Harrison’s Grand Concert: 1st

“[the Hall’s] main defects have been corrected.  A new entrance has been constructed on Fourteenth-street, on a level with the sidewalk, this greatly improving the ingress and exit; its light has been increased by the construction of new sunlights and the addition of ten candelabra, and its means of ventilation have been enlarged. . . . the programme is unusually attractive, even for an opening night.”

“The uniform excellence of the concerts given under his direction last season is the best pledge for that of those to occur this season.  Mrs. Jenny Kempton, an old favorite in the concert-room, will tonight make her first appearance since her return to this country.  The forcible playing of Leopold de Meyer will to-night be heard here for the first time since its resonant echoes died away twenty years ago.”

“The large assemblage at the Steinway Hall concert last night was attracted thither chiefly by the announcement of the first appearance here for almost a generation of Leopold de Meyer, who twenty years ago visited this country as a pianist. The long time that was intervened has made de Meyer a mature, gray-headed man; yet his youthful vivacity is by no means impaired, and his playing is as vigorous as ever.  He shows a prodigious power, and has a manner of dashing at the keyboard that is very effective, but may easily be exaggerated. No public performer ever succeeded in putting himself more thoroughly in sympathy with his audience. To his mere vigor and vivacity, however, Mr. de Meyer adds both sentiment and delicacy. His runs are as clear and as perfect as those of Thalberg, and he is capable of far greater contrast. The reception accorded last night to ‘the lion pianist’ was more than hearty; he has taken musical New York by storm, and for some time to come will be the popular pianist of the day. He will play again on Thursday night.

Mrs. Jenny Kempton sang last night in a careful and creditable manner, but her selections were not adapted to the general taste. Mr. Carl Rosa played in the best style, and Theodore Thomas’s orchestra sustained its high reputation.”

“Steinway Hall reopened last evening with an overcrowded house. Of this the occasion was quite worthy, for Leopold de Meyer, a pianist whom America has not seen for 20 years, appeared and performed with that famous brilliancy which has attached to his name and style. Mr. De Meyer’s incoming has been odd and sudden. All unheralded, he stepped from Europe a month ago into a Broadway music-store, and was then and there seized upon by an astounded manager. Since then his reputation has re-domesticated itself among us, and the expectation of again hearing Leopold de Meyer has been general. Last night our public appropriately welcomed this veteran and preux chevalier of the piano.

Mr. De Meyer is perhaps the most popular player living. Our American Gottschalk is a marvelous prestidigitateur--but we forbear comparison. It is enough that we recognize at once Mr. De Meyer’s great sensibility and susceptibility as a player. He may play us nothing but popularities to the end of the chapter, but his genius of touch will nevertheless be recognized. A fantasia on Norma themes, and a Concert-Polka of ‘Greeting to America,’ both his own compositions, were his share of the programme last evening. We are not inclined to be rapturous on hearing distinguished foreigners play Yankee Doodle to us; it is anything but novel, or classic, or significant, and we heartily wish that they knew better. So, of course, we do not care to elaborate praise of Mr. De Meyer’s Concert-Polka skillfully and fancifully showy though it undoubtedly was. The afterpiece to this brilliant clap-trap, played in answer to an enthusiastic demand, was far more accordant with intelligence and feeling. We remember it as something far better than anything set down in the bills—one of those clear and exquisite passages in which Mr. Meyerbeer illuminates his whole style and reveals himself as certainly none of our merely nimble piano-prosers can do—a true poet of the paino. Popular as he is—and popularity is supposed to exhibit as many musical sins as charity usually covers—Mr. Meyer gives us more than hint at deeper felicities than those of the fancy. He had but to touch the keys, last night, gently and sweetly, as only the true artist can, to subdue his hearers to his mood, and lead the well pleased through all the delicacy and force of its development withal. M. De Meyer’s style is eminently popular in the best sense we can extract from this perilous word. He has a fine temperament and intelligence, and a presence venerable and amiable—in a word, he is a real lion of music, with some of the best qualities of the lamb. We are glad to welcome the best that he has to give us, certain that American audiences are prepared to appreciate the fine exhibition he can make of a genius whose delightful elasticity both continents have applauded.

The rest of the opening programme at Steinway’s was adequately performed. The bright ballet of Gounod’s Queen of Sheba, by Mr. Thomas’s orchestra; Mr. Rosa’s brief but very capricious violin comment on the theme of Don Giovanni’s serenade, and Miss Jenny Kempton’s utterance of a ballad of Balfe, may be instanced with pleasure.  Miss Kepmton brings back to us a geneial contralto, very distinctly individualized by nature and culture. Her success in the concert-hall seems already assured.”   

The concert attracted a large audience. Participating was the violinist Rosa, the singer Jenny Kempton, who has made progress in her skills after her continuing education in Europe, and the pianist Leopold de Meyer, who has not performed in America for 20 years. He is one of the greatest pianists ever heard in this country. His surprising and never failing technique is in complete balance with the elegance of his style. His compositions contain quite difficult passages, and rarely are challenges mastered in such a skilled and accurate fashion. The audience applauded enthusiastically and requested an encore after his first piece. The orchestra, conducted by Thomas, played the overture from Ruy Blas, which was an excellent choice for an opening piece.

(…) De Meyer’s performance is audibly excellent; however, visually his physical appearance takes more getting used to. His movements are jerky and restless; he carries a self-serving smirk on his face, and once he mastered a difficult part or created a special effect he adopts a triumphant glance. His playing; however, is performed with exceptional tenderness and grace as well as high energy and fire. The audience exploded with applause after every piece, and `. [MIG copy of review incomplete]

“Of all the rare musical entertainments which, of late years, have been devoted to the delectation of ‘the people,’ as well as more fastidious amateurs, none have been more honored than the concert series which Mr. HARRISON introduced a couple of years ago. They have shone among the shining attractions of each season—their beginnings anticipated with pleasure, their ending universally regretted. They are due with the Autumn tints, and October having begun to put on her brown foliage, Steinway Hall was thrown open on Tuesday evening for the first of Mr. HARRISON’S regular concerts of the Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday series. The performance on this opening night was absolutely perfect. We can remember very few concerts so entirely and unexceptionably good. The main object which Mr. HARRISON had in view, we fancy,—after the very natural one that Benjamin Franklin would call of ‘money catching’—was to afford his friends the opportunity of hearing M. LEOPOLD DE MEYER again, after his twenty years silence. DE MEYER’S playing continues still to be remarkable for its fire and impetuosity, while with those peculiarities is mingled a rarer excellence—only acquired by years of practice—supreme delicacy of touch, which gives the true poetic expression of everything he puts his finger to. It seemed to surprise the great audience that had assembled to find how little DE MEYER had changed. They beheld the favorite of twenty years ago—a little tinted, perhaps, but very slightly, by the yellow rays of the Southern sun—still erect, slender and graceful, his hair silvered over, though his face is still young in that quiet smile which always made him such a genial contrast to the impassioned GOTTSCHALK. His welcome was thundered at him. As of yore, he seats himself at his instrument, then ungloves, and then turning his hands into one another, reminds one of the athlete testing the elasticity of his muscle, and flexing his limbs, before he enters the arena to grapple for the crown of victory. It would be labor lost to look for DE MEYER’S most beatutiful performance among the four pieces (two encores) which he played on Tuesday evening. They were all superb. His own ‘Fantasia on Norma’—a dreamy, but puzzling composition—while it was expressed with uniform and characteristic delicacy of touch—displayed in every phase his great abundance of energy and finished taste. Composers, with no intention of executing their own music, have, in many instances, written passages which it is nearly impossible to play; but they cast the burden of the attempt on other shoulders, or perhaps we should say, other hands. DE MEYER performs almost exclusively his own difficult music; but he performs it with a delightful assumption of ease that makes it seem like mere child’s play. His high-spirited action and fantastic indulgence in left-handed playing were displayed in a new composition, ‘A Greeting to America,’ (and its encore,) which were the features of the second part. The applause after this was most furious, and there was every disposition shown on the part of the audience to keep ‘The Lion’ at his soothing labors all night.

As Apollo was always surrounded with the best of company, not having the least fear of rival artists, so is this brilliant god of the golden wires environed in the Parnassus of Steinway’s with a company of performers who are as musical as his own piano. Mrs. JENNY KEMPTON made her debut, after the European absence, with a much strengthened voice, still purely contralto in the lower notes, but of much more delicate tone in the higher. She sang MOZART’S ‘Non Piu Fiori,’ which is less a cavatina than a bravura, and BELLINI’S ‘Le Romeso’ which is a cavatina and nothing else, and gave both a pleasing and refined expression. In reply to an encore to the latter she sang a Scotch ballad with simple grace; and in the second part BALFE’S sweet ballad, ‘Home,’ which she uttered with much real feeling. CARL ROSA had two solos, and it is unnecessary to state, made his violin speak with unmistakable language in both. LEPINSKI’S ‘Concerto Militaire’ and MOESER’S fantasia on ‘Der Freyschutz’ were the compositions, and a repeat was imperatively demanded of both, for ROSA never played more admirably and never with more memorable enthusiasm. The orchestral pieces, which begun and ended each part at this concert, were given with that uniform finish and delicacy which marks the happy labors of THEODORE THOMAS’ brilliant band when under the guidance of its young chief in person. They began with MENDELSSOHN’S bright overture to ‘Ruy Blas,’ followed with BEETHOVEN’S magnificent ‘Egmont,’ GOUNOD’S ‘Reine de Saba,’ which, from beginning to end may be said to sparkle like a diamond, and LISZT’S last march of victory, ‘Vom Fels Zum Meer,’ of which we had something to say when originally produced in the Summer concerts under Mr. THOMAS’ direction. The entire performance may be said, with hyperbole, to have ‘electrified’ the audience, and Mr. HARRISON’S season has certainly been inaugurated with all the enthusiasm he could desire.”                           

“The opening of M. Harrison’s season of concerts took place the day before yesterday with the greatest splendor. Steinway Hall has been considerably beautified. The cut-glass chandeliers, that other places are so sparing of, are lavish there, and today it’s one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world, if there’s even one that could sustain a comparison. The public was numerous and elegant; the remainder were a true audience of connoisseurs. The great success of the evening was for the pianist Leopold de Meyer, whose talent certainly justified the reputation which preceded him here. Delicacy, brio, charm, vigor, poetry, nothing was lacking in his playing. He got a true ovation. His fantasy on Norma moved the hearers to tears and carried them away.

            Besides M. de Meyer, we scarcely see anyone to mention. Mme Jenny Kempton still has a lot to do before being counted as an opera-singer. M. Parepa Rosa plays the violin accurately, grammatically: that’s all one can say. As for M. Thomas’s orchestra, it’s without contradiction the best currently in New York.”

The splendid Steinway grand piano sounded more beautiful under the hands of de Meyer than we have ever heard an instrument sound before. From the softed breath of pianissimo to the powerful thundering of a fortissimo, de Meyer let the instrumet shine in the noblest fashion. “The audience was carried into a stage of enthusiasm that almost bordered on insanity.”

Rosa played Lipinski’s “Military Concerto” very well. He has gained in the quality of sound and the level of energy in his performance; however, he still lacks the “poetry” which makes a “genuine artist”. Miss Kempton sang two ill-chosen pieces. Her voice is good, but small, and the high range is not fully sufficient. A further evaluation of her skills will happen after her next appearance.

Publishing announcement for de Meyer’s Greeting to America (op. 181), by J. Schuberth publishing, $1.  Under press are de Meyer’s Revoir Nocturne (op. 182) and Fantasie au Norma (op. 183).