“Concert programs during the first years of the New York Philharmonic often resembled freewheeling, evening-length variety shows, as revealed in an expansion of the orchestra’s digital archive last week,” writes Brian Wise on Monday (2/23) at New York radio station WQXR’s blog. “A review of the programs published during the Philharmonic’s first decade—1842 to 1852—shows the remarkable degree to which concert formats have changed in more than 170 years…. Ten thousand concert programs have been added to the New York Philharmonic’s digital archive, for a total of 13,300 now available to the public…. One marathon concert from 1849 featured no fewer than three overtures, plus an original French horn solo performed by a Philharmonic player, and a duo-piano performance of Schumann’s Andante and Variations…. Along with the publishing of the concert programs, the New York Philharmonic has created a searchable collection of the orchestra’s subscribers from 1883 to 1907. The orchestra is opening up all of its data to scholars, web developers and others who wish to create their own apps or works of digital art using the data.”
Posted February 25, 2015
