Concert

“Steinway Hall was well filled last night on the occasion of the first concert of the season by the New York Vocal Society, under the lead of Mr. Mosenthal. This society includes some of the choicest voices among our resident amateurs, and their training shows skill and intelligence. The selections for last night were of a rather severe order, including several extracts from German composers, while the madrigals—for the practice of which the society was originally formed—were in the minority. The music generally was listened to with attention, and while there were many who were delighted, there were a few who peacefully slumbered. Among the best performances of the evening was Horsley’s quartet, ‘Retire, My Love,’ sung by Messrs. Bush, Rockwood, Beckett and Aiken, which was promptly encored. The composers whose names appeared on the exquisitely printed programme were Greville, Schubert, Leslie, Sinley, Kucken, Mendelssohn, Franz, Schumann, Weelkes, Horsley, Cherubini, Hatton and G. A. Macfarren.”

Review: New York Sun, 16 December 1871, 2.

“The concert of the Vocal Society, given on Thursday evening at Steinway Hall, was all that its warmest admirers could have anticipated or desired.

The discipline of the Society is admirable, and Mr. Mosenthal is not a conductor to let them grow idle in self-content. With him rehearsal means work, and work with such excellent material as he has in hand means results far in advance of the ordinary attainment of choral societies.

The programme was selected in a broad and comprehensive spirit. It requires no little musical erudition to glean from the wide field of the compositions of the last two centuries exactly such as are appropriate for concert purposes, and it also requires discrimination and skill to group and arrange them effectively and with due regard to symmetry and contrast. The Society presented among the new pieces two of Robert Franz’s part songs and one by Macfarren.

The most effective piece upon the programme was Mendelssohn’s musical setting of the forty-third psalm for unaccompanied chorus. There was an elevation, devotion, and even sublimity in it that pertains only to the highest efforts of religious musical art. It was a splendid illustration of the length to which music can go in the expression of exulted devotional sentiment.

The madrigal singing was done with the same perfection of shading, expression, and intonation that usually characterize the work of the Society. The solos, however, were not all of the same unqualified excellence. The Society selects its solo singers from its own ranks, and is doubtless over-indulgent to aspiring talent. It is a pity that concerts so admirable in other respects should be marred by worse than indifferent singing. The very perfection of the concerted pieces makes the imperfections of tyro work more conspicuous.

A very effective piece for soprano and chorus by Kücken was given, Miss Lasar taking the solo. Her voice is fresh, sweet, and delicate, and her style unaffected and artistic. Mr. Beckett sang Schumann’s noble song ‘Widmung’ manfully and with much sentiment. The song belongs rather to a tenor than to a baritone voice. The audience was very large and very appreciative.”

Review: New-York Times, 17 December 1871, 4.

“The concert of the Vocal Society of New-York, which took place on Thursday evening, and to which we briefly adverted in our Friday’s issue, was a most important one. The Society numbers nearly all those trained singers who combined to give the glee and madrigal concerts which created so great a sensation four seasons ago; and it is clear that partly owing to individual accomplishment, partly to the wise choice of a conductor in Mr. Mosenthal, the Society is capable of, and indeed actually does the work which the Church Music Association undertakes to do. In Mendelssohn’s magnificent Psalm, ‘Judge me, O God,’ a composition in eight parts, was sung with great steadiness and effect, to the delight of a critical audience, who insisted on an encore. If we say, as is but just, that the madrigal, ‘As Vesta was,’ sung by the Society, and the glee, ‘Retire, My Love,’ sung by Messrs. Bush, Rockwood, Beckett and Aiken, were perfect specimens of part- singing, then we may term the marvelous vocal accompaniment to Kucken’s song, ‘Hie thee, Shallop,’ a tour de force. Miss Lasar, who executed the solo part, gives great promise of future excellence. Mr. Beckett is rapidly fulfilling the promise he gave five years ago. He does not rely, as so many do, on a fine voice, but compliments his hearers by choosing the most intellectual music, and rendering it with taste and skill. His singing of Schumann’s song, ‘Devotion,’ was admirable, and produced a hearty encore.”

Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 19 December 1871, 8.

“The New-York Vocal Society, under the direction of Mr. Joseph Mosenthal, gave the first of a series of three subscription concerts last Thursday evening at Steinway Hall. They have for some time paid comparatively little attention to the beautiful old madrigals with which they originally came before the public, and at the last concert only one or two specimens of this class of compositions appeared upon the programme; but they have cultivated with great success a wide variety of other music suitable for a chorus of moderate size, without orchestra, and perhaps we have no reason to regret that while indulging a more catholic taste they have [illegible] something of their first distinctive character. The most important of their performances on Thursday was Mendelssohn’s XLIIId Psalm, [illegible], as well as all the part songs and choruses, was given with the [illegible] of shading and accuracy of intonation for which the society have heretofore been well praised. Some of the solo singing—Miss Lasar’s, for instance, and Mr. Beckett’s— was also good.”