![["New-York Symphony Orchestra"] Damrosch, Walter. (1862–1950) & Powell, John. (1882–1963) Signed Program from the first European tour of an American orchestra (1920)](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/New-York_Symphony_Orchestra_Damrosch_Powell_SP_23020a.jpg?v=1722190674)
![["New-York Symphony Orchestra"] Damrosch, Walter. (1862–1950) & Powell, John. (1882–1963) Signed Program from the first European tour of an American orchestra (1920)](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/New-York_Symphony_Orchestra_Damrosch_Powell_SP_23020b.jpg?v=1722190674)
![["New-York Symphony Orchestra"] Damrosch, Walter. (1862–1950) & Powell, John. (1882–1963) Signed Program from the first European tour of an American orchestra (1920)](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/New-York_Symphony_Orchestra_Damrosch_Powell_SP_23020c.jpg?v=1722190674)
["New-York Symphony Orchestra"] Damrosch, Walter. (1862–1950) & Powell, John. (1882–1963). Signed Program from the first European tour of an American orchestra (1920). Signed program booklet (12 pp.) for the second of four guest concerts of the "New-York Symphony Orchestra" [sic] in London, held on June 15, 1920, in Queen's Hall, with Powell as piano soloist and conducted by Damrosch. Signatures of both Damrosch and Powell in ink, symmetrically placed to the top corners of the first page. 9.5 x 7.5 inches (24 x 18.7 cm). Clippings from the Daily Telegraph referring to this series of guest concerts and a concert ticket pasted to pp. 3 and 9 by the original owner of the program. H. H. Harvey; further clippings pasted to a separate folded sheet laid in loosely, with handwritten titling by Harvey, who states that the program was "signed by Mr. Walter Damrosch and Mr. John Powell for HHH immediately after the Concert." 9.75 x 7.25 inches ( 24.7 x 18.4 cm). Apart from the pasted-in additions, in very good condition.
The 1920 tour of the New York Symphony Orchestra was the first European tour of an American orchestra. Walter Damrosch, born in Germany but living in the U.S. since 1871, conducted the orchestra from 1885 to 1928, when it merged with the Philharmonic. Both as a performer and organizer, Damrosch was a towering figure in musical America of his time. Among other things, he convinced Andrew Carnegie the build the concert hall that bears his name, brought Tchaikovsky to the U.S. in 1891, championed composers and their new works (mostly those of the conservative persuasion but also Gershwin) and even had a hand in the establishment of the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau, France, after the First World War.
Pianist-composer John Powell is another matter. In his time, he was a respected figure, whose Rhapsody nègre, or Negro Rhapsody, which concluded the present concert, was of remarkable quality. But Powell's musical achievement is now completely overshadowed by his racist activism. An outspoken white supremacist, he supported the "one-drop rule" defining any person with any African ancestors as Black (then, "negro") and fought against racial intermarriage. "Anyone reading the program notes circulated at Powell’s concerts of the Rhapsodie Nègre in the 1920s would have noted a distinct racist attitude expressed by the note-writer. This was Powell himself, under his pseudonym of Richard Brockwell, typifying 'the negro' as 'the child among the peoples.'" (Song of America website). The respective paragraph in the "Analytical Notes" of the present program is no exception.
["New-York Symphony Orchestra"] Damrosch, Walter. (1862–1950) & Powell, John. (1882–1963). Signed Program from the first European tour of an American orchestra (1920). Signed program booklet (12 pp.) for the second of four guest concerts of the "New-York Symphony Orchestra" [sic] in London, held on June 15, 1920, in Queen's Hall, with Powell as piano soloist and conducted by Damrosch. Signatures of both Damrosch and Powell in ink, symmetrically placed to the top corners of the first page. 9.5 x 7.5 inches (24 x 18.7 cm). Clippings from the Daily Telegraph referring to this series of guest concerts and a concert ticket pasted to pp. 3 and 9 by the original owner of the program. H. H. Harvey; further clippings pasted to a separate folded sheet laid in loosely, with handwritten titling by Harvey, who states that the program was "signed by Mr. Walter Damrosch and Mr. John Powell for HHH immediately after the Concert." 9.75 x 7.25 inches ( 24.7 x 18.4 cm). Apart from the pasted-in additions, in very good condition.
The 1920 tour of the New York Symphony Orchestra was the first European tour of an American orchestra. Walter Damrosch, born in Germany but living in the U.S. since 1871, conducted the orchestra from 1885 to 1928, when it merged with the Philharmonic. Both as a performer and organizer, Damrosch was a towering figure in musical America of his time. Among other things, he convinced Andrew Carnegie the build the concert hall that bears his name, brought Tchaikovsky to the U.S. in 1891, championed composers and their new works (mostly those of the conservative persuasion but also Gershwin) and even had a hand in the establishment of the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau, France, after the First World War.
Pianist-composer John Powell is another matter. In his time, he was a respected figure, whose Rhapsody nègre, or Negro Rhapsody, which concluded the present concert, was of remarkable quality. But Powell's musical achievement is now completely overshadowed by his racist activism. An outspoken white supremacist, he supported the "one-drop rule" defining any person with any African ancestors as Black (then, "negro") and fought against racial intermarriage. "Anyone reading the program notes circulated at Powell’s concerts of the Rhapsodie Nègre in the 1920s would have noted a distinct racist attitude expressed by the note-writer. This was Powell himself, under his pseudonym of Richard Brockwell, typifying 'the negro' as 'the child among the peoples.'" (Song of America website). The respective paragraph in the "Analytical Notes" of the present program is no exception.