Carnegie Hall (January 12, 1908)

Carreño gave a solo performance at Carnegie Hall. She performed Piano Sonata no. 21 in C Major, op. 53 (Beethoven, Ludwig van), Prelude in B-flat Major, op. 28, no. 21, Prelude in G Minor, op. 28, no. 22, Nocturne in C Minor, op. 48, no. 1, Tarantelle in A-flat Major, op. 43, Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, op. 60, Two etudes (Chopin, Fryderyk), Études Symphoniques, op. 13 (Schumann, Robert), Rhapsody in B Minor, op. 79, no. 1 (Brahms, Johannes), Am Seegestade, op. 17 (Smetana, Bedrich), Etude de concert, op. 36 (MacDowell, Edward).

The concert began at 3 pm. Ticket prices ranged from $0.50 to $1.50.

Advertisement: New York Times, 12 January 1908, X3.

Review: New-York Tribune, 13 January 1908, 7.

Concert Program: US-NYcha

 

Kijas, Anna

New-York Tribune, January 13, 1908.

Mme. Carreno in Recital.

It is an old story to those who take pleasure in any of the arts that masculine strength, unrelieved by feminine tenderness and charm, cannot alone achieve lasting beauty. Mere muscularity, taken by itself, is gaunt and sterile, while, conversely, there can be no structural quality in an art manifestation wholly depending upon softness and delicacy— the skeleton must shape and support the figure, but it must be clothed with living flesh. Some such considerations as these must Inevitably have been called up in the minds of many auditors at yesterday afternoon's piano recital by Mme. Teresa Carreño at Carnegie Hall. When the brilliant Venezuelan pianist made her re-entry here a few weeks ago, after a long absence, it was in the Tschaikowsky B flat minor concerto, which demanded a smaller proportion of the feminine principle than most of the pieces she offered at this recital. The lack of a brooding emotional spirit was felt yesterday not only in line. Carreño's playing of the Beethoven "Waldstein" sonata. op. 53 (which had many other good qualities), but in the Chopin nocturne. op. 46, no. 1, the familiar barcarolle. op. 60, and a good deal else. What her audience appreciated most was the pianist's display of her untiring endurance and her surpassing fleetness of finger. Two Chopin preludes and the tarantella, op. 43, gave scope for these factors in her equipment, and so did the two Chopin studies which she interpolated at the urgent demand of her hearers. Even here there was too much blurring of the rapid passages, too little evidence that these pieces meant to their interpreter much beyond so many opportunities for technical proficiency.

The list prepared by Mme. Carreño contained also the Symphonic Studies of Schumann. Brahms's B minor rhapsody, Smetana's "Am Seegestade' and MacDowell's Etude de Concert. There was a gathering of fair size in the auditorium, and demonstrative enthusiasm was abundant.