Euterpe Concert: 1st

Forthcoming works to be performed.

“A number of ladies and gentlemen, forming a choir of fifty good vocalists, an orchestra and an association of organists, pianists and composers, have organized a musical society under the name ‘Euterpe,’ for the purpose of giving a series of concerts and rehearsals in New York and Brooklyn. The first concert took place last night before an extremely small audience, at the above hall. Mr. John P. Morgan was the conductor. To give an idea of the high standard of art adopted by the society the following works have been rehearsed so far: [list of works rehearsed; no indication of which were performed at the concert]. The material which Mr. Morgan has gathered together is calculated to carry through the enterprise successfully in an artistic point of view. He should avoid vocal solos, however, as much as possible, for there was no particular ability displayed in them last night. The enterprise, like those of the Church Music Association Glee and Madrigal Society and Berge Choral Union, deserves the support of the public. Such societies and their entertainments tend to elevate the public taste and establish a healthier spirit in music. The attempt alone is worthy of praise, and when earnestness, talent and conscientious perseverance are brought into requisition there should be a different response on the part of the public from which Mr. Morgan and the ‘Euterpe’ received last night.”

“A very classical programme of classical German music was interpreted at Association Hall last night before a small audience. The pieces selected were of peculiar interest to the musical student, and included [see above].

“To the ‘Euterpe,’ as a new musical organization which aims at producing the highest class of music, the amateur was indebted for this interesting concert. Several of the selections were entirely new to this country. They were all executed with care, though the efforts of the conductor, Mr. John P. Morgan, were not always successful in keeping the orchestra and chorus well together. Master Hess played with an ability suggestive of adult skill rather than of childish precocity. Mr. Remmertz’s rich organ, as usual, gave great satisfaction, and the chorus evidently contained voices of unusual beauty. No. 2 on the programme is the work of a New York composer.”

“If the first concert of the Euterpe Society on Thursday night at the rooms of the Young Men’s Christian Association evoked no evidence of great popular interest in the severe class of music to which Mr. John P. Morgan and his followers have devoted themselves, it proved that there is an admirable company of singers in this rather unappreciative city, who are capable of worthily interpreting the highest classical compositions, and from whose musical enthusiasm the true lover of art has reason to expect many a dainty feast. About 50 ladies and gentlemen with a small but thoroughly efficient orchestra have united in this praiseworthy enterprise. They are not ordinary amateur singers. All of them, we are assured are vocalists of considerable culture, and from their performance at the first concert we are quite ready to believe it. They fell to their work with firmness and confidence, gave out their voices beautifully, kept well together, and produced in consequence a superb volume of sound which was almost too strong for the size of the hall. The shading was not perfect, but for a first concert it was highly creditable. With such a choir a good leader in a short time can do almost anything. Mr. Morgan’s purpose in founding the Euterpe is not to follow in the footsteps of other societies, but to make us acquainted with music of a kind which is rarely heard in the United States, the shorter Psalms, motets, cantatas, &c, of the great classical composers, and similar works by modern writers, formed upon classical models. Of the five selections chosen for Thursday’s concert, three had never been performed in America, and one, the production of a New-Yorker, had never been performed anywhere. The first was the Pastoral Symphony (for orchestra) from J. S. Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio.’ The second was the 125^th Psalm by Ferdinand Hiller, for tenor solo, chorus, and orchestra. It was not very fortunate in the gentleman who took the solo, for his voice, though pleasant, was unequal to the severe exactions of the part, but in other respects it was very well rendered. It is a composition in the graceful and refined style of Mendelssohn, of whom the listener is irresistibly reminded at every measure—not strikingly original in conception, but the work of a man of clear ideas, delicate taste, and thorough scholarship. Mr. Remmertz followed with Mendelssohn‘s well-known aria, ‘O God have mercy,’ to which with his beautiful voice and admirable method he imparted the true feeling and dignity which it demands, and so seldom gets. The American composition to which we have alluded was a ‘Cantate Domino’ (Psalm 98), by Mr. Otis B. Boise, a gentleman of this city who has studied, we believe, for some years in Germany. Mr. Boise has made an ambitious attempt in this work, the result of which is in some passages striking if not really impressive. He has been dazzled by the false lights of the modern sensational school, and has yielded to an exaggerated fondness for bizarre effects, singularly in contrast with the stern simplicity  and elevation of spirit which characterize the composers in whose company he found himself on this occasion. The last piece on the programme was a ‘Responsorium et Hymnus’ of Mendelssohn’s, almost rugged in its severe simplicity,--but what devotion, what profound religious sentiment, what exaltation of soul it betrayed in every phrase! It is a male chorus and baritone solo, with ‘cello and contra bass obbligato—no other accompaniment. Imitated from the Gregorian pattern, it begins with the Response and Verse, intoned by the single voice, and carried on by the chorus, and changes finally to the Hymn, O lux beata Trinitas. Mr. Remmertz in this was magnificent. No Father Abbot, leading his choir of monks in a medieval convent could have rendered more perfectly the religious spirit and sublime dignity of this noble work. It has never been sung in this country before, and has never been published. In the course of the evening the little violinist, Willie Hess, played a solo of Leonhardt’s with a degree of sensibility astonishing in one so young. Children who have acquired considerable technical proficiency on the violin are not uncommon; but the delicacy of expression attained by this youngster is commonly thought to be the gift exclusively of mature years. On the whole we think Mr. Morgan has some reason to feel encouraged at the beginning of his experiment. He has not yet commended his venture to the favor of the multitude, but he has established a strong claim upon the support of cultivated musicians and connoisseurs, and shown his society is competent for the task it has undertaken. More liberal encouragement we trust will be obtained for it in future.”