Central Park Band Concert

“The first concert of the summer season was given at the Park yesterday afternoon, commencing at three o’clock. The band of Harvey B. Dodworth played as usual. This band is a carefully selected one, and the excellent distribution of the brass and reed instruments is an evidence of sound musical judgment on Mr. Dodworth’s part. The programme was in general light and refreshing, and well carried out. The selection from Attila was rather tedious, consisting of heterogeneous parts of that opera loosely strung together. The polonaise from L’Africaine is also a prosy affair. The other pieces were good and thoroughly enjoyable. The drives and walks were crowded with gay equipages and people who had come up from the sultry atmosphere down town to breathe fresh air and listen to the music. Around the handsome stand, in the centre of which H. B. Dodworth wielded the baton, and from which spoke Auber, Weber, Verdi and Donizetti from a score of brazen mouths, was congregated a dense crowd. The ladies were present, of course, in large numbers, and from the upper terrace we looked down on a perfect sea of hats and bonnets of every conceivable shape and color, some of which resembled things neither in the heavens above nor on the earth beneath. Through the shady walks of the Ramble were crowds of people, and the sentimental thoughts of poetry, love, &c., generally connected with the Park, were indulged in as usual. The successful opening of the concert season in this Paradise of sweating Gothamites promises us this summer music of the first order, well performed, and a cool place to enjoy it in.”