Mason-Thomas Chamber Music Soirée: 1st [11th Season]

     “Of course the great masters Mozart and Beethoven delighted us as ever, with their noble works.  The novelty, a Sextet by Brahms, is a work that possesses its good features, together with many defects.  While it has some fine thoughts, such as the charming theme with which it commences, we find others that are nothing more than trivial, far-fetched.  Brahms never appears true to himself; it seems to us that he willingly avoids what is individual in his own talent in order to appear original.  We seldom enjoy a pure, unalloyed pleasure while listening to his works, on account of this untruthfulness, which will suggest itself to us.”

     Advertises the entire season.

     The series is “instructive and delightful.”

     The Mozart Quartet was performed excellently. Not so Beethoven’s Trio: there were some irregularities in the piano performance. Brahms Sextet has been praised and criticized at the same time. It has verve, energy and melodic strength in the first part, yet the following does not live up to the beginning. This work does not belong with the best of Brahms.

     “The gas refused to burn, and Dodworth’s Hall appeared quite cavernous in the dim glimmer of three or four kerosene lamps.  The audience, however, was in excellent humor, and the admirable performance…kept it in that happy frame of mind.”  The Mozart is “full of brilliant thoughts, delicate and tender imaginings, and is rich and varied in modulation.” The Beethoven, “large as it is in conception, and wonderfully as it is worked, is by no means a fascinating composition.”  The Brahms “is a composition of much merit.  It is wild and extravagant in many places, and not unfrequently [sic] obscure, but it exhibits great breadth in the treatment of the instruments, arising occasionally in strength, to orchestral effects, and its modulations are bold, startling and generally effective.  Brahms is unquestionably a fine writer, but we hardly think his present fulfills the promise of his early works.  He certainly has not made a path for himself, but has halted between the middle and the extreme, lacking, perchance, force of character to take a decided line.” As to the performers, they “gave marked evidence on this occasion of the improvement consequent upon constant and intelligent practice together.  We find a greater oneness of purpose, a more sensitive feeling in the united action, and a nicer appreciation of artistic coloring, than heretofore.  It is with much pleasure that we chronicle this positive improvement in a branch of art which has so few competent experts.”