Testimonial Concert to Franz Abt

Includes names of performers.

“The Liederkranz Society, which is always foremost in doing graceful and kindly acts, gave Franz Abt a testimonial concert on Saturday evening at Steinway Hall. The audience was very large, and the famous song writer, to whom the world is indebted for some of its sweetest and most popular melodies, must have found it an occasion of substantial benefit. The greater the better, for the sons of art at the best have a small enough patrimony. The programme was made up almost entirely of the works of the beneficiary of the evening, comprising choruses for male voices and orchestra, unaccompanied part songs, and a number of the composer’s best lieder.

“Abt himself played the accompaniments to the latter, and personally conducted two of the former. He was very cordially received by the audience, and his round, florid, and pleasant face beamed with pleasure.

“Miss Krebs, Miss Henne, Signor Sarasate, and Herr Graf took part as soloists. The singing of the Liederkranz Society was by no means all that could be desired. There are men in it who are doubtless very good fellows, but certainly very bad singers, whose voices are harsh, lacking all singing quality, and for that reason are heard all the more conspicuously above the rest. This is unfortunately the case with the tenors; the basses, especially the second basses, are strong, firm, and good. The Ninety-first Psalm, by Meyerbeer, for full chorus and organ—a difficult, elaborate, and beautiful composition—was in some portions, noticeably, the figured passages toward its close, very badly sung. It was uncertain both in time and in intonation.”

“The official introduction of Herr Franz Abt to the New-York public took place at Steinway Hall on Saturday night, when a concert was given in his honor, the programme consisting chiefly of his compositions. Our best German male singers performed several of [those?] part songs which had won for Abt so wide a celebrity, and under the leadership of Mr. Pauer exhibited a high degree of culture. The pianissimi were especially [illegible] and the contrasts bold and vivid. Two of the selections were led by Abt himself, who received the warmest of welcomes. An elaborate composition by Meyerbeer, the Ninety-first Psalm, introduced to the musical amateur a work of striking originality, full of dramatic effect. Though the choral music was the chief feature of this concert, there were several solos of interest. Señor Sarasate played a long, rather meaningless violin concerto by Max Bruch, which was listened to with courtesy. In the audience, the German element preponderated; but there were also present a large number of our native artists and amateurs who joined cordially in the welcome to the melodious composer of ‘O Ye Tears,’ and ‘When the Swallows Homeward Fly.’”