Central Park Garden Concert

Includes program; Mendelssohn’s symphony was performed in its entirety.

“Notwithstanding the unpleasantness of the weather, the hall of the Central Park Garden was well filled last evening.

A lovely overture of Schubert, ‘Alphonso and Estrella,’ played for the first time by this orchestra, was deliciously rendered, and received close attention and decided marks of approbation from both the ‘old guard’ and the transient visitors who were present. Part second consisted of one of Mendelssohn’s symphonies (No. 3 Op. 56), and although Mr. Thomas requested silence during its performance, there were several parties of young men and women who found it necessary to disregard his request, as the members of each group had much to communicate to one another, the symphony lasted over half an hour, and life is short. It is true many were annoyed at their persistency and showed it, one gentleman nearly breaking his neck in his haste to get beyond earshot, several losing their patience and hissing, while to others visions of Alderman Morris and his famous muzzle law blended ever and anon with the strains of the charming scherzo.

There is much in the world that needs to be forgiven, and we hope we are not more uncharitable than most other persons, but when we hear one of our loquacious neighbors pronounce a symphony such as this to be ‘silly,’ and another complain that the passage for the horns of ‘Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg’ illustrating the gathering of the guilds is ‘ridiculous,’ we confess to a hardening of the heart and an uplifting of the nose not in keeping with our usual celestial temper. But these annoyances were exceptional, and the fine programme of last night received, on the whole, an intelligent and appreciative hearing.”

“The announcement of the performance of one of the most delightful works ever penned by an orchestral writer, Mendelssohn’s Scotch Symphony, No. 3, opus 56, by Thomas’ orchestra was sufficient to attract a very brilliant audience to Central Park Garden last night, in spite of the inclement weather. The performance of this work was of that finished and effective kind that might be anticipated. The four movements, the introduction, scherzo, adagio and allegro, so characteristic, fresh and genial, were delivered with rare expression and heartiness, and the applause which greeted each was more like what one would expect to hear during the winter at Steinway Hall, or the Academy than at a summer garden. The rest of the programme was equally interesting, consisting of [see above]. It was not astonishing, in view of such musical attractions, that some of the audience present had come all the way from Brooklyn. The respectful and earnest attention paid to the performance was an incontestable evidence of the influence exercised by Mr. Thomas and his band over our music-loving public.”

“Mendelssohn’s Scotch Symphony (No. 3) filled the second part of the programme at Theodore Thomas’s Thursday concert, and received, as it almost always does, a cordial popular welcome. We cannot look upon it as one of the most valuable of this charming master’s works, but it certainly captivates the fancy of the average listener, and abounds in brilliant examples of skill in the treatment of the characteristic melodies by which it was inspired. Warmly as it was received, a still more emphatic mark of approbation was given to the Introduction, Quintet, and Finale for the third Act of the ‘Meistersinger,’ to which we have so often referred as the richest of the grand Wagnerian specimens arranged by Mr. Thomas during the last few years. The Quintet has been played several times this season, but the three selections ought to be heard together to produce the due effect. The overture to Schubert’s ‘Alfonso and Estrella’ was played at this concert for the first time in New-York, and we presume for the first time in America. The score has only recently been printed, and the parts for the orchestra have never been published at all. The opera is one of the ripest of Schubert’s productions and contains, in the opinion of many of his admirers, some of the most exquisite of his musical conceits. But Schubert, partly in consequence of an unfortunate choice of texts, partly because he had little natural genius for dramatic composition, never succeeded as a writer for the stage. ‘Alfonso and Estrella’ fell stillborn, and though Liszt during his memorable service as conductor of the Court Theater at Weimar, twenty-five years ago, revived it for a time, in the remarkable repertory which also included Wagner’s then unknown ‘Lohengrin,’ and ‘Tannhäuser,’ and ‘The Flying Dutchman,’ Schumann’s ‘Genoveva,’ and the ‘Benvenuto Cellini’ of Hector Berlioz, it never won popular acceptance. The defects, however, which destroyed the opera do not belong to the overture; that we trust may frequently have a place on our concert programmes.”