Central Park Garden Concert

Includes program.

“Mr. Thomas had a crowded audience on Thursday night, and his classical concert seemed to be very keenly relished. There were two novelties on the programme. The ‘Dance of Nymphs and Reapers,’ from A. S. Sullivan’s music to Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest,’ is a most charming specimen of the fine fancy and neat workmanship of one of the best of living English musicians. It has been played two or three times this season at Mr. Thomas’s concerts, but we believe had never before been heard in America, though Mr. Sullivan’s ‘Tempest’ has long enjoyed a high reputation. The other novelty was a serenade in D by Johannes Brahms, played on this occasion for the first time in the United States. It is long—embracing six distinct movements—too long, we think for its character. Certainly he must be a consummate musician, who can preserve the interest of the hearer unflagging through a composition of symphonic proportions which has, after all, only the dreamy and over delicate spirit of a serenade. Herr Brahms has hardly the genius for such a task; but he has produced some exquisite and upon the whole well varied numbers, of which we were particularly struck by the third (adagio non troppo), and the fourth (a minuet). The whole work was exquisitely played. There was an especially rich performance of the march and cortege from Gounod’s ‘Reine de Saba;’ and the programme also included, among other things, the second ‘Leonora’ overture, the Vorspiel to ‘Lohengrin,’ and the Ritt der Walküren. We shall not be surprised if Mr. Thomas succeed[s] in teaching people how to behave in the concert room. There was so much loud talking during the ‘Lohengrin’ overture that he stopped the performance until quiet was restored, and then began it again. On Tuesday evening he suddenly interrupted the performance of the overture to ‘Masaniello,’ on account of the misbehavior of certain ladies and gentlemen in the front seats, and announced that he would wait for them. On the previous night there was a great deal of loud talking during the delicate music of the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ overture, when Mr. Thomas startled the audience by giving the signal for a loud roll on the drums. The talkers, who did not notice what was apparent to everyone else, kept on talking; the drums kept on rolling; till at last the laughter of the band and the applause of the audience aroused the offenders to a realization of the state of affairs. It is significant that these protests of Mr. Thomas against the bad manners of a few are always received with emphatic approbation by the majority of the audience.”