Article on mismanagement of the Philharmonic Society

“Sorry to say that [Jem] sails for Europe next Wednesday…He would have been invaluable in organizing these proposed concerts, subscription list for which is nearly filled up.

“Jemmy is furious against Dr. R. Ogden Doremus for mismanagement of the Philharmonic Soc’y, whereof the Dr. is President. According to Jem, he sells tickets far beyond the capacity of the Acad. of Music, and lets his friends in by some back-stairs so as to half fill the house, before doors are opened to the common herd of subscribers. The Dr. has publicly denied the latter charge. But on the whole, I shall not subscribe this year. If the Soc’y play anything better than Liszt and Wagner, I can buy a ticket. I was a faithful subscriber from the very first concert (1842) to 1849, and then with an interval of a year or two, until the last season. But under Doremus’ administration the concerts are most unlike what they were ten years ago. Then, there was an audience fit though few. Now you must struggle for room to sit or stand, with people gabbling all round you. Then, the society delighted in Beethoven, Weber, Mozart. Now they give us ‘Readings from Manfred’ by the very estimable Mr. Edmund Booth, and similar clap-trap. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Booth, but a performance of the overture to Der Freyschutz with blue lights introduced to illustrate its more demoniacal passages would not be more alien from the true purpose of that Society, than these Readings. Doremus wants to make the Philharmonic concerts ‘draw,’ and he has succeeded. He has made them pay better than ever before. That is to say, he has increased the annual dividend to each member of the orchestra by perhaps as much as five dollars, but he has made the Soc’y and it’s concerts worthless. I regret it, for Philharmonic concerts are among the pleasantest memories of a time now far away in the dim distance.”