Radio Digest (Mar 1928-Oct 1929)

RADIO DIGES T — Illustrated 71 people and applauded by royalty. His first public appearance upon his return to America was made with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Max Rosen's success in America, really his native country, was immediate, and his further appearances with orchestra and in recital in this country have added laurels to his fame. SALVI, ALBERTO, Harpist (Sahl-vee). Alberto Salvi, harpist, was born at Vigiano, Italy, not far from Naples. His father was a maker of harps and pianos at Venice, who thought he might "carry on" the industry. The lad, however, exhibited extraordinary talent for playing the instruments, and it was decided to send him to the Conservatory at Naples. His studies matured just at a time when war conditions made it impossible to begin, in Italy, the career of a virtuoso, and in 1919 he came to the United States, where one of his first acts was to apply to become a citizen. Since then he has lived and concertized in America. Like every master of an instrument, he has expanded the technique of his own. SCHIPA, TITO, Tenor (Skee-pah Tee-to). Tito Schipa was born at Lecce, in 1889, and made his debut at the Costanzi Theatre, in Rome, in "La Traviata." Ten years later, he made his first American appearance in Chicago, as the Duke in "Rigoletto." His fine voice, distinguished stage presence, and his most intelligent singing, brought him quickly into recognition, and into favor, in the new world. He is a tenor of natural gifts, accomplishing with ease what so many strive for, and so vainly, through the whole of a lifetime, without success. His voice has a wholesome, robust, manly quality for all its lyric smoothness and its ease of production. He has those attributes, as an artist, which seem to appeal most powerfully to the general American public. SCHUMANN-HEINK, ERNESTINE, Contralto (Shoo-mahn-Hynk). Mme.. SchumannHeink has been long in America, and has been long and closely identified with American life. At the age of ten she was sent to the Convent of the Ursulme Nuns in Prague, where she sang in the choir, but entirely by ear. Her father was afterward transferred to Graz, where a teacher named Marietta von Le Clair, who had recognized the signs, offered to give the budding genius her efforts without pay. The girl's voice at that time was a deep contralto, with no high notes. The wise teacher kept her on nothing but exercises for two years before she gave her songs by Mendelssohn, Schubert and other composers. In 1878 she made her first appearance at the Dresden Opera House at Azucena in "II Trovatore," and in the early '90s she achieved fame in Berlin. In 1896 she appeared at Bayreuth and in 1898 created a sensation in London. Her first appearance in New York was in 1898. American audiences refused to allow her to return to Europe. Since then, for almost a generation she has been a great presence among us. SEIDEL, TOSCHA Violinist. "Small, compact, fiery, the boy fiddled like a very demon, but a frank, healthy little demon, charged with a message from the gods." So spoke the critics on that March day in 1918 when Toscha Seidel made his American reputation in one hour. . Seidel is the youngest and many think the greatest pupil of Auer. Seidel was born in Odessa in 1900. His mother was a school teacher, his father a business man, his uncle a violinist and Toscha at the age of three, "chose" his uncle's profession for his own. From that day began the career of one of the paramount musical geniuses of the world — "a boy born with a fiddle in his hand." Although temperamental and by the grace of his great gift a peerless violinist, Seidel is also a literary scholar, a genius at chess and an athlete. STOKOWSKI, LEOPOLD, Conductor (Stokoff-skee). Leopold Stokowski is one of the greatest living masters of that most gigantic, most sensitive and most difficult of all musical instruments, — the symphony orchestra with its hundred or more individual wills. The mind of the great orchestral conductor is much like that of the simultaneous blindfold chess-player; who must not only keep the functions of many separate pieces in mind, but also their bearings upon one another; and he has this added difficulty, that he does not deal with inert mathematical certainties, but with the plastic material of human emotion and the evanescent human sense of beauty. Stokowski's achievements in this peculiar sphere have become part of the true history— the inner history,— of music in America. Stokowski is of English birth but American citizenship. In 1912 he became conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra raising it to the front rank of the world's organizations. STRAUSS, RICHARD, Composer -Conductor of Vienna, is undoubtedy one of the greatest musicians of today. He has been called the Dean of living composers. For many years he has been the presiding musical genius of the Vienna opera. His phenomenal creative powers, his genius for interpretation so evident in his performance in conducting the great Strauss Symphony Orchestra, sets him apart in that order of musical geniuses which numbers only one or two in a generation. It is remarkable that one man should be endowed with so many talents, for Richard Strauss, the conductor, is equally as famous as Richard Strauss, the composer. He has composed many very beautiful songs, and contributed generously to different forms of music — symphony, symphonic poem, song literature, opera. When Strauss last toured the United States with his great symphony orchestra he received the highest honors that the American press and public could bestow. TALLEY, MARION, Soprano. Marion Talley is an artist by natural right. She was born at Nevada, Missouri. She sang as as a mere tot, and rejoiced in it. As a child she was taken into a choir of mature singers. The purity of her voice and the truthfulness of her ear amazed everyone who heard her. By the time she was fifteen years old her fame had spread to the East, and she received a hearing at the Metropolitan Opera House. Advised to put in a couple of years at further study, she had not passed out of her teens when her debut took place as Gilda in "Rigoletto." And a sophisticated New York audience almost broke down the doors to get in and hear. She at once took place among the foremost coloratura sopranos of the day. TIBBETT, LAWRENCE, Baritone. Lawrence Tibbett, baritone, was born at Bakersfield, California; when he was seventeen his voice was discovered by Joseph Dupuy in a school theatrical performance. He studied with Dupuy and with Basil Ruysdael, and for eight or nine years sang in church, concert and light opera. Coming to New York, he was engaged by the Metropolitan Company. He memorized Italian roles before he knew the precise meaning of the words. Cast for for the role of Ford at a revival of Verdi's Falstaff, a riot of applause broke forth for him at the end oi» the second act. Since then he has mastered, and triumphed in, other roles. His voice is rich, powerful and marvellously expressive, and his stage presentations are splendidly vivid and human. TOSCANINI, ARTURO, who is generallyrecognized as the greatest personality among the master conductors of today, was born in Parma, Italy, in 1867. While an Italian by birth and training, his career has brought him in touch with the music of every country, and himself as conductor in many parts of the world. His musical training was devoted to the study of the 'cello in his native town, where at his graduation he obtained first prize for his accomplishments. He played in various orchestras and the year, 1886, found him in Rio de Janeiro. While here, the incompetence of a conductor led to his chance debut as a conductor on the second night of his engagement. Subsequently, he was engaged as conductor in Turin, Treviso, Bologna, Genoa, and at the famous La Scala in Milan in 1898. The same year he came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York as chief conductor, resigning that position in 1913, to return to Italy. During the war, he was actively engaged in the encouragement of patriotism among musicains, and also in the relief of distressed musicians. From 1916 to 191S, he produced open air opera performances through which he secured large sums to devote to worthy causes. Although Toscanini is" associated more with the opera house, in Italy he has the reputation of being equally prominent as a Symphony and Opera Conductor, and Americans who heard him on his recent tour of America with the La Scala Orchestra, will realize the correctness of this statement. Owing to his near-sightedness, Toscanini has had to rely uopn a marvelous musical memory, and he conducts the most complicated scores entirely without book. It is said that he is prepared to conduct, at a moment's notice, any one of 150 or more operas and a great number of symphonic compositions as well. Last year, Arturo Toscanini made a brilliant re-entry into American musical circles as Guest-Conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with which orchestra he will again appear. VERBRUGGHEN, HENRI, conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, was bom in Brussels, Belgium. The only son of a well-to-do manufacturer, it was determined that young Henri should be a professional man. preferably a doctor; but the youngster had ideas of his own. He was allowed to study the violin and his talent immediately became so apparent that the attention of Ysaye, the great Belgian violinist, was attracted to the boy, with the result that he later became a pupil of the virtuoso. After the great success of his first appearance in Brussels, Ysaye took Verbrugghen to London, where at the age of fourteen, he created a sensation. A career as a concert violinist lay ahead of Verbrugghen, and for five years he followed it. Tiring of what he termed "The futility of spending my life with a violin tucked under my chin," he determined that he would some time be a conductor. He, therefore, deliberately deserted the concert stage, took a minor position in an orchestra in Wales, and step by step worked his way upward to the concert master's desk. He played in different orchestras in England and on the continent to gain experience and was offered the post of Assistant Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Glasgow, Scotland. Serving as Guest-Conductor in Russia, France, Belgium and Germany, he rapidly achieved an immense reputation. An engagement in London as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in the famous Beethoven Festival in 1914 — recalled the following year to conduct the Beethoven-Brahms-Bach Festival, established the name of Verbrugghen as one of the great contemporary conductors. He later accepted the post of head of the State Conservatory in Sydney, Australia, where he organized successfully and conducted the State Symphony Orchestra of that city. From Australia, Verbrugghen came to Minneapolis, where he succeeded Emil Oberhoffer as conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. He is also leader and first violinist in the String Quartet that bears his name, and is one of the prominent orchestral conductors of the day. While Verbrugghen has attained preeminence as conductor of BeethovenBrahmsBach music, he is equally noted for his interpretation for the more modern orchestral works. WERRENRATH, REINALD, Baritone (Wairren-rahth, Ry-nald). Reinald Werrenrath has been making Victor Records for some years. As a younger artist (he still is young) his contributions were made to the Black and the Blue Label classes. By sheer force of merit he won a place among the immortals of modern vocal music, and his records now are made in the Red Seal class. He has sung with the Metropolitan Opera Company, and he has sung in concert everywhere throughout the United States. He is the son of George Werrenrath, who was himself a famous singer. He was born of Danish ancestry, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and graduated from NewYork University. He has a splendid rich baritone voice, clear, smooth and sympathetic, and beyond that he sings with extraordinary understanding and intelligence. WHITEHILL, CLARENCE, Baritone. Mr. Whitehill hails from the West, having been born in Marengo, Iowa. He took such a keen interest in music that at the age of 19 he went to Chicago to begin studying in earnest. He sang in several Chicago churches with some success, and four year later Mme. Melba advised him to go abroad for serious study. The young man took her advice, went to Paris and placed himself under Giraudet for dramatic action, and Sbriglia for French dramatic roles. He proved an earnest student and hard worker, and had soon mastered more than thirty bass roles. His debut was made at Brussels in 1900 as Friar Laurence in "Romeo." He returned to Paris for a season at the Opera Comique, and was then secured by Mr. Savage for the English opera season at the Metropolitan in 1901. Returning to Europe in the spring of that year he began on the advice of Mme. Wagner, to study German opera, and in 1902 appeared in the "Ring" at Lubeck, and as Wolfram at Bayreuth in 1904. ZIMBALIST, EFREM, Violinist (Zim-bal-ist. Eff-rem). This distinguished Russian violinist was born at Rostoff on the Don, Russia, April 9, 1889, and disclosed a musical temperament at an early age. He did not, however, commence to study the violin until seven years old, when he took lessons from his father, a distinguished orchestra director. Later he went to Leopold Auer in Petrograd, and made rapid progress. His debut in that city was a pheonomenal success, which was repeated in the principal European music centres. A splendid London debut definitely established his fame in England, and an equally warm welcome awaited him in the United States. His marriage to Alma Cluck led to the making of beautiful duet records by these famous Victor artists.