Beethoven Society of Yale College Concert

“[A] full chorus of fifty voices.”

“[A] chorus of fifty male voices, and which has been favorably received in the principal New England cities and in Brooklyn.”

    “The Beethoven Society of Yale College gave a Concert at Irving Hall last night, before a very large and fashionable audience.  The Society is composed of some fifty singers, with good fresh voices, good intonation, and a fair appreciation of effect. The tenor voices are unusually good, the basses rather lacking in depth and rotundity. They sang quite a number of pieces, with accuracy and spirit, and some of them with really excellent effect, and were most cordially and heartily applauded.  Their College songs were given with immense spirit, and were encored over and over again, to the delight of every one. The success was so decided that we should judge that another concert would pay well.

    The pianist, Mr. C. Elliot, has a brilliant touch, and a facile and elegant execution. He won a most enthusiastic encore, which he well deserved.”

    “Had a less indulgent and therefore more critical audience gathered at Irving Hall last evening there would have been quite as much enthusiasm displayed at the vocal performances of the Beethoven Society of Yale College.  As it was, the old songs and glees of the Alma Mater touched a sympathetic chord in the hearts of many listeners, and awakening sweet remembrances of the past rendered the pronouncement of a severe judgment impossible.  Hence it may be inferred that success attended the efforts of the amateurs, as plaudits would have rewarded them had the approbation bestowed been even less well merited. The spirit and vim with which many of the choruses were given caused trifling imperfections and the mediocrity of the tenor voices to pass unnoticed; and the song of the ‘wooden spoon,’ the glees ‘Upidee’ and ‘T-eel’ and the ‘champagne chorus’ were promptly encored.  The opening chorus from Ernani was rather clamorously though correctly sung. The quartette ‘Stars of the Summer Night’ was effectively rendered. One of Gottschalk’s characteristic pieces, ‘Ojos Criollos,’ played by Messrs. Elliott and Spier, and a piano solo from Lucrezia, by the firstnamed gentleman, gave evidence of the proficiency of the performers, Mr. Elliott’s execution being particularly brilliant. The only vocal solo was that of Mr. G. W. Young, whose voice, though well toned, lacks fullness and flexibility, which qualities can be attained by culture and a careful avoidance of the tremolo to which this singer last evening occasionally reverted. Mr. Young’s second performance, consequent on an encore, was more satisfactory than the first, his Infelice having been given mechanically and without a particle of expression; and the English ballad with which he responded to the applause was sung with good taste and some depth of feeling.” 

“The Society possesses quite a respectable chorus, sufficient we think to have justified a better selection of pieces. The College songs were, however, in the highest degree amusing, and gave the concert a special and enjoyable character of its own.”