Irving Hall: Opening Night Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Irving Hall

Manager / Director:
Lafayette F. Harrison

Price: $.50; $1 reserved

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
21 June 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

01 Sep 1866, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Donizetti
3)
aka Sunder not the bond; Trio from Das Nachtlager in Granada
Composer(s): Kreutzer

Citations

1)
Announcement: New York Herald, 27 August 1866, 5.

Irving Hall is “newly painted and decorated.”

2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 30 August 1866, 7.
3)
Announcement: New-York Times, 31 August 1866, 4.
4)
Advertisement: New-York Daily Tribune, 31 August 1866.
5)
Review: New York Herald, 02 September 1866, 4.

     “The first concert of the season of 1866 and 1867 took place last night at Irving Hall. This popular place of amusement has been fitted up in a style surpassing all the manager’s previous efforts, and under the glare of a hundred gaslights the rich decorations and painting showed to great advantage. This hall will be the principal musical resort until the magnificent hall of the Messrs. Steinway is completed. Last night the following artists appeared:—Miss Kate McDonald, Mr. William Castle, Mr. S.C. Campbell, Master Mollenhauer and Mr. G.W. Colby. The programme comprised some excellent selections. Miss McDonald’s voice is much improved since we heard her last. There is still a want of breadth of tone and sympathetic expression in it, but in a freshness, purity and sweetness it is incomparable. After some practice and matured experience, Miss McDonald will undoubtedly attain a very high position among the vocalists of America. She sings some of the highest notes known to a soprano voice with clearness and distinctness; but a tone which can be strengthened before the season is over. Her upper register of voice is extraordinary. It is completely under control, and the softest notes are as distinct and expressive as the fortissimo. Mr. Campbell never sang better than last night. His magnificent baritone voice, so rich and sonorous, seems to have improved during the summer. There is still a nasal twang about it which detracts somewhat from its efficiency; but there is no questioning its power. Now and then some thrilling and soul-touching notes would burst out and convince the audience that no such other voice exists in America. We have heard more powerful, and better trained voices, but none to reach the heart like that of S.C. Campbell. Mr. William Castle disappointed us somewhat. In the opera and the concerto hall this gentleman shows a remarkable contrast. In the opera he throws his whole soul into the character, and his voice glows with soul and feeling. In the concert hall his voice loses the charm he throws around it in the opera. The entire register is sweet, clear, and well balanced, but the soul is wanting. He cannot be said to sing, technically speaking, worse than ordinary, but there is something absent. It is the mere echo of Don Carlos in the Doctor of Alcantara or the disguised King in the Rose of Castile. Still there are some pieces in which he is admirable. In the charming song, ‘Beware,’ in sentimental ballads of a certain passionate kind, and in some operatic duets, his voice warms up to the feeling of the composer. Master Bernard Mollenhauer, for a boy, is a very good violinist. There is something crude and unfinished about his style, but he displays considerable taste and a certain capacity for executing difficult violin passages. His best qualities are a clear and finished tone in andante movements. In rapid passages he is very often completely indistinct. Mr. Colby is an excellent director, and added considerably to the success of many of the pieces on the programme last night. The best pieces presented to the large audiences were the splendid duet from Betley, and the trio in Kreutzer’s Night in Granada.”

6)
Review: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 05 September 1866, 72.

     Another one of these “artistically insignificant” concerts. Unfortunately young artists performing at these concerts are deceived with the success they might experience. Only much later they will find out how little these kind of concerts weigh in a performance career. There is no artistic value to them. However, these performances at Irving Hall have one good side: we could see the new decorations at the venue which give it a much friendlier ambience.

7)
Announcement: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 05 September 1866, 74.

An announcement that the concert took place and mentioning of the interior restoration of the venue.