The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

WILMETTE LIFE March 8, 1929 Music News and ·Events Josef H of!man and M·artinelli Appears in E/rem Zimbalist on · Of .!~~e:!er~~:~~~=!. Festival Program music lovers and Ravinia patrons is By L. H. MaaoD The Twenty-first Chicago North Shore Music Festival will be held in Patten gymnasiu111, Evanston, the week of May 27, according to an announcement by the officers of the association whQ also made public the principal musical works which will be presented at the. Festival. Tbis year's series of concerts will mark the coming of age of the associatton, and Musical Director Peter C. l,utkin, President Henry W. Price, Business Manager John H. Hilton and the other officers, are making specialt efforts to make this 1929 season of music the greatest ever offered by the Festival association. 11 Samson and Delilah," by SaintSaens, the Coronation Scene from Boris Goudonouf," by Mousorgski, and the Bach B Minor Mass" are three of the splendid works which will be presented, each of which offers great opportunities for ·soloists, chorus and orchestra. For the past month the Festival C'horus of six hundred voices has been rehearsing the · Mass and Samson and Delilah score and, according to Dean LutkinJ it is the finest and most enthusiastic body of singers he has directed during his twenty years as musical director of the Festivals. Work of training the 1,500 selected school children who will form the chorus for the Saturday matinee concert will .start shortly, with John vV. Beattie as director. The children will be heard in a cantata by Otto Miessner, with Barry Hill, a baritone noted for his remarkably fine tone quality, singing the solo parts. The Festival association has been fortunate in being able to secure artists of world-wide fame for this year's concerts, artists who possess great voices and also are particularly notable in th_ eir singinJ.t in the works to be presented. With final arrangements practically .completed, it is the intention of the association to announce their names within a few days. In the meantime it can be said that in addition to the singers two famous instrumentalists will appear at Festival concerts; they are Josef Hoffman, great pianist, who will make his first western appearance in many years, and Efrem Zimbalist, world-famed master of the violin. Mr. Hoffman will play the ~~con certo in B Minor," by Rubenstein at the Thursday night concert and Mr. Zimbalist will appear at the second concert. Music lovers will . be particularly interested in the singing of All My Heart This Night Rejoices," by the Festival chorus and A Cappella choir during the first half of the Saturday night concert. This composition has been written especially for this occasion }>y Dean Lutkin and will be sung by the hundreds of singers without accompaniment of any kind. It is the first time the great chorus has attempted this difficult feat although the unaccompanied singing is perhaps the most beautiful form of music. The Chicago Symphony orchestra will play an important part in the Festival this year and will be heard to advantage in orchestral works as well as in those parts of the program calling for soloists, chorus and organ, as well as orchestra. 1 ' 11 11 I Directs En!Semble .-.------------.....: John Charles Thomas Captivates Audience; Artist-Re~itals End By Ruthecla L. Pretzel John Charles Thomas, baritone, captivated north shore patrons of the Artist-Recital series last Monday evening at the New Trier auditorium. Not for several years has the audience seemed so wildly enthusiastic, so determined. to express, through the. medium of applause, its appreciation. People clamored loudly for· encores, and sent waves upon waves of applause to Mr. Thomas. They gave him such a warm reception that he grinned and said: 11 N ext time I'll come right through Chicago." It is quite evident he wilt remember the event as vividly as do his listeners. Mr. Thomas is an artist who would seem to have all that is needed-a voice of surpassing beauty, adequate technical background, the soul of a. poet, a sense of humor and a personality that immediately wins his audience. his songs are colored and enriched by changes in tone quality, and interpretations that are infinitely deli· cate. He approaches every song with a fresh, individual conception, and the result is something rare and be a uti· ful. Always he injected himself into the spirit of the song. One can imagine nothing better than seeing him :n operatic roles. He is leading baritone for the Royal Opera at Brussels. Mr. Thomas selected a program that would show him off in a variety of moods and roles. He began with Rosa's "Star Vicino," which was quiet, serene, and which had a full rich tone shading into pianissimo. Lighter num · hers, such as Carissimi's 11 Vittoria, Mio Core," were done with exquisite grace ; while he was jovial in "Der Schmied," by Brahms. He is never afraid to be human. When it comes to telling a story, such as the one about the hardboiled sergeant in 11 Au Pays," by Holmes, he seemed to glory in strutting his voice with as much vanity and arrogance as the sergeant himself. Contrasted to this was the lovely "Vision Fugitive," from 11 Herodiade," by Massenet, sung with fervor and deep emotion. His last group was made up of English songs, all of them worthy of his distinguished voice. Can one ever forget his unusual treatment of Manning's 11The Lamplighter?" The old lamplighter!s bit of a French folk song was sung absolutely in character, with frayed voice, heaviness and breathlessness, but with sweetness, as if the old man loved the tune. Naturally it was repeated. In fact, Mr. Thomas repeated many of his songs, and offered numerous encores, a_mong them the bright 11 Toreador's Song," from ~~carmen," and a host of negro spirituals. But no matter what he sang he was greeted with calls for "More, more-" and undiminished, unrelenting applause. . Lester Hodge gave splendid support at the piano, and in a group of piano numbers showed good command of technique and a feeling for melodic line. DULCIMER TRIO COMING The Dulcimer Trio, including piano, violin and cello, will be heard in recital Tuesday evening, March 12, in Kimball hall, Chicago. Bertha Ott, Inc., is sponsoring this presentation. Leonard Wookey, tenor, will present a recital at the Studebaker theater Sunday afternoon, March 10, under auspices of Bertha Ott, Inc. William N. Pilgrim of Wilmette is directing the North Shore Concert Ensemble which this month is providing Mrs. Garnett's Cantata the music for the North Shore Theater Guild performance of The Old Homeon Federation · Program stead." The group is made up of three When the National Federation of former Northwestern university men, Music clubs holds its biennial meeting who rank among the more talented of in Boston ·in June, the cantata, 11 The younger Chicago musicians. New Earth," for which Louise Ayres Garnett of Evan·ston wrote the words and Henry Hadley of New York the North Shore Trio Gives music, will be an item of the choral Music: for "Old Homestead" day program. The North Shore Concert Ensemble, This cantata was a feature of the Chicago North Shore Music Festival directed by Walter N. Pilgrim of Wilheld in Evanston two years ago. It is mette, is furnishing the incidental written for a mixed chorus, soloists, music for Denham Thomson's recently orchestra and organ. An arrangement revived play "The Old Homestead," of the federation hymn, "To Thee, Our presented this month ·by the North God, Creator, King" by Dean Peter Shore Theater Guild. Mr. Pilgrim, who is .aho the pianist Christian Lutkin of the School of Music, Northwestern university, will be of the ensemble, is assisted by Herman the opening number on the program Coss, violinist, and Milton Sandell, cellist. All three men are connected with that day-June 13. Northwestern university school of music, and have frequently appeared Large Audience Enjoys on the campus and in concert at sevMuenzer Chamber Program eral Chicago hotels. They have also been engaged to apSunday afternoon, March 3, at 4 o'clock, the M uenzer Trio presented a pear at the next meeting of the Chidelightful program to a most appre- cago Federation of Women's clubs. Mr. Coss was formerly associated ciative audience. The recital consisted of two numbers, a Trio by Volk- with the Orpheum vaudeville circuit mann and a Quartet by Dvorak, the and Mr. Sandell was a member of the viola part in the second pr duction be- ~gustana college concert trio which ing supplied by Friedrich Rittner. As toured the Middle West during th<Mr. Pilgrim is a usual, the playing of these artists was summer of 1928. fluent, well proportioned, remarkably member of Phi Mu Alpha chapter of expressive, and graceful. The con- Sinfonia, national music fraternity. cert was given under the auspices of the ~ orth Shore Chamber music as- Glencoe M. E. Church Choir sociation . 11 the recital at Orchestra hall, Sunday afternoon, March 10, by Giovanni Martinelli, premier tenor of the Metropolitan Opera company of New York, and for many years a Ravinia favorite. The program will be given for the benefit of the Chicago Woman's Musical ·club scholarship fund which will be distrihuted this year among three promising students of violin, voice and piano respectively. Mrs. S. Arthur Walther is chairman of the scholarshir> fund and Mrs. Ada Bryant Bucking_bam is president of the club. Martinelli's program will include popular arias from such operas as ~~Aida," ' L'Africana" and ~~carmen," in addition to an attractive list of songs. He will be assisted by Salvator Fucio at the piano. M~rtinelli, an Italian cabinet-maker's son, made his operatic debut in Milan in 1910 in the name role of 11 Ernani." Two years later, at the Covent Garden, London, he created the role of Gennaro in the English premiere of 11 The T ewels of the Madonna." Since 1913 i1e has been a member of the Metropolitan. Caruso's logical successor. Martinelli's appearance is under sponsorship of Miss Grace Kinsolving. 1 ------- Adelaide C. Jones Sings in Program at Austin Adelaide C. Jones, soprano and accompanist. appeared in the Randall Ensemble at the Austin Masonic temple, :Monday evening, February 25. Th_e program was specially arrailged for the '"oman' club of Au·3tin. Miss Jones was soprano soloist. as well as accompani'3t for the entire program. The program was enthusiastic-: ally receiYed by a large audience, and one member was heard to declare it the finest program she had heard during her seventeen years of member3hip. Has Extensive Program The Young People's choir of the North Shore Methodi·3t church, Glencoe. under the direction of Miss Adelaide C. Jones. assisted in the opening Lenten services of the Methodist church of Highland Park. Dr. Ha·3tie Odgers, north district superintendent of the ~Iethodi . t churches, was speaker of the evening. The choir is now rehearsing 11 Stainer's Crucifixion," which the quartet and choir \Yill give at the Xorth Shore c~urch. Gl<-ncoe, on Good Friday evenmg. The choir will also sing Easter Sunday morning. -