Show SHARPS ARPS AND FLATS i President Taft TaCt has received nn an offer of oC a box for the week of oC opera to he be given shen hy by Mr Ir Oscar Hammerstein In Washington the second week weel In Jan Jun January linn uary und and has accepted The dent Mite lice Mrs Taft Is ver very fond of music and has promised to attend such uch of the performances as he can without interfering with his other engage engagements ments mentH The Russian composer who Is now touring louring this country I is like most Russians a Teat great u of Liszt beauty what depth In his splendid lI orchestral conceptions What a masterpiece Is his Faust symphony ho said the other othel du lily to ton toa n a representative of Musical America I Some of the tho composers of our day ho he dislikes Yen very much Of Strauss he ad admires mires only the earlier works such Huch as 31 Don Juan Tod und and TIll The later ones he said are arc beneath contempt nH as music Elm Eln I find In intolerable tolerable and the same samo Is true of oC Salome But even een these fade Into Insignificance when compared with the stupendous ugliness of oC Elektra of which I understood not a note The ThO English caterer Mr Ir George Edwardes sa said after a recent visit to Vienna concern concerning Ins 1 Leliar Lehar and his latest Work Some there were disposed to regard The Merry Widow as n a possible Hulce Huce But even eyen b by the most exacting Viennese e critic Lehar Is now accepted as a seriously to he be reckon reckoned ed cd wIth This he owes largely to the success of his other opera Fursten Kind now being played at the I Johannes Strauss theater In His music In that Is simply great grent and places the writer on quite a lofty ort level Lehar has offered the piece to mo me for Cor I England hut but It belongs rather to the tho category of opera and Is just a little out of my line The libretto by Victor Lon Leon Is thoroughly Interesting at certain It recalls that or of Sir William Gilberts Pirates o of Penzance In the tho last act of the Beethoven pia play recently produced In London hero thero Is a reference to the gift or of which the composer at the In Instance instance stance of Sir George Smart and received from the tho London Philharmonic society shortly before he died Nothing In lute tho honored honore life of that society says a the Telegraph fele h hhas has done It more credit than Its im immediate immediate mediate response to the great mans muns application for as assistance In the suf suffering uC fering and n distress that afflicted his lust da days s The Tho generosity Beethoven himself to his dear good In one of the very la t letters to which he was able to sign his nam name with which the monte monic society has almost exceeded IJ my request h he had asked I for a benel t concert has moved moed mo me to the lute inner innermost most soul of this gift It his friend In the play now produced sa says s of the tho English Tho Thoy nH puny not be musicians hilt but they know good music when the they hear It They ma may he barbarians but bul the they are arc gen Jen generous erous barbarians An Interesting and pathetic letter etter bearing on this Incident Is among the Beethoven relics which are aro being ex exhibited In the tho CO foyer er of oC Sir Sim Herbert Trees theater It was written br bg to under date Vienna March farch 21 I When hen you Sou read these thee lines It runs our friend nd will he be no lon longer er amongst the living I 0 He himself feels that the end Is neur nelar and yesterday he said ahl to mo me and i amid amici est esl His delight on receiving this gIrt gift l 00 frown from the tho Philharmonic society almost resembled that of achild a achild i child Ye had on 40 gulden golden about 16 15 remaining and We been oli oh lI ed to be vcr very economical for Cor some somo sometime time In our housekeeping |