MUSIC NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7021, 8 January 1910, Page 2

MUSIC NOTES

BEETHOVEN TO THE LIFE. i'EOSI OUB SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. LONDON, November 2G. Lovers of the music of Beethoven will bo interested to hear of a new play > which has been written round the lifestory of the great composer. “Beethoproduced by Sir H. B. Tree last night at His Majesty's,, is an adaptation of a play originally produced at the ; ! Paris Odeon, but it is really not so . much of a play as a series of musical ’ tableaux. Scenes in Beethoven's career 1 are staged to the accompaniment # of • selections from his immortal music. 1 Thus in act 1 you see the composer • dismissed by Giulietta Guicciardi, the woman he loved, on the eve of her marriage with von Galleuberg. In act 11. the subject is his growing deafness, culminating in the moment when his 1 quartet is being played in his lodgings before the Archduke, and he finds that ho cannot hear p, note.. In act HI. Beethoven catches his nephew Karl stealing from his desk the very . bank shares which he himself in the depth of poverty had refused to sell, in order that ho might bequeath them to —his nephew Karl! The composer dies to the vision of his nine symphonies, which appear before his dying eyes as nine angel shapes of dazzling beauty. . The special traits of the composer’s strong, rugged individuality are brought out —his independence, his hatred of shams and scorn of conventions, his unbusinesslike generosity, his passionate loves, his eccentricities of ‘habit. You see him se/id in a parcel, rather than wear them, his best clothes to a party given by a snobbish hostess who has asked him to look respectable and smart. You hear him tell how he lost the proceeds of a big concert by leaving his coat under a hedge because an idea for a new symphony had struck him on the way home. You see him rude and charming by turns, you, see him in the very frenzy of composition, seized with ideas, and scribbling them in a notebook, oblivious of ius surroundings. All this Sir Herbert Tree brings out in an impersonation remarkable not only for tiio clevernoses of the acting, but also for the amazing fidelity of the make-up. His appearance is convincing. The iion head, with its shaggy mane and broad, lowering features, is reproduced with startling reality. It is Beethoven to the life, as we know him by contemporary prints. The music is .accompanied by symbolical characters. Beethoven always seems to have worked to a kind of picture in his own mind, and he did not hesitate to explain what he was aiming at in his music. Thus we have two musical descriptions of his unhappy -love for Giulietta Guicciardi the so-called “Moonlight Sonata" and the -‘"Symphony in C Minor," the latter illustrating the words applied to it by Beethoven himself, "Thus Fate Knocks at the Door." Everyone who remembers the ojiening ■ movement of the O Minor Symphony i will realise how vividly it brings out » that idea of Fate knocking at the door, i Again, Beethoven describes the "Quar- * tet in F" as a tone-picture of the tomb * scene in “Borneo and Juliet." On be- * ing asked for the key to the sonata called “Appassionata," Beethoven himself replied, "Head Shakespeare's fTem- . pest.'" Or, once again, when Count Lichnowsky, to whom the Sonata in E Minor was dedicated, wanted to knowits meaning, the composer . replied, • "If you want a superscription, writ© “Struggles between Head and Heart." fact, Beethoven aimed at giving a poetic basis to his instrumental music, . and in play at His Majesty's the immortal nine symphonies with great appropriateness are Symbolised by, living figures, to represent the of the composer's brain. MADAME EMMA CALVE. . Madame Emma Calve, the ‘ eminent songstress who is to tour is an exceedingly charitable woman, and many arc the stories that are told of * her gracious acts of benevolence. One little story that aptly depicts the singer's affection for children relates how she became acquainted with a. sick little girl on an American steamer. The diva was -immensely taken with the tiny invalid, and, when the voyage had come to. an end, pronifiscd to visit the; child at least once a week. True to her promise, and oft n u at some inconvenience to herself, Madame Calve repaired to the little one’s residence every week, invariably overloaded with thechoicest ; gifts in flowers and fruits, and always singing to the sufferer for an hour, or co. Moreover, this did not happen for a week or a fortnight, but for months and months, until death came to claim the patient invalid. And that is only one of ‘numerous stories typical of Cairo's sympathy, with affliction. She is ever ready to relievo distress with kindly word and ready prime, though no one but herself ever knows of the greater portion, of-hop charitable deeds. ’ MISS AMY CASTLES. Miss Amy Castles, during her last torn* ■of Australia, contracted an abscess in her-side, but despite the pain : and inconvenience caused her, the visitor rigidly adhered to all her engagements.' This, as was afterwards learnt, was an exceedingly foolish thing to do, for it r was scon discovered that the disorder was betraying dangerous symptoms.Then, and not till then, a doctor was .called in, and hi-? diagnosis must have been startling, for lie immediately telephoned for another doctor to assist him in an operation at once. Miss Castles was accordingly operated upon, and aftor- ■ wards was informed that she had just, 'been saved from acute blood poisoning. Undaunted by this experience, however, the young soprano sang according to contract on the following night. - THE BESSES O'TH’BARN BAND. The Besses o' th' Barn Band, which has been achieving a pronounced success m South Africa, and which is to appear in Australia for the second time very shortly* is said to be a superior combination to the band which visited New. Zealand some two or three, years ago. The band will number thirty-three performers, . who have been fitted out with a complete set of new instruments, and have had the- further good fortune , of securing Mr Alexander Owen as their conductor. The band was under the baton of Mr Owen during its last Australasian tour, and under those cir- • cumstanoes may he expected to achieve as great a triumph as it did on the - (former occasion.