Sacred Concert

Includes program. 

“Mlle. Torriani gave a concert at Steinway Hall last evening. Mlle. Torriani is a clever and industrious young artist, whose misfortune it is that she does not know her place in public opinion. To the lady’s desire to appear in an entertainment bearing her name, we have, of course, nothing to say, but we will surely be allowed to wonder that she should have chosen for performance pieces which have been executed time and time again, and very recently, too, by her betters. We have had Mme. Nilsson as Elsa, Mme. Nilsson in the ‘Ave Maria,’ and Mmes. Nilsson and Lucca in the duet ‘Quis est homo,’ from ‘Stabat Mater,’ and it certainly seemed strange that the three numbers should have been pitched upon by Mlle. Torriani for recital by herself at her first and only concert. The result proved that it was, at all events, unlucky, for we shall continue to remember Mme. Nilsson’s and Mme. Lucca’s singing of these pieces, and shall be glad to forget—for Mlle. Torriani can do worthier things—their later interpretation by the German songstress. The music from ‘Lohengrin,’ which embraced the concerted introduction to the prayer as well as the prayer itself, was literally butchered. Mlle. Torriani sang nicely the grand scene from ‘Der Freyschutz,’ the single composition in the selection of which overvaulting ambition was not apparent; and she had to repeat the final allegro. The features of interest of the affair were the violin-playing of M. Wieniawski, whose delivery of the andante and finale of the Mendelssohn concerto is far above any reading of that work to be enjoyed at other hands, here or in Europe; an admirable rendering of the andante from ‘the’ Henselt concerto, by Mr. Pattison, with whom the whole of the gigantic opus is a speciality; the first hearing, through the medium of Signor Arighotti, a very impassioned tenor, of an expressive and musicianlike setting, by Rembielinski,of Hugo’s ‘A une femme’—‘Si j’etais roi,’ &c.—which, by the way, was redemanded; and a romance, in German, by Mme. Clara Perl, whose fine contralto voice is too seldom heard in public.” 

“Mlle. Ostava Torriani, who did such valuable service during the late season of the Italian opera under the Strakosch direction, took a formal leave of the New York public last night at Steinway Hall. Although the audience was notably small, many of the selections and the artists were exceedingly attractive. The fair bénéficiare sang in her very best style the grand aria from ‘Der Freischütz’ and Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria;’ and Mme. Clara Perl was heard with pleasure in the ballad, ‘I Cannot Sing The Old Songs.’ Both artists united in a very excellent rendering of the ‘Quis est homo,’ from Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater.’ Wieniawski contributed the magic of his violin to the entertainment, giving the andante and finale of Mendelssohn’s melodious concerto as only such an incomparable artist can render it. Mr. J. N. Pattison played the lovely andante from Henselt’s piano concerto with such an entrain, finish and warmth of expression as to excite a feeling of regret that this great work should not have been heard in its entirety for years with such a faultless interpreter. A tenor, named Arigotti, failed to make any favorable impression with a romance by M. Rembielinski, although that was the fault of the singer and not of the composer, and the grand prayer in the first act of ‘Lohengrin’ received inhuman treatment.”