Church Music Association Concert

“Steinway Hall presented last night the most brilliant appearance that ever hall or theatre in this city displayed before. An audience composed of the elite of metropolitan society, all in evening dress, would alone excite attention and surprise as to what possible musical entertainment could attract them. We are accustomed to take a practical view of all public entertainments of this kind, and naturally look upon such attendance as that which greeted the first concert the Church Music Association as a cheering sign of present and prospective success. Even the Nilsson concerts did not show such an evidence of fashion and popularity. An orchestra numbering seventy-two instruments and a chorus of 280 voices filled the stage and temporary platforms, presenting a very imposing appearance. The soloists were Madame Anna Bishop, Mrs. Jenny Kempton, Mr. William S. Leggat, and Mr. H. P. Danks. Dr. James Pech was the conductor. The programme consisted of the lovely overture to ‘Lurline,’ one of the most characteristic of Wallace’s works; Haydn’s Third or Imperial Mass and the opera of ‘Preciosa,’ by Weber. The performance showed throughout a degree of perfection highly creditable to the association and their excellent conductor, Dr. Pech. Among the chorus we recognized many eminent artists, and the spirit, ensemble, expression and will shown by both singers and orchestra evidenced long painstaking rehearsals and confidence in the conductor. Weber’s exquisite work, with its fresh, bubbling melodies, of a Moorish tinge, was given admirably. The second concert takes place on Tuesday, February 21. Outside the hall last evening a line of carriages extended beyond Third avenue. When wealth and fashion come forward so liberally to the end of art, there are bright prospects for it in this city.”

“This Society gave its first concert of the present season at Steinway Hall on Wednesday evening. It was as fully attended as any of the previous ones, and as enjoyable. Haydn’s third mass was sung. The chorus exhibited a marked improvement over their last year’s performance, singing the somewhat difficult fugued passage of the ‘Quoniam’ with much steadiness. They also sang with more confidence and fullness of tone than at the rehearsals. The music to Von Weber’s musical drama ‘Preciosa’ was also given. It was ineffective because of its interjectional character and its lack of continuity. In its place in the drama it certainly is very charming, though even in that form it has had little success out of Germany—the English versions not having met with any special favor. It is not as strong as Von Weber could write, but there were many in the audience who were glad of the exceptional opportunity to hear it. Mme. Anna Bishop-Schultz, Mrs. Kempton, and Messrs. Leggett and Danks were the soloists. In everything that Mme. Schultz sang she showed how excellent had been her training. If the voice has somewhat failed, we may still admire the artist. Mrs. Kempton’s singing is marred by that tremulousness of tone that is so frequent, so fatal, and we regret to say so fashionable a vice. Probably the delusion that singers cherish is that this vibration suggests pathos; but while this may in rare instances be the case, the excessive use of the tremolo commonly suggests weakness of voice and the inability to sing a steady tone. On the whole the Society is to be congratulated on its manifest progress.” [Reprinted Dwight's Jounral of Music, 01/11/71, p. 381]

“The first concert of the second season of the Church Music Association occurred at Steinway Hall, Wednesday evening. It drew out the most fashionable audience assembled in that place this Winter, and one no likelier to be excelled in numbers than in brilliancy. We mention the fact, as it is creditable to a class of the community which is not usually thanked for encouragement of art. We do not, though, incline to the belief that music was the single element of attraction in the affairs of which the one we write of is the latest. An association whose influences can bring together so intelligent an assemblage, and secure the interpretation of a difficult, fresh and varied programme, can scarcely be censured, however, if an unmixed gathering of dilettanti is not within call. The selections on Wednesday night, were deserving of hearty admiration, and the general execution was exceedingly good. A pamphlet, prepared with care and judgment, went far, no doubt, toward directing attention to the prominent traits of the music performed, and the work of the orchestra was appreciated to some extent, though it did not evoke the demonstrations of approval less worthy efforts have often elicited. The overture to ‘Lurline,’ the opening piece of the evening, has never been played with equal sentiment, variety and precision before. It was done by an orchestra seventy strong, the string instruments numbering almost fifty, and these being used in a manner rarely noticeable in kindred entertainments. The religious music of the concert consisted of Haydn’s ‘Third,’ or ‘Imperial Mass,’ which was specially composed for the coronation of Joseph II, Emperor of Austria. It is claimed by the pamphlet already alluded to, that ‘it displays the genius of Haydn from a most favorable point of view. The peculiar characteristics of the composer are strongly portrayed through all the movements. It is joyous and sympathetic, and although surrounded by pomp and the circumstances of grandeur and solemnity, it is neither superficial nor merely popular. Its pieces are imbued with solemn and religious feeling, and elevated by a lofty style.” With these characteristics allowed it, the fitness of the composition for introduction to the public is apparent. The florid music, particularly, had the fullest justice at the hands of Mme. Anna Bishop, while Mrs. Jenny Kempton sang well, though not with the consummate art of the soprano. Neither Mr. W. L. Leggat nor Mr. H. P. Danks, were at all prominent for voice or for method. The choruses were sung with praiseworthy correctness. The orchestra, happily, has a large share in the recitation of the Mass, and the elaborate instrumentation of the themes, strengthened by a judicious addition of brass and wood to the instruments exacted by the original score, was given its greatest effect by the orchestra. The second part of the concert was occupied by the rendering of the music to ‘Preciosa,’ by Carl Maria von Weber. Thoroughly well known in Germany and in England, this work of the composer of ‘Oberon’ only became common property in France a few years since. We are satisfied that hardly four score of the audience, previous to yesterday, were familiar with its beauties. The pieces chosen were the Gypsy march and chorus, ‘Hail, Preciosa;’ the melodrama, by Preciosa, ‘Softly Twilight is Descending;’ the Ballo; the Gypsy chorus; ‘The Woods, The Woods;’ the aria, by Preciosa, ‘Not Alone, Although Secluded;’ the ‘Music Behind the Scenes;’ the chorus of Gypsies, ‘The Sun Awakes,’ the Spanish national dance music; and the chorus, ‘The Stars are so Brilliantly Shining.’ The delicious overture was capitally recited; the chorus ‘Hail Preciosa’ was sung with unquestionable spirit, and in the Gypsy chorus, ‘The Woods, The Woods,’ the executants only wanted a little self-reliance and accompanying freedom of delivery to be as perfect as could be desired. The single solo of the second part, Preciosa’s aria, ‘Not Alone, Though Secluded,’ was repeated by Mrs. Kempton, in deference to an unanimous demand. Before closing this account of the concert, it must be said that the orchestra and chorus had been rehearsed, and were directed as hitherto by Dr. James Pech.”

“Dr. James Pech defends his conduct in turning ‘The Messiah’ upside down and tampering with the score of Hadyn’s Imperial mass by the example of Mozart and Mendelssohn, who supplied or elaborated the instrumental accompaniments for several of Handel’s oratorios and cantatas. Without admitting that Mozart and Mendelssohn are a rule for Dr. Pech, we must remind that gentleman that the work he has undertaken is not at all like theirs. Handel’s scores never were published in full, and the copies used when the oratorios were performed under Handel’s own direction were destroyed at the burning of Covent Garden Theater in 1808. Mozart’s instrumentation was not an attempt to ‘improve’ or in any way change the scores, but to fill out the imperfect published sketches and restore the works as nearly as possible to their original form. A subsequent discovery of Handel MSS. has shown that Mozart caught the composer’s spirit admirably, and reproduced the original forms much more closely than any one would have thought possible. This necessary restoration is of course essentially different from the arbitrary changes by which the Harmonic Society has undertaken to show us how Handel would have constructed his great work if he had taken Dr. Pech’s advice. It is different also from the ‘improvements’ in instrumentation introduced into Haydn’s Imperial Mass for we know exactly what Haydn wrote, and exactly what instruments he used to express his thoughts. If a conductor may change the instrumentation because he believes it would sound better with more trombones, why should he not change the vocal parts of he fancies that he can adorn them to advantage with a few roulades? It is customary to omit portions of ‘The Messiah’ and other oratorios from the public performance, and to this no one can reasonably object; but alterations are unpardonable. Every genuine musician will wish to hear a great classical work just as it was written, if he hears it at all; there is no question of taste or effect; any alteration is an impertinence only comparable to that of the editor of a poem who should tamper with the text of his author. In the case of Haydn the offense is especially gross, because Haydn was one of the most eminent masters of instrumental combinations, possessing a knowledge of the resources of the orchestra far in advance of his time, and an exceptionally fine judgment in the arrangement of his scores.”