Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



497 



music and art in the magazines. 



'lUli Akl OF RltUARb SlRAL^.--. 



Mk. Arciiih.^lp HKNMtRSON ill the October Forum 

 writes on Richard Strauss in the Hglit of " Der 

 Ro»enkavaHer." The writer says : — 



Thai the ;ailhor of " Salome" anil of '• Elcktra," the musical 

 interpreter /<>( cjriv//«-«<v of morbidity ami monomania, should 

 turn to the lij;hine5s of \'ii:nnese frivolity, should respond lo 

 the l>bndislinic'ut> of ilie valse, is the most unexpected 

 and incredible surprise in the history of contemporary nui-ic. 



-Strauss, he says, is the impersonation of disciplined 

 controUetl passion. He has wruught the miracle of 

 writing oiiera whicii is its own commentary. In music, 

 his is the genius of tiie short story. He is a genius 

 of monomania. '• .\lier the splendid workl-spirit 

 whicli animates and fires the deed of Elektra, the 

 petty intrigues and bestial se.\ualities of "Der 

 Rosenkavalier' seem to cheapen and degraile the 

 art of Strauss." 



TUL RlJVAI. ScOillSH .\CADE.MV. 



Both the Art Journal and the Connoisseur for 

 October refer to the Royal Scottish Academy at 

 Edinburgh, which this year has moved to the beautifuf 

 galleries newly constructed for it witiiin the ok! Ro>al 

 Institution building in Princes Street. The eighty-fifth 

 exhibition wliieh is being held is in many respects 

 quite a memorable one. The department of scul[)tur( 

 in particular is most interesting, says the Coiiiioisstur. 

 Tliere are good examples of Rodin and Nicolini ; yet 

 even these must yield the palm to M. Landowski, the 

 exhibitor of two bronze heads. M. Bourdelle's 

 " lete Beethoven " is said to give successfully a plastic 

 form to much of the pathos in the composer's life- 

 story. Among Scottish sculptors is Mr. P. MacGilli- 

 vray, who is represented by a bust, " Cleopatra,'' and 

 by " Die Lorelei, " a nude female figure. While the 

 former charms by reason of its simplicity and dignity, 

 the latter owes its beauty chiefly to the rhythmic 

 How of the lines. The same sculptor has been 

 engaged lor some time past on a colossal monument 

 to Gladstone to be set tip in a public square in Edin- 

 burgh, and he has been commissioned to execute a 

 statue of Byron for Aberdeen. 



TnK Liszt Cknienarv. 

 As the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Liszt 

 occurred on 0< tober 22, the October number of the 

 M usual I'tnifs publishes the fiist part of an article on 

 l^is/.t by Mr. Ernest Newman. Few people in this 

 country, writes Mr. Newman, have any idea of the 

 great range of Lis/.t's activities, or of the extent of 

 his influence upon modern music. At Weimar he 

 laboured inces.santly for Wagner and other composers, 

 and gradii.illy made himself the centre of what came 

 to be knovMi as the " New German School." \\\\.\\ 

 an unfailing eye for genius, he saw at a glance that 

 Wagner was to be the creator of a new dynasty in 

 nuisic, and every idea for whicli Liszt fought has now 

 wdii its way into the art and is accepted as the merest 

 matter of course. Hut in his lifetime the struggle 

 .•igainst conservatism was long and severe, and l.is/t 



had the bitterness to see many ranged against him 

 whose admirer or benefactor he had been. Among 

 the opponents of the " .\hisic of the Future " were 

 Brahms, Joachim, and Clara Schumann, and in the 

 Schumann-Brahms circle the honor of Liszt is not yd 

 quite extinguished, ^\'riting in Sailnn-r for October, 

 Mr. James Huneker shows how much Wagner was 

 indebted to Liszt. Btii while we call Liszt and 

 Wagner the leaders of the moderns, their aims and 

 methods were radically different. Wagner asserted 

 the supremacy of the drama over tone, and then 

 inconsistently set himself down to write the most 

 emotionally eloquent music that was ever conceived. 

 Liszt always harped on the dramatic, on the poetic, 

 and seldom employed words, believing that the 

 function of instrumental music is to convey in an 

 ideal manner a poetic impiession. In the orchestral 

 domain Liszt was as thorough-going a poetic composer 

 as Chopin in his piano compositions. 



A Modern Dutch Master. 

 The Art Journal for October contains an article by 

 Mr. Rudolf Dircks on Jo.sef Israels, who died a 

 month or two ago. Though he lived to the age of 

 seventy-seven, he had not outlived his reputation. 

 With advancing years, indeed, his following increased 

 and his fame did not diminish. As Millet found his 

 Barbizon, Israels found his little fishing village at 

 Zandvoort, near Haarlem. A Jew, born in Ilolkiiid, 

 Israels, save for a couple of student years in Tails, 

 spent practically all his life in his na'.ive country. In 

 his portrayal of types he is never more convincing 

 than when depicting the people of his own race, such 

 as in the pictures '• A Son of the Old People " and 

 " The Scribe." It was no new thing for a Dutch 

 |)ainter to find his subjects among the fisher-folk ; but 

 Israels carried it a little further by introducing a 

 dramatic interest, for his pathos is usually presented 

 after some dramatic fashion. In his work there is 

 the expression of two states of mind— one in which 

 he makes an obvious appeal to the emotions in such 

 scenes as a shipwreck, or a sick-bed associated with 

 death ; the other in which a more abstract feeling 

 l)revails. A writer in the Connoissiur observes th.it 

 Israels retained his cunning of hand t(j the end. In 

 1862 he exhibited in London " The Cradle" and 

 " The Shipwrecked Man,'' which ensured his reputa- 

 tion in England, and where subsctjuentl} he found 

 the chief market for his work. In 1869 he moved to 

 The Hague, and since then has been the recognised 

 leader of modern Dutch art. In latter years his 

 subjects centred about peasant life. He couki realise 

 the joyousness of childhood and the sorrows of okl 

 age with equal truth, and could render the Ijeauty of 

 womanhood as few artists have bien abk- to do. 



AisrKAi.iAs attractions for immigrants are stated 

 in a glowing rhapsody by Mr, Henry Button in the 

 Colonial Offife Journal. He ends by adjuring the 

 Commonwealth to "Rise, crowned with light. 

 Imperial Salem, rise I " etc. 



