Central Park Garden Concert

Includes program.

“The crowd at the Central Park Garden last Thursday was far too great for comfort. Every corner of the hall was filled, and in the garden promenading was attended with some difficulty. The audiences, in fact, at these concerts are outgrowing the space provided for them. And if the popularity of the entertainments continue [sic] to increase, we look forward to the future with something like dismay. The programme last Thursday was not so rich as the remarkable one of the week before; but it was highly interesting. The principal novelty was a symphony of Julius Zellner, a composer who is attracting much notice now in Vienna, where he has recently produced a connected series of seven symphonic works, under the title of ‘Melusina.’ If the seven are all like the one performed the other night, listening to the whole series can hardly be a very exhilarating amusement. Zellner writes gracefully and easily, with a due respect for classical forms, and a fair command of the resources of the orchestra. His music is symmetrical and neatly [finished?], but it lacks the sacred fire, and so one soon grows weary of it. Another novelty on Thursday’s programme, a Nocturne by Hans Von Bulow, was far more striking. Beethoven’s First Leonora Overture was [beautifully?] played, and the arrangement for orchestra of Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody, which has become a decided favorite at these concerts, was repeated.”