Musical.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3756, 11 January 1881, Page 2

Musical.

Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt, two renowned pianists in Europe, of the present century, are no doubt known to my reader^by repute; The nocturnes, waltzes and flights of musical reveries created by the gifted brain of Chjpin, his superb Hunting Songs and Choruses, and the magnificent transpositions of Liszt are, however, but little known and less appreciated by the Colonials, who hare not yet been educated up to high class music, and are at a loss to correctly understand it. The two pianists mentioned above once indulged in a trial of skill, and as will be seen from the account Liszt came off second best:—" It was in the early spring, and the evening was just smiling into twilight, when the meeting took place, a distinguished company being present. Suddenly a grand theme began, brilliant but pathetic, passion in the bass, and then a grand dominant that stilled and overcame all, followed by a glorious flight of melody that seemed to ask for pardon and then die away in regret. " Bravo, Liszt! " everyone cried, how you give yourself in your music, that is one of your finest inspirations; who could mistake ! " But, tremblingly, poor Liszt replied,—"Friends, it is not I; it is Chopin playing; he plays like _a «yl." Towards the beginning of the last aecjide Rubinstein and Wagner came out, but the latter's eccentric musical ideas arenot considered so first-class as t>>e former's beautiful melodies. In his Lohengrin, Wagner relies more on the effect of instrumental music rather than vocal effect, and his melodies are crude, and in many cases intolerable. The high sustained notes for the trebles as a rule produce a shriek, and his vocal writ* ing is written much too high for voices of an ordinary compass. The instrumental portions of light and shade demonstrate the hand of a man perfect in the art; but with all the grandeur and immense volume of sound to be met with in his operas, there are discords which set every rule of harmony at defiance, and his astounding modulations have given him the soubriquet of " Wagner, the Cracked." His ideas are much in advance of those generally obtaining at the present time, and his operatic theories are gaining ground and considerable attention on the Continent, where there will probably be a school formed after his model. EuTEBPE.