Organ Recital

“A fair-sized audience of music-loving people, ladies and gentlemen, assembled in St. John’s Chapel, Varick street, yesterday afternoon between 3 and 4 o’clock, in accordance with the resolution passed by the late Protestant Episcopal Convention, for the purpose of listening to an organ concert. The organ of St. John’s Chapel is one of the latest manufacture of Henry Erben, & Co., of this City, and has only recently been erected, having been completed just before the assembling of the convention. It is the largest and most powerful chancel-organ in the United States, having three banks of keys, three octaves of pedals, and fifty stops. Five of the stops are heavy diapason of sixteen feet each, seven are reeds, and six double diapason. The dimensions of the instrument are 40 feet in height, by 30 feet front, and 15 deep. The whole front is brilliantly illuminated to correspond with the work of the chancel. The programme of the concert yesterday was performed by Prof. C. E. Horsley, one of the four Trinity Church organists. Prof. Horsley was a pupil of Mendelssohn, and the selections of that great master predominated somewhat in the concert. Notable among them were: ‘Hear ye Israel,’ and ‘Be not Afraid,’ from ‘Elijah,’and the ‘Wedding March.’ These were rendered in a manner quite worthy of the great composer and the fine instrument upon which they were played. Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater,’ ‘Inflammatus,’ and ‘Quis est Homo’ were given, with one or two selections from Handel and Weber; also several compositions and arrangements by Prof. Horsley himself. Throughout the entire performance the audience testified the liveliest appreciation, and were apparently much gratified.”