Thomas Sunday Evening Concert: 14th

Includes program.

“Both Irving and Steinway Halls on Sunday night resounded with Arnolds. There were two Arnolds at Irving Hall, and there was another at the rival establishment around the corner. Mr. Arnold, the violinist, played at the former place, and so did Mrs. Arnold, a pianist, whose debut may be called successful. The third Arnold is August, a young gentleman who has just arrived here from Berlin, and who chose the occasion of Mr. Theodore Thomas’s weekly concert for making his first appearance in America. He is a pianist who has been trained in a good school, and plays with clearness and force, albeit with some lack of sentiment and freedom. He will be a favorite we have little doubt. His selections on Sunday were Mendelssohn’s concerto in G minor, and Chopin’s polonaise in A flat. The only other solo performer was Madame Gueretti, of the Grau Opera Bouffe Company, who chose for her first song Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria,’ and did very great violence to it. The orchestra as usual was admirable. It gave us the overture to the ‘Magic Flute,’ the allegretto from Beethoven’s seventh symphony, a selection from Gluck’s ‘Orpheus,’ Littolff’s overture to ‘Robespierre,’ Schumann’s ‘Traumerei,’ and the polonaise from Meyerbeer’s ‘Streuensee’ music.”

“At the 14th Sunday Evening Concert Mr. Thomas gave us a programme of great merit…Mme. Gueretti (soprano) made her first appearance, as did also Mr. August Arnold (pianist), who played Mendelssohn’s Concert in G minor, op. 25, and Chopin’s splendid and broadly built Polonaise in A flat, op. 53.  Mme. G’s singing was beneath contempt.  Mr. Arnold is a pianist of unusual excellence and marked ability; his rendering of the Concerto showed that he possessed remarkable technique while he was not deficient in taste.”