Article on Alide Topp’s historical concerts

“We have already had occasion to speak of the rising on the musical horizon of this new star, whose masterly execution on the piano-forte has won not a little admiration, both in her public performances and in private circles of amateurs, and who now proposes to introduce a series of historical concerts of a somewhat novel character and in the highest degree instructive and delightful. In these concerts it is her intention, without the aid of any other performer, to render some of the characteristic compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, Chopin, Liszt, and opther eminent masters, with a view to the illustration of their peculiar styles and the expression of the spirit of their works in a manner to interest a cultivated audience. Her success in the interpretation of the profound German composers is said to have been triumphant before the elite of the musical world in Europe. We have had the pleasure of listening to her performance of the most difficult pieces of Chopin, and insight and power with which she interpreted those weird, unearthly productions has the effect of a new revelation. With more than the natural shell of an artist and unrapt in a sublime fervor of inspiration, she secured and possessed with the very soul of the great masters, reproducing their wonderful creations with all the grandeur of their own genius. Miss Alide Topp was a pupil of the celebrated pianist Hans von Bulow, son-in-law of Liszt, to whose compositions he devoted his chief study, attaining such a mastery over their spirit as to rival the execution of their illustrious author himself. Under his direction, Miss Topp has spent several years in the study of Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt especially, and has been pronounced by her teacher qualified to take the highest rank among the most eminent living musical artists. Her manner at the piano is a study in itself. Her fine face lights up with the glow of enthusiasm, handling her features with a meritorious prophetic fire, and giving her the appearance of the unconscious genius of music rather than of the professional artist. She handles the piano with a certain caressing fondness, which seems to yield its ecstatic harmonies to her touch by the force of sympathy and persuasion, instead of mechanical necessity. The first concert is to take place of the 6th of February, at Steinway Hall.”