The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-14
FIRST EDITIO N
THE BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL.
It is not All it Should Be.
Catastrophe at Leavenworth.
San Francisco Rufhanism.
Destruction by Earthquakes.
ETC.. ETC.. ETC.. ETC., Etc.
Catastrophe at Leavenworth
THE BEETHOVEN JUBILEE.

From the N Y. Tribune of this morning we
take the following
We must frankly confess at the outset that
the first concert of the festival week last night,
if it was not all that one might have desired,
exceeded our expectations, und held out fair
promises for the remaining days. We dare say
there were 1900 or perhaps 1000 singers in their
places; we accept without any difficulty the
nouncement that $50 musicians played in the
orchestra The audience at the beginning of the
concert looked emaciated. A dense fringe of
the economical surrounded the body of the hall,
but the reserved places were not half filed
After the first piece, however, everybody was
allowed to go everywhere, and the seats imme-
diately filled up.
The merit of the opening performance ought
not to be gauged by the strictest rules of art
The New York jubilee to be sure, has laid itself
open to severe criticism than could properly be
given to the great festival in Boston, first by its
eXtravagant, not to say bombastic pretensions,
and next by the fact that its dimensions are
such as to bring it fairly within the range of
close critical judgment When ten thousand
men and women sing together in room capable
OF holding so, 600, we know that the finer artistic
effects must necessarily be lost and we are well
satisfied if the 10000 only keep in tune and in
time. The laws of acoustics and other newt
able physical conditions forbid us to expect any
thing more.
The programme last night, as it finally stood
after numerous changes, was as follows
I.
Symphony No. in O minor. ............... Beethoven
Full Orchestra, directed BY GaTl Beremann.
Madame Pa5epa Rosa fqii ohoras and orchestra d.
New jersey Harmonic Society, directed by w. F.
Thanks be to God" (EIah). .......... Mendelssohn
ull chorus and orct estra, directed by Dr. Jas Pech
GiImores band, directed by n S. Gilmore. '''"
PART
l. The Star Spanged Banner"
artillery ete dirested by p V s. Gilmore SHe''' ofs'n
. Dir Directed .Sa By Carl Rosa u, nouso,.,.
New Jersey Harmonic Society, directed by W. F.
Full chorus and orchestra, directed by DR.. James
The first of these pieces was undeniably
failure. Mr.. Bergmanp probably never con-
Quoted a symphony before with such an utterly
pitiful result. We lay no blame upon him. for
he is certainly the finest symphony leader in the
country, but his $50 men evidently lacked in
rehearsals, and the contrast between their per-
formance and the rendering of the same work
by Mr.. Bergmann's 100 players at recent Phil
harmonic concert was decidedly painful. There
was some noble music, however, in the second
e"e, where Madame epa-Rosa gave the
"lntiammatus" solo with magni6cently telling
effect, though the chorus hardly warmed to its
work, and for its numbers was not very telling
The chorus from Elijah is a
very hard one for such a large
body of singers TO render, and went only pretty
well; IL was stronger than the 'Intlammatus," }"
but rather blurred and ragged. The madrigal
and the part song by the New Jersey Harmonic
Society were both bad, decidedly bad. The
execution was very crude, and the conception
perfectly satisfactory and inspiriting
pieces OF the evening, were "rhe Star
Spangled Banner" the overture to
''Obcron," and the overture to ''Stradella." 4"
The chorus was magnificent, the artillery,
despite an inconvenienJ echo had fine effect,
and far above the din of all rang Parepa's voice
with power and sweetness that stirred the
audience more than anything else in the course
of the evening. People jumped from their
seats, waved their hats and handkerchefs, went
a. crazy in fact, as the jubilee crowd in Boston,
and of course demanded it all over again, aud
otittoo. Mr.. Gilmore conducted the piece with
hls usual electrical energy aud received good
share of the applause. He had already intro
di ced himself to New York with the overture to
StradetId, performed by his own band of fifty
pieces, entirely reeds and brass, and had been
greeted with most emphatic and (for New York;
unusual honors. He has the best military band
we ever heard, and the overture exquisite.
Mr. Carl Re sa also had welcoming round of
applause when he came forward to conduct the
OberOn overture. This is a composition of so
much delicacy that we were fully prepared for
failure in that large hall and with that large
orchestra, but il was rendered to perfection.
That and the Strddelld were the instrumental
successes of the evening.
The famous aria from Samson, "Let the
Bright seTaphim, was TO have been given by
Madame Parepa-Rosa, with the cornet obligato
by Mr.. Arbuckle, of Boston, but it was omitted,
and the concert closed with the ''Halleujah'
chorus, in the midst of which at least half of the
audience took the opportunity to go out. II
Was excellently done, howeYer-far better than
any Of the other choruses-and those who went
away without hearing it made great mistake.
Ludwig Van BeethOven-Hfs Life aud Genius
Were any person of average intelligence and
culture asked to mention the leading lights in
the musical armament the names of Bach Han.
del, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven would spon.
taneously occur to his mind and rise to his lips
These composers stand forth pre-eminently az
the representatives of the highest types of the
musical mind
In the more intricate phases of musical com
position, Beethoven is perhaps the greatest o.
all instrumental music was his special work
Vocal music was with him but reproduction
Dy the voice OF strains which might have beer
more appropriately rendered by the meehanica
processes OF Instrumentation. He has left bu
one complete opera-his magnificent PideliO
but his symphonies are numerous.
Beethoven was born on the 18th of December
177O, at Bonn, where his statue may to-day b,
seen He came from a musical family, an,
almost from infancy received the best musiea
instruction. In his fifteenth year he was ap
pointed by the Elector Max Franz, brother i
the Emperor Joseph III, organist TO the Electora
chapel; but few years later he went on a Visi
10 Vienna, and was SO charmed with the musica
attractions of the Austrian capital that he tool
up lis abode there at the earliest opportunity
in The lovely suburban villages he passed hi