THE CONCERT PLATFORM

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7721, 2 June 1903, Page 4

THE CONCERT PLATFORM

Mr Harris, partner in Reynolds and C0.,---music publishers, of London, who is pass- 1 ing through Wellington, has accepted four •ongs by local composers, including three of Mr A. Hill's.

Miss Enriqueta Crichton, who will be •well remembered in Ghristchurch as a member of the Muagrove English Opera Company,, was on latest advices still with the Moody-Manners Opera Company, and singing Marguerite in " Faust " and Elsa in *• Lohengrin." The company will go on touring till the beginning of June. Miss Lilian Coomber is with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, where she is also having much, success.

Fritz Muller, the Australian violinist, is retuajing to Melbourne, in order to procure more money for the purpose of advancing his musical studies. He gave a concert recently in Berlin, where he was a«■isted by Joachim (the great virtuoso), and obtained excellent notices of his playing. Miss Bessie Doyle, who made a tour of this colony some years ago, first under her own name, and again under the name of Eileen Moore, but who retired- from the musical profession) ons the occasion^ of her marriage, is again studying at Leipsio Oonservatorium, and intends shortly to reappear in public. Mr Mark Hambourg, the pianist, at pre- * Bent in Australia, possesses an interesting souvenir, in the form of a gold locket, comtaining on one side, a lock of Liszt's hair, and on the other side a lock of Rubinstein's. This souvenir was presented to the Russian pianist by the great Viennese piano pedagogue, the inscription being— " Mark Hambourgj from Theodore Leschetitzky." Leoncavallo's new opera "Roland" is to be produced in Berliii in the autumn. The composer is engaged! on another to lie entitled " Winter Roses." I For the Handel festival, which, was to j begin in London on May 11, Herr August Manus will conduct a choir of 2700 voices, ,of which 500 will come from the provinces. A Brooklyn resident has patented what lie calls ai due flute. By attaching a reed mechanismi to a Boenm flute, he produces » quality of tone combining the flute and clarionet character. Like the flute, it is a non-transposing instrument. Paderewski, who is now at his place, at Morges, near Lausanne, is a great stockbreeder, and recently received a present o£ ■ome shorthorn cattle from. King . Edward. P?aderewski, it is said, is at present engaged on a new opera. Heir Richard Strauss has, it is reported, Agreed to lead the New York Metropolitan Orchestra for a term of five years, dividing the actual work with Dr Hertz, of New (York. It is claimed that with this combination New York will rival Berlin as a fauadcal centre. Private news from London received in

Sydney states that Mr Philip Newbury was recalled! five times after "Come into the Garden, Maud," at the Erard Popular Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. The tenor was encored, andl a similar scene occurred after " The Requital."

The Municipal Band of Rome will visit England next month, and one of the items it will perform will 'bo an overture by the young Italian composer Gino Marinuzzi. Tihia musician was born twenty years ago at Palermo, and 'has recently completed a new lyric comedy, entitled "Barberina," which is to be produced in his native city. He wrote a requiem in memory of the late King of Italy, which so impressed the reigning monarch that Marinuzzi was made a cavalier© of the Crown of Italy.

The fact that Madame Patti is to make another song tour, says an English contemporary, 'has filled music-loving people with wonder, and regarding it they ax© retelling the following story :-—Sfae was out walking one day, and feeling thirsty called at a cottage 'by the waysKito to ask for a glass of milk, and) when she offered to pay, the peasant woman raised! lier hand in gentle remonstrance, saying:- — "There is nothing to pay for the milk, ibut will madaane kindly sing to us one of her sweet songs ?" Patti entered the Sh-uan'ble torne^ andl sang, in her most' superb style, " Home, Sweet Home I" The astonished and delighted cottagers listened' in raptures, and tendered their distinguished visitor warmest thanks. Then, from an inner apartment, came a feeble voice : " Please sing that again ; it was so 'beautiful !" " That is my daughter, who is dying of consumption," said tihe cottager ; *" she is so fond of singing." Patti visited the sick girl, sang the song to her, and gave 'her a syinipatlietic word. The milk tad been paid)* for by melody for which the world would' h«/ve glady paid thousands of dollars.

In the Apin numoer of the "Paris World" appears the following remarkable story of the origin ol Chopin's "Marche Funebre." It is "told .by Ziem, in whoso studio the scene took place": — "Late one summer '<s. afternoon Chopin and I sat talking in my studlio. I spoke of music, and he of painting. Strange, is it not? : Artists are very fond of exchanging views in this way. In one corner of the room stood a piano, and in another the complete skeleton of ( a man, with a .large white cloth thrown, ghost-like, about it. I noticed that now and again Chopin's gaze would wander, and, from my knowledge of the man, I know that ihxs thoughts were far away from me and his surroundings. More than that, I knew that he was composing.

Presently ihe ro3e from his seat ■without 1 a ■word, walked over to the skeleton, and removed the cloth. He then carried it to th© piano, 'and, seating himself^ took the hideous object upon his knees. A strange picture of life and death ! Then, drawing the white cloth round himself a.nd the skeleton, he laid the latter's fingers over his own and began to play. There was no hesitation in the slow^ measured flow of sound which he and the skeleton conjured up. As the music swelled in a louder strain I closed my eyes, *for there was something weird in that picture of man and' skeleton seated 1 at the piano, with the shadows, of evening deepening around them, ajid the ever-swell-ing and ever-softening music filling the air with mystery. And I knew I was listening to a composition which would live for ever. The music ceased,, and when I looked up the piano chair was empty, and on the floor lay Chopin's unconscious form, and ■beside him, smashed all to pieces, was the skeleton I' prized so much. The great composer had swooned A but his march was found."

Dr Richter was seventy on April 4, and he was deluged with greetings from the musical world which he adorns. The most interesting personal association of his life has been his friendship with Wagner, whom he joined nearly thirty years ago as a copyist. Hans Richter was playing the horn at a Vienna jbheatre when Wagner asked the director to recommend someone to copy out the score- of -iTli' 5 ' Meistersinger " for the printer, and the director recommended the man who has since found so great a fame himself in England. Dr Richter was therefore,the first man to hear "Die Meistersinger," and he has a clear recollection of the writing of it. Wagner asked him one day how a certain passage would sound on the horns, and his assistant, whose horn-play draws as distinguished a crowd to-day as Paderewski at the piano, replied : ."Very odd, indeed, I am afraid." "Capital!" exclaimed Wagner,. " the very thing I want," and he set down for ever one more enormi-

ty in music. Though his room was over the composer's, Dr Richter tells us that never once did he hear the sound of a piano from the master's room. "Those complex harmonies and beautiful melodies all sprang from the brain ; apparently, too, without

effort, for Wagner never altered anything he wrote." The two would take long walks every afternoon, but Wagner was deaf and dumb on these occasions — "he was composing, in some sense or other, all the time." Loth to disturb him by even a sound of music, Kichter would steal away from the house at Triebschen, take a small boat across Lake Lucerne, and there practice on his horn. One night a crackling in the bushes revealed that he was not alone, and soon an Englishman stood before him. He had been, attracted by the mysterious music fTom the island, and had come to find tie secret out for himself. Years afterwards a strange- meeting came about, which carried the memories of both to the little island at Lucerne. It was fifteen years alter the incident that Dr Bichter came to Oxford to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. After the ceremony a member tit the University aproached the doctor and introduced himself as tihe man who had intruded upon his seclusion at Lucerne! "Then," said Dr Richter) "you may also say with truth that you were the very first person to hear selections from ' Dis Meistersinger.' " Madame Wagner^s still living, and Dr Richter will have often recalled one of her birthdays. "I can't think why Richter has been so idle lately," said Madame Wagner one day; "he used to be so industrious." But Madame Wagner understood the reason on Christmas Eve, when she kept her birthday. On fchat night in 1870 Wagner and Richter played the " Siegfried Idyll " under her window as a surprise serenade, it having been composed 'dSd rehearsed in secret as a birthday gift- for Madame Wagner.