Venue(s):
Steinway's Rooms
Price: $1.50
Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
28 August 2023
The Beethoven sonata is identified as "op. 29," which is a string quintet.
“Miss Marie Krebs, an accomplished and ambitious artist, of whose performances here we have kept an unbroken record, gave at Steinway Hall, on the afternoon of Saturday, the first of a series of four piano-forte recitals. The smaller room of the hall was occupied for the occasion. It ought to have been crowded, and we trust that it will be on Saturday next, when the second of these concerts is to occur. The opportunity of listening to thoroughly enjoyable compositions in a place where no atom of sound is lost, cannot long be overlooked by the appreciative. When Chopin was dying, he said to the Countess Czartoryska, ‘Play good music; I shall hear it.’ Late entertainments offered here have been ill-fitted to give the composer’s spirit the pleasure he wished for his after-life, and we might counsel Miss Krebs and a few equally conscientious performers to be content with kindred promises of approval, were we not satisfied that some living encouragement will be shown their efforts. A programme, including Beethoven’s sonata in E flat, (Opus 29,) the same composer’s ‘Moonlight’ sonata, a ‘Novelette’, by Schumann, a waltz by Rubinstein, and one of Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies can surely be recommended as worthy of pleasing. We do not think that Miss Krebs is, of all known pianists, best suited by talent and temperament to interpret it, but we are fully prepared to do homage to the courage which prompted its selection, and to the study and intelligence which secured a clear and technically-satisfying rendering. When Miss Krebs gave her first concert in this City, we expressed hearty admiration for the vigor and the fluency of her execution, and the correctness of her reading. At the same time a reservation was apparent in so far as sensibility and imagination are concerned in the work of the artist. We see no reason now for a modification of our opinion on these several points. Without reproducing any of the numerous ‘word-poems’ which fanciful writers have constructed upon the tone-poems of the masters, the foregoing mention of their title will enlighten the reader as to their demands. These were not fully responded to. More difficult in technique than the ‘Moonlight’ sonata, but less exacting in expression, the sonata in E flat was recited, as may be inferred, with better effect than the work last named, and the final movement, a presto con fuoco, in six eight time, was carried on with exceeding brilliancy and power. Schumann’s ‘Novelette,’ though excessively complicated, was read with facility and finish. The ‘Cat’s Fugue,’ by Scarlatti, was given coherence with the clearness so rarely attained by modern players. But we cannot point to Miss Krebs’ performance of the waltz by Rubinstein—a fresh and delicious trifle—or to that of the rhapsody—not the threadbare number of the series, but novel to the ear both for theme and treatment—as deserving of unlimited admiration. Though suffering from hoarseness, Mme. Krebs-Michalesi lent her aid to her daughter and sang an ‘Ave Maria’ by Kosch, ‘Der Neugierige,’ by Schubert, and ‘Valencia’s Rose,’ by C. Krebs. This last song merits repetition.”
“Two pianoforte concerts of more than ordinary interest were given on Saturday last, one in the afternoon at Steinway Hall, by Miss Marie Krebs, and the other in the evening at Chickering’s, by Mr. Richard Hoffman. At both works not only of difficulty, but of the highest intellectual reach and the most delicate beauty, were performed. A rare privilege is accorded to the young students of the piano in the opportunity given to listen to the works of the masters interpreted by such eminent musicians.”