Harrison Sunday Concert: 21st

“The twenty-first Sunday Concert at Steinway Hall, last evening, drew together a magnificent audience—larger than usual, of course, owing to the reappearance of Mme. Parepa-Rosa at these agreeable soirées. The programme in other respects was good, presenting an array of artists that are rarely equaled in any concert room. Mme. Parepa-Rosa awakened the old enthusiasm in Haydn's beautiful aria from the ‘Creation,’ and in Millard's song of ‘Waiting.’ The lady was, of course, rapturously applauded and encored. Mr. Brookhouse Bowler rendered very efficient service in the two pieces which fell to his share. He is a most excellent tenor, and gains steadily on the public. Mr. Carl Rosa played with his accustomed delicacy and correct taste. Mr. Leopold de Meyer gave his grand fantasie from ‘Un Ballo in Maschera,’ and the very popular arrangement of airs from ‘La Grande Duchesse.’ Both pieces, as a matter of course, made the audience uproarious. The orchestra, under Mr. Theodore Thomas, was fully up to its well-known standard of efficiency. The concert was, we think, the best of the season.” 

“There has been a marked improvement lately in the Sunday concerts at Steinway Hall, and the one last night was excellent. There is always satisfaction when Madame Parepa-Rosa sings. Last evening, she was heard in two styles of music in which she is most admired—the oratorio, and the English ballad. As a specimen [sic] of the first she sang ‘With verdure clad’ from Haydn’s ‘Creation.’ It called forth, of course, a tumultuous encore, in answer to which she gave an English song, and later in the evening she sang Millard’s ‘Waiting,’ in which her clarion tones are displayed to unusual advantage. Her performance would have redeemed even a concert otherwise bad, but nearly everything on the programme was far above average quality. Mr. Carl Rosa made a decided impression with his ‘Polonaise brilliant’ of Vieuxtemps. He has played it often before, but his audiences do not tire of it, nor of his delicate execution of Artot’s ‘Souvenir de Bellini,’ in which the well-worn melodies of ‘Sonnambula’ take a new charm and freshness. He is a conscientious artist, who cares more for music than display, and adds to a brilliant execution an unusual degree of feeling. M. de Meyer was in one of his most rollicking moods, and the liberal applause which recalled him again and again, was given as much to his fun as to his dashing and spirited playing. His fantasia on the ‘Ballo in Maschera’ touches rather gingerly several of the most popular airs from that opera, but the gallant player wanders widely from them at his own sweet will, now lingering dreamily over delicate pearly runs, and now thumping the keys with clenched hand in a frenzy of delight. Mr. Brookhouse Bowler contributed three ballads to the entertainment, Macfarren’s ‘My own, my guiding Star,’ Hatton’s ‘Good-bye, sweetheart,’ for an encore, and Richards’s ‘Oh whisper what thou feelest.’ There are some very sweet and effective notes in his voice, and he would be a sympathetic singer but for his finical style. He meets, however, with undoubted favor. The orchestra played the overtures to ‘William Tell,’ and ‘A Night in Granada,’ Schubert’s ‘Serenade’ and the ‘Irving Quickstep.’ As usual, when Mr. Theodore Thomas holds the baton, they played very well indeed. A word of praise is due to the accompanist, Mr. Colby, for his uniform correctness and good taste.”