Marie Krebs Piano-forte Recital: 8th

“This young lady proved on Saturday in the most incontestable manner that pluck, perseverance and study, united to natural ability, can conquer all difficulties in the world of art. She played better than ever we heard her before, and some of those defects in her method which we pointed out seem to have been removed by her earnest application. She was assisted by Miss Agnes Palmer, a contralto of rare merit, who in both tone and school has no superior on our stage, and Signor Randolf, the favorite baritone. Mr. Louis Dachauer was the accompanist. The following programme was presented [see above]. We shall refer particularly to Chopin’s work, since we have had occasion to remark before defects in Miss Krebs’ rendering of the incomparable piano writer. The ‘Scherzo’ has been long ago made familiar to the metropolitan public by other eminent pianists, but Miss Krebs made in it yesterday one of her most emphatic triumphs. She moderated her previous injudicious use of the pedal, made each phrase come out in bold relief and threw an expression and poetry into her interpretation of the work which gave it its full effect and robbed it not of a line of its beauty. The same success attend her playing of Chopin’s lovely ‘Berceuse’ which she gave as an encore. Touch, expression, felling and execution were alike admirable. In the ‘Mouvement Perpetuel’ she lost the effect by an anti-climax. Instead of gradually working the effect up and bringing the piece to a close with all the power and brilliancy it demands, she dashed into it in the beginning with a fire and impetuosity which it was impossible to keep up, much less increase. Miss Krebs, at all these recitals, has proved herself an artist of very high attainments, and one that for intelligence, versatility and executive power has few equals among us.”

“Another of Miss Krebs’s delightful matinées at Steinway’s on Saturday afternoon again attracted a refined and critical audience, to whom the conscientious performance of the young pianist gave great satisfaction. Miss Agnes Palmer, a contralto of decided merit, and one who should be heard frequently in our concert rooms, and Mr. Randolfi, the baritone, were the vocalists.”

“The programme of Miss Krebs’s eighth matinée, given on Saturday, was varied and brilliant, comprising works by Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Rubinstein, and Liszt. Bach’s fugue à la tarantella was especially noticeable for its difficulty and beauty, and for the clearness, precision, and vigor with which Miss Krebs played it. This artist has the noble quality [rising?] with her subject. The more difficult a piece or a passage is, the greater the power with which she meets and overcomes it. Miss Agnes Palmer, a young lady instructed in Italy, made her first appearance as a vocalist. Her voice is a mezzo soprano of much power and richness, which she uses well—not, however, without some faults of style, as for instance, a habit of rising to her note at the beginning of a phrase, instead of taking the true tone at once.

Mr. Randolfi also sang, and in a manly way [illegible] gave general satisfaction to the audience.”

“An encore followed the delivery of the song last named [“We’ll meet above,’ by Liebe], to which a new and welcome tendency on the part of the performer not to force a full and powerful voice lent much charm.” 

“For the eighth recital, last Saturday afternoon, Miss Krebs presented the following bill [see above].

The Fugue of Bach’s is the one commonly [illegible] as à la tarantelle. We have so often expressed delight with Miss Krebs’s execution of this class of [music?] that we may content ourselves to-day with a [illegible] general commendation. The Fugue a la tarentelle, as the name indicates, is freer in construction than [illegible] that wonderful series, and the young pianist plays with brilliancy and spirit, as well as with that [illegible] precision of touch and rhythm for which she [illegible] remarkable. The same characteristic merits were [illegible] in her performance of Weber’s ‘Perpetual Mouvement,’ by which she won an enthusiastic recall. She [illegible] with Chopin’s ‘Berceuse.’ The three short [pieces?] grouped together as the third number on the programme seemed to us injudiciously arranged. To begin with Rubinstein and immediately go back a century and a half to Domenico Scarlatti involves a sort of [illegible] shock ruinous to a full enjoyment of the music. Rubinstein leaves us in no mood to appreciate the older composer, and the little Tempo di ballo is over before feelings have been brought into sympathy with it. There is a great jump again from Scarlatti to Mendelssohn, but here the effect is not so unfortunate. The exquisite ‘Spring Song,’ which Miss Krebs selected [illegible] little outburst of natural feeling that gains rather than suffers by contrast with the pretty piece of [illegible] preceding it, and she played it, indeed, with a charming grace that in almost any position it would have seemed delightful. Mr. Randolfi sang remarkably [well?] on Saturday, and though the audience was as [usual a?] very critical and exacting one, his efforts seemed to be generally appreciated. Miss Palmer, who made her American debut on this occasion, is a young [European?] lady who has sung in Italy and in London, and [illegible] announced as a member of the opera company at [Vienna?]. She has a strong and in some respects an excellent contralto voice, richest in the upper and middle registers, poor in the lower, capable of fine dramatic effect [if it?] were only better trained; but she is not much of an artist; she has not learned how to produce a good [illegible] tone, and her vocalization is very crude.”

“At Miss Krebs’ concert on the afternoon of the 4^th inst., at Steinway Hall, Miss Agnes Palmer, recently from Italy, where she had been to finish her musical studies, made her first appearance as a songstress, and demonstrated that she had a full and forcible mezzo-soprano voice, which, however, is susceptible of being better controlled.”