Grand Musical Festival: 3rd

“The matinee of the grand festival at this hall introduced, before an immense audience, Miss Henrietta Beebe, soprano; Miss Nettie Sterling, contralto; Mr. W. J. Hill, tenor, and Mr. S. C. Campbell, the celebrated bass, as soloists; a splendid orchestra, under the direction of Carl Rosa and George Matzka, and Messrs. Pease and Colby, pianists. Liszt’s greatest work, the Preludes, was given in an unexceptional manner.”

“The third, fourth and fifth performances of Mr. Harrison’s Musical Festival have been given to throngs as great and to audiences as enthusiastic as those which attended on the opening nights.  The sudden assault of heat under which all must suffer, seems to deter no one from enjoying these exalted entertainments, and Steinway Hall is likely to be equally crowded to the end of them.  The project of such a festival was a hazard at any time, and more than perilous as this warm season; but since Mr. Harrison has risked so much for art, the people doubtless feel that they too should suffer something for the cause, and so they endure the dissolving airs for the sake of the melting melodies.  The programme at Wednesday’s matinee was quite interesting, although it offered nothing that was not familiar to the frequenter of last Winter’s concerts.  Lizst’s [sic] “Poeme Symphonique,” with its wonderful streams of sound and poetic wails, and Mendelssohn’s fanciful overture for “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” led in merit among the orchestral performances and were given under the energetic direction of Mr. Carl Rosa, who in these made his debut upon the conductor’s platform.”