Passions

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
Edward Mollenhauer [viola-vn]

Price: $1.00; $.50 extra for reserved seat

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
28 August 2021

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

12 Feb 1870, Evening
13 Feb 1870, Evening

Program Details

Premiere; Booth (on Saturday) or Ada Clifton (on Sunday) will read Collins’s Ode to “The Passions.”

Performers and/or Works Performed

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Times, 13 January 1870, 5.
2)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 15 January 1870, 7.
3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 06 February 1870, 7.
4)
Announcement: New York Herald, 07 February 1870, 10.
5)
Announcement: New York Post, 07 February 1870, 2.
6)
Advertisement: New York Sun, 07 February 1870, 2.
7)
Announcement: New-York Times, 10 February 1870, 5.
8)
Announcement: New-York Times, 12 February 1870, 5.
9)
Review: New-York Times, 13 February 1870, 5.

“Mr. Edward Mollenhauer’s ‘choral symphonious painting,’ musically illustrative of Collins’ ‘Ode to the Passions,’ was performed at Steinway Hall last evening. It is the work of a composer of undoubted talent and experience. A musician from boyhood, a violinist of eminence, a skilled professor, Mr. Mollenhauer’s thoughts could hardly have had inadequate expression in a language of which he has been master almost from his birth. In his latest composition they are invested with their full weight, and if their effect is not as potent as the musician’s friends could wish, their mode of utterance at least is unimpeachable. But it is with poets in music as with poets in words and in pictorial art. Ruskin wisely holds that the painter who can reproduce objects upon canvas with ordinary fidelity has only accomplished as much towards becoming a great painter as a practiced grammarian and rhetorician has done towards being a laureate of verse. Mr. Mollenhauer’s task has, it is true, been a less ambitious one than might be inferred, as he has chosen a text instead of seeking to create text and comment, but it has been a difficult one. He has succeeded in it, we have said, in respect of the complete attainder of a limited ideal. But he has not fulfilled it with the genius of Schumann and Mendelssohn, whose examples in symphony he has striven to imitate. Mr. Mollenhauer’s music to ‘The Passions,’ judging from the one hearing we were privileged to have of it, is notable neither for melodic wealth, nor for that sensuousness of harmony which, in the productions of some composers, and especially in those of Spohr, cause one to forget the slender allowance of thematic beauty. Collins’s ‘Ode’ is too well known to require recapitulation here with a view to recalling the variety of its episodes, and thus indicating the musician’s resources. Mr. Mollenhauer has divided it into nine principal parts, and has sought to express in as many movements and after a descriptive prelude, Fear, Anger, Despair, Hope, Revenge, Jealousy, Melancholy, Cheerfulness and Joy. The contrast of subjects is sufficiently clear in the poem, and in the outlines of the music is also sufficiently distinct, the third movement (Fear) and the one denoting Cheerfulness being especially satisfactory; but no passage is to be singled out for evident or mystic beauty, or for positive individuality of idea or form. Taken in connection with the reading of the ‘Ode’ during the performance, or with a perusal of the elaborate programme, the larger portion of the work makes, to our thinking, an impression akin to that produced by the orchestral music accompanying at intervals dramatic entertainments abroad and intensifying the power of certain situations. The scores of ‘Manfred’ and of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ aside from their value as models of massiveness and symmetry, tell stories of their own. ‘The Passions’ which were listened to last night with attention and approved by frequent applause, could not have had more careful and perfect instrumental interpretation than was given them by a large orchestra, admirably led by Mr. Mollenhauer himself. A choral illustration of Hope, more consolatory than hopeful in theme, was well rendered by the chorus, and occasional solo verses were sung with more precision than sentiment by Mme. Salvotti. The poem was read by Mr. Edwin Booth, the value of whose personal presence would have been enhanced by a warmer interest in Collins’ verses. Mr. Mollenhauer’s symphony will be repeated at the same place this evening.”

10)
Review: New York Herald, 14 February 1870, 5.

“We were sorry on Saturday night to find such a slim audience—that is, for such a grand work—present at the first production of Mollenhauer’s symphony on Collins’ ‘Ode to the Passions.’ There was everything to draw the public, but, unhappily, they did not come. The subject was one of the best that a musician could select for interpretation, possessing every variety of passion that the human mind is capable of. Mr. Mollenhauer has treated it in true musicianly style, and has given us a work of genuine merit. From first to last there is the stamp of genius on it, and a highly cultured mind at that. Many reminiscences appear in it, but all are colored and stamped by a creative mind. There is a perfect kaleidoscope of the soul in the instrumentation. There are only two choruses, those of Hope and Joy, and although they do not express the subjects they are supposed to represent, they are full, resonant and effective. The work is one that any musician might be proud of, and Mr. Mollenhauer deserves the highest credit for his masterly interpretation of such a varied and difficult subject. Mr. Edwin Booth read the poem, and, we must say, very ineffectively. His intonation was monotonous and there was not the slightest effort perceptible at describing in language the burning words of Collins. Dr. Berge conducted the chorus with his usual skill, and by his thorough training this part of the symphony was an entire success. Mr. Mollenhauer has produced a really fine work, although his intimate knowledge of all the great classical works, ‘David’s Desert,’ among others, seemed to have haunted him in its composition.”

11)
Review: New York Post, 14 February 1870, 2.

“The carefully elaborated masterpiece of an accomplished and cultured musician, who has long been before the public, was produced on Saturday night at Steinway’s. One would naturally suppose that on such an occasion—when the interest of the evening, too, was heightened by the appearance, as a reader, in conjunction with the music, of New York’s favorite actor—the room would have been crowded to excess by the art patrons of the metropolis. But the too numerous empty seats proved that individual enthusiasm is not always responded to by the public.

“Mr. Edward Mollenhauer’s music to Collins’s ‘Ode to the Passions,’ as given at Steinway’s, is full of merit. The instrumentation is rich, the vein of melody agreeable and never commonplace. The varying moods depicted in the well-known lines—read by Mr. Edwin Booth—are as well represented as it is possible for them to be by means of music. The numbers called ‘Cheerfulness’ and ‘Melancholy’ seem to be the most interesting parts of the symphony. The vocal portions allotted to members of the Berge Choral Union are skillfully constructed, and exhibited several novelties in the manner of accompaniment. The audience found in the [hall?] a most admirable descriptive programme of the entire symphony, which rendered comprehension of it easy to even the unmusical listener, and proved an interesting souvenir of the entertainment.

“A work of this nature should have been produced by the Philharmonic Society, to whose president this symphony is dedicated; and under such favorable auspices we hope again to hear it, for it should not be allowed to sleep after the two performances of it that have just been given at the expense of the composer.”

12)
Review: New York Sun, 14 February 1870, 2.

“On Saturday evening Mr. Mollenhauer brought out at Steinway Hall, his music to Collins’s celebrated ‘Ode to the passions.’ Mr. Edwin Booth read the poem and

“Lent to the rhyme of the poet,

The music of his voice.”

“As the reader will doubtless remember Collins imagined the passions, excited by the imposing influences of music, as seizing the instruments of the goddess, and trying each to express their several emotions. Fear first strikes the chords and shrinks back in affright; then Anger rudely clashes the lyre; then follows ‘was Despair with woeful measures;’ Hope, Jealousy, Melancholy, Cheerfulness, and lastly Joy. There never was a poem that lent itself more readily to musical purposes than this. Indeed Collins calls it ‘An Ode for Music.’ Some of the passions of course are less definite than others, and less easily reflected in music, as for instance jealousy and hope, but the others afford the most fitting and congenial themes for the musician. Of these Mr. Mollenauer has availed himself with great talent. His work is such as to entitle its author to a most honorable place among composers. In every respect it is of a high order of merit. The author has availed himself of his very extended knowledge of the methods of orchestral treatment of the great composers, but he has not borrowed from them. His work is his own. The melodic forms are clear, simple, and extremely pleasing, and they are worked out through the orchestra with vigor, variety, and fullness. Mr. Mollenhauer has shown himself not lacking either in imagination or in the knowledge of orchestral detail necessary to give his imagination form and expression. The choral parts were very well sung by the society under Mr. William Berge’s able direction, and the orchestra was composed of the most reliable of our resident musicians, and admirably interpreted Mr. Mollenhauer’s work.”

13)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 14 February 1870, 4.

“Many of Mr. Booth’s admirers, let us here remark, listened to his reading of Collins’s ode on ‘The Passions’ on Saturday evening, at Steinway Hall. It was a graceful and effective piece of elocution—although, as the poem had to be read in detached parts, with intervals of music, the needful effect of quick transition from one passion to another was necessarily sacrificed. Mr. Mollenhauer’s musical work on this subject will give him a still higher rank than the one he now so worthily holds among musical composers. It shows the poetic faculty as well as sensibility to poetic influence.”

14)
Review: New York Clipper, 19 February 1870, 366.

“A concert of a somewhat novel character was given at Steinway Hall, on the evening of the 12th inst., before a moderately good audience. It consisted of quotations from Collins’ ‘Ode to the Passions,’ set to music by Edward Mollenhauer, and termed by him, ‘A Descriptive Symphonic Tone Painting.’ The selections from the ode were recited by Mr. Edwin Booth, followed by musical illustrations by both orchestra and chorus, over which Mr. Mollenhauer himself wielded the baton. The music was excellent in composition, but more talent was needed to illustrate or paint the sentiment indicative of the various passions. ‘Anger’ and ‘Despair’ were best executed, in our opinion, ‘Jealousy’ next, while in ‘Melancholy,’ set in E major, several bars, in which the flutes and oboes were introduced, were the sweetest of sweet sounds. “Hope” was spoiled by the bad time of the female portion of the chorus. The finale, by chorus and orchestra combined, was well rendered, and closed, what in its entirety was a novel, pleasing, but brief entertainment.”