Philharmonic Society of New York Rehearsal

“Dr. Doremus, who has been very civil to me of late, was kind enough to send me a proscenium box for yesterday’s Philharmonic rehearsal. So with Ellie, pretty Miss Margaret Taylor, & the boys, heard the Zauberflöte overture, a stupid Schumann overture “to Genoveva,” and the immortal C minor symphony. As we sat within arms length of the double basses, the ensemble was rather cloudy sometimes. Had we not known Mozart’s & Beethoven’s music by heart, the performance would have been somewhat obscure. I felt like one examining a great picture with his nose flattened against the canvas. Mrs. Emily Davison sang Agatha’s scena in Der Freyschutz & (on the encore) Haydn’s beautiful song, “My mother bids me bind my hair,” which I never heard before. She did both charmingly. But she has not force enough for the scena. Who has? Seward (“Wandering Willie,” the world calls him) was in the house, lo the “exercises were opened” with Hail Columbia, which the orchestra played extemporaneously & without any score before them, but smoothly & all together. This seemed to me a remarkable feat, but perhaps it is not. There was also a heavy quintette by Rietz & and dull ‘cello solo (Bergner) by one Gotterman. Bergner is quite ill & hardly able to play at all.”