Thomas Central Park Garden Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Central Park Garden

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

Price: $.25; $10 season tickets

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
2 January 2018

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

25 May 1868, Evening
26 May 1868, Evening

Program Details

Third Season.
Gounod’s “Ave Maria” was arranged for solo violins, cornet, piano, and organ.

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]
3)
Composer(s): Wagner
4)
aka Blue Danube
Composer(s): Strauss
5)
Composer(s): Weber
6)
aka Méditation sur le 1er Prélude de piano de J. S. Bach; Meditation, prelude, for piano, organ and cello; Meditation on Bach's Prelude No. 1
Composer(s): Gounod
7)
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
8)
aka Scene de ballet; Scène de ballet
Composer(s): Meyerbeer
9)
aka Fortune teller
Composer(s): Suppé
10)
aka Devil's darning needle; Sibelle
Composer(s): Strauss
11)
aka 'S giebt nur Kaiserstadt, ’s giebt nur ein Wien; Kaiserstadt polka
Composer(s): Strauss
13)
aka Grande duchesse quadrille
Composer(s): Strauss
14)
aka Fantasie on Donizetti's La fille du regiment
Composer(s): Unknown composer

Citations

1)
Announcement: New York Herald, 19 May 1868.

Announcement of the season’s commencement.

2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 19 May 1868, 7.
3)
Announcement: New York Herald, 21 May 1868, 7.
4)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 21 May 1868, 8.
5)
Announcement: New York Post, 22 May 1868.
6)
Announcement: New York Herald, 25 May 1868, 5.
7)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 25 May 1868, 7.

Includes program.

8)
Announcement: New York Post, 25 May 1868.
9)
Announcement: New-York Times, 25 May 1868, 5.
10)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 25 May 1868, 7.

Includes program.

11)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 25 May 1868, 5.
12)
Review: New York Herald, 26 May 1868, 7.

“It has been often a subject of wonder to both our citizens and our visitors that the great metropolis lacked lamentably in summer entertainments. Theodore Thomas, who inaugurated the Terrace Garden concerts two years ago, tried to supply this want; but the limited sphere in which he moved in the neighborhood of Third avenue marred all his efforts. Messrs. Appleby & Schindler, however, have constructed on Seventh avenue a most beautiful summer resort, and have engaged the above distinguished conductor and his orchestra of over forty instruments for the entire season. The concert hall is one of the finest in the city and the garden is roomy, well lighted and adorned in the highest style of art. The hotel connected with it presents every desirable feature that can be wished for in such a place, and the management, to judge from the opening last night is entirely satisfactory. The attendance was immense and the concert programme philharmonic in its pretensions. The opening march, written for the occasion by Mr. Thomas, was spirited and effective, and the Rienzi overture one of the best that ever Wagner wrote (it is a pity that he does not write so now), Strauss’ charming waltz, ‘An der Schoenen Blauen Donau,’ Oberon overture, scherzo from the Reformation symphony, by Mendelsohn, [sic] and overture ‘Pique Dona’ [sic], by Suppe, will give an idea of the nature of the programme. One of the most pleasing pieces was the ‘Ave Maria,’ by Gounod, for cornet (instead of soprano), solo violins, piano and organ. It was splendidly played and enthusiastically encored, as it deserved. The selections from ‘La Fille du Régiment’ and ‘Robert le Diable’ were the weakest on the bill. No more desirable resort to spend the summer evenings and enjoy first class music could be devised than the Central Park Garden.”

13)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 26 May 1868, 7.

Includes program.

14)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 26 May 1868, 7.

Includes program.

15)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 28 May 1868, 8.

“Opening of the Central Park Garden. Mr. Theodore Thomas’s concerts al fresco have been for some time among the pleasantest features of Summer in the city, and we presume are now firmly established. On Monday he gave a concert in the new and very beautiful hall at the corner of Seventh-ave. and Fifty-ninth-st., where, just on the borders of the Park, his orchestra of 40 musicians will nightly discourse sweet sound until the Winter season calls them to other pursuits. The new establishment, known as the Central Park Garden, is owned by Mr. Remsen Appleby. It does not differ materially from the well-known Terrace Garden, where Mr. Thomas performed last year, except that it is nicer, prettier, and in every way more convenient.  Entrance to the spacious concert room is immediately from the street. The floor is occupied by tables and chairs for the convenience of those who are hungry and thirsty. A spacious gallery runs along three sides of the room, divided by low partitions into boxes like those in the dress circle of the Academy of Music, and here ladies and gentlemen can sip their ice-creams to the music of Strauss, Beethoven, and Offenbach. The walls and gallery-front are tastefully decorated in neutral tints, picked out with blue. The ceiling is gorgeously frescoed, and from the center of it rises an ornamental dome. At the back of the hall, in a large alcove, is the stand for the orchestra, and on either side of it wide doors open into the garden. Here there are fountains, flowers, colored lights, queer little freaks of decoration, chairs and tables, and soon there will be a row of snug little Vauxhall boxes, so deftly adorned with rustic deceits that to sit in one will really seem like ‘taking tea in the arbor.’ The back of the music stand, projecting into this garden like a bay window, can be completely thrown open in fine weather, so that the favors of the band will be impartially divided between in-doors and out. Opening from the main hall of the ground-floor is a lunch and bar-room, and over it, communicating with the gallery, a well fitted ladies dining room. In the third story are two elegant parlors for ladies.

“The name of Mr. Theodore Thomas is a guarantee that the music will be excellent and the selections fairly chosen from both popular and classical writers.  Monday morning several hundred people attended by invitation a rehearsal of the first concert. The programme included a new opening march composed by Mr. Thomas, the overtures to ‘Rienzi’ and ‘Oberon,’ Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria,’ the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation Symphony,’ several waltzes by Strauss, selections from the ‘Grande Duchesse,’ &c. The refreshments, it is promised, shall be excellent in quality and cheap in price; the attendance is good, and the regulations are such as to make the hall a pleasant resort for ladies and family parties.”

16)
Announcement: New York Musical Gazette, June 1868, 60.

Reminder that readers “should not fail to spend a few evenings, or at least one, at ‘Central Park Garden’” to hear Thomas’s orchestra “hold forth in the true German style, introducing music both classical and popular.”

17)
Review: New-York Times, 01 June 1868, 5.

“The season of garden concerts has commenced. The pleasant breath of Summer wooes [sic] every one to a place of open-air recreation. Last week the Central Park Garden was opened, (Seventh-avenue, Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth streets.) It is a large and even splendid establishment. There is a big concert hall, a fine garden and every kind of hotel accommodation. Mr. THEODORE THOMAS presides over an orchestra of forty-two players. It is not necessary to say anything more on that subject. Mr. THOMAS has good players and knows precisely what he is about.  The music is admirable. We doubt if it is better in any capital of Europe.”