Seating chart prepared by Frances Glessner
The Glessners
celebrated Christmas in 1915 by hosting a dinner for 24 people at 1:00pm on
Christmas Day. Although the menu served
was not recorded, the Glessner journal (by this time being written by John
Glessner), and Frances Glessner’s dinner book both list the guests who were
present. Their dining room table was
designed to accommodate 18; Frances Glessner noted, however, that the carpenter
could extend the table to seat 24 when needed.
Mrs. Enrico (Juliette) Tramonti
Two of the
dinner guests, Mrs. Tramonti and Mrs. Bernhard, had come on Christmas Eve to
decorate the Christmas tree. Regarding
Christmas Day, John Glessner wrote:
“Mr. and Mrs. Tramonti came to breakfast, then
went elsewhere, and our Christmas party came at 12 to see the tree
lighted. Our dinner was at one and the
party broke up about 4 p.m. There were
Frances Lee and her children, Mr. and Mrs. Stock, Mr. and Mrs. Tramonti, Mr.
and Mrs. Wessels, Mr. and Mrs. Voegeli, Mr. and Mrs. Bernhard, Mr. and Mrs. von
Holst, Helen and Anna, Mrs. Kennedy, Frank Baird, Vera Stock, Nathalie
Gookin. In the evening we went to the
orchestra concert and had Frances Lee and Frank Baird in our box. To list the presents is beyond me.”
So who
were the guests invited to dine with the Glessners? Not surprisingly, the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra was well represented, and in fact there were more people at the table
with CSO connections than there were Glessner family members. It is also interesting to note that a number
of the guests were the ages of the Glessners’ children, such as Hermann von
Holst and Enrico Tramonti, something that was actually quite typical when
examining the dinner books. Here is a
synopsis of those present:
Mr. and
Mrs. Frederick Stock and daughter Vera – Stock was appointed music director of
the Theodore Thomas Orchestra (later the Chicago Symphony) in 1905, following
the death of founding director Theodore Thomas.
Stock first came to the symphony in 1895 as a violist and was promoted
to assistant conductor in 1899. The
Stocks were intimate friends, and in 1907, Stock had given a large portrait of
himself to the Glessners for Christmas, inscribing it “to my best friends”
(shown above).
Mr. and
Mrs. Frederick J. Wessels – Wessels was the business manager of the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra and the treasurer of The Orchestral Association.
Mr. and
Mrs. Henry E. Voegeli – Voegeli was the assistant manager of the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. The Voegelis and the
Wessels were both frequent guests at the Glessners’ summer estate, The Rocks,
in New Hampshire.
Mr. and
Mrs. Enrico Tramonti – Tramonti was appointed principal harpist with the
Symphony Orchestra in February 1902, continuing in that position for 25
years. He and his wife Juliette were
close friends of the Glessners, frequently spending holidays with the
family. (See blog posting dated September 30, 2013 for more information).
Mr. Frank
T. Baird – Baird was a prominent vocal teacher and taught in Chicago for over
forty years, in addition to serving as the long time organist at Third
Presbyterian Church. He was the accompanist
for a number of well-known singers including Adelina Patti, Clara Louise
Kellogg, and Annie Louise Carey. Among
his many students was the prominent actress and singer Lillian Russell.
Mr. and
Mrs. Hermann von Holst – Von Holst was a prominent architect best remembered
today for taking over Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural practice when Wright left
for Europe in 1909. Von Holst designed a number
of buildings at the Glessners’ summer estate, The Rocks, including his first commission after opening his own
office in 1905. (See this 2012 blog article for more information).
Mr. and
Mrs. Wilhelm Bernhard – Bernhard was also an architect, a graduate of the polytechnic
academy in Dresden. He specialized in city
planning and in 1913 won the first prize in the City Club competition for
his layout of a model quarter section of land in Chicago.
Mrs.
Nathalie Sieboth Kennedy – Kennedy had served as the reader for Frances
Glessner’s Monday Morning Reading Class since the fall of 1902. A lecturer and tutor, she served as president
of The Fortnightly from 1910 to 1912, and was the daughter of Joseph Sieboth, a
pupil of Felix Mendelssohn. Her late husband,
Prof. Horace Milton Kennedy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New
York, had died in 1885.
Miss
Nathalie Gookin – 16 year old niece of Nathalie Kennedy. Her father, Frederick William Gookin, also a
good friend of the Glessners, was the long time curator of Japanese prints at
the Art Institute of Chicago.
Miss Helen
Macbeth and Mrs. Anna Robertson – Frances Glessner’s sisters
Frances
Glessner Lee – The Glessners’ daughter (she had divorced by this time)
John Lee
(age 17), Frances Lee (age12), and Martha Lee (age 9) – children of Frances
Glessner Lee and grandchildren of John and Frances Glessner
Note: The CSO program for December 25, 1915 consisted of the following:
Pastorale from "Christmas Oratorio" - Bach
A Short Serenade for String Orchestra (Köchel 525) - Mozart
Sonate, "The Flute of Pan" - Mouquet
Symphonic Poem "La Belle au Bois Dormant" - Bruneau
Symphony No. 2, D Minor, Opus 70 - Dvořák
The Mouquet was orchestrated and performed by Alfred Quensel, principal flutist with the CSO from 1896 to 1926. It was the first performance of this piece in Chicago. The Dvořák Symphony No. 2 is now listed as Symphony No. 7.
(Thank you to Frank Villella, CSO archivist, for providing this information)
Note: The CSO program for December 25, 1915 consisted of the following:
Pastorale from "Christmas Oratorio" - Bach
A Short Serenade for String Orchestra (Köchel 525) - Mozart
Sonate, "The Flute of Pan" - Mouquet
Symphonic Poem "La Belle au Bois Dormant" - Bruneau
Symphony No. 2, D Minor, Opus 70 - Dvořák
The Mouquet was orchestrated and performed by Alfred Quensel, principal flutist with the CSO from 1896 to 1926. It was the first performance of this piece in Chicago. The Dvořák Symphony No. 2 is now listed as Symphony No. 7.
(Thank you to Frank Villella, CSO archivist, for providing this information)
No comments:
Post a Comment