Soprano Sophie Heymann-Engel is giving a concert of lieder from the “15th-18th centuries,” and what is billed as the first performance of Bach’s “Coffee” Cantata, with bass-baritone Anton Sistermanns. There is a concert in memory of Ludwig Thuille, who was remembered on the Königliche Kapelle concert last week. It includes a variety of his works: […]
View DetailsEaster Monday isn’t a holiday in the US, but it remains so in Germany. The only concert is a Philharmonic popular concert with concertmaster Anton Witek and principal cellist Joseph Malkin the soloists. Witek will become concertmaster for the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1912-1918 (under Karl Muck). Malkin will go on to be principal cellist […]
View DetailsThe “Violin Girl” as a solution to the “Piano Girl” Around 1890, English-language press started describing a trend in which women musicians were choosing the violin over the piano. “Violin playing is all the rage now, and is a welcome relief after the feminine piano banging one is forced to endure. Girls do not realize […]
View DetailsYoung women violinists from the United States made headlines such as this in the late nineteenth century. The most frequently profiled were Dora Valeska Becker (1870-1958), Maud Powell (1867-1920), Leonora Jackson (1879-1969), and Geraldine Morgan (1867-1918). While publicizing their very real achievements, these news items also emphasized their conventionally feminine charms. In the “American Girls” […]
View DetailsWhile looking through the alphabetical list of musicians in Twenty-five Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1900-1925 by Frances Anne Wister, I was struck by the number of people in the orchestra who shared a last name. There are more than thirty pairs of these. Perhaps this wasn’t unusual. What about other orchestras? I can find […]
View DetailsJoachim’s students as orchestral players Joachim was a critical force in the first decades of the Berlin Philharmonic. He contributed important administrative and organizational assistance and served as one of the <a href=”https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/geschichte/anfang/#event-joseph-joachim-dirigiert”>main conductors</a> of the orchestra from 1882-1887. Perhaps just as importantly, his fame attracted string players to Berlin at a time when there […]
View DetailsArthur M. Abell (1868-1958) lived in Europe from 1890 to 1918. Starting in 1893 he was a Berlin correspondent for the Musical Courier. After the War he returned to New York and wrote for the New York Times and other outlets. Abell’s musical credentials included his training as a violinist. In 1895 he advertised for […]
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