Concerts in September and October 1907

There were 172 concerts in the month of October and the last 9 days of September, considerably more than earlier months. As usual, the most of any type were the 41 solo voice concerts; piano had 30 and violin 16. There were 18 of what I have labeled “mixed,” usually a concert of two soloists, such as voice and violin. Besides the solo concerts, there were 25 orchestra concerts, 21 chamber, 10 choral, 5 vocal ensemble, and 6 composer concerts, See the searchable spreadsheet below for more specifics.
By the end of October it was especially hectic, and continued this way until Christmas.¹Numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course, and this autumn undoubtedly felt more packed than ever due to the opening of three new concert halls.

New Concert Halls

Photographs of the new halls in the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung 25 October (1907): 711.

The Klindworth-Scharwenka Saal and Blüthner Hall were both at Lützowstr. 76 at Magdeburger Platz, which is a modest park today (see the photo at the top of the page). The piano maker Blüthner now had, like Bechstein, a performance venue with their name on the building. The Blüthner (1200 seats)² was the larger hall with better acoustics. Arthur Abell reported that it had a shoe-box shape, and was “tastefully finished off in white, light blue and gold. The ceiling is slightly arched and an effective background is formed for the stage by a very fine organ with aluminum pipes. The chairs are dark red. There are balconies on both sides and at the back.”³ The Klindworth-Scharwenka Hall seated about 600 and was more square-shaped with a balcony at the back. Despite its name, it was not intended to serve as the hall for the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory.
The Choralion Hall (400 seats) at Bellevuestr. 4 (where the Ritz Carlton is today) was thought to be very nice to look at, and the organ was outstanding, but the acoustics were problematic. (This is where the premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire took place on 16.10.1912.)

Philharmonic Popular Concerts

After ending their summer concerts at Scheveningen on 30 September, the Berlin Philharmonic’s popular concerts began their season with a new conductor on 2 October. The overworked August Scharrer was replaced by Dr. Ernst Kunwald, who soon became just as overworked. (It looks like the Orchestra had only three days off during October.) Kunwald (1868-1939) had a law degree from the University of Vienna and had studied piano with Leschetizsky. He got off to a good start with his first program. Arthur Abell commented: “These concerts are called ‘popular,’ but the program of this one would have been a credit to any serious symphony concert of the first rank. It comprised symphonies by Beethoven and Haydn, Bach’s concerto for two violins and orchestra and a Handel Concerto Grosso.”⁴

Pianists

The incredible lineup of Liszt students of the previous spring was diminished by three: first, Eugen d’Albert decided to concentrate exclusively on composition. His opera Tiefland (1903) was produced for the first time in Berlin and a comic opera, Tragaldabas, premiered in Hamburg. Bernard Stavenhagen moved on to the Geneva Conservatory, and Alfred Reisenauer died while on tour in Latvia on 3 October. He was forty-three years old. Earlier in the year the critic Arthur Laser had written that although there were so many great pianists playing in Berlin, Reisenauer put most of them in the shade.⁵ The composer and former student Sergei Bortkiewicz arranged a concert in his memory, at which Reisenauer’s compositions were played, and there were several interesting articles written about him in the papers.

Reisenauer began his study with Liszt at age 13 and followed him when he moved to Rome, for a total of nine years of study. He assisted Wagner in transferring his first sketches of Parsifal to the piano. Although he made his debut in 1881, he was absent from the usual concert halls beginning in 1887 after he toured Russia, going as far as Siberia. He visited remote locations in the Far East, not returning until 1893.⁶ He became professor at Leipzig Conservatory in 1900 and then its director. Although over his career he played over 2000 concerts, he suffered terrible stage fright, which became worse in later years. An obituary in one of the Berlin newspapers referred to his reputation for playing while drunk. Other accounts described him bringing a brandy bottle with him on stage, crawling under the piano to retrieve a brandy bottle, and falling asleep during the orchestral exposition of the Emperor Concerto.⁷ Although he played Liszt and other bravura pieces, he was also described as a sensitive, inward tone-poet who was at his best playing Schumann.

Of course, there were more than enough pianists giving concerts this month:
Tried and true: Eduard Risler (1873-1929), Max Pauer (1866-1945), Emil Sauer (1862-1942), Conrad Ansorge (1862-1930); Wunderkinder: Mieco Horszowski (b. 1892), Susanne Morvay (b. 1896); Up and coming: Paul Goldschmidt (b. 1882), Germaine Schnitzer (b. 1887), Alice Ripper (b. 1883); Recently established stars: Harold Bauer (b. 1873), Ernest Schelling (b. 1876), Gottfried Galston (b. 1879).

Violinists

Every famous violin virtuoso was in town in October, it seemed. Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) played the Brahms Concerto, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Fantasy on Russian Themes,” and Sinigaglia’s “Rhapsodie Piedmontese.” Emile Sauret (1852-1919), who had been a featured soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic as early as 1883, was back from America and was judged as wonderful as ever. Arthur Hartmann (1881-1956), who had made a triumphant Berlin debut in 1902, performed the Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns B minor, and Tchaikovsky Concertos. Henri Marteau (1874-1934), who would be playing plenty of concertos in November, gave a chamber concert this month with his frequent collaborator, pianist Ellen Saatweber-Schlieper.
New Violin Concertos:
Emmanuel Moór dedicated his Third Violin Concerto to Carl Flesch, who performed the premiere. A couple weeks later, Jacques Thibaud played Moór’s Violin Concerto No. 2, which had been dedicated to Henri Marteau. Moór (1863-1931) was a Hungarian pianist and very prolific composer, almost completely forgotten today. Arthur Abell commented, “Moór has a very peculiar style, to me it seems lacking in spontaneity, and yet great artists are taking him up.”⁸
Jenö Hubay’s Violin Concerto No. 3 was dedicated to his student, the Wunderkind Franz von Vecsey, who was now 14 years old. He performed the premiere on the 28 October Philharmonic subscription concert.
Kathleen Parlow (1890-1963) had just finished at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; she was the only female and certainly the only Californian in Leopold Auer’s class. The 17-year-old gave four concerts in which the critics judged that she more than held her own against the competition. And then there was little Vivien Chartres (1893-1941), described as 12 years old. The number of times critics were “astonished” or “verblüfft” seems to indicate they were truly at a loss. Abell wrote:

Her performance of Vieuxtemps’ D minor concerto was technically well-nigh flawless, and the ease, force and subtleness with which she manipulated her bow was astonishing. She played with the decision and aplomb of a veteran of the concert stage, and yet there was a sweet, childish air that lent a peculiar charm to all that she did.⁹