Thomas Central Park Garden Concert; Thomas Annual Benefit

Grand gala concert; the orchestra to be increased by the addition of a military band.

Includes programme; also included an illegible galop by Faust.

“The benefit of Theodore Thomas last evening at the Central Park Garden was the occasion of an immediate gathering of the friends of the popular musical director. The performance was well-nigh perfect in all respects, and the introduction of the military band pleasantly varied the accustomed routine. Mr. Schneider’s clarionet solos were heartily applauded.”

“The delightful garden at Central Park was last night crowded to its utmost capacity by the élite of New York society. The rich toilettes of the ladies and the unusual number of pretty faces one met at every turn gave an air of marked distinction to the assemblage which had come together to mark their appreciation of Mr. Thomas’ efforts in the cause of music. The number and quality of his admirers, who filled the garden and the spacious auditorium to overflowing, prove conclusively how well sincere efforts to provide a high class of musical entertainment are appreciated by our citizens. The smiles of the crowds who looked approvingly on Mr. Thomas must have been even more pleasing to Mr. Thomas as an artist than even the knowledge of the financial success which the presence of a vast number of his friends assured. Certainly the opinion of the public was fully justified by the brilliant manner in which the orchestra that Mr. Thomas has so carefully trained executed a somewhat trying programme. The public went to the concert with high expectations, and the individual who came away discontented must have been a severe critic indeed.

“A fantasie for the clarionet, by Spadina, was played with great dash by Mr. L. Schneider. Paganini’s concerto, No. 1, in E flat, gave Mr. Listemann an opportunity to display brilliant execution. Both soloists were rewarded with rapturous applause, which was well merited. The concert in its ensemble was the most brilliant of the season, and no one that listened to the careful and learned rendering of the varied programme could help imagining the contrast afforded by the well ordered orchestra and the unwieldy sensation show which has been inflicted on Boston [the Peace Jubilee]. The popularity of these concerts is assured, and they must continue to grow until they have become an institution, and a deserving one, of our national life.”

“The benefit of Mr. Theodore Thomas, at the Central Park Garden, on Thursday night, was in all respects a success, and creditable to the beneficiary and the public.”

“Theodore Thomas gave his benefit concert at the Central Park Garden, on Thursday evening, June 20^th. For the edification of your Boston readers I will state that he did not have a grand orchestra of ‘1,000 accomplished musicians,’ nor was he assisted by a trained chorus of 17,000 picked voices—neither was there any ten-acre shed especially constructed for the occasion: though I have no doubt that such a proceeding would have been eminently sensible and proper [references to the recent Peace Jubilee in Boston]. He did have, however, an excellent orchestra of 60 performers, and the following programme [see above].

“Had Mr. Thomas held direct communication with the clerk of the weather he could not have selected a better evening—for, as the long scorching afternoon drew to a close, and a welcome breeze blew up from the bay, people seemed to gravitate naturally to the cool and pleasant gardens. The only difficulty seemed to be—to prevent the crowd from being too great—for Mr. Thomas’s personal popularity is such that doubling the usual price of admission seemed to increase, rather than diminish, the attendance.

“At 8:30 every table in the salle des concerts and in the garden outside was taken and every place occupied. Those who came later had to be content with a promenade in the garden path until some restless sitter left his chair—an event of almost constant occurrence, for here every one wanders at his own sweet will—or, what is the same of course, the will of a lady whom he escorts; for, do not imagine, O men of Athens, that this is merely a beer drinking place, frequented mainly by a sterner sex: at least half the audience was composed of ladies.

“The conductor was evidently in the best of mood. In front of his desk hung a beautiful garland of lilies; above him the crystal chandeliers chimed gaily, swayed by the river breeze. From his cheerful demeanor one would not have guessed that three sonnets had recently been written to him; yet there they were, printed on the second leaf of the programme, for every one to read. He seems, somehow, to be en rapport with hearers, as well as with orchestra. Even when his audience relapses into barbarism on the subject of encores, he quietly but firmly controls them. I have seen him—under circumstances almost as trying as the famous charivari at the Cirque Napoleon, when Pasdeloup nearly broke his bâton in frantic rage—leave the stand and quietly take a seat in a corner of the orchestra, remaining there until he had carried his point.

“The music was fine in every respect; each selection was perfectly rendered by the orchestra; and during the intermissions a military band stationed in the garden played played some very good music:--an arrangement of Mendelssohn’s ‘Spring Song,’ (Lieder ohne Worte), among other pieces. Mr. Listemann received an encore for his fine rendering of Paganini’s difficult concerto.

“The popularity of these garden concerts continues undiminished, and a season of somewhat similar entertainments has begun at Terrace Garden, with Ad. Neuendorff as conductor.”