Thomas Central Park Garden Concert: Works by Richard Wagner

Wagner night; includes program.

“Mr. Theodore Thomas gave last night at the Central Park Garden a performance devoted exclusively to the works of Richard Wagner. It was partly a tribute to a composer of whom Mr. Thomas is the best American interpreter and one of the most intelligent and appreciative of students, and partly the prelude of the formation of a Wagner Verein, which was to be celebrated, later in the evening, at a banquet given to Mr. Thomas and his companions by a few of his personal and professional friends. The concert, however, not only fulfilled these purposes, but proved the occasion of a somewhat remarkable musical demonstration. An immense concourse of people crowded the hall and garden. Contrary to the Summer custom they came early, and sat quietly in their seats till the end. They drank little or no beer. They neither flirted nor promenaded. They listened faithfully to the music, hissed down the few who tried to talk, suppressed the rattling of spoons, and frowned upon the flower girl. A great number of our best resident artists, and nearly all our foremost connoisseurs, were present. It was such an audience, in short, as any musician might delight in. The programme consisted of the following selection from Wagner’s works [see above].

No praise can be too strong to describe this extraordinary performance. We have scores of times recorded our admiration of the finish, the vigor, and the magnificent breadth of expression which the Thomas Orchestra has attained; but last night it surpassed even our previous experience. During the Summer the improvement in the band has been wonderful. The violins especially have attained a degree of perfection entirely without parallel in American concert rooms, playing as if inspired by one soul and touched by a single hand, yet with a truly masculine firmness and freedom. In this gorgeous programme there was full opportunity to display the best accomplishments of strings, reeds, and brass alike, as well as the inimitable crescendo which Mr. Thomas has now brought to such a remarkable finish. The finer qualities of the orchestra were most conspicuous perhaps to the unscientific listener in the Introduction to ‘Lohengrin,’ the ‘Faust’ Overture, and the superb Introduction and Finale from ‘Tristan und Isolde.’ But with the Walküren Ritt came a surprise that electrified the house. It has never been played here before. Taken from Part Second of Wagner’s great unfinished Trilogy, it depicts the ride of the Valkyries through the air, marking with their spear point the heroes who are to fall in battle. The wild, [free?] spirit of the German legend has been embodied in one of the strangest and most fascinating movements [ever?] scored. It is more rhythmical than Wagner commonly allows his music to be, yet it is fantastic and [illegible] to the last degree. At its close the people literally [illegible] to their feet and shouted, no less for delight at the music than for admiration at its extraordinary performance, and it was repeated amid [illegible] enthusiasm. Such emphatic demonstrations are rare in a Summer Concert Garden; but indeed last night was an exceptional occasion. It was shown then that the number of Wagner’s admirers in New-York is increasing rapidly, and has now become formidable; and it was shown also that Mr. Thomas has at last educated an audience to comprehend the [most?] abstruse forms of musical composition, to relish what a year ago would have been thought beyond the capacity of any but the scientific few, and to appreciate what [is?] really grand in conception and in the strict sense of the word artistic in execution. It will be strange after tonight if, when he returns this Winter for his month of Symphony Soirées, he do not find the heartiest welcome and the most brilliant assembly of listeners.”

“The Concert Hall was crowded and the rapt attention with which people listened to the music proved that the great high priest of a new school has a large number of devoted adherents in New York. The excellent manner in which this difficult music was interpreted by the orchestra deserves the highest praise. The remarkable ‘Ritt der Walkueren’ awakened a perfect furor in the audience, which could only be allayed by a repetition of the piece. ‘Eine Faust Ouverture,’ however, was evidently too much for the listeners. There is undoubtedly somebody living who understands that overture, but he was evidently not among the auditors last night. Probably he was detained at home.”