Central Park Band Concert

Program.

Program.

Program.

“The Park Yesterday—The attendance at the Park yesterday was very small, and the indications are that the weather is fast becoming too cold for outdoor concerts to prove attractive. The visitors were attired in furs and thick, warm clothing, rendered necessary by the chilly wind which has prevailed during the last few days. The seats were unoccupied, and all persons seemed to prefer a brisk promenade, by which means cheeks glowed with a rosy hue and eyes sparkled with unusual brightness.  No one remained for any length of time, and shortly after five o’clock the visitors had all departed.”

“Music at the Park.—To the cloudy and chilly weather of Saturday may safely be attributed the fact that a very moderate number of persons gave their attendance at the customary musical entertainment in the afternoon, a circumstance to be regretted, inasmuch as the selection of music was not only very judicious, but the concert was rendered memorably by the production, for the first time in American by a military band, of Wagner’s Overture to ‘Rienzi.’ That masterly composition was played with really superb effect, the performance giving evidence of careful rehearsing and practice on the part of the musicians, and of consummate skill and judgment on the part of the person who undertook the work of arranging and adapting that difficult and delicate orchestral masterpiece for the somewhat narrow scope of wind instruments.  The conductor, moreover, seemed to enter into the spirit of the hour, and to his efforts also are due, in a great measure, the almost unqualified success of the performance. Some other pieces on the program were exceedingly well performed of which we may make especial mention of Rossini’s brilliant overture to ‘Semiramide,’ wherein Mr. Schmitz’s French horn fairly sung out the theme of the introductory movement, and of the familiar Caledonia Quadrille of Jullien, the eccentricities of which would have infallibly brought down the ‘house,’ had the house been present. We regret that, as these Park concerts are growing in interest and importance, the audiences grow thin by reason of the cool weather. The public have already been regaled with some of the choicest compositions of the most popular authors, arranged by the best harmonists of this country. The concert of Saturday afforded another triumph of this kind, and we are promised other and even greater ones. Beside, the band, as we are glad to perceive, has been growing in aim, the number of performers having reached forty, while there is reason to hope for a still further augmentation. We believe it is intended to present, before the close of the present  series of entertainments, the overture to ‘Tannhaüser’ by Wagner, which will be the very first performance of this massive work (if we are not mistaken) by a military band, either in this or any country.”