THE MUSICAL WORLD

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 7

THE MUSICAL WORLD

(By

“C.J.M.”)

Stray Notes. Mr. Warwick Braithwaite, brother of Mr. R. Braithwaite, of Hamilton, is one

of the conductors of the grand opera company at Sadler’s Wells, London, He received high praise recently for his direction of “Die Fledermaus.”

Mischel Cheruiavsky. who will be remembered as the youngest brother of the. one-time well-known Cheruiavsky Trio, Leo (violinist), Jan (pianist), and Mischel (’celnst), is touring in South Africa with a young but talented pianist, Jack Aronowitz. As there appears to be a possibility that we may see these two artists here later on, the following criticism, taken from a Cape Town paper, will be of interest: “Seldom has any qr.tlst been accorded a wanner reception than Mischel C.herniavsky, after his exquisite rendering of Saint-Saens’s ’cello concerto last night. Not only is Cherniavsky’s technique faultless, but his rendering of the work was elevated to a sphere of high artistry -by the very real emotion with which he invetsed his playing.”

Handel’s Music. "Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his latter oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the middle classes, but 'we have the records of his conversations with Gluck, Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste,” writes Mr Edward J. Dent, in “Handel.”

"He composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality, but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity. “If Handel’s works have for later generations become a source of joy and delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel’s day which are now national monuments and open to all comers. “We walk beneath their colonnades, peopling them in Imagination with the gracious and stately figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard strains of Handel’s music: “ ‘Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round, And silence now is drown’d In ecstasy of sound! How on a sudden the still air its charm’d, As if all harmony were just alarm’d And every soul with transport fill’d!” The Famous “Enigma Variations.” The presence of characteristically English qualities in Elgar’s music has been challenged by critics from abroad, chiefly through a misconception. Although there exists undoubtedly an Idiom In music which, whether'by association or otherwise, conveys the immediate impression of an English origin—-an idiom which Elgar has seldom If ever used—it is not by idiom alone that national characteristics are conveyed. The “Enigma Variations,” dedicated “To my friends pictured within,” are portraits limned in a . musical medium of which the theme is the simplest expression. The medium itself is neither German nor English. It is merely European. But the

type of friendship underlying these portraits is much more characteristic. More than once Continental authors have endeavoured to discover and record the secret of our friendships, in which so much is taken for granted

that their expression can be quite safely reduced to cabalistic terms, or seasoned with a pinch of raillery. The Englishman has been told that he is inarticulate when it is nearer the truth to say that in certain relations he does not feel the need of words. And the Englishman’s chaff would quickly undermine most friendships made on the Continent. One could not assert that Elgar has been inarticulate in these variations, nor could one regard them as banter. To him the mission of music was perhaps too serious to permit it, though he had his full share of the national sense of fun. But the feeling that pervades this work is fsiendjhip of the kind that not only tolerates, but thrives upon both inarticulateness and banter. That, although maybe not a national monopoly, is at least a .pronounced national characteristic, and Elgar, in the glow of uneffusive affection, has portrayed it with as much success as, no doubt, he has portrayed the friends concerned. The theme is headed “Enigma,” and the explanation put forward on the composer’s behalf is that theme and variations alike are in harmony with a

greater theme which is not stated. All attempts to elicit from the composer what that theme is proved vain,, but he claimed that it was a well-known one. ThaZ musician’s have not discovered it for themselves is not surprising. If one of them were to sit down to the task of writing all the counterpoints possible on the first six notes of an ascending minor scale, the theme would doubtless be among them, but the process would be like searching for the word which opens a combination lock. At all events it is not the “Pure Fool” motive from “Parsifal,” as an American critic once asserted.

The individual variations, of which there are fourteen, are inscribed with initials or pseudonyms. There is no longer any mystery concerning the identity of the subjects, but, just as one need not know the sitter to appreciate a painted portrait, knowledge of Elgar’s friends is quite irrelevant to appreciation of his “Variations.”