Concert of the Wagner Union: 2nd

Includes program.

Description of circular just issued by Theodore Thomas regarding forthcoming performance of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth.

“The second concert of the Wagner Union was given by Mr. Thomas last night, at Steinway Hall, and though the audience was large there was not such an overflowing attendance as the sudden development of a Wagner enthusiasm in fashionable life might have led one to expect. The following was the programme [see above], the symphony being played, as the bills informed us, in honor of the late Senator Sumner. 

These selections are thoroughly familiar to the frequenters of Mr. Thomas’s concerts, and yet those who have attended the recent performances of ‘Lohengrin’ doubtless found in all the Wagner music some beauties hitherto unobserved and meanings never before understood. Hard and abnormal as most of these compositions seem at first to one who is not acquainted with the master’s principles, nor in sympathy with his purposes, it is astonishing how readily a comprehension of one of his operas affords a key to unlock all the mysteries of his extraordinary art. ‘Lohengrin’ sheds a brilliant new light upon ‘Tristan,’ and even puts fresh vitality into the hearty and sonorous introduction to the ‘Meistersinger.’ As for the ‘Lohengrin’ vorspiel that was received with an unusual outburst of enthusiasm, and the audience would have gladly had it repeated. All the pieces were performed with that magnificent rich tone and magnetic spirit which we have learned to expect in this band amost as matters of course. The Symphony received a truly noble interpretation—one of the best we have ever heard.”

“The Wagner concert at Steinway Hall, last evening, was largely attended, and much more numerously, we have to add, than last year’s entertainment under the auspices of the Union. 

As to the growing taste in this country for Wagner’s music, or, to put it in a fashion more acceptable to the anti-Wagnerites, as to the increasing desire to judge of all music, however loudly denounced, there can be no doubt whatever. Mr. Thomas’ splendid performances have done much toward bringing about this state of affairs. Yesterday, as hitherto, the work of his orchestra endowed the programme with its fullest significance. The recital does not need detailed criticism, the six pieces by which Wagner was represented having been interpreted, one and all, in recent concerts. Mr. Thomas’ forces were as much at their ease in dealing with the fairy tracery of the vorspiel to ‘Lohengrin’ as in the tremendous scoring of ‘Der Ritt der Walkueren;’ Wagner could really not fare better at Bayreuth than at the hands of his expounders in America. Although the affair was intended to glorify, mainly, the composer of ‘Lohengrin,’ the second part of the bill consisted of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ symphony, given, it was mentioned, in memory of the late Mr. Sumner. Mr. Sumner’s love of music, shown by constant attendance at Mr. Thomas’ symphony concerts, in Washington, had a graceful tribute in the rendering of Beethoven’s superb tone poem, while the purpose with which the ‘Eroica’ was written—to honor a departed hero—made the choice particularly judicious. The orchestra executed with unusual wealth of tone the immortal ‘Funeral March,’ and the delicious instrumentation of the four movements was handled with equal sympathy and precision.”

“Mr. Thomas’s orchestra gave a notable concert of Wagner’s music at Steinway Hall last evening. The audience was large and exceedingly attentive, and the various extracts from the ‘Meister-Singer,’ ‘Walküren,’ ‘Tannhäuser’ and ‘Lohengrin’ were listened to with the keenest interest. The Lohengrin introduction, played with special elegance and finish, was heard to much greater advantage than at the opera house, and was perhaps the most successful performance of the evening, though the ride of the Walküren was wonderfully well done. 

The performance of the Heroic Symphony of Beethoven last night, in honor of the lamented Massachusetts statesman, was more appropriately introduced at the Wagner concert than might at first appear. There are remarkable points of resemblance between the characters of [Senator Charles] Sumner and Wagner, notwithstanding the totally different lines of action which they respectively followed. Not more unpromising at the outset was Sumner’s heroic resolve to battle for the overthrow of slavery, than was Wagner’s youthful determination to emancipate one of the noblest arts from what he considered to be a degrading servitude to corrupt taste. The triumphs achieved, after years of disheartening combat, with prejudice and selfish interests, have been too recently acknowledged to demand more than this passing comment upon the work done by the two men whose fame is imperishable.

In improving the occasion of a Wagner testimonial, to pay homage to the memory of the great American reformer, Mr. Theodore Thomas evinced a keen appreciation of the fitness of things.”