Church Music Association Concert

Brief.

“Haydn, Niedermeyer and Beethoven provided the music sung last night at Steinway Hall on the occasion of the opening concert of the Church Music Association. The genial Haydn was represented by his symphony in C minor. The young Niedermeyer, who died in 1827, in early manhood and in the first flush of success,  by his elaborate mass in B minor; and the Titan of musicians, by his oratorio or cantata, Engedi.

Niedermeyer’s mass has been sung before by the Church Music Association. It is a grand and a massive work, rich in harmonies and in orchestration, and not affluent in melody. Perhaps its finest feature is the Credo, a noble and grandiose movement, in which the fullest resources of the orchestra are brought into service. The Et Incarnatus, for voices alone, is also very striking, and the antiphonal treatment of the words Crucifixus etiam pro nobis are worthy of note. To the phrase, et redet ad de exteram Patris, there is a pizzicato accompaniment for violins, which is decidedly original. The Benedictus contains the most marked melody in the score, and is a composition of great merit. The orchestration of the Agnus De—especially the treatment of the violins—is in many respects novel and striking, and at the date when the composer wrote must have been quite an innovation.

Beethoven’s ‘Christus am Oelberg’ (Christ on the Mount of Olives) was produced in 1809 at Vienna. The official programme in use last night says of it: [quotes the same passage as does the New York Times review, concluding at “a great boon to the music-loving public of England and America”].

The oratorio consists of recitative and aria, duet, trio and chorus. Its main features are the aria and duet, ‘I Love the Lord,’ and the grand final chorus, ‘Hallelujah.’ Its great and prominent merits should secure for it an early repetition at the Church Music Association concerts.

The singing of the society last night was powerful and effective; but the enunciation of words was defective, the attack at times uncertain, while all the solo and quartet passages were overpowered by too heavy an accompaniment. Miss Beebe sang charmingly, and Mrs. Barron and Mr. Remmertz were so good that the audience would have been pleased to have heard more of them, but the music allotted these vocalists was such as prohibited any vocal display. We may add that the audience was very large and fashionable, and that the season of the Association seems to have opened most auspiciously.”

“The first concert given this season by the Church Music Association took place at Steinway Hall last evening. The reunions of the society have always been numerously attended, and yesterday’s gathering was as large as usual. The performance, as well as the audience, was of the wonted kind. It is plain that an organization having at its disposal the choral forces and the funds of the association might accomplish a great deal. Experience, unhappily, has proven that, like amateur enterprises in general, it confines itself to supplying agreeable entertainments which are not, of course, without influence upon the public taste, but which labor under the disadvantage of not making known any new works and not furnishing conspicuously-good recitals of familiar compositions. Last night’s recital should be mentioned, it is true, as having included among the selections Beethoven’s ‘Engedi,’ which has not been done here for many years. But the principal part of the concert was occupied by Haydn’s Symphony in C minor, and Niedermeyer’s Mass in B flat—both of which productions have been interpreted already by the association—and we really think that the performances of the society are not so frequent that the almost total repetition of a programme is necessary. We can now follow the example set by Mr. Horsley in the pamphlet he has prepared, as heretofore, for circulation, and in which the symphony and the mass are dismissed with brief notices. That the first named piece is indeed ‘lovely’ is indisputable; we are not, however, inclined to share Mr. Horsley’s views when he places Niedermeyer, as a composer of sacred music, above Gounod and Rossini, and speaks of the former writer’s ‘straining after effect,’ and of the latter’s ‘French sensationalism.’ The director and lecturer of the Church Music Association appears to more advantage in the notice of ‘Engendi’ following, in the pamphlet we allude to, than in the harmless outburst quoted from. This notice, as possessed of decided interest, we reproduce. It runs thus:

[‘]Although this work, from its outset, enjoyed vast popularity, it was for many years a sealed book in England, the home of sacred music, on account of the objectionable nature of the words. This will be understood without further comment when it is stated that the Savior himself is represented as singing the tenor part. This serious obstacle prevented the music being known to any but musicians, who possessed it in their libraries, and to the present day the beautiful music might have been hidden under the bushel of this difficulty had not an English amateur luckily hit upon a narrative in the Second Book of Kings, describing the persecution of David at the hands of the followers of Saul, in the caves and rocks of Engedi. This discovery cut the gordian knot, and at once unlocked the treasures of Beethoven’s inspiration. The words are not unskilfully [sic] adapted to the music, and, had it been otherwise, a much worse selection would have been forgiven, as one of the master’s best vocal compositions is now available for general performance—a great boon to the music-loving public of England and America. ‘Engedi’ commences with a short [new column, hereafter becomes a bit difficult to read] instrumental introduction in the sombre [sic] key of E flat minor. The gloomily-colored orchestration, highly indicative of the subject, leads to a long recitative by David, followed by a beautiful agitato [illeg.] in the course of which a soothing, prayerful strain is introduced, which is repeated at the end of the movement, previous to the Coda. A soprano recitative describes the trouble that David has to suffer from Saul’s persecution, which is then succeeded by an adagio and air, with choral accompaniment, praising God’s love and goodness and describing the torments of the wicked. In the chorus a great fugal point—‘destruction is their lot’—is introduced, and is well worthy of notice. The fate of David, ‘to wander among rocks and caves,’ is now foretold by a prophetess, and a duet of resignation, one of the most lovely of Beethoven’s vocal compositions, is then sung, and will, undoubtedly, give great delight. After a short recitative the followers of Saul then appear in search of their enemy. In a soft march movement, varied by a crescendo indicative of approach, they assert: ‘We surely here shall find him.’ Again David declares his submission to the will of the Almighty, and is interrupted by a furious chorus of his foes. They cry, ‘Where is he, the deceiver?’ and David’s followers plead for mercy. The music of his chorus is highly dramatic, and cannot fail to interest its hearers. David’s friend now comes to the scene, and in a bass recitative declares his willingness to use his sword in his leader’s defense. In a trio, for soprano, tenor and bass, (a highly finished work) David deprecates any measures against the ‘Lord’s Anointed.’ Another chorus of Saul’s soldiers and David’s friends expresses the wrath of the former and the dread of the latter, and with this is interwoven a grand solo for David, accompanied by the chorus, which is most exciting and effective. Saul’s adherents then retire, and David exclaims: ‘They are gone; our fears are over; let us praise His holy name.’ The work concludes with the magnificent chorus, ‘Hallelujah! Praise the Lord; worlds unborn shall sing His glory.’ This is the best known of Beethoven’s choral works, and, although in no way to be compared with the Hallelujah in ‘Messiah,’ is a grand, glorious massive work, clothed with all the orchestral magnificence in which Beethoven is unapproachable, and to which Handel was a total stranger.’”

“Steinway Hall was crowded even to its second gallery last night by people anxious to hear the first concert of this society. There were a chorus, large in numbers and including many prominent choir singers in this city; an orchestra in which some of the best members of the Philharmonic Society took part; a solo quartet consisting of [lists soloists]. [Lists program.] We have already spoken of the first performance of the symphony by this society last season, and have nothing to add to our previous remarks. The mass was not satisfactory in the rendering. There was too much mechanism and an entire absence of expression from beginning to end. The conductor is principally to blame for this, as his ideas of tempo are destructive of all effect. Whether the time was marked Largo assai,—80, or Andante mosso,—88, Mr. Horsley did not seem to mind the difference. The work of Niedermeyer might have found a better substitute in some of our modern masses, despite the intemperate onslaught made upon the well known compositions of Rossini and Gounod in the programme. We can only designate this mass as an ineffective imitation of the old fashioned style of writing masses. The sublime words of the ‘Gloria’ and ‘Credo’ are not illustrated in the vivid colors that some of our present composers make such liberal use of, and the ‘Scantus’ and ‘Benedictus’ are subject to the same criticism. The ‘Agnus Dei’ is the best part of the mass, although its rendering last night was of a nature calculated to destroy all effect. Beethoven’s oratorio, which was originally intended to represent Christ on the Mount of Olives, but which squeamishness on the part of the English people changed to ‘David in the Wilderness,’ does not present the immortal symphonist in a favorable light, especially when chimes and orchestra were at sixes and sevens last night and the soloists were unworthy of special notice. The English and American public object to a tenor taking the part of our Saviour, and hence the change to David. The royal prophet had a very poor representative in the ranks of the Church Music Association. The choral part of the concert was anything but satisfactory in both works, and the orchestra seemed to have a commune of their own. Mechanical correctness, or rather the avoidance only of a positive breakdown in the rendering of great works, cannot be considered as a satisfactory result of such a pretentious concert. When blunders thicken and real intelligence is absent, there is little to hope for. Yet this is what happened at the first concert this season of the Church Music Association.”

Three separate entries beneath the “Musical Notes” heading.

“Mr. Bergner and Mr. Werner, two of the finest violoncellists in the country, played in the orchestra in the last concert of the Church Music Association.”

“The Church Music Association concerts continue to be in point of attendance the most brilliant of the season.”

“Beethoven’s ‘Egendi,’ says the Church Music Association, ‘is numbered Op. 85 in the thematic catalogue of the author’s compositions, and was immediately preceded by the Mass in C. It was, therefore, written in the zenith of Beethoven’s life and fame, and before the terrible affliction of deafness became so great that all sense of hearing was lost—a calamity which fully accounts for the subsequent vocal impossibilities of the Second Mass and the choral portion of the Ninth Symphony.’”