Philharmonic Society of New-York Public Rehearsal

     “Tho we had a quarter of an hour to spare, the only seats we could find were on the front row in the parquette B right hand side.  So we had an opportunity to study the 2^nd violin part throughout. The ensemble was often much muddled, but I saw many new points in the anatomy of the symphony and of the Midsummer N.D. music.  Wonderful music it is.  Was ever anything more touching and tender than the peroration of the Overture?  I can compare it with nothing but the conclusion of that lovely summer evening chorus with which Haydn winds up part second of the Seasons.  Then the Symphony!  To say nothing of its matchless and perfect Allegretto, how thickly shown are its other three movements with living gems of intense melody.  Vague shadows of three beautiful phrases chase one another through my head as I write here, and the imperfect image of each makes me tingle and long to call back the last two hours and hear it rendered once more.  Yet this is a specimen of Beethoven’s second-rate work!  Of course I do not compare these two passages from Haydn and Mendelssohn because they happen to occur in compositions named after ‘Summer,’ nor because they resemble each other in form, for they are therein wholly diverse, but merely as each closing a brilliant movement and a diminuendo of the most exquisite delicacy.”