The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a fierce rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York (New York Philharmonic). It was supported by Andrew Carnegie who built Carnegie Hall (opened in 1891) expressly for the orchestra. The Symphony was known for performing more colorful French and Russian works than the Philharmonic, which excelled in German repertoire.
Upon his death in 1885, Leopold Damrosch was succeeded as musical director by his son Walter Damrosch.
In 1903, during a reorganization, it was renamed the New York Symphony Orchestra, and its first recordings were made that year as the "Damrosch Orchestra" for Columbia Records (of which only one was commercially issued, the prelude to Georges Bizet's Carmen). In 1920 it became the first American orchestra to tour Europe, and radio broadcasts of its concerts began in 1923. In 1928, the orchestra merged with the Philharmonic Society of New York to form the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, later the New York Philharmonic.
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“And you’re too fired up to go to sleep, you sit at the kitchen table. It’s really late, it’s really quiet, you’re tired. Don’t wanna go to bed, though. Going to bed means this was the day. This Feb. 12, this Aug. 3, this Nov. 20 is over and you’re tired and you made some money but it didn’t happen, nothing happened. You got through it and a whole day of your life is over. And all it is—is time to go to bed.”
—Claudia Shear, U.S. author. New York Times, p. A21 (September 29, 1993)
“The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“As the artist
extends his world with
one gratuitous flourish—a stroke of white or
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bass tones of the orchestra ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)