| Show A CALL FOR STRAUSS WALTZES Less Pendantie Dignity and Non Hainan future Asked What has become of Johann Strauss in out concert halls For several years c ever since Mr Theodore Thomas left New York the Vinennese waltz Seen b S-een shamefully neglected hen N Doubt doubt Strauss is as much played at I balls as ever but few dance hall San S-an do justice to this charming music which requires for its proper performance perform-ance a firstclass orchestra like our Philharmonic or Symphony society The world Is so full of pedants and others whose interest in art Is purely intellectual intel-lectual and never emotional and the suggestion that a Strauss waltz should occasional be introduced at a Phil harmonic concert would be received II with a howl of astonishment if not indignation in-dignation Yet this very suggestion has been made by no less a man than Dr Hans von Bulow who once remarked I I am very fond of a Strauss waltz and I cannot see any reason why such 1 a work which is always artistic and may be classed among the best of its I kind should not be performed from time to time by a large orchestra in i serious concerts It would I I give pur I ears a little more rest from the severity of the classics and would act like olives in preparing our palate for a fresh course Nor is Bulow the only eminent musician L mu-sician who has expressed his unquali fied admiration of Strauss father and son Mendelssohn Meyerbeer Cheru t bini and others have done this same and Wagner wrote that a Strauss waltz surpasses in grace refinement and real musical substance the majority of the labored compositions that composions are placed plac-ed on concert programmes Why then not produce them at symphony concerts in i preference to tedious n fourstory symphonies I sym-phonies by garrulous fourthrate composers I com-posers Works of art should be judged by the genius manifested in them not by their duration or architectural structure I ha been said that whereas Haydn Mozart and Beethoven 1 Beetho-ven built up the symphony from dance forms Strauss conversely applied the symphonic resources of the modern orchestra or-chestra to his dance pieces What liv ing composer understands better than Strauss the art of exquisite orchestra ton Who writes more piquant rhythms more original melodies more fascinating harmonies than Strauss 0 His waltzes are intended for concert hails and they are animated by a poetic po-etic rubato or capricious coquetry of movement which raises them far above ordinary dance music and makes them quite as avorthy of a place at symphony concerts as Chopins waltzes at piano recitals Let us have a little less pe dantic dignity a little more emotion and human nature about our concerts and good music will make more rapid strides in popular appreciation Too much dignty is the death of art New York Evening Post |
