Private Musical Evening

Event Information

Venue(s):
Residence of George Templeton Strong

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
13 October 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

20 May 1872, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Septet, strings, winds, op. 20, E-flat major
Composer(s): Beethoven

Citations

1)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 20 May 1872.

“After dinner there appeared a dozen of Johny & Temple’s amateur confederates, with their instruments, & we had two hours of rather rough orchestral work. Johnny & General Vinton were ‘celli—Temple, oboe (!), etc.—horn very good for an amateur. They did one or two modern overtures, a little Haydn & a little Mozart, & at last, Beethoven’s septuor. They did not play like the Philharmonic orchestra, or like Theodore Thomas’, but I enjoyed their performance, just as I should enjoy glimpses of Cologne Cathedral or the Matterhorn, on a misty day. There was a new kind of pleasure in tracing the exquisite phrases of the septuor through the bungling execution of these young gentlemen. N. B. It was wholly new to most of them.”