On December 7, 1842, a group of musicians gathered in the Apollo Rooms in Lower Manhattan and performed – for the first time – as the Philharmonic Society of New York. The first piece they played? Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. 

In this episode, we try to listen to that most famous of famous symphonies as our 1842 audience would have: as if for the very first time. And, host Jamie Bernstein follows the twists and turns on the journey an early musician, Solidor Milon, took to get to that stage. Even today, the path that NY Phil musicians take to Lincoln Center is a breathtaking one, as we hear in the story of concertmaster Frank Huang.

A transcript of this episode is available on our website: nyphilstory.com