Wolfsohn Beethoven Concert Matinee: 9th

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway's Rooms

Price: $1

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Performance Forces:
Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
27 August 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

01 Mar 1867, 3:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Guglielmo Lotti;  Bertha Johannsen;  Carl Wolfsohn [piano]
2)
Sonata, piano, no. 32, op. 111, C minor
Composer(s): Beethoven
Participants:  Carl Wolfsohn [piano]
3)
Sonata, piano, no. 13, op. 27, no.1, E-flat major
aka Fantasia sonata
Composer(s): Beethoven
Participants:  Carl Wolfsohn [piano]
4)
Sonata, piano, no. 11, op. 22, B-flat major
Composer(s): Beethoven
Participants:  Carl Wolfsohn [piano]
5)
Winterreise, "Post, Die"
aka Post horn, The
Composer(s): Schubert
Text Author: Müller
Participants:  Bertha Johannsen
6)
Gedichte, op. 35. Wanderlied
aka Zwölf Gedichte, op. 35, no. 3, Wanderlied
Composer(s): Schumann
Participants:  Bertha Johannsen

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 02 February 1867, 410.

“The tenor Lotti has returned from Mexico. We can not say yet if he still possesses freshness in his voice.”

2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 27 February 1867, 1.
3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 01 March 1867, 7.
4)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 01 March 1867.

Lotti will appear “for the first time since his return from opera in Mexico and Havana. . . . Johannsen will, we hope, take occasion to fulfill a much-cherished programme of Schubert and Schumann, which she was too unwell to sing at the last matinée.”

5)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 06 March 1867, 5.

Part of larger review of multiple performances. “Of Wolfsohn’s Beethoven Matinees we can say but little now. That Madame Johannsen sang Schubert’s Post Song and Schumann’s Wanderlied with an enthusiasm in most respects worthy of those poets of music must be recorded. Mr. Wolfsohn’s performance is, as usual, an elucidation of Beethoven, and what keener praise can we give it? The finger-reach after effect (we see it in all the pianists of the day—hear it, of course, in the dominant Liszt music) cannot belong to the method of interpreting Beethoven. That demands a surrender to the inner spirit of music—music of which Beethoven was so subtle, many-sided, and imaginative a master. It has been remarked that in the sonatas we hear the orchestra, and the phrase is suggestive of the universality which characterizes all his works, from the songs to his symphonies. The variety of skill, and the sincerity of feeling demanded from the player is in accordance with these facts; and Mr. Wolfsohn is good enough to set them forth for us in his perspicuous and able playing. Friday’s programme comprised the exquisite Sonata in fantasia form—E flat major, op. 27—and ‘The Last Sonata,’ C minor, op. 111, not to be less cordially mentioned.”

6)
Review: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 09 March 1867, 488.

“The b flat major sonata is one of the most melodious of Beethoven’s sonatas. [Musical analysis and reviewer’s interpretation follows.] Opus 27 is considered the companion of the ‘moonlight sonata.’…[Musical analysis and reviewer’s interpretation follows.] Opus 111 is the last sonata Beethoven wrote. [Musical analysis and reviewer’s interpretation follows.]

The performance of Schubert’s and Schumann’s songs by Mad. Johannsen was a delightful distraction.”