Garde Republicaine Francaise Concert

Plans for the band’s arrival in New York.

Includes programme.

“The performance of these musicians were without doubt the finest supplied during the [Boston] Jubilee.”

“The Rink, on Third avenue, where the Fairs of the American Institute are annually held, is in point of size (of Coliseum proportions) and location not a desirable place to give a concert. Yet the bare announcement of the first appearance in this city of the justly celebrated Garde Republicaine Band last evening was sufficient to fill the greater part of the huge structure. And the enthusiasm of the large audience was in proportion to its numbers. When the band made their appearance in their neat, braided uniforms, and the gay pompoms on their hats were seen above the heads of the crowd, a deafening cheer shook the building. The band, under the direction of M. Paulus, first played ‘Hail Columbia’ as a tribute of esteem to the country in which they have received such a hearty welcome, and followed it with the immortal ‘Marseillaise,’ which was applauded to the echo. The regular programme then opened with Meyerbeer’s ‘Torchlight Dance’ (Fackeltanz), the same that the band played at their début in Boston. It was received with more heartfelt enthusiasm on this occasion, and revealed to those of the audience who had not heard the band before a new world in military music. The second piece was a selection from ‘Lucrezia Borgia,’ in which one of the most charming of Donizetti’s cavatinas was rendered with the most faultless expression by four clarionets in unison, the tone being without a flaw, even in the most florid passages. The performers were MM. Pares, Hamme, Raymond, and Starck. The introduction and wedding march in the third act of ‘Lohengrin’ were then given in a style that drew even from the many German musicians present commendations of no stinted kind. Certainly the work has never before in this city been rendered with more fire, spirit and artistic color. Mr. Sylvestre displayed his wonderful talents on the cornet in an air and variations, and the band repeated their Boston triumphs by a matchless rendering of the ‘Tell’ overture. The concert closed with brilliant variations for all the soloists on the well-known melody ‘Green-Hills of Tyrol,’ which displayed the individual excellences of many members of the band in the most favorable light.”

“Never was more enthusiastic welcome given by a New York audience than that extended last night to the French Garde Republicaine Band at the Hall of the American Institute, in the Third avenue. The building is exceedingly well suited to the purposes of the summer concert, admitting of easy ventilation, accommodating several thousand persons, and capable of being well lighted without a serious elevation of temperature. The audience was composed in great part of the French element of our population, and hardly any other tongue than French was heard in the babble that preceded the entrance of the band. But all lovers of music who were present were enchanted with the entertainment, and the band might feel assured of a crowded attendance representing all nationalities for as many concerts as they should be pleased to give. The evening was opened by a voluntary performance of ‘Hail Columbia’ and the ‘Marseillaise,’ a stroke of genius on the part of Mr. Maury, since the patriotic instinct having been satisfied in the outset, the programme was less likely to be interrupted by calls for these national anthems. The pieces set down for the concert were very happily selected to display the excellences of the band, their careful finish, their admirable tempos, their superb harmony of tone and their perfect unanimity of expression. The ‘Marche aux Flambeaux’ of Meyerbeer was wonderful for variety and brilliancy of coloring, and the music of Wagner from ‘Lohengrin,’ familiar in great part to the habitués of Theodore Thomas’s concerts, was magnificently rendered; the crescendo, especially, calling forth the rapturous applause of the much-wondering hearers of musical knowledge. It seems to us simply impossible that an increase in volume of musical sounds could be more delicately shaded and brought to a more immense close than the crescendo in this selection. M. Sylvestre, the cornet-player, quite entranced the house with his solo, though the accompaniment of the beer mugs from the adjoining counters did not greatly enhance the effect. It is quite possible that the rattle of broken ice in the compounding of sherry cobblers, and the clink of glasses struck together by ‘thirsty souls’ in compliment, might be reduced to musical notation and made available by M. Offenbach for the purposes of opera bouffe; but as these incessant noises intervened last evening they were ‘most tolerable and not to be endured.’ [And, while we think of it, though a sandwich is a good thing at the proper time, waiter-boys walking about a music hall with trays of sandwiches while the most delicate passages from the composers are on the moment of expression, do not conduce to the enjoyment of the same. Will not the officers in charge of the concert this evening kindly suppress the beer, ice and sandwich disturbances in the interests of music and a grateful people?] Perhaps, all things considered, the overture to William Tell was the most splendidly-executed piece of the evening, in the delicious manner in which the reeds were made to serve the office of the violins; in the tremendous ensemble of the concluding part; and the steady bright sparkle of the trumpets. Comparisons will be made, of course, between the foreign bands, and the superiority will be rendered to this or that, in many cases, according to a national partiality. To us the one we have just heard seems always the best; but most judges, we think, will award warmth and mellowness to the English, weight and richness to the German, vivacity, dash, elan, to the French. It may be doubted whether a finer military band now exists than the last.”

“The band of the Garde Republicaine of Paris played to an audience of more than 4,000 people last evening, at the Skating Rink on Third avenue. The selection of pieces was admirably calculated to display the qualities of the performers and the ability and taste of M. Paulos, the leader. The Baltimore telegrams leave room for a mere announcement of the facts above stated, and the further statement that in several respects this band is superior to either of the others that have preceded it. It is a most admirable band of musicians, and every lover of music should hear them play. Their rendering of the Marseillaise alone is a matter for life-long recollection, while in the lad Silvestre we have an opportunity beyond doubt to hear a cornet player who one day will rank as the equal or superior to all others in the world. It will give us pleasure to make a more extended notice at another time.”

“The French Band had a welcome last night at Third ave. Rink quite as hearty as that given to the British Grenadiers last week at the Academy of Music. The audience, to be sure, did not fill the building, but it was a very large one, prodigal of all the customary demonstrations of delight and of some other freaks of enthusiasm not often witnessed at American entertainments. Ladies waved their handkerchiefs at favorite solo players, and staid old gentlemen rose from the benches to flourish their hats in the air at the performance of the Marseillaise. The Rink is not ill adapted for popular Summer music, since it is cool and well ventilated, and its acoustic properties are all that could be desired; and if the noise at the beer counters inside the auditorium could be stopped there would be no difficulty in hearing all the music at the remotest parts of the hall.

“At the Boston Jubilee the Band of the French Garde Republicaine was generally regarded during the first week as the best of the three foreign organizations. As the competition between France, Germany, and England became more lively, the Frenchmen hardly maintained their preeminence, and the best critics were puzzled where to award the palm. The French Band is the successor of that splendid company of 100 players formerly attached to the Garde de Paris, and famous in the days of the Empire even beyond the boundaries of their own country. They have been reorganized as well as renamed since the days of Sedan, the Commune having played sad havoc with them. They have now about half their former number, and comprise a great deal of new material, but are fortunate in retaining their old leader, M. Paulus. A great many of the men are excellent solo players, and, like the Englishmen, they are remarkable for a superb mass of reeds and for rich smooth basses. There are no bassoons, however, and the tone of the ensembles is brighter than the English but less mellow. In delicacy of expression and many of the lighter graces of execution they are decidedly superior to Mr. Godfrey’s company; a more magnificent crescendo, for instance, than they gave last night in the selection from ‘Lohengrin’ we can hardly imagine, and certainly we have never heard. They opened the concert with ‘Hail Columbia,’ amid a general storm of applause, and passed from that to their own national hymn, which aroused a tempest. The regular programme contained only six pieces, but it was lengthened by encores till it filled a good share of the evening. Not to go into detail, we may content ourselves with a word of commendation for the splendid execution of the Meyerbeer Fackeltanz; the wonderful performance of four clarionets in unison in an air from ‘Lucrezia Borgia;’ and the selection from ‘Lohengrin’ of which we have already spoken. This last included, besides the Bridal Song and Introduction to the Third Act which are now so familiar to our concert rooms, a delicious andante, taken if our memory does not deceive us from the first part of the Third Act. The exquisite sentiment with which these soldiers interpreted Wagner’s tender and poetic thought, and the grandeur which they gave to the closing measures are not to be spoken of without enthusiasm. If the Bride Song and Introduction, which came after the Andante, had been as well done this number must have been the sensation of the evening. The wonder in all these bands is the perfection with which the clarionets and oboes supply the place of violins, and it has not been more conspicuous in any case than in this selection from Wagner.”

“The first concert by the band of the Paris Garde Républicaine occurred at the Rink, in Third-avenue, near Sixty-third-street, Tuesday evening. It was very largely attended, and the most enthusiastic anticipations of an excellent performance were amply fulfilled. The band of the Garde Républicaine is without question the finest heard since Mr. Gilmore’s wholesale importation of organized bodies of musicians from Europe. It is better balanced than its English and German rivals, its proportions having been determined by the principles adopted by M. Adolphe Sax; the instruments, which include ‘saxhorns,’ ‘saxophones,’ and numerous recent inventions of M. Sax, are of a superior timbre; and the execution of the band, while it is quite above comparison with that of the Prussian force, is characterized by an expressiveness in which the faultless mechanical recital of the English players was relatively deficient. The special qualities of the executants under M. Paulus were clearly shown last night, and the overwhelming applause, which marked the close of each of the compositions they rendered, and which compelled as many repeats, proved that these qualities were understood and admired. The most important numbers of the programme were one of Meyerbeer’s ‘Torchlight Marches,’ ‘The Introduction’ and ‘Wedding March’ from Wagner’s ‘Lohengrin’ and the overture to ‘William Tell.’ The three selections were interpreted with great variety and with unimpeachable precision and finish. A cavatina from ‘Lucrezia Borgia,’ for four clarinets in unison, displayed the beauty of tone and unswerving correctness of delivery of the instrumentalists; a solo by Arban introduced M. Sylvestre, a young cornet player, whose purity of tone and taste in phrasing were conspicuous in the andante passages; and, finally, an air and variations, by Mohr, brought out in turn all the soloists. A medley of patriotic tunes ended the concert.”

“The Garde Republicaine Band, M. Paulus, leader, gave their first concert in this city at the Empire Rink, Sixty-third street and Third avenue, on Tuesday evening, July 9^th. The attendance was large and enthusiastic and the performances excellent. The band contains many clever solo performers. The performance of an air from ‘Lucrezia Borgia’ by four clarionets in unison may be pronounced wonderful. A selection from ‘Lohengrin’ drew forth the wildest applause. The programme contained but six numbers, yet, with encores, it filled out a goodly share of the evening.”

Reprinted from the Courier: Description of the organization and the instruments used by its members. List of instruments used by the Kaiser Franz Grenadier Garde Band appended.