Teresa Carreño Soirée Musicale

Not an announcement about this event but a general article about her and her arrival in New York.

     One of the penalties of living in a metropolis is the inevitible endurance of prodigies. Children with big bumpy heads, extraordinary hands, wonderful throats and precocious intelligences, descend as in showers upon the afflicted community, and, but for the merciful dispensation that they grow up in time, and become no better than other people, make life a constant trial of parental patience and critical toleration. New-York is the favored centre of this interesting class. It is here that the baby show flourishes, not only at Barnum's, but in every othersphere where juvenility can get a footing. The crop for the present season is so discouragingly large that we should scarcely dare to speak of it but for the fact that one of the prodegies has already launched herself upon the waters of public favor. We refer to Theresa Carreno, who gave a 'Soiree Musicale' at Irving Hall, on Friday last. This little lady is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, and is only eight years of age.  Her appearance indicates a charming but not overwrought warmth of temperament, and a calm intellectual perception of what she has to do and how to do it.  These traits, apart from any mechanical considerations, give to the girl’s playing a large share of spirit and clearness, amounting almost to style.  For the rest she can play Thalberg’s music with facility, and with extraordinary power for a child who cannot yet reach the pedals with her toes.  This implies a high degree of digital discipline, and indicates that in more showy pieces, where the effects are of the scale rather than the chord, she will possess still higher executive powers. Indeed, a little French theme, imbedded in fragrant garlands of many colored notes, which Miss Carreno played during the evening, could hardly have been given better by any performer now before the public. The execution was perfect whilst the feeling for the melody was always nicely preserved. Miss Carreno is undoubtedly a singularly gifted child, but on the threshold of a public career at so early an age, the greatest apprehensions are to be entertained for her future.  So much genius should be devoted to study, and spared to art, not dissipated in the idle adulations of friends and the well-intentioned but seldom well-considered applause of the public.”