Church Music Association Concert

Final concert of the season. G. T. Strong’s tribute to conductor Pech.

Biographical sketch by James Pech from the program notes for the concert.

“The closing concert of the season of this admirable organization took place at Steinway Hall last night, before an audience that filled the hall and all its tributaries and approaches to the utmost extent. The programme consisted [see above]. During an intermission in the concert Dr. James Pech, the talented and painstaking conductor, was presented by a committee with a very handsome watch and chain and an engrossed tribute to his exertions in the cause of art. The concert was such a thorough success that we shall defer a lengthy criticism on it until time and space permit.”

“The brilliant closing concert of the season of the Church Music Association last night entirely eclipsed all the previous concerts of the society. The display of fashionable toilets was unprecedented here; but far more important in an artistic point of view was the excellence of the music. The overture to ‘Masaniello’ is no novelty to be sure, and we cannot deem it the best selection that might have been made, but it was performed in magnificent style. Niedermeyer’s mass was the leading feature of the programme. It is a work which at first sight appeared easy; but the first rehearsal of it by the members of the Association proved it to be bristling with difficulties. Patient study surmounted these, and last night the work was given with excellent effect. It appeals to the amateur and musician rather than to the general public, though the Benedictus is a delicious strain, and throughout the work there are many suggestions of melody. The instrumentation is ingenious; and the entire work shows the hand of a first-class musician. The exhaustive analysis in the programme of the evening gave the listeners an excellent idea of the intent and the peculiarities of the work, and aided largely in their appreciation of it.

“Those who found the Mass ‘heavy’—and undoubtedly there were such among the audience—were especially delighted with the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The scherzo was deliciously played, and the wedding march was grandly sonorous. The ladies of the chorus sang with promptness and good effect. The pleasure of the performance was much enhanced by the skillful reading of Mr. Arthur Matthison of the more prominent scenes of the play, judiciously selected. Mr. Matthison, by his variety of intonation, relieved this portion of the entertainment from the monotony which too often attends Shakesperian readings. His Nick Bottom has in itself a most admirable personation. The solo artists all sang well, and everything was as merry as a marriage bell.

“After the mass there was a pleasant surprise given to the conductor, Dr. James Pech. The members of the chorus had waited to present him with a gold watch and chain, together with a paper containing the names of the givers, handsomely engrossed. The presentation was made by Mr. Lumbard, but his remarks, as well as Dr. Pech’s reply, were inaudible to the audience. Perhaps, however, the best testimony of the ability of the conductor or the Church Music Association is the magnificent success of the society which he called into life.”

“Under the above and inexpressive and singularly chosen name is known the noblest musical organization existing at present in New York. Founded by a number of wealthy art lovers, with a singleness of purpose for art alone, cradled in the nursery of fashion alone and directed by a conductor—Dr. James Pech—whose talents, energy and zeal have been wholly employed in its service, it is no wonder that this society should have at once commanded the earnest attention of the musical public. Its exclusiveness is only temporary, and was, perhaps, necessary to give it the prestige and start which would place it on a sure foundation, and we understand that next season its concerts will be thrown open to the general public in a more democratic manner and on the necessary conditions which its high tone of arrangements may demand. The closing concert at Steinway Hall on Wednesday night was a remarkable performance in every way. The attendance was a perfect jam, and many ladies attired in full evening dress were unable to procure seats. The chorus, numbering between two and three hundred singers, and the orchestra, over eighty, were seated in an artistically arranged staging built over the regular platform, rising to the height of forty feet from the floor. This presented the performers in a very effective tableau vivant, over which presided the baton of Dr. Pech. The following programme was performed [see above].

“Auber’s overture was given with immense élan, and with every attention to all the delicate minutiae of musical expression. Niedermeyer’s mass, never before, we believe, performed in this country—has a freshness and agreeable flow of melody, united with a succession of choruses, some of which are evidently based upon the model of the old masters, with a streak or two of modern appliances, after the manner of Rossini. The principal attractive numbers of this work are the Gloria, Credo and the Benedictus, in which latter the principal vocalists—Madame Anna Bishop, Madame Clara Perl, Mr. William D. Leggat and Mr. Franz Remmertz—were worthy of commendation. Mr. William D. Leggat particularly distinguished himself for his correct and careful singing of O Salutaris Hostia, the movement preceding the Benedictus, a piece demanding the most exquisite delicacy of handling. The romantic version of Mendelssohn was faultlessly given, both chorus and orchestra entering into the work with intelligence and spirit. The choruses, ‘Ye Spotted Snakes’ and ‘Through This House Give Glim’ring Light,’ were sung by about 200 young ladies of the association with precision and effect. The performance of this work was a decided success, its fairy-like character, tunefulness and harmonic combinations never failing to sustain the interest and win the unanimous applause of the audience, from beginning to end. Mme. Anna Bishop and Mme. Clara Perl sang the few solo passages contained in the work, and Mr. Arthur Matthison very effectively read those portions of the play which illustrated the various movements of the music.

“We have already alluded to the handsome tribute tendered to Dr. Pech by the association. We trust that the work which has so auspiciously commenced, and is in the interests of true art, will be continued next season in like manner. When wealth and fashion combine to present the best music in the most attractive manner there is a hope that the metropolis of America will never again be left so long as it has during the past season without opera, oratorio and concert worthy of it. To Dr. Pech much of the success of the enterprise is due, for a conductor wields much power for good or evil in a musical society. The only thing now required for this society, before it takes up its quarters in the Academy, is to change its name. Church Music Association is suggestive alone of the Sunday school and camp meeting, and many persons are misled by the appellation.”

“The third and last concert of the Church Music Association, this season, occurred at Steinway Hall Wednesday evening. It closed in presence of an audience distinguished in numbers, social position and wealth, the labors of the society during the present year of amusements. An address placed in the hands of the assemblage, as part of the programme usually supplied to that body, made mention of this fact in an interesting essay intended for the frequenters of the Association’s entertainments. That these have had the wholesome and refining influence claimed for them is hardly to be doubted. The selection of the compositions has been made with unerring good taste, and their interpretation has been as worthy of the subject-matter as material outlay and expenditure of time could make the work of expression. After the detailed accounts of the performances which have succeeded each other, since last Autumn, in these columns, it is unnecessary to write at length of the affairs whereof Wednesday’s concert was a delightful climax. We can cheerfully congratulate the Church Music Association, however, on the success which has attended its efforts, and can unite in the sentiment of justice and gratitude dictating a recognition of the services as conductor and littérateur of Dr. James Pech. Dr. Pech’s exertions in the capacity last-named have had sufficiently wide and pleasant publicity given them by their triumphant result. As a writer he has contributed to the concerts of the Church Music Association the pamphlets, replete with analytical, historical, and critical matter concerning the pieces chosen for rendering. The one before the guests of the final reunion was in all respects creditable to him, for we cannot imagine that the omission of the quotation marks which ought to have compassed the literal translation of M. Scudo’s brief but comprehensive and decisive estimate of M. Auber (taken from Scudo’s ‘Année Musicale—Be Année’) was aught but accidental. At the same time, the recital of the programme Wednesday night bestowed upon Dr. Pech fresh laurels. Though we should not like to compare his chorus with the great English choral masses for precision or for fine musical feeling, he has done wonders with it, and its delivery was full of correctness and spirit. Niedermayer’s Mass in B minor, aptly described as ‘smooth, flowing and unambitious’ in style, as ‘aspiring to a pleasing solemnity, rather than to erudition, complication or elevated grandeur,’ and as ‘pleasingly elegant,’ was sung with care and effect by the Association. The soloists—whose task was very light—were Mme. Anna Bishop, Mme. Clara Perl, Mr. Wm. S. Leggat, and Mr. Franz Remmertz. Too much praise cannot well be lavished upon the orchestra, which, after executing the overture to ‘La Muette de Portici,’ gave valued assistance to the interpretation of the mass, and crowned the evening’s excellence with a reading faultless in appreciation and shading, of Mendelssohn’s score to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Mr. Arthur Matthison recited excerpts from the play so happily illustrated by the happiest of composers. We must not omit to mention that an agreeable incident took place between the first and the second part of the concert. Dr. Pech was then made the recipient of a handsome watch and chain, the gift of the singers and members of the Association.”

“The Church Music Association concert was given on Thursday [sic] evening, and was as brilliantly attended as any of the previous ones, which is saying the most that can be said in that direction. We believe that this society is exercising a good and healthful influence on art in this city. Though Dr. Pech still deems it necessary to sing with or at his chorus, for the purpose of striving to keep them up to pitch and time, still he has laid aside most of his eccentricities as a conductor, and he has worked with undoubted zeal and untiring energy in behalf of the Association.”

“The concert was not as great an artistic success as either of the first two. The ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ did not go as smoothly as was expected. The orchestra played as well as usual, but the chorus showed a want of sufficient rehearsal. The Poem, or such parts of it as had relation to the music, was read by Mr. Matthison. The Mass in D, by Niedermeyer, is a magnificent work, and was finely sung. The solos were undertaken by Mme. Anna Bishop-Schultze (soprano), Miss Clara Perl (contralto), Mr. Wm. S. Leggat (tenor), and Mr. F. Remmertz (basso).

“During the intermission between the first and second parts, the conductor, Mr. James Pech, was presented by the subscribers with a handsome gold watch and chain.”