Church Music Association Concert: 2nd

“It is a pleasure to record the constant progress made by the Church Music Association under its new conductor, Mr. C. E. Horsley. The first concert, which took place some weeks since, was given under peculiar disadvantages. The night was that of the wildest storm of a winter which has given us such a constant sequence of fierce storms. The audience on that occasion was so small as to create a doubt whether the concert had best be given at all, and the chorus seats were but half filled. To add to these discouraging circumstances, the conductor had slipped on the treacherous pavement on his way to the concert room, and by his fall had injured himself so severely as to be in a condition of intense suffering all the evening and for days afterward. To go forward with the concert under these adverse conditions required nerve and pluck, if not actual heroism. But those who were present heard a most interesting performance, and we are glad to note that Mendelssohn’s ‘Walpurgis Night,’ so satisfactorily performed to the few then gathered together, will be repeated at the next concert, to take place on the 8^th of May.

The composition performed on Thursday evening was Spohr’s ‘Last Judgment,’ a work which has been from time to time heard in fragments in our church choirs, many selections from it being frequently used in the musical portion of divine service, but which as a whole has never been satisfactorily performed in this city. Spohr is a composer whom it is well not to hear too often or too much of. He is a man who makes his best impressions at the first interview. As some one has quaintly expressed it of persons of this type, he strikes twelve the first time. He is fertile in ideas and charmingly graceful in the manner of expressing them. No composer ever turned a musical phrase more neatly, or set it more persuasively before the auditor. It is only after listening many times to the labored but grandly sonorous periods, that a doubt suggests itself as to the value of the thought that underlies them.

But Spohr certainly has not worn out his welcome here. In fact it is but just extended to him. And most heartily, too, for his work made an undeniably happy impression on the audience. Though the rendering of it by the large chorus was not faultless, it was nevertheless most honorable to the society, and marked their industry and patient and careful study. There was also a notable improvement in the attention given to the marks of expression, which hitherto this organization has too much neglected, and without which every performance must be tame and colorless.

The soloists were Mrs. Imogene Brown, Mrs. Hershay, Mr. Leggat, and Mr. Remmertz, and three certainly of the four acquitted themselves of the difficult music meritoriously. There was a lack of certainty about the alto, however, that greatly marred several of the concerted pieces.

The programme contained the usual elaborate critical notice of the composition performed, from the able pen of the conductor, Mr. Horsley. It was exceedingly eulogistic of Spohr and of his music, going much further in that direction than, we believe, either musicians or writers would be willing to follow. Mr. Horsley speaks, for instance, of Spohr as a musician of the highest genius, culture, and celebrity; one whose versatility, originality, and sound learning fully entitle him to a place on the same level with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. This is a conclusion which we should be loth to admit. All that Spohr has ever written might be struck from the record of musical literature at a blow and the world would scarcely miss it; but what a grievous calamity would be the loss of all that Mendelssohn or Mozart or Beethoven has contributed to the happiness of the human race.

Mr. Horsley also says, referring to this composition—‘The Last Judgment’—that, as far as musical sounds and words can represent the subject, it is an admirable tone-painting of the events it is intended to illustrate. This, also, we regard as a questionable conclusion. The words refer to that supreme moment when all humanity appears before the Almighty Father for final judgment. No music could possible shadow forth what one would imagine to be the terrors of that awful scene, least of all could the suave music of Spohr.” 

“The second concert of the Church Music Association took place at Steinway Hall on Thursday last. No concert ever given by the association surpassed this in interest, for the audience was as numerous and as brilliant as ever, the performance as a whole remarkably fine, and in presenting for the first time a great and famous oratorio, the association at once rendered a service to the progress of music, and vindicated their capacity by one of the severest of tests.

The oratorio of ‘The Last Judgment,’ by Spohr, occupies a position in the world of art similar to that of the famous picture, ‘The Descent from the Cross,’ by Daniel of Volterra. That painter can by no means be placed among the few—the immortal names in the hierarchy of art—yet this one work of his is counted among the great pictures of the school of Umbria. We cannot place Spohr beside Beethoven, nor even beside his young rival Mendelssohn. His ‘Fall of Babylon’ and others of his works have already been laid aside and forgotten; but the ‘Last Judgment’ holds, and will, probably, keep a position next in rank to that of ‘Elijah’ and ‘Saint Paul.’

The works of Spohr have been neglected of late years, both here and elsewhere, to an unjust extent, for he is a great writer, a man whose learning, genius, and legitimate title to the rank of master cannot be questioned. It is curious that he, though a strict musician of the old-fashioned sort, was the man who imported ‘views’ into his music. We venture to add that to the extent to which he did so, his music has been damaged. He preferred the ‘chromatic’ to the ‘diatonic’ system, and the result is an undue sadness in his music. There is mannerism, too. You can in a moment recognize a composition of Spohr. It is full of certain plaintive, suffering, extreme sharps and flats, which no one else would use. But it is sure to be beautiful in its way; not so strong but far more melodious than the music of Schumann and the present German writers. He has inspiration too. We are not going at this time to enter into an elaborate description of the oratorio of the ‘Last Judgment,’ of which there is a very just and well-written account in the note which the Executive Committee append to their programme. But if ever a catalogue shall be compiled of the music which, by universal agreement, is declared to be perfect—like the short list of perfect works by painters and sculptors which Ruskin enumerates—then will the quartet, ’Blest are the departed,’ in the second part of the ‘Last Judgment,’ be among them. Spohr originated what is called ‘programme music,’ that is, music to which a definite meaning is sought to be attached, and which is to be criticized from the standpoint of intention, and not from that of sensuous beauty. His theories have been attacked, of course, but his works have been neglected mainly by reason of what may be called his central position. His period of production was about the middle of the first half of the century. Thus, he was half way between the early death of Mozart and the early splendor of Mendelssohn—half way between the claims of the old and the attractions of the new.

In listening to the ‘Last Judgment,’ we are constantly reminded that Spohr was a great violinist and writer for stringed instruments. His best thoughts are always given to and worked out by the orchestra, as witness the elaborate and wonderful descriptive accompaniment to the long bass solo, ‘The Day of Wrath is Near.’ An accompaniment so full of varied images and powerful symphonic motives that the singer, unless possessed of great declamatory power, which, unhappily, Mr. Remmertz is not, appears to be reading a catalogue of the pictures which the orchestra displays. Mr. Charles Horsley may be congratulated, in the first place, that he whose earliest compositions are chronicled in the same pages which tell us of the last triumphs of Mendelssohn and the honors paid to Spohr, should now have been able to introduce the best work of the last-named master to a public prepared to receive it from a knowledge of the former. Likewise, that, all difficulties taken into account, the execution was worthy of the subject. Mrs. Imogene Brown was the soprano, and appeared to great advantage. The slight fatigue of voice, sometimes palpable at the rehearsals, disappeared on the evening of the concert. The clearness of her articulation, the certainty and aplomb of her delivery, and the soaring quality of her voice, were all most admirably conducive to the perfection of the performance. Mrs. Brown’s duet with the tenor, ‘Forsake Me Not,’ (a most lovely piece of writing, with a curious resemblance to one of Marcello’s psalms.) was tender, appealing, and devotional in the highest degree, and the cheerful solo in six-eighth time. ‘All Glory to the Lamb,’ with choral accompaniment, was correspondingly brilliant. A contralto new to the New-York public appeared in Mrs. Brennan Hershay, a lady possessed of a fine and well-trained voice, and whose part-singing was especially to be commended. Mr. Franz Remmertz, too, with his deep and resonant bass, was excellent in the concerted music. In fact, the quartets were capital. We doubt whether the tenor, Mr. Leggatt, ever sang so well. The quality of his voice gave all the required sweetness to those chromatic chords of which it was so often, so to speak, the extreme outpost. His singing throughout showed earnestness and careful study. He declaimed the solo, ‘Jehovah now Cometh,’ with unexpected force, and gave the sentence, ‘They fell before the throne,’ with much tenderness and solemnity.

Long ago the word ‘ineffective’ was launched against Spohr, and we must own that to a certain extent the term is applicable. Accustomed as we are to the tremendous bray of the modern orchestra, and to the varied flights of Italian cavatinas, his solos seem dull, and his treatment of a subject so awe-inspiring as the last great day is comparatively cold and tame. His solos are, some of them, so short that the singer has not time to make any personal impression, and he sometimes commits what must be esteemed the error of beginning a subject in the vocal solo and continuing it by means of the orchestra alone. For example: the long symphony after the solo ‘Behold the Lamb!’ But Spohr probably intended to be something better than ‘effective.’ He aimed at wholeness, at making a profound, continuous impression, at taking the mind altogether out of the region of frivolous excitement and vain admiration, and expressing in a beautiful and pathetic manner a devotional feeling of religious trust. In this he surely has succeeded, and it is this purity and nobleness of motive which gives his work its exalted rank and its enduring charm.”