £6O, with all the rights attaching to them. 5 * #

Paderewski, the most famous pianist of his time, is in private life a much more practical .and matter-of-fact person than some of his admirers might suppose. A man of wide general culture, and of a witty tongue, which makes him a most amusing table companion, ho writes an admirable letter, plays a fine game of billiards, and speaks fluently in Polish, Russian, English, Frenoh, and German. He is an inveterate cigarette-smoker, can sleep at any time of the day, and is a great authority on live-stock.

Madame Patti made an appearance recently in Paris at the private theatre of M. Jean do Reszke. She played her old part of Rosina in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,” and is said to have scored an unqualified success. The diva herself subsequently told her friends that she had never sung the part better in'her life. The cast included M, Eduard de Reszke and Signor Ancona. * * *

Kubelik celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday on the sthvJuly. # j

The Prince Regent of Bavaria has conferred on Herr Mottl the title of Hof ope rndirektor—Director of the Court Opera. A semi-official communique adds that the title is in /no sense to be regarded as merely “decorative,” but that Herr Mottl has henceforth complete unfettered .artistic control of the opera. In the meantime the question of Herr Mahler’s successor at Vienna remains unsolved.

Mr Noel Fleming, .who assisted at Madame Clara Butt’s “Good-bye” concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, is a. son of the popular tenor, Mr Barton McGuckin, now the musical director at the Dublin .Exhibition. Mr Fleming, who made his debut at Mr N. Vert’s Scots concert at Queen’s Hall last year, used to he an actor. During a performance, of! Mr. Pinero s /The Pro-, fligate” at Kingston; he. sang a seranade, and a member of the audience, Lady Archibald Campbell, was so charmed by his voice that she advised him to abandon his stage career and become a professional singer. A few weaithy t amas teurs established a fund on his behalf,, and through their generous aid -he was enabled to study.

Collectors of autographs will b© interested to learn that the original manuscript of Wagner’s "The Holy Supper of the Apostles” is being offered for sale in Leipsic, the price being .£625. This work, which is too seldom heart|. nowadays, was composed in 1843 for a festival of the choral unions of Saxony at Dresden.

The programme for the Leeds Musical 'Festival, to be held in October under tlio direction of Sir Charles Stanford, has been issued. Few new compositions ar9 included, the most notable being Mr Granville Bantock’s cantata, "Sea Wanderers,” and Mr Arthur Somervelle’s choral ode, "Intimations of Immortality.” The star of the festival will be the veteran Norwegian composer, Dr Edward Grieg, who on October 10th will direct a performance of his "Olav Trygvason” music,

The German Emperor gave a lunch at his palace recently, to which Grieg, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Leroux, the Prince of Monaco, Raoul Gunsbourg, von Hulsen, and numerous diplomats were invited. /His Majesty was in excellent spirits, arid from 1 to 41 o’clock he chatted with his distinguished, musical guests in a most genial manner, touching on every subject except politics. He expressed himself especially well pleased with the work of the Monte Carlo opera singers appearing in Berlin; he spoke at length on music in general, remarking on its modern tendencies, and expressing opinions by no means favourable to a well-known local composer; be said he was much dissatisfied with certain works of modern composers, and that "complicated and decadent music spun about perverse themes” was not at all to his taste. Das war deutlich! This he said after having heard "Salome,” for the Prince of Monaco succeeded in doing what no one else beuld do—namely, in persuading the Emperor to attend a "Salome” performance.

Miss Clara Butt, in the "Quiver,” says she loves her work, but "it is the actual singing I love, not the power, fee, excitement, or the applause.” * # #

Herr Kr easier and Joseph Hoffmann have arranged for a joint tour of the United States and Mexico next winter. Mischa Elman has also decided to visit the United States.

The London Choral Society promises some interesting novelties next season, including a Symphonic Cantata by Benoit Hollander, on the subject of "The Last Bays of Pompeii,” a setting of the Beatitudes by Edward Maryon, and selections from an unpublished opera, "Fra Francesco,’’ by Henry Waller. It is encouraging to meet with names of new composers in this way. * # *

Madame Nordica is said to have invited Frau Wagner and Seigfried Wagner to attend the opening of the American Bayreuth on the banks of the Hudson in the'summer of 1909.

Mr Haydn Wood, the young violinist of the Albani Concert Company, which visits New Zealand next month, is a native of the Isle of Man, who now stands high among the elect of Great Britain as a composer as well as a violinist. Among the better known works from his pen are a setting _ of variations on the Caprice of Paganini, which he has played with much success during the Australian tour. He liaa written several songs, including "Lady, Awake,” "Wood Violets,” “Haying Time,” and “The Gull,” and has just completed a concerto for pianoforte and orchestra.

It is reported that M. Kubelik has signed a contract for 100 concerts in America, to begin next October in New York. The famous violinist has been figuring lately as the defendant in an action brought by a Paris entrepreneur for breach of contract in the course of a tour in Spain and Portugal. The impresario obtained <£Bo damages. It was stated in the evidence that Kubelik declined, among other things, to play on two consecutive evenings, giving as a reason on. one occasion that “the soul of his Stradivarius was out of sorts.” An unimaginative jury refused to believe this, and gave a verdict against the violinist.

The haunting demon of every pianoplayer, the necessity for constant, souldestroying practice at the keyboard, 's threatened with exorcism by an inventor who claims to have discovered a means whereby the muscles of the fingers and arm may be brought into a fit condition without it. Mr Macdonald Smith, the inventor in question, is, by his own description of himself, at once a musician and a man of science. By virtue of this rare combination of qualities, he claims to have made a discovery which has hitherto escaped attention. He asserts that continual practice at the key-hoard is, in almost all cases, not only ineffectual in bringing the x muscles into the best possible condition for playing difficult passages, but also detrimental to the player. There are few men and women so highly gifted by Nature that they attain the most marvellous execution after constant practice; but ordinary human beings cannot hope to reach such a state of technical perfection even if they practice :to the utmost limit of their strength. Yet, according to Mr Smith, they may attain wonderful execution without practising at all, except as far as is necessary to gain familiarity with the different keys. In an apt illustration the inventor describes how the mopping up of a pool of ink with a sponge would take some hundreds of applications if the spongy were only halfsqueezed each time; whereas, if it were squeezed quite dry, ‘three or four would be sufficient. He likens the effect upon the fingers and arm .by ordinary piano practice to the half-squeezing of /the sponge, while in his method of muscular training he aims at squeezing the muscles quite dryovery time. The -inventor does not, however, ‘give on exact description of 'the /method itself, -though gome idea of the process may be gamed.

According to his own calculations, ;th® actual exercise involves a maximum of eight minutes’ manipulation, away from the piano, every morning and evening, and, if the results are only half as great as they are claimed to be, the inventor has, indeed, conferred a great blessing upon a large section of every community. For, not only will the tired pianoplayers be released from their wearisome hours of practice, but the still greater number of unwilling listeners will also be relieved of the necessity of forming a bored and unsympathetio audience.

Madame Albani, who was known as Marie La Jeunesse until she became established as an artist, made her first appearance in her native Canada when she was eight years old. A paper of the time describes her as “a charming little girl in a white frock, with a great, sash round her waist, and a mass of fair curls tumbling over her shoulders. Perhaps never before on a concert platform did a child’s voice arouse such enthusiasm. The whole audience rose to her ; bouquets rained on her from everp part of the house until the radiant Pttle girl stood there, with proud tears filling her eyes, the centre of a stage garden of flowers, and fairest of them all.”

# # * The remains of Haydn, which have rested for nearly ninety years at Eieentadt, in Hungary, are to be brought to Vienna, an re-interred in a "grave of honour” in the great central cemetery, close to the monuments erected to Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and other famous composers. The municipality of Vienna has undertaken this task, and will defray the cost.

A violinist who accompanies his own performance upon the pianoforte is one of the latest musical attractions at one of the English variety theatres. Exactly how this is managed is .not explained in the press notices.

The copyright of Wagner’s opera "Tristan and Isolde” has just expired. The great love drama was commenced in 1857, and completed tivo years later. Its first performance took place at Munich on June 10, 1865, under the famous Hans von Bulow. The only Wagner works of which the copyrights have still to run are "Die Meistersinger,” the "Ring,” and “Parsifal.”

Herr Engen d’Albert has finished % four-act comic o ma, vV.ii/.'.ed “Tragaldabas,” founded on a novel c-f M. Vacquerie. It is to be produced at Dresden and Munich next winter. The list of novelties at Munich includes also "Eugene Onegin,” 'Marien’s "Akte,” and "Zierpuffen,” by a hitherto unknown composer, Gotzi, the libretto of which (by Dr Batka) is founded on Moliere’a "L&s Precieuses Ridicules.”

An interesting operatic experiment is being tried at Leeds. A body of enthusiasts, recognising how difficult it ia for the managers of travelling operatio companies to provide interesting novelties in place of constant "Bohemian Girls,” or even to know what novelties are wanted in certain towns, lias formed an association, to be known as the Leeds Playgoers’ Society, with the object of "endeavouring to ascertain the wants of (the more artistic) playgoers and operagoers, and of being the means of pressing their wants in a more convincing manner 1 than i 6 afforded by a few isolated letters in the newspapers.” In other words, the society would say to an impresario, "If you will undertake to produce such-and-such a work or works during your next visit to Leeds, we will support you to such-and-such an extent.” The plan seems to have excellent possibilities, though the success of a somewhat similar policy at Sheffield has not, from the financial point of view, been altogether brilliant. But the attempt is worth making. The president of the society is Mr Herbert Thompson, the well-known critic.