Carnegie Hall (April 2, 1897)

Carreño performed in a public rehearsal with the New York Philharmonic under conductor Walter Damrosch. She performed Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat major, op. 73 (Beethoven, Ludwig van), and Fantasie über ungarische Volksmelodien, S.123 (Liszt, Franz).

The concert began at 2:15 pm. Regular seats were priced between $0.50 and $1.50. Boxes were sold for $12.

Announcement: New York Times, 28 March 1897, 23.

Review: Chicago Daily Tribune, 3 April 1897, 2.

Review: New York Times, 3 April 1897, 6.

Review: The Sun, 3 April 1897, 3.

Concert Program: US-NYcha

Kijas, Anna

New York Times, March 28, 1897.

The sixth and last symphony concert of the present season will take place on Friday afternoon, April 2, and Saturday evening, April 3, at Carnegie Hall, and will close what has been the most successful season of the Symphony Society in many years. The soloist at that concert will be Mme. Teresa Carreno, and the programme in full is as follows: Symphony in B flat, Schumann; Emperor Concerto, Beethoven, Mme. Carreno; Good Friday's Bells from "Parsifal," Wagner; Hungarian Rhapsody, Liszt, Mme. Carreno.

 

Chicago Daily Tribune, April 3, 1897.

New York, April 2.—[Special.]—Mme. Carreno was the soloist at the last afternoon concert of the Symphony Society, at Carnegie Hall, today, and her magnificent performance of Liszt's fascinating "Fantasie Hongroise" was the feature of an enjoyable program.

There was much dash, fire, power, and brilliancy in her rendering of this ever-welcome, though familiar, number that it fairly electrified the usual lymphatic afternoon concert audience, and roused them to enthusiasm and an encore.

 

New York Times, April 3, 1897.

The last public rehearsal of the Symphony Society took place yesterday afternoon at Carnegie Hall in the presence of a large and demonstrative audience. The programme consisted of Schumann's B flat symphony, the E flat piano concerto of Beethoven, the Good Friday music from "Parsifal," and the Hungarian fantasia of Franz Liszt. Mme. Teresa Carreno was the solo performer. While there were features in the work of the orchestra and the readings of Mr. Damrosch that might demand extended discussion in ordinary circumstances, the fact that Mme. Carreno's piano playing quite overshadowed everything else offers a sufficient reason for dismissing those features quickly. The playing of the orchestra was more notable for its color and vivacity than for precision or polish of style. Mr. Damrosch hurried the first movement of the Schumann symphony, but read the other movements acceptably.

Mme. Carreno waited until yesterday to submit herself to the severest test she has yet undertaken. Technicians are fond of declaring that Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto is not a test of a pianist's powers, because it does not give full scope for a display of the technical resources of the player. When the work is badly played it seems to justify this view; but when it is well performed it carries to the mind the irresistible conviction that it is a great composition. As music pure and simple it is noble, inspired, and inspiring. The fact that it does not call for the entire resources of the post-Beethovenian technic is no proof that it is not great. On the contrary, that it is not an overwhelmingly difficult composition is al the better reason why more pianists ought to succeed with it. But the real trouble with it is that its musical ideas are not hidden behind a lot of fireworks. They stand forth almost in their naked beauty, and only an artist can do them justice. 

It is therefore with the homage due to a great artist that we record to-day the fact that Mme. Carreno played this concerto yesterday in a noble manner. Only in warmth and variety of tone color was her work deficient, and that deficiency was owing to circumstances which Mme. Carreno might have controlled at the beginning of the season, but certainly could not yesterday. In conception her performance was absolutely correct, and it was full of lofty intellectuality and eloquence. In rhythmic beauty, in perfect distribution of dynamics, in phrasing, and in meaning it left little, if anything, to be desired. The slow movement in particular was played with such admirable phrasing and such delicate gradations of accentuation as to bring out its pathetic beauty to the fullest degree. At all times in the concerto Mme. Carreno appeared to have unwonted control of her powers, and she swayed her audience. After such a performance we cannot hesitate to say that Mme. Carreno claims a proud place among the foremost pianists of our time. 

In the Liszt fantasia she let loose the reins which had curbed her temperament, and played with a dash, a vigor, and a brilliancy that excited her hearers greatly. But even in Liszt's music Mme. Carreno might exercise more self-control, for she took the coda of the composition too fast for clarity. The concert will be repeated to-night.