Deutscher Liederkranz Beethoven Festival

“. . . The Liederkranz Society last night at their hall in Fourth street sang several of the choruses from ‘Fidelio,’ and with professional aid played the Fifth Symphony and the Leonora No. 3 overture. Miss Krebs performed the ‘Sonata Appassionata.’ There was a very large attendance, and plenty cordial enthusiasm.”

“The centennial anniversary of the birth of BEETHOVEN was celebrated by a concert given by the Liederkranz Society, at their hall, last evening. The place was crowded, and the large audience affirmed by an attention and an appreciation of the most exceptional kind, the admiration and respect for the colossal compositions of the dead, which attracted it to the performance. The programme consisted wholly of works by BEETHOVEN. It was very pleasantly interpreted, and with a conscientiousness especially which could not have too much praise. The instrumental music, including the Fifth Symphony, and the ‘Fidelio’ overture No. 3, was rendered with faultless precision and nicety of shade, though there is habitually, and there was last night, a smaller reliance to be placed upon the brass of the ‘dilettanten-orchester,’ than upon the string portion of the body. Miss MARIE KREBS contributed to the entertainment a recitation of the sonata appassionata, in which she displayed her familiar qualities as a mistress of the instrument, and an intelligence and taste which did good though not thoroughly satisfying service for a sensibility and expressiveness not always at her command. The vocal numbers of the bill were the ‘Lied aus der Ferne,’ neatly sung by Fraulein DINGEON, the chorus ‘Die Himmel Ruehmen,’ by the chorus of the Society, whose execution, full of spirit and knowledge of contrast might have been bettered by gradations in the crescendos and diminuendos, the quartet No. 1, from ‘Fidelio,’ and the ‘Prisoners’ Chorus,’ and finales of the first and second acts of the same opera. We must not omit to mention that the hall was appropriately decorated with flags, prize banners, flowers, and pictures, the latter, we believe, from the brush of Herr HANS BREITKOPF.”

“The concert by the New-York Liederkranz last night, at their rooms in Fourth-st., was an interesting commemoration, partly from the excellence of the music selected for performance, partly from the enthusiasm of both the audience and the Society, but more than all from the fact that most of the performers were amateurs and yet cultivators of art in its highest forms. What manner of task it was which these ladies and gentlemen undertook may be judged from the programs, on which there appears the name of only one professional executant [see above].

“The grand symphony, the most impressive with one exception of all the nine, was very creditably rendered by the orchestra under Mr. Paur’s direction, and when we consider that only a few lof the players were professional musicians, we may well feel surprise that there was no more conspicuous defect than a lack of smoothness. The chorus also in the first part was effective, but we have heard the Liederkranz sing much better on other occasions. The selections from ‘Fidelio’ consisted of the great Leonore overture, No. 3; the quartette, Mir ist’s so wunderbar (Mrs. Werner, Miss Dingeon, Mr. Steins, and Mr. Nilson), the Prisoners’ Chorus, and the sestet and chorus with which the opera closes. In the sestet Mr. Candidus and Mr. Weibusch were added to the four whom we have already mentioned. To tell the truth, the finale was not very good, both the ladies, and sometimes Mr. Candidus, singing out of tune; nor was the chorus as solid and true as it is wont to be. Despite all these defects, however, many passages were rendered in a most spirited and admirable manner, and the Society deserves our thanks for its zealous and intelligent work. Miss Krebs bore off the honors of the evening. She plays the Sonata with warmth as well as brilliancy; but we have already expressed our opinion of her abilities so fully that we may spare further comment upon her excellent performance. For an encore she gave a polacca of Beethoven’s—a delicate piece—and she played it charmingly.” [reprinted Dwight's Journal of Music 2/31/70, p. 373]