Von der Bruckner-Feier mit f-Moll-Messe und "Te deum" [am 20.10.1924] berichtet die Reichspost Nr. 293 auf S. 6f (signiert "M. S." [Max Springer]) (*).

 

Die Wiener Mittagszeitung Nr. 245 teilt auf S. 3 mit, dass die Symphoniekonzerte des Konzertvereins von Dirk Fock als Nachfolger Ferdinand Löwes übernommen werden (**).

 

Anton-Bruckner-Abend der Urania in Innsbruck mit einem Vortrag von Dr. Hermann Gerhardinger (***).

 

Stimmenabschriften von "Zur Vermählungsfeier" [WAB 54] und ´"Ave Regina coelorum" [WAB 008], die zum Nachlass Franz Xaver Müller in St. Florian gehören (°).

 

Besprechung des gestrigen Konzerts in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nr. 296 auf S. 6:

"      THE STATE SYMPHONY.

THE day may perhaps come when Anton Bruckner, that neglected contemporary of Richard Wagner, will again find favor with conductors and public. The romantic flowers that bloom through the pages of the nine symphonies which he composed seem not to exhale a perfume sweet or heavy enough to charm senses accustomed in opera house to the malevolent splendor of Richard and in concert hall to the contrapuntal architectonics of Brahms. And it hardly rests within the somewhat limited talent of Josef Stransky to instigate a Bruckner renaissance.

     Mr. Stransky, last evening, opened his second season as conductor of the State Symphony. The concert took place at Carnegie Hall and in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Bruckner's birth the Third Symphony in D major [sic] was played. This Austrian romantic owned a charming talent. It is wrong to accuse him of Wagnerian influence, for the similarity of style that exists between his music and that of the music drama springs merely from the fact that Bruckner expressed in symphonic form the spirit of the age that in Wagner was translated to the stage. Stransky was a poor friend of Bruckner's when he distorted emphases in the symphony last evening to bring out a passage reminiscent of "Tristan."

     But then that is one of Mr. Stransky's little tricks. Another is his habit of accelerating the tempo with each crescendo and retarding it with each diminuendo. Still another is his constant division into phrases. With each phrase he pauses and seems begin anew. This is not only distressing, ot is hardly good conducting. The music is not molded in large line, but broken up into parts; a melody is not allowed to sing of itself, it must be sharply divided into phrase, period, sentence.

     If Bruckner is to be restored to the standard repertory some one of greater sensibility, of warmer temper than Mr. Stransky must do the job. The opening movement of the symphony, "Massig bewegt," was taken far too slowly. Moderate it should be, but moderation is hardly in Stransky's comprehension. The theme with which it opens is authentic Bruckner. The feeling is stringly romantic and of an almost eerie beauty. The Adagio is contemplative, and the Scherzo another "apotheosis of the dance," a bit more obviously so than Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

     But the finer fervors of Bruckner could hardly be sensed in Stransky's performance of the symphony. The music sounded cold and pedantic, and a New York audience is not hospitable to such impressions.

     Four Wagner numbers formed the balance of the program. [... Faust, nach der Pause Rienzi, Tannhäuser und das Lied "Träume" ...]. The orchestra, now in its second year, seemed in excellent condition. No Wagnerian Opera Company is to have an opportunity to sap its forces, and under an excellent drillmaster–for Stransky, whatever his faults, is that–should soon give us life for our money.

     [... über zwei Klavierabende ...].

                                   EDWARD CUSHING." (°°).

 

Kurt Singer bespricht in seiner Konzertumschau "Elephantiasis musica" im Berliner Volksblatt "Vorwärts" Nr. 501 auf S. 2 zwei Bruckner-Konzerte:
"[...]

     Unter solchen Kunstbetrieben wirkt es doppelt schön, einen Mann wie Otto Klemperer als einen seltenen und um so eindrucksvolleren Gast in Berlin zu begrüßen. [... Lob für die Interpretation der 8. Symphonie (am 17.10.1924), strichlos und auswendig dirigiert ...] als ein moderner Musiker, in großartiger Wirkung, doch mehr im Geiste eines Mahler-Apostels.

     Siegfried Ochs ist gewiß ein großer Mann, der mit der Zeit mitgeht, Seine Haltung gegenüber der F-Moll-Messe von Anton Bruckner [am 18.10.1924] aber ist durchaus nur von den Stilgesetzen dieses Werkes bestimmt. [... vorbildliche Sachlichkeit, Chor der staatlichen Hochschule im Glanzstadium, von den Solisten nur Lilly Dreyfuß und Alfred Wilde akzeptabel, die anderen "kläglich" ... zuvor "Wanderers Sturmlied" von Richard Strauss ...]." (°°°).