Piano-forte Recital: 2nd

Each ticket purchaser to be presented with a copy of Mlle. Heilbron’s composition, Nelly Grant’s wedding waltz. 

“Miss Heilbron gave the second of a series of piano-forte matinées at Steinway Hall yesterday. She interpreted, as on the earlier occasion, a very varied programme, representative of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Weber, Bellini, Chopin, and Liszt, and her different performances were correct, tasteful, and fluent. A not unimportant feature of yesterday’s entertainment was the début of Mlle. Ridenti, an American soprano, whose first appearance in Italy, some time ago, is referred to as having been very successful. Mlle. Ridenti’s highest tones are of fair timbre and decided power, but the medium is bad, and the voice generally appears to have been disciplined with so much severity that the singer becomes exhausted after a very brief effort. That Mlle. Ridenti has studied her vocalizes hard was abundantly proved by her execution of ‘Come per me sereno,’ but we fancied we detected throughout her singing, either great slenderness of natural resources or the effects of overtraining.”

“This very clever young pianist gave a piano recital at the smaller hall of Steinway yesterday. Her programme was decidedly ambitious, comprising Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Weber, Litolff and Mendelssohn, with the addition of a waltz of her own, commemorative of a recent ‘event’ at the White House. Miss Heilbron is possessed of considerable talent for one so young, and yesterday this talent was shown in more ways than one. But it is impossible to agree with her method of playing Chopin, as the poetry which is such an essential part of the great Polish composer’s works is entirely absent when he is consigned to the fingers of Miss Heilbron. Few young pianists can grasp the tenderness and sentiment of Chopin, united to his wonderful power and masculinity, and Miss Heilbron is not one of the fortunate ones. Mlle. Ridenti sang at this recital a cavatina from ‘La Sonnambula’ and ‘Una voce poco fa,’ from Rossini’s ‘Barbiere.’ The latter morceau, a strong test for all singers, was delivered by the artist in question in such a weak, amateurish fashion, without the slightest degree of effect, that it can only be set down as a decided failure.”

“Miss Sophie Flora Heilbron, the youthful pianist, gave a piano recital at the smaller hall in Steinway’s building, and showed considerable ambition in her programme, which comprised selections from Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Litolff, Mendelssohn and Weber, with a waltz of her own composition—a programme to which she was capable of giving a clever and skillful interpretation.”