Vocal Society of New York Concert: 4th

“The fourth concert of this excellent society, last evening, was a striking proof of the good results to be obtained from our much bemoaned, unmusical material, in voice and temperament, under careful and judicious treatment by thoroughly skillful directors. Mr. Mosenthal adds to his other musical virtues that of an accomplished drill-sergeant and leader. His labors bear rich fruit in the perfection to which he has brought his chorus, which, in spite of the proverbial odiousness of comparisons, we are tempted to call the best of its kind in New York. In precision, truth of intonation, delicacy of shading and expression, and rich full body of tone, the execution of the club leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. Perhaps there was just a slight observable weakness in the sopranos last night, but one of quantity rather than of quality, and they might be excused for being a little overborn by the uncommonly strong and rich tone of the contraltos, whose splendid second came out in much of the madrigal music with almost startling clearness and force.

Space would fail us if we attempted to particularize the choice bits in a programme where everything was so good. It is sufficient to say that the quaint naivete and freshness of this genial old music , the madrigal, and the equal quaintness of the old-time poetry which is set to it, seem continually to gain ground in the sympathies of our more cultivated audience. Encores, last night, were the order of the evening, and it is safe to say that every other piece had to be repeated.

A charming feature of the evening was the singing of Miss M. A. Simms in Gounod’s ‘Serenade.’ This excellent amateur, with a voice of no exceptional strength or compass, so charmed her auditory by the grace, purity, and sympathetic sweetness of her delivery, as to earn an enthusiastic encore, to which she replied with a pretty ballad. Mr. Leggat, too, was in excellent voice, and being recalled after his delightful rendering of Schubert’s ‘Allmacht,’ gave one of the sweetest of the many settings of the cradle song ‘Soft and Low.’

The whole occasion was one of unalloyed pleasure and enthusiasm on the part of the audience, and naturally of a justifiable pride and self-congratulation among the performers. It is not to be wondered at that, as we are informed, both the one and the other were largely recruited by accessions from other cities, drawn by the fame of these delightful, and, in their way, unequalled entertainments.”