Carnegie Hall (November 16, 1900)
Description
The concert began at 2 pm.
Source
Announcement: New-York Tribune, 7 October 1900, 14.
Advertisement: New York Times, 28 October 1900, 23.
Advertisement: The Sun, 17 November 1900, 12.
Review: New York Times, 17 November 1900, 6.
Review: The Sun, 17 November 1900, 4.
Concert Program: US-NYcha
Contributor
Transcription
The first concert of the fifty-ninth season of the Philharmonic Society of New York took place yesterday afternoon in Carnegie Hall. It was called, as all these afternoon concerts are, a public rehearsal, but this name has ceased to have any significance. The afternoon entertainments are in every sense concerts conducted with all the dignity and the same general excellence as the evening offerings. The audience yesterday was a typical Philharmonic afternoon assembly, representing the out-of-town music lover, the student, and the teacher, as well as the feminine votary of the art not associated for life with one willing to endure the trials of symphonies past understanding, and so condemned to the afternoon and the smiles of her own sex. Children, too, are to be seen in these audiences, and it may be that some of them really enjoy the music, but they usually look as if they were being kept after school. However, yesterday afternoon's assembly seemed to be pleased to be back in its familiar gathering place, and to listen to the tonal dispensation of the conscript fathers, the Senate of music in this town.
The programme consisted of the "Academic" overture of Brahms, the F major toccata of Bach, orchestrated by Esser; the B flat concert of Tschaikowsky, already heard once this week, and a new symphony in E major by Joseph Suk. The solo performer was Mme. Teresa Carreno. The place of honor in this consideration of the afternoon's doings must be awarded to the new composition, for players come and go, but the work, if worthy, lives. The composer of this first symphony (which is his fourteenth work) is the second violin of the famous Bohemian quartet, an organization enjoying a notable reputation throughout Europe. He is a young man not quite twenty-seven years of age, and is the son of a musician. He studied the violin under Bennewitz and composition under the eminent Bohemian composer, Antonin Dvorak. He has written some chamber music and an overture to "A Winter's Tale," but the work heard yesterday is his first in the symphonic form...
The more one hears of the B flat piano concerto of Tschaikowsky, which Franz Rummel made known to us, the more the wonderful beauty of its flowing cantabile themes is impressed on the mind. These came out yesterday very well, indeed, in spite of the impetuous manner in which Mme. Carreno went at the first movement. The temptation to compare her reading with that of Gabrilowitsch is powerful. Perhaps, however, no more need be said than this: His was the reading of a thoughtful and poetic young man, seeking the difficile self-control of maturity, and accentuating his nuances in order to make plain the purport of his reading. Hers was the performance of a mature artist, sure of her fame, sure of herself, and not afraid to hurl all delicacy and the hair-spinning of the raffine school to the winds, while she swept the keyboard with the rush of a whirlwind, "set the wild echoes flying" and the whole auditorium throbbing with the magnetic waves of her exuberant temperament.
Power, majesty of conception, sonority of tone, and all the splendors of passion flamed through the performance of this gorgeous woman, who, at a period of maturity when most of her sex take to teaching or to charitable societies, is still able to reign over human hearts by the magic of her chosen instrument. As a personality, she is like, indeed, to the wondrous Cleopatra, for "age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." In respect of mellowness of tone only did her performance yesterday fall short of leaving no room for anything but praise, and that was not wholly her fault. The piano was not a fair representative of its distinguished makers...
The Sun, November 17, 1900.
Teresa Carreno is still the Valkyr of the Keyboard—as they call her in Berlin. A commanding personality—imperious would be a better word—Carreno does not woo her music, but compels it to an utterance. She played Tschaikowsky's B flat minor concerto, and for the second time this week New York heard the work. If Gabrilowitsch gave it a specifically Russian atmosphere, Carreno goes to the other extreme, and in a blaze of sunrise, amidst the mountains and with sonorities majestic and challenging, this Amazon, unafraid, attacks the concerto like a victorious and irresistible army. It is magnificent, but is it Tschaikowsky? Of consummate virtuosity, brilliancy, monumental strength there were amazing evidences. Every tempo was hurried to a vertiginous pace, from the broad opening andante to the final allegro—which was transformed into a Calmuck frenzy. Nothing like such piano playing has been heard here for years. Much of the poetry, all of the mystery and remoteness of the composer, escaped under Carreno's vigorous wrists and fingers. But the concerto evoked shivers. A finished, enamel-like picture was presented by this great pianists, whose mechanism in the valse-like scherzo recalled Joseffy. And she was applauded until one wondered what change had overtaken the spirit of the usually frigid Philharmonic audience. In response to many recalls the favorite artist played with fascinating brio Chopin's G-flat study, known to piano students as "The Butterfly." But at what a tempo.
Brahms's Academic Festival overture and the Bach-Esser Toccata in F comprised the remainder of the programme. The Philharmonic band, best in massed effects, weakest when its individual choirs are exposed, accomplished some excellent if heavy-gaited results. Mr. Paur was indefatigable and his accompaniment of the concerto deserves special praise. With such a forced draught in the coda of the finale, and Carreno racing at top speed, it needed a man of action at hand. Mr. Paur was no laggard. This evening at the regular concert the same scheme of music will be presented.
Carnegie Hall.
Philharmonic Society of New York
1900—Fifty-ninth Season—1901.
Emil Paur, Conductor.
Orchestra Over 100
Eight Public Rehearsals on Friday afternoons and Eight Concerts on Saturday evenings—Nov. 16, 17; Dec. 7, 8; Dec. 21, 22; Jan. 11, 12; Feb. 1, 2; Feb. 15, 16; Mar. 8, 9; Mar. 29, 30.
First Program—Nov. 16 and 17.
Academic Festival—Overture, Brahms.
Toccata, F major, J. S. Bach
Concerto for Piano, no. 1, B flat minor, Tschaikowsky.
Mme. Teresa Carreno.
Symphony in E, op. 14, (new), Josef Suk.
Subscriptions for Eight Rehearsals or Concerts—Seats $5 to $14, boxes $80 and $100, now on sale. Circulars at music stores, etc., and by mail from Aug. Roebbelen, Sec'y of N. Y. Phil. Society, Carnegie Hall.
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