Samson

Brief. "Mr. Harrison deserves the gratitude of his fellow-citizens for the venture he has made in their behalf and in the interest of sacred music. It is pleasant to know that a reasonable pecuniary result may be anticipated.

[Announcement of oratorio in Brooklyn.]

On Tuesday next the oratorio of 'Samson' will be given at Steinway Hall."

Lists performers; advertises Hutchings as contralto. A “chorus of 300 male, female and boy voices.”

“Ladies and getlemen of the Chorus and Orchestra are requested to be present on the above evening at half-past seven.”

“The Members of the Cecilian Choir are respectfully invited to take part in the performance of the oratorio of Samson, at Steinway Hall, on Tuesday evening, March 5. Tickets of admission for the stage door can be obtained on application to Mr. Harrison, Irving Hall.”

Advertises Hutchings rather than Ritter.

“Mr. Harrison’s enterprise in putting these great works upon the stage in so large and perfect a manner entitles him to the gratitude and recognition of every lover of sacred music in the land.”

“Oratorio. The Oratorio of Samson was performed at Steinway Hall last night by the Harmonic Society, strengthened by the addition of the Cecilian Choir. The orchestra was Thomas’s, led by Mr. Ritter, and the soloists were Madame Parepa Rosa, Miss Hutchings, Mr. Simpson and Mr. Thomas. The music of Samson is so different from that of the Messiah that a comparison of the two performances of the Harmonic Society is hardly possible, yet we may compliment the members upon a decided improvement in one of the two essential particulars. The arrangement of the singers last night gave better effect to the choruses, and the lack of strength visible on the former evening was redeemed by judicious additions. Most of the choruses were given with excellent effect. Parepa had comparatively little to do, but sang with much sweetness, and in the closing air, to a cornet accompaniment, brought down a thundering encore. Miss Hutchings was in poorer voice than usual. The other singers were passable.”

Part of longer review of multiple oratorio performances. “Samson, the second of the Handel series, was heard last evening at Steinway’s, and it is due to its strong and earnest performance to say, heard gratefully. The same elements which characterize the Messiah occur in this grandly individualized work; but it is perhaps because we miss a certain religious enthusiasm, or because the theme itself is inferior in the inspiration of variety that the Messiah is to be, on the whole, preferred. There is vast variety, however, in the choral masses of Samson, wherein the composer, like Milton, celebrates in splendid tragedy the blindness of one other Titan. It is in Samson that the sublime musical soliloquoy ‘Total Eclipse’ occurs—a passage which is to music what Milton’s lines on his blindness are to English poetry. We can here but briefly record the particular worth of the performance. The largest of the choruses, ‘Fixed in his Everlasting Seat,’ was emphatically well done. That marvelous chorus of the Philistines, ‘Hear us, Oh God,’ wherein a terror is depicted such as we hear in no drama, was, it seemed to us, insufficiently given; but it is remarkable how much force and expression can be put into the production of Handel, and still without satistying us. ‘Great Dragon’ is a colored, characterized chorus; it shows us what manner of men the Philistines were, and treats us to a suggestion of heathen ‘mirth, high cheer, and wine,’ in an uproar of half barbarous triumph. But we might go on speaking of the whole mountain chain of choruses; let it suffice to say that the most of them were distinctly, though not always enthustically, taken and given. ‘The Dead March’ and the ‘Seraphim’ air are the wonders of this oratorio. ‘The fluting grief’ of the former, the sunbright exaltation [sic] of the latter, are the most magnificent contrasts, which Samson presents. Anything more spirited, uplifted, and cheerful than Madame Parepa Rosa’s delivery of the Seraphim air, we could not well ask. Handel is, indeed, trumpet-tongued in this great air, the effect of which last evening was electrical.”

The concert was financially a success. The performance; however, shows the lack of experience with big works with which our choruses suffer. There are not enough opportunities to perform. Moreover, these works from time periods long ago are not truly moving our emotions as much. They seem too unrelated to the present times.

“Oratorio, even Handel [sic], whom New York critics have so often pronounced out of date, has had several triumphs lately both in Steinway Hall and in Brooklyn; Samson and the Messiah having been very successfully brought out under Mr. Ritter’s direction, with the aid of Mme. Parepa-Rosa, Mrs. Ritter, and others.”

“The most marked musical event of this crowded musical season is the unexpected revival of the popular relish for Oratorios. For some years the public have seemed to consider their homage to the genius of Handel sufficiently demonstrated by a not over-crowded attendance upon the performance of the f, as given by the Harmonic Society every Christmas eve. But within the part three months there has been a great reawakening of interest in this solid style of music. The Messiah and Samson have been repeatedly performed to large and enthusiastic audiences in New York and Brooklyn, and on Friday, the 15th inst., Judas Maccabaeus was give, at Steinway Hall, with equal effectiveness and success. The artists who, by their appreciative performances, have at once confirmed and developed this growing taste, are Mme. Parepa Rosa, Miss Hutchings, Mme. Raymond Ritter, Mr. J. R. Thomas, and Mr. Simpson, the orchestra under the direction of Mr. Ritter. The season is interrupted for the present by the engagements of Mme. Parepa, but is to be resumed in June on a still grander scale, with a chorus of 400 voices, a full orchestra and a military band.”