Central Park Band Concert

“The Central Park Commissioners announce that there will be music at the Central Park, on the Mall, to-day, at 4 o’clock P.M., by the Central Park Band, under the leadership of H.B. Dodworth, if the weather is fine.”

“The shower of yesterday afternoon aided, rather than injured the success of the Central Park Concert.  The dust was nicely laid, and the walks and drives were rendered far more agreeable to pedestrians and equestrians than they would otherwise have been.  The music was delicious, the air balmy, the weather delightfully cool, the crowd joyous and fashionable, the youngsters delighted, the hack-drivers ditto.  In fact, all nature smiled, and so did those who knew their way to the adjoining restaurants.  Vive la Saturday concerts and encore.”

“Music in the Park.—The usual open air weekly concerts in the Park commenced on Saturday, and give promise of a successful and enjoyable season while the face of nature continues green and the skies are bright and pleasant. The Park has become an essential institution. It is a wonder of landscape gardening and artistic skill. Nature has retired modestly from the scene, and left to art all the merit of a creation which is alike the pride and the comfort of the metropolis. Now that the roads are opened through the upper Park and around the new reservoir, there is a finer opportunity than ever for the display of equestrian skill and splendid exuipages [sic]; and it must be remarked that in the latter particular the Park never presented so grand a show as it does this year. The terrace at the end of the mall, which is now nearly finished, presents a beautiful specimen of architecture. The music stand, also, from which the band discourses its eloquent strains, is a delightful piece of work, in the purely Oriental style. Every feature, indeed, is replete with beauty, from the grand promenade to the pretty ponds, with their snowy fleet of swans. We should not be surprised to hear, as the fame of the Park spreads, that tourists will come here from Europe to see this great New York institution. It presents as much attraction as anything, perhaps, in the country. In point of scenery, it is to art what Niagara is to nature.”