Chickering Hall (January 13, 1863)

Carreño performed a soirée de adieu in Chickering Hall. She performed Barcarolla (Thalberg, Sigismond), Souvenir d'Il Trovatore de Verdi, op. 79 (Goria, Alexandre Édouard), Andante and Rondo Capriccioso, op. 14 (Mendelssohn, Felix), Nocturne in E-flat (Chopin, Fryderyk), Grand Fantasia on Bellini's "I Puritani" (Herz, Henri), and a Nocturne dedicated to the Princess Belgioso (Döhler, Theodor). Concert began at 7:30 pm. The cost of tickets was $1.

Advertisement: Saturday Evening Gazette, 10 January 1863, 3.

Advertisement: Boston Evening Transcript, 10 January 1863, 3.

Article: Providence Evening Press, 13 January 1863, 3.

Review: Boston Evening Transcript, 14 January 1863, 2.

Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 17 January 1863, 335. 

Saturday Evening Gazette, January 10, 1863.

Teresa Careno [sic].--This wonder of the day will give a concert at Chickering Hall on Tuesday evening next, to comply with a wish on the part of may to see her in a smaller hall where her method of manipulation could be closely observed. Tickets are placed at a dollar each, and the Senorita will execute a choice variety of selections. Dwight's Journal of Music, January 17, 1863: 335. Teresa Carreno, the child pianist, gave a Soirée d’ Adieu, last Tuesday evening, at Chickering’s Hall. This was an excellent opportunity to see and hear her, and it was an occasion of the deepest interest. Rarely have we seen so intelligent an audience so please and so moved. She was the sole performer, and this was her programme (encores were wisely excluded):

1. Barcarole - Thalberg

2. Grand Fantasia on Themes from “Il Trovatore” - Goria

3. Andante and Rondo Cappricioso - Mendelssohn

4. Nocturne - Chopin

5. Grand Fantasia on “I Puritani” - Herz

6. Nocturne. Dedicated to the Princess Belgioso - Dohler

Here was indeed a task for a little girl of nine years. The mere physical exertion required in playing through so many pieces of great length, and full of all the modern difficulties of execution, made it a wonder that she should succeed at all. But she has great strength of hand and arm, and her execution, although laboring occasionally, was clear, brilliant, facile and precise. Yet all this would not make it interesting, except painfully. What catches you at once, and makes it pleasant to listen to her, is that you feel she has a true musical accent; the chords are struck, the passages are phrased, expressively. There is something in it more than could be taught, although undoubtedly too much that is taught. That these traits should not be overdone sometimes, should not become tricks of expression, and to a certain degree acquired and false (those ritardandos, forzandos, &c.), would be impossible and inconceivable in a child without experience of life and culture, and with so much experience of modern forms of music, much of it of the mere virtuoso or show kind. The danger is lest her talent, by such early continual exhibition and exposure, should all run to waste in superficial, showy music; and no less, that such abnormal and excessive tasking of the brain should wear the life out soon. Such a child, such genius (if it be that) needs a wise director, such as the young Mozart found in his father, who reverenced the gift of God, did not waste it in exhibition, but educated it largely and broadly into sound musician-ship and sterling Art. Would it not be wiser to let the music lessons fall into the background for a year or two, and give the time to general culture, physical and mental? The body must be saved from the deformity that might result from undue exercise of certain members; already the arm appears almost unnaturally large.—The mind and character must be formed, refined, developed, until such wonderful facility in the technique of music shall learn to serve Art’s higher meanings. The child’s face beams with intelligence and genius; these speak too in her touch, in a certain untaught life that there is in her playing. It is a precious gift: O treat it reverently and tenderly; educate it, save it, and not let the temptation of dazzling success or gain exhaust it ere its prime!

Boston Evening Transcript, January 10, 1863.

Teresa Carreno. Soiree D' Adieu.

Card. In compliance with a wish expressed by the musical dilettanti of this city to hear Teresa Carreno perform in a hall where they could be brought into closer proximity to the artist, and have a better opportunity of observing her mode of manipulation, it is respectfully announced that Teresa Carreno, the Child Pianist, will give a pianoforte recital at Chickerings' Hall, on Tuesday Evening, Jan. 17, when she will give illustrations from the compositions of the following great masters: Mendelssohn, Thalberg, Chopin, Goria, Dohler, Herz.

Tickets $1 each--to be had at Tolman's Music Store, 291 Washington street; the Tremont House, and at the door. Doors open at 7; to commence at 7 1/2 o'clock.

Providence Evening Press, January 13, 1863.

The following is contributed by a lady admirer of this charming little pianist: La Petite Carreno, first of prodigies; most youthful of pianistes! was welcomed by a full but not crowded house last evening--not such a house as she would draw on a second visit. Prodigies are always looked on with more or less skeptical eyes, and it was evident that the skeptics were not to be disarmed even by the little one’s charming entree. The sparkle of her black eyes, the bird-like toss of her head, as she cast a shy glance at her audience, and tripping along across the stage perched herself on the music stool, shaking out the folds of her pretty white frock like any good careful little girl: but when the tiny fingers swept up and down the keys with the strength, the tone, the finish of a master hand, skepticism melted away like [?] frost before the sun; and those who had studied music and its interpreters con amore, asked of memory in vain to point out this child’s peer. Mozart, who stand professedly at the head of musical prodigies, could not have excelled her. Is not the differences between the instruments used by these prodigies--born a century apart--almost ludicrous; the little square box on which the great German youth played, and Chickering’s Grand, out of which this Spanish fairy drew such stirring harmonies. Thalberg’s Grande Fantaisie Sur Moise; Bavinna’s Nocturne in D Flat; the Caprice Sur Ernani, closing with a Valse dedicated to Gottschalk. To add to the wonder of it all, she plays without notes. Her manipulation is finished, in the extreme; her touch delicate yet strong; her comprehension of the subtlest points marvellous. The little creature’s performance has left us wrapt in astonishment. We can only subscribe to the Boston Post’s opinion, that Teresa Carreno has won her gifts by a special action in her favor of the laws of metaphysics. Teresa should be induced to give a matinee for our young folks, who might learn much from the contemplation of this union of genius and industry.

Boston Evening Transcript, January 14, 1863.

Teresa Carreno. The soirée given by this young and gifted pianist at Chickering's last evening, was a very pleasant little affiar; socially as well as musically agreeable, though the atmosphere of refinement and unrestratint which the elegant and cheerful little hall begots, and where such intimate communication could be had with the youthful and attractive performer--in the welcome relief from ordinary concert formality,--and in the art and society acquaintance of those present. 

The entertainment was exclusively sustained by the little girl; the music selected for performance being from the compositions of Thalberg, Goria, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Herz, and Dohler; to which was added, by request, hew own waltz, which she has played on former occasions. She rendered these pieces with astonishing if not equal ability, not only fulfilling their literal requisitions, but catching and imparting in almost every instance the spirit, traits and characteristics of authorship. Perhaps the most wonderful interpretation was that of the Mendelssohn Rondo, where the demand alike for actual technical skill, and the poetic and artistic quality of thought to turn, shade, and perfectly dispose of its exuberant playfulness and fancy, was happily and remarkably met. The Nocturne of Chopin was also expressed tenderly and with real beuaty and finish; while the nerve and executive resource displayed in the Herz Fantasia impelled equal delight and wonder.

We doubt it any one present last evening could escape the involuntary conviction of the marvelous musical endowment and superior intelligence which manifest themselves in this little girl.

Dwight's Journal of Music, January 17, 1863.

Teresa Carreno, the child pianist, gave a Soirée d’ Adieu, last Tuesday evening, at Chickering’s Hall. This was an excellent opportunity to see and hear her, and it was an occasion of the deepest interest. Rarely have we seen so intelligent an audience so please and so moved. She was the sole performer, and this was her programme (encores were wisely excluded):

1. Barcarole - Thalberg
2. Grand Fantasia on Themes from “Il Trovatore” - Goria
3. Andante and Rondo Cappricioso - Mendelssohn
4. Nocturne - Chopin
5. Grand Fantasia on “I Puritani” - Herz
6. Nocturne. Dedicated to the Princess Belgioso - Dohler

Here was indeed a task for a little girl of nine years. The mere physical exertion required in playing through so many pieces of great length, and full of all the modern difficulties of execution, made it a wonder that she should succeed at all. But she has great strength of hand and arm, and her execution, although laboring occasionally, was clear, brilliant, facile and precise. Yet all this would not make it interesting, except painfully. What catches you at once, and makes it pleasant to listen to her, is that you feel she has a true musical accent; the chords are struck, the passages are phrased, expressively. There is something in it more than could be taught, although undoubtedly too much that is taught. That these traits should not be overdone sometimes, should not become tricks of expression, and to a certain degree acquired and false (those ritardandos, forzandos, &c.), would be impossible and inconceivable in a child without experience of life and culture, and with so much experience of modern forms of music, much of it of the mere virtuoso or show kind.
The danger is lest her talent, by such early continual exhibition and exposure, should all run to waste in superficial, showy music; and no less, that such abnormal and excessive tasking of the brain should wear the life out soon. Such a child, such genius (if it be that) needs a wise director, such as the young Mozart found in his father, who reverenced the gift of God, did not waste it in exhibition, but educated it largely and broadly into sound musician-ship and sterling Art.
Would it not be wiser to let the music lessons fall into the background for a year or two, and give the time to general culture, physical and mental? The body must be saved from the deformity that might result from undue exercise of certain members; already the arm appears almost unnaturally large.—The mind and character must be formed, refined, developed, until such wonderful facility in the technique of music shall learn to serve Art’s higher meanings. The child’s face beams with intelligence and genius; these speak too in her touch, in a certain untaught life that there is in her playing. It is a precious gift: O treat it reverently and tenderly; educate it, save it, and not let the temptation of dazzling success or gain exhaust it ere its prime!