Deutscher Liederkranz Concert: 3rd

“The most popular and largest of all our German vocal organizations gave a concert last night at Liederkranz Hall, Fourth street, before a large audience. The soloists were [see above]. A large chorus and orchestra, under the direction of A. Paur, contributed towards the attractions of the evening. The concert commenced with Taubert’s musical illustration of Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest,’ consisting of four movements, all for orchestra alone. It is not a work calculated to win admiration for the composer, the instrumentation being odd and patchy. The orchestra on this occasion was not in good trim, and among the brass instruments there were some positive blunders. Miss Heiss then sung a very pretty song by Schubert, and Mr. Brandt played a selection from Spohr. Mr. Graf sung ‘The Last Song,’ with a chorus of male voices, by Beschnitt, and received an encore. The feature of the evening, however, was Schumann’s lovely cantata, ‘The Pilgrimage of the Rose,’ in which the magnificent chorus of the society, all the vocal soloists and orchestra took part. Of all the great romanticist’s fantastic works, none can eclipse this in melodic and orchestral beauty. The tender and the graceful seem to be the fundamental principles of the work, and the delicate nature of the subject is treated with the skill of an accomplished tone poet—one who alone could sketch ‘Scenes from Childhood’ and ‘Paradise and the Peri.’ The luxuriant fantasy of the composer appears in its most varied and its brightest form in this cantata, and gems of inestimable value may be found in it. It was very creditably performed, the chorus being particularly good, and the soloists, although some of the voices were hardly sympathetic and dramatic enough for such music, sung the numbers allotted to them correctly. ‘The Pilgrimage of the Rose’ was first performed by the Liederkranz Society about six years ago.”