Music: Orchestra of Mandolins

The Vienna Mandolin Orchestra Society gave a concert in Berlin to a crowded auditorium. The concert was described as exquisite. It is the purpose of the Society to demonstrate that the mandolin, far from being necessarily only a toy, is a serious, dignified and important instrument, one well fitted to satisfy the highest artistic demands of music. The Society has a band of one hundred expert players, who render in grandiose style arrangements of the compositions of the great composers. Listeners at the Berlin concert commented admiringly on the great, noble tone of the bass mandolins—almost organlike in richness—which moved in stately measures beneath the delicate, tintillating lacework of the smaller instruments.