Anna Mehlig Matinee Recital: 2nd

Includes program.

“There was a very large attendance at Miss Mehlig’s second piano-forte Recital yesterday afternoon, the audience being composed chiefly of ladies. Miss Mehlig is remarkable for the even excellence of her playing, and when we have the names of the pieces on her programme we can tell pretty accurately how she rendered them. She gave the Bach Chromatic Fantasia with her usual irreproachable exactness and with great elegance. In three of Mendelssohn’s ‘Songs without Words,’ and still more in the exquisite Rondo in A minor of Mozart, she played with delicious grace and sentiment. But a still more superb performance was the Sonata in F sharp by Schumann, a strangely rich and imposing composition over whose difficulties she won a brilliant triumph.”

“Miss Mehlig’s second and last matinée at Steinway Hall, attracted a large audience yesterday, and offered fresh proofs of the lady’s intelligent appreciation of piano music, and her finish of style.” 

“If we may judge from the crowded state of the small Steinway Hall yesterday afternoon, the attraction of Miss Mehlig’s matinées seems to be increasing, as there was scarcely standing room. The programme, in many particulars, presented much the same features as that of the last matinée. The programmes have been made up of compositions that belong to some of the highest schools of art, and as landmarks in its progress can boast historical no less than musical value. From this double point of view Miss Mehlig, in persisting in the course she has so successfully begun, will increase her reputation more than could have been done through the mere display of executive ability, however rare and admirable. In the compositions performed yesterday, Miss Mehlig put her mechanical powers to legitimate uses, rendering them subservient to the true ends of music, and with honorable ambition addressing herself to the works of some of the best writers for the piano-forte, as may be seen by the following [programme: see above].

In her performance of the above pieces Miss Mehlig exhibited quick intelligence, a great deal of poetical expression, and much that was highly finished in execution; entering into the spirit of each composer with facility and grace, sufficient to show that she knew how inwardly to distinguish and outwardly to mark the characteristics that separate them from one another. Thus in Bach’s ‘Fantasia Chromatique’ there were the solid accentuation, the independent flow of parts, the style devoid of mannerism that most befit this composer’s music, and in which Miss Mehlig’s playing was marked by a fluency and tranquil composure best calculated to give such music its appropriate expression. In Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schumann she was no less successful, especially in the two former. Amateurs, so long as they retain their taste for graceful melody, clear and symmetrical construction and rich harmony, will always welcome that bright and cheerful spirit that characterizes the works of Mozart and Mendelssohn. The Sonata of Schumann is one of those romantic and impassioned reveries which severely tax the imagination and executive powers of the pianist. In this Miss Mehlig appeared to us to fail in the first execution of the passages—often extremely difficult—and in keeping up an interest in the spirited nuances in the ensemble, unabated to the end. The same remark, to a very great extent, may be made of her interpretation of the ‘Ballade’ by Chopin, its execution demanding greater power of accent in the performance than was apparent to give it that individuality of effect which characterizes this species of music by the Polish composer.

In Field’s ‘Nocturnes’ we have the unadorned melody susceptive of delicate and expressive shading. The one selected was admirably given; its unaffected strain of expressive melody, embellished with seductive harmony tastefully varied in arpeggio, drawing from the audience unmistakable evidence of their approbation.

The ‘Tarantelle’ by Heller, a brilliant and characteristic piece, was remarkably well played; as were the novelties, ‘Gnomentanz’ (Seeling); ‘Spinning Song’ (Wagner-Liszt), and ‘Tanz Caprice’ (Signor Lebert). The ‘Song of Love,’ an Etude in B flat, by Henselt, is melodious, original, effective and not difficult. It was played with exquisite grace and finish. The works of Henselt deserve to be better known, especially his ‘Characteristic Studies for the Concert Room.’

It is to be regretted that this matinée is the last; for all who understand music, who are guided in their decisions by something more than that very uncertain thing, ‘taste,’ who can give good reasons for what they assert, can have but one opinion with regard to the good effect this kind of concerts have in elevating the taste of the people in a school of music but comparatively little encouraged among us. Miss Mehlig has won a position in this city as a good and conscientious pianist, and is recognized by professional musicians of authority, as well as the public at large. She would therefore do well to extend her efforts in behalf of classical piano-forte music.

In conclusion, we would add that Miss Mehlig’s manual dexterity is good, and her mechanical resources almost entirely under the control of mental discipline. The influence of mind is evident in her playing throughout; and ere long we hope to find in her attained that higher power which causes the performer to be forgotten in the very perfection of the performance.”