Vocal and Instrumental Concert

Notes the New York Sing Academie is a “mixed choir of 50 voices” and that the unidentified Männerchor comprises “200 voices.”

Program.

Includes program. 

“Concert. Fräulein Friederike Rokohl gave a vocal and instrumental concert for a small audience at Steinway Hall on Saturday night. Fräulein Rokohl has improved her voice considerably since we last heard her; namely it has become firmer, stronger, and fuller. The lady possesses an extraordinary voice of a nearly three-and-a-half octave range. Admittedly, some of her highest and lowest notes are weak and of little artistic value; at least for now, they are just simply abnormalities. Her fabulous voice, which used according to her singing method of choice, inclines Fräulein Rokohl to the field of coloratura singing; she shone in the ‘Carneval von Venedig’, to which Herr Wedermeyer has added some difficult figures to demonstrate the exceptional heights of the voice. Unfortunately, though, the young lady was so poorly accompanied that her performance was made more difficult than it needed to be, and she suffered for it. She sang the ‘Inflamatus’ from Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater’ very well, but the great aria from Fidelio may have been a bit too much for her. On the whole, though, the performance demonstrated that she has made decisive progress. Fräulein Flora Heilbron delighted the audience with two piano works. The contributions of the tenor Alves (the final aria from ‘Lucia’), the baritone A. Sohst, and the violinist Ed. Mollenhauer are also worthy of mention.”

“Miss Frederike Rokohl gave a concert on Saturday evening at Steinway Hall for the purpose of displaying the extraordinary compass of her voice. In a series of variations on the ‘Carnival of Venice’ she professes to go from G below the staff to the octave B above, an extent of three octaves and a third, being a major third higher than any other singer of whom we have any knowledge, and a fifth higher than the extreme range of most of the best soprano voices. The seven or eight upper notes are peculiar in quality, correct in intonation, and not at all shrill, though as they really lie outside the limit of musical expression they cannot be called altogether pleasant.”