News from New York: NY Philharmonic Free Concert in Central Park

On June 24, 2008, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed a free concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City.

The concert began at 8:00 p.m. as the lively sounds of Dmitri Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Op. 96 filled Central Park's filled-to-capacity Great Lawn. Its upbeat timbre traveled to the concert-goers camped on the ground of the Lawn's perimeter and seated on Central Park's benches. As people chatted and laughed, children scampered, and babies cried, the Overture soared over all.

For the next 27 minutes, Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, Italian courted the crowd. It consisted of four movements played allegro vivace (fast and lively), andante con moto (on the slow side moving with motion), conmoto moderato (moving with motion in moderate tempo), and presto (very fast). As the Symphony's music progressed, so did the New York City audience's applause at the end of each movement.

A short intermission incurred during which many concert-goers seized the opportunity to let their dogs stretch their legs in the Park. A surprising amount of pooches permeated the performance. Some even tried to investigate the horses of the NYPD's mounted unit.

The New York Philharmonic returned with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, Op. 49. It opened with the timbre of a soft lullaby amid rave applause.

Slated in the New York Philharmonic Concert Program as the finale, three marches by John Philip Sousa followed, The Washington Post, The LibertyBell, and The Stars and Stripes Forever. Patriotism pulsed as children stomped Central Park's ground and listeners clapped to the all-American beat of the latter.

Sousa's patriotic tunes, however, were not the finale of the New York Philharmonic's free concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City; the show closed on a different note with the late Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze.

The finale incited catcalls, cheers, and whistles only to be stifled by the boom of fireworks.

The June 24, 2008 New York Philharmonic concert in Central Park is part of a Concerts in the Parks series. It was presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer. Lorin Maazel was the music director and Bramwell Tovey the conductor. The hard workers of the Central Park Conservancy were highly visible taking care of the Park.

Last night's concert was the New York Philharmonic's 14,652^nd concert.

According to the New York Philharmonic's website, its next free concert in Central Park is scheduled for July 15, 2008.