Pianoforte Soirée

“Our general remarks on the Mills matinée [02/26/72], will also apply to the excellent piano-forte recitals of Mr. Richard Hoffman at Chickering’s. The concert of Saturday evening was attended, as usual, by a peculiarly refined and brilliant audience, largely it may be surmised, in relations of personal regard with Mr. Hoffman, and disposed to add the warmth of individual and social sympathy to the more absolute judgment of the average audience. Mr. Hoffman amply merits the applause he earns at the hands of his friends. His style does not seem with years to increase in precision and distinctness, but it is singularly fluent and smooth in rapid execution, and pervaded with a fine and subtle grace which no mechanical practice can give. His performance of the ‘Clavier Stücke’ of Schubert, of the ‘Valse’ by Chopin, and one of Mendelssohn’s ‘songs without words,’ was [sic] among the most delightful numbers of the programme. Sterndale Bennett’s Trio, no. 26, for violin, ‘cello, and piano-forte is graceful and tasteful, rather than genial or imaginative. The second movement, the Serenade, is curiously worked up throughout, the piano-forte taking the burden of the music with a quaint, fantastic, but bright accompaniment, pizzicato, on the stringed instrument. In the finale, also, the piano portion of the score, good in itself, is unduly prominent, and not sufficiently blended with the strings, which sound a little spasmodic and discordant in consequence. It was excellently rendered by Messrs. Burke, Bergner, and Hoffman, as was also the beautiful ‘Ave Maria’ prelude of Bach, arranged by Gounod, and so permeated with his romantic dreaminess as to make his own shape of the composition seem the most prominent. These, and the other numbers, gave the highest satisfaction to the audience, whose approval was manifested in a quite bewildering number of recalls, to all of which the artists smilingly responded, with equally good results.”

Includes program. “The reputation which Mr. Hoffman holds here as an artist and composer, is enough to secure the success of these soirées, which are the most brilliant and recherché of gatherings, besides being of great interest musically.”