Judas Maccabaeus

"Lent--which appears to have begun earlier this year in Steinway Hall than in the rest of the world, for alraedy two oratorios for the Lenten season have been given there--will be continued in the same sacred spirit. Next Friday evening the third oratorio will be performed, with much the same aids that gave expression to the 'Messiah' and 'Samson.' 'Judas Maccabaeus' will be the work on that future occasion, and the Harmonic Society, the Cecilian Choir and Mr. Thomas' orchestra have it now in busy rehearsal. This is to be one of the few final performances with which Mr. Thomas or his seemingly indispensable and certainly ubiquitous orchestra will be connected for the present season. On one of the early April steamers Mr. Thomas takes passage for Europe, where he expects to remain some months."

"--There is an abundance of musical news, but it must perforce be gossiped pertly. The best of it locally is that...the oratorio of Judas Maccabeus is to be chorused at Steinway Hall on Friday evening next, Mrs. Fanny Raymond Ritter in the cast as mezzo-soprano."

Brief. "Judas Maccabaeus is to be chorused on Friday evening, at Steinway's, with the accomplished Mrs. Ritter added to the soloists."

"Steinway Hall.--Mr. Harrison give the third grand oratorio performance at Steinway Hall this evening, with Mme. Parepa, Mme. Ritter, Mr. S. B. Mills, Mr. Carl Rosa, the Harmonic Society of two hundred voices, and Mr. Theodore Thomas' orchestra to assist in rendering it completely and justly. This will be the occasion of Mme. Parepa's last appearance in oratorio."

Brief. "--To several items of musical news we commend attention. This evening, the oratorio of Judas Maccabaeus will be sung at Steinway's, as heretofore announced."

“Amusements. Musical. Handel’s oratorio of Judas Macabeus was given at Steinway Hall last evening before the usual crowded house that attends all these performances. The solo parts were in general satisfactory—that of the soprano pre-eminently so. The tenor was not a Sims Reeves in the ‘Sound an Alarm,’ but he did his best. The Harmonic Society, a thoroughly trained and efficient orchestra, and the organ and grand piano thrown in, gave the heavy portions of the great work in excellent style. Mr. Ritter’s baton guided all safely through, and the audience testified their satisfaction in the most unequivocal manner.”

“The last of the Oratorio performances which we shall have until June, was given at Steinway Hall on Friday evening by the same soloists and chorus who made the previous ones pleasant. Handel’s ‘Judas Maccabaeus’ was the work of Friday, and in some instances was performed as effectively as the ‘Messiah’ and the ‘Samson’ were. Mr. Ritter never directed his harmonic body with greater solicitude, intelligence and decision; and Mme. Parepa, who stands alone in her sphere as mistress of the Oratorio school of singing, was not less than perfect, and the deep feeling with which she burst from the recitative into the arias ‘O! liberty, thou choicest treasure,’ and ‘From Mighty Kings,’ swept reserve out of sight and gained her enthusiastic responses. The other singers were Mme. Ritter, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. J. R. Thomas.”

“Music. Judas Maccabaeus, the third of Manager Harrison’s Oratorio series, has been only less favored than its predecessors, Samson and the Messiah. We dare hope that this royal line of oratorio will be prolonged to include the choruses of Israel in Egypt. Few managers will venture further, and the public will not strain its attention to be edified. Yet now would be the time, other things being equal, to give a grand selection from the unperformed works of Handel, each of which has some peculiar beauty and power. Saul, Jeptha, Joshua, Solomon, Esther, the cantata of Acis and Galatea, and others, contain noble substance for a concert feast, and Mr. Harrison’s choir and orchestra are doubtless well read enough to spread it out for us. Oratorio has seldom had so free a prospect for a season as now, thanks to the energy of its manager and to the voice of Parepa—thanks also, to the receptivity of the public. Of right, we should have a revival of Haydn’s sunny treasures—The Creation, and The Seasons; and we might beg for a score of other good things—Mehul’s Joseph, for instance, another extraordinary choral work, whether heard as oratorio or opera. Moreover, oratorio is religiously welcome to our Sunday evenings. It is, or ought to be, conventionally acceptable—a hundred times more so than mixed Sunday concerts; for it is the grandest form of sacred music, often the noblest utterance of Holy Writ. Who can preach more eloquently than Handel and Haydn? What sermon is so good as a chorus of The Messiah? The perversity of a Sabbatarian generation, grown deaf in the notion that the pulpit is more sacred than the choir—that the psalms may be sung in church, but are not to be publicly heard outside of it—is fast tending to the fossil bygones. As to the chance of hearing oratorio on Sunday, that is another thing; but we are quite willing to pledge its success in advance. Cui bono? Our demands are immodest; our desires vanity and vexation of spirit. For a truly great undertaking of oratorio, so that its season shall be in fact a choral campaign, we need nothing less than a generalissimo of music.

Judas Maccabaeus stands fourth of Handel’s works in point of striking interest; yet it has a number of grand opportunities for the soloist, and some choruses as well known to fame as Handel himself. ‘Hear us, O Lord,’ which ends the first part; ‘We never will bow down,’ the conclusion of the second; ‘See, the conquering hero comes,’ the renowned semi-chorus and the third part, and the final Hallelujah, are among the best of them. The torrent-like fugue quality, with which the Messiah abounds, seems wanting in Judas Maccabeaus. As usual, it was slowly but still capably done by Mr. Ritter’s choir; the tenors better than we have heard them hitherto. Mr. Simpson, the best qualities of whose voice and manner are not often heard to advantage in a large hall, gave the famous trumpet-toned air, ‘Sound the alarm,’ in which the English tenor, Braham, was so celebrated with commendable spirit. Mr. Thomas’s bass recitative was generally careful and well toned. The duet, ‘O never bow we down’ proceding the chorus of the same, was sung by Madame Parepa and Mrs. Fanny Raymond Ritter with expressive volume and freedom, and excepting Madame Parepa’s exquisitely high and florid rendering of the air, ‘So shall the lute and harp awake,’ this was the success of the evening. The stately, almost pompous cheer of Handel’s favorite semi-chorus, ‘The conquering hero,’ was uttered charmingly and with power.”

No mention of music.

“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 Messiah, as given by the Harmonic Society every Christmas eve. But within the past 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 given, 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.”