St. David’s Benevolent Society Benefit

“The concert given last night in aid of the St. David’s Benevolent Society, will not, we fear, contribute much to the resources of that institution. Taffey was evidently deterred by the storm. The concert itself was a disappointment. Every one expected that the beautiful melodies of Wales would constitute a leading feature of the programme. This, however, turned out to be a complete mistake. The numbers were of the usual sort pertaining to a miscellaneous concert. Mr. J. R. THOMAS contributed a new song called “Voice of the Mountain Land,” which he sang with feeling. It is, like all this gentleman’s compositions, melodious and musician-like, and will, we think, become popular. Mrs. MOZART and Mr. GEORGE SIMPSON were careful and satisfactory, and Miss MATILDA TOEDT played two violin solos exquisitely. The Welsh musical element was represented by Mr. AP MADOC (tenor) and Mr. LLWYVO LEWIS (basso). Both gentlemen did their best, and we hope to hear them on the next anniversary of the Society. Mr. ED. HOFFMAN presided at the piano and played the accompaniments admirably.”

“An entertainment given for the benefit of the St. David’s Benevolent Society drew together at Steinway Hall, last night, a comfortable audience composed, we should judge, principally of our Welsh fellow citizens, who hailed the songs and singers of their native country with an enthusiasm which was certainly hearty and bordered sometimes upon the uproarious. The Welsh singers were two—Mr. Llwyvo Lewis and Mr. Ap Madoc—gentlemen to whose names, at all events, no exception can possibly be taken. There was very little Welsh music, however, and it was positively aggravating to find a Llwyvo wasting his sweetness on ‘The Desert’ air of Emmanuel, and an Ap Madoc straining at just the sort of ballads which we hear every week. Mr. Lewis, however, gave a Welsh song for a recall, and sang it much better than he did anything else. He has an agreeable baritone voice, but neither the voice nor its culture is remarkable, and he seems to be usually overpowered by a sense of the necessity of being declamatory and dramatic. This comes, we suppose, of being a Welsh bard. Mr. Ap Madoc is a tenor singer who requires no special remark. Mrs. Mozart, Mr. George Simpson, Mr. J. R. Thomas, Miss Toedt, and Mr. Edward Hoffman took part in the concert.”