ABSTRACT
The honour of composing the first symphony on American soil probably goes to John Christopher Moller. Anton Philipp Heinrich considered the Grand Symphony The Ornithological Combat of Kings to be his best work. However, there is nothing of Rossini or Bellini in the Combat Symphony. Writing in the Musical Weekly, Richard Storrs Willis described the symphony as ‘a kind of extravaganza which moves the audience to laughter, entertaining them seasonably with imitated snow-storms, trotting horses, sleighbells, cracking whips. In 1853 the famous French conductor Jullien conducted the Second Symphony in D minor, which later acquired the subtitle ‘Jullien’. In spite of the minor key, there is to the whole symphony an appealing, carefree atmosphere, most notably in the breezy finale where Bristow is at his most confident in handling symphonic form. His Arcadian Symphony was performed in New York by the Philharmonic Orchestra on 14 February 1874.
