The New York Philharmonic, 1877-78

For the past several weeks I have been exploring classical music with my great-great-grandfather, Frederick H. Williams.

Fred mentioned classical music several times in his memoirs.  He studied violin in his youth.  His mother, Mary E. Harrison Williams, played piano.  Later in life, he built up a collection of phonograph records and enjoyed sharing that music with others.  Since I also enjoy the genre, I got curious about which pieces he might have heard.  In particular, he wrote:

During the winter of 1877-8, my mother took me several times on Friday afternoons to hear the "rehearsals" given by the famous Philharmonic Orchestra under the leadership of Theodore Thomas preparatory for the Saturday night concert.  I can never forget the thrill I used to get at hearing the great symphonies and other music played and at the magnificent chords and harmonies that made me forget everything mundane.  This was my introduction to classical music and I have loved it ever since and have always tried to be present at every fine concert available to me.

Theodore Thomas in 1880

Fred was nine years old that winter.  Theodore Thomas had just been hired to lead the Philharmonic, which was trying to recover from a dire financial situation.  Thomas was already well-known.  He had his own orchestra which played in New York and toured for over a decade.  He was the first major proponent of Wagner's music in America, premiering "Ride of the Valkyries" in New York in 1872.  He founded the New York Wagner Union that very same evening.  The Philharmonic's 1877-78 season included Wagner's Faust Overture, the Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger, and Siegfried's Funeral March and the Finale from Götterdämmerung.

Discovering which pieces were performed during that season proved easier than I expected; the New York Philharmonic has an online archive of old programs, including all six concerts given that year.  I put together a Spotify playlist with all of those works and spent several days going through it all.¹  As one might expect, only some of the pieces are still performed regularly today.

In terms of the symphonies which Fred said he enjoyed so much, he and his mother might have heard Beethoven's Sixth (Pastoral) or his Eighth, Schubert's Ninth (Great), Mozart's 38th (Prague), Joachim Raff's Third (In the Forest) or Anton Rubinstein's Second (Ocean).  The latter two are new to me.

I have been most interested in the pieces which I haven't heard before.  These include the Overture to Luigi Cherubini's opera Les Deux Journées, Robert Volkmann's Serenade No. 3 for Cello and Strings, Karl Goldmark's Sakuntala Overture, and Franz Liszt's song "Die Loreley."  Several selections were also given from Beethoven's incidental music to Egmont - beyond the Overture which is typically the only portion presented today.

Joachim Raff in 1878

My favorite discovery from this whole process has been Joachim Raff.  Not only was his Third Symphony performed, but the Philharmonic gave the American premiere of his Suite for Piano and Orchestra with the well-loved Sebastian Bach Mills as soloist.  This work has a catchy theme that leapt out at me while listening through everything, and it prompted me to explore more of his work.

Joachim Raff was a prolific German-Swiss composer.  He worked as an assistant to Franz Liszt for several years, then focused on his own compositions.  He became very popular in his own day.  His works declined from favor after he passed away in 1882, which seems a shame.  Fortunately, recordings do exist for most of his major works, and I have enjoyed listening to them.²

The Philharmonic's season also included works by Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Weber.  It is worth nothing that Brahms, Goldmark, Liszt, Raff, Rubinstein and Wagner were all alive and actively composing at that time.

I have greatly enjoyed exploring classical music from this unusual angle.  I should actually say that I'm still enjoying it, and I may have more to say on the subject in a future post.



Notes:
1. For this playlist, I chose recordings by the New York Philharmonic wherever possible.  I was able to find every piece from the season except one song: Rubinstein's aria "Hecuba."  That song and one other weren't actually performed, as the soloist had to cancel due to illness.
2. There is a very thorough website covering Raff's life and compositions at Raff.org.

Sources:
Family papers
New York Philharmonic digital archives for 1877-78
Theodore Thomas, a musical autobiography
The Early Influence of Richard Wagner in America, by Viola Knoche
Wikipedia