The New York Times Nr. 10983 berichtet auf S. 5 in der 3. Spalte vom gestrigen Konzert:
"          PHILHARMONIC CONCERTS.
     The annual series of Philharmonic concerts which will be given this season at the Metropolitan Opera House was entered upon yesterday afternoon, when the public rehearsal prefatory to this evening's formal performance was carried on. Neither the programme arranged for interpretation nor its rendering was of a character to evoke critical or popular enthusiasm. [... Verbesserung heute nicht zu erwarten ... kritische Anmerkungen zu Beethoven, Schumann und Rubinstein ...] It is a pity that the "Nero" music, dull as it was, did not round off the programme, which was brought to a close with a new symphony by Anton Bruckner. This achievement lasted almost an hour and sent the assemblage home dazed, wearied, and angry. Herr Bruckner belongs to the very large class of German composers that know exactly how ideas ought to be expressed, but to whom Providence has denied one spark of creative power. There is undeniable technical skill in Herr Bruckner's symphony, but this is used with exactly the same results that would be attained by a painter who handled canvas and oils to demonstrate that he knew how to lay on his colors or by a builder that would heap up building materials so as to erect a house which nobody could live in. Pompous preludes prefacing nothing, themes with a beginning and without end, and endless dissonant passages abound in the new work, which is conventionally correct as to form and internal development and hopelessly vacuous as to meaning or tangible charm. A goodly part of the audience took to flight at different stages of the final proceedings. and did wisely in effecting its escape. An occasional energetic protest against the infliction of resounding trash upon a long-suffering public would be of more real service to the cause of music than the excessive indulgence, indifference, or affectation that impel audiences generally to bear with it." [keine Signatur] (*).

 

Ein Inserat auf Seite 7 in der 7. Spalte weist auf das heutige Konzert hin:
"PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF NEW-YORK
       FORTY-FIFTH SEASON, 1886-7.
THEODORE THOMAS . . . .  . . . . Conductor
     First concert, SATURDAY, Nov. 13, at 8 P. M.,

              at the Metropolitan Opera House.

                           Programme:
[... Beethoven, Schumann, Rubinstein (Emma Juch und Mr. Ludwig) ....].
Symphony No. 7, e major (new) . . . .   Anton Bruckner
     Tickets for this rehearsal and concert will be sold [...]." (**).

 

Die New York Tribune Nr. 14608 bringt auf S. 5 in der 1. Spalte eine ausführliche Besprechung der öffentlichen Generalprobe:
"                           PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.
     The first concert of the forty-fifth season of the Philharmonic Society will take place to-night, the preparatory public rehearsal having been given yesterday afternoon. The performance was in all respects so admirable that no injustice can be done the society if we depart from our usual custom and review the music as it was presented at the rehearsal instead of waiting until after the concert. [... Lob für das Orchester und Beethoven, kurz über Rubinstein ...].
     The closing number of the programme was a new work by an unfamiliar composer – Anton Bruckner's symphony No. 7, in E-major. Bruckner's name, we believe, had never figured on an American programme before last season, when Mr. Damrosch brought forward a symphony of his in D-minor. In its relation to this composer New-York does not stand differently than the majority of the musical cities of the old world. Bruckner has been quarrelled about in Germany for a quarter of a century, [.... Biographisches (1868 Konservatorium, 1875 Universität, 1871 London) ...]. It is much easier, since we have heard two symphonies of his, to tell why he has failed to set any rivers on fire than to explain how it comes that there are critics (and some of sound judgment, too.) who insist on including his name when they mention the great composers of today. We do not wish to treat a musician who commands as much learning and is filled with as much earnestness as are evident in this new symphony flippantly, but truth compels the assertion that so astounding a composition as this we have never heard in an New-York concert room. If one wants originality here it is in abundance. There is nothing under the heavens, or on the earth, or in the waters under the earth like unto this symphony. Those who think the thematic work in "Tristan" and the "Ring of the Niblung" complex and labored should hear this symphony if for no other reason than to see how in comparison with it Wagner's is a complexe exemplification of good music as defined by Galuppi in a conversation with Burney one hundred and sixteen years ago – "Beauty, clearness and good modulation." Every element of symphonic writing which Herr Bruckner uses he uses in an manner which stamps a unique character on the work. But it is only unique, not beautiful. He is not satisfied with the ordinary apparatus, but adds four higher tubas to the bass tuba and thus gets fifteen brass instruments into his orchestra, his cornets being three. These brass instruments without exception speak a language that is foreign to them, but in this only imitate their fellows of the other choirs.

     There is a vast deal of learning in the music, and enough revolutionary treatment in the harmony alone to keep the analysts and historians busy for a twelvemonth, but we are still in darkness as to why they were employed, or what was the goal striven for. Everything is as cold as a problem in mathematics. It would not take much argument with this score before us to convince us that Herr Bruckner had realized and extended the acoustician Euler's belief that it was possible to figure out a sonata. He revels in discords, and finding that a convenient way to make them assertive is to utilize pedal points, he drags them in prodigally. The symphony is the product of a pedant whose purposes may become plain in the future, but are certainly outside the ken and the sympathy of the present, revolutionary though it be. The music fell like lead upon the senses of the audience, and many left the hall after the second movement." [keine Signatur, ziemlich sicher aber Krehbiel] (***).

H. E. Krehbiel erwähnt am 16.5.1904 dieses New Yorker Konzert:
"The expression of discouragement and disapproval was almost as frank and emphatic as was that of the New-York Philharmonic audience in November, 1886, when Mr. Thomas brought forward Bruckner's Seventh Symphony and drove about one-third of the seasoned music lovers out of the room before the work came to an end."

 

Im selben Blatt wird auch auf das heutige Konzert hingewiesen, auf Seite 4 in einer knappen Übersicht:
"                          Amusements.
[... alphabetische Anordnung ...]
METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE – 2 – Die Walkure. – 8 – Concert.
[...]." (°)

 

und auf Seite 7 in einem Inserat in der 5. Spalte:
"PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF NEW-
       YORK. – 45th Season,1886-'87.
THEODORE THOMAS  . . . . . .   Conductor.
             First concert, SATURDAY, NOV. 13, at 8 P. M.
            AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE
                            PROGRAMME.
[... Beethoven, Schumann, Rubinstein (Emma Juch und Mr. Ludwig) ....].
Symphony No. 7, E major (new) . . . .   Anton Bruckner
     Tickets for this rehearsal and concert will be sold [...]." (°°).

 

Aufführung der 7. Symphonie unter Theodor Thomas in New York [öffentliche Generalprobe am 12.11.1886] (°°°).

 

Das Prager Abendblatt Nr. 260 kündigt auf S. 3 die Aufführung des "Te deum" am 28.11.1886 an:
     " *** Deutscher Singverein. Das erste Konzert findet am Sonntag, den 28. November im Rudolfinum statt wobei u. A. das "Te deum" von Anton Bruckner für Soli, Chor, Orgel und Orchester aufgeführt werden wird." (#).

(Vortragsübung am Wiener Konservatorium, u.a. mit Mitwirkung Carl Hrubys (##)).