Music Notes

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7979, 9 December 1911, Page 18

Music Notes

During his holiday ia Norway the German Kaiser, one evening after dinner on hi„ yacht, the ilolioiizollern, seized the conductor's baton and directed the concert.

In honour of the late Gustav Mahler Iwo presentations of his eighth syniphonv will be given in Vienna this eo'.ning season. It will be remembered t_n;u this work demands a thousand penorxners.

societv of women musicians has been formed in England for the betterment of musical conditions in that country. The first president of the society wili be Liza Lehmann, the composer of "In a Tersuin Garden.”

Marino Corgialoguo, a Greek merchant cf London, out of a fortune of two ana a half million dollars, has bequeathed. 75,(J90d0l for an upper school of music to provide a permanent- and appropriate building for the conservatory or musical and dramatic society of Athens.

An orchestral society has been formed in Berlin consisting solely of physicians: and surgeons. Over sixty medical men. attended the first meeting, and it was decided that their wives and daughters might be permitted to join. Serious forest fires have occurred near Fontainebleau, France, Among those who have cohered loss of riropcrty has been Harold Bauer, the eminent piamst. Hi.s homo was burnt down and his wile s jewels lost. Ho is to tour the United States during tho coming season. Madame Schumann-lleink has been so successful at the Bayreuth Festival this year that she has been re-engaged to sing there in two years’ time, oho was equally, well (received at ‘the Munich Festival aud has entered into a new contract to sing there again.

It is stated that Hans Richter, whose life has so long been identified with English musical affairs, and who enjoyed tho intimacy of Kicliard Wagner m Bayreuth days, has definitely decided to open a school in Bayreuth for opera students.

Tho Paris Opera Comique Company has been giving a season of opera in Buenos Ayres.

A hitherto uuknown letter by Bee- 1 thoven to his "Immortal Beloved" has been discovered in Berlin.

Weingartner, the great conductor, will cross the Atlantic this season to preside over a fortnight’s opera in Boston.

Filippo Ca.pocci, tho "dean of Italian organists” and a musician' of high repute, died recently in Rome at The age of seventy-one.

Raoul Pugno, tho groat French pian-j Ist, is working on a lyric drama founded on a work of the Italian poet d’Anmmzio, entitled "La Cite M'orte,"

Last j-oar’s performances of the wort© of Massenet totalled 3009. Of tho twentytwo operas he has written, nine hold the stage.

A posthumous work of Jensen’s, an, opera founded on Schiller’s drama, "Turandot," has boon performed In Baden-Baden.

Strauss came nest to Richard. Wagner in Vienna as the favourite operatic composer for the season, but it was Johann Strauss, not Richard! Tho Viennese t hink 'so much of the works of tlio waltz king that they mount his light works with, all the care of grand opera. Richard Strauss has signed the con-: tracts to tour South America, conducting, a series of orchestral concerts. He will I visit Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and Chile. An English paper states that Pade-. rewski can crack a pane of French plate, glass, half an inch thick, merely by 1 placing ono hand upon it as if upon a, piano keyboard, and striking it sharply with tho middle finger. Further more, it states that one hour of Ohopin playing requires a power equivalent to raising eighty-four tons.