The date was May 5,1891, and the opening of the Music Hall, as it was called in those days, was taking place on West 57th Street in New York City. The donor was Andrew Carnegie and the architect was William Burnet Tuthill.
During the five-day festival of music the New York Symphony Orchestra and the New York Oratorio Society performed under the baton of Walter Damrosch. Peter Ilytch Tchaikowsky would come later to conduct his new Piano Concerto No.I with Adele Aus der Ohe as soloist.
William Burnet Tuthill
The evening of the first concert, as the crowds began filling the hall to capacity the architect, William Tuthill, apparently became anxious that the hall might collapse under the weight of the patrons. He rushed back to his office to go over his engineering evaluations to make sure that this did not happen. It did not, and has not during the 117 years the building has stood proudly at the corner of Fifty-ninth Street and Sixth Avenue.
Heifetz, Rubinstein and Horszowski
It is not the largest hall in America, nor the first ( the Philadelphia Academy of Music holds this honor), but it is the most famous in the country. All the great and near-great have performed in its hallowed confines, and a few that might be mentioned are the debut of sixteen-year old violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz in 1917; Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who debuted there in 1906 and played his last Carnegie concert in 1976, and the venerable pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski, who first performed there in 1906 and made his last appearance in the 1990's. He lived to be one-hundred and one.
Leonard Bernstein
On November 14,1943, twenty-five year old Leonard Bernstein, an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, was summoned at the last minute to replace an ailing Bruno Walter. This concert launched him on a career as one of the most famous conductors in the world. He became permanent conductor of the orchestra not long after and stayed for many years, televising his famous Young People's Concerts from the hall.
Too many celebrated personalities have appeared in Carnegie Hall to be mentioned here, but one of the most interesting concerts was given in 1976, in honor of the hall's 85th year. Leonard Bernstein joined forces with pianist Vladimir Horowitz, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, 'cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the Oratorio Society and the New York Philharmonic for a glittering event that was later called "The Concert of the Century."
All the major orchestras of the world have played at Carnegie, and Carnegie Hall has commissioned new works from many contemporary composers, including Sir Michael Tippett and Toru Takemitsu.
The hall was refurbished in 1986.
Source
The World of Carnegie Hall Richard Schickel Julian Messner, Inc., New York 1960
For further reading about musicians see Rachmaninoff in America
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