The Offence.

Col. Milward Adams is going to pander to the refined tastes of the élite of Chicago next week by giving a series of concerts in his Central Music Hall. The performers he has engaged as his tools in this laudable enterprise, are that justly famed band of peripatetic minstrels known as the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This organization consists of sixty-five performers, and it plays only the most intricate music. A programme of the three prospective concerts now lies before us; and from it we learn that the orchestra will interpret at the first concert the overture of Carl Goldmark’s “Sakuntala,” Wieniawski’s allegro and andante for violin, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), Op. 55; at the second concert, the overture of Cherubini’s “Anacreon,” Beethoven’s first movement for the violin, Bach’s adagio and gavotte, Saint-Saens’s “Danse Macabre,” and Schumann’s symphony in B flat, No. 1, Op. 38; at the third concert, the overture of Weber’s “Freischuetz,” Mendelssohn’s andante and finale for the violin, Schubert’s unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, Brahms’s “Hungarian Dances,” and Wagner’s vorspiel and liebestod from “Tristan and Isolde.” A special interest will (or should) attach to the first concert; for it is for that occasion, as Mr. George Fair tells us, that Beethoven has 154composed the eroica symphony which will then be given. We do not know what an eroica symphony is; but in our most cultured circles, it is believed that eroica is a misprint for erotica. There will be three soloists (one male and two female) to give these performances additional éclat. These soloists are very famous ones. The first is Helene Hastreiter, the pianiste; the second is Timothee Adamowski, the renowned Italian lyric tenor; and the third is Adele Aus der Ohe, the eminent soprano. Miss Aus der Ohe is a niece of Chris Von der Ohe, president of the St. Louis Base-ball Club; and the fact that she is unmarried should forever set at rest the current rumor that she is the original Ohe mamma. It will be a great treat to hear this brilliant vocalist, and our public is indebted to Col. Adams for billing a number of Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” for the gifted young song-bird’s rendition. Mme. Hastreiter has never before been in Chicago; but her fame has preceded her, and it is with intense enthusiasm that we await the renowned pianiste’s début in this great music-centre. As for Sig. Adamowski, he is said to be one of the most promising robustos on the lyric stage. His real name is Timothy Adams, and he is a first cousin to our own Milward Adams; but having been born and reared in Petersburg, Hampden County, Mass., he preferred to adopt a Russian name for professional uses.

155We shall be surprised and pained if these symphony concerts are not largely attended. Three weeks of Professor Silas G. Pratt’s “Lucille” has elevated and refined Chicago’s music-taste to a degree—we will not specify the degree, but we think that it is high enough to render an appreciation of the symphony concerts a probability.