Central Park Band Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Central Park Mall

Event Type:
Band

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
2 August 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

15 Sep 1866, Afternoon

Program Details

Dodworth did not conduct; citations offer no explanation why.

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka Amazonian march
Composer(s): Michaelis [comp.-cond.]
2)
aka Barber of Seville; Almaviva, ossia L’inutile precauzione; Almaviva; or, The useless precaution
Composer(s): Rossini
3)
Composer(s): Rehm
5)
Composer(s): Dodworth
6)
Composer(s): Weber
7)
Composer(s): Strauss
9)
aka Bouquet of melodies
10)
aka I would my love
Composer(s): Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Text Author: Heine
11)
aka Kiss; Kuss, Der
Composer(s): Arditi
12)
aka Gay and merry
Composer(s): Faust

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 15 September 1866.
2)
Review: New York Herald, 16 September 1866, 4.

“As the season wanes the number of visitors to the Park, especially to the Saturday concerts, increases. On the first Saturday of the present month the pedestrians numbered 20,569, equestrians 241, and vehicles 4,619. The following week there were 22,446 pedestrians, 248 equestrians, and 7,433 vehicles. Yesterday the total number of visitors was computed at 40,000. The coolness of the weather compared with preceding weeks brought out all the Park habitués to the concert. It is gratifying to see the improvements that are daily in operation in and around this beautiful garden of New York. If some less stringent rules regarding walking on the grass were adopted by the Commissoners it would tend to make the Park more popular and enjoyable. No one on a sultry day in summer delights to saunter around graveled and unshaded walks when an inviting common is before him. Saturday is the only day on which visitors can enjoy this privilege, and on Sunday, the day of rest for the masses, they are debarred from that pleasure. The Park is exerting a powerful influence in reclaiming the waste tracts of land in its vicinity. Already swamps are being filled up, rocks removed, handsome buildings erected, and streets graded on every side even as far as 100th street. But of all the improvements in the vicinity of the Park the most important is the projected ‘Garden of Art’ on the North river. This new garden is partially modeled after the Crystal Palace gardens at Sydenham, in England, and will, when completed, form one of the grandest public resorts in the city. It occupies a space of seventeen acres, extending from Sixtieth to Sixty-second street, and from Tenth to Eleventh avenue. The grounds possess many natural advantages, and will be laid out and embellished with graveled walks, terraces, lakes, running streams spanned by bridges, aviaries, conservatories, cascades, grottos, &c. A large number of fountains, many of which are now finished, will be placed in various parts of the grounds. The landscape garden will be ornamented with statuary. The proposed buildings are very numerous, and will be principally devoted to art. The garden will be ready for opening next summer. Mr. De[illeg.], the projector, has already commenced operations on the grounds, which are themselves very picturesque and well adapted for such a purpose. On the nearest entrance to the park from the Garden of Art—the Eighth avenue gale—the most extensive improvements are contemplated by the Commissoners.

Mr. Harvey Dodworth’s absence from his band yesterday at the concert resulted in many of the pieces on the programme being rendered in a very bungling manner. It is strange that such pieces as the Allegretto Scherzando, from the eighth symphony [sic] by Beethoven, and Weber’s overture to Preciosa, should be attempted in an open air concert and by a mere band. The result was what might have been expected—a very unsatisfactory affair. Nothing short of an orchestra, and a full one at that, can do justice to such works. The grand selection from Ballo in Maschera was very poorly played. Not a [illeg.] of color or appreciation of the ideas of the composer were perceptible. The rest of the programme—light, popular marches, quadrilles and galops—were very fairly given. A band should remember the adage, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, and leave orchestral pieces like those of Beethoven and Weber to those for whom they were composed.”

3)
Review: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 17 September 1866, 8.