Glee and Madrigal Concert: 1st

“…Selections from Garrett and J. L. Hatton, Webbe, Sir Julius Benedict, Calkin, Henry Leslie and W. Horsley appear on the programme of the first concert, together with two songs of Wagner, a Mendelssohn number and a part-song of G. A. Macfarren…”

“Miss Maria Brainerd gave last night at De Garmo Hall the first of a series of three Glee and Madrigal Concerts, for which she has secured the cooperation of Miss Agnes Lasar, Miss Anna R. Bulkley, and Messrs. A. T. Hills, J. W. Eddy, A. T. Schauffler, and Caryl Florio. Miss Brainerd herself was suffering from a bad cold, and some modifications of the advertised programme were necessary in consequence; but in spite of this drawback, which after all was little noticed in the performance, the concert was very successful, and several of the part-songs were rendered with a delicacy, smoothness, and precision which we do not often hear equaled. The voices of the six singers blend beautifully together, and they all have a fine appreciation of the peculiar requirements of the class of music which forms the staple of the entertainment. Particularly charming were a trio of [illegible], for female voices. ‘Rest Thee on this Mossy Pillow;’ G. A. Macfarren’s four part song, ‘It was a Lover and His Lass;’ Hatton’s ‘The Indian Maid;’ and, best of all, that splendid six part madrigal of Henry Leslie’s, ‘Thine Eyes so Bright.’ Among the other selections were Hatton’s ‘Sailor’s Song,’ Webbe’s ‘When Winds Breathe Soft,’ Horsley’s ‘By Celia’s Arbor,’ and J. B. Calkin’s ‘Breathe Soft, ye Winds,’ and ‘My Lady is so Wondrous Fair.’ Miss Bulkley sang Mendelssohn’s ‘Swiss Spring Song’ very acceptably, and Miss Brainerd was announced for two songs of Wagner’s, ‘Slumber, Sweet Child’ and ‘Expectation;’ the first she was obliged to omit, on account of the condition of her voice; the second she interpreted successfully. ‘Expectation’ (Attente) is one of four songs with French words, written by Wagner in 1839, when he was fighting off starvation in Paris, and before even the first of his operas, ‘Rienzi,’ was completed. It is certainly a good, bold, and striking song, but it is constructed on the old models, and betrays no distinct mark of the great master’s dramatic style. The Slumber Song (Dors, mon enfant), which is to be given at one of the forthcoming concerts of the series, belongs to the same period. It is so strange to think of the composer of ‘Tristan’ and the ‘Walküre’ as a song writer that these pieces are interesting, even as curiosities. But the fact is, Wagner has published nine separate songs—five in German, and four in French, of which a German translation was in the afterward.”