Marie Krebs Piano-forte Recital: 4th

“A very interesting bill was presented yesterday at Steinway Hall by this clever young pianist. It was the following [see above].

The Beethoven Sonata is the ‘bright, particular star’ of Charles Halle’s entire repertoire. We have heard him play it when the audience sat breathless with delight and each note seemed coined in the crucible of poetry itself. Miss Krebs played it correctly, but the delicate nuances of expression, the emphasis which in some of the passages communicates such character to it, were wanting. We do not approve of her system of playing everything from memory. In the case of Beethoven she plays only the notes and leaves out dynamics. Older and more experienced artists do not venture to play such works in public without the music. Her wonderful execution is shown to advantage in a Bach fugue, and she seems perfectly at home with Schumann. The Toccata, for instance, receives from her a spirit and power rarely attainable by pianists in a work of such magnitude. The rondo was rendered by her and Mr. Mills admirably, and formed the best and most satisfactory selection on the bill. Liszt’s ‘Don Juan’ fantasia is one of the most difficult works ever written for the piano. It hardly repays the trouble of studying it, for its enormous difficulties are not in every case

 

 effective. It is too trying on the slender fingers of a woman. The fact that Miss Krebs’ rendering of it caused the outspoken approval of the composer himself is a high tribute to her genius. She does not play it smoothly and correctly by any means, for at times there were defects even in her execution. But she conquers some of the most terrible difficulties with an ease and abandon that in one so young (twenty years) seems astonishing. The construction is on a scale that would lead one to suppose the work was originally intended for two pianos and that all the parts were afterwards crowded into the compass of ten fingers. Miss Krebs in these four recitals has given unmistakable proofs of talent of a very high order, and her faults are but natural for a young pianist and may be easily overcome. As for the vocalist, Miss Saar, she was so terribly afflicted with nervousness that we could form no judgment of her abilities. Her voice, however, seems to be naturally good, and the tone is pure and equal. On a future occasion, when she gains more confidence, her hearers will have a better opportunity of passing a verdict upon her singing.”

“Miss Krebs on Saturday afternoon closed her series of four musical entertainments. As usual, she had a very large, critical and discriminating audience—quite as attentive as they were musically intelligent. The whole series has been eminently successful, and well calculated to fire the ambition of the young artist. Her name has become unusually current among our musical people, and her musical talents a theme of discussion and admiration. The programme of Saturday was drawn from the rich treasury of five leading German composers, a school in which she has been so carefully trained and educated, and whose fame she is destined to uphold by her wonderfully dexterous and pithy interpretations. In the ‘Sonata’ of Beethoven, she balanced and developed the musical tissues of the piece with a keen appreciation of its genius-woven modulations and its varied details. The fugue, from Bach, though bristling with difficulties and gnarled sounds, and as unintelligible to the many of Euclid’s elements, was outlined, traced and manipulated with the firm, sure and pliant hand of a master. What a musical pyramid for a young artist to scale! The ‘Warum’ and ‘Toccata’ of Schumann were neatly and carefully translated, and breathed all the qualities of the composer through the performer. The ‘Rondo’ of Chopin, played with Mr. Mills as a duet, was a perfect flood of harmony, the four hands like so many concordant rivulets, giving it beauty and vitality.

The ‘Don Juan Fantasie,’ by Liszt, so tender and caressingly persuasive, so rich and fresh from the musical urn of Mozart, afforded Miss Krebs an opportunity to show how near she could approach the tender, and mellow and the plaintive in music. The musical ideality of these emotions of our nature is very difficult to elicit from concrete sounds, and is the severest ordeal through which the composer and performer can pass. The hearer often looks to the latter for that which is not to be found in the former, and his own mind may be so hazy about the matter as to have no clear ideas as to its conditions. Besides, these emotions vary with the varying epochs of life, and differ in kind as well as degree. Bellini’s emotions trembled all but exclusively on the thread of extreme delicacy, and all but morbid tenderness. Beethoven, on the contrary, united great vigor to these beautiful qualities, and hence the great difference between these two men of genius. The interpreters of music are subject to a like classification. If Miss Krebs had less vigor she might approach to a more exacting idea of the tender and the delicate, but there would be a corresponding loss in other important respects. From her performance of the ‘Don Juan Fantasie,’ she may be safely credited with an average combination of both, vigor, however, preponderating.

As the gentle twilight follows the strong glare of the midday sun, so will her increase of years and her ripening powers be followed with a [finish?] of touch, a tenderness of expression and a flow of musical feeling which wait on, rather than control, her powers at present.”

“Miss Krebs gave the following programme of piano music last Saturday afternoon [see above].

The Sonata—No. 24 in C major—though a little hard, was, upon the whole, well and even brilliantly played; but some of the other selections were so much better that we pass to them at once. Two are works of exceptional and immense difficulty—the Schumann Toccata and the Liszt Fantasia. The Toccata was introduced to our concert rooms by Miss Krebs herself last November, and we then praised the spirit and precision of it in very warm terms. It is a marvelous piece of execution, and it is a noble composition also, which will be liked better the oftener it is heard. The ‘Don Giovanni’ has too much Liszt and too little Mozart for our taste; still it was brilliantly played and apparently well liked by the  audience. The duet with Mr. Mills was a remarkable success. Widely as the two artists differ in their styles, each is so thoroughly imbued with musical feeling, and each has such quick artistic perceptions, that there was none of the incongruity in their duet which many of the audience probably anticipated. But Mr. Mills, as we well know, has remarkable powers of assimilation. He has played with all the great artists who have visited this city, and this fine culture has always enabled him, without sacrificing his individuality, to accommodate himself to the idiosyncracies of his associate.

Miss Clotilde Saar, a debutante, sang at this concert a waltz of and Mendelssohn’s ‘Infelice.’ She was excessively nervous; but after all due allowance has been made for this circumstance, it must still be said that her maiden entry was not promising. She has a good voice, but her intonations are not true and her vocalization is marked both by defective culture and acquired vices. Among these are a gross exaggeration of the portamento, and a habit of trilling on the wrong note.

The audience was much the largest Miss Krebs has had, blocking up the aisle and flowing over into the great hall. Her first series of recitals is now finished, and the public interest in them has been strong enough to warrant her in announcing a second course at an early day.”