Philharmonic Society of New-York Public Rehearsal: 1st

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
4 July 2015

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

08 Oct 1864, 3:00 PM

Program Details



Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Philharmonic Society of New York
2)
Symphony, no. 3, op. 55, E-flat major
aka Eroica symphony
Composer(s): Beethoven
3)
Préludes, Les
aka Preludes, Les
Composer(s): Liszt
4)
Oberon, overture
Composer(s): Weber

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 01 October 1864, 7.

2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 03 October 1864.

3)
Announcement: New York Herald, 05 October 1864.

“The Philharmonic Concerts. PROGRAMME FOR ‘THE SEASON’ OF 1864-65.  The coming Philharmonic season, which will be informally opened by the rehearsal next Saturday afternoon, will be the twenty-third which the members of this society will have offered to our musical public. There will be five regular concerts, to take place on the 5th of November, the 17th of December, the 28th of January, the 11th of March, and the 22nd of April next. For the first concert Mr. Bergmann will direct . . . , all of them works of high merit and deserved popularity, but certainly possessing no feature of novelty. During the season, however, many other first class orchestral compositions will be produced, some of them new to our audiences. The list of symphonies includes . . .

 

The vocal part of the Philharmonic concerts will chiefly be confided to the Liederkranz Society, who will sing selections from Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven and Palestrina. The solo performers, either vocal or instrumental, are not yet announced, but it is to be hoped that the new prima donna of Maretzek’s troupe—Carozzi-Zucchi—will be heard at these concerts. The lady has an extensive repertoire, and if—as is usually the case—we must have operatic extracts at the Philharmonic concerts, it would be better to select them from the works of [?] composers not familiar here. Pacini and Mercadante’s scores are replete with elegant scenas which could very well be transferred to the concert room.

 

The rehearsals this year will take place every Saturday, at the Academy of Music, sometimes in the morning at ten, and sometimes in the afternoon at three o’clock—an inconvenient arrangement, likely to mislead those who wish to attend. The concerts will also take place at the Academy of Music. The price of subscription has been raised to fifteen dollars, entitling the subscriber to three tickets for each of the five concerts, but not to the rehearsals. Associate members, for eight dollars, can have one admission to the fifteen public rehearsals and the live concerts. Extra admission tickets, if purchased at the music stores can be had for one dollar, but when bought at the door of the Academy on the night of the performance they will cost a dollar and a half. There is entirely too much complication and red tape in all these arrangements. To understand the system and get safely through the season will require a tabular work like a railway guide. Otherwise the plans for the coming Philharmonic concerts are admirable, and the series promises to be unusually brilliant.”
4)
: 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., 08 October 1864.
“To first Philharmonic Rehearsal at 3 p.m., Acad of music.   Johnny joined us there & we heard the Eroica.  Poor fellow, he had another of the sick headaches that harass him of late more than ever, and had to go home & to bed after the second movement. I must see Peters and Van [?] about this trouble of his.   For it is becoming serious.  Of all the four movements of this glorious symphony, I think the fourth grows on one most steadily. The first, tho of power and intensity almost unequaled, wants breadth (sit venia loquendi). What I mean by that much abused word is that when you recall one of the pungent phrases of its latter two-thirds, you don’t easily remember where it belongs, at what point it comes in. The movement does not as a whole divide itself in one’s recollections into great masses of form harmoniously grouped together,  Not as with any movement, e.g. of the C-minor or with the 2nd or 3rd movement s of the A symphony or with Mozart’s C major. One instantly refers any phrase that occurs to him of any of these to its proper place in the movement it belongs to, and recognizes it as occurring in the beginning or the middle or near the end & impossible any where else. But this grand battle picture seems to have been painted in a fit of rage that possessed the artist, and gave him no time for artistic  handling.  Considered s a poem, it is written offhand under pressure of an irresistible inspiration, beyond the poet’s control.”
5)
Announcement: New York Post, 10 October 1864.