Central Park Garden Concert

Includes program.

“Mr. Theodore Thomas closes this week his season at Central Park. It is pleasant to know that the last two or three seasons of this admirable orchestra have been financially profitable, while as to their popularity, a glance at the auditorium on any fine evening during the summer might satisfy the most exacting. The character of the audiences seems to have steadily improved, along with, and perhaps as a result of, the character of the music. Unless we are prejudiced in the matter, and allow the wish to become father to the thought, there has been of late a less evident devotion to cream, cobblers, partagas and flirtation, at least in the auditorium, and a decided manifestation of appreciative liking for the best music. There is little doubt that as Mr. Thomas goes on steadily and persistently raising the tone of his programmes, the public will sustain him, and we may hope soon to see the gratifying spectacle of a gayly-dressed and apparently volatile audience listening with enjoyment to Mozart, Schumann and Beethoven, who a few years ago found Strauss heavy and Lumbye obscure. All ‘music friends’ will wish Mr. Thomas a successful tour this winter, and look forward anxiously to the time when his dreamed-of great hall shall be built, and he, with all his noble army of harmony, shall migrate from us no longer.”