Peschka-Leutner Concert: 1st

“To the rain of last evening and the fact that so many Music and the drama. The of the educated people of New York are out of town, is to be charged the small audience that gave Madame Peschka-Leutner greeting at the Academy of Music last evening. Those who were present, however, were critical, cautious, and in the end enthusiastic. It is not too much to say that the new singer, the product, so far as this country is concerned, of Mr. Gilmore’s Jubilee, has taken the town by storm.

“The programme was made up of eight compositions, two of which were assigned to Madame Peschka-Leutner. The first of these was the grand aria from Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte.’ This difficult selection was sung in a superb manner, although there was a noticeable harshness of tone, due, perhaps, to the weather, in the highest notes. The Arditi waltz followed as an encore, for which, on account of the different character of this composition, there was nothing but praise. The triumph of the evening, however, was won by the rendering of Proch’s Air Varié. This exceedingly difficult composition was sung with an artistic fidelity and a sweetness of tone almost unknown on the American stage. The strength and distance-reaching quality of Madame Peschka-Leutner’s voice were lost in the tinkling melody of the measure, while some of the sudden descents in tone were simply marvelous. The audience were swayed by the same feelings of admiration and delight which attended the recent concert of the English Grenadier Guard’s Band, and the applause was irrepressible until a part of this wonderful piece of music was repeated in the great singer’s wonderful manner, only, however, to excite still louder applause.

“The remainder of the progamme was rendered by an orchestra under the leadership of Mr. Carl Bergmann and by Mr. J. H. Bonawitz, whose piano-forte solos were played with precision and remarkable expression.”

“Mme. Peschka-Leutner, the soprano singer whose co-operation in the [Boston] Jubilee performances was one of the few notable features of that gigantic enterprise, sang at the Academy of Music last evening. Her daring and effective execution, and the vast compass of her very strong voice produced an impression translated time and again by applause of the most enthusiastic kind. Mme. Leutner’s delivery is, to us a not very elegant, but a not inappropriate term, her best point. It is not so facile as Mme. Carlotta Patti’s, but it is quite fluent, is equal to the most rapid passages, whether marked legato or staccato, and is full of fire. Mme. Leutner’s tones are not that of the exquisite quality of those of the Italian artist, but they are so powerful as to render the idea that they can be used with success in the florid compositions, amid the difficulties of which the singer is at ease, hard of acceptance. The range of her notes is enormous. If we are not mistaken, In Proch’s variations they last night included G flat in altissimo. With gifts and acquirements of the order implied, the mention above printed of Mme. Leutner’s immediate triumph over her hearers will be readily credited. She recited, yesterday, the grand air from Mozart’s ‘Zauberfloete,’ with the staccato F’s above the lines; a familiar waltz, embellished in deference to the performer’s capabilities; and the work already named, which was written expressly for Mme. Ilma de Murska, whose vocal pyrotechnics Mme. Leutner’s well-nigh equal in splendor. A repetition of the last-cited number of the programme was insisted upon, and, at its termination, the singer was several times compelled to reappear. Three piano solos by Mr. J. H. Bonawitz, a pianist whose excellence constantly grows upon one, and a variety of instrumental selections, interpreted by an orchestra under the baton of Herr Bergmann made up the remainder of the entertainment.”

“Madame Peschka-Leutner had a stormy evening and a small audience for her introduction to New York last night, but she had no reason to complain of the warmth of her reception. The five hundred persons who attended the concert at the Academy of Music were enthusiastic to the last degree, and each of the three florid and difficult compositions which she chose for the exhibition of her marvelous art, was applauded to the echo. She gave the famous aria from ‘The Magic Flute’ with those terrible passages for the highest register of the soprano voice, extending, we believe, to the upper F or F sharp, and, if she did not deliver them with all the easy grace of Carlotta Patti, she gave them at least with as perfect an intonation as even that remarkable vocalist, while in the burden of the air her delivery was much better than Miss Patti’s because it was more intellectual. Equally good, as a specimen of ornate vocalization, was the Arditi waltz which followed as an encore; but the best effort of the evening was the ‘Air and Variations,’ by Proch, which Madame Peschka sings, one might say, at every concert. Nor can we wonder at her preference for it. All the best qualities of her magnificent voice and all the finest accomplishments of her method are here exhibited.

“The rest of the programme was furnished by Mr. J. H. Bonawitz, who played Liszt’s fantasia on ‘Lucia,’ an impromptu of Chopin’s and Liszt’s transcription of the Racoczy March; and by an orchestra of 42 pieces under Mr. Bergmann, dignified on the programmes and in the advertisements by the title of ‘The Celebrated Strauss Grand Orchestra,’ Lest any one should be deceived by this preposterous pretense, we may as well state that the celebrated Strauss Grand Orchestra is in Vienna, and that the band which plays at these concerts is a scratch company selected wholly or in part from the sixty odd New-York musicians who played so ill under Herr Strauss’s direction last week—and they do not play much better now.”

“Mme. Peschka-Leutner’s first concert of the course of three to be given this week at the Academy of Music, under Mr. Rullman’s management, occurred on Monday evening. The audience, owing to the inclement weather, was not as large as expected, but seemed to enjoy with heartiness the superb voice and perfect method of the prima donna. It is seldom that a woman is endowed by nature with so excellent an organ as this of Mme. Leutner, or that it is so thoroughly trained and artistically handled. As the lady sails for Europe on Saturday next, there remain but two opportunities to hear her.”