Evenings with the Great Musicians Lecture: 1st

List of subjects for the five lectures; the first: Music as illustrated by the great masters.

“The local music teacher, pianist, and composer, Pattison, gives five lectures at De Garmo’s Hall on the subject of music and composition. The lectures also include some illustrative performances, for which he will be assisted by other artists. The first presentation is this evening.”

“The first of Mr. Pattison’s series of lectures on music, illustrated by the performance of typical compositions, attracted a numerous and appreciative audience to De Garmo’s Hall yesterday evening. The address was offered rather as an introduction to the course than as the elaborate disquisition we shall expect when Mr. Pattison gives his next entertainment, for he dealt with no less than six composers, while intending to devote each after-effort to the consideration of only one. The text was on this account brief, and the illustrations were abundant. Mr. Pattison plays so intelligently and skillfully that his welcome is always cordial. He last night asserted his command of technique by his execution of Handel’s fugue in E minor, his sensibility, reverence of the classic form, and powers of expression by a chaste and finely-shaded reading of the ‘Moonlight’ sonata, and his familiarity with other styles by renderings of Liszt’s ‘Campanella;’ Chopin’s Opus 37 (a nocturne,) and ‘Marche Funebre;’ Gottschalk’s ‘Murmures Eoliens,’ and his own ‘Stormy Petrel.’ Mr. Pattison interprets with exceeding fluency and brilliancy Gottschalk’s compositions, and, in fact, all his work was of the best kind, except perhaps the interpretation of Chopin, which impressed us as rather wanting in imagination. He was much applauded, and in every sense his series of lectures may be considered as having been inaugurated under most favorable auspices.”

“’Evenings with the Great Composers’ forms the title of a series of lectures by the eminent American pianist, Mr. J. N. Pattison, the first of which took place last evening at De Garmo Hall, in Fourteenth street, before a very crowded audience, under the auspices of the American Literary Bureau. The success of the pianist in his new field was of the most unequivocal character. The enterprise of Mr. Pattison is one that must interest every musician, combining, as it does, instruction and amusement. Few who listen to the works of the great composers are sufficiently familiar with their characteristics. We have had recitals by the dozen, but never before any adequate explanation of the beauties of each composition given beneath the inspired fingers of the pianist. Mr. Pattison steps into the field and combines with his admirable playing clear, sound explanations, and brings before his hearers the different schools from the giant Handel down to the modern time. A great deal of good is achieved, and those attend such lectures must receive a vast amount of benefit in their musical studies. In one part of his lecture he pointed out the beautiful analogy between the painter and the musician; the seven prismatic colors and the seven lines of the diatonic scale. An explanation, showing the relation between a language of words and one of sounds, capable of interpreting all the affections, passions and emotions, was very logical and interesting. The lecture was clear, comprehensive, thoughtful and attractive, without being verbose or pedantic. The musical selections were [lists works]. This was a very diverse and very difficult programme, especially when supplemented by a lecture. But the fingers of the pianist and the subtle brain that animated them failed not in a single instance. The sturdy measures of the fugue, the dreamy tones of the sonata, a love idyl; the fantastic tones of the Abbé, the lovely poetry of the gifted Pole, the airy thoughts of our lamented American pianist and the highly descriptive sea picture of the successor of Gottschalk were delivered with a finish and expression that brought forth their most attractive features in the strongest light. Mr. Pattison’s first lecture was a great success.”