Articles on the forthcoming concert season of fall/winter 1873

“The arrangements for the coming Philharmonic season are now complete. [Lists dates of concerts.] The officers of the Philharmonic Society are George T. Strong, president; Edward Boehm, vice-president; David Schaad, secretary[;] Philip Walther, treasurer, and Carl Bergmann, conductor.

During the season a good variety of orchestral music will be produced. We are glad to see Mr. Bristow’s ‘Arcadian’ symphony in the list of promised works, as well as a new ‘Leonore’ symphony by Raff, and Rubinstein’s symphony in F major. Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart and Mendelssohn are among the other symphonic writers represented. [Lists more works programmed.] …Liszts’s ‘Preludes,’ so popular with the Philharmonic audiences, will also be performed during the season. The names of the vocal or solo artists are not yet announced.”

“The arrangements for the coming Philharmonic season are now complete. [Lists dates of concerts.] The officers of the Philharmonic Society are George T. Strong, president; Edward Boehm, vice-president; David Schaad, secretary[;] Philip Walther, treasurer, and Carl Bergmann, conductor.

 

During the season a good variety of orchestral music will be produced. We are glad to see Mr. Bristow’s ‘Arcadian’ symphony in the list of promised works, as well as a new ‘Leonore’ symphony by Raff, and Rubinstein’s symphony in F major. Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart and Mendelssohn are among the other symphonic writers represented. [Lists more works programmed.] …Liszts’s ‘Preludes,’ so popular with the Philharmonic audiences, will also be performed during the season. The names of the vocal or solo artists are not yet announced.”

Portions quite difficult to read. “The sale of reserved seats for the 32d season of the New-York Philharmonic Society will open at the usual places on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 9 a. m. The auction sale of boxes will take place at the Academy of Music, on the same day, at 3 p. m. The proscenium boxes will be sold by the President, Mr. Strong, on and after Oct. 19 [? might be a different date, very difficult to read], at No. 113 East Twenty-first st.

 

We presume the concerts this year will not differ much in character from those of previous seasons. The orchestra is very little changed, the management remains the same, and the Directors are fortunate in again securing the valuable services of Mr. Carl Bergmann,—one of the soundest musicians and ablest conductors in America. The work laid out for the season embraces a fair proportion of modern compositions, but only one piece of Wagner’s and one of Liszt’s,—both of those [illeg.] old ones. Mr. Bergmann does well to devote himself chiefly to the masters of another school, and [illeg…] we might have wished for a little more of Beethoven than he purposes giving [illeg…], we look forward to the performance of the following promised works with lively satisfaction: [lists symphonies].”

“In the line of concerts, the Philharmonic series will lead the list, and will be conducted as formerly by Carl Bergmann. The concerts of the Brooklyn Philharmonic will attract much attention to account of their new leader, Theodore Thomas, who, by the way, will give a series of symphony soirees at Steinway Hall during the winter. We understand that the coming season will be the last during which Mr. Thomas’s orchestra will travel, for the director announces that the tours of this orchestra have now made good music popular in the United States, and ‘this point having been reached, the mission of travel is drawing to a close, and the last season of the Thomas concerts is announced.’ During this farewell tour Mr. Myron W. Whitney, the admirable basso, will be the vocalist. We presume that after next spring Mr. Thomas will devote his energies to the great musical enterprise which a correspondent of this paper has already described. [This is a reference to plans for an opera company; see separate event entry of 09/02/73: Article on Thomas’s plans for a permanent opera company in New York.]

 

It is rumored that the great pianist Hans Von Bülow is coming to this country early next year under the management of Mr. Ullmann, but no definite announcement of the fact has yet been made.

 

The Veselius Sisters will give a musical entertainment soon, and during the season there will be the usual number of ‘annual concerts,’ given by successful musical professors and resident vocalists.

 

Of all these concerts those of Theodore Thomas probably deserve the most attention. In announcing his seventh season Mr. Thomas reminds his patrons that ‘the principal object in founding these concerts, in 1864, and the one which was essential to their future prosperity, was to introduce the American public [to] absolutely novelties from the pens of living composers, as well as many unknown works of the acknowledged masters. To-day these concerts show the musical growth of the country, and the concert repertoire of New York includes every instrumental work of merit written by the old and the modern composers. In many instances compositions had been brought out here from manuscripts before they had been performed in Europe.’ Mr. Thomas proceeds to state that the forthcoming concerts will be in every way as interesting as the preceding.” Lists dates of the Thomas concerts from November through April.