Vocal Society Concert: 2nd

“The second concert of the season by the New-York Vocal Society took place last night at Steinway Hall, and there was the usual crowded and brilliant audience and the usual cordial applause. The programme lacked something of that quaint antique flavor which won for the earlier public performances of this club such quick and enthusiastic appreciation. Of the old madrigalists there was we believe only one genuine specimen. But it is doubtless well that we should not be [illegible] to surfeiting with the dainty confections of a fashion which, charming though it may be, is certainly not the fashion of our day, and might easily lose the attractiveness it now wears if it were permitted to lose its novelty. The refined, courtly, elegant taste which regulated these ancient compositions has at any rate been preserved by the New-York Vocal Society; and if the concerts have been a little modernized they have not lost their characteristic tone of old fashioned gentility. The selections last night were admirably adapted to each other. There was nothing trivial and nothing to distract the mind from the pleasant associations which this bright and cheerful seventeenth century music always awakens. The chorus and two [illegible] from Sebastian Bach’s [illegible] Motette were the most notable departures from the standard glee and madrigal; but they did not produce the effect of incongruity, for there is often a tenderness in the little [illegible] love songs which accords very well with the devotional solemnity of Bach. Among the best of the pieces last night were Ford’s ‘There is a ladye;’ T. Walmsley’s ‘Sweete floweres,’ Dr. Callcott’s ‘Hark, the cock crows;’ ‘Memory,’ a trio for soprano, alto, and tenor, by Henry Leslie; and a four part song of John Barnby’s, ‘Silent Night.’ This last is a little gem, and it was sung with remarkably fine expression, but the audience seemed to be barely conscious of its excellence. Mr. Caryl Florio’s madrigal, ‘Farewell in May,’ was entirely worthy of the fine company in the midst of which it was placed. There was an admirable part-song by G. A. Macfarren (‘Sigh no more ladies’), and a very good male chorus of Mendelssohn’s (‘Forest fair’ [?]), and the [illegible] (female) chorus from Schumann’s ‘Paradise and the Peri,’ were the principal remaining pieces. Mr. Mosenthal conducted, and the few piano accompaniments were played by Mr. Caryl Florio.”

“The Vocal Society of the City of New-York gave the second concert of the present season at Steinway Hall, last evening. The audience was numerous and brilliant, and the very finished interpretation of a programme including compositions by Mendelssohn, Bach, Ford, Barnby, Schumann, Smart and Leslie elicited flattering tokens of approval. Three numbers of Bach, conspicuous for the master’s rich harmony and elaborate counterpoint, were sung with a precision and color which would have done credit to the rendering of much less trying music. The conductor was, as usual, Mr. Joseph Mosenthal.” 

“The Vocal Society and the class of music that they sing evidently increase in public estimation, for on no previous occasion have they gathered so large an audience at any one of their concerts as at the last one. There is no reason why the members of this society should not plant themselves firmly in the public favor. It rests entirely with themselves to do this. There is no opposing organization to contend with. The field is entirely their own, and it is competent for them to command as completely the respect, esteem, and support of the people of this city as the Handel and Haydn Society does of the Bostonians. They have a nucleus of admirable singers and a conductor certainly who has no superior in this city. The only things needed to put the organization on a high footing are the earnest resolution to attend rehearsals and ambition to perform works of a noble and elevated kind. How long they can hold together on the basis of glees and madrigals is questionable, for the effects of that character of music are limited and are apt to become monotonous. Broiled quail is good, but an entire dinner of broiled quails would pall on the appetite of the most ardent lover of game.

A certain variety was given to the last programme by the performance of a chorus and two chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach. His name has been one of terror to all other choral societies. We hail, therefore, the courage that has brought the Vocal Society face to face with his music. There is a popular superstition that Bach is abstruse and difficult to understand. It is an idle belief. He is no more difficult to comprehend because of the quaintness of his forms than is the Bible because of the quaintness of the language of the King James translators. Indeed, the parallel might be carried much further, for the same deep solemnity of feeling and simplicity of structure exists in Bach also that is found in the sacred writers? [sic] No man was ever more perfectly a master of form than he, or expressed his thought with greater directness and clearness. There was none of the blind groping and struggle that is found in many of Schumann’s works, for example, but all is clear and bright and lucid. We hope that the time will come when the Vocal Society will venture still further with his music and the music of others such as he.

In the matter of madrigals several new ones were given and several familiar ones repeated. Prominent among the latter was one by Mr. Caryl Florio, which we regard as a nearly perfect specimen of this kind of composition—imaginative, melodious, and at the same time erudite—a work, in fact, not suffering by comparison with the madrigals of even the foremost of the English or early Italian madrigal writers.

There were no solo performances which we regard as a gain, for good solo singing can be heard also anywhere and at any time. Some relief, however, from what would otherwise have been a monotonous succession of choral works was found in a trio, a quartette, and a quintette for mixed voices. The latter was one of Dr. Calcott’s most sprightly and pleasing compositions of questionable morals as to its words, but of unquestionable merit as to the music. It suggested the amatory exploit of some young monk out on some expedition as Robert Browning’s Fra Lippo Lippi delighted in.”