Central Park Garden Concert; Theodore Thomas Annual Benefit

Includes program.

Includes program.

“In every way Mr. Thomas deserves well of all who have any regard for music. He has given us an orchestra that need not shrink from comparison with any in the world, even with that of the famous Gewandhaus Concerts at Leipsic. He has made the name of New York musically  honored in every continental city. He has done more than any other man in this country to popularize the best music and to exalt and honor musical art which too often is degraded to the level of hurdy-gurdyism.” 

“The audience gathered at Central Park Garden last evening, on the occasion of Mr. Thomas’ annual benefit, was large, but its numbers would have been greatly increased by brighter skies and a milder temperature. The programme interpreted was a very liberal one, and it included several numbers new to the frequenters of Mr. Thomas’ concerts, if not conspicuous, however, by novelty of ideas or form. It is plain that for originality and beauty of thought one must still look to the older composers, while Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt are not to be outdone by any of their contemporaries in the matter of instrumentation. Yesterday’s most unfamiliar compositions were an overture (‘Normannenfahrt’) by Dietrich, and a march by F. Kiel, two satisfactory specimens of the modern school. Of slighter importance, though, if anything, more acceptable, were a ‘religious meditation,’ entitled ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia,’ by Gounod, rather vague, but replete with suave harmonies, and a pretty tarantelle, with flute and clarionet solos, by Saint Saens, a French writer whose graceful and scholarly productions are not so well known in the United States as they ought to be. Selections from the third act of ‘Die Meistersinger’ are also to be mentioned with the novelties, and need only be cited as clearly Wagnerian in their manipulation. Liszt’s ‘Rhapsodie Hongroise No. 2,’ a highly characteristic overture (‘Hunya di Laszlo’) by Erkel, and Beethoven’s third overture to ‘Leonore,’ were first among the remaining numbers. The whole performance was marked by the exceeding purity of apprehension and expression which has made Mr. Thomas’ men the standard orchestra of the United States, but the delivery of Beethoven’s overture was so fine in point of intelligent reading, nicety of shading, and quality of tone that it compelled a special demonstration of delight. There was, of course, plenty of applause during the entertainment, and Mr. Thomas, from his earliest appearance on the platform, directed the band amid a small parterre of flowers.” 

“The culmination, in a musical point of view, of the Summer season at the Central Park Garden must certainly be assigned to the annual benefit concert of Mr. Thomas, which took place last evening. The chilly and threatening state of the weather interfered to some extent with the attendance, and many were, doubtless, deterred from enjoying the richest banquet of sweet sounds ever furnished on a Summer evening by this able caterer. Therefore, it is but reasonable to expect that Mr. Thomas will repeat the programme when skies are more favoring. It abounds in novelties, or at least in words with which the New York public are not familiar, as may be seen from the following [programme: see above].

The band was increased for this special occasion beyond its usual strength, as was manifest by the increased fullness of tone, but it will not be too much to say that nothing can increase its proficiency, its discipline, unanimity in response to the ideas of the composer or the slightest suggestion of the conductor. Eight years ago this indefatigable and indomitable apostle of the divine art boldly entered the until then unknown regions of Summer classical concerts. His orchestra reached its present standard of excellence by eight years’ constant study and practice under an experienced baton and a conscientious musician, whom no clamor or entreaty has ever been able to bring down from his high standard of art. Requests for what is misnamed popular music, because it is associated with the London concert salon or the French opéra bouffe, have been invariably met with firm, emphatic refusals, and Mr. Thomas has been the principal instrument in making the American public acquainted with the best and purest that music can boast of. Through him Peoria as well as the modern Athens are now as familiar with the name, and, perhaps, the ideas too, of Beethoven, Schumann and the futurists as they were previously with Root’s processional hymns, Sambo’s plantation ditties, or John Brown’s apotheosis. Such a good work brings to the doer imperishable renown.

Of the programme now under consideration it is unnecessary to dwell a moment on the performance of the ‘Scherzo,’ from Raff’s ‘Fatherland’ symphony, played nine years ago at Irving Hall by Thomas’ orchestra, the third and best of the ‘Leonora’ overtures of the Titan of composers; Schumann’s pretty little song, Strauss’ voluptuous waltz measures or the stately march of Meyerbeer. The concert opened with a march by Kiel, a musician of considerable repute in Berlin and an old confrere of Rubinstein. Who Mr. Dietrich is we are unable to ascertain, only we suppose he is one of the school of a certain gentleman introduced last Winter by the Philharmonic Society under the name of Erdmansdorfer. Gounod’s work shows the intimate knowledge which this favorite representative of the French school has gained of the true devotional spirit of church music, and Saint Saens, a French pianist of considerable eminence, appeared to advantage in a highly effective Tarentella, in which Messrs. Weiner and Kaiser, on the flute and clarionet, covered themselves with well-earned praise. Wagner, in the ‘Meistersinger,’ carries out fully our first and unwavering impressions of his school. An admirable master of instrumental effect, and gifted with poetical ideas, he chooses at times to play the part of the tantalizer rather than that of the true musician. He deliberately breaks off a delicious sequence of harmonious thoughts with some barbaric interlude, and the sooner Mr. Wagner dispenses with these the better his chances for the future. Erkel is a Hungarian composer, and his overture, although decidedly Frenchy, is quite taking and pretty. If Mr. Thomas chaperons him through this country, Mr. Erkel will become a positive favorite.

Although the fall of the thermometer last evening kept every one within doors, yet the hall was quite crowded—a sufficient test of the estimation in which the New York public hold Theodore Thomas and his incomparable orchestra. We may mention here that the Brooklyn Philharmonic Society has chosen Mr. Thomas as its leader for the Fall season, and that the smoking question has ended as it began, in smoke.”

“The annual benefit of Mr. Theodore Thomas took place at the Central Park Garden on Tuesday. The weather was unpleasant, and there was consequently not an overwhelming crowd, but the audience was large and the enthusiasm was abundant. The performance was admirable in all respects—but this is a matter of course. Several new pieces appeared on the programme—notable among them an overture, entitled Normannenfahrt, by A. Disteich of Oldenburg, a pupil of Rietz and Hauptmann. It is a valuable addition to Mr. Thomas’s repertory, ingenious in conception, rich and symmetrical in treatment, with much of the freedom of the modern school, but without its extravagance. A Tarantelle, for flute and clarinet, with orchestral accompaniment, by M. Saint Saens, organist of the Madeleine in Paris, served to exhibit the proficiency of two members of the band, MM. Weiner and Kaiser. There was a new March by Kiel of Berlin, and the orchestra gave also a highly finished performance of the 3d ‘Leonora’ overture, of the Scherzo from Raff’s Vaterland Symphony, Liszt’s 2d Hungarian Rhapsody, Gounod’s ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia,’ &c.” 

“New York, June 23.—The annual benefit concert for Theodore Thomas is to take place to-morrow evening, and there are more reasons than ever before why that eminent conductor should receive a substantial acknowledgment of his good service to art in our city. We have not only to thank him for making every summer-night a true festival of tone, but we hold in grateful remembrance the series of Symphony Concerts so courageously undertaken and successfully carried on last winter; a series in which we not only renewed our acquaintance with the great master of classical art, but also gained some insight to that new school of which Wagner stands at the head, and which Mr. Thomas is determined shall at least have a fair hearing. And to our conductor, with his band of players, trained by long and incessant practice until they now hold equal rank with the best orchestras of the old world, we owe a great change in public opinion within the past few years, concerning this, so-called, music of the future.

At the musical festival, given at Steinway Hall in the Spring of 1868, which lasted a week, one piece of Wagner’s was performed, and even that was considered a hazardous experiment. It was the Vorspiel from ‘Die Meistersinger Von Nuerberg,’ and I remember well the peculiar aspect of the audience while the piece was being played. Some of the hearers looked amused; some wore an appearance of hopeful resignation; some fidgeted and twisted uneasily in their places as though in bodily pain; others looked bitterly offended, and a few left the hall in disgust. One man was heard to allude to the composer in the words supplied by D. Jerrold to the greatest of modern poets: ‘Either that man is mad, or I am.’

At the close a feeble attempt to applaud on the part of a few determined partisans of the new school was quickly put down, and a fearful silence ensued; a hyperborean stillness; a frigidity which might congeal the open Polar sea. It was like expounding the Darwinian theory of the creation before a convention of Presbyterian ministers.

Look on that picture, and now on this.

One evening last Spring a large audience assembled in the same hall and listened attentively to a programme composed of six numbers, five of which were selections from the works of Richard Wagner, and every piece was warmly, even enthusiastically applauded. So much has Mr. Thomas accomplished by his quiet indomitable perseverance.

Rarely now, if ever, is the name of Wagner omitted from his programmes, and to those who call this undue partiality, we say Fiat justitia. Remember that the works of this great composer, of which unity is the most marked characteristic, have yet been presented to us only in detached fragments. It is like reading a single page of ‘Sordello.’ We use no other musician so ill. And yet under this great disadvantage he takes us captive, and leads us by new and strange ways, sometimes rugged and arduous but always upward, to the breezy heights of Olympus where sits the serene gods.

Among the pieces which have found place on the programmes of the garden concerts this season are: Selections from Lohengrin; Der Ritt Der Walkueren; Overture and selections from the Flying Dutchman; Ballet from Rienzi; Kaiser March; Bacchanale, Tannhaeuser, (new); Overture, Tannhaeuser; Huldigungs March. All by Wagner.

Among the pieces which are novelties to us are the following: Dance of Nymphs and Reapers, by A. S. Sullivan, from the music to Shakespeare’s Tempest; Overture di Ballo, A. S. Sullivan.

Mr. Sullivan is well known in England and to musical connoisseurs in this country as the composer of some beautiful songs of an order altogether too high for popularity. His orchestral productions are characterized by exquisite grace and refinement rather than by force. Other novelties are: Overture, Hunga di Laszio, Erkel; Musetti, Mireilla, Gounod; Komarius Kaza, Glinka; Nocturne, Buelow; Staendchen, Hiller; March, Hauschild; Nocturno, op. 9, Julius Zellner, adaptation for orchestra by Karl Mueller.

Also a charming waltz by our well-known pianist, Alfred H. Pease, who is very successful in writing for the orchestra; and a very effective arrangement for orchestra (by Karl Mueller) of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Hongroise, No. 2…These concerts are well attended and the garden offers a pleasant retreat from the heat of the city in the sultry summer evenings.”