Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

5. Orchestras and bands.

Amateur orchestras first appeared late in the 18th century. In 1799 two of these organizations, the St Cecilia and Harmonical societies, joined forces to form the Philharmonic Society, which in that year participated in the funeral service for George Washington. This first Philharmonic ceased activity after 1816, to be followed in 1824 by a second Philharmonic Society, which played the finale of Beethoven’s Second Symphony for the first time in New York on 16 December 1824 and continued in existence until 1827. In 1825 unidentified groups essayed Beethoven’s Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus and the Egmont overture, both at City Hotel. The Euterpean Club, which gave one orchestral concert annually, existed from 1800 to 1847. The New York Musical Fund Society, an orchestra that first appeared in 1828, attempted the first movement of Beethoven’s First Symphony under U.C. Hill at City Hotel on 27 April 1831, but ‘the orchestra was weak [and] the instruments were frequently out of tune and out of time’. The Steyermarkische, Lombardi, Gung’l, Saxonia and Germania orchestras arrived from Europe in 1848–9, but most were notable more for their discipline and uniforms than for the quality of their programmes. The Germania Musical Society survived until 1854, giving exemplary performances of great works, but the other groups disbanded.

The Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York dates from 1842, and is the oldest orchestra in continuous existence in the USA. The impetus for its foundation came in June 1839 when a ‘musical solemnity’ in memory of Daniel Schlesinger brought together a nucleus of musicians intending to form a permanent orchestra. The first organizational meeting of the Philharmonic Society was called by Hill on 2 April 1842. The first concert was held in the Apollo Rooms on Lower Broadway on 7 December 1842: an orchestra of 63 players performed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony under Hill, Weber’s Oberon overture led by D.G. Etienne and an overture in D by Kalliwoda conducted by H.C. Timm. Hummel’s quintet arrangement of his Septet in D minor and vocal selections from Fidelio, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Rossini’s Armida, sung by C.E. Horn and Mme Otto and conducted by Timm, made up the rest of the programme. The first season consisted of three concerts; the second included the American première of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. During the next 16 seasons the orchestra gave four concerts annually; in 1859–60 they gave five, and a decade later six. During its first ten years the orchestra numbered between 50 and 67 players. Various conductors, usually members of the orchestra, shared the podium, often during the same concert; George Loder was perhaps the most outstanding. Later one or two conductors assumed the responsibility, beginning with Theodore Eisfeld who was elected director in 1848 and served until 1865. Other conductors included Carl Bergmann (1855–76), Leopold Damrosch (1876–7), Theodore Thomas (1877–91) and Anton Seidl (1891–8). Under the presidency of R.O. Doremus the number of players increased to 100 in 1867, and the orchestra moved to larger quarters at the Academy of Music. It subsequently relocated to the Metropolitan Opera House (1886), then to Carnegie Hall (1892).

The repertory of the New York Philharmonic reflected the European training of its conductors, and there was heavy emphasis on the Germanic school. On 20 May 1846 Loder led the first American performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Castle Garden before an audience of 2000; the same year saw performances of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto and several Berlioz overtures. Although the orchestra performed Bristow’s Concert Overture in 1847, European works continued to fill the programmes throughout the century. Bergmann, Thomas and Seidl were all notably progressive in the advocacy of new music. Seidl, in particular, specialized in the works of Liszt and Wagner.

The age of the Philharmonic and its 20th-century significance assure the orchestra a predominant place in New York’s musical history, but at times during the 19th century other orchestras partly eclipsed its importance. Lighter music and American works were emphasized by Jullien, who conducted an occasional orchestra at the Crystal Palace after 1853; his concerts included Fry’s programmatic symphonies A Day in the Country, The Breaking Heart and Santa Claus. In 1867 Thomas, who made his conducting début at Irving Hall in 1862, formed his own 60- to 80-piece orchestra which performed in New York and on national tours until 1891. Programmes included music from Bach to Saint-Saëns, and some concerts were devoted to Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn. The majority of Seidl’s numerous New York symphonic concerts were the orchestras other than the Philharmonic (though with overlapping personnel); his Seidl Society Orchestra performed 14 times each week in the summer at Coney Island’s Brighton Beach, offering programmes filled with Wagner. The first Brooklyn Philharmonic (1857) was similar to its New York counterpart; among its conductors were Eisfeld, Bergmann and Thomas.

The New York Symphony Society was founded in 1878 by Leopold Damrosch, who conducted the orchestra until his death in 1885 when his son Walter assumed the position. Orchestras under Damrosch and Thomas competed: in 1881 Damrosch conducted 1500 performers in Berlioz’s Grande messe des morts before an audience of 10,000, and in 1882 Thomas directed a mammoth festival with a chorus of 3200 assembled from other cities. Although the Symphony’s performances were not as well received critically as the Philharmonic’s, Damrosch’s programmes were often more adventurous, tempering the usual Germanic fare with works by Debussy and Berlioz.

Walter Damrosch reconstituted the orchestra on a cooperative basis in autumn 1903 as the New York SO; profit and loss were shared by members of the organization and a group of guarantors. This proved unsatisfactory and the Symphony Society was reorganized in 1907 with regular salaries for the musicians and a board of directors who assumed all financial responsibilities. H.H. Flagler, a supporter of the society for several years, undertook its financial backing in 1914. In 1920 he provided an estimated $250,000 for a concert tour of Europe, the first by an American orchestra. Long before then, however, Damrosch and his orchestra had been noted for their pioneering activities, bringing symphonic music to many communities in the USA for the first time. Until 1928 Damrosch conducted the majority of its concerts, although Weingartner shared the 1905–6 season with him as guest conductor. In the 1920s a number of guest conductors appeared with the Symphony Society, including d’Indy, Albert Coates, Vladimir Golschmann, Walter, Fritz Busch, Ravel, Eugene Goossens, Gabrilovich and Arbós.

From 1887 New Yorkers could also hear the Boston SO in as many concerts as were given by the local Philharmonic. Late in the 19th century Thomas returned with the Chicago SO, and the Philadelphia Orchestra made regular visits from 1903. The local Russian SO (1904–18) under Modest Altschuler introduced works by Rachmaninoff, Skryabin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov, and the American débuts of Lhévinne (1906), Elman (1908), Rachmaninoff (1909) and Prokofiev (1918) were made with them. An Italian SO conducted by Pietro Floridia appeared in 1913.

Meanwhile the Philharmonic continued a wavering but sedate course under Emil Paur (1898–1902), Walter Damrosch (1902–3), various guests (1903–6), Vasily I. Safonov (1906–9), Mahler (1909–11) and Josef Stransky (1911–23). In 1909 the orchestra, which had been operated on a cooperative basis, was reorganized as a full-time professional ensemble with a group of guarantors to ensure financial solvency. In 1921 it amalgamated with the two-year-old New/National SO which had been conducted by Varèse, Bodanzky and Mengelberg. The concert schedule had increased considerably, and it was decided that the conductor’s task was too great for one person, so the duties were shared by two or three principal conductors and various guests. During the next decade regular conductors included Mengelberg (1921–30), Willem van Hoogstraten (1923–5), Furtwängler (1925–7), Toscanini (1927–36), Molinari (1929–31), Kleiber (1930–32) and Walter (1931–3).

During this period the Philharmonic Society absorbed several other new orchestras, among them the City Symphony (1921–3), the American National Orchestra (1923) and the State SO (1923–6). The most important merger was that of the Philharmonic with Damrosch’s Symphony Society in March 1928, the orchestra being renamed the Philharmonic-Symphony Society Orchestra.

The growth of the USA, the cosmopolitan nature of its social order and a new prosperity demanded more consistent bases for its performing organizations than personal whim, private philanthropy or musicians’ profit sharing. All aspects of the business of music in the USA were now centred in New York: concert management, publishing, radio broadcasting, phonograph recording and musicians’ unions. The merger of the two competing orchestras under a single board of trustees was a logical development, but a subsequent plan to unite the orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera was discarded. The new season lasted 28 weeks and included 103 concerts. Toscanini became the principal conductor, sharing the 1928–9 season with Mengelberg and Molinari. A European tour in spring 1930 offered 23 concerts in five weeks. Toscanini’s tenure has become legendary, and many accounts describe the glamour of the years 1929–36.

After Toscanini’s retirement regular conductors of the Philharmonic included Barbirolli (1936–43), Rodziński (1943–7), Walter (1947–9), Mitropoulos (1949–58), Bernstein (1958–69), Szell (music advisor and senior guest conductor, 1969–70), Boulez (1971–7), Mehta (1978–91) and Masur (1991–2002). Bernstein, the first American-born conductor to direct the orchestra, brought an eager showmanship that did not earn universal approval but undeniably produced vital interpretations both of the standard repertory and of lesser-known works. Although his programmes were generally conservative he gave the world première of Ives’s Second Symphony (1902) in 1951, and included works of living American composers from Randall Thompson to Copland and Schuman. He maintained his association with Broadway theatre and continued to compose during his tenure as conductor.

Boulez, by contrast, emphasized unfamiliar repertory both of 20th-century composers and of such earlier composers as Liszt, Schumann and Haydn. He instituted a series of informal ‘rug concerts’ and presented programmes in less important auditoriums, with the intention of drawing a wider public than the subscription audience. Mehta, who had previously led the Los Angeles PO, returned to a more conventional repertory, though he commissioned Messiaen’s Eclairs sur l’Au-delà: his greatest affinity was with Romantic literature. Masur restored the orchestra’s solidity in the classic Austro-German repertory.

In 1964 the Philharmonic became the first American orchestra to offer year-round contracts to its members, which led to expanded programming. In the 1990s the orchestra gave nearly 200 concerts each year. The principal season runs from late September to June with four subscription concerts weekly in Avery Fisher Hall. In late spring and summer there have been various festivals, tours and parks concerts.

Orchestral concerts for children were presented by Thomas as early as 1883, but their continuous history begins with the establishment of the Young People’s Symphony Concerts of New York by Frank Damrosch in 1898, with the Symphony Society’s orchestra. Walter Damrosch, succeeding his brother, added a series for younger children. The Philharmonic Society launched its own children's concerts in January 1924 under the direction of Ernest Schelling, who continued to conduct the programme until his death in 1939. The society has maintained the Young People’s Concerts. Between 1958 and 1969 Bernstein conceived, wrote, narrated and conducted 47 televised shows before audiences of children. Radio broadcasting of the orchestra’s concerts began in 1922 and continued until 1967; it was resumed in 1975.

Throughout the 20th century New York has been rich in orchestras. From 1940 to 1943 a New York City Symphony supported by government funds was conducted by Klemperer, Beecham and others. In 1944 a new orchestra under Stokowski was formed with the same name; the final season was conducted by Bernstein in 1947. Radio broadcasting networks have often formed their own orchestras in the city. One sponsored by CBS and conducted by Bernard Herrmann and Howard Barlow was active from 1927 to 1950, and Alfred Wallenstein led an orchestra for the Mutual network from 1933 to 1943. Probably the most famous was the NBC SO, formed in 1937 specifically for Toscanini, who conducted it until 1954 when he retired; the ensemble disbanded soon afterwards.

In the 1990s some 40 symphony orchestras were active in New York and its environs, some of which were amateur or community ensembles, others fully professional; most offer between three and six concerts each season. The Brooklyn PO, under its artistic directors Lukas Foss (1971–90), Dennis Russell Davies (1990–95) and Robert Spano (1996–), has been notable for its adventurous programming. The Little Orchestra Society, conducted from 1947 to 1975 by Thomas Scherman, and Newell Jenkins’s Clarion Concerts (founded 1958) have been active in reviving neglected repertory. Other orchestras include the American SO, an ensemble of young professionals founded in 1962 by Stokowski and reorganized in 1973 as a cooperative orchestra; the American Composers Orchestra, founded in 1977 to promote American orchestral music, with Dennis Russell Davies as principal conductor; and the New York Chamber SO, founded in 1977 with Gerard Schwarz as conductor. The National Orchestra of New York (formerly the National Orchestral Association), conducted by Leon Barzin from 1930 to 1976 and a training ground for young musicians seeking orchestral experience, has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1984. The Orchestra of St Luke’s evolved in 1979 from the St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, founded by Michael Feldman. Under its later music directors Roger Norrington (1990–94) and Charles Mackerras (1998–) the orchestra developed a diverse repertory ranging from the Baroque to contemporary music. The New York Pops Orchestra specializes in popular orchestral repertory. Other New York orchestras include the Queens SO, the Bronx SO, the New York City SO, the Julius Grossman Symphony, and the suburban Long Island PO (Melville), the Westchester PO (Hartsdale), the Massapequa PO and the Nassau SO.

Bands in New York were frequently affiliated with military regiments, but played public concerts in the parks and at Manhattan and Brighton beaches. Among the most famous bandmasters in New York were the Dodworth family, Claudio S. Grafulla, Carlo Alberto Cappa, Patrick S. Gilmore and, later, Edwin Franko Goldman and his son Richard. The tradition of military bands in the city inspired founding of professional brass bands in the early to mid-19th century, the first of them being Thomas Dilka’s Independent Band of New York formed in 1825. In 1835 Allen Dodworth took some of its members and formed the National Brass Band which became the most successful and influential band in the city. In 1860 the bandmasters lived in the city: Harvey Dodworth led the Dodworth Band and the 13th Regiment Band of the New York National Guard, Claudio S. Grafulla and David L. Downing led the 9th Regiment Band, Patrick S. Gilmore assumed in 1873 leadership of the 22nd Regiment Band, known from then as Gilmore’s Band. After Gilmore’s death in 1892, 19 musicians from the band joined the ensemble of J.P. Sousa, which became nationally renowned. Edwin Franko Goldman formed his own band in 1911, and it performed continuously from 1918 to 1979 (from 1956 it was directed by Richard Franko Goldman). Since 1980 the group has continued under the direction of Ainslee Cox as the Goldman Memorial Band.

New York