Mason-Thomas Chamber Music Soirée: 5th

Event Information

Venue(s):
Dodworth's Hall

Price: $1

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
29 May 2013

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

24 Mar 1863, 8:00 PM

Program Details



Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Quartet, strings, no. 4. E-flat major; Quartet, strings, op. 10, no. 4;
Composer(s): Mozart
3)
aka Sonata, violin, piano, no. 3, E major
Composer(s): Bach
4)
aka 8 Novelletten; Novellettes
Composer(s): Schumann
Participants:  William Mason

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 21 March 1863, 7.

2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 21 March 1863, 7.
Time, price, works.
3)
Announcement: New York Herald, 23 March 1863, 5.
“These concerts are extremely popular and are attended by fashionable audiences.”
K: Audience
4)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 23 March 1863, 7.
Time, price, works.
5)
Announcement: New-York Times, 23 March 1863, 5.

6)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 23 March 1863.
 
7)
Announcement: New-York Times, 24 March 1863, 4.
“The programme is one of the best of the series.”
8)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 24 March 1863, 7.

9)
Review: Musical Review and World, 28 March 1863, 74.

Lists program.

            “Mozart’s Quartet is the fourth of those he dedicated to Haydn. Written at an advanced period of his life (in 1783) it gives us deeper chords, music of a grander and more earnest purpose, than we are used to find in his earlier quartets. This difference in the character is especially observable in the Andante, which in style points already to a later period. But even the Minuetto and the Finale, although eminently Mozartean, are by far more varied in expression than his earlier works of this kind and surprise occasionally by traits of humor and deep and earnest feeling. The performance of the concerto by Bach was certainly a very interesting entertainment to the musicians, but we doubt, whether the very numerous audience at large did not consider the piece a very dry and tiresome affair. It cannot be denied, that, whatever feeling and imagination the old cantor may have had, while he composed this concerto, he certainly failed to appeal to our modern hearts, to give nourishment to our modern fancy, in one word, to satisfy us. How much more was this the case with Schumann, who too had some of the spirit of Bach, but combined with it humor, poetry, and the richest imagination any modern composer since Beethoven and Schubert has shown. His ‘Novelletten’ are beautiful stories, so full of fancy and poetical traits, so well told, and so strongly taking hold of our minds. Mr. William Mason did full justice to these pieces.

            The octett [sic] by Mendelssohn shows all the refinement he used to bring to hear upon his works of chamber music. The treatment is masterly, but we cannot help thinking, that a simple quartet will make appear the details of workmanship much better than a double one. The sameness of color in the tone of the instruments makes it rather difficult, to let the individuality in the treatment of each part appear in its full light, and certainly what was intended to be very effective, will not be recognized as such by the majority of listeners.”

10)
Review: New-York Times, 30 March 1863, 8.

“Messrs. Mason and Thomas gave their fifth soirée of chamber music at Dodworth’s on Tuesday evening. The programme was unusually varied, and, perhaps, for this reason, attracted an overflowing audience. The opening quartette in E flat major No. 4, by Mozart, was excellently played, and gave place to a periwig-pated sonata for piano and violin by Bach (in E major No. 3,) with the execution of which we failed to be satisfied. After this Mr. Mason played three of Schumann’s novellettes for piano, from the suite dedicated to Henselt, (opus 21.) They are rather elaborate trifles, and interesting mainly for their workmanship, which is good. They were played with Mr. Mason’s usual clearness and were warmly applauded. The concluding morceau of the programme was Mendelssohn’s octet in E major, (opus 20)—a work exclusively for stringed instruments, and undoubtedly one of the master’s best productions. The ideas are rather wide apart, coming like stations on a railroad. The way between is not always interesting, but it is traveled rapidly. The opening moment, and the scherzo, are the best—the andante being sententious and heavy, and the presto common-place and tedious. The work was well interpreted but here, as in the Sonate, we noticed much irregularity of intonation, arising, possibly, from the moist state of the weather, and the crowded condition of the room.”

11)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 04 April 1863, 8.

“On last Tuesday evening, Messrs. Mason and Thomas gave their fifth soirée of the present series, at Dodworth’s hall. The programme comprised Mozart’s quartet in E flat major, (No. 4 of the Haydn quartets), and, in some respects, the finest of the six—with its visionary Andante, and lovely Scherzo; Bach’s Piano and Violin Sonata in E major,—‘something rich and strange,’ which from the beginning to the end gave us a sense of quaint delight, yet somewhat mysterious and unheimlich; but it must have proved a cold bath to many among the audience, who did not seem to know what to make of it; then three of Schumann’s Novelletten for the pianoforte, played by William Mason; and lastly, Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat major, opus 20, which has uncommon strength for a work of this class by Mendelssohn the elegant; the Scherzo is a summer-night’s-dream—in Spain, with a rich gloom over it at times.”