Arion Gesangverein German Hospital Benefit

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
Carl Bergmann

Price: $1.50, $1

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
31 January 2021

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

11 Nov 1869, Evening

Program Details

Orchestra consisted of sixty members.

Performers and/or Works Performed

4)
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Participants:  Heinrich Greiner
5)
Composer(s): Meyerbeer
Participants:  Ida Rosenburgh
6)
Composer(s): Millard
Text Author: Flagg
Participants:  Ida Rosenburgh
8)
aka Konzert Ouverture; Concert overture; Swiss national hymn; Rufst du mein Vaterland
Composer(s): Raff

Citations

1)
Announcement: New York Herald, 07 November 1869, 4.
2)
Review: New York Herald, 12 November 1869, 6.

“After listening to the Arion concert at Steinway Hall last evening it is not too much to say that one bold and successful grasp of the Arion Vocal Society have placed themselves along the Philharmonic as the latter’s most honorable rival. Space forbids to enter into any details of the several performances, and, in fact, where all were excellent, it would be invidious to distinguish. The programme was above reproach, and its character betokened a high appreciation of classical music and of the necessity of popularizing it in this country. It may be remarked that the tenor, Mr. William Candidus; the baritone, Mr. F. Remmertz, and the Arion chorus, with its immense volume of well trained voices, did their best, did it well, and but few professionals could have equaled, but none surpass them. With this concert the Arion Society took a new departure. Not only did they enter with zest and victorious effect upon the field of classical art in both its vocal and instrumental branches, but they also undertook to stand sponsor to native talent, in the person of Miss Ida Rosenburg, a young lady of New York birth, and whom the Arion introduced to the public for the first time last evening. Miss Rosenburg’s voice is sweet and mellow, though not strong, yet she exhibits great power of modulation and her intonation is perfect, while deep feeling and expressiveness warbles through every note. The Arion Society did themselves honor by presenting, under their auspices, such an agreeable soprano to the public. The orchestral performances left nothing to desire, and Maestro Carl Bergmann, the conductor, may congratulate himself upon the unexampled success his labors have won for himself and for the society over which he swings the rod as musical Jupiter.”

3)
Review: New York Sun, 13 November 1869, 2.

“The Arions are always favorites with the public. They made, on Thursday evening, their first appearance since their Waterloo at the Baltimore Saengerfest, from which they returned without a prize.  They were warmly greeted by a large audience, and it was evident that the Society intended to redeem their reputation, and convince their hearers that they were able to sing compositions of a higher style than the ‘pretty Roth Raut,’ with which they contended for the prize in Baltimore. They selected, therefore, the most difficult of all the pieces sung at that contest—Lizt’s [sic] Midnight March—with which the second prize was taken by a Philadelphia society.

“We regret to say that the performance of it was by no means a perfect one. The second basses, in a very difficult ascending passage of sustained tones, got confused and disordered, and for a few bars were evidently at misunderstanding with the tenors as to the pitch. To complete the difficulty, a gentleman who had the tenor solo to sing flattened so badly that he seemed to be singing in one key and the chorus that accompanied him in another. The Society rendered, however, a simpler song of Meehring’s with great precision, delicacy, and effect.

“The concert on the whole was an admirable one, made up of sterling classical works—such a concert as one hears often at Boston, but seldom in this city. Mr. Mills played with even more than his accustomed vigor, and a member of this Society, Mr. F. Remmertz, sang a glorious aria from one of Handel’s forgotten operas, in a style that entitled him to the most distinguished honor. So ;pure and noble a baritone voice, so admirable a method, and so modest a bearing we have not met within any singer for many a day. We do not hesitate to say that neither the Italian  the German operatic stage in this country possesses a baritone of equal merit.”

4)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 20 November 1869, 142.

“On Thursday evening the Arion Society gave its concert at Steinway Hall. There was an orchestra of about 40 members, under the direction of Carl Bergmann, which played a Concert Overture by Raff, and there were solos by various people, also choruses by the Arion. Mr. Mills played the Chopin Concerto (E minor) admirably, albeit he occasionally forced the tone of the piano. The other artists acquitted themselves creditably, and the large audience, perhaps 1,200 in number, behaved in a good un-American manner.”