Harrison Sunday Sacred Concert: 26th

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
21 August 2017

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

29 Mar 1868, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Unfinished symphony; Symphony, no. 8, B minor
Composer(s): Schubert
3)
Composer(s): Mozart
Participants:  Jenny Landsman
4)
aka Little mendicant; Little beggar
Composer(s): Gumbert
Participants:  Jenny Landsman
5)
Composer(s): Callcott
Participants:  Jenny Landsman
6)
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
7)
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
8)
Composer(s): Paganini
Participants:  Bernard Listemann
9)
Composer(s): Hopkins
10)
aka Artist's; Artist; Kunstler
Composer(s): Strauss

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 27 March 1868.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 27 March 1868, 7.
3)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 28 March 1868, 8.
4)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 30 March 1868, 5.

“Last evening the twenty-sixth of the Sunday series of Concerts was given. [list of performers]. Miss Landsman (who, by the way, will shortly join the grand army of American talent now quartered in and about the opera-houses of Europe) sang the ‘Batti, Batti,’ from ‘Don Giovannii;’ Gumbert’s ‘Little Mendicant,’ and, by way of encore, the ballad ‘Come in and shut the door.’ In each selection she acquitted herself successfully, and we noticed some improvement in her phrasing and enunciation. But, if it not be impertinent, we would like to ask whether this young lady means to decide to become a contralto or soprano? Mr. De Meyer, in his ‘Souvenir d’Italia’ and ‘Russian Airs’ attracted the usual flattering amount of applause; likewise, Mr. Listemann, who was encored after the Adagio and Rondo of Paganini. The orchestral features contrasted strangely. The first part of the programme opening with the fragments of Schubert’s posthumous symphony in B minor, and closing with a dirge, ghastly in form and harrowing in expression, by Mr. Jerome Hopkins. Mr. Thomas may be, and doubtless is, actuated by a desire to foster native talent, and gradually help form a school of American music of the future, but when ornamenting his programme, he ought first to make sure of that talent. The best thing that Mr. Hopkins can do with his extraordinary dirge is to reserve its next performance for the occasion of his own obsequies. The concert closed with Strauss’s fascinating pot pourri, ‘The Artists.’ It is intimated that the Sunday concert season will terminate very soon.”

5)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 11 April 1868, 224.

“The Dirge by Hopkins is really a composition of merit, in which there is some individuality (not to any dangerous extent), and much that is suggestive of Schumann and Wagner. It was admirably played by the compact little orchestra of 30. Mr. Listemann created a genuine sensation by the general brilliancy of his execution and the lightning like rapidity of his staccato passages; his tone is, however, rather thin. He was heartily and deservedly encored. Mr. DeMeyer and his inevitable hat amused the audience after the usual fashion.”