Thomas Central Park Garden Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Central Park Garden

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Price: $.50; $1 & $2 extra, private boxes

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
10 July 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

29 Jul 1875, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Thomas Orchestra
2)
Suite, orchestra, BWV 1068, D major
aka Suite, no. 3, D major
Composer(s): Bach
3)
Drei Charakterstücke, op. 15
aka Drei Characterstucke; Drei Charakterstucke
Composer(s): Hofmann
4)
Genoveva, overture
Composer(s): Schumann
5)
Symphony, D. 759, B minor
aka Unfinished symphony; Symphony, no. 8, B minor
Composer(s): Schubert
6)
Préludes, Les
aka Preludes, Les
Composer(s): Liszt
7)
Neighbors, The
Composer(s): Horn
8)
Drømmebilleder
aka Drommebilleder; Dromme Billeder ; Traumbilder ; Visions in a Dream; Pictures of dreams; Frambileter; Fraumbileter; Cloud pictures; Dissolving views; Nebelbilder
Composer(s): Lumbye
9)
Huldigungs-Marsch
Composer(s): Wagner

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 29 July 1875, 7.

Includes program. 

2)
Article: New York Post, 29 July 1875, 2.

Special notice of Hofmann’s Drei Charakterstücke, op. 15 and Liszt’s Les Preludes.

3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 29 July 1875, 1.

Includes program. 

4)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 21 August 1875, 79.

“I have seldom heard Bach’s music executed with the precision and clearness which signalized this performance of the Suite, and I can imagine nothing more fascinating than the music.

The character pieces by Hoffmann are remarkably well scored. The first is a charming meditation entitled ‘Ruhe in Schatten einer Ruine.’ The second a Ballade, and the third a Scherzo called ‘Ia Sonnenschein:’

‘And soon the buzzing knows no end

Soprano mosquitos and the crickets;

The dragon-flies a varied throng,

In Alto raise their swelling song,

Blue flies and bees in Tenor quaver,

In deep-toned bass the lively chafer.’

Poor Schubert! your life was itself an ‘unfinished symphony;’ but the missing chords will be supplied by those you love in every land where music is known. You have indeed touched the stars with your forehead.”