The Mendelssohn Quintette Club (1849–1895) based in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, was one of "the most active and most widely known chamber ensemble in America" in the latter half of the 19th century. It toured throughout New England and beyond, including Georgia, California and Australia.

History

According to one scholar, the popularity of composer

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

in America "gained momentum sharply after 1848, when more German musicians, some of whom had been Mendelssohn's pupils, emigrated to America. ... Influential ... was the Mendelssohn Quintette Club, which presented early American performances of several of Mendelssohn's works, including the Quintet in A major, Op. 18, with which the ensemble opened its first concert in 1849." The Quintette consisted of Thomas Ryan, August Fries, Francis Riha, Eduard Lehmann, Wulf Fries, and others through the years. The group performed in Boston at Cochituate Hall,

Boston Music Hall The Boston Music Hall was a concert hall located on Winter Street in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional entrance on Hamilton Place. One of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the United States, it was built in 1852 and was the ...

, Chickering & Sons' Hall, and the

Melodeon Melodeon may refer to: *Melodeon (accordion), a type of button accordion *Melodeon (organ) The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reed aerophone, free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal ...

; and outside of Boston at the Gloucester Lyceum, for example. Amongst the numerous 19th-century audience members appeared Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, who attended a concert in 1862 in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is n ...

, and mentioned it in her diary. "15 January, Wednesday. Storm of snow. General Pierce arrived at noon. ... Julian and I drove to Town Hall to hear the Quintette Club - Andante of fifth symphony of Beethoven. Drove home. Mrs Alcott came with us." On October 11, 1866, the Mendelssohn Quintette Club gave the world premiere performance of Johannes Brahms's String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, op. 36. In 1872 members of the Quintette established the "National College of Music," headquartered at Boston's

Tremont Temple The Tremont Temple on 88 Tremont Street is a Baptist church in Boston, Massachusetts, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, USA. The existing multi-storey, Renaissance Revival structure was designed by Boston architect Clarence Blackall ...

. The college employed professional music instructors, and attracted a substantial student body. After the fire of November 1872, the college lost many of its students (no longer able to afford tuition), and closed in 1873.Ryan. 1899

History

References

Further reading