Thomas Popular Musical Matinee: 1st

Advertises four concerts in the series, but there were ten.

“Mr. Theodore Thomas will give four grand orchestral concerts during the season, preceded by four public rehearsals.  The programme will contain several novelties, and will be interpreted by the ample and liberal means which this gentleman places at the service of the public on such occasions.  The orchestra will be of colossal proportions, and of the finest material.  An efficient chorus will also take part in the entertainments.”

Announces four concerts in the series, but there were ten.

“Mr. Theodore Thomas will give four grand orchestral concerts, and as many public rehearsals, at Irving Hall, with the addition of a full chorus.”

“Special Notice: Each purchaser of a reserved seat for the evening [Gottschalk] concerts will be presented with a ticket of admission for the First Popular Saturday Afternoon Concert, Oct. 24, under the direction of Mr. Theodore Thomas, and at which Mr. Gottschalk will perform, together, with a powerful array of talent.”

“Several new morceaux will be introduced by Mr. Gottschalk, and the patrons of the first concert will receive a bonus in the shape of a free admission to Mr. Theodore Thomas’ first grand popular concert on the following Saturday.”

“The first of Mr. Theodore Thomas’ series of popular afternoon Concerts will take place at Irving Hall on Saturday afternoon.  The programme is admirable.  It contains a judicious admixture of classical and popular music, and can boast of the cooperation of Mr. Gottschalk, the eminent pianist.”

“These concerts are deserving of popular patronage, as they are to be the medium for the encouragement of native talent.”

For Gottschalk at Irving Hall on 10/22/63.

"SPECIAL NOTICE.--Each purchaser of a reserved seat will receive a ticket of admission for the first popular Saturday afternoon concert, Oct. 24, under the direction of Mr. THEODORE THOMAS, and at which Mr. GOTTSCHALK will perform."

“The great pianist will perform together with Miss Lucy Simons, soprano pupil of Signor Muzio, and whose début on Monday evening last was so eminently successful. . . . The programme will be entirely new, comprising a symphony, overtures, selections from the operas, waltzes, polka, and quadrilles.”

Announces four concerts in the series, but there were ten.

“Mr. Theodore Thomas will give four grand orchestral concerts during the season, preceded by four public rehearsals.  The programme will contain several novelties, and will be interpreted by the ample and liberal means which this gentleman places at the service of the public on such occasions.  The orchestra will be of colossal proportions, and of the finest material.  An efficient chorus will also take part in the entertainments.”

“Ms. Simons, the young pupil of M. Muzio [performs today].  She made a great impression at her debut on Monday.”

“The weather was unfavorable on Saturday, when Mr. Theodore Thomas gave his first popular concert, but there was, not withstanding, a very fair audience, sufficient, at all events, to demonstrate that under more favorable auspices the Hall would have been completely crowded.  Mr. Theodore Thomas has engaged an exceedingly efficient orchestra, composed of the very best players in the City; the ensemble is excellent, and could hardly be improved.  Mr. Thomas was assisted by Miss Lucy Simons, whose début on Tuesday last was so eminently successful, and by Messrs. Gottschalk and Sanderson on the piano.  The programme contained all sorts of music, opening with an overture by Beethoven and ending with a quadrille by Strauss.  A symphony by Mozart (No. 3 in E flat) was excellently rendered; and a charming trifle called the ‘Aurora Polka’ received the nicest attention.  Miss Simons sang with great brilliancy and was encored in Gounod’s Waltz.  Mr. Gottschalk played superbly, and played often, being recalled after each piece.  The entertainment was, in all respects, successful.”

“It’s nearly superfluous to say that the reappearance of Gottschalk got a brilliant ovation; but what is more new and more interesting from the point of view of art is the transformation that has appeared to me to have come about in the attitude of the great pianist. Some hearings behind closed doors have already evoked this impression in me; it was confirmed upon hearing him in public. One does not know enough whether in addition to being a first-class performer and an ingenious and prolific composer there is in Gottschalk a passionate and untiring seeker. Setting out in pursuit of an ideal whose sensations possess and torment him, he explores in turn all the paths by which he believes he can attain it. At one point—it was two years ago and I said it at the time—one could have believed that he had lost his way. His performances and his playing threatened to lose in clarity what they were gaining in brilliance. Today, one recognizes that this was simply an intermediate stage through which his skill passed. The new compositions that he produced in those days and the fashion in which he interpreted them foretold that Gottschalk would arrive at a third phase in his artistic life. It isn’t any more the fascinating--but a bit effeminate--delicacy of the first period that we knew; it’s not the exuberant virility, that goes too far through an excess of vigor, that he pursued; the qualities and the faults of this double past are in some ways melded together, and from this fortunate mixture there breaks loose a purified talent, released from the hindrances that he was saddled with one after another. After having alternatively possessed charm and power, feeling and vigor, delicacy and depth, Gottschalk seems to have finally found the secret of uniting them. Everybody was struck by the change that has been accomplished in him, and although few people could probably take account of it, each has submitted to its charm. Also, his success, which would have appeared to reach its apogee, has soared to new heights which are growing in proportion as the transformation to which I have testified is noticed. Two singers who have made their debuts under his auspices are owed particular mention. They are both Americans and students of M. Muzio, to whom they do great honor. The first, Miss Lucy Simons, possesses a pure, flexible and clear soprano voice, that she handles with remarkable security and steadiness. The second, Mistress Motte, is a mezzo soprano, touching on contralto, with excellent timbre and extraordinary fullness. If the future holds the promises of the present, there is the stuff of two artists of good quality. I wouldn’t say as much about Mlle Louise Vivier, who has for her principal merit first-rate self-possession and a mad love of music which the latter doesn’t give back to her. They assure us that this name on the programme hides that of a woman of the world, gifted with a lovely family and a rich husband. I congratulate her, but I stick to what I said above.”

       Saturday, at [Irving Hall], M. Theodore Thomas’s popular and classical matinees, an excellent institution for which perhaps one must not count on a success by infatuation but which will establish itself by degrees on a solid base, were inaugurated. To counteract, from the point of view of receipts, terrible weather, the first of these concerts was excellent and a good prediction for the future.”

Part of review of multiple events.

            “New York, Oct. 26.—The week closed with ‘Ione,’ Theo. Thomas’s matinée, and the Philharmonic rehearsal, with the usual Philharmonic storm. Notwithstanding the unpropitious state of the weather, the attendance at each of these performances was very good. At Irving Hall, Mr. Theo. Thomas inaugurated a series of matinées, which promise great popularity. The programme, which was interpreted by thirty of the most accomplished performers in the city, included [lists part of the program].”