Congratulations to Tony Brooks for the correct answer: the Friends of The Orpheus Club of Philadelphia club president who owned 1801 Walnut Street was Alexander Van Rensselaer. As longtime president of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Alex Van helped raise the $140,000 that Leopold Stokowski requested to mount the American premiere of Mahlers titanic Symphony #8 in E flat, popularly known as the Symphony of a Thousand. On March 2 , 1916, over 2,000 people packed the sold-out The Academy of Music, anxiously awaiting what promised to be the greatest musical event in the city’s history. Among the luminaries in the audience were pianist Josef Hoffmann. According to The Public Ledger: “The scenes at the Academy set the nerves tingling…The curtains rose and the audience gasped. The 958 singers filled the great stage from footlights to roof and the orchestra was upon the an apron which had been built into the house. The first twelve rows of singers were women, dressed in white. Above them were twelves rows of men, with a gardenia-like spot of girls, members of the children’s chorus, pinned, it seemed in their midst.” When the last chords died away in the Academy of Music that evening, a new age for the Philadelphia Orchestra had dawned. The applause after the performance of Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” was so great that it could be heard in the foyer of the Hotel Walton across Broad Street.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:46:25 +0000
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