The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • 61

SECTION THREE-SIX PAGES SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 9, 1934 SECTION THREE SIX PAGES Cincinnati And Boston Symphony Orchestras Preempt Music Calendar Yuletide Flavor Soloist Violinist Hailed By Orchestra Conductors Artist Nurtured By Benevolent Guardian Viola Mirchell Plays With Symphony In New York. ts Chief Claim To Attention In This Week's Symphony Concert One-Armed Pianist To Play Compositions Of Strauss And Ravel. By George A. Leigbten. V.

if 't piti 7 I yum- I Kaye. By Joseph ar-rouL dispatch to thb bnqvihbs, UCH of the program for this week's symphony concerts has been assigned to the soloist, Paul Wittgenstein, one-armed pianist, who will play a concerto for left hand alone by Ravel, and a Parergon on the Domestic Symphony by Richard Strauss. NEW American violinist Is about to be given a glamorous send-off by the musical powers of her native land. She is Vioia Mitchell, and she is jtisl about 23. This week-end she Is appearing with the Boston Symphony Symphony Program Of unusual Interest is the content fthe symphony program to be presented In Emery Auditorium next Friday after noon and Saturday evening by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with Eugene Goossens conducting.

It will introduce Paul Witt-genftteln, European pianist, who, despite the fact that he lost his right arm In the World War, Is yet regarded as one of the great instrumental virtuosi of the day. Audiences will hear for the first time two 'compositions written expressly for him a piano concerto by Maurice Ravel, and a work by Richard Strauss, 'Tarergon on the Domestic Symphony," for piano and orchestra. The program follows: Symphony Uo. St (with horn Ignal) Haydn l'lano ('oncprto (for left bund) with orchestra Ravel gololat, l'aill WlttHinaltln, rianlat. INTKBM1MSION.

Fantnrol Bethlehem. Rumot C. Tuthlll Parergon on the DnmeUc Symphony, for Piano- and Or chest ra Richard Ntrauaa Soloist, Paul Wittgenstein, Pianist Tickets will be pluced on sale Tuesday at the Symphony ticket office, 121 East Fourth Street, prices ranging from 60 cents to $2. Orchestra under Koussevltzky; later in the month she will be heard with the same organization, and with the same conductor, in New York. Then she has engagements with the Chicago Symphony, the Minneapolis Orchestra, with the Detroit Symphony, and with the National Symphony of Washington.

On November 15 she appeared in Pittsburgh with the Detroit Symphony under Ossip Gabrilowitch. The critics there thought she was grand, an opinion which might be expected, since Miss Mitchell comes from Pittsburgh. This writer has not yet had the opportunity to hear Miss Mitchell, but she must be unusual to receive so much attention from the leading orchestras of this country. He however, met the young woman and he can testify that she has that one-track, indomitable spirit which artists of the first class generally possess. Miss Mitchell has a charming, naive, almost childish appearance and is always smiling or gently giggling.

But she has a very sturdy walk. She approaches one with a straightforward manner, and one knows that nothing is likely to interefere with Viola Mitchell's career if she can help it. Even her jesting remark about marriage had an sM 3fc Aside from aesthetic expectancies and those of general interest pertaining to the compositions announced, chief popular concern now Is With the physical disability of the pianist. The piano keyboard has 88 keys. If that owned by any reader has less it probably belongs to the 'studio" classification or is an heirloom.

If it Jas more, it's like the giraffe "there ain't no such animal," unless it has a double keyboard. The piano Wittgenstein will play has 88 keys. The average human has 10 fingers and two arms. One problem of composers has been that of exploring the extant of difficulties that could be surmounted by the 10 fingers and two arms. The problem of the pianists has been to catch up with the composers, although they have protested every step Of the way and only a few have kept up.

It is obvious that, having a vast number of" succeeding generations of two-armed and ten-fingered humans to write for, composers haven't taken much time out to care for one-armed and five-fingered gentry, and if one of such should come along he would be hard put to find something to play. Composers have written considerable exercise and etude material for the development of a pianist's left hand. But most of this requires the use of the right hand as well or, if for the left hand only, is of slight musical value. There afe exceptions of course, but probably not enough tp make up a fair-sized concert program. Wittgenstein, therefore! on top of having to develop a left-hand technique that could manipulate the 88 keys with sufficient dexterity to advance beyond the usual, has had the other very serious obstacle to worthy practicality in the extremely meager literature at his disposal.

First attaining in the matter of technique he was able to obtain the concern of a number of contemporary composers who wrote for him compositions which would interest the musical public. He owns his exclusive right of performance to two concertos by Ravel and indicative quality. "I'll only marry a pianist," she said. "Why7" askea the writer, contemplating a discourse on the inadvlsibillty of unions between two musicians. But she replied: "Because then I'll always be sure of a good accompanist." To "Pop' Concert The third "Pop" concert of the season by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, to be given in Emery Auditorium at 3:30 o'clock this afternoon, will introduce music of easy and delightful understanding old favorites that have always been melodic favorites with Cincinnati audiences.

Inasmuch as It will be the last "Pop" concert before Christmas, Conductor Eugene Goossens has included a number of selections appropriate to the Tuletide season. The concert also will Introduce to "Pop" concert-goers Sherwood Kains, barytone, who, in addition to being director of vocal music at the University of Cincinnati, is director of music at the Baker-Hunt Foundation, Covington, and the Cincinnati Country Day School. Kains was born in Reading, Pa. Although his first love was the violin, which he played in the Reading Symphony Orchestra, his ambition was to be an engineer, and he came to the University of Cincinnati to study engineering. The musical urge was too strong, however, and he transferred to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music to continue his violin studies, graduating with honors.

Then he took up voice with Dr. John A. Hoffmann and Dan Bed-doe, and has given up the violin entirely for a vocal career. He also has studied conducting, among his distinguished "teachers being Leopold StokowskI, conductor of the Philadelphia orchestra. with two millions of gold in her hold.

With his confidential clerk for a confederate he contrives to have the gold stolen and the ship sunk with all aboard. It is when his son discovers what www Miss Mitchell has been wonderfully protected and helped. As a Paul Wittgenstein, soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Friday afternoon and Saturday night, has se-lected compositions specially written for him by Ravel and Strauss. The tone poem "Bethlehem" by Burnet C. Tut-j hill (inset) is programmed.

i ill I'M Lm TWO II. 'Frisco his father has done and accuses him of it that the climax of the play is reached. scene is the splendid office interior of Guy's shipping bureau. The interview between father and son grjws mors New York, December 8. Margaret Homo, noted violin teacher herself been a prodigy.

She was Inordinately fast under the cloudy Scotch sky. At 7 she played the violin in public and thereafter advanced in her profession until she became a well-known soloist with orchestras. When her father died she came to America in an effort to take her mind off her grief. She thought she would stay a year but remained a permanent resident. She was first head of the music department of the University of West Virginia and then was invited to the Pittsburgh Musical Institute to head its violin department.

She became such a popular teacher that she finally opened her own chool tor violin playing. In time this institution had 100 pupils and required 10 assistant teachers. When little Viola Mitchell came to her as a scholarship pupil she recognized her gifts and remembered her own childhood. She took her Into her own home and began to supervise her academic education and her play. She wanted her to be natural and cultured as well as a musician.

There follows an extraordinary story of devotion. As Viola grew older and manifested a definite talent Miss Home gave herself more and more to her pupil. After seven years of study in Pittsburgh she decided that Viola needed Europe for further development. What she did then is something not often met with in musical history. She gave up her school, drew upon all her resources, and set off for Europe with the girl.

Then she put her into the hands of teachers, took her to concerts, arranged for her appearances and interested prominent people in her, with the result that she came to study with Ysaye and remained with this master for several years. Like Miss Home, Ysaye be friended the young violinist, and she was at his home dally. When he considered her ready he presented her with the orchestra at Brussels, and In the presence of the royal family. She performed no less than three concertl on that occasion, by Mozart, Brahms, and Ysaye. Not wishing to be thought biased, Ysaye himself did not conduct this concert.

She was received with enthusiasm and her European career began. In Paris she was taken In hand by anqther master musician, Pierre Monteux, who shares the conduc tor's desk of the famous Concert- gebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam with Mengelberg. In Monteauxs home she met a number of Influential Americans, among them Anne Morgan, who was charmed both by her playing and her personality, and lent her assistance to make Miss Mitchell's return to her homeland auspicious. At Monteux's home, too, she met Koussevitsky, who, after hearing her play, engaged her for the Bos ton Symphony concerts. It was Monteux, too, who wrote to his friend Malipiero, the Italian composer, that Viola Mitchell should have the sole rights of performance to his new violin concerto, and Malipiero, without even hearing Viola Mitchell, took Monteux at his word and sent her the concerto with the contract giving her the exclusive rights to It for two years.

Thus it comes about that the only violinist to play this work in America until a year from now will be Viola Mitchell. Considering Malipiero's fame, this is no small item. It is said on good authority that a certain violinist paid a certain noted composer of today $10,000 for the first performance rights to the latter's latest concerto. The list of Miss Mitchell's engagements with European orchestras In the last two seasons is amazing. During this short tima she has played with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with the Paris Symphony, Rome Augusteo, Venice Symphony, London Symphony, and In Antwerp, Brussels, Dresden, The Hague, Breslau, Bordeaux, and many other cities.

With such a background, and with the important engagements facing her, there should be a lively interest in Viola Mitchell. She would have come back for an American verdict earlier, but she says all musicians abroad ad vised against visiting the United States during the depths of the d4 pression Dramatized In "Gold Eagle Guy" In Rush For Pay Dirt, Hard-Boiled Adventurer Squeezes Others To Acquire Great Wealth. young prodigy of 6' she came to in Pittsburgh. Miss Home had born near Glasgow, and her rau- sical talents seemed to develop and more acrid and violent, and presontly both lose control of themselves and come to blows. A distant rumbling Is heard, which is soon repeated, this time more, distinctly.

It grows nearer and nearer and ever more ominous. The two men are locked in an iron embrace on the floor, rolling over and over, and pay no heed to the warning sound. The walls begin to tremble and sway, plaster falls from the ceiling, the great, emblem of the eold eaele hanging in the arched entrance swings from side to Elde, and outside is heard the tumult of excited humanity. It is the earthquake of 1906. The cries ring through the building and at last the two embittered combatants break their hold.

Too late for old Guy. The walls tumble in amid a cloud of dust, through which we just catch a glimpse of the younger man escaping the wreckagean amazingly realistic climax for which the designer, Donald, Oen-slager, is entitled to credit. Bromberg in the leading role draws what Is far more than a conventional portrait of a type of hard-fisted, unsentimental, unscrupulous and domineering rogue. He lives the character and shades it with touches of convincing realism that leave little room for caviling. The portrait of Adah Menken as a gentle, reserved, even dignified figure, is perhaps not In keeping with her notorious career, but it gives Stella Adler an opportunity to display a nice emotional moment In her last meeting with the buccaneering hero of this altogether deserving work.

"Page Miss Glory" brings us back to New York life of the present day, and if it be parody, it merely exaggerates with permissible freedom conditions we all know exist. This deals with the every-day method of creating reputations through adroit advertising expedients. Here a nationwide reputation is built up for Miss Glory, who doesn't even exist She is the fictitious creation of an ingenious high-pressure salesman who is downf to his last penny, In common with two companions. By means of a composite photograph of all the chief attractions of a half dozen of the best-known motion picture stars, "Click" Wiley and his confederates win a huge money prize In a beauty contest sponsored by a commercial iirm, They call their creation Miss Dawn Glory, and expect the fraud to end with their cashing oi tne prize. But at once the metropolitan press becomes active.

The hotel room of the conspirators is invaded by an army of reporters, camera men, film magnates and commercial agents, all bent on interviewing the ravishing Miss Glory and ready to pour lucrative offers into her lap. The embarrassing situation in which the conspirators them' selves In the face of almost bullying demands for visual eivdence of Miss Glory is easily imagined. Their last desperate resort is to dress up pretty young chambermaid in the fictitious Glory's fineries and pass Continued On Page 6, Column 3. Kornerold: the Parereon and "Pana- thenaen-zug" of Richard Strauss; Concert Fantasy by Bortkiewicz; variations on a theme of Beethoven by Franz Schmidt these for piano, left hand, and orchestra; piano quintets by Korngold and Schmidt, sand a piano quartet by Hans Gal. Besides these he has a fairly long list of transcriptions of standard works for piano solo.

Wittgenstein belongs to a wealthy patrician Austrian family, we are told, and is about 45 years of age. He had studied with Leschetlzky and concertized considerably before the war. In that famous conflict he was wounded, captured by the Russians, and while a prisoner, his right arm was amputated. On Friday and Saturday we will learn the extent of his capacities acquired since the armistice. Of the Ravel concerto Ve know little.

The Strauss "Parergon" was written for Wittgenstein by Richard Strauss before 1925 and received its first performance in that year with the Dresden Orchestra, Fritz Busch conducting. The "Domestic" Symphony was written in 1902-1903 and, it will be recalled, excited tremendous excitement. Strauss tried to depict papa, mamma, baby, and various barnyard denizens through musical mediums. Some critics have judged his efforts successful, others have not. This piece Wittgenstein will play has baby's theme as its main motif.

"A "Parergon," according to the dictionary, is an "ornamental accessory or embellishment." In the present instance we conclude it must mean a fantasy or supplementary treatment of musical material first used in the "Domestic" Symphony. Wittgenstein has already played the Ravel Concerto in America. Reviewers have waxed enthusiastic over his playing, but not over the concerto. The pianist has not yet played the Strauss work in this country. Haydn.

Grove lists 104 symphonies of Haydn thematically and as authentic. There are 36 more classed as suppositious or doubtful, and 38 formerly ascribed to him but' now presumably proved to be by other composers. Of the 104 authenticated symphonies, the Cincinnati Orchestra, in the past 39 years, has played 12. These 12 have had 37 performances in all and form the greater part of standard repertory survivors of the vast list. Eugene Goossens has revived for this week's concerts No.

31 in major, identified further as "with the horn signal," because of the rhythmic material of the opening bars. In available references we find no detailed mention of this particular symphony, but judge it to have been composed in 1765 one of 20 written in that year, the fourth of Haydn's many years of service under the Esterhazys. He had been appointed second Kapell-i meister in 1761 (at the age of 29), and in 1766 a year after the "horn signal" symphony became full-fledged Kapellmeister. By this time he had become -a national favorite and his works were being played in every important European center. Whether his fame had got to America is not known.

The first recorded program in this country containing Haydn's name is dated April 27, 1782, but programs of earlier dates are ejetant announcing performances of symphonies with the composers unnamed, which could very well have been by the great Austrian. Describing this particular Haydn J5 Major Symphony as that "with the horn signal" is made necessary by the fact that he wrote at least 20 symphonies in major. It further is named as No. 31, but this is vague inasmuch as it also is numbered H.25, P.19, F.W.42, and Z.60. The stands for Haydn's own catalogue; is Pohl's MS.

catalogue; F. W. is Wotquenne's "Themes des Symphonies de Haydn;" is Zu-lehner's "Verzeichniss der Sym-pronien von Joseph Haydn." Other designations, many fanciful have been attached to certain -of the symphonies. "Le Matin, Midi," "Le Soir," "The Philps- I I i5 I Days honest. It is the rise of this man to great power that forms tne substance of the story.

Early in his career he adopts the ten-dollar gold piece the gold eagle as the object of his worship and ambition, and he becomes known by that token to all San Francisco and the Coast. From a clerical position in a shipping concern, he rises to ownership by squeezing out the owners. In the course of years, by this unscrupu lous dealings and hard terms he becomes a financial power in the land and makes or breaks banks and shipping companies. He even conducts a ruthless slave trade in the importation of Chinese coolies. Gold Eagle Guy respects no man's rights but his own.

By underhand manipulation he forces the attractive daughter of the man who once employed him to become his wife. There is no love involved on either side. Guy's ono weakness is his love for Adah Isaacs Menken, the famous actress-adventuress, whom he met on her visit to the Mantle barroom in the first scene, and with whom in later years he had relations in the Orient. The author shows Guy in his advancing years tenanting a palatial home where his unhappy wife forms the center of a circle of the best class of citizens and visiting artists. Guy conceives a shallow religious spirit that enables him to invoke God's protection on whatever roguish trick he is about to launch, though it be scuttling of a ship.

But a menace is growing up in his own household. His young son fears and hates him for his father's treatment of the child's mother, and this hatred intensifies as the boy grows up. We witness a knockdown quarrel between father and son in one scene after the young man returns from a hospital with the news that his mother has just died, neglected by her husband. 'Frisco has long ceased to be the city of 1862, what with the Union Pacific throttling transportation by sea, and strangers pouring in with Eastern ideas, and we catch glimpses of the changing life of 1879 and 1898 and its influence on Guy's fortune. He is now in his old age, meeting with reverses, and is tottering, but his will power for mischief is still unshaken.

A faint gleam of humanity flickers into life in him when Adah Menken presents herself in the subdued character of a broken spirit. She does not ask for alms from her old admirer, but he senses her needs and forces her to accept a check, although he i3 scraping the bottom of the till. He can still save himself by an act of rascality, the scuttling of his cwn ship coming down the coast By Frederick F. Schrader. the four new plays, "Gold Eagle Guy" and "Page Miss Glory" stand out in clear relief against the background of events, the first as a rugged character play, the second as a hot-paced farce.

The. first of these harks back to the pioneer days of the San Francisco of 1862," but carries on through the century to 1906, the year of the earthquake. You cannot see this drama of Melvin Levi without being deeply' impressed by its intent and execution, both in point of constructive authorship and in the acting of J. Edward Bromberg in the part of Guy Button, later called Gold Eagle Guy. And you will be amused by Joseph Schwank and Philip Dunning's farce-comedy.

The San Francisco epic is the production of the Group Theater, which captured the Pulitzer prize last season with "Men In White." "Page Miss Glory" is at the Mansfield. "Gold Eagle Guy" must even now be regarded as a formidable candidate for another prize award. In 1862 the Union Pacific had not been built, and San Francisco could be reached only by sailing vessels rounding the Horn or from the Orient. And 'Frisco owed its fame as the wildest town on the continent and its rapid rise to the gold discovery in California. Hence there gathered adventurers from all' sections of the States and the world, and the miscellaneous population produced some strange types of human nature.

The first scene of the play forms a picturesque bar-room scene in the hulk of a vessel beached for lack, of a crew to take her back to her home port. It was the ultimate fate of many ships deserted by their hands, who preferred to try their luck in the mining camps. Money was plentiful and the articles it would buy were scarce. It cost $5 to have a shirt laundered, coffee and doughnuts went at a dollar. patrons of the Mantle bar-room, as they are revealed, comprise the flotsam and jetsam of.

the population, bantering, roystering and fantastic. On an improvised stage behind the bar, girls sing and dance; there are gamblers, sailors, banjo' players and the usual personnel of a frontier saloon, as Bret Harte has described early California. And among this mixed crowd is one Guy Button, a sailor, hard-boiled, unscrupulous and actually dis Serge Koussevitsky is to conduct his Boston Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall Thursday evening. opher," "Lamentatione" (Weih-nachts), "Merkur," "Trauer," "Farewell," "Marie Theresia," "La Pas-sione," "L'imperiale," "The Schoolmaster," "Feuer," "II Distrato," "La Roxolane," "La Chasse," "L'ours," "La Poule," "La Reine," "Oxford," "Surprise" (Paukenschlagt), "Military," "The Clock," "Drum Roll." There are the groups, "The London Symphonies," or "Twelve Salomon Symphonies," and "The Paris Symphonies." Some have been lettered from A to W. How simple it would have been If Haydn had written but nine symphonies, as did Beethoven.

But historians are mixed up about the Beethoven sequence as well as Schumann's four so we'd best go on to the next program number. A few years ago Eugene Goossens suggested to Burnet Tuthlll that he write a short composition of a pastoral character. "Bethele-hem," to be played this week, is the result. In reference to this work Mr. Tuthill asks that we not read into it a literal or episodic tonal description of biblical events.

He suggests that we think, when we hear it, of the shepherds, the wise men and their approach to a great light. "Bethlehem" is scored for full modem orchestra, a basset horn in replacing the second clarinet. The announcement of. the addi tion of the Meistersinger Prelude to the program came too late for extended comment in this column, Lenore Vlric, exotic star of the stage, lours the road with "Pagan Lady." She will be at Shuhert Theater for five days beginning December 25,.