Concert

“Miss Lasar gave her first concert at Steinway Hall, on Monday evening. Very few of our young debutantes begin their artistic careers under more advantageous conditions. Miss Lasar possesses assurance, self-command, a clear, bright voice, and that intelligence which is the result of an early and habitual familiarity with music. She sings correctly, phrases well, and has great certainty and facility in part singing. Her voice is of excellent texture and her pronunciation remarkably distinct.

The points in which she is weak are not those of voice or method, but of expression. Her singing is immature, and lacks breadth, sentiment, and emotional quality. Her two selections illustrated this. The first was the famous scena and rondo from Sonnambula; the second, Frederic Clay’s very lovely ballad, ‘She wandered down the Mountain Side.’ In the Italian scena Bellini’s notes were given, but not Bellini’s thought. The composer has strongly contrasted the Ah! non credea, with the succeeding rondo. The air is full of dreamy tenderness and delicacy, the other pulsates with joy. But Miss Lasar reproduced neither the poetry of the one nor the rapture of the other. In the ballad the same want of fervor was conspicuous. It was well sung, so far as the music was concerned, but with a seeming indifference to the sentiment of the words, which are in themselves full of meaning. Wider experiences and a stronger grasp of dramatic effects will give Miss Lasar a more assured command over the feelings of her audiences.

The programme of the concert was exceedingly well selected. Dr. Damrosch, Mr. Mills, and four gentlemen styling themselves the Weber Quartette, and singing with excellent taste and discretion, lent their assistance. Dr. Damrosch and Mr. Mills played a movement from Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. The former gentleman is always something of a disappointment. He comes so provokingly near the final point of excellence as a violinist, that it seems all the more the pity that he should miss it. We scarcely know of so capable a musician who is so unsatisfactory a performer. The art of violin playing has been brought to such a high degree of perfection, and has been so ably illustrated by the many virtuosos of late years, that deficient sentiment, crude phrasing, and faulty octave playing become marked faults. Dr. Damrosch leaves no doubt in the mind of his hearers that he is an earnest man, faithful to his art, and loving it; but certainly he failed to give to the Kreutzer Sonata the fire and meaning that other less worthy musicians have often lent to it in our concert rooms.

The audience was a large one, and showed itself, by frequent applause, to be well disposed toward the performers generally, and especially to the young lady by whom the concert was given.”

“On Monday Miss Clementine Lasar, a young aspirant for musical honors, made her first regular essay as a concert singer, at Steinway Hall. The two solos selected by her [see above]—were well calculated to test her capabilities. She possesses a good soprano voice of that clear timbre and flexibility peculiar to American singers, and in her artistic execution of the rondo she gave evidence of a good musical school and the excellent method of her teacher, Signor Torriani. She impressed her hearers with the idea that there are materials in her to make her an artist of a high order of merit. Her assistants in the concert were [see above].”