MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 938, 3 April 1930, Page 16

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

MISS McGRUER’S CONCERT The farewell concert to be given Miss Alma McGruer at the Town Hail on Thursday next promises to be of unusual variety and of an exceptionally high standard. In addition to Miss McGruer herself there will also be appearing Mrs. A. Ripley, Madame Valeska and Mr. Lew Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. J‘. W. Bailey, Miss Beryl Smith, Miss Phyllis Hazel, Miss Mina Caldow, Miss Mavis Grevatt, Miss Erica Blamires Miss Cecil Hall’s pupils, Mr. Barry Coney, Mr. Leo Whittaker, Mr. Dan Flood, Mr. Ronald Muston, Mr. Alan McElwain, Mr. George Poore, Mr. A. Ripley, Mr. W. Gemmell, Mr. Cyril Towsey, Mr. Montague, the New Zealand Quartet and the Clarion Quartet. Miss McGruer has been a very popular figure in Auckland musical circles and it is expected that the complimentary concert to be tendered her prior to her departure for Vienna will be largely attended. The box plan opens at Lewis Eady, Ltd., on Friday. SATURDAY’S BAND CONCERT An enjoyable concert is promised by the Municipal Band in the Town Hall on Saturday evening. The following numbers will be heard for the first time at these concerts: Festival march "Father Rhine," overture “Si J’etais Roi” (“If I Were King”), Valse Triste” (Sibelius), Two Movements from Tschaikowsky's FiEth Symphony, and a grand selection from Wagner’s “Rienzi.” Instrumental solos will be played by Messrs. McLennan and Bowes. Miss Alma McGruer has been specially engaged for the concert, and it will be her last appearance at these concerts prior to her departure for Vienna. Please Omit Flowers It is to be hoped that the music critic of the “New York Times” has a keen sense of humour. The following letter was recently published by that paper:— To tl.e Editor of “The NeWfTork Times": I have always enjoyed reading the “New York Times," and I believe always shall. There are two contributors that always give me a good laugh—Will RoKers and your musical critic. William Sloan. P.S.—Oh, never mind! New York, January 14, 1930.

WAGNER’S WIDOW

DEATH OF COSIMA LISZT THE BAYREUTH MYTH The announcement received yester- j day of the death of Frau Cosima I Wagner, widow of Richard Wagner, I at the age of 93 years, writes finis tot the last chapter of one of the mostj I intriguing episodes to the romance of)r music. For Cosima Wagner, totally hllvti, and with only moments of menyai clarity, was the last remaining lilik with a scandal which, although <67 years old, is still a strong bone of contention in the musical world of the present day. Frau Cosima Wagner was -the daughter of that prince of pianists and pianoforte composers, Franz Early in life she married Hans Von Bulow, a noted conductor of the period, but in 1863 she met and fell violently in love with Richard Wagner. Both Liszt and Von Bulow hs d befriended Wagner, and to both men, Wagner, the stormy petrel of the music world, owed much. Wagner had up to this stage experienced many vicissitudes, most of which his wife Minna had shared gladly with him. With the advent of Cosima also came a change in hi 3

fortunes, due largely to. the patronage of Ludwig, the mad Kdkrig of Bavaria. Convention did not igjreatly trouble either Cosima or Wagnfcir, and although it was not until seven -years later that divorces made it possible for them to marry, they lived together. There were two children of; the marriage. Eva (1867) and Siegfried, who now conducts the Wag myoperas at Bayreuth (1869). TJiirteen years of married life followed at Bayreuth, until Wagner died in 18S?j. Since those days Cosima has successfully carried oil the Buyreuth and Wagner traditions, and, almost successfully, the traditional defence of Richard Wagner’s desertion of his wife Minna Planes •. Although there are many who protest against the of uncomplimentary or unpleasant personal truths about gredt men, there are also many who will aigree that understanding of an art 3 nust rest in part on reliable knowledge and study of the artist. For thij 5 reason the discovery of valuable docs ments, including music and letters, wti ich formed part of the collection of tbv Hon. May Burrell, and which were loLt to the world after her death in 1898, and only discovered last year by Philig. Dutton Ham, then seeking material for a drama on the sub-

ject of WSigner’s life and career, is of tiie greatest Importance. DISTORTED FACTS

In the publication of Wagner’s auto- ] biography, “Mein Leben,” it is believed | that Cofsima had a big hand, and that j for the; purposes of self-justification,j greatly distorted facts about many of j Wagne r’s actions, Wagner’s friends of j past A'ears, and above all, Wagner’s first wife and self-sacrificing helpmate, Minna Planer. An it develops, writes Philip Dutj ton, it would have been much better | for ’Richard and for Cosima in the 1 end-—Cosima, who still lives and has mafraents of mental clarity at Bayreuth —if this most insecure and unsubstantial apologia had never been attempted. It has drawn attention to itti own falsehoods; it has made ten times worse the enormity of Wagner’s maltreatment of a most generous and forbearing w r ife, far more generous and long-suffering than the hard-boiled Cosima ever dreamed of being. MINNA MISREPRESENTED “Certain facts seem pretty clear — facts which Cosima industriously and for many years successfully misrepresented. First af all, Richard Wagner as a youth was not dragged or allured into marriage with a young woman beneath him in social position, or undeserving of his devotion. Minna, an attractive young actress, with a promising career before her, for long resisted Wagner’s entreaties to marry him. At last, by dint of his ceaseless importunities, and no doubt the communicative force of his passion, she took a step she knew to be unwise, which involved far greater sacrifices on her part than on his. Also, as the plain chronological record makes evident, it was while he was Minna’s legal husband, and not when he was legally Coslma’s, that Wagner completed or created in their essential material all of his stupendous music dramas save “Parsifal.” It was after he became the lauded proprietor of Bayreuth that his creative work began to lose in force and quality. “Cosima Liszt was a woman of quite extraordinary force of character,” writes W. J. Turner, “and her Cather, Liszt, was under no illusion about her. It was Cosima who ran off with Wagner, not Wagner who ran off with Cosima. Although at that time Wagner was a mail of 50, and had many serious love affairs, including the great affair of his life (with Mathilde Wesendock), he had, up to that age, avoided running away with anybody, and in a fashion had stuck to his wife Minna. “It is. possible, however, that he now became dominated by the strongest personality he had as yet come across. From the time he met Cosima he was doomed, for Cosima was not the sort of woman ever to give him

“An Awkward Student” “For the first time since I was a student I am to visit my native land,” Madame Florence Austral told the London “Sunday Dispatch,” referring to her approaching departure for Australia, accompanied by her husband,

John Amadio. “It w(ll be strange going back with a reputation to a place where I shall be remembered only as a rather awkward student.” Madame Austral has been appearing in the roles of Brunnhilde and Isolde, at the German State Opera in Berlin, and believes she is the first British soprano to do so.

Forthcoming Tours Besides Florence Austral and her husband, and William Backhaus, who begins his season in Sydney the Saturday after Easter, several other famous artists may tour Australia this year. J. and N. Tait contemplate managing a tour by Yehudi Menuhin, the 11-year-old San Francisco violinist, who won such a tremendous reputation on his debut at the Albert Hall, London, recently. Another probable engagement is that of Louis Graveure, a good singer, whose voice has undergone a remarkable change from baritone to tenor. Graveure, one of the leading concert artists of the United States, is to sail from Vancouver on May 28.

Rome Honours Gigli Election to the Pontificia Accademia Tiberina of Rome, of which the Pope is honorary president, is an honour bestowed on Beniamino Gigli. This award is in recognition of his philanthropies in Europe and in the United States, as well as a tribute to his rank as an artist.