Historical Recital of Vocal and Pianoforte Music: 2nd

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway's Rooms

Conductor(s):
Frédéric Louis Ritter

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
11 September 2019

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

03 Apr 1869, 11:30 AM

Program Details

Program entitled “Old French and Classical German Schools.” The first part was subtitled “The Old French School” (which included two unidentified gigues by Rameau), the second “The Old German School,” and the third “Folk Songs and Pianoforte Compositions Founded on That Form.” S. B. Mills performed a Prelude, Fugue, and Capriccio from Handel’s Suite in D minor. S. P. Warren provided the accompaniment.

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Reveil matin; Alarm clock
Composer(s): Couperin
3)
aka Musette de Taverny; Musette de Tavernie
Composer(s): Couperin
6)
Composer(s): Rameau
7)
aka Nightingale's passion song
Composer(s): Rameau
Participants:  Fanny Raymond Ritter
8)
Composer(s): Rousseau
11)
aka All is fulfilled
Composer(s): Bach
Participants:  Fanny Raymond Ritter
12)
aka Verdant pastures, leafy woodlands
Composer(s): Handel
13)
Composer(s): Mozart
Participants:  Fanny Raymond Ritter
14)
aka O desired object of my sweet ardour
Composer(s): Gluck
19)
Composer(s): Chopin
Participants:  Sebastian Bach Mills
20)
Composer(s): Chopin
Participants:  Sebastian Bach Mills

Citations

1)
Announcement: Dwight's Journal of Music, 13 March 1869, 416.

“I mentioned in a former letter that Mme. Ritter and Mrs. S. B. Mills area about to give three ‘Historical Recitals of Vocal and Pianoforte Music.’ They will occur on the Saturday afternoons, March 6, March 27 [postponed until 3 April], and April 17 at 2:30 P.M…Mr. S.P. Warren will be the accompanist at these recitals and they will doubtless prove very interesting entertainments.”

2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 26 March 1869, 6.

“The second historical recital given by Mme. Raymond Ritter and Mr. S. B. Mills takes place at Steinway Hall on Saturday evening next, the 3d of April, instead of this Saturday, as originally contemplated. The postponement was rendered necessary in consequence of the religious duties of the present week. At the suggestion of subscribers the hour has been changed to 11:30 in the morning—an arrangement which will be convenient to out-of-town visitors. The programme is fully as interesting as the one which preceded it. Considerable research has been displayed in its composition, and much information is conveyed in the brief paragraphs concerning the various composers. The old French school and the classic German school are dealt with. There is also a selection of Folk songs and piano-forte compositions, founded on that form. Altogether these recitals are the most interesting and instructive things of the kind ever undertaken in New-York.”

3)
Announcement: New-York Times, 27 March 1869, 6.

“The second historical recital given by Mme. Raymond Ritter and Mr. S. B. Mills takes place at Steinway Hall on Saturday evening next, the 3d of April, instead of this Saturday, as originally contemplated. The postponement was rendered necessary in consequence of the religious duties of the present week. At the suggestion of subscribers the hour has been changed to 11:30 in the morning—an arrangement which will be convenient to out-of-town visitors. The programme is fully as interesting as the one which preceded it. Considerable research has been displayed in its composition, and much information is conveyed in the brief paragraphs concerning the various composers. The old French school and the classic German school are dealt with. There is also a selection of Folk songs and piano-forte compositions, founded on that form. Altogether these recitals are the most interesting and instructive things of the kind ever undertaken in New-York.”

4)
Announcement: New-York Times, 03 April 1869, 7.

“At 11½ o’clock to-day Mr. Ritter and Mr. S. B. Mills give their second Historical Recital at Steinway Hall. The programme is eclectic. It illustrates in various ways the history of a period that was particularly interesting. Mme. Ritter will render full justice to the vocal department, and Mr. Mills will show us what has been done by our predecessors in the way of piano-forte music.”

5)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 03 April 1869, 9.
6)
Review: New York Post, 05 April 1869.

“The smaller hall of Steinway’s establishment was about two-thirds filled last Saturday morning, by a number of musical amateurs, both gentlemen and ladies, who assembled to witness the unrolling of some musical mummies, which Mr. Ritter had exhumed from the pyramidal recesses of his library. This experienced conductor, having done the work of an artistic resurrectionist, entrusted the public display of the rediscovered treasures to his wife, Madame Raymond Ritter, and to Mr. S. B. Mills. The specimens of musical antiquity bore various dates, and represented various schools. Mr. Mills began the concert by playing three pretty little melodies, written by one Francois Couperin, a French composer born in 1630; and subsequently melodies from Gretry and Rousseau. Mr. Mills also played extracts from Rameau, who was born in 1683, and died in 1764.

“The classic German school was next exemplified by Mr. Mills playing fugues from Bach and Handel—playing them, too, with exquisite neatness and precision—and Mozart’s melodious sonata in B-flat. Madame Ritter sang airs from Bach, Handel, Gluck and Mozart.

“The last part of the programme was devoted to ‘folk songs and piano-forte compositions founded on that form.’ The vocalist gave in good style, and in their original languages, specimens from the French, Spanish and Italian; and an English version of a Hortentot [sic] cradle song, the melody of which is wild and quaint, but decidedly agreeable. Mr. Mills played a nocturne and a mazurka of Chopin’s, and Liszt’s well-known ‘Rhapsodie Hongroise.’ The entire entertainment was unique and novel, and decidedly interesting as giving an idea of the music in which our ancestors delighted; while the programme included enough of the music that to this day possesses deserved vitality to give the concert other than a purely antiquarian interest. The third and last Recital will take place on the 17th of April.”

7)
Review: New-York Times, 05 April 1869, 4.

“The second Historical Recital of the series of three contemplated by Mme. Raymond Ritter and Mr. S.B. Mills, was given at Steinway’s on Saturday, to a select and very discriminating audience. There were so many things occurring on that day, that it was found necessary to commence the Recital at the unusual hour of 11:30 o’clock in the morning,—a custom which we trust will never obtain any sort of general observance. Matinées are rapidly becoming nuisances, but this would be the means of turning them into a kind of cruelty. The programme was again an interesting one. Like its predecessor it was amply illustrated with notes, literary and musical, of the various composers—affording to the eye and the ear every information that was needed. Mr. Ritter’s library is one of the best in the country, and what he culls from it is of the choicest quality. The schools illustrated were the old French school, commencing with Couperin; (1716;) and the Classic German school, commencing with J.S. Bach, (1720). In addition to a copious selection of pieces, there was, as usual, a series of Folks [sic] song and piano-forte pieces derived from them—the latter including Listz’s [sic] ‘Hungarion Rhapsodie No. 2,’ and a Nocturne and Mazurka by Chopin. Among the novelties were a Hottentot song, a Roman Serenade, and a French dance song. These were rendered by Mme. Raymond Ritter, who had a very onerous part to maintain, singing no fewer than fourteen times. We respectfully suggest that this is somewhat too much. It had undoubtedly a bad effect on the lady’s voice, which more than once rebelled. In the romance from ‘Cœur de Lion,’ by Gretry, (1785,) and in the beautiful aria from ‘Paride ed Elena,’ by Gluck, (1762,) the lady was heard to the best advantage. Mr. Mills played superbly. In the earlier works he confined himself to the upright piano, (it was a singularly pure and beautiful instrument,) by which he secured the requisite tempo in point of speed without overburdening the ideas with too much sound. With the grand masters he used the regular concert piano, and, as may well be supposed, with the greatest effect. The prelude fugue and capriccio by Handel was played with remarkable spirit, and Mozart’s Sonata in B flat has never before, in our recollection, been given with such clearness and delicacy. It is this faculty of clearness, absolute precision and equality, which renders Mr. Mills’ playing exceptional. The mind has no apprehension of false notes, but can embrace the composition without fearing any consequences from its performance. Mr. Mills also played a prelude and fugue, by the great J.S. Bach, and with a distinctness and force that could not be bettered. Liszt’s Rhapsodie is only too well known. It was, of course, finely played, but it fails, so far as we are concerned, to awaken any interest. Hungarian and Bohemian melodies have been done to death. The next historical recital takes place on the 17th inst. We urge our readers to bear the date in memory.”

8)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 05 April 1869, 5.

“The second of Mr. Ritter’s Historical Recitals of vocal and piano forte music was given on Saturday morning at Steinway’s smaller hall, the only performers being, as at the previous concert, Mrs. Ritter and Mr. S. B. Mills, with Mr. S. P. Warren for accompanist. The schools represented in the programme were the Old French and the Classical German. Of the former we had first two piano pieces by Couperin (1716), Le reviel-matin, and La tender Musette, both of them charmingly graceful in character, and the former possessing, also, a captivating vivacity. There were four other instrumental pieces of the French school, all by Rameau (1683-1761), namely: Le tamourin, La Musette, and two spirited Gigues. These were all good—in fact, not one of Mr. Ritter’s selections from his rich store was either trivial or uninteresting; but none of them was so effective as Rameau’s aria, Rossignols amoureux (from the opera of ‘Hippolite et Aricie’), or Jean Jacques Rousseau’s song, Le rosier, or more than all the splendid romanza, Une fièrre brúlante, from Gretry’s opera of ‘Richard Cœur de Lion.’ Mrs. Ritter sang the last named of these better than the others, but she sang them all too loud. She is heard to greatest advantage at a distance—say of about half-a-mile. The German School is a hundred times richer than the French, and strange to say the noblest of the pieces given as specimens of it on Saturday had never before been publicly performed in this city. Such was the case with that magnificent air from Bach’s ‘Joannes [sic] Passion,’ Es ist vollbracht, one of the grandest conceptions of one of the grandest of all composers. Although Mrs. Ritter’s execution of it did not satisfy us, we cheerfully give her credit for an intelligent and delicate understanding of how it ought to be sung. Handels’ famous Verdi prati (from the opera of ‘Alcina’) is familiar to everybody by name, but strange to the concert-room; and Gluck’s O del mio docle amor (from ‘Paride ed Elena’) is seldom sung, although it is full of sublimity and passion. The piano pieces of this school included a prelude and fugue, and capriccio from Handel’s suite in D minor, and Mozart’s Sonata in B flat major. The playing of Mr. Mills was of course everything that could be desired. The third part of the Concert consisted of Folk Songs and piano-forte compositions founded on that form, and most of them were entirely novel. Mr. Ritter deserves our warmest thanks for the admirable taste, the scholarship, and the scientific enthusiasm which he has displayed in the arrangement of this series of historical entertainments. We must thank him especially for his excellent explanatory programmes, in which the unlearned listener will find a complete guide to what, without a guide, might pass unappreciated, and even accomplished musicians will meet with much welcome information.”

9)
Review: New York Sun, 05 April 1869, 2.

“The second of a series of three very pleasant matinees took place at Steinway’s smaller hall on Saturday. They are given by Mr. Mills, the pianist, and Madame Ritter, the wife of the well known conductor, and are intended to illustrate the history of musical arts. Mr. Mills plays a series of pieces, some of which ante-date the pianoforte, and were composed for its grandfather, the clavichord, and some of which are among the best of recent productions. From listening to these one draws the melancholy inference that to the second generation the Steinway grand piano, in which we now take such a pride, will appear much the feeble and tuneless instrument that the clavier does to us, and our music be in a few years as quaint, obsolete, and old-fashioned as that of Rameau, Scarlatti, and Porpora now seems. As vocal music long preceded not only the clavier, but its remotest ancestor, so Madame Ritter’s songs stretched further back into the past than Mr. Mills’s pieces. The history and origin, indeed, of some of the folks’ songs were lost in the obscurity of time. Madame Ritter illustrated her share of the programme in a most intelligent manner. Her judgement and discretion, however, were superior to her voice, which lacks all sympathetic quality, and has no middle tones. Unless she sings with full force she loses control over it. As for Mr. Mills, he never appears to better advantage than when interpreting a classic work. His broad and massive style carry with them a feeling of the deepest satisfaction. When he plays a fugue by Handel or Bach, the four parts are kept finely distinct, and every phrase is given with finish; there are no slurred passages or uncertain notes. There was a certain affectation of learning about the programme. It announced that ‘many of the pieces were expressly arranged from old and rare scores in the possession of Mr. F.L. Ritter.’ And to carry out this idea everything was sung by Mrs. Ritter from manuscript. But this little harmless pleasantry doubtless had its effect on the audience; but the fact was that most of the pieces themselves could be bought within a few blocks. The first four could be found, if any one cared to look for them, in a well-known publication, ‘Les Echos du Temps passee,’ from which Mr. Ritter doubtless copied them; and the most important of the remainder were perfectly accessibly. Mr. Ritter’s ‘old and rare scores’ are young and common than he supposes.”

10)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 24 April 1869, 24.

[Reviews both the second and third concerts of this series. Provides entire program for this performance, and then some of the program notes that offered at the concert (mostly biographical snippets of composers represented).]

“These unique concerts have attracted attention even in Germany. In a recent number of the Leipzig Musical Gazette, a leading journal in European musical matters, a learned editor, Dr. Chyrsander (author of the life of Handel, &c.,) alludes to them in a long and flattering article, from which we extract the following:

‘We have read these programme and the remarks attached to them with real enjoyment.  They display tact, insight and knowledge of the rich material employed; thye are not put together without critical taste, as are those of the London recitals and some others. We recommend their plan as an example to all our conductors and concert-givers in Germany’. Dr. Chrysander then alludes to the concert recently given by Mr. F.L. Ritter, in which that gentleman’s compositions were performed (‘Othello Overture,’ ‘First Symphony,’ Forty-sixth Psalm,’ ‘Hafis Songs,’ &c.) and concludes in these terms: ‘It appears to us that Mr. Ritter must be possessed of extraordinary talent, and that this, as well as his knowledge and happy union of diverse capabilities will assure to him a highly distinguished future career.’”