Church Music Association Public Rehearsal

“C. M. A. rehearsal 3 ½ p.m. at Steinway Hall, with orchestra. Attendance large, but cold—like a considerable iceberg. No applause except for Mrs. Jenny Kempton’s lovely Weber solo. There are felicitous & infelicitous rehearsals, and this was of the latter type. Things went on generally wrong, & Pech raged like a she-bear bereaved of her cubs. But I enjoyed it. Dear little Donna Lucia [Lucy Derby, Strong’s niece] was there, & sat with Mr. & Mrs. Lewis Rutherford. The Raff overture winds up brilliantly, but two third parts of it seem rather dreary. I clearly see in its construction the active & skillful artisan of the ‘Im Walde’ Symphony. In the Mass, the value of the instrumentation was most apparent in the ‘Et in terra pax’—the Quoniam—Et incarnatus—Benedictus & (above all) in the glowing & splendid ‘Dona.’ The orchestra makes that moment absolutely gorgeous. Then came the ‘Preciosa’ music—unutterable. How Louis & Temple [Strong’s sons] reveled in it! Don Giovanni & the C minor symphony are not more thoroughly inspired, or more genial. I wish I could write down here, or indicate somehow, a little phrase that occurs early in the overture & nearly takes my life—three or four chords of cadence, in marked contrast with the brilliance & joyousness of the movement, but sad only just as far as a superb September sunset may be sad to a lot of rollicking Zigeuner. The little [illegible] of contrasted sentiment is most exquisite. I could write pages about Preciosa, but never mind.” 

“The rehearsal of the Church Music Association, on Thursday, was attended by a large and brilliant audience. Haydn’s noble Second Mass was the pièce de resistance, and nothing can be conceived of as more likely to benefit the public taste than such music. In this mass the quartet of solo singers have comparatively little to do. That that little will be well done is certain; but the condition of the chorus, the want of unanimity, and the poorness and thinness of tone bode ill for the concert.”