Harrison Oratorio Concert: 6th: Elijah

“Steinway Hall—‘Elijah.’—The sixth and last of this season’s series of oratorios was given at this well known hall last night.  The audience was one befitting such an occasion and such a performance, for every possible space where an auditor could sit or stand in the main hall or in the extension was crowded, and many brilliant toilets adorned every part of the hall. [Lists performers.] Mendelssohn’s great work ‘Elijah’ was given in a generally satisfactory manner, if we except the tempo in which some of the choruses were taken.  The conductor besides in the great aria ‘Hear ye Israel’ almost spoiled the admirable singing of Mme. Rosa by indecision and bungling.  In some parts, however, the performance was fully equal to its predecessors.”

“Mr. Harrison’s oratorio season at Steinway Hall closed on Thursday night with a good performance of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah;’ not a perfect one, not by any means so good a performance as that of ‘Judas Maccabaeus’ a few weeks ago, or the ‘Messiah’ on Christmas night, but upon the whole a very proper crown to a brilliant series. The deficiencies of the orchestra, which is mediocre not because it is composed of poor material but because it is weakly conducted, are more observable in the delicate and ornate accompaniments of Mendelssohn than in the simpler and more massive instrumentation of Handel, not that Handel, or any other good composer, can be fairly interpreted without a nicety both of touch and of intelligence; but defects which would only mar the ‘Messiah’ are well-nigh fatal to the effect of ‘St. Paul’ or ‘Elijah.’ Many of the finest beauties of the score were missed because the players took them with such heavy hands,—as if they had been plunging through potato-fields when they ought to have been tripping over beds of flowers. That the members of the orchestra are individually competent to do much better we need hardly say. We saw several proofs of it on Thursday night. In one of the solos, for instance (we forget which one), the violin accompaniment of Mr. Matzka was notable for its rich expression, and in another there was some excellent playing on the clarinet. In the forte passages the playing was almost always good; the time, too, was usually correct; but what is an orchestra without a soul? Many of the choruses were excellent. The great invocation of the Pagan God, ‘Baal, we cry to thee,’ was rendered with admirable precision and spirit, and ‘He watching over Israel,’ deserves high commendation not only for the correctness of the voices, but for the tasteful accompaniment by the orchestra, and the pianissimo passage toward the end. ‘He slumbers not, sleeps not,’ was given charmingly. The chorus of Hebrews, ‘Lord, bow thine ear to our prayer,’ which forms a background as it were to the plaint for two sopranos at the beginning of the oratorio, ‘Zion spreadeth her hands for aid,’ was likewise good, the intonations being firm and the measures well observed. In the first chorus, ‘Help, Lord,’ there is a fine passage beginning ‘The deep affords no water’ which, when properly sung, has a remarkable effect; but the time must be taken with exactness; the voices must attack the notes precisely together. Here there was a failure. The sopranos, which begin the movement, were uncertain; the tenors came in straggling; and before the different parts got fairly into their work the point of the composition was lost. In several of the subsequent choruses there was a great deal of indecision and weakness, especially in the fugato movements, which are not apt to be wearisome unless they are strong. The fault appeared to be principally with the ladies. We have been somewhat particular in pointing out these defects of orchestra and chorus, not because their performance was bad—it was not really bad at any time, and often it was very good indeed—but because with care and competent direction they could both do so much better, and because we hope to notice a decided improvement when the festival comes off in May.

To speak of Madame Rosa in oratorio is a positive pleasure akin to hearing her sing. Criticism is impossible upon her performance; there is only place for eulogy. Whether in the magnificent ring of such lofty conceptions as ‘Hear ye, Israel,’ or the intense emotion both of anxiety, of grief, and of exultation embodied in that superb dialogue between the Widow of Zarephath and the Prophet Elijah, or in the silvery sweetness of the trio for soprano and alto, ‘Lift thine eyes’ she is unapproachable. We have seldom heard her more glorious than she was on Thursday night. Mr. Simpson in the tenor part was much better than we have usually known him, though he is always one of our best male singers for the oratorio. His arias, ‘If with all your hearts,’ and ‘Then shall the righteous,’ deserve especial praise. Mr. Thomas as Elijah was good in the slow and tender music, and in the scene with the priests of Baal, and that with the Widow, which we have just mentioned; but in most of the spirited and impassioned music the ordinary power of his voice seems to desert him. Mrs. Kempton received merited applause for her, ‘Oh, rest in the Lord,’ but her performance as a whole was only tolerable. Mrs. Reed, the second soprano, had little to do except in the quartette, but she did that little well.”

“Mr. Harrison's series of great oratorio performances was brought to an end on Thursday night, when ‘Elijah’ was performed to one of the largest audiences that ever assembled within the walls of Steinway Hall. The choruses were rendered by the members of the New-York Harmonic Society; there was an orchestra, and the vocal parts were billed by [names of singers]. . . The orchestra, it may be premised, was far too weak for the other forces—a defect which we trust will be remedied next season. The success of the present entertainments demonstrates that there is a large and increasing taste for oratorio music. Mr. Harrison has cultivated it to a point from which he cannot now recede. He has given us the best oratorio singer in the English language; he has conquered the scruples of our local societies and has introduced the orchestra as a regular feature, where formerly it was regarded as an exceptional one. A just balance requires more instruments, which we have no doubt will in due time be forthcoming. 

The performance was a good one. It lacked the quality of perfect smoothness, but it was often vigorous, and even magnificent. The famous chorus in the first part, ‘Baal we cry unto thee,’ has never been sung better in this country, and ‘He Watches over Israel’ and the ‘Praise be to God’ were exquisitely and even tenderly rendered. The strain of the work seemed to tell toward the end, but not sufficiently to mar a most meritorious effort on the part of the Harmonic Society, to whose capable and energetic director, Mr. L. F. Ritter, much praise is due. Mme. Parepa-Rosa is unapproachable in this style of music, and she excels in this particular work. The aria, ‘Hear ye Israel,’ could not have been sung better. Mrs. Kempton, although evidently nervous, surprised every one [sic] by the beauty of her voice and the dramatic earnestness which she infused into the music. Mr. J. R. Thomas was in capital voice, and sang like a musician whose sympathies are with the music. Mr. George Simpson, unquestionably the best oratorio tenor in the country, achieved a perfect success in his first recitative and aria, ‘If with all your Heart,’ and in the splendid recitative of the second part, ‘Man of God.’ The concerted pieces in which the other artists were engaged went awry on more than one occasion; but for practical purposes it is right to record the performance as a good one, far above what we have, until this season, been in the habit of hearing. Mr. J. F. Conolly [sic] presided at the organ with much ability.” 

“A more discreditable and thoroughly unsatisfactory performance I have rarely heard; the chorus force was very unevenly balanced, the sopranos begin weak and the tenors boisterously strong. I am compelled to say that the recitatives, not including those of Simpson and Mme. Parepa, were sung in an utterly hard, wooden manner; indeed those of Mr. Thomas were often very inaccurate and untrue to score.

Everything was painfully uncertain and disconnected, excepting always the efforts of Mme. Parepa and Simpson. Had the latter made some approach to distinctness in his articulation he would have done admirably the charming ‘Angel Trio’ lost its proper and intended effect because the lowest voiced angel thought proper to sue a perpetual tremolando which was simply and utterly absurd. 

As a whole the Oratorio left a most favorable impression, and it is certainly an insult to an intelligent audience to offer such an incomplete and apparently unrehearsed performance. . . .  -F.”