Marie Krebs Piano-forte Recital: 9th

“If the management of these charming musical entertainments were only equal to the merits of the chief attraction, they would be the musical sensation of the present time. Miss Krebs has come to this city with a great European reputation at her back, but, artist like, she was not satisfied with that alone; she strove to reach still higher points in her ‘excelsior’ path. The severe but kindly remarks which we made about her interpretation of those two rare masters of the piano, Beethoven and Chopin, seem to have been received by her in the proper spirit, and to have spurred her to more strenuous efforts. Yesterday, thanks to the elaborate criticisms passed upon the eight previous recitals in the Herald Miss Krebs’ ninth matinee at Steinway Hall was attended by an audience of fashionable ladies, such as any artist would be delighted to meet. The small hall was crowded, and the opening of the sliding doors, showed a propensity of the audience to find vent in the larger hall beyond. The most fortunate and favored in the audience was a group of soi disant professional pianists, who made repeated failures in the very same hall a season ago, and who sensibly came to kneel at the footstool of real genius, and to wonder why fingers were made so unlike, or, rather, why there was not always the same brio behind them. Miss Krebs played the following works [see above]. Beethoven’s work, is, we conceive, the most difficult and trying of his piano compositions. When played in public some of the endless repetitions might be advantageously omitted. Miss Krebs did much better yesterday than when she played it before. The two Chopin little works were interpreted by her charmingly, and in the ‘Etude’ she gave the continuous thirds for the right hand with an accuracy and delicacy of touch which surprised even her most enthusiastic admirers. Thalberg’s fantaisie is the dream of Conservatory pupils, and we were rather taken aback to find it on Miss Krebs’ programme. The fair pianist was assisted by her mother, Mme. Krebs Michalesi, of whose contralto voice we haves spoken before, and who did not yesterday exhibit any power worth speaking of, and Signor Randolfi, who sang a couple of baritone songs like a true artist. Mr. Louis Dachauer was the accompanist. If Miss Krebs would only get a good manager and engage a fashionable theatre for her matinées, she may be assured of crowded houses and a pecuniary success commensurate with that she has already gained in art.”

“At the Ninth Recital, last Saturday afternoon, the piano selections were the following [see above].

“The Sonata Appassionata is ordinarily one of Miss Krebs’ best selections from Beethoven. She plays it with spirit, vigor, and variety of expression. The andante on Saturday was hardly as good as usual, but the last movement was admirable and the first was much to be commended. The two pieces from Chopin were given with a rarely delicate and graceful touch, and the two well-matched from Liszt were illustrations of the delicate and poetic vein in which Miss Krebs is at times so charming. The Stänchen von Schubert is not the serenade so familiar to our parlors and concert-rooms, but another one, little known in this city. The triumph of the entertainment was the Scherzo from the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ So easy and self-possessed was the young lady’s performance that few except professional musicians appreciated the difficulty of her task. It was a labor worthy of her best efforts, and superbly she achieved it. Few things that she has done give us a higher idea of her extraordinary technical proficiency, her untiring physique, and her fine musical intelligence. She was enthusiastically recalled, and played Rubinstein’s Waltz in F major.

Madame Krebs-Michalesi reappeared as a vocalist at this concert, singing Dessauer’s ‘Lockung,’ and joining Mr. Randolfi in a duo from ‘Semiramide.’ Mr. Randolfi also contributed a new song by Blumenthal on Tennyson’s ‘Tears, idyl Tears,’ the well-known aria ‘Ah non avea,’ from Donizetti’s ‘Maria di Rudenz,’ and Stigelli’s ‘Tear’ for an encore. The two last were his best efforts; in the duo and the first song he was somewhat out of tune. The audience was one of the best of the series, overflowing into the large hall, and including, as usual, the most cultivated class of connoisseurs.”