Weber Music Hall

Life Span: 1878-1916
Location: 300-304 S. Wabash Ave
Architect: TBD

Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1883

Dedication of the Weber Music-hall.
The new Weber Music-Hall was formally dedicated Friday evening last with a piano recital, given by Mme. Madeline Schiller. The occasion was one of invitation, and apparently every invitation was accepted, for the 400 seats in the cozy little hall were all filled and some late comers obliged to stand. It was a distinctively musical audience, for almost every music teacher and pianist of prominence in the city were in attendance, besides many amateurs and connoisseurs, who are only attracted by exceptional entertainments. It will thus be seen that Mme. Schiller had the enthusiasm which sympathy and appreciation always engender to aid her, besides that immediate contiguity which is akin to acquaintance. The result more successful display of her talent, aided, of course, by a larger and more varied selection of numbers, than was shown on the evening previous at the Mozart Society’s concert. It is needless to criticize Mme. Schiller. The occasion was not one to call for it, but we may say that she made a deep impression upon her auditors by her polished and artistic style of playing, which displays the outcome of immense study, as well as by the ease and facility of her technique. She seems to be an artist who is absolutely correct and splendidly finished, but lacking somehow in that subtle personal influence which goes so far to interest the listener in the player as well as in the music.

Her program was well calculated to display her powers at their best, though it was long and exacting. It included the Raff Suite in E minor, op 7; Beethovens G major Rondo; Mendelssohn’s Prelude and Fugue in E minor and “Charakter Slück,” No. 4: the Schubert-Liszt “Soirées de Vienna”; Liszt’s “Waldesrausehen”: Gottschalk’s characteristie “Il Tremolo”; Beethoven’s Sonata, op. 53; the A flat major and C sharp minor etudes and the A flat major Ballade of Chopin? and Liszt’s showy Tarantella de “La Muette.” Miss Jenny Busk added two florid numbers to the program, Eckert’s “Swiss Song” (a little ancient) and Alieneff’s “Russian Nightingale.” A delightful surprise was given the audience between the parts. Mmme. Sehalehi, who was present as a guest, consented to sing. and was received with hearty enthusiasm. She sang the “Flower Song” from “Faust” in such a taking style and with such a splendid volume of voice that her listeners trespassed upon the etiquet of the occasion by asking for an encore, to which she replied with the “Drinking Song” from ” Lucrezia Borgia.” Though her voice is immensely powerful for so small a hall, its quality is quite as effective as in a larger room and does not suffer from nearness, while the effect of her fine presence intensifies and adds to the grand style of her singing. The occasion was a very pleasant one in ever particular and Messrs. Curtiss and Mayer, the hosts of the evening, may congratulate themselves upon a very auspicious christening. We may add that the programs were exquisitly dainty and models of good taste—a more important matter than some concert-givers seem to fancy.

Chicago’s First Half Century, The Inter Ocean, 1883

Weber Music Hall
Weber Music Hall has become one of the established constituents of our growing musical system in Chicago, and it is within the limits of probability to say that in no other audience-room in the city is so much music heard in the season, and perhaps so good music of that kind which is best understood by the phrase, “chamber music.” The house of Weber long known for the superb quality of the pianos it produces has always found its interests closely identified with the cause of music, and if Weber Music Hall serves a business end as well, it will not detract from the sagacity of the management, that they have been able to find their interest in ministering to the needs of musical art. Certainly nothiner has ever been provided in Chicago that is so near to the wants of professional musicians and has so powerfully forwarded the cause of musical education in our midst, as may be instanced by the uses to which it has been put. On every Monday evening the Mozart Society are wont to hold their rehearsal within these walls, sacred to divine melody, and on certain afternoons the ladies of the St. Cecilia Society, under the direction of Mr. Tomlins, of festival fame, lift their less strident and equally tuneful voices in preparation for more”formal occasions, while regular events of the musical season here are the concerts and reunions of the pupils of Mr. Liebhng. Mr. Ledochowski, Mme. Rice, Mrs. Cole, Mr. Pratt, Miss Fay, Mr. Mathews’ et omnes. The building itself, which is shown on this page, is a sightly structure of quiet but impressive style, ana elegantly and suitably furnished and decorated throughout, both in the warerooms and hall, where the superlative merits of the Weber pianos are shown before audiences whose critical acumen is a crucial test from which instruments of less noble quality might well shrink. In the warerooms may be seen samples of the work of the house in all styles of grand, upright, and square pianofortes, elegant in design and superb in case-work and the interior musical merits. The house makes a specialty of unique designs in cases made to order and suited to the particular nook they are to occupy in the home of the purchaser, having a number of such under way for wealthy residents who are able to appreciate the outline of beauty as well as the limpid purity of tone characteristic of the Weber pianos.

Rand McNally Birds’ Eye Views of Chicago, 1893

⑩ Chickering Hall
Fronts 100 feet on Jackson Street and 50 feet on Wabash Avenue. It is 65 feet high, with 6 stories and basement, and contains a recital hall of high standing among musicians, who nearly fill the 35 offices of the building. Here are 2 stores, and here are the headquarters in Chicago of the Domestic Sewing Machine Company. The structure, a fine one, was erected in 1878.

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