Central Park Band Concert

Program listed

         Despite the threatening appearance of the weather yesterday the Park was crowded in the afternoon at the usual Saturday concert. The trees and grass were in full bloom, and looked different from preceding years. The former showed by little symptoms of the annual ravages of the measure worm. The severe frost of January last has completely neutralized the baneful effects of the worm, and we can see in all the city parks a great change for the better. In Washington square, for instance, the green and luxuriant appearance of the trees this summer contrasts remarkably with their denuded and wormy aspect for years past. It is quite refreshing instead of repelling as heretofore. The cause is that the first crop of measure worms this year is a complete failure as a pest. On that day in January last when the thermometer ranged as low as fifteen degrees below zero, the eggs of the measure worms were destroyed. The ‘millers’ in summer deposit their eggs on twigs of trees in clusters, covering them with a glutinous substance to protect them from the frost. The extraordinary cold last winter broke through this substance and destroyed the eggs. This is the season also when the alanthus tree yields that unpleasant odor about which an outcry is made on the score of its being detrimental to health. This odor lasts only a few days, and is injurious to the measure worm solely. The alanthus tree is exempt from the ravages of the pest, and is, therefore, the only tree suitable for city shade. It is not so densely umbrageous as other trees, and does not exclude the light from passing through it, refreshing it and all beneath its shade. Still this estimable tree is hardly used in this city, and we think that the treatment which it deserves is a proper subject for the humane Mr. Bergh’s consideration. Instead of giving it room to extend its roots and spread itself, the cruel planter furnishes it only three inches of room, and closes it up with the flagging of the sidewalks. Consequently all over the city it is undergoing the pleasant process of being choked to death. The tree soon fills up the limited space and is there confined at the roots an unwilling prisoner. The cocoons of the measure worm can be easily destroyed by brushing them off with a stick or a broom.  

          The music on the Mall yesterday was equal to the preceding concerts. Mr. Dodworth made a mistake in placing the finale to Beethoven’s immortal Seventh Symphony on his bill. The Seventh Symphony—one of the grandest and most sublime works ever conceived by human mind—is an irrefragable unit.  To play a fragment of it, therefore, does not give an idea of the work.  The finale to the Fifth Symphony would be a much better selection. The ever welcome and ever charming Tell Overture was very well given by the band. The rest of the programme was high and popular enough, and its rendering was received with applause. Towards evening large crowds of people arrived from the city, and the ‘drive’ became quite brilliant with gay equipages. The selections in the Saturday afternoon concert programmes all show a great deal of judgment.  They are sufficiently light without becoming degraded to the taste, or rather want of taste, of a few musically ignorant people. With the sole exception of the symphony the concert passed off in an excellent manner, and afforded pure and real pleasure to all who enjoyed it.”