In Wednesday’s (6/24) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin writes, “Creating a little bit of heaven for classical music geeks, the New York Philharmonic has put online an ocean of data about its concerts, dating back to the first one on Dec. 7, 1842. The Metropolitan Opera did the same four years ago, adding an archive to its Web site, metopera.org, that it says chronicles each performance in its history, starting in 1883. … The Philharmonic site, nyphil.org/carlos, is named after Carlos Moseley, a former chairman of the orchestra. Users can search by composer, artist or individual program. … Every place the orchestra has played is listed, from Adelaide to Zurich. Some 20,000 concerts are included: orchestra, chamber music and tour and festival appearances among them. The database was built by examining old programs, reviews and index cards for every concert from the 1930s to the 1980s, when the concert entries were first computerized, [Philharmonic Archivist and Historian Barbara] Haws said. ‘I still have all the index cards,’ she added. ‘I won’t let them go.’ The archive staff is still fleshing out information on the New York Symphony concerts, which began in 1878, Ms. Haws said, and adding data on the Philharmonic’s concerts at City College’s Lewisohn Stadium, its summer home from 1918 to 1962.”
Posted June 24, 2009
Photo: New York Philharmonic onboard a ship bound for Europe, 1930.
Credit: Courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Archives
