Lafayette Harrison Benefit Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
George W. Colby

Price: $1

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
16 August 2020

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

14 Sep 1869, Evening

Program Details

Unclear what Jules Levy did this evening, as he was advertised to perform both at this concert and at the Thomas Popular Garden Concert (see separate event entry of 09/14/69 of that title).

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Etude caprice
Composer(s): Mills
Participants:  Sebastian Bach Mills
3)
Composer(s): Mills
Participants:  Sebastian Bach Mills
4)
aka Non tovino; Non torno
Composer(s): Mattei
Participants:  Eliza [contralto] Lumley
5)
Composer(s): Dolores
Text Author: Procter
Participants:  Julia [soprano] Gaylord

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 06 September 1869, 4.

“The testimonial concert for the benefit of Mr. L. F. Harrison, lessee for several yaers of Irving Hall, and well known as a purveyor of good music for a fickle, albeit not really ungrateful public, will take place about the middle of this month, andought to be a very fine affair. Mr. Harrison has the good will of almost everybody, so all the best artists may reasonably be expected to sing and play for him, and all our best inhabitants to go and hear them”

2)
Announcement: New York Herald, 11 September 1869, 4.

“Lafayette Harrison, whose name has been so long and favorably known in musical circles as manager of opera, concert and oratorio, will have a grand benefit concert on Tuesday next at Steinway Hall. The long and arduous services of Mr. Harrison in the cause of music should insure a large audience.”

3)
Announcement: New York Post, 11 September 1869, 2.

“Harrison’s Benefit. A benefit concert will be given at Steinway Hall next Tuesday evening for Mr. Lafayette Harrison, so long known in connection with Irving Hall, and with operatic and concert management generally. Under Mr. Harrison’s auspices some of the most celebrated artists of the day have appeared here, and some of our finest oratorio performances have taken place. His benefit should receive a large share of public attention.”

4)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 12 September 1869, 12.
5)
Announcement: New York Herald, 13 September 1869, 5.

Brief.

6)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 13 September 1869, 7.
7)
Announcement: New-York Times, 14 September 1869, 4.

“Mr. Lafayette Harrison announces his first grand concert for this evening. Steinway Hall is the place, and [lists all performers] are the artistes.”

8)
Review: New-York Times, 15 September 1869, 4.

“The first concert of the season occurred at Steinway Hall last evening, and was quite numerously attended. About a dozen artistes, most of them favorably known to the general public, took part in it. Some exquisite piano playing was done by Mr. S. B. Mills, who interpreted a mazourka [sic], ‘Fairy Fingers,’ and his ‘Second Farentella [sic],’ with the perfect appreciation of shading and the alternate delicacy and power of touch always marked by absolute clearness for which this artiste’s performances are notable. The brilliancy of Mr. Harry Sanderson’s execution and his magnificent octave passages were better fitted to awake a Summer audience from its semi-lethargic condition than the poesy of Mr. Mills’ phrasing, and the artistic nicety, so to speak, of his touch, and these points of his exhibition elicited a proportionate amount of enthusiasm. Miss Wilhelmina E. Benziger played also, and Messrs. W. R. Johnson and G. W. Morgan were at the organ. The vocalists were Mme. Lumley, who trembled through Tito Mattei’s ‘Non Tovino;’ Miss Julia Gaylord, a young débutante, whose fresh voice and artless manner won for her at the close of ‘All Yesterday I was Spinning,’ her first song, an unanimous encore, and Messrs. W. J. Hill and J.R. Thomas. Mr. G. W. Colby conducted.”

9)
Review: New York Post, 15 September 1869, 4.

“Mr. Harrison’s concert at Seinway’s [sic] last night was fairly attended, and the performance of a number of resident artists, among them the pianists Mills and Sanderson, elicited deserved applause. Miss Gaylord, a charming young singer, and Madame Lumley, were the vocalists.”

10)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 16 September 1869, 4.

“Benefit entertainments being by common consent exempt from newspaper discussion, it frequently lies in the perverse nature of critics to dwell upon them with especial gratification and emphasis. They always have a personal interest of their own, which is in most cases sufficient to secure for them unqualified success. Mr. Harrison’s concert, last Tuesday evening, at Steinway Hall, was no exception to this pleasant rule. The audience was large and heartily well-disposed, and the programme was composed chiefly of the light and unpretending class of music best calculated to win popular applause. An unusual number of well-known artists took part in the performances, among them Messrs. Mills, Sanderson, and W. J. Hill—the latter a young tenor with altogether too good a quality of voice to be suffered to withdraw wholly from public observation. There was also a debutante—Miss Julia Gaylord, a lady apparently about 17 years of age—whose cordial reception and positive success it is a pleasure to record. She has a singularly sweet and sympathetic voice, a vivacious and expressive manner, and a downright sincerity of purpose, which the audience was prompt to recognize and encourage. What she obviously needs is training of the best [? difficult to read] sort, a few years of which will enable her to take a very enviable position in the artistic world. The general success of Mr. Harrison’s Concert warrants the suggestion that a series of genuine ‘Ballad Concerts,’ similar to those long ago established in London, in which nothing but the simplest and purest order of English music is heard, might prove as profitable to an enterprising manager and as agreeable to the public here as in the British metropolis.”