Foreign Language Press Service

Gala Concert of Hedwig Von Weber-Sperco

Abendpost, Oct. 14, 1926

The jubilee concert yesterday in Kimball Hall by the venerated artist and teacher Mrs. von Weber-Sperco, in celebration of her fifty years as a piano teacher, and commemoration of her first public appearance sixty years age, brought the artist and her collaborators an enthusiastic acknowledgement by a large art loving German audience.

Mrs. Von Weber-Sperco is a direct descendant of the great composer, Carl Maria Von Weber, whose famous composition, "Invitation to the Dance" was played by Mrs. Von Weber-Sperco on the occasion of her first appearance sixty years ago, and as the first number of yesterday's concert.

A pianist, who at 73 years plays Chopin and Liszt so brilliantly, with such precision and finesse of touch, and with such sonorous chords, must, in spite of the shining silvery wreath which has been woven on her head by years, be considered young. When the artist had to offer to the public only the remnants of a technique - according to Mrs. Von Weber-Spereco's own words - we thank the fates, in the interest of art and culture, for such skill as a shining example 2to her pupils during fifty years of effort.

This is cultural work in the strictest sense of the word; the constancy and inflexibility of true German culture which carries purpose and reward in itself, and in spite of hardship gives and gives to the world, since time immemorial - because it lies in the German character to give. Among Mrs. Von Weber-Sperco's collaborators was Miss Lilly Rehberg, a highly talented and sensitive cellist, who played Saint Saens and Popper with excellent technique and beautiful timbre. Miss Olga Meun offered a program of songs.....

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