Autograph sentiment signed in full on a large album leaf
GODOWSKY, Leopold 1870-1938 "With compliments of Leopold Godowsky March 30th 1918 New York City." In black ink on an album leaf 204 x 140 mm. An American pianist and composer of Polish birth, ". during the 1970s a revival of interest in the Romantic performance tradition brought about a re-evaluation of his achievements, and the subsequent reappearance of a number of his major works in print, on record and in concert further attests to his rehabilitation as one of the seminal figures of 20th-century pianism." Charles Hopkins in Grove Music Online.- $104
- $104
A Festival of New England Composers Past and Present
THOMPSON, Randall 1899-1984 Octavo. Original gray wrappers printed in dark red. 26 pp. + 1f. (advertisements). Program for performances scheduled for May 5-9, 1971 at Jordan Hall in Boston. With Thomson's autograph signature in black ink to head of p. 23 detailing a program presented on May 9th including for the first Boston performance of his Symphony No. 1 together with works of Still, White, Hill, Paine, and Hadley. An American composer and educator, "[Thompson's] chamber and orchestral works (the latter championed by Howard Hanson) are imaginative and substantial. The most popular of these is Symphony no.2; his other symphonies, his two string quartets, and the symphonic fantasy A Trip to Nahant also enjoyed considerable success." Frederic Woodbridge Wilson, revised by David Francis Urrows in Grove Music Online.- $127
- $127
A Set of Pieces for Theater or Chamber Orchestra.” Full score
IVES, Charles 1874-1954 Large quarto. Original publisher's dark ivory wrappers with upper designed by Hazel Watrous printed in dark blue. [1] (title)-23, [i] (composer's printed notes in English and German). With separate piano parts for the first movement ("In the Cage," 1 page) and the second movement ("In the Inn," 8 pp.) in smaller format laid in. With list of "Compositions Published to Date by New Music" to recto of lower wrapper including works by Ruggles, Rudhyar, Ornstein, Weisshaus, Chavez, Crawford, Ives, Weiss, Copland, Slonimsky, Becker, Riegger, Webern, McPhee, Antheil, Brant, and Achron. Ex libris musicologist and Walt Whitman scholar Clifton Joseph Furness (1898-1946), with his signature to upper margin of title. Wrappers slightly worn and soiled; lower corner creased; spine slightly split; short tear to outer margin of lower. Minor internal wear and creasing. First Edition. Sinclair no. 20, pp. 80-85. ["Ives's] music is marked by an integration of American and European musical traditions, innovations in rhythm, harmony, and form, and an unparalleled ability to evoke the sounds and feelings of American life. He is regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the early 20th century." J. Peter Burkholder, James B. Sinclair and Gayle Sherwood Magee in Grove Music Online.- $144
- $144
Musical Activity in Virginia Before 1620
[THOMSON, Virgil 1896-1989]. Yellin, Victor Octavo. Light brown wrappers, stapled. Reprinted from the Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. XXII, No. 2, 1969. A presentation copy from the author to Virgil Thomson, with "For Virgil who opened my eyes & ears Victor" in black ink to title. Wrappers slightly worn and soiled. Victor Yellin (1924-2005) was an American musicologist with a special interest in American music, Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) a noted American composer and music critic.- $29
- $29
The Twelve-Tone Compositions of Luigi Dallapiccola
[THOMSON, Virgil 1896-1989] and [DALLAPICCOLA, Luigi 1904-1975]. Nathan, Hans Large octavo. [1] (title), pp. [289]-310, [i] (blank). Reprinted from The Musical Quarterly Vol. XLIV, No. 3, July 1958. A presentation copy from the author to Virgil Thomson, with "For Virgil Thomson Hans Nathan October 5, 1962" in blue-black ink to title. Slightly worn and browned. Nathan (1910-1989) was a German-born American musicologist with a special interest in Dallapiccola, Virgil Thomson a noted American composer and music critic.- $29
- $29
Half-length glossy publicity photograph of the noted violinist bowing his instrument
SZIGETI, Joseph 1892-1973 207 x 254 mm. With Szigeti's autograph signature dated 1945 in blue ink. Stamped "Joseph Szigeti Violinist Management NCAC" with New York address on verso. Slightly worn and creased. An American violinist of Hungarian birth, Szigeti, a child prodigy, moved to Budapest to study with Jenö Hubay, following which he embarked on an international concert career. He was a champion of new music and the dedicatee of many contemporary works; among the pieces written for him are Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, Bloch's Violin Concerto, and Ysaÿe's Solo Sonata No. 1.- $288
- $288
Half-length glossy publicity photograph of the noted violinist bowing his instrument
MILSTEIN, Nathan 1904-1992 207 x 254 mm. With Milstein's autograph signature dated November 1946 in black ink. Stamped "Nathan Milstein Violinist Management National Concert & Artists Corporation" with New York address to verso. Slightly worn and creased. An American violinist of Ukrainian birth, Milstein "ranked among the foremost violinists of his generation." Boris Schwarz in Grove Music Online.- $316
- $316
Four Saints in Three Acts. Program for the first performance in Hartford, 1934. Signed by Thomson
THOMSON, Virgil 1896-1989 Quarto. Original pink wrappers with titling in dark gold within black lace-patterned border to upper, advertisements to inner wrappers, list of benefactors, donors, and contributors to verso of lower. 24 pp., incorporating verse by Richard Crashaw "Upon the Book and Picture of the Seraphical Saint Teresa" with full-page illustration of Saint Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini; a reproduction of a portrait of Gertrude Stein by Christian Bérard; a reproduction of the autograph musical manuscript of Thomson's "Musical Portrait of Gertrude Stein;" an essay by Stein entitled "Portrait of Virgil Thomson;" "head shots" of Stein, Thomson, Austin, Smallens, Ashton, Grosser, Houseman and 8 cast members including Beatrice Robinson Wayne, Edward Matthews, Bruce Howard, Embry Bonner, Altonell Hines, Abner Dorsey, Bertha Fitzhugh Baker, and Eva Jessye. With Thomson's autograph signature in black ink to centerfold program dated 1986 along with that of the creator of the scenario, Maurice Grosser. Slightly worn and soiled; occasional light staining; minor creasing to corners. Thomson met Gertrude Stein in Paris in 1926 and she soon became his close friend and collaborator. Four Saints in Three Acts, Thomson's groundbreaking opera, is set to a libretto by Stein; the two also collaborated on Thomson's opera The Mother of Us All, first performed in 1947. "The first performance [of "Saints"], on 8 February 1934 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, was presented not by an established opera company but by an organization called the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music. There was an all-black cast, stage direction and movement by Frederick Ashton and John Houseman and cellophane décor by Florine Stettheimer. The same production was presented that year on Broadway and in Chicago, for a run of more than 60 performances." John Rockwell in Grove Music Online "The premiere attracted the smart set of art patrons, fanciers of the avant garde and the curious. After the triumphant Hartford run, the production moved to Broadway where it played for six weeks at first one then another theater, a breakthrough for an opera. This was a year before Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which was also conducted by Alexander Smallens and featured a black cast. Decades later, Philip Glass would cite Four Saints as the most important model that he and Robert Wilson had when they embarked on writing avant-garde operas. "[Thomson] produced a sizeable catalog of stylistically diverse compositions characterized by expressive directness and textural transparency, written in a language that drew from hymnbook harmony, popular song, and dance idioms of the late 19th century, and utilizing plain-spoken tonal procedures but also diatonic dissonance and polytonal elements. In his many vocal works, and his two path-breaking operatic collaborations with Gertrude Stein, Thomson demonstrated a mastery of prosody. . The wit, vitality, and descriptive precision of his writing, which demystified the complexities of music for lay readers, made him among the most influential and lasting critics of the 20th century." Anthony Tommasini and Richard Jackson in Grove Music Online.- $575
- $575
Half-length glossy publicity photograph of the noted American comedian and his wife
ALLEN, Fred 1894-1956 207 x 254 mm. With an inscription in ink: "For Dorotha with our best wishes Portland & Fred Allen" (not in Fred Allen's hand). Slightly discolored. "His absurdist, topically pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932-1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio. . His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it was only part of his appeal; radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio) wrote that Allen was perhaps radio's most admired comedian ." Wikipedia.- $29
- $29
Bust-length photograph by Mishkin of the noted conductor in profile, with autograph signature
Signed in full and dated New York, 1917. With Mishkin copyright in the plate in white to lower left. 200 x 147 mm. Slightly worn and creased; laid down to mounting sheet. A Viennese-born American conductor best known as a Wagnerian, Bodanzky became Mahler's assistant at the Vienna Opera in 1903 and was later named successor to Alfred Hertz at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His conducted the American premieres of many works, including Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, and was on the rostrum for Caruso's final performance at the Met, on Christmas Eve 1920. Herman Mishkin (1870-1948) served as the Metropolitan Opera's official portraitist from 1908-1932, producing an important body of work documenting "The Golden Age of Opera." The Twelve-Tone Compositions of Luigi Dallapiccola
Large octavo. [1] (title), pp. [289]-310, [i] (blank). Reprinted from The Musical Quarterly Vol. XLIV, No. 3, July 1958. A presentation copy from the author to Virgil Thomson, with "For Virgil Thomson Hans Nathan October 5, 1962" in blue-black ink to title. Slightly worn and browned. Nathan (1910-1989) was a German-born American musicologist with a special interest in Dallapiccola, Virgil Thomson a noted American composer and music critic. Attractive bust-length photograph of the Swedish soprano as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, signed
Signed in full in white ink at lower portion: "Nanny Larsén-Tordsen (Brünnhilde) New York April 1925." From Atelier Jaeger in Stockholm, with their embossed stamp with decorative device to lower right corner. 233 x 172 mm. Very slightly silvered at margins. Together with: Autograph letter signed in full and dated New York 13 April 1925. 1 page. Quarto. To Miss Wolff, advising her that she has left the present photograph at the desk of her hotel, the Marie Antoinette at 67th and Broadway, for her correspondent, and saying that she will be coming back to New York in January of 1926. Creased at folds. Larsén-Todsen began her international career with lyric roles, later transitioning to Wagner repertory. She sang Isolde under Toscanini at La Scala in 1923-25 and was with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1925-27, making her debut there as Brünnhilde. "Most notable of her recordings are her Isolde, based on Bayreuth performances of 1928, and Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene from the same year, which show her strong, evenly produced tone and appreciable sensitivity." Leo Riemens, revised by Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online. Fine bust-length photograph of the American soprano, with auitograph signature
253 x 167 mm. Inscribed, signed, and dated in ink: "For Miss Alice E. L. Wofff, Sincerely Louise Hunter N.Y. 1925." Slightly worn and creased; small chip to upper right corner and minor tear to left margin. Hunter began her career in opera, with a 4-year contract with the Met in 1923, but later transitioned to operetta, signing a 5-year contract with Arthur Hammerstein in 1927 and going on to create the title role in Golden Dawn, which opened on Broadway on 30 November of that year with music by Emmerich Kalman and Herbert P. Stothart and lyrics by Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein. Three-quarter length photographic portrait of the Spanish tenor in formal dress, signed
Inscribed "A la Srta. Alice E.L. Wolff Recuerdo de Hipólito Lázaro" and dated New York, March 28, 1918. From the Apeda studio in New York, signed in white in the plate. 141 x 93 mm. Laid down to mounting sheet. Lázaro's career took him to a number of European centers, South America, Havana, Egypt, and New York. He sang in the premieres of Mascagni's Parisina at La Scala and also in the composer's Il piccolo Marat in Rome. "He appeared at the Metropolitan in 1918, making a strong impression there with the high tessitura of I puritani;" he gave a farewell concert in New York in 1944 and made his last operatic appearances in Havana in 1950. "A bright, penetrating voice with nmagnificent high notes is heard on recordings ." J.B. Steaner in Grove Music Online. Full-length reproduction role portrait of the Austrian soprano, with autograph signature
Signed and dated 22 April 1915. Laid down to mounting sheet. Kurt studied with both Lilli and Marie Lehmann in Berlin, went on to sing at the Hoftheater, Covent Garden, and at the Metropolitan Opera from 1915-1917, where she made her début as Isolde and sang much of the Wagner repertory as well as other roles. "She possessed a rich, powerful dramatic soprano voice evinced in her recordings of Wagner, and had outstanding dramatic presence." Harold Rosenthal in Grove Music Online. Signed photograph of the noted soprano in Lortzing’s comic opera Der Wildschütz
204 x 142 mm. Laid down to mounting sheet. A German-born American soprano, "[Hempel's] Metropolitan début in 1912, as Marguerite de Valois in a brilliantly cast Les Huguenots, began a period of seven years with that company, during which she settled in New York where she became a naturalized American. She sang Eva and Euryanthe there under Toscanini, besides many of the lighter Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti parts, in which she was regarded as the natural successor of Sembrich. After a farewell Metropolitan appearance, in Crispino e la comare, on 10 February 1919, she devoted herself mainly to a concert career. Her refined, exhilarating style is worthily represented on her many recordings." Desmond Shawe-Taylor in Grove Music Online Der Wildschütz, a comic opera in three acts by Lortzing to a libretto by the composer adapted from August von Kotzebue's comedy Der Rehbock, oder Die schuldlosen Schuldbewussten, was first performed in Leipzig on 31 December 1842. Attractive full length Mishkin photograph of the noted contralto as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal, signed
Signed in black ink at lower left "Margarete Matzenauer Kundry / Parsifal." With "Copyright Mishkin Studio New York" embossed to lower left corner. 145 x 197 mm. An unusual image, with the singer depicted reclining on a patterned rug with a pastoral scene in the background. Laid down to mounting sheet. Margaret Matzenauer "made guest appearances with many companies (including those of Covent Garden and Bayreuth) before her American début at the Metropolitan Opera as Amneris under Toscanini (1911) . Enthusiastically praised for her acting, Matzenauer had a photographic memory (she performed Kundry at 24 hours' notice having never sung the part before), and her musicianship was exceptional. . As a concert artist she is especially remembered for her performances of Das Lied von der Erde under Mengelberg, the American première of Oedipus rex under Koussevitzky and many Bach works under Bodanzky. After leaving the Metropolitan she continued to give concerts and recitals, appeared occasionally in opera, and was active as a teacher." Philip L. Miller in Grove Music Online. Autograph musical quotation in the hand of the Italian baritone from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, signed
3 measures in piano-vocal score of the recitative for tenor and bass from Act I of the opera, with text commencing "lo Pasquale da Corneto, possidente, qui presente." Signed in full and dated New York, 2 February 1914. Two file holes to right margin, not affecting autograph; laid down to mounting sheet. "[Pini-Corsi] made his début in 1878 at Cremona as Dandini in La Cenerentola, and for 15 years appeared throughout Italy, specializing in the comic operas of Rossini and Donizetti. . His last appearance was in 1917 in Rossini's Signor Bruschino at the Teatro Dal Verme, Milan, when his voice, if not as powerful as it had been 40 years previously, was still as agile as ever and used with the same keen intelligence that had distinguished his performances throughout his long career." Elizabeth Forbes in Grove Music Online Don Pasquale, a comic opera in three acts by Donizetti to a libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and the composer after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio (1810), was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre Italien on 3 January 1843. Bust-length photogarph of the noted conductor, signed in full and dated New York December 1914
Identified in the plate in white below the image and with "GGCo." at lower left corner. 197 x 141 mm. Laid down to mounting sheet. A German-born American conductor, Hertz went to the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1902, "making his début with Lohengrin and staying until 1915 as principal conductor of German opera. There he conducted . the first Parsifal ., the American premières of Salome and Der Rosenkavalier, and the world premières of Humperdinck's Die Königskinder and of all the American works brought out during his time there." Michael Steinberg in Grove Music Online. Grove Music Online. Bust-length Mishkin photograph of the noted tenor in profile, with autograph signature
Inscribed "To Miss Alice E. Wolff Souvenir of G Martinelli New York 1/7/15." 168 x 123 mm. With Mishkin copyright in the plate in white to lower left. Slightly worn; small crack to left margin just touching image. Martinelli, an Italian tenor, sang for thirty one consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan opera, appearing in 926 performances in a total of 38 operas there. "Over the years Martinelli developed an unimpeachable technique and scrupulous style, and after the death of Caruso became the leading exponent of such dramatic and heroic roles as Verdi's Manrico, Radames, Don Alvaro and, eventually, Otello. He displayed his skills as a singing actor in the roles of Samson and Eléazar (La Juive). The clarion ring of his upper register, the distinctness and purity of his declamation and the sustained legato phrasing made possible by remarkable breath control were the outstanding features of his mature style; he retained his vocal powers to an advanced age, making his final appearances as Emperor Altoum (Turandot) as late as 1967." Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online. Bust-length oval photograph of the American contralto in profile with a garland in her hair, with autograph signature
Inscribed "To Miss Alice E. L. Wolff With best wishes Sincerely yours Louise Homer 1913 N.Y." From the studio of Aimé Dupont on Fifth Avenue in New York, with her embossed stamp to blank lower margin and copyright date of 1909 printed in white in the plate. Image size 145 x 108 mm., photograph size 177 x 126 mm. Laid down to mounting paper. "Homer began a long and successful Metropolitan career, singing chiefly in Italian and French opera, but she soon assumed leading Wagnerian roles; she was also a notable Orpheus in Toscanini's 1909 revival of Gluck's opera, created the Witch in Humperdinck's Königskinder (1910), and was the first to sing the title role in Parker's Mona (1912) . She returned to the Metropolitan in 1927 and made her last appearance there in 1929, as Azucena. A performer of great artistic integrity, she had a beautiful voice and a majestic stage presence." Herman Klein et al. in Grove Music Online. Autograph musical quotation in the hand of the German soprano, with autograph signature
Two measures of a melodic line, with autograph signature and autograph note to lower margin: "Thanks for your kind letter!" With small cut image of the singer to upper portion of sheet. Laid down to mounting sheet. Mattfeld sang Sister Dolcina in the world premiere of Suor Angelica, an opera by Puccini to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, first performed in New York at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918 as no. 2 of Il trittico. Full-length photograph by Mishkin of the Austrian soprano in role portrait, with autograph signature
Kurt's autograph in black ink to lower portion of image. With Mishkin copyright in the plate in white to lower right. 220 x 146 mm. Laid down to mounting sheet. Kurt studied with both Lilli and Marie Lehmann in Berlin, went on to sing at the Hoftheater, Covent Garden, and at the Metropolitan Opera from 1915-1917, where she made her début as Isolde and sang much of the Wagner repertory as well as other roles. "She possessed a rich, powerful dramatic soprano voice evinced in her recordings of Wagner, and had outstanding dramatic presence." Harold Rosenthal in Grove Music Online.