Church Music Association Concert: 2nd

Continued success of the Church Music Association. Admirable brochure prepared by Dr. Pech for the forthcoming programme; lengthy quote from the informative notes.

Forthcoming programme of undoubted interest; inappropriate name of the association.

“The second concert given by the Church Music Association this season took place last evening at Steinway Hall. The success of these affairs has been so real and so continuous that the hall is now altogether too small for the audiences they attract. Many ladies, last night, stood throughout the larger part of the entertainment, and only the most ungallant of men ventured upon seeking a seat half an hour after the doors were opened. The steady improvement in the performances indicates, too, that confidence is felt in their growing favor with the musical public; and that the fashionable influence the concerts have had is not to be wholly trusted for their future prosperity. Next year, we have had reason to believe, the Academy will be chosen for the purpose Steinway Hall is now put to. The larger building will not only afford opportunities of attendance, the lack of which many persons have regretted this season, but it will allow the Committee to avail themselves of the services of a more numerous chorus, while causing no greater expense for an orchestra. We can wish the Association, however, no better work done for their benefit that than of yesterday. While we should have been glad had the programme offered a stronger contrast than two compositions of so devotional a character as Beethoven’s Mass in C and Haydn’s ‘Spring’ present, we cannot but acknowledge the pure taste which dictated the selection of both, and admire the perfection of their interpretation. The Mass was executed with especially good effect, it having been already recited by the Association. It would have been politic, we think, to play the jubilee overture by Lindpaintner after the Mass and before ‘Spring.’ This number of the bill is rarely interpreted here. It is of exceeding difficulty by reason of repeated changes of time, but it is grandly instrumented and brilliantly impressive, commencing with an andante maestoso, an allegro con spirito and an allegro vivace follow. Then comes an allegro impetuoso, then a maestoso, and then a molto vivace. An andante maestoso precedes the final presto. The theme of the overture is ‘God Save the King,’ first given voice to by the trombones, and afterward distributed in fragments among the different instruments. The second and third changes of tempo prevail during passages for the fourth strings of the violins, of charming freshness and vivacity. The jubilee overture was superbly delivered, after careful rehearsals by Dr. James Pech, who, as usual, conducted. No orchestra could have acquitted itself with greater spirit or proficiency, and have profited more by the direction of a skilled and earnest chief. The Mass in C has already been dealt with here. We have noted above that it was sung some months ago by the same chorus, and that its latest rendering was bettered and wholly praiseworthy. The interesting pamphlet explanatory of the beauties of the music was at hand, and it enlightened fully the no doubt slender proportion of the audience that missed the earlier concert. The general sentiment and expression of ‘the Mass’ it describes briefly and clearly as ‘obviously graver and deeper than that which characterizes most of the church music of Haydn and Mozart. None of its phrases are pretty or ‘popular,’ but it is, throughout, sweet, serious and earnest.’ There was unusual feeling shown in the singing by the choral forces. The few solos were executed with taste and finish. Mrs. Philip D. Gulager has a very fine soprano voice, which she will be able to use with greater facility when a wider experience in large concert halls is attained to by its possessor. The method of Mme. Michalesi-Krebs cannot well be overpraised, and the contralto solo in the ‘Qui Tollis’ became, by the lady’s recital of it, the most telling piece of the composition. Mr. W. S. Leggat has a very fine voice, and Signor Centemeri is a practiced artist. The only untoward incident in the interpretation of the Mass was caused by the confusion of the chorus in the fugue beginning ‘Cum Sancto Spirito.’ ‘Spring’ was capitally given, if we except a slight mishap in the trio, ‘Be propitious, bounteous Heaven.’ Haydn’s ‘Seasons’ are, indeed, a ‘happy mixture of all styles in their due place and proportion—a delightful picture of rural life, unequaled for simplicity and beauty. The musical coloring is exquisite. Recitative with uncommon richness and beauty of accompaniment enters largely into its construction. Some of the songs are inconsiderable, but the duets and the morceaux d’ensemble are matchless of their kind, and many of the choruses seem absolutely inspired. Unity and religious coloring are given to the whole by choral expression of prayer and praise appropriate to its opening and conclusion.’ Signor Centemeri sang with much fluency and spirit the single air in ‘Spring,’ generally recognized as the original theme of Rossini’s ‘Zitti,’ and the choral execution was replete with an animation as well as marked by a precision of which the previous day’s rehearsal did not hold forth promise. Much time and labor is bestowed upon preparation for these concerts, and it is only by means of liberal subscriptions that their occurrence is secured. But it is quite certain that at the close of so agreeable an entertainment as that given last night, a sense of ample repayment of all outlays, moral and material, must have been general. Dr. Pech’s personal exertions in the cause of the Church Music Association, though they have been more strenuous and protracted than his mere title of musical director allows him credit for, could hardly merit a more grateful recognition.”

Biographical sketch.

“The second concert of this admirable organization took place on Tuesday night at Steinway Hall. The attendance was of such an overwhelming character that it should convince the directors of the society of a necessity of a change to the Academy, as the present quarters are inadequate to accommodate [illegible]. To the energy and skill of the conductor, Dr. James Pech, much of the success of this association is due. By investing it with the all-protecting name of fashion he has secured for art a [illegible] recognition at the hands of the public. [Illegible] selections for the concert comprised Lindpaintner’s Jubilee Overture, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and the first part of Haydn’s ‘Seasons.’ The [illegible] and orchestra responded nobly to the [illegible] of interpreting such great works, and testified to long and careful rehearsals and a thorough acquaintance with their subjects. The soloists were [see above]. Pech conducted with rare skill, and seemed to [illegible] proper spirit and expression into the [illegible] which he yielded the baton. We trust that the association will adopt some other name than that of ‘Church Music.’ Many people are mistaken and think that the association is of the [illegible] order. Their concerts, however, [illegible] in the metropolis for high art, care, [illegible] culture and fashion.”