Mason-Thomas Chamber Music Soiree: 2nd

Event Information

Venue(s):
Dodworth's Hall

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Performance Forces:
Instrumental

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
8 October 2011

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

04 Feb 1865, 8:00 PM

Program Details



Moved from Steinway’s Rooms after a large audience for the first concert (AD: NYT 02/02/65).

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Citations

1)
: Theodore Thomas, vol 2 [eds. Upton and Stein], 0000.
Program.
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 02 February 1865.

3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 02 February 1865.

4)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 07 February 1865, 5.
“We find a marked improvement in all essential points in the performance of these artists.  The ensemble is infinitely more perfect as regards completeness and mutual understanding, which combine unity of though and action in the interpretation of the works chosen.  Mr. Wm. Mason played very finely.  He was accurate, forcible, and threw unusual spirit and passion into his performance.  His touch was sensitive and expressive and his reading exemplified all the beauties and the strength of the composition.  Mr. Thomas never played as well before, in our hearing; we must note especially his board and expressive execution of the slow movements, proving higher intelligence and depth of sentiment than he has heretofore shown.  His tone, too, is rounder and more sympathetic and his general execution clearer and more brilliant.  One point he should guard against namely; a tendency to dominate too much in tone, to retain a perfect balance of tone with his confreres.  We must compliment all the gentlemen concerted in these intellectual and delightful Soirees.”
5)
Review: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 08 February 1865, 29.

Well-attended.  The concert offered a richer program than the first one.  Whereas the first concert presented only a work of Beethoven’s youth (Septet), we were delighted to hear a work of the grown and mature artist, the Quartet, opus 59, no. 2.  While the influence of Mozart is obvious in the septet, this Quartet expresses Beethoven’s own style and, thus, his individuality.  What was only a bloom in the septet has turned into a ripe fruit in the Quartet.

            We also appreciated hearing a quartet by Mendelssohn in this second soiree.  Although we don’t think that Mendelssohn was an extraordinary composer of the epoch, we do believe that his music deserves to be played more than it is in New York.  The quartet played on this evening [Quartet in E-flat] is nothing particularly memorable; it possesses, however, a sweet and artistically valuable tenderness.

             It was interesting to renew our acquaintance with a composer who did not seem promising in the early part of his career, yet later became quite successful: Joachim Raff.  He started out with salon music but has now moved on to more sophisticated genres with skill and confidence.  He is a man of extraordinary intelligence and sharpness, which has helped him rise to a very high level of training and skill.
6)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 18 February 1865.
“Two of these concerts have already been given this winter; one in Steinway’s exceedingly small room, which being found too much en miniature for the audience, the quartet moved on the second evening to their old quarters in Dodworth’s building.”