MUSIC IN AMERICA

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 15

MUSIC IN AMERICA

AMAZING CONDITIONS THE MECCA OF THE STAR The following letter has been received by Mr Maurice Ralph from the well-known entrepreneur, Mr E., J. Gravestock, dated New York, January New York at the moment is Paradise for the music lover. During the forthcoming week he can choose from the following list:—Paderewski, Heifetz, Moiseiwtsch, the New York Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a dozen minor but firstrate concert artists; or, if be prefers opera, he can hear Galli-Curei, Jevitza, Rosa Ponselle, Gigli, Martinelli, Ruffo, and some of the other hundred odd operatic artists at the Metropolitan Opera House; whilst in the immediate past and the near future Kreisler, Ignaz Friedman, Joska Szigeti, Harold Samuels, Myra Hess, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sigaorina Dusolina Giannini, Shura Cherkassky, Yehudi Menuhin are a few of the great ones available for the asking. British musicians are represented by Harold Samuels, Myra Hess, and Irene Scharrer, all pianists, who have scored really great triumphs during the past week; and the popular singers, Miss Amy Evans and Mr Fraser Cange, who are well remembered in Australia and New Zealand from their tour some years ago, and who have been remarkably successful here during the past few seasons. Arriving on Tuesday is Sir Thomas Beecham, who makes his American debut as a conductor in a few days. Australia has as its representatives Florence Austral and John Amadio, who arrived last week from London for a big tour. Austral has won a remarkable position here in the short time of three years, and she is now one of the highest-paid sopranos in the country. In addition to the multitude of concerts, the three big picture _ theatres— Roxy, with a seating capacity of over 6,00 U people, and undoubtedly the most beautiful theatre in the world, the Paramount, and the Capital—all have large symphony orchestras, which play the best in music literature. On Sunday mornings, at 11.30 a.m., the Roxy Theatre gives a symphony concert, with its orchestra of 110 players, with tho added attraction of a famous concert star. The concert is followed by tho full vaudeville and picture entertainment, the total cost of admission being one dollar (4s) —the only cheap entertainment I know in New York. As a matter of fact there is really nothing cheap about New York. Admission to concerts of all kinds ranges from 30s to 4s. The normal prices for grand opera are' 35s to 6s, but it is rarely one is able to obtain a ticket at its face value, as tho speculators secure them, and resell them at exorbitant prices. Fortunately this evil looks like being abolished, as a law is being enforced which prevents ticket agents from reselling tickets at more than 2s above their face value. Theatre prices range from 35s to 4s per seat. Ihe big musical comedies only command tho top prices, although the average price for straight comedy and drama is 14s. Last week I paid 22s per seat for two seats for tho opening night of Judith Anderson in George Kellys new play, ‘Behold tho Bridegroom, which incidentally was a great triumph for both star and author, and is hailed as one of tho best plays of the year. An interesting side of the theatre ticket speculator’s business is the “cut-rate” store. If a show is not doing good business, or a speculator has made a bad bargain and is left with the tickets on his hands, which he cannot sell at a premium, or at real price, they are sent to the “ cut-rate ’ store. For 2s anyone can purchase a discount card, which entitles tho holder to buy three tickets which are on the “ cut-rate ” for half-price, and from 6 p.m. onwards to , theatre time pandemonium reigns at this store. Thirty or forty loud-voiced assistants call the prices, and the show for which they have tickets available to tho hundreds of people that file constantly in and out. Needless to say it is rarely that the big successes figure in the “ cutrate,’ ’although many good shows which hover between failure and success have been kept going to eventual success by this arrangement. Two marvellous hoy prodigies have caused considerable excitement recently in music here, Yehundi Menuhin and Shura Cherkassky. The first is a ten-year-old American lad, born of Russian parents, who plays tho violin like a great master, and who has dumbfounded tho critics and musicians generally by his uncanny ability to override all technical difficulties and seriously interpret such great works as Dio Brahms concerto and Bach’s ‘ Chaconne.’ His parents are fully alive to the necessity of nurturing this young genius, and already a fortune has been refused in fees, and his public appearances arc to be limited to about a dozen concerts a year for the present. Cherkassky is a sixteen-year-old Russian from Odessa, that marvellous town which has given so many great musicians to the world. He made his debut in New York three years ago, and his music developments have been carefully -watched by Josef Hofman, Paderewski, and other great artists who have taken a personal interest in him. Theodore Stearns, in the ‘ New York Morning Telegram,’ says ; “ Theosojlhists might call this hoy pianist the reincarnation of a Carl Tausig or a Franz Liszt. 1 call him the greatest child artist I have ever met. ’ 1 have never seen an audience so impressed as the vast crowd that, packed the Carnegie Hall a few days ago to hear him. With the high rates of admission to concerts and theatres, fees to artists also are on a comparatively high scale. I saw a contract recently for Signorina Dusolina Giannini, the beautiful Italian singer, who has created such a furore in America, whereby she was to receive £350 (1,750 dollars) to sing one aria with orchestra at the Roxy Theatre Symphony Concert. Florence Austral’s contract for America guarantees her £IO,OOO for forty concerts. Levitzki, the popular pianist, beloved by

Australians, received £2,000 for two weeks’ engagement any time he ic available during the forthcoming year. Salaries for actors and actresses are on a similar high scale, and the difficulties of the enterpreneur who is trying to entice successful artists to Australia and New Zealand can be appreciated, A brief but enjoyable stay in Chicago enabled me to visit the Chicago Civic Grand Opera performance four times. A big number of operatic artists who are only names to most music-lovers in Australia and New Zealand, with one or two exceptions, were attracting crowded houses—Rosa Raisa, Claudio Muzia, Toti Dal Monte, Charles Hackett, Tito Schipa, Formichi. Tho vast auditorium, which holds over 3,500 people, was a joy to see, and one mentally conjured up a similar opera house in Sydney and Melbourne. The financial side seems all so easy. Five hundred Chicagoans guarantee £2OO each a year, and they have a twenty weeks’ opera season, which enables them to include a visit to Boston, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. The property on which the auditorium is built has become so valuable that it is to be demolished, and a vast skyscraper is to be erected. As this would leave the town without a home for its grand opera, the energetic multi-millionaire president of the Chicago Civic Opera Company (who is, by the way, an Englishman) has arranged with a few other Chicago millionaires to build its own skyscraper, with will include a perfect opera house and a small rehearsal theatre, at a cost of £5,000,000. They anticipate that the rentals forthcoming from offices, shops, etc., will repay the capital outlay in a few years, and quote as example a forty-story skyscraper built in Chicago five years ago at a cost of £3,000,000 by a big banking concern, which wrote the building off at a dollar a few weeks ago. The New York Metropolitan Opera House is also having its troubles, as improved land values are forcing it from its present position, and securing

a suitable site is proving a greater problem than the actual successful running of opera. A new and delightful form of entertainment which has caught on in England and America is that presented by Ruth Draper in London and Cornelia Otis Skinner in New York. Both are' great artists, and their offerings are tho delineation of feminine types. Alone, on an empty stage, they present little dramas of life and love and tragedy, until tho barren stage is no longer barren, and the performer is no longer alone. Miss Skinner is a daughter of Otis Skinner, one of America’s most famous actors. A charming personality and a great entertainer, Miss Skinner is attracting crowded houses in New York) and Miss Draper is attracting likewise in London. Their sketches are all original, and creations from their own pens.