Abel Chamber Music Concert

“[A] pianist of refined musical taste and genuine ability, [Abel] has returned to this city after a professional tour in Europe, where she won the cordial approbation of Scudo, Berlioz and other eminent critics.”

". . . . Lovers of good music will not learn without pleasure about the arrival of the celebrated French pianist, Mme. L. Abel (née Louise Scheibel), former student of Chopin, who, after an artistic tour in Germany, has come to visit the United States. The European newspapers speak in the most flattering terms of Mme Abel’s exceptional talent. Among the critics who have not spared their praises of her, we will cite two names who are authorities, M. Scudo and M. Berlioz. The former expressed himself in these terms: ‘This pianist has the rare merit of executing, with the same finesse, the same taste, the same perfection, classical music and the compositions of modern pianists. She has a lightness and at the same time a power in her playing, that surprise; she makes her instrument play in a bewitching manner, and carries away her audience by the true and simple means that never set aside good taste. Chopin’s compositions above all have found in her an exceptional interpreter.’” [Wishes her success here will be as brilliant as in France and Germany; tickets are $1.00; she should become a teacher and open a school for piano—“We have too many ‘improvised’ teachers in New York.”]

“[A]ssisted by many very excellent artists.”

“Thursday, an elite audience braved the bad weather to hear Mme Abel at Dodworth Hall, the lovers of classical music being sure not to miss such a beautiful occasion. The artists, feeling themselves sustained by an assembly of connoisseurs, attacked the trio of Reichel with a masterful security. From the first stroke of the bow of Mollenhauer and Bergner, the audience remained suspended until the end. M. Collière is an excellent singer: his large and powerful voice astonished and captivated a public sick and tired of the little mannerisms too often practiced by concert singers. M. Collière is a man of faith he is convinced that has discovered the true method of singing, he believes in this method like an apostle. We have confidence in a system capable of forming a singer like like him.

        We don’t know how not to praise Mme Abel too much. The temperate execution of this excellent pianist is composed of all the qualities of the French school in their perfection. Grace, elegance, clarity, energy tempered by taste, just the amount of sentiment needed to affect and create a dream without falling into a mystical billow. None of those great bursts, those jerky movements, those lost gazes at the ceiling, some pretense of passion that has fallen into the domain of caricature. In a word, Mme Abel is the French pianist par excellence; she interprets the great works of Beethoven, Mendelsohn [sic], Chopin in the manner in which our philosophers untangle the language and the metaphysical thought of the other side of the Rhine. In brief, the public at Dodworth’s has perpetuated the criticism of Berlioz and of Scudo, and we believe that the Germans will scarcely find among themselves a virtuoso capable of interpreting their great composers in this manner.

        One must say, to be fair toward everyone, that Chickering has done things well. He expressly sent from Boston one of those instruments that doubles the confidence of the artist, one of those mastodons that Gottschalk speaks of, submitting like a racehorse to the hand of the one who knows how to master it.”

Includes program. “The first concert of this lady . . . was well attended. The programme was entirely classic, . . . The [Reichel] trio was played in excellent style, Mme. Abel displaying both taste and expression, especially in the andante. She has a good technique; her execution is rapid, neat and quite brilliant. Her efforts during the evening were greatly assisted by one of the richest, broadest and most powerful toned grand pianos we have ever heard—the same instrument, we understand, which took the gold medal at the Boston Fair, and made by Chickering & Sons. Mme. Abel has much esprit in her playing, and seems both enthusiastic and earnest. Her school is of the classic order, which music she masters with clear thought and fine feeling. She phrases well, and her passages are strongly emphasized. She was very cordially received and warmly applauded after each piece. Mr. Bergner’s fine tone well sustained his associated. Mr. Colliere has a baritone voice of considerable compass, and sung two arias very effectively.”

“Madame Abel’s recent concert . . . showed to advantage her skill as an interpreter of classical music.  A feature of the entertainment was the appearance of M. Colliere, an old resident of this place, who, though past the age when the voice is in its prime, sang with finish and real artistic taste.”