Mason, William, 1829-1908; Musicians -- United States -- Biography
On Christmas day, 1900, a friend presented me with a calendar for the
year 1901. It has a leaf for each day of the year. The calendar
evidently required much labor in preparation, and necessitated
correspondence with many friends at home as well as abroad, and many are
the cordial responses that were received. The result is a daily pleasure
and surprise. The leaf for February 11, 1901, the day of my present
writing, has reference to the third concert of chamber-music, eighth
season of Mason and Thomas, which took place on Tuesday evening,
February 10, 1862:
Tuesday, February 10, 1862
The third soiree of Mason and Thomas had the following program:
Quartet, C Major, No. 2 _Cherubini_
Piano Trio, D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 _Beethoven_
Quartet, A Major, Op. 41, No. 3 _Schumann_
A program as interesting and fresh to-day as thirty-eight years
ago. The weather was very cold,--below zero,--and during the largo
of the trio the gas gave out. We continued playing for some time,
but finally had to stop. The "Geister" [the composition here
referred to is called by the Germans the "Geister Trio"] did not
assist us! Do you remember the fact?
Es ist schon lange her.
THEODORE THOMAS.
KARL KLAUSER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR AT MISS PORTER'S SCHOOL
Through Mosenthal our quartet became acquainted with Mr. Karl Klauser,
who was an active and enthusiastic musician of thorough education, and
who has accomplished a great deal of useful work both as a compiler and
teacher of classic and modern compositions. Mr. Klauser is a native of
St. Petersburg, born of German parents; he came to New York in 1850, and
was engaged as musical director in Miss Porter's famous school for young
ladies in 1855, a post which he filled with credit and ability for many
years. He was enthusiastically fond of chamber-music, and frequently
attended the rehearsals of our quartet; and it was through him that we
were induced to give recitals in Farmington six months after our
beginning in New York. On Thursday, June 26, 1856, our program was as
follows:
String Quartet in E flat, No. 4 _Mozart_
Trio, Piano, Violin, and Violoncello, G Minor, Op. 15, No. 2 _Rubinstein_
Variations from Quartet No. 5 _Beethoven_
Also solos for pianoforte and for violoncello.
On the following day another recital was given, with an entire change of
program.
At that time one of the undergraduates of the school was a young girl
who is now the wife of a distinguished lawyer of New York, and is
herself prominent in good works. Not long ago I received from her the
following very agreeable letter about the early Farmington days:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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