Philharmonic-Symphony, afternoon, Carnegie Hall.
Lottc Lehmann, soprano, Town Hall.
“Il Trovatore,” evening, Casino Theater.
Opera Concert, evening, Metropolitan Opera House.
Victor Chenkin, songs, evening, New School for Social Research.
GILDING THE TIN PAN
The denizens of Tin Pan Alley and environs continue to itch for the laurel so profusely spattered at George Gershwin since that first “Rhapsody in Blue” performance by Paul Whiteman and his boisterous brood some years ago.
In this itch, alackaday, lies the source of much discomfort for such trusting souls as your deputy, who dropped charitably into Town Hall a week ago for the New Chamber Orchestra’s ranting under the baton of Bernard Herrmann, and heard a “Sinfonietta” by Oscar Levant, who no douby knows his “Singing in the Hotchacha I Love You” stuff but is not quite at home in more ancient forms.
‘MYSTIC CHARACTER’
“Because of the mystic character that pervades this composition, Hiss Hall and Mr. Gruen would prefer that there be no applause at the close.”
It was too, too mystic for words, my esthetes.
EVENTS OPERATIC
Hizi Koyke, that ever charming Cio-Cio San, came back to town with Fortune Gallo’s San Carlo Opera Company, at the Casino Theatre recently vacated by Slavic hordes, and gave us again a graceful performance in the role of the abandoned Japanese girl in “Madame Butterfly.” The company has other matters to impart, besides.
At the Metropolitan, an ecstatic “Pelleas et Melisande,” from which not quite as many New Yorkers stayed away as heretofore, was put on in the grandest of manners, with Miss Bori and Mr. Johnson as the lovers described by Maeterlinck and made worthy of attention by Debussy.
TWO OF THE B’S
Toscanini and the Philharmonic-Symphony gave us the 1st, 2nd and 3rd “Leonore” overtures and the 1st Brahms Symphony in the order named. This would not be particularly noteworthy, except for the fact that after scintillating renditions of the Beethoven pieces–Toscanini does things with theatre music, you know–the Brahms work was placed, like a shimmering crown, upon the brow of the afternoon. For all I know, they may still be standing in Carnegie Hall and applauding. I left after five minutes of huzzahs.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
