Harrison’s Grand Concert: 2d

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Manager / Director:
Lafayette F. Harrison

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Price: $1; reserved, $1.50

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo), Orchestral

Performance Forces:
Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
21 December 2015

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

03 Oct 1867, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
3)
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
4)
Composer(s): Auber
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
5)
aka Tremola; Tremolo; Le tremolo
Composer(s): Beriot
Participants:  Carl Rosa
6)
Composer(s): Artôt
Participants:  Carl Rosa
7)
Composer(s): Brodek
Participants:  William J. [tenor] Hill
8)
Composer(s): Abt
Participants:  William J. [tenor] Hill
9)
Composer(s): Schubert
Participants:  Thomas Orchestra
10)
Composer(s): Spohr
Participants:  Thomas Orchestra
11)
Composer(s): Verdi
Participants:  Thomas Orchestra
12)
aka Romeo and Juliette
Composer(s): Gounod
13)
aka Air
Composer(s): Gumbert
Participants:  Anna [soprano] Ackerman
14)
Composer(s): Gounod
Participants:  Anna [soprano] Ackerman

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 01 October 1867, 7.
2)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 02 October 1867, 6.
3)
Review: New York Herald, 04 October 1867, 7.

“Mr. Harrison’s second concert was largely attended last night. Leopold de Meyer seems to be the great card of the season. It is rarely we hear such a pianist in an American concert hall. His rendering of a fantasia of his own, on airs from Bellini, called Souvenir d’Italie, and the exquisite slumber song from Masaniello, was invested with a raiment of poetry like that which Chopin was wont to throw over his piano playing. Madame Anna Ackerman sang an aria from Faust and one of Gumpert’s songs. Mr. W. J. Hill sang Brodek’s Twilight and a ballad by Abt in excellent style, and the inimitable violinist, Rosa, gave universal satisfaction in Artot’s Souvenir de Bellini. Thomas’ orchestra played the Jessonda and Rosamond overtures and selections from Don Carlos and Romeo and Juliet. The concert was an entire success.”   

4)
Review: New York Post, 04 October 1867.

“The second of Mr. Harrison’s Steinway Hall concerts was given last evening to a good house. As at the first concert, Mr. Leopold de Meyer was the lion of the evening, and nobly wore the honors of the position. His playing, since his former appearance here, has dissipated the prejudices based on the traditions of his old style of maltreating that helpless and much-abused instrument, the piano. The surplus strength of fingers, which once threatened ruin to keyboards, has been subdued by a mature and chastened taste, and now pleases where it once merely astonished and shocked. The brilliant execution remains, but it serves obediently to the dictates of a proper and more refined musical sentiment. Madame Ackerman made a pleasing impression as a skilled singer, but seemed hardly equal to operatic music. As a whole the concert was generally enjoyed.”

5)
Review: New-York Times, 04 October 1867, 4.

“Mr. HARRISON’S concerts become more interesting as they proceed. The pieces of vocalism at the entertainment last evening were more numerous than on the occasion of the opening. Mme. ACKERMANN, who made her début in America, was very generously received, and in the aria from ‘Faust’ and the song by GUMPERT displayed her proficiency in languages, as well as the best notes of a very agreeable voice. M. LEOPOLD DE MEYER reposted his ‘Greeting to America,’ and uttered for the first time a new fantasia for the piano, by himself, of course, called ‘A Souvenir d’Italie’—a piece full of poetic force and expression, and thoroughly appreciated by his audience. Another attractive feature of last evening’s programme was the performance, by Mr. CARL ROSA, of themes for the violin from BELLINI and BEETHOVEN. The latter, by DE BERIOT, an elaborately-constructed affair, although reckoned among one of the DE BERIOT puzzles, in the hands of such a player as ROSA comes out with crystalline clearness. Mr. HILL’S ballads were gems of singing. If it was necessary, however, to call up each artist who deserves a word of praise, and award it specially and formally, our task would be a long one. We must add to the foregoing, however, that Mr. THOMAS’ orchestra maintained its reputation in the SCHUBERT overture [Rosamunde], and the taste of ‘Don Carlos’ which was vouchsafed, in the ‘March,’ from that latest effort of the Verdian brain, and that Mr. THOMAS, in the exercise of his duties as musical director, was as zealous and indefatigable as ever.”    

6)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 04 October 1867.

"The second of the concerts which have Leopold de Meyer for their star was given last evening at Steinway Hall. Madame Ackerman, a cantatrice from Europe, made her début in an air from Faust and a song by Gumpert—neither very new, and the latter not wholly to our taste, but still exhibiting Madame Ackerman’s vocal experience. Her voice lacks warmth, if we judge by Gumpert’s sentiment; but we shall wait for another hearing. Of Mr. De Meyer’s performance, half of which was a repetition of his previous programme, we can do little more than record its great success. So far our lion pianist lays no extraordinary stress on his skill as a player of bravura, and it is well that he does not. He prefers to make clear, above all other qualities, the exquisite grace and delicacy which his fingers command, along with so much that is difficult and dashing, if never absolutely powerful.”

7)
Review: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 06 October 1867, 4.

The mezzo-soprano Mrs. Ackerman had her debut in the second concert at Steinway Hall. She was formerly the prima donna of the German opera in St. Petersburg. She possesses a pleasant sounding alto. Although the pieces she chose were not chosen wisely for an American audience, she performed with taste and warmth, which gained her lively applause. Rosa and Mrs. Kempton also received much applause.

8)
Review: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 12 October 1867, 52.

Participation in Harrison’s excellent concerts insufficient. Of newly hired singers, Harrison introduced only Miss Ackermann, whose success was mediocre. Leopold de Meyer, Carl Rosa, and also Parepa-Rosa performed as soloists in some of his concerts.