Concert: Leipzig, Gewandhaus, November 30, 1877

Dwight’s Journal of Music, vol. 37, No. 21 (January 19, 1878), p. 165.

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jj-initials

Music in Leipzig

THE SEVENTH GEWANDHAUS CONCERT — JOACHIM’S

WONDERFUL VIOLIN PLAYING

[Correspondence of the Philada. Evening Bulletin]

LEIPZIG, Nov. 30, 1877 — The programme of the seventh Gewandhaus concert last evening, was a remarkable one, from the fact of Joseph Joachim’s being presented in a double capacity — that of violinist and composer. As the first he is known the wide world over to be without rival — a very Liszt of violinists. To see him play is scarcely less interesting than his playing; his bearing is manly and full of dignity, and nothing more exquisitely graceful than his bowing can be conceived. He is fully conscious of his wonderful powers, which, however, like a true artist, he ever and always only uses towards the achievement of the very highest ends. In this respect he is a noble example for many artists who, having acquired the means, use these as an end.

The composer Joachim is constantly and rapidly developing; his Overture is proof of this, which certainly, without speaking disparagingly of violinists, would never lead one to infer that it had been written by one who has gained all his laurels as master of an instrument to which, unlike the piano and its harmonies, everything but pure melody is foreign.

The whole programme of the concert was as follows:

Variations on a theme of Haydn……………..Brahms

Concerto for violin, A minor……………………Viotti

Etr’act and Ballet music from “Ali Baba” ….Cherubini

Barcarolle and Scherzo, for violin…………….Spohr

Elegische—Overture…………………………….Joachim

Symphony, F major, No. 8……………………Beethoven

The orchestral compositions, and especially the symphony, were played with the abandon and spirit characteristic of this rare combination of musicians; they always play, never disappoint, and not seldom, when an exceptionally good star reigns over their concerts, their performances partake of the nature of the ideal and the wonderful.

Joachim, of course, was enthusiastically greeted, and, equally of course, did he show himself worthy of the grand ovation, for such it really was. He played only like Joachim, the one, peerless and unrivalled. The whole was one of the “good star” concerts.

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