Steinway Hall Popular Concert: 1st

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
S. B. [conductor] Whiteley

Price: $.50; no reserved seating

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Performance Forces:
Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
19 February 2022

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

17 Apr 1870, Evening

Program Details

American debut of Mme. Manzocchi. Whiteley served as conductor and pianist. Lachner’s work for four cellos was encored.

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Bach
Participants:  George Washbourne Morgan
3)
aka Mephisto waltz, no. 1; Faust waltz
Composer(s): Liszt
Participants:  Anna Mehlig
5)
Composer(s): Liszt
6)
Composer(s): Handel
Participants:  Mme. [soprano] Manzocchi

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 15 April 1870, 12.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 15 April 1870, 7.
3)
Announcement: New York Post, 15 April 1870, 2.

“An effort will be made this spring to resume the Sunday evening popular concerts, which were given last year at Steinway Hall. The first concert of the new series will take place next Sunday night, when Miss Mehlig and Mr. Mills will play Liszt’s ‘Hexameron’ duet. Madame Manzocchi, a new vocalist, and Messrs. Candidus and Hermanns will sing, and G. W. Morgan will perform on the organ. A novel feature of the programme will be a serenade by Lachner for four violoncellos.”

4)
Announcement: New-York Times, 16 April 1870, 5.

“The Sunday concerts at Steinway Hall are to be resumed, and the first of the series is to take place to-morrow evening. We need hardly remark that a programme, to be interpreted by [lists performers] is an extremely attractive one. A serenade by Franz Lachner for four Violoncellos, and a repetition of the grand duo ‘Hexameron,’ may be pointed out as conspicuous features of the bill.”

5)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 16 April 1870, 5.

“To-morrow the once popular series of Sunday concerts will be resumed at Steinway Hall—to be continued, we hope, until hot weather. They start off with a good array of names, Miss Mehlig and Mr. Mills, with Liszt’s ‘Hexameron’ duo, being, morally speaking, at the head of the programme, though chronologically they come at its tail, which we take to be a shrewd device to prevent anybody from going away until the concert is over. Among the other performers are Madame Manzocchi (her first appearance), Mr. Hermanns, and Mr. Candidus. A charming serenade of Lachner’s for four violincelli is to be played by Messrs. [illeg; seems to note, though, that this Lachner quartet was recently and nicely performed at a Liederkranz concert].”

6)
Announcement: New York Sun, 16 April 1870, 1.

“A grand vocal and instrumental concert is to be given in Steinway Hall to-morrow evening, at which Mme. Manzocchi will make her début in America. [Lists other performers.]”

7)
Announcement: New York Herald, 17 April 1870, 6.

“A grand sacred concert will be given to-night at Steinway Hall, at which Miss Anna Mehlig and Mr. S. B. Mill [sic] will play Liszt’s great piano work, ‘Hexameron.’ Madame Manzocchi, a prima donna of a high order, will make her rentre on the concert stage, after an absence of many years; and Messrs Herrmanns [illeg…] will also appear. [Final sentence illegible.]”

8)
Announcement: New-York Times, 17 April 1870, 4.

Brief.

9)
Review: New-York Times, 18 April 1870, 5.

“The Sunday concert given yesterday at Steinway Hall would assuredly have had more liberal encouragement in the matter of attendance had the weather been less inclement. Several talented artists took part in it, and a very good programme was interpreted. Mr. G. W. Morgan presided at the organ, and played a fugue by Bach in grand style. Miss Anna Mehlig was heard in a solo, of which Liszt’s arrangement of the waltz in ‘Faust’ was the theme. A serenade for four violoncellos, by Franz Lachner was honored with a repeat, which the character given the composition by the quality of the instruments’ tone, and by the expression and precision of the execution fully justified. Mr. W. Candidus and Herr Hermanns sang, and so did Mme. Manzocchi, whose rendering of ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’ and ‘Ernani Involami,’—the two most difficult pieces of their order the lady could have selected—called out the approval bravery, however slight its results, deserves and commands. The most interesting portion of the bill was reserved for the close of the affair, when Miss Mehlig and Mrs. S. B. Mills performed Liszt’s duo of ‘Hexameron’ on two pianos. The work itself has been already written of in these columns, and except in a subsidiary andante movement does not commend itself to the ear, either by thematic beauty or felicitous treatment. But it exacts immense executive skill, energy and endurance, and when its requirements are complied with is at all events valuable as a medium for the display of the artists’ merit. Both the executants last night roused the audience to positive enthusiasm. Mr. S. B. Mills won especial honors. The finish of Miss Mehlig’s recitations has [sic] been too often alluded to here to need emphasis, but the crisp definition of every note on Mr. Mills’ keyboard—a definition as discernible in the most rapid passages as in the slowest—and the maintained vigor of his touch, lessened materially the effect of his partner’s refined and faultless but less decisive manipulation of the keys. Miss Mehlig and Mr. Mills repeat the duet at the concert at the Academy of Music tonight, and we hope for the sake of their hearers that they will be as full of spirit as they were last evening.”

10)
Review: New York Herald, 20 April 1870, 7.

“Madame Manzocchi, widow of the lamented maestro, appeared for the first time in public after an absence of many years, at Steinway Hall, on Sunday night. She made a success of the most unqualified character; and, to a soprano voice of much sweetness and power, she added a school of the purest Italian order, and considerable dramatic cultivation. She takes the place of her husband in vocal instruction, and her long experience and high attainments in music render her eminently qualified for such a position.”