MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1645, 11 January 1913, Page 9

MUSIC.

TBt Treble Clef.l

Hri John Lemmono has received word from Mme. Melba as to her present and future movements. It will be remembered (notes an Australian writer) that in October the Australian diva reappeared in London at a concert at tho Albert Hall, after which she toured the provinces with Ysaye (violinist), Backhaus (pianist), Edmund Burke (basso), and, in the big centres, the "New Symphony Orchestra, under Landon Eouald. This occupied the star until just before Christmas, when sho intended taking a flat' in Paris for n month's holiday, varied by a second tour of Great Britain, lasting five weeks. In March Mmc. Melba will give favourite scenes, at the Paris Opera, which her prestige enables her to secure for that purpose; and later in the year she will tour the United States. The star proposes that Mr. Lommone shall join her as before'in America, 'but that eminent flautist is doubtful whether he,can again jeave his homo and his'bnsiness interests in order to face the trials and discomforts inseparable from constant, travelling even under the most luxurious conditions. Another Australian lyric soprano (says the "Sydney' Morning Herald") was launched upon the operatic stage of Eu--1 rope on October 30 last, when Miss Dorothy Margaret Henderson made her debut as Margherita in Gounod's "Faust" at the-Teatro Cominunale, Piovo. (Yenezia). The young singer .was favourably received by a crowded . house, and 'U Veneto," of Padua, praises the debutante as the possessor of a limpid voice of even timbro used with great effect. Miss Henderson 'was born:in'Sydney, but has been brought up in Brisbane by her parents, who ultimately took her to' Milan with introductions to Signor Hnzon, with tho result that since the latter end of 1907 she has studied under Professor Paolo Guetta for a period of five years. • Miss Henderson's vcice has a range of two and a half octaves, and is said to bo of beautiful quality.

French Musical Art. With; a view to encouraging French musical art arid artists and commending them to the appreciation of foreign countries, a committee has been formed in Paris under ■ the presidency of. tho :Comtesse. Greffulhc, and is said- to.'--in-'elude many of the most influential'persons in the social, political, and ; artistic life of France./ ; ; ;','■' '.' . ';„ ' One 'of the first undertakings, of the oommittee was a' concert' given at Covcnt Garden on December 10 by the Colonno Orchestra, conducted >by M, Gabriel' Pierne. Among the composers whose' works were represented on the programme are Saint-SaOns 1 , Debussy, Charpenter, and Pierne. Interest was also excited by tho remarkable: symphony of Ernest Fanelli, which aroused such enthusiasm when performed at the,'Chatelet by the. Colonne Orchestra and won for tho previously unknown composer a reputation'in tho' musical world. Tho'symphony .'had not previously been performed in ~ England. Among the artists were Mile. Demougeot, of the Paris Opera; whom many regard as the greatest dramatio 6oprano in France. - A Conventional Cadenza Disdained.

1 - The" reappearance in London'. of Mr. Eugen D'Albcrt was noted by critics as an important event in the musical world bv reason of a "bold innovation"—as Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto was played for the first-time without a cadenza. "Even Busoni and Ysayo (recalls the musical critic of the "Manchester Guardian") turned a deaf ear to all that was said against this objectionable praotice of 'foroing- cadenzas whero they oto not wanted, and of lengthening into a cadenza every simple transitional period. One had •given up the hope of ever being heard by these famous performers, when - Mr. D'Albert comes and gives us tho very thing we. have waited for, 'against all habits and tradition of virtuosity.. It is impossible to praise him too highly for doing.it, for this is a challenge to other pianists. Let us hope that, as he. wiuld be imitated if he had "done some extraordinary feat, ho may find imitators' when he does so,simple a thing as this. Mr. D'Albert's performance had many ex-' cellent points, but they all fall into insignificance by the .-side of this great fact, that ho played a Beethoven concerto, without the cadenza of tho eminent Mr. X."' ,-',.- Curiosities of Criticism. It was Mark Twain who said, "Having heard several of -Wagner's operas, I have como to the conclusion that his music isn't half as bad as it sounds." Although he described Wagner as "the Mahomet of modern music,"'J. W. Davison, then tho leading musical critic in London, attacked the composer and his work when (he "Tannhauscr" march was played for the first time in England, on May 1, 1851. under the conductorship, of Dr. Henry Wylde. This is what Davison wrote in "The Musical World":—

"After all tho talk .that has, been, at Home and abroad, nlxmt Herr Richard Wagner's overture to 'Tannhauser,'wo certainly, were led to expect something' better than wo bonrd. It is-enormously difficult to play, and taxed the.powers of the magnificent band to the utmost. With regard -torthe musici it is ,such/: queer stuff, that criticism' would bo . thrown away tipnn it. We never listened to an overture at.once so loud, and empty. And Richard Wagner, according, to Franz Liszt, is entrusted with no less important a mission than the regeneration of tho musical art."

Davison was also "The Times" musical critic. In the Thunderer ho was allowed to say:—"The almost impossiblo Tannhanser* overturo would do very well for a pantomime or Easter piece. It is a weak parodv of the worst compositions, not of M. Berlioz, but of his imitators. So much fuss about nothing, such a pompous and empty commonplace has seldom been heard." The composer did -not fare any better nt the hands of tho critic when he went to London to conduct the Philharmonicconcerts in. 1855. In a. letter from London to Otto Wesendonck, in Zurich, AVngner wrote:— ' . "A few other reporters in London find tho tone of Davison nnd Chorley: lob impertinent, and for Hint reason give (e;iiporising accounts, in which I am left with this or that good trait, but-.nor contra this or that bad one is not gainsaid. The cinmbililj of Jwlgiiig .me, or even' impartinllv hearing what I give them to hear, I disallow to them all. But, for knowing what (hey want, the two aforesaid bear tho palm: 'they are paid to keen mo down, and thus they earn their daily, bread.'" Davison, in 1859. married Arabella Goddard. tho pianist who toured Australia with a concert comnnny in ISm. Madame Goddnrd-Davison is still living in England. was born on January [12,1836.