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From The World, July 9, 1872, p. 5
Strauss
Herr Johann Strauss was furnished with an extemporized orchestra of about sixtyfive
pieces last evening, and given an opportunity to display his conductorship to a
New York audience. The Academy of Music was filled by the people, who were
anxious to witness the display. The concert, as was to be expected, was not an
extraordinary musical success. The program, curiously composed of overtures and
waltzes, offered nothing new and little that was worthy of serious critique. It opened
with the overture to “William Tell,” which was carelessly done. This was followed by
the introduction to the third act of “Lohengrin,” a waltz (“Artist Life”), the march
from “The Tannhauser,” performed with much conscientious care and much
brilliancy on the piano by Herr Bonawitz, but despite the artistic excellence of the
performance failing to do much more than bore the audience; Strauss’s “Circassian
March;” the Rienzl overture, which betrayed the thinness of the strings and the
informal character of the organization; and finally the beautiful and inevitable “Blue
Danube” and “Pizzicato Polka.” As the characteristic Strauss compositions have
been much better performed in this city than they were last evening, it is
unnecessary to waste any time upon them now. The great attraction of the concert
was Strauss himself, who conducted his own pieces in his best rhythmical mood,
and was heartily applauded after each appearance. The more pretentious
compositions received the supervising care of Carl Bergmann, but they did not
repay his excertions.
On Wednesday night, at the second concert, Strauss will conduct the performance
of a new waltz, written in this city and called “The Manhattan.”
From the New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, July 9, 1872, p. 8, col. 5
Concerte
Herr Johann Strauss, der Wiener Walzerkönig oder Kaiser, wie man ihn nach
Belieben benennen mag, feierte in der Academy of Music über Amerikaner und
seine lieben Wiener von den Ufern der schönen blauen Donau einen glänzenden
Sieg...
In dem ersten der drei Strauß’schen Concerte hatte sich gestern Abend in der
Academy of Music ein sehr zahlreiches und elegantes Publikum eingefunden,
welches ungefähr zur Hälfte aus Amerikanern, zu der andern Hälfte aus Deutschen
bestand. Den ersten beiden Piecen, der Ouvertüre zu „Wilhelm Tell“ und der
Introduction zum dritten Akte des „Lohengrin“ wurde leider — trotzdem dieselben
unter der genialen Leitung des Herrn Karl Bergmann von dem aus über sechszig der
besten New-Yorker Musiker bestehenden Orchester tadellos gespielt wurden —
Compiled by the Johann Strauss Society of New York. All rights reserved.
www.StraussUSA.org
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