Synopsis

It’s usually new music that gets terrible reviews, but scanning old newspapers, you’ll find that occasionally old music gets panned with equal venom.

On today’s date in 1865, a concert by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra at Irving Hall opened with an orchestral arrangement of a Bach Passacaglia, followed by Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola.

The New York Times reviewer was not thrilled with either selection:

“The Bach is a fair representation of the treadmill. A culprit may travel on it for a day without advancing a step. It simply goes ‘round and ‘round in the most obvious style, and is generally dull — like a superannuated church warden… The symphony for violin and viola by Mozart is a work generally avoided in Europe. The wearisome scale passages on the little fiddle repeated ad nauseam on the bigger one are simply maddening. On the whole, one would prefer death to a repetition of this production,” he wrote.

Thus spake The Times in April of 1865. We should note in its defense that Americans had other matters on their minds that week. The day the review appeared the paper’s headline read: “Union Victory! Peace! Lee Surrenders His Whole Army!”

Music Played in Today's Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) (arr. Respighi): Passacaglia in c; BBC Philharmonic; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Chandos 9835

Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Sinfonia Concertante; Midori, violin; Nobuko Imai, viola; NDR Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor; Sony 89488