Chamber Music Soirée: 3rd

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway's Rooms

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
1 November 2024

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

19 Dec 1872, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

5)
Composer(s): Mozart
Participants:  Jenny Busk

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 18 December 1872, 7.
2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 19 December 1872, 5.
3)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 20 December 1872, 5.

“The third of the admirable concerts of classical music by Mr. S. B. Mills and Dr. Leopold Damrosch [illegible] last night in the lower hall at Steinway’s. [Illegible] a Suite, for piano and violin, by [illegible] in E major, a characteristically [illegible] graceful composition the first movement of which an allegro recalls the same romantic spirit that [illegible] the composer’s ‘Salantala’ overture [illegible] falling off in the subsequent parts. [Illegible] do not move on toward a definite [illegible] the mind grows tired at last of dreamy un[illegible]. How different was the ‘Serenade’ of Beethoven for violin, viola and violoncello (Damrosch, Mr. Matzka, and Mr. Bergner). This is one of the master’s earliest works, written while his [illegible] the unmistakable characteristics of Mozart, [illegible] is a magnificent specimen of construction and betrays not only flashes of [illegible] genius, but occasional individualities [illegible] we should hardly have looked for at [illegible] Beethoven’s career when this Serenade [illegible]. The programme closed with Schumann’s Sonata in A minor, for violin and piano, which we were [illegible] not to hear. The vocalist was Miss Jenny Busk, whose phenomenally high and pure soprano [illegible] of vocalization we have noticed on [illegible]. The execution of the instrumental [illegible] the entertainment was of course almost perfect. [Illegible] accomplished and sympathetic artists as Mr. Mills and Dr. Damrosch are rarely heard together, and [illegible] of the Suite was superb. The String Trio was remarkably well done, the next to the last [illegible] andante con variazzione—being something [illegible] and the average excellence attained even by [illegible] good artists who held the instruments last [illegible] will be only one more of these soirees on [illegible].”

4)
Review: New-York Times, 20 December 1872, 4.

“The third soirée of classical chamber music, given by Mr. Mills and Dr. Damrosch with the assistance of Messrs. Bergner and Matzka and (for this occasion) of Miss Jenny Busk, occurred at Steinway Hall, last evening. The instrumental performers are so well known that the characteristics of their playing, yesterday, need not at present occupy our attention. All are thoroughly good musicians, and while Mr. Mills is an excellent solo-pianist, Dr. Damrosch has sufficient technique and science to be held a most competent soloist on the violin. Miss Jenny Busk, the songstress of the affair, possesses a very high voice, with piercing upper notes and a poor medium. The instrumental selections, which were recited with much spirit and decided precision—chamber-music in its perfection cannot be enjoyed, it must be understood, at sporadic entertainments of this sort—included a suite by Goldmark; a serenade, for string trio, by Beethoven; and Schumann’s A minor sonata. The soprano sang the first air from ‘Die Zauberflöte,’ and a Swedish air, by von Berge.”