Philharmonic Society: Public Rehearsal: 1st

“100 PERFORMERS.”

“The Philharmonic Society began the work of the season by a rehearsal at the Academy of Music yesterday afternoon. [Lists works performed.] Mr. Bergmann conducted, as usual. The attendance was not as large as it will be later in the season.”

“First Philharmonic Rehearsal.

This time honored society began its thirty-second season at the Academy of Music yesterday. The attendance was smaller than on any previous occasion, owing, probably, to the reticence observed by the members of the society in respect to the opening of the season. Three orchestral works were rehearsed under the direction of Mr. Carl Bergmann. [Lists works; calls Les Préludes Liszt’s “best composition.”] Bruch’s work is new and is conceived in the true Mendelssohnian spirit. There are a simplicity and poetry of treatment in it which are quite a relief from the noisy and labored style of other modern German composers. The composer has been known here before through the introduction of the Liederkranz Society, which presented his masterpiece, ‘Frithiof’s Sage,’ on two occasions. His instrumentation is effective without being incomprehensible, and he evidently believes in the good old schools rather than in the pagan notions of some of his contemporaries. The delicious movements of the ‘Fourth Symphony’ formed an attractive foil to the massive measures of Liszt’s symphonic poem. The programme is of greater musical value than one might expect from the society, and indicates reform on the part of the directory and an abandonment of the whimsical ideas of the schools of the future.”