Rubinstein Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Manager / Director:
Maurice Grau

Price: $1.50; $2 reserved seat; $1 gallery

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
3 August 2024

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

24 Oct 1872, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Chromatic fantasy and fugue, BWV 903
Composer(s): Bach
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein
3)
aka Angels ever bright and fair
Composer(s): Handel
Text Author: Morell [librettist]
Participants:  Louise Liebhart
4)
Composer(s): Bach
5)
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
6)
Composer(s): Schumann
7)
Composer(s): Field
8)
aka Erlkonig
Composer(s): Schubert
9)
aka Kreutzer sonata
Composer(s): Beethoven
10)
Composer(s): Pinsuti
Text Author: Mackay
Participants:  Louise Liebhart
11)
aka Cuckoo
Composer(s): Kücken
Participants:  Louise Liebhart
13)
Composer(s): Chopin

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 20 October 1872, 4.
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 20 October 1872, 4.
3)
Announcement: New York Post, 24 October 1872, 2.
4)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 25 October 1872, 8.

“Mr. Grau brought back his remarkable company last night, and a good audience assembled to greet them, applauding the chief performers with even more than the former enthusiasm, and calling them back repeatedly after every piece. In consequence of the illness of Mlle. Ormeny, whose absence Herr Rubinstein explained in irreproachable English, the programme was somewhat changed, the following being the list of pieces played [see above]. 

There was no orchestra, and we must confess that it was somewhat missed; but it would be ungracious to complain after listening to such an admirable programme. Mlle. Liebhart’s two songs in the second part were indeed common, and seemed almost vulgar by contrast with the rest of the entertainment; if they had been omitted, we should have had a concert without one weak or commonplace selection. The first three numbers were most happily placed, introducing the feast with good appetizing fare, simple, palatable, and refreshing, and it was a particularly happy thought to put Handel’s beautiful and touching air between the two compositions of Bach. The Chromatic Fantasia was superbly played, with the vigorous and manly spirit which it needs, and with that apparent keen relish with which Rubinstein always approaches the works of the great classical composers. Herr Wieniawski’s rendering of the chaconne was a perfect gem of execution, and excited the audience in a most remarkable manner, while Mlle. Liebhart, though her voice is none of the freshest, sang, ‘Angels ever bright and fair,’ with most commendable expression and true feeling. The four short pieces which came after the chaconne were added by Herr Rubinstein to make amends for the absence of Mlle. Ormeny. It would be ungallant to say that we wish she might be always sick if she would always send so illustrious a substitute; but it will surely gratify her to know that, thanks to her indisposition, we had one of the most delightful quarters of an hour that Rubinstein has ever given us. In the first three pieces he seemed to be in one of his most poetical moods. Beneath his gentle, sympathetic hand the piano sang like a human voice. Soft melodies soothed the spirit and touched the feelings; and when he passed into the rapid and magnificent introduction to the ‘Erl King’ it was almost a relief to break away from such tender reveries. Of the Chopin Etudes the first was that in A flat minor which Mr. S. B. Mills has made so familiar to us; this was followed by two others in a much more vigorous vein. 

The feature of the evening, however, was the Kreutzer Sonata. The most obvious merit of this performance was the precision with which the pianist and the violinist kept together. They have played in company so long that they understand each other perfectly, and they gave us consequently a symmetrical and fluent interpretation. They are both reverent and highly intellectual artists, who not only understand Beethoven but care much more for the right expression of his thought than for the display of their own technical proficiency. And finally they are great players, who have mastered all difficulties and acquired all possible force of execution, and we are tempted to say all possible graces of touch. Rubinstein especially, in playing this sonata, seems almost inspired. We have never heard music like it.”

5)
Announcement: New-York Times, 25 October 1872, 1.

“A very large audience was gathered at Steinway Hall, last evening, when Messrs. Rubinstein and Wieniawski, and Mme. Liebhart—Miss Ormény being absent because of illness—supplied the first of a series of three concerts. Mr. Rubinstein’s numbers were [see above].”

6)
Review: New York Post, 25 October 1872, 2.

“The first of the farewell concerts of Mr. Grau’s great concert troupe was given last night at Steinway Hall. Owing to the illness of Mlle. Ormeny the programme was changed, as Herr Rubinstein explained to the audience in the best English, and in addition to this drawback there was no orchestra to relieve the solo performers, but Herr Rubinstein made the richest compensation for all accidental shortcomings, and played with a delicacy of touch, a tenderness of meaning and a power of interpretation that again swayed the feelings of his auditors as the moon sways the sea. In speaking of Herr Rubinstein’s playing we start from the point of his perfect mastery of the instrument, there being no difficulties of digitation, no obstacles of notes in thickets, to interfere with his impressing his own character upon the music he renders. Given this absolute control of the piano and all its capabilities of expression, in the case of two artists, their performance of the same score of Bach or Chopin or Beethoven will differ only as the genius of each is determined to the passionate or the contemplative in their emotional being. Herr Rubinstein is therefore to be studied and enjoyed as a minister of pure musical delight in the realm which is high above mere mechanical successes. In that realm last evening he reveled. Possibly his most elevated reach was in the Kreutzer Sonata, which he played with Herr Wieniawski; certainly this was the one greatest enjoyment of the occasion. Piano and violin met and mingled in one strain, and both performers seemed to have lost individual consciousness in the reverie of Beethoven.”

7)
Review: New York Herald, 25 October 1872, 7.

“These truly grand artists, in both of whom the executive ability of an instrumentalist seems to have reached its climax, appeared last night at Steinway Hall, after a season of unusual brilliancy in Boston. The influence they have exercised over the many thousand people who have listened to them here cannot but be productive of much benefit to the cause of good music. Both of them artists of the highest order, inspired only by feelings of the purest art, and laboring faithfully to educate their hearers up to their own standard, the Russian pianist and Polish violinist will be long remembered in this country as diligent co-laborers in the cause of the divine art. Travelling and fatigue seemed to have produced some effect upon them last night in the rendering of the Kreutzer sonata; for although there were passages and moments of genius in which the piano and violin blended in what might be called the sunshine of harmony, there were others when clouds obscured the intelligence of the interpretation by a want of true ensemble. The first performance of the colossal work of Beethoven some weeks ago by these same artists will never be forgotten by the people who heard it, as it was one of those musical treats that one seldom has in these degenerate days of music. Mlle. Ormeny being sick, the blanks she left in the programme were amply filled by Rubinstein. He is a tireless performer, as may be seen by the following list of works given by him last evening [see above]. This list does not include the Kreutzer sonata, which for difficulty and demand of power is sufficient in itself to place many a pianist hors de combat. Rubinstein is a greater genius as a composer than he is as an executant, and therefore we hope that Mr. Grau will not let this opportunity slip by of bringing out some of the works of this modern Beethoven. Mr. Grau, besides achieving a financial success, which is now assured, despite the envious sneers that first greeted his bold enterprise in certain quarters, can become a Macaenas of art by producing the best vocal and instrumental works of Rubinstein under the direction of the composer. There is the ‘Ocean Symphony’ and the ‘Tower of Babel,’ which are stamped with the impress of genius, that attribute of immortality; and we might mention a score of other works, the production of which would be gladly welcomed by the entire musical public. Then a few concerts of chamber music, with the co-operation of such local artists as Dr. Damrosch, Matzka, Bergner, Rietzel, Boehm and Pfeiffenschneider (imagine an octet given by Rubinstein and Wieniawski, with such assistants!), will be just the thing to arouse fresh enthusiasm in these concerts when the troupe returns to this city. 

Last night Wieniawski played his own clever fantasia on Gounod’s ‘Faust,’ a sterling work of art, and the ‘Chaconne’ of Bach, in which Carl Rosa made such a lasting impression in the Bateman concerts. There was no orchestra last night, and considering the unruly character of our Teutonic instrumentalists, whom no conductor can control no more than the keeper of a menagerie with his animals when the bars are let down, it just as well. Mlle. Louis Liebhart sang ‘’Angels Ever Bright and Fair,’ a song by Pinsati, and another by Kucken.”