Second Gottschalk Concert

 “Chickering’s grand pianos will, we are informed, be used at this concert, as well as during the rest of Mr. Gottschalk’s series of musical entertainments.”

Campbell’s first appearance this season; get a free ticket to Theodore Thomas concert on Saturday.

 The concert is called the 2^nd “fête musicale. . . . New works in the program. . . . Louise Vivier and Campbell were the success of last winter.”

“The programme is fresh and liberal.”

“At Gottschalk’s second concert last night at Irving Hall, Mrs. J. M. Motte, who created such a furore at Boston last season, was equally successful in her metropolitan debut. Mlle. Vivier has improved since we last heard her, and the frequent plaudits she received must have been as gratifying to her numerous friends as honorable to herself. The efforts of Mr. S. C. Campbell, Mr. Harry Sanderson, Mr. Theodore Thomas, Signor Muzio and Mr. Behrens greatly added to the attractions supplied by the instrumental performance of Mr. Gottschalk. The ‘Oberon’ overture is singularly spirited and graceful, and with the fantasia on the ‘Daughter of the Regiment’ bids fair to add to Mr. Gottschalk’s high reputation.”

“Mr. Gottschalk’s second concert at Irving Hall was a brilliant success. The hall was filled, and the pieces, with hardly an exception were approved. The new songstress, Mrs. Motte, is erroneously mentioned as a pupil of Mr. Muzio. Not so: the lady is one of the best known and most admired of Boston Contraltos, the city which has done so much in producing singers and a taste for the fine arts. This lady sang Di tanti palpiti with great applause, and was recalled by unanimous consent. She has, in addition to the lower tones, fluent facilities in the upper notes, and executes the roulades and fiorituri of the great composer with ease and confidence. Mlle. Vivier made a second appearance; and Mr. Thomas, Mr. Sanderson, &c., displayed their talents.”

“It’s nearly superfluous to say that the reappearance of Gottschalk got a brilliant ovation; but what is more new and more interesting from the point of view of art is the transformation that has appeared to me to have come about in the attitude of the great pianist. Some hearings behind closed doors have already evoked this impression in me; it was confirmed upon hearing him in public. One does not know enough whether in addition to being a first-class performer and an ingenious and prolific composer there is in Gottschalk a passionate and untiring seeker. Setting out in pursuit of an ideal whose sensations possess and torment him, he explores in turn all the paths by which he believes he can attain it. At one point—it was two years ago and I said it at the time—one could have believed that he had lost his way. His performances and his playing threatened to lose in clarity what they were gaining in brilliance. Today, one recognizes that this was simply an intermediate stage through which his skill passed. The new compositions that he produced in those days and the fashion in which he interpreted them foretold that Gottschalk would arrive at a third phase in his artistic life. It isn’t any more the fascinating--but a bit effeminate--delicacy of the first period that we knew; it’s not the exuberant virility, that goes too far through an excess of vigor, that he pursued; the qualities and the faults of this double past are in some ways melded together, and from this fortunate mixture there breaks loose a purified talent, released from the hindrances that he was saddled with one after another. After having alternatively possessed charm and power, feeling and vigor, delicacy and depth, Gottschalk seems to have finally found the secret of uniting them. Everybody was struck by the change that has been accomplished in him, and although few people could probably take account of it, each has submitted to its charm. Also, his success, which would have appeared to reach its apogee, has soared to new heights which are growing in proportion as the transformation to which I have testified is noticed. Two singers who have made their debuts under his auspices are owed particular mention. They are both Americans and students of M. Muzio, to whom they do great honor. The first, Miss Lucy Simons, possesses a pure, flexible and clear soprano voice, that she handles with remarkable security and steadiness. The second, Mistress Motte, is a mezzo soprano, touching on contralto, with excellent timbre and extraordinary fullness. If the future holds the promises of the present, there is the stuff of two artists of good quality. I wouldn’t say as much about Mlle Louise Vivier, who has for her principal merit first-rate self-possession and a mad love of music which the latter doesn’t give back to her. They assure us that this name on the programme hides that of a woman of the world, gifted with a lovely family and a rich husband. I congratulate her, but I stick to what I said above.”

“Everybody seems cheerful and well-disposed now-a-days, and debutantes can never have a better opportunity to try themselves than the present. He or she must be rather rough and crude who cannot succeed now, when an abundance of money makes us so wondrous kind and good-natured. There were several first appearances last week, among the debutantes being… Mrs. J.M. Motte, who did much applause receive on the 22d. Now is the time, timid friends, to face a frowning world……Have you noticed how our minstrel friends are coming into favor? There’s Sher Campbell, lately with the Bryants, now singing at the Gottschalk and other concerts, all in white…

At the Gottschalk concert on the evening of the 22d inst., Signor Muzio introduced to the citizens of New York another of his pupils, her first appearance in public—in this city—Mrs. J.M. Motte, formerly of Boston. She is said to possess a rich mezzo-soprano voice of excellent quality and sings with expression. Her success was decided. On this occasion, Mr. Sher Campbell, formerly of Bryants’ Minstels, made his reappearance in the concert room, and sang a romance from the ‘Foscari,’ and that fine aria in the ‘Bohemian Girl’—‘The Heart Bowed Down.’ He was most enthusiastically received.”

Part of announcement for the third concert in the series. “The first and second concert [sic] were immensely thronged and, although on opera nights, the number prevented from entering were sufficient to fill the house.”