Philharmonic Society of New York Concert: 6th

“The New-York Philharmonic Society closed its thirty first year on Saturday night with one of the most brilliant concerts in its recent history. Anton Rubinstein, who lent a special attraction to the first concert of the season, was the principal figure in the last, appearing this time as the conductor of his own Ocean Symphony, which occupied about half the time of the whole evening’s performance. The programme was as follows [see above].

Schumann’s exquisite little work received a poetic and refined interpretation under Mr. Bergmann’s baton, and it seemed to us that the orchestra played with unusual smoothness, though possibly not with remarkable spirit. We speak, however, with some reserve, for the first and second movements were ruined, for a large part of the audience, by the disturbance of late arrivals. The tardy comers were allowed to crowd into the balcony aisles, and there remonstrate with the ushers, to the inexpressible annoyance of people who had seats in the neighborhood. There is only one way to preserve quiet during the performances, and that is to close the lobby doors.

Spohr’s ‘Gesang Scene’ is the same concerto which Mr. Wieniawski played at one of the Thomas concerts a little while ago. It is an admirable example of the style of a composer who was called in his day the greatest ‘singer’ on the violin that ever lived. Spohr’s fondness for rhythmic forms and clear, graceful, sensuous melodies was carried sometimes to excess. His beautiful and refined work often lacks force, and the sweetness of his irreproachable harmonies after a while fatigues the ear. The ‘Gesang Scene’ nevertheless is a very charming composition, and Mr. Wieniawski plays it in a thoroughly sympathetic manner. We cannot write of his Saturday performance without enthusiasm, for a better example of the cantabile style of violin playing has rarely, if ever, been heard in New York. This admirable virtuoso does not always give his best work to miscellaneous audiences; but before the Philharmonic Society he rose to his highest level, and showed a much richer tone, deeper feeling, and purer art than (save on one or two occasions) he has ever shown before during his American tour. The delight awakened by his achievement ought to have satisfied him that he will find appreciation here for the very best that he can do.

We have written so recently of the Ocean Symphony that we need add little now by way of tribute to what we regard as one of the noblest of contemporary orchestral works. Grand in conception, masterly in scoring, and wonderfully fertile in ideas, it grows upon us with repeated hearings. It is no clap-trap imitation of the sounds of inanimate nature—a splash of rippling waters, the thunder of the storm, the murmuring of the surf; it is like the ocean because it suggests immensity, and breadth, and boundless force, and perpetual variety. The composer found his themes not on the seashore, but in the depth of his own soul. The performance, under his own direction, was more exciting at the Steinway Hall concert three weeks ago than at the Academy on Saturday; yet the Philharmonic Society did itself great credit. The second movement especially with the beautifully interwoven melody of the trio, was admirably played. The allegro con fuoco lacked something of the picturesque spirit of which it is capable, and the execution generally was neither so perfect in details nor so rich in effect as Mr. Thomas’s men made it. Nevertheless it deserved very hearty commendation and showed the result of careful and intelligent rehearsal.

The season which has just closed has not been free from faults, but it has been much better than the one that preceded it. The orchestra has suffered from the frequent absence of some of its best members with the Maretzek opera company, in which they must have learned carelessness and various other bad habits. Nevertheless, they have done many good things in the course of the Winter, and some things exceedingly good. The programmes have always presented at least one novelty, unless we except the last. The new works produced during the season include two symphonies, Raff’s No. 4 in G minor, and Gade’s No. 8 in B minor; two overtures, ‘Prinzes[illegible],’ by Erdmannsdörfer, and ‘Galilei’ by Mr. Matzka; and the ‘Hirtengesang,’ from Liszt’s ‘Christus;’ besides which Haydn’s Oxford Symphony was played for the first time by this society. Two movements of the Rubinstein Symphony were also new, but they were first played at the Steinway Hall concert, March 31. The other works performed by the Philharmonic Society during the season were [see programs for individual concerts]. The principal deficiency is always in the solo performances; here there has been much improvement, but there is room for more…The pecuniary success of the season is beyond question.” 

“At the sixth and last concert of the season, which took place on Saturday night in the Academy of Music, this old and flourishing society furnished a programme in strict accord with its constitution. It was, as usual, entirely German. It will be seen by the following that a new work of importance, from the pen of an eminent living musician was one of the prominent features in this selection [see above for programme].

If any proof were wanting that the Philharmonic concerts owe their fame and must be indebted for continued longevity to the influence of certain series of acknowledged great works, the success of Saturday night’s entertainment would suffice. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Cherubini, Weber and Spohr, Schumann and Mendelssohn, with proportionate examples from the vocal music of the Italian masters, and occasionally, but very rarely, when incontestable merit warrants the innovation, an instrumental and vocal piece by some of our best American writers, would suffice, without the remotest assistance from Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz to sustain the Philharmonic.

The work of Schumann is one of that composer’s most genial, characteristic and spontaneous effusions. The orchestra, with its wealth of stringed instruments and mellifluous ‘wind,’ played the various movements to perfection and with scrupulous exactness of detail which is not always found even in our Philharmonic performances. The time of every movement, thanks to the conductor, Mr. Carl Bergmann, was irreproachable.

M. Wieniawski’s playing of the concerto by Spohr, and upon which we recently dwelt at some length, was one of those masterly executions which place the greatest of violinists almost beyond the pale of criticism, compelling those who would be his judges to bow in admiration. The grand, broad, rich, resonant tone, with the voluminous power of which he filled the spacious and densely-crowded building; his exquisite pianissimo, the rapidity and unerring precision of his bravura passages; his faultless intonation; his perfect phrasing, and the manner in which he delivers every melodious theme, these are his points of excellence. The performance created a rapture of enthusiasm. At the conclusion the performer was recalled four times.

We have heretofore given a sufficient analysis of the Russian composer’s ‘Ocean’ symphony, on the occasion of its first performance by the Rubinstein-Thomas combination."

“New York, April 28.—At the sixth concert of the Philharmonic Society, on Saturday evening, April 19^th, the orchestra played Schumann’s ‘Overture, Scherzo and Finale’ (op. 52) a fine and original work which might be called a Symphony but for the lack of a slow movement. It was played much as we expected to hear it; for the performances of this orchestra vary only in degrees of badness. The strings were rough, the brass boisterous and out of tune and time.

Herr Wieniawski played Spohr’s Concerto: ‘Gesang-scene;’ and the concert ended with Rubinstein’s ‘Ocean Symphony’ conducted by the composer. If any new evidence of his power and skill as a conductor is required, it is afforded by the fact that the orchestra under his baton gave not only a good but an excellent rendering of this great composition. It may have been owing to the magnetism of the composer’s presence, or to his peculiar method of conducting; however this may be, I certainly have never heard the Philharmonic Orchestra play so well.”