Helvetia Maennerchor Concert: Swiss Benevolent Society Benefit

“There is in this city an organization of musical amateurs bearing the above title. They sing extremely well. At a concert given last Saturday night, at the Teutonia Assembly Rooms, they thoroughly proved this. The chorus is not large, but has been excellently trained by a skilful and painstaking conductor. The Arion and Liederkranz societies by no means monopolize our best singers. In certain selections from Abt and other writers for male voices, these Swiss singers were simply perfect.

“There were also solo artists of merit assisting at this unique and interesting concert. Miss Ida Rosenbergh, a charming young soprano with facile and at time brilliant execution; Mr. Charles Werner the violoncellist; and several gentlemen members of the Marnnerchor lent their aid in various solos. An orchestra of goodly numbers played among other selections a delightfully melodious composition by Vieuxtemps.

“The audience was intelligent in appearance and elegant in attire. Most of the prominent Swiss citizens of New York were present, and the whole affair was a gratifying success. After the concert there was a supper and a ball.”

“On Saturday evening, the 10th inst., an able concert was given by the Helvetia Maennerchor in the little hall in Sixteenth-street, for the benefit of the Swiss Benevolent Society. We trust the advantage to the Society was equal to the satisfaction of the audience and the excellence of the performance, in which case the objects of its benevolence will have much to be thankful for. The Maennerchor sang a chorus by MARSCHNER, a quartet, and some other part-music, in the best style of German choral singing—time, pitch, and light and shade being alike irreproachable, and the only thing lacking a greater breadth, and so to speak, warmth of tone. An orchestra of some thirty instruments, justly balanced and vigorously led, played with a fidelity that proved how little grandeur of effect depends on numbers. BEETHOVEN’S ‘Overture to Egmont’ was also given; a stately adagio by VIEUXTEMPS, and a scena from ‘Der Freischutz,’ the vocal portion of which, difficult as it is, was well sung by Herr METHFESSEL. Besides these an interesting solo on the violoncello was given by Herr WERNER, and a bright polacca by a well-trained soprano, Miss IDA ROSENBURGH, and afterward a duet between soprano and violoncello, ‘La Stellar Confidente,’ by ROBANDI—a composition which, not being snatched out of its proper place in an opera, but written expressly for concert performance—was in harmony with what had gone before, and therefore greatly enjoyed and applauded by the audience. We have much still to learn from our German fellow-citizens of the legitimate use and enjoyment of music, the programmes of our concerts in particular too often showing, as contrasted with theirs, a plentiful lack of resource, and a mortifying confidence in clap-trap. Fashionably patronized and lucrative as Mlle. NILLSON’S [sic] concerts have been, how much that was worthless has been admitted into their programmes, and to how little advantage, in an artistic point of view, have the talents of the distinguished artists who accompany her been put! This German concert, on the other hand, gave, without previous flourish, a well-planned evening’s entertainment, to which each individual contributed a fair share, and wherein music and common sense were completely represented.”