Central Park Garden Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Central Park Garden

Proprietor / Lessee:
John Koch

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

Price: $.50

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
19 September 2023

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

30 May 1871, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Thomas Orchestra
2)
Marche hongroise, no. 2
Composer(s): Liszt
3)
Overture, unidentified
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
4)
Hydropathen, Die, op. 149
Composer(s): Gung'l
5)
Fantasia on themes from Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Composer(s): Unknown composer
6)
Egmont, overture
aka Egmont overture; Goethe's Egmont
Composer(s): Beethoven
7)
Symphony, no. 4, op. 120, D minor. Selections
Composer(s): Schumann
8)
Königslieder, op. 334
aka Konigslieder
Composer(s): Strauss
9)
Lohengrin, finale
Composer(s): Wagner
10)
Semiramide, overture
Composer(s): Rossini
11)
Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb’ und Lust!, op. 263
Composer(s): Strauss
12)
Oiseau de paradis, L’
Composer(s): Bousquet
13)
Bacchanale, La
Composer(s): Bendel

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 30 May 1871, 9.

Includes program.

2)
Article: New-York Daily Tribune, 31 May 1871, 2.

“The blazing sun of this premature Summer seems to spare the Central Park Gardens, where Theodore Thomas gives his nightly concerts. Audiences of the very best class throng the halls, and sip their ices in the filigree bowers, and taste a little fresh air out of doors, while

The soft bassoons

Play heavenly tunes,

and the wonderful orchestra bewitches us with the ballet music from ‘Faust,’ or the wedding chorus from ‘Lohengrin,’ or some of those lively Strauss waltzes, or overtures by Weber and Flotow. There is a zither in the band,--well played, as everything is at this place,--and the great public takes a huge delight in it. The Garden, to be sure, is not as big as it might be, but it is a charming resort for the tired and heated citizen,--well kept, orderly and respectable; and the music is always delicious. Mr. Thomas has made a few changes in the composition of the orchestra, and will soon make a few more. His old comrade, Mr. Matzka, is now first violinist, but this place is to be filled, after a while, by Mr. Listemann, now the leader of Mr. Zerrahn’s orchestra, in Boston. Several others of the principal musicians of that city have been induced to attach themselves permanently to Mr. Thomas’s company,--among them Heindl, the first viola player. So the band is always getting better and better, and the best performers in the country are glad to join it.”