Carnegie Hall (December 22, 1907)
Description
The concert began at 3 pm.
Source
Announcement: New York Tribune, 22 December 1907, 4.
Advertisement: New York Times, 18 December 1907, 16
Review: New York Times, 23 December 1907, 9.
Review: "Carreño Reappears at Carnegie Hall," Musical America, 28 December 1907, 1, 5.
Concert Program: US-NYcha
Contributor
Transcription
New York Times, December 17, 1907.
Symphony Concert Sunday. Society to Resume Series Interrupted by the Blue Law Enforcement.The Symphony Society of New York will resume its series of Sunday concerts next Sunday afternoon at Carnegie Hall, with Mme. Teresa Carreno, pianist, as soloist. This is made possible by the Aldermanic approval of the Doull Sunday ordinance, and by a Supreme Court injunction, obtained yesterday morning by Richard Welling, attorney for the Symphony Society. This injunction will serve to protect the society if Mayor McClellan should veto the Doull amendment.
Carreno will make her first appearance in New York after an absence of seven years. She will play the Tschaikowsky concerto for piano with orchestra. The orchestra under Mr. Damrosch will play the "Symphonie Fantastique" of Berlioz, the Scherzo from Gounod's "Little Symphony for Wind Instruments," and Elgar's Marche, "With Pomp and Circumstance."
New York Times, December 23, 1907.
The New York Symphony. Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony the Chief Number—Mme. Carreno Soloist.Under the new ordinance which submits the morals of the community again to the danger of listening to the music of the great masters as expounded by voice and instruments, the Sunday concerts of the New York Symphony Orchestra were resumed yesterday afternoon at Carnegie Hall. There was an audience of good size, but not filling the house. The programme was that announced for the concert two weeks ago, so summarily stopped by the decision of the court—Berlioz's "Symphonic Fantastique," the scherzo from Gounod's "Little Symphony for Wind Instruments," and Sir Edward Elgar's march, "Pomp and Circumstance." Mme. Teresa Carreño was the soloist, and she played Tschaikowsky's B-flat minor concerto.
Mr. Damrosch presented Berlioz's symphony in a very characteristic style, with all its picturesque, fantastic, and macabre qualities thrown into high lights, with abundant spirit and an appreciation of what the composer aimed at. That the symphony has ever gained a place in the real esteem, to say nothing of the affection, of the public would be rash to say. It is not for lack of a hearing. There have been several fine performances of it within the last four or five years, and by such qualified interpreters as Mr. Colonne and Mr. Weingartner, but every performance seems to bring out more clearly the hollowness and unmusical quality of this music. It is interesting from various points of view—from its significance as a document in its composer's autobiography; from its place in the history of the idea of programme music; as a starting point in modern orchestration; as a psychological product—in almost every way except as music. It is interesting to discuss, but not to listen to.
Mme. Carreño was enthusiastically greeted, and the expectations that her greeting implied were wholly realized by her playing. It was a superbly spirited performance of Tschaikowsky's works, passionate, fiery, and eloquent, highly individual in eliciting the meaning and full value of every phrase, yet never losing sight of the larger proportions of the work. Mme. Carreño's playing in other years has sometimes seemed extravagant and extreme in its treatment of the sonorities of the piano; but there was nothing of this in her performance yesterday.
Gounod's little symphony is not familiar to New York; the scherzo is a gay trifle, scarcely to be taken seriously, but full of pretty melody skillfully colored and expressed upon the wind instruments, and well played by the excellent wind choir of the orchestra.
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