MADAME TERESA CARRENO.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 911, 22 August 1907, Page 17

MADAME TERESA CARRENO.

“Carreno, in her beauty and wonderful control of the piano, is a living embodiment of the art divine.” So says the “Daily Telegraph,”. London. And the “Berlin Courier” adds: “In her art she is unr.valled. An Australian visitor to Vienna a few years ago asked the great teacher Leschetitzky. to name the artist whom he considered the best pianist in the world.’ “There are five best pianists,,” ■ repl ed Leschetitzky, “d’Albert, Carreno, Busoni, Paderewski and Sauer. The six' h place is still open.’ The second name on Leschetitzky’s list is that of the illustrious artiste whom Herr Benno Scherek has now the privilege of introduc’ng here.

As a pianist ’himself and a concert manager closely familiar with the tastes of Australian audiences, Herr Scherek believes that" his judgment in mu -ical matters may confidently be trusted, more particularly as he has just completed 1 a round of tours embracing prac ically the whole of Europe and the Un ted Stares. In the course of these visits he naturally seized upon every opportunity of hearing all the greatest virtuosi of the day, and his deliberate opinion is that Carreno possesses in an eminent degree all those intellectual qual ties which attract .he cul-

tured musician, while her virility, sensational magnetism and personal fascination delight equally that critical section and also the great general mus.c-loving public to which the impressar-io in this country must successfully appeal. - -This remarkable woman’.; . unique position in the musical world has, •• during the la; fifteen years, remained-undisputed'. What Sarah Bernhardt s in the world of drama, what Adelina Patti was in the rea m of song, that Carreno is in the bead-rh of pianis s—she stands at the head of her chosen art.

Carreno has received some of the highest distinctions from the crowned patrons of music in Europe. Queen Alexandra is one of her warmest adm rers and Carreno holds several Court appointments She is “Hcfpianistin to the King of Wur emburg ” and “Kammervirtuosin to the King of Saxony.” She has been decorated with the Gold Medal of the King of Sweden, who has also bestowed upon this wonderful woman the coveted Order “Literati et Mer i,” whilst the Government of her native land has decorated her with the Order “Busto di Bolivar.”

Carreno is now in the very prime of her splendid powers and the height of her immense popular ty. The English and Continental tour, which she has just concluded, has even surpassed all her previous triumphs in the immense and wlidly enthusiastic audiences which have everywhere hronged to listen to her.

Mail news received by Messrs. J ard N. Tait regarding Madame C ara Butt’s final concert in the Albert Hall, indicate 1 hat in more ways than one t must have been a posi ive’y unique event For one thing a thunderstorm raged through part of it and the great contralto sang “Abide with Me” with the thunder • rashing outside as if in unison wi h the great organ, and w th the lambent flame of the lightning seeming to play all round her. After her first song a solemn procession of attendants filed on to dhe platform with an array of enormous flora! tributes, including a horseshoe nearly as big as Madame herse'f. These were supplemented at the end of the programme with the model of a steamer mad-? n flowers, which was five feet long, and required two men to carry it. The huge audience which filled :he hall would let neither Madame nor her husband depart, and after a score of recal's the two sang the duet “The Rays of Heaven,” which has an added sentimental significance with them, for it was the song in which the two realised a few years ago that they were all in all to one another. It mav be ment’oned

that Queen Alexandra had intended to be present at the concert, but was prevented by a S ate engagement. ♦ * * ♦

Allan Hamilton returns to Sydney at the close of the present Rickards season, which has proved phenomenally successful. Having superintended the final details “on the other s de” of his Maud Hildyard and “Home Sweet Home” Companies, Mr. Hamilton leaves for Hobart, where he intends to remain during the coming summer. “I have been catching trains and steamers for several years without a spell, and feel the time has come when I must take one.”

Mr. George Bu.ler and Mr. Fred Duncan will represent Allan Hamilton during the Maor land tour of Miss Maud Hildyard, while Mr. Herbert Leigh and Mr. M. Marcus will be in charge of the “Home, Sweet Home” Company.

Just before they left for Australia, Messrs. Frank Merrick and Carl Barre, the two young musicians who are to accompany Clara Butt on ‘her tour, gave a recital in London. The former is spoken of by the ‘‘Times ’ as a pianist in whom earnestness of purpose and high artistic ams are joined with a fine command of the resources of the keyboard, and the latter as a violinist with a beautifully-finished style.

One of those periodical general posts that seem to come round about every three months is imminent with Mr. J. C. Will arrison’s organisations, and last week the advertisements of four of them contained the- words “Last nights.” The new musical comedy company has just completed their initial season of 8 weeks at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne under the most auspicious condiditions possible, and the launching of them as an Australian attraction of the firs; water has been effected in the most gratifying manner. At the end of the month Mr. Andrew Mack says good-bye to Melbourne, and opens in Sydney on the 31st at Her Majesty’s Theatre, supp.anting the Royal Comic Opera Company which takes his place in Melbourne. Mr. Julius Knight is winding up a long and very successful New Zealand season at Dunedin. Even the two companies! not actual’y n their last nights are effected by “the epidemic.” The Pantomime Company is approaching the end of its Australian (as distinct from its Australasian) career, and the end of the month will see it leave the Commonwealth for New Zealand, while the Brune Company, as everybody knows, has a bare month of ts existence in its present form left to it.