Combination Concert: 2nd

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Price: $1.50; $2-3 reserved seat

Performance Forces:
Instrumental

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
3 November 2024

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

03 Jan 1873, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Leonore overture, no. 3; Leonora overture, no. 3
Composer(s): Beethoven
3)
Composer(s): Schumann
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein
4)
Composer(s): Vieuxtemps
Participants:  Henryk Wieniawski
6)
Composer(s): Rubinstein
7)
Composer(s): Mozart
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein
8)
Composer(s): Handel
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein
9)
Composer(s): Chopin
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein
11)
aka Rákóczy March, LW A60B; Rakoczy march; Magyar rhapsodiak, no. 15; Ungarische Rhapsodien, no. 15
Composer(s): Liszt
Participants:  Anton Rubinstein

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 29 December 1872, 7.
2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 01 January 1873, 1.
3)
Announcement: New-York Times, 03 January 1873, 4.
4)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 04 January 1873, 5.

“The second of the Rubinstein and Thomas concerts attracted a splendid audience, last night, at Steinway Hall, the programme being as follows: [see above].

The remarkable playing of Mr. Thomas’s orchestra was no less delightful in this concert than in the first of the series. We do not know that we have ever heard a better performance of the great ‘Leonora’ overture; we have certainly never heard a rendering of the Schumann concerto comparable to this in any respect. Mr. Thomas caught as if by magnetism the slightest variations in the spirit, the tempo, the expression of the somewhat wayward and fitful pianist, and conveyed them so quickly and surely to his band that there seemed to be a complete sympathy between Rubinstein and each individual member of the orchestra. It is no easy matter to accompany him even moderately well; to play with him as these men did last night is a brilliant achievement. His own part in the concerto was given, we thought, with more than usual majesty, and perhaps with more than his usual poetic feeling. The beautiful intermezzo never seemed to us more delicate, and the finale was never more magnificent. Once or twice in the course of the piece the music poured forth from his hands, as it often does, in a torrent so impetuous that the rhythm was entirely overpowered, and the ear caught nothing but a tempest of glorious sounds, just as in some of the pictures of Turner the eye loses the perception of form in a blaze of gorgeous color. It was curious to notice however in the Gigue of Handel’s how strictly Rubinstein kept to the measured movement of the melody in the midst of a headlong rush of notes, and how subsequently in the ‘Air and variations’ the same distinctness and precision were conspicuous in the most rapid and forcible passages. And yet this was not surprising; for Rubinstein’s artistic instincts would have told him that all the beauty would have gone out of compositions of this sort if he had sacrificed the meter. The delightful ‘Rondo’ of Mozart’s was in another vein—graceful and touching to the last degree; and some further variety was afforded by the remarkable performance of two encore pieces.

Mr. Wieniawski gave to Vieuxtemps’ concerto all the delicate expression which belongs to it, and displayed his broad and noble style to some advantage. The composition, however, is not of the strongest. Neither is there much in his ‘Faust’ fantasia, which catches many of the finer beauties of Gounod’s opera, and uses them for the exhibition of the performer’s pure tone and masterly technique. He has played this before in New-York, but never with such a rich accompaniment as he had last night.

The overture by Mr. Rubinstein which introduced the second part of the programme is an excellent and highly original work, with rich effects of instrumental combinations, and a clear development of thought.

The public, which was extravagantly enthusiastic last night, will be interested to know that the combination of Rubinstein and Wieniawski with Mr. Theodore Thomas is to be somewhat further prolonged. A matinée will be given to-day at Steinway Hall, as already announced, and on Wednesday and Thursday of next week two concerts will be given at the Academy of Music.”

5)
Review: New-York Times, 04 January 1873, 4.

“The particular attractiveness of the brief series of concerts which Mr. Grau’s principal artists and Mr. Thomas’ orchestra entered upon Tuesday, caused an audience that would have been accounted numerous in the finest Autumn-weather to seek a path to Steinway Hall, and well-nigh fill that spacious place last evening. Any lover of genuine music must, however, have felt largely compensated for the many discomforts of the journey. Mr. Rubinstein never played better, and rarely plays so faultlessly as he did yesterday; Mr. Wieniawski showed few signs of the fatigue apparent on the occasion of the first concert; and Mr. Thomas’ men executed their work with all the spirit and precision which have made the announcements of intended entertainments by these gentlemen trustworthy promises of delightful performances. The gigantic ends Mr. Rubinstein usually sets unto himself, and their successful attainment, will have prepared the readers who have followed his labors for the tidings that he rendered Schumann’s concerto in A minor with a full appreciation of the significance and science involved in that remarkable composition. But, as Mr. Rubinstein does not always bring to lighter labors a delicacy of delivery as appreciable as the power and breadth of his grander style, they will be glad to hear that his reading of the lesser numbers of the programme was yesterday as admirable as the (to most pianists) more trying tasks. We do not hope to listen to a more expressive and delicate recital of Mozart’s tuneful rondo than Mr. Rubinstein afforded us; or to a more intelligible exposition of Handel’s mazy ‘Gigue;’ the elaborate air and variations by Handel were given afterward with faultless clearness and correctness, the interpretation of these three minor pieces richly meriting the applause which secured an additional contribution to the bill. Mr. Wieniawski was heard in Vieuxtemps’ fifth concerto, and in the violinist’s own fantasia on ‘Faust.’ The elegance and symmetry of M. Vieuxtemps’ additions to the violin-music of the century have long since been admitted, but the most important is not to be named with the familiar Beethoven concerto, or the more popular concerto by Mendelssohn. Mr. Wieniawski played the Vieuxtemps number with exceeding eloquence, but the impression of his second effort was much more marked. Mr. Wieniawski’s ‘Faust’ is an exquisitely-written composition, in which the best-known themes of Gounod, bound to each other after a fashion denoting, as does the instrumentation for orchestra, the hand of a tried composer, have a logical sequence quite uncommon among potpourris. The single passage of the fantasia to the treatment of which some exception may be taken, is that introducing the melody of the waltz, with imitations in harmonies; the author’s recital really calls for no criticism whatever; the pathos of the song Mr. Wieniawski’s bow draws from the silver string beneath it; the demoniac brio of the chords in the brindisi allotted to Mephisto, and the brilliancy of the long runs of staccati, are things to be remembered. Except toward the close of Mr. Wieniaawski’s performance, when Mr. Thomas’ musicians did not always keep up with the dash of the soloist, the band’s share of the evening’s exertions was as creditable to its intelligence and discipline as usual. The third overture to Beethoven’s ‘Leonore,’ an overture called ‘Dimitri Donskoi,’ by Mr. Rubinstein—a work in which the barbaric quaintness of the ideas has not proven inimical to harmonious as well as forcible orchestration—and Liszt’s ‘Rakoczy March,’ were the pieces assigned to the orchestra.”

6)
Review: New York Post, 04 January 1873, 2.

“The second of the delightful series of concerts given by this combination occurred at Steinway Hall last evening. Notwithstanding the condition of the streets the hall was full, and the superb performance was fairly deserved by the character of the audience. The selections included works from Beethoven, Rubinstein, Wieniawski, Schumann, Mozart, Handel and Liszt. It was a very pretty episode when Rubinstein dragged Thomas out with him to acknowledge the applause which followed the playing of Schumann’s concerto in A minor. Rubinstein was a shy as a girl and blushed like a boy, while Thomas appeared to think that he had not earned any applause, when, in fact, he had earned a great deal.

These concerts have proved to be in every way so successful that two more will be given next week at the Academy of Music.”

7)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 11 January 1873, 365.

“Rubinstein gave the best rendering I have ever heard of that magnificent work which is undoubtedly the pianoforte concerto of modern days, in comparison with which others are as pygmies in the shadow of Colossus. No less wonderful, though of a very different character, was the power by which he subdued Rubinstein and substituted Mozart and Handel, in his performance of the quaint classical Rondo, Air and Gigue. The applause was so hearty and sincere that, quite contrary to his usual custom, he returned to the piano, and, much to our surprise and delight, played Chopin’s exquisite study in C-sharp minor (op. 12, No. 7) as I have never before heard it. Then, being fairly in the Chopin mood, with scarcely a pause he dashed into the Etude in A minor (Op. 25, No. 12), of which he gave such a perfect rendering that I was inclined to leave the hall feeling that there could be no more music for that night at least. I remained, however, and heard Wieniawski’s Fantasie: a bold and musician-like work, in which the themes are beautifully handled, and by no means stale or commonplace, as such compositions usually are.”