Thomas Popular Garden Concert: 51st

Program.

"The nature of the musical entertainment at Terrace Garden can be judged from the following programme of to-night's performance: [provides program]."

Program.

Program.

No program given.

"Terrace Garden.--Theodore Thomas announces his regular orchestral concert at Terrace Garden for this evening."

     “We have never yet heard or seen in the metropolis or any place of amusement such enthusiasm on the part of the listeners, such genuine life and spirit in the playing of the performers, and such crowded audiences and of so superior a class as at the orchestral concerts at Terrace Garden. The success of Mr. Thomas’ risky undertaking is unequivocal, and garden concerts for the future will be as necessary an element of amusement and recreation in the summer as the Philharmonic or symphony soirées are in winter. There is something of real enjoyment to sit in one of the cool, shady arbors of Terrace Garden and listen to a symphony overture, pot pourri, or salon piece interpreted by the best artists in America. On Friday night there were nearly two thousand people present, the majority of whom were of a class whose rank might be easily determined from the number of equipages drawn up at the entrance, from the respect and attention paid to the music and the order that prevailed. Occasionally a few disorderly persons get in and attempt to create a disturbance, but happily such occasions are rare, and the parties are quickly expelled.  It is very strange that in this public resort, where every evening are assembled from one to two thousand people, there should not be a solitary policeman detailed to preserve order. The Superintendent of the Police has repeatedly refused, we are informed, to allow any of the force to enter the garden on duty, owing to the injunction obtained against the Excise Commissioners by the proprietor. Now, Mr. Thomas’ concerts have nothing whatever to do with excise or injunctions and certainly deserve more consideration.

     The programme given on Friday night was one rarely equaled in strength and character even during the regular musical evenings. The grand symphony in D by Mozart, a splendid fantasia on the Midsummer Night’s Dream, the choicest gems of William Tell, the overture to Maritana and Zampa, and some lighter compositions, were given in a superior style. The musicians, inspired by their leader and the appreciative audience, threw all their energies into their work and brought out every light and shade of color and every delicate imagining of each author. The Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasie is a very clever arrangement. It commences with the nocturne, breaks into the scherzo, brings in the march and returns to the nocturne again with a brilliant and telling finale."