Thomas Central Park Garden Concert

For a Summer concert this programme was both unusually strong and unusually long. The rich quality of the selections sufficed to attract a large and cultivated audience, and the length of the entertainment troubled only the performers, if it troubled anybody. The first part gave us an opportunity to enjoy the orchestra in some of its best and most striking work. The majestic overture, the wonderful chaconne, and Bargiel’s brilliant dances were all played with spirit and grace, the springtanz especially was a marvel of prettiness and delicacy. It was in the favorite selections from ‘Tristan und Isolde,’ however, that the band showed its quality and gave us that combination of intelligent reading and forcible and finished delivery which place it so far before all other orchestras in America, and so high in the ranks of the best orchestras of the world. The most important work of the evening was the Rubenstein Symphony. We rate this as one of the greatest compositions of its class produced during the present generation, although, as we remarked when it was first performed last March, the average audience must hear it several times before its plan is clearly discerned in the midst of the bewildering abundance of beautiful but often strange themes with which the score is loaded. In dignity, fire, concentration, happy fancy in the instrumentation and fertility in the melody it will probably be accepted hereafter as a masterpiece, whatever people may think of it now. In March it was heard, not with disappointment so much as with perplexity, and those who really enjoyed it were comparatively few. Last Thursday it was applauded with the greatest heartiness, and every time it is played we believe the number of its admirers will increase. Separate movements given at some of the concerts last week were received with high favor.

Mr. Dudley Buck, who has been engaged by Theodore Thomas as assistant conductor, has recently taken his place occasionally at the desk. Mr. Buck is one of our soundest and most accomplished musicians, and we congratulate New-York that he has been induced to remove to our city. Some changes have been made in the seats at the Central Park Garden, and the round tables which so many people found necessary to their comfort have been restored to the body of the hall.”