NY -- NYC -- Central Park -- Naumburg Bandshell w/Beethoven and Victor Herbert:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- BANDSH_180824_08.JPG: A Landmark of American Music
Edwin Franko Goldman
1878 – 1956
Composer – Conductor
A Landmark of American Music The Guggenheim Concerts by the world renowned Goldman Band were played here "on the mall" every summer from 1923 to 1969.
Presented by the National Music Council and Exxon [Seal of the American Revolution Bicentennial 1776-1976]
- AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
- Description of Subject Matter: Naumburg Bandshell
Next time you walk past the Naumburg Bandshell on the concert ground, you might hear a musician playing classical or even popular music.
But in 1862, a cast-iron bandstand stood where the Beethoven statue stands today, and the straight-laced Central Park commissioners did not approve of popular music They wanted the public to hear only refined, classical music. By the 1890s, marches by John Philip Sousa, choral and folk music were added to the repertoire. Then, in the 1920s, popular music was added to the mix.
In 1923, the acoustically outdated Bandstand was replaced by the Naumburg Bandshell. It encouraged new audiences for classical music in the informal and beautiful setting of Central Park. Today, it is the Park's only Neo-Classical building, thoughtfully centered and nestled between the two projecting pergola viewing points. It admirably reflects the architect William G. Tachau's own Ecole des Beaux-Arts classicist and historicist training.
Such greats as Irving Berlin, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington have entertained at the Bandshell, as well as Victor Herbert, whose statue is just a few steps away from that of Beethoven. Those statues, as well as the other 49 statues throughout the Park, are given a cleaning every summer by the Central Park Conservancy. The Conservancy also built and maintains the beautiful and unique wooden benches surrounding the nearby trees, based on an original bench design introduced to Central Park in the mid-19th century to protect the young elms as park-goers gathered under their shade to enjoy classical music performances.
Today, the Naumburg Bandshell hosts principally acoustical music events, like the Naumburg Orchestral Concert series.
The above was from http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/naumburg-bandshell.html
Ludwig van Beethoven
Donated by the German-American Choir Society, the bronze bust of the German composer joined the growing collection of statuary on the Mall in 1884.
Fittingly, the statue of Beethoven, one of the most famous composers in history, was supported by the German-American Choir Society that often performed on the concert ground. The sculpture of the composer, which also includes the personification of the Genius of Music, stands now on the site of the original cast-iron bandstand that was demolished in the 1920s. The sculpture originally stood on the site of the present Bandshell, which was erected in 1923. A nearly identical bust stands in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
In 1992, the Conservancy's conservation team repatinated Beethhoven, sealing it with protective coating to safeguard it from the elements.
THe above was from http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/ludwig-van-beethoven.html
Victor Herbert
This bronze portrait bust commemorates the renowned Irish-American cellist, composer and conductor. It stands, appropriately, near the site of his countless memorable performances on the Park's concert ground. Born in Dublin, Herbert moved to New York City with his wife Therese, a well-known Viennese opera singer, in 1896. He went on to become leader of the 22nd Regiment Band of the New York National Guard, and as bandmaster conducted concerts at the Central Park Bandstand. He also served as guest conductor for the New York Philharmonic Society. Herbert is best-known for his prolific work as a composer of operettas and popular American music. He wrote more than 40 operettas, two grand operas, and a score for the film Fall of a Nation, said to be the first original symphonic score for a feature-length film. A champion of copyright legislation passed in 1909, he played a major role in the founding of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914. Commissioned by ASCAP, the memorial bust was sculpted by Edmund Thomas Quinn. It was unveiled by Herbert's daughter Ella in 1927 at a ceremony attended by Arthur Hammerstein and Irving Berlin.
The above was from http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/victor-herbert.html
- Wikipedia Description: Elkan Naumburg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elkan Naumburg (1835–1924) was a New York City merchant, banker, philanthropist and musicologist, best remembered for his sponsorship of the arts in Manhattan. From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, he used his wealth to promote public interest in symphonic and "semi-classical" music by helping to form and establish the Oratorio Society of New York and funding construction of the Naumburg Bandshell, which honors his name, on the Concert Ground of the Central Park Mall.
Biography
Naumburg was born to a Jewish family in Treuchtlingen, Bavaria, in 1835, and emigrated with his parents to the United States at age 15 to escape the growing anti-Semitism of his native land. He settled first in Baltimore, where he took a liking to chamber music. An amateur pianist with no formal training, he was unable at that time to afford purchasing concert tickets for famous performers like Vieuxtemps and Thalberg.
In 1853, at age 18, he moved to New York City, where he initiated a business career that was first highlighted as a successful merchant and then a merchant banker. He founded E. Naumburg & Co. in 1893 - one of the largest 'commercial paper' banks on Wall Street. Their chief rival was Goldman Sachs. The parlor of his Manhattan townhouse hosted pianists, opera singers and string quartets, and soon became a forum for celebrities of the music field. With his success he chose to make access to fine music available to a broader public in New York, as one of his principal legacies. In 1873, Leopold Damrosch founded the Oratorio Society of New York in the 'back parlor' of Elkan Naumburg's 48th Street home. Bertha Wehle Naumburg (1843–97), Elkan's wife, gave it that name. Elkan, Bertha and Leopold were very good friends, and like Leopold, Elkan also gave one of his son's the name Walter. Elkan probably helped to form the group and he served briefly on its board, when it first began. Richard Arnold, Leopold Damrosch, Marcella Sembrich, Theodore Thomas, and others performed weekly in the Naumburg family parlor during the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, entertaining such Gilded Age critics and artists as Henry Theophilus Finck and Albert Henry Krehbiel.
In 1890, Elkan Naumburg founded the New York Philharmonic's first pension fund. Later he helped introduce renowned conductors like Vasily Ilyich Safonov and Willem Mengelberg to that orchestra.
He soon got the idea of presenting free symphonic concerts in Central Park. Patterned after concerts conducted by Theodore Thomas in the Central Park Garden, the Naumburg Concerts commenced in 1905 and have continued without interruption ever since, almost always in Central Park. Today, they are the world's oldest continuous free outdoor classical music concert series. Originally performed on Central Park's Mall in an octagonal, pagoda-shaped bandstand designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, the programs featured popular waltzes, abbreviated operas, one or two movements of a symphony, or short arias, performed for audiences of strolling or picnicking Manhattanites, many of whom took to dancing as dusk fell and the gas lights came on.
In 1912, the old wood and cast iron bandstand was deemed inadequate, so Naumburg offered the city $125,000 to build a new bandshell of cast and Indiana limestone details. His nephew, the architect William Gabriel Tachau (1875-1969), designed the structure—an innovative half-dome on a high section of drum, which later came into frequent use—in 1916. Building began in 1921, and it opened on September 29, 1923, with a 60-piece orchestra conducted by Franz Kaltenborn playing selections from "Aida" and "Carmen", the William Tell Overture, the Blue Danube Waltz, and movements from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The concert closed with a new march—"On the Mall"—by Edwin Franko Goldman, dedicated to 88-year-old Elkan Naumburg, who was in attendance.
Elkan Naumburg died the following year, 1924, and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. His sons Walter Wehle Naumburg (married to ornithologist Elsie Margaret Binger Naumburg) and George Washington Naumburg (married to Ruth Morgenthau) continued the free concerts in Central Park. Walter W. Naumburg also continued and augmented the family tradition of supporting classical music by establishing the Walter W. Naumburg Prize in 1926. When he died, in 1959, the perpetuation of both the free Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in Central Park and the Walter W. Naumburg Prize were endowed by a provision in his will. Elkan's grandniece, Eleanor Naumburg Sanger, later co-founded WQXR-FM with her husband Elliott Sanger, New York's classical music radio station, and Elkan's grandson Philip Henry Naumburg helped found the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. A great-grandson of Elkan Naumburg, Christopher Walter London, currently runs the concert series and foundation aided by a board of trustees, and with the public support of the 'Friends of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts'.
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