Harrison Sunday Concert: 18th

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Manager / Director:
Lafayette F. Harrison

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Event Type:
Orchestral

Performance Forces:
Instrumental, Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
13 June 2017

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

02 Feb 1868, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
3)
aka Night on the Hudson
Composer(s): Meyer
Participants:  Leopold de Meyer
4)
Composer(s): Balfe
Text Author: Longfellow
Participants:  Brookhouse Bowler
6)
aka Evening song; Abendlied; Abendgesang; Gesange, op. 107. Abendlied
Composer(s): Schumann
7)
aka Allegretto
Composer(s): Mozart
8)
Composer(s): Wallace
9)
aka Sänger-Gruss; Sanger-Gruss; Saengergruss; Sangergruss
Composer(s): Kéler
10)
aka Trumpet overture
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 31 January 1868, 7.
2)
Announcement: New York Post, 01 February 1868.
3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 02 February 1868.
4)
Announcement: New-York Times, 02 February 1868, 4.
5)
Review: New-York Times, 03 February 1868, 5.

“Mr. Harrison confronts the times with a spirit which deserves success. In the face of enormous difficulties and of a public indifference which, in any one else, would be paralyzing, he has continued his Sunday concerts through the dullest season of the year, and now, on the eve of the good times which we all hope are coming, he reinvigorated them with an attraction which never fails to draw, although it has sometimes been a question whether it drew enough. We refer to the orchestra. Mr. Theodore Thomas and his hardy little band resumed their old desks last evening, and discoursed most excellent music. There was, we are glad to say, a large attendance. The orchestral pieces were interesting, especially Beethoven's music to ‘Prometheus.’ The overture is well known, but the Allegro vivace, the Adagio and Allegro, and the Pastorale, have only just been published, and are, therefore, entirely new. So, also, with the trumpet overture by Mendelssohn—a posthumous work which has only just been issued. It was played recently by Mr. Theodore Thomas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but otherwise is strange to our public. The lighter pieces were the selections from ‘Lurline’ and Keler Bela's ‘Saengergruss March.’ The performance was excellent. Mr. Brookhouse Bowler again satisfied the frequenters of these excellent concerts by the charm and delicacy of his voice. The soloists, in the instrumental way, were Messrs. Leopold De Meyer and Carl Rosa, of whom we have occasion to speak elsewhere.”  

6)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 03 February 1868, 8.

“A large and select audience attended the concert given last night by Mr. L. F. Harrison in Steinway Hall. The names of the artists engaged for the evening were a sufficient guarantee for the success of the entertainment, and the director deserves credit for the selection and variety of the programme. Mr. Leopold de Meyer called forth enthusiastic applause by his performance of ‘Russian airs’ on the piano, and produced a still more favorable impression by the serenade ‘An evening on the Hudson River.’ He was encored each time, when he delighted the audience with music of his own composition. Mr. Rosa has given repeated evidence of his mastership on the violin; his style of performance is at once characteristic and pleasing, and his ‘Souvenir de Bellini’ was rendered with much expression and feeling. Mr. Brookhouse Bowler’s voice excels in the pathetic style of music: his serenade, ‘Good Night, Beloved,’ was therefore, a happy selection, but his performance would have shown to better advantage if we had heard a little less of the piano accompaniment. The selections from Beethoven’s ‘Prometheus’ were ably rendered by the orchestra under the conductorship of Mr. Th. Thomas. In every musical performance a portion of the audience will invariably show a want of tact by making a rush for the doors before the end of the concert, thereby creating a disturbance unpleasant for the rest of the audience, and it is to be hoped that the public will learn to understand that such proceedings are indelicate in the extreme.”