Messiah

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Conductor(s):
George Frederick Bristow

Price: $1; $.50 extra reserved seat

Event Type:
Choral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
30 August 2023

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

19 Jan 1871, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

Messiah

Composer(s): Handel

Participants: Orchestra, unidentified; Mendelssohn Union; Samuel P. Warren [organ]; Myron W. [bass] Whitney; Jennie Kempton; George Simpson; Clara Louise Kellogg

Citations

Advertisement: New-York Times, 15 January 1871, 7.

Announcement: New-York Times, 17 January 1871, 5.

Announcement: New York Post, 18 January 1871, 2.

Announcement: New York Herald, 19 January 1871, 4.

Notes that this is Miss Kellogg’s first appearance in oratorio.

Review: New York Herald, 20 January 1871, 4.

“We doubt if there is another artist on the American stage who could attract such a large and fashionable audience as Miss Clara Louise Kellogg did last night on the occasion of her metropolitan début in oratorio. Rarely has the Academy presented a more brilliant appearance, and we recognized many of the old habitués of by-gone days when opera flourished there. Our fair young American prima donna has taken a firm hold on the hearts of the New York public, and to no other artist, home or foreign, are our people so pleased to extend a hearty greeting and warm welcome. And she proves herself worthy of it. Her beautiful, sympathetic, highly cultivated voice, which is a unit in equality of tone and limpidity through all its registers, was filled with a rare religious fervor, and gave the music of Handel much of the expression and feeling it requires. ‘Come unto Him,’ ‘Rejoice Greatly,’ ‘How Beautiful Are The Feet’ and the immortal ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’ were sung by her in a style which we can safely say was equal at least to that of any of her predecessors. In the last piece, however, we think that she might have been more effective in singing the word ‘liveth’ had she adhered to the usual method of using an appoggiatura, A for the first note instead of making both G sharp. Although the notes are written exactly as she sang them, they are usually sung in the manner indicated above. An unconquerable nervousness affected her voice, and the want of breadth and massiveness of style which is commonly associated with an oratorio singer, was, to a great degree, made up by her rare delicacy, unerring accuracy and appreciation of the spirit of the music. Mrs. Jenny Kempton was the contralto, and proved herself a thorough artist. Mr. Whitney received an enthusiastic and well deserved encore for his spirited rendering of the difficult aria, ‘Why do the nations rage?’ Mr. Simpson’s abilities as an oratorio tenor are too well known to need comment here. Mr. George Bristow conducted the chorus and orchestra in his usual careful and able manner, and Mr. S. P. Warren presided at the organ. The arrangements on the stage were admirable as to the disposition of the chorus and the orchestra, but we do not believe the acoustic qualities of the building at all favorable for a larger body of voices. Half the sound never reaches the auditorium.”

Review: New York Post, 20 January 1871, 2.

“No one at all familiar with Miss Kellogg’s style of singing could doubt her success in oratorio. Her cultured style and her pure voice are both well adapted to this class of music. Already she has rehearsed the music of the ‘Messiah’ in the western cities, and last night for the first time she sang it to a metropolitan audience.

The house was crowded, though the audience, as far as mere dress and show were concerned, could not be called a brilliant one. It was, however, appreciative and attractive.

Miss Kellogg was warmly received, and, in her first aria, ‘Rejoice Greatly,’ her sweet, limpid voice and facile execution were displayed to the best advantage. The ‘Come unto Him’ was encored. It was a delicate and tasteful bit of singing; and in the closing phrases, the vocalist introduced a sustained high B flat, which was a note of extraordinary purity. Parepa makes a similar interpolation, taking the note, however, sotto voce. This was, indeed, the only alteration made by Miss Kellogg in the music of her part. In all other points she adhered closely to the notes as Handel wrote them. ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ was given with the same delicacy and finish which marked Miss Kellogg’s rendering of the other airs; but we should have liked a greater degree of emphasis. The important announcement given in the words of this great aria raises it above the level of mere elegance.

There is no doubt, however, that Miss Kellogg now takes her stand indisputably as the leading soprano in oratorio. She recently assumed a first position as a lyric artist by essaying characters of a more dramatic nature than those with which her previous successes were identified. And now in sacred as well as in secular music, she becomes the representative American artist.

The other vocalists last evening were satisfactory. Mrs. Kempton sang with much feeling and taste, and Mr. Simpson with his usual sweetness and accuracy. Mr. Whitney was a very great success, winning an encore for his superb rendering of the difficult air, ‘Why do the nations?’ a composition, by the way, which offers in its accompaniment one of the most original and peculiar specimens of orchestration which Handel ever produced. The chorus was not as powerful as its numbers might lead one to expect. Indeed, not a few of the members seemed to think they were solely for ornament, and listened with great complacency to the singing in which they should have joined. The sopranos were excellent, however, and the tenors were good; but the basses were weak, and the altos reminded the hearer of the ‘still small voice’ of conscience. The appearance of the orchestra and chorus were quite imposing, and the organ in the background gave quite a churchlike air to the groupings on the stage. We noticed that the good old habit of standing during the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus was deemed quite obsolete by the audience, not over a dozen individuals adhering to the time honored tradition.”

Review: New-York Times, 20 January 1871, 5.

“‘The Messiah’ was sung at the Academy of Music, last evening, in the unusual presence of an audience that filled the house. As it has been proved, time and again, that the elements which make music of this order extremely impressive and proportionally attractive in England are still wanting here, we can fairly ascribe the numerical strength of the gathering to a general desire to welcome Miss Kellogg on her return from a brilliant concert tour to the scene of her earliest triumphs. The reception was certainly most cordial, and the attention bestowed upon her performance was sufficiently close and sustained to fulfill the promise of the plaudits of greeting. If we except a share in the rendering of Rossini’s ‘Messe Solenelle,’ Miss Kellogg has not hitherto been heard in oratorio in this City. Her gifts and her method, however, have been too frequently themes of compliment to permit a doubt to exist as to the merits of her recital of Handel’s production. But she will not give life to works needing orchestras and choruses of far different strength and skill to those summoned at an hour’s notice. She sings ‘The Messiah’ with the ease, the fluency and the purity distinguishing the results of all her vocal efforts, but these, unaided, will not endow the masterpiece with one tithe of its importance. Miss Kellogg can even do better than she did last night, for she was not in very good voice, and was nervous, but at her best she has not the power of vitalizing a composition written for a myriad of instruments and throats. The orchestra on the occasion we write of was thin, and its inefficiency was made conspicuous whenever the attack of each number broke the silence. The chorus of the New-York Mendelssohn Union is intelligent and well trained, but altogether too small for the gigantic task imposed upon it in a large building. Without further reflections, then, it may be said that while ‘The Messiah’ was rendered with correctness and smoothness, it did not produce any grander effect, either in any one passage, or as a whole, than has been wrought a dozen times before. Miss Kellogg won unanimous commendation for her expressive and chaste reading of ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ in anticipation of which the audience remained with unbroken ranks until quite a late hour. The other artists were Mrs. Jenny Kempton, whose voice is perceptibly worn, and Messrs. Simpson and Whitney, two gentlemen of culture, whose co-operation in similar solemn entertainments is cause of congratulation for the admirers, few but fervent, of local attempts to make known the beauties of oratorio.”

Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 20 January 1871, 4.

“Miss Kellogg’s first appearance in this city in oratorio attracted last night an audience of about two thousand people at the Academy of Music, filling all the house except a few of the boxes, and closely crowding the parquet and balcony. A chorus of 150 or 200 members of the Mendelssohn Union, under the capable lead of Mr. Bristow, a good orchestra, and a small church organ, played by Mr. S. P. Warren, furnished the solid background of the work, and the solo parts were taken by Miss Kellogg, Mrs. Kempton, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Whitney. We need say little about the performance as a whole. If not brilliant, it was entirely respectable. The chorus was firm and correct, and gave several of the most famous numbers, such as ‘All we like sheep,’ and the ‘Hallelujah,’ with excellent spirit, though the pianissimo effects in ‘For unto us’ were much exaggerated; Mr. Simpson and Mr. Whitney were as good as usual, and Mrs. Kempton, who is almost always particularly bad in oratorio, was worse than we ever heard her before. The interest of the evening centered, of course, in Miss Kellogg. We are happy to record for her rather bold venture a distinct success. She has formed her style upon good models; she shows for the grandeur and deep feeling of the music that appreciation which we have a right to expect from the true artist; and her pure and sympathetic voice lends itself naturally to the expression of all the more tender and delicate passages. ‘Come unto Him’ was exquisitely sung, and the greater part of ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ was almost perfect. But Handel needs something more than delicate phrasing, fine feeling, and neat vocalism. Miss Kellogg has all of these; but she lacks both the strength of voice, the breadth of style, and the passionate inspiration which are demanded in ‘Rejoice greatly,’ nor does she rise to the glorious elevation of that great passage in her last solo, ‘For now is Christ risen.’ This, however, is only what we ought to have expected. We speak of it not to find fault, but to define what we believe to be her true sphere. She is not a universal genius; we don’t know anybody who is; but even in ‘The Messiah’ she is better than any other singer now in America,--Nilsson not excepted. She takes very few liberties with the text. In the ‘Rejoice greatly’ she accelerates the time in her roulades, with the purpose, we presume, of giving variety to a kind of ornament hardly consonant to the taste of the present generation. This purpose is laudable, but the effect of the variation is incongruous; a much better result can be obtained by the art which the best English oratorio singers have acquired, of judiciously distributing the emphasis on these musical arabesques, while strictly observing the time. In several places also Miss Kellogg adopts a new way of dividing her words, and sometimes, for convenience of vocalizing, she introduces more words than can be found in the text. The last phrase of ‘Come unto Him,’ for example, she sings, ‘Ye shall find rest unto, unto you souls,’ and the last phrase of ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ she renders, ‘The first fruits of them, of them that sleep.’ The effect of this reduplication is highly disagreeable, and Miss Kellogg is so good a vocalist that she has no need to resort to it.

We have only to say in conclusion that the oratorio was given almost entire, the only elision we regretted being that of the quartets, ‘Since by man,’ &c., and that there was no insolent and foolish inversion of the proper order of the numbers. But as the work was produced under the supervision of a true musician, [that] might have been taken for granted.”

Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 11 February 1871, 400.

“Miss Kellogg made her first appearance in this city, in oratorio, on Thursday, the 19th inst., with great success, though it would have been much better if she had selected some other building than the Academy of Music, which is the last place in New York to hold an oratorio performance in. The chorus sang well, but the orchestra was a disgrace to New York.”