Concerts in March and April 1907

March Highlights

• In March there were 135 concerts, of which there were 25 piano, 19 orchestral, 16 chamber, 9 violin, and 33 voice recitals. There were 16 choral concerts, more than usual because of Easter on March 31. During Holy Week there were performances of both Mendelssohn oratorios and both Bach Passions. There were four Bach cantatas on the Philharmonic Choir’s last concert of the season (March 4th). A special “monster” performance of Mendelssohn’s Paulus with about 300 performers was held in the Zoological Garten’s Exhibition Hall as a benefit for the victims of the shipwreck in February (26th).
• Singing Societies: Besides the Philharmonic Choir, Berlin choral organizations performing in March included the Singakademie, which did two performances of the St. Matthew Passion, the St. Ursula Frauen Chor (3rd), the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche Chor (6th), the Rykestrasse Synagogenchor (10th), the Caecilia-Melodia Männergesangverein (11th) the Erck’schen Männergesangverein (12th), the Lehrer-Gesangverein (14th), and the Berliner Liedertafel (7th, 19th).

• Premieres: March 11: The premiere of Hans Pfitzner’s incidental music to Käthchen von Heilbronn was not a success. On the same Philharmonic concert, Eugène Ysaÿe played two violin concertos by Saint-Saëns (A major and b minor).
• Christian Sinding’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, which was on the Königliche Kapelle’s concert on the 22nd, was also a disappointment. Sinding has written much, much better music that this, wrote E.E. Taubert in Die Musik.
• Gregor Fitelberg put on a concert of all new music by young composers from Warsaw on the 21st, which included his own Symphony in One Movement, op. 20 and his “Tondichtung nach Gorki,” “Das Lied vom Falken,” Op. 18, and Szymanowski’s Symphonic Fragment, Op. 15.
• More violinists: Henri Marteau was also in town and premiered a violin concerto by Lauber with the New Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Fritz Steinbach (4th).
• The sixteen-year-old student of Marteau, Florizel von Reuter, gave two concerts in March and four more in April (!). On one of the concerts he also conducted his own tone poem “Attila.”
• Alexander Sebald (1869-1934), a Hungarian violinist, accomplished the feat of playing all 24 Paganini Caprices on the 26th.
• Pianists: Alfred Reisenauer (2nd) and Eugen d’Albert (15th) played the Brahms Handel Variations, while the Brahms Paganini Variations were on the programs of Ignaz Friedman (11th) and Leopold Godowsky (15th). More pianistic excess: on the evening of March 15 there were 5 pianists simultaneously giving concerts (Leopold Godowsky, Therese Slottko, Felicitas Reifmann, Alberto Jonas, and Eugen d’Albert).
• Grand Dames: March 22: The pianist Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) gave a single recital this year in Berlin, with pieces by Edward MacDowell and Smetana. Her performance was marveled at as youthful and stylish, and as technically powerful as ever. She had made her debut with the Philharmonic in 1889, and gave her last performance there on March 24, 1916, when she played a concert of three concertos: the Tchaikovsky b minor, Chopin e minor and Liszt E-flat.
• March 25: The 59-year-old Lilli Lehmann sang Isolde’s” Liebestod” and Constanze’s “Marter aller Artern” at the Philharmonic’s benefit concert.

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April highlights

April was the final, frantic month of the winter concert season: the subscription series of the orchestral, choral, and chamber groups mostly concluded in March. In April traveling groups, special events, and concerts put on by individuals continued, but even these dried up by May. This concert calendar, which squeezed nearly a thousand concerts into six or seven months, was not standard in Europe. In April there were 77 concerts, almost half the number of the previous month.

Signs of the end of an era

Several chamber music concerts commemorated the tenth anniversary of the death of Brahms. One of these, on March 28th, turned out to be the last concert of the Piano Trio of Heinrich Barth, Emanuel Wirth, and Robert Hausmann. This group’s subscription concerts had begun in 1878, almost thirty years earlier. Wirth had been out for most of 1906 and the beginning of 1907 while undergoing two eye operations, but was able to return for this last concert.¹Wirth retired from the Hochschule in 1910. Their program included the Brahms C major Piano Trio, op. 87, which the Trio had been the first to perform in Berlin in 1883.

The final concert of the season by the Joachim Quartet (6th) also turned out to be their last. Joachim died in August, and both Hausmann and Halir died of heart attacks in the next two years, while still in their fifties.

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• April 3 and 9: The singer-actor Ludwig Wüllner gave concerts with his accompanist Coenraad Bos, but on these occasions he played violin. The first commemorated Brahms’s death with the three Violin Sonatas. The multi-talented son of the conductor Franz Wüllner performed violin sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and his father on the second concert.
• April 12 and 14: Edvard Grieg conducted the Philharmonic in two concerts of his music. The soloists were Ellen Gulbranson, Rosa Bertens, and pianist Halfdan Cleve.It was the last time he would visit Berlin; he died in September.
• April 20: Pietro Mascagni, a favorite of the Kaiser, conducted the Philharmonic, with a program of his own music and Beethoven’s Fifth.
• April 29 and 30: the 25th anniversary concerts of the Philharmonic featured the “three B’s”: on the first there was a Bach cantata, the Brahms German Requiem, and the Beethoven “Emperor” Piano Concerto. The second had Arthur Nikisch conducting Brahms’s First and Beethoven’s Ninth as a single concert.

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Performer	Date	Instrument	Composer	Critics' Comments	Location
Phil. Trio	01 March	Chamber		V. Abend	Philharmonie
Else Gipser	01 March	Piano	Reger	hard dry and lifeless	BP 14.1.1904
Betty Tennenbaum	01 March	Violin	Bach E major, Bruch Scottish Fantasy, Vieuxtemps (d minor)	not yet mature, called “Flumenbaum” in Signale; Phil orch	Beethovensaal
Lilli Lehmann	01 March	Voice	Schubert, Schumann	Philharmonie
Sydney Biden	01 March	Voice		2nd; Courier feature; from Missouri, based in Chicago	Singakademie; on a NYPhil concert 2/27/1910; BP 22.12.1910; BP 1916
Gerhard Gschjederup	02 March	Composer		Richard Sahla, cond. Elsa Schjelderup; Positive impression (BBZ)	Singakademie
Alfred Reisenauer	02 March	Piano	Brahms, Bach, Liszt, Handel var., Beethoven	4th and last of series	Bechstein
Florizel von Reuter	02 March	Violin	Tchaikovsky	Mozartsaal orch., Marteau’s student he is very promising, he also conducted his own tone poem Atala	Mozartsaal
Philharmonisches Chor Hauptprobe	03 March	Choral
St. Ursula Frauen Chor	03 March	Choral
Phil Orch Pop Concert	03 March	Pops
Henri Marteau Hauptprobe	03 March	Orch	Lauber (MS), Brahms, Beethoven	New Philharmonic orchestra, Steinbach conducting	Mozartsaal; BP 13.11.1890
Betsy Schot	03 March	Voice		Secession Ku'Damm	BP 1.11.1897
Jadwiga Cukier, piano Hermann Solomonoff, violin	04 March	Chamber	Dvorak, Philipp Scharwenka	Eigenartiges	Bechstein
Philharmonic Choir	04 March	Choral	Bach	4 Bach cantatas; Messchaert
4th New Philharmonic Orch. Concert Henri Marteau	04 March	Orch	Brahms 4, Beethoven	Steinbach conducting Lauber concerto for violin for first time, in MS	Mozartsaal
Emmy Rintelen voice and Lilli von Roy-Höhnen, piano	05 March	Mixed	Kahn	singer much better than pianist	Singakademie
Marta Behnke-Sellin and Sergei von Bortkiewicz	05 March	Mixed	His own piano music op 3 and op 4 is eclectic	he has good technique, she was dilettantish,	BP 2.4.1906
Anton Foerster	05 March	Piano	Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Schubert	also april 13 (teaches at K-S)
Tina Lerner	05 March	Piano	Handel, Rameau-Godowsky, Schumann, Chopin, Scriabin, Liszt	Galerie für alte u neue Kunst, Wilhelmstr. 45 very promising talent, 16 yrs old
Phil Orch Pop Concert	05 March	Pops
Florian Zajic and H. Grünfeld, da Motta	06 March	Chamber	Brahms, Beethoven Trio op. 70	Elena Gerhardt, Nikisch, Fridolin K. José Vianna da Motta, op. 25	Gerhardt BP 7.4.1905
Kaiser Wilhelm Ged. Kirchen Chor	06 March	Choral
Frederic Lamond	06 March	Piano	Beethoven		Mozartsaal
Greta Benser-Bruhn	06 March	Piano		Oberlichtsaal you can’t be serious
Jenny Behrens, blind pianist	06 March	Piano		echt musikalisch
Phil Orch Pop Concert	06 March	Pops
Julia Culp	06 March	Voice	Wolf	3rd concert	BP 22.1.1904
Alfred Steinmann orchestra Abend	07 March	Mixed		no proof of a talent for conducting	Mozartsaal orch.
Gertrud Scheibel	07 March	Piano
Maximilian Ronis	07 March	Violin	Bruch, Bach, Chopin	With Julius Wolfson, piano; Ronis said to be 16 these two are just reaching adulthood	Beethovensaal; BP 1.4.1910
Berliner Liedertafel	07 March	Choral	Schubert, Hegar	Franz Wagner, cond., S. Dessoir
Johannes Messchaert	07 March	Voice	Kahn	3rd with Kahn at piano	Singakademie; BP 31.1.1893
Karl and Max Krämer	08 March	Chamber		10 and 12 yrs old, piano and violin	Oberlichtsaal
Marie Dubois	08 March	Piano	(echt French, plays programs of old and new French music; Niemann)		Bechstein; BP 21.3.1908
Henri Marteau	08 March	Violin	Brahms, Dvorak	Benefit Dvorak concerto Mozartsaal orchestra	Mozartsaal
Elisabeth Schumann	08 March	Voice		2nd	BP 16.10.1903; 7.3.1921
Vereinigen K-W-G Kirchen Chores	08 March	Mixed		Adalbert Gülzow played Hermann Goetz VC Otto Ehlers, piano
VIII. K.K. Weingartner	09 March	Mixed	Kaun	Drei einfache Stücke fur Streichorchester
Marcella Lindh	9 Mar		9 pm 2nd soiree	French songs	Galerie fur alte und neue Kunst:
Alfred Reisenauer	09 March	Piano	Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt	Wanderer Fantasie	Beethovensaal
Fritz Hirt	09 March	Violin	Tchaikovsky, Bach, Paganini	good technique and beautiful tone, young geiger with Delly Friedland	Singakademie
Martha Kempner-Hochstädt	09 March	Voice	Melodrama	3rd, Architetkten Haus
Paul Schmedes	09 March	Voice	Schubert, Wolf, Strauss, Brahms	an intelligent tenor—what an exception to the rule	BP 28.3.1903; BP in 1915
Richard Strauss Abend	09 March	Voice	Strauss	Pauline and Richard Mostly new or unpublished lieder now the ad is for Lula Mysz-Gmeiner	Mozartsaal
Synagogenchores Rykestrasse	10 March	Choral	Kaun	Alex. Weinbaum, cond.	Paula Weinbaum alto and Wittenberg, violin
Phil Orch Pop Concert	10 March	Pops
Sven Scholander	10 March	Voice	From Stockholm, sings, jokes, plays lute		Bechstein
Rose Kahn with Myrtle Elvyn	11 Mar	Mixed		Deep soprano needs training, Myrtle only showed dexterity; she needs to figure out the difference between no expression and full of expression
Caecilia-Melodia Männergesangverein	11 March	Choral		With Annie Bremer	Beethovensaal
Philharmonic with Ysaye	11 March	Orch	Saint-Saens	Pfitzner, Käthchen von Heilbronn music 2 concertos by SS a major and b minor
Ignaz Friedman	11 March	Piano	Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt	Paganini variations (3rd)
Waldemar Meyer Quartet	12 March	Chamber	Goldmark piano quintet	Leontine de Ahna and Richard Burmeister
Erck’schen Männergesangverein	12 March	Choral
Marix Loevensohn, cello, Ysaye cond.	12 March	Mixed	Haydn, Schumann, Saint Saens	Temperamentvoll cellist, often too dry tone not secure in his technique, plenty of wrong notes, the very subjective performance is empfindungsvoll Ysaye is underappreciated as a conductor
Phil Orch Pop Concert	12 March	Pops
Alwin Hahn	12 March	Voice		benefit for the Berlin catastrophe
Berta Bloch-Jahr	12 March	Voice	Franz, Gernsheim, Jensen, Rubinstein	Bechstein
Phil Orch Pop Concert	13 March	Pops
Florizel von Reuter	13 March	Violin	Brahms, Bruch Scottish fantasy	3rd, Mozart Orchestra not up to the Brahms yet
Elisabeth Gerasch	13 March	Voice	Schubert, Brahms	was originally 6 feb did not do much to make one interested, not a pleasant voice
Helene Staegemann	13 March	Voice		2nd, Bruno Hinze-Reinhold, piano
Rosa Olitzka	13 March	Voice	Handel, Bach, etc.	her voice is still strong, interesting program	BP 6.12.1889
Lehrer-Gesangverein	14 March	Choral		Paula Stebel, piano, Felix Schmidt	Schmidt BP 5.5.1882
Verein für klassische Kirchenmusik	14 March	Choral	Bargiel Violin Sonata by Elgers	Conducted by Professor Thiel Dora Moran, Paul Elgers, Martin Grabert, Jos. Fitzen	Palestrina was good but the others were not classical church music
Elite concert	14 March	Mixed	Schubert, Reger, Wolf, Brahms	Lula Mysz Gmeiner, with D’Albert, Scheidemantel; Last
Emerich Stefaniai	14 March	Piano	Liszt B minor, Brahms F minor, Schumann Fantasy	2nd	Accompanying Burmester 1911 (DM)
Susanne Dessoir	14 March	Voice		popular Volksliederabend	Bruno HInze-Reinhold
Wina Berlin	March 14	Piano	Beethoven Emperor, Saint-Saens	with Phil. Orch. Memory lapse in Chopin nocturne	14.3.
Alberto Jonas	15 Mar 07	Piano	Raff, Grieg, Liszt	At Hochschule charity concert with Joan Manén	BP 6.11.1891
Berliner Damen-Vokalquartett	15 March	Mixed
Eugen d’Albert V.	15 March	Piano	Brahms, Handel var., F m sonata, Sinding in Volkston op. 32 no. 4, Rubinstein, Tausig, Raff, Grieg, Raff
Felicitas Reifmann	15 March	Piano	Brahms, Chopin, Schubert	Phil orch.Herman Behr conducting (his BP debut) Brahms d minor, chopin e minor schubert unfinished her debut, Schnabel student	Should have waited longer to play the Brahms
Leopold Godowsky	15 March	Piano	Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin	“einziger popular Abend” op. 57, Paganini Var., all the Chopin preludes
Therese Slottko	15 March	Piano	Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt	2nd	BP 16.2.
Carmela u.Grazia Carbone	15 March	Voice		very well done, soprano and alto, Klara Krause, acc.
Dessau Quartet	16 March	Chamber	Schubert	Schubert Abend, Octet B-flat Trio with Reisenauer—he left the lid up and couldn’t hear the strings
Trio of sisters Pasmore	16 March	Chamber	Brahms op. 8, Schumann Op. 88,Haydn G major Trio	susanne, mary violin, dorothy cello piano trio played by heart Brahms B major Trio, from San Francisco, now living here	Bechstein
Louis Edger	16 March	Piano	Beethoven c minor, d’Albert E major, Liszt, Spanish rhapsody	Too weich, only sees the foreground; but Courier loved him: American da Motta student d’Albert conducted his E major concerto, his debut	Beethovensaal; phil orch;
Holländische Trio	17 March	Chamber	Brahms, Mendelssohn	5th and Letzte with Anna Wüllnersche Frauen-Chor
Popular Phil Concert	17 March	Pops		Gesterkamp and Reitz soloists, Scharrer
5th New Philharmonic Orchestra	18 March	Mixed	Beethoven, Pastoral, Liszt, Tasso; Mozart arias and Liszt Lieder were the best (DM)	Stavenhagen cond., Erika Wedekind MC: didn’t go well	Ballet from Hasse Pyramus and Thisbe
Ignaz Friedman and Konrad von Zamowski	18 March	Mixed		Konrad Zawilowski baritone Wiener Oper	Bechstein
Nellie Curzon Smith	18 March	Piano	Brahms, Handel var., f minor sonata	with Joachim assisting (he was still recovering in Vienna Klingler took over)
Else Schünemann	18 March	Voice	Wolf, Brahms	not in good voice
Lydia Illya	18 March	Voice		Beethovensaal
Berliner Liedertafel	19 March	Choral		Dessoir
Arthur Egidi, organ	19 March	Mixed	All Reger	Apostel Paulus Kirche; Anna Stephan, Fanny Opfer	Anna 31.3.1890; Arthur 4.12.1899 (organ)
Philharmonic Popular Concert	19 March	Pops
Carlotta Stubenrauch	19 March	Violin	Grieg, S-S, Tchaik, Liszt piano solos	Talented Bruno HInze-Reinhold	BP 10.11.1899
Dr James Simon, Alfred Wittenberg	19 March	Violin	Schumann, Mozart, Grieg		BP 17.2.1913
Lula Mysz-Gmeiner	19 March	Voice	Schubert, Wolf, Reger, Brahms		BP 16.11.1896
Marcella Lindh	19 March	Voice		Franzosischer Abend Carl Stabernack, harmonium Erich J. Wolff piano	Galerie fur alte und neue Kunst: new place for concerts
Brahms Piano Quartets	20 March	Chamber	Brahms	Felicia Dietrich-Kirchdorffer, Piano, Wietrowetz Q , Erna Schulz subbed for Gabriele and another guy played viola 3 piano quartets	Hochschule
Halir Trio	20 March	Chamber	Kahn, Volkmann, Beethoven	Robert Kahn Violin sonata in MS	Singakademie; Kahn BP in 1917
Ludwig Hess and Karl Friedberg	20 March	Chamber	Schubert	3rd	Beethovensaal
Aurelia Cionca	20 March	Piano	Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt	Promising, extraordinarily secure, (Rumanian, student of Reisenauer; Niemann)	Bechstein
Philharmonic Popular Concert	20 March	Pops
Mary Münchhoff	20 March	Voice		has not attained the technique for the coloratura fach, needs work	BP 4.11.1899
Alessandro Certani and Otto Klemperer	21 March	Mixed	Porpora, Nardini, Veracini	first performance from old Italian manuscripts the orchestra was not free of problems these works are not going to awaken interest in old music biz	Mozartsaal; BP 24.2.1910
Gregor Fitelberg	21 March	Mixed	His “Das Lied vom Falken”	composers from Warsaw phil orch	Beethovensaal; BP 30.3.1906
Marianne Heinemann	21 March	Piano	d'Albert, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin	good BBZ; shouldn’t be giving concerts yet DM
Ludwig Wüllner, popular Liederabend	21 March	Voice	Strauss, Schillings, Wagner, Anna Cramer	Schillings hexenlied, his 7th concert of the season; Veen played violin obligato on Strauss Notturno	Philharmonie
Joachim Quartet	21 Mar	Chamber		4th of 2nd cycle (?)
9th Königliche Kapelle concert Sinding symphony	22 March	Mixed	Sinding, Wagner, Prelude to Tristan Beethoven, 7th Symphony	did not make a good impression lacks contrast, he has written much, much better music EE Taubert
Robert Robitschek, cond.	22 March	Mixed	Humperdinck, Shakespeare pieces, Philipp Scharwenka	phil orchestra Dvorak golden spinning wheel Robitscheck: the conductor is more interesting as a composer	Singakademie
Teresa Carreño	22 March	Piano	smetana, am seegestade mac dowell,chopin, mozart, Brahms op. 79	Marvelous still youthful, stylish, technique is wonderful very big ovation	Philharmonie; BP 18.11.1889; BP 1916
Zickner & Zarembska	March 22	Mixed		Pianist Wanda Z good, Elisabeth Z mediocre	Bechstein
Antonia Dolores	22 March	Voice		is adored in Australia; voice is dry and sharp
Klingler Quartet	23 March	Chamber	Glazunov, Brahms, Mozart	their last concert of the series: brahms op 18 Mozart quintet E-flat James Bruce, cello: F. Rückward viola	Bechstein
Melanie Michaelis	23 March	Violin	Sinding, Reger	Vieuxtemps, Tartini with phil orch. Got stage fright and needs to work on her Tonbildung	Singakademie; BP 9.2.1906;
Luise Geller-Wolter, 3rd	23 March	Voice	Schubert, Wolf, Strauss	Behm	BP 4.3.1893 (1863-1934)
Hauptprobe Philharmonisches Orchester	24 March	Mixed
Philharmonic Popular Concert	24 March	Pops	?
Sven Scholander	24 March	Voice
Extra philharmonic concert	25 March	Mixed	Liebestod, Mozart Constanze aria	Benefit for pension fund Lilli Lehmann
Günther Freudenberg	25 March	Piano	Schumann op. 17, Taubert op. 68, Raff, Liszt, Chopin, Scarlatti, Weber	Mozartsaal
Gertrud Meisner	25 March	Voice		with Alexander Heinemann; ok
Lydia Illyna	25 March	Voice		2nd
Paul Reimers	25 March	Voice
St John Passion	March 26	Choral	G. Schumann: Singakademie	Clara Erler, Felix Senius, Messchaert, F Lederer Prina	Senius BP 11.12.1905; L-P BP 17.11.1926
popular Beethoven Abend	26 March	Chamber	Beethoven, op. 70 “Geister”	Holländische Trio, Klara Erler, Anton SIstermanns, Leo Gollantin	Scottish and Irish songs
Concert at Zoo Exhibition hall	26 March	Mixed	Mendelssohn, Paulus	orch and chorus, soloists, 300 performers	Benefit for “Berlin” disaster
Hugo del Carril	26 March	Piano	Beethoven, Bach, Schumann, Liszt	Symphonic etudes, b minor sonata; Appasionata, Bach fugue	BP 21.11.1904
Alexander Sebald	26 March	Violin	Paganini 24 caprices all of them for the first time accomplished successfully	3rd	1869-1934; Concertmaster of Königl. Kapelle 1904; C. Thomson student, Hungarian
Hilde La Harpe	26 March	Voice		vocal and recitative
Mariannina l'Huiller	27 March	Piano		Merrick B. Hildebrandt, violin
Philharmonic Popular Concert	27 March	Pops
Hermann Gura	27 March	Voice	Löwe Abend: 25th anniversary of the Löwe Verein		BP 27.11.1902
Piano Trio	28 March	Pops		with Joachim, Klingler, Halir, Mühlfeld (their last concert?)
Elias	29 March	Choral	Mendelssohn	neues Schauspielhaus mozart orchestra Heinemann, Werner Alberti
Paulus	29 March	Choral	Mendelssohn
St Matthew Passion	29 March	Choral	Bach	Schumann; Also 28th; Tilly Koenen, Messchaert, Lederer-Prina	Phil Orch
Good Friday concert	29 March	Mixed	Mozart g minor piano quartet; Beethoven Septet	Chamber music of Mozart orch soloists; KM Paul Prill played piano on Mozart; Helene Staegemann
Paulus 2nd time	30 March	Choral	Mendelssohn
Xth Beethoven 9	30 March	Mixed	Thuille, Mozart, g minor symphony, Beethoven	9th symphony Last Königliche Kapelle concert	Something more interest may be in store for us next season, but certainly nothing better (Taubert, FW is leaving)