[4] The orchestra's debut public performance was at Cooper Union Hall on January 7, 1904, and, according to Leonard Slatkin, featured works by Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Henryk Wieniawski, and the American premiere of Rachmaninoff's The Rock.

[3] However, the New York Times of January 3, 1904 lists the program as consisting of the Overture from Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, a baritone aria from Borodin's Prince Igor, an intermezzo from Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, a Russian dance by Eduard Nápravník and the symphonic suite Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov;[7] The Times of January 24 that same year mentions their second concert as including Wieniawski's Souvenir de Moscou[8] and reviewing a later concert in the series mentions a performance of "'The Cliff' by Rachmaninoff," presumably the same piece as The Rock.

[9] For the 1904–1905 season, the orchestra, now expanded to 85 musicians,[10] performed six concerts at Carnegie Hall, featuring works by a broad range of Russian composers,[11][12] including a violin concerto by Julius Conus.

[13] The Times summarized the season as "resplendent with novelties,"[14] and praised their "enthusiasm"[15] and the "absorbing interest" of their selected material,[14] but was critical of the technical quality of their performances, particularly in comparison with their initial series of concerts at Cooper Union.

The chaos of the Revolution of 1905 prevented sending scores from Russia for the orchestra to accompany Campanari on arias from Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Queen of Spades (Pique Dame), and the performances were almost canceled.

The situation was finally rescued by "a little music store on Canal Street" which had held the relevant scores in stock, unsold for about a decade after they had been purchased from a Russian tenor in need of cash.

[25] Pianist Josef Lhévinne likewise had an extremely difficult time escaping the turmoil of revolution in Moscow to come to New York to play with the Russian Symphony and others, facing danger from both the revolutionists and the government.

[28] In late December 1905, Altschuler and others announced the formation of the New Music Society of America, soliciting "serious new work" from American composers, with the Russian Symphony functioning as the group's orchestra.

"[43] While continuing its skepticism toward recent Russian music, the Times had high praise for soloist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler's February 7, 1907 performance of Anton Rubinstein's already well-known D Minor Concerto (No.

"[44] The fifth of six concerts that season on February 28, featuring a return by pianist Josef Lhévinne, consisted entirely of Russian pieces performed for the first time in America, although they were not recent works.

[45] That summer, Altschuler traveled to Europe to engage soloists for the 1907–1908 season,[46] which began with a special concert November 10 at their largest venue to date: accompanying violinist Jan Kubelik at the New York Hippodrome.

8, composed roughly two years earlier; arrangements of Russian folk songs by Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov, and Rimsky-Korsakov; and Mussorgsky's "Great Gate of Kiev".

The program also featured the American debut of young Russian violinist Lea Luboshutz (listed at the time as Laya Luboshiz),[49] who received eight curtain calls for her solo on Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

The tsar granted the Order of Saint Stanislaus to orchestra president Frank Seymour Hastings in recognition of his promotion of Russian music in America.

At Carnegie Hall, they continued to present notable soloists: the debut of Mischa Elman (19 years old at the time[54]), a return by Josef Lhévinne, and also an appearance by Alexander Petschnikoff.

[53] The two groups collaborated further, including a 1910 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest[59] and a series of performances in the 1910–1911 season which repeated these pieces and added As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, and Sakuntala.

[65][66][67][68] On April 4, the orchestra played a benefit for Russian immigrants at the Waldorf-Astoria, featuring several musical soloists as well as ballet dancers Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin.

The concert also featured two American premieres of pieces by Anatoly Lyadov—Kikimora and Volshebnoye ozero (The Enchanted Lake), both written in 1909—Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, and several songs sung by German baritone Alexander Heinemann.

[73][74] The December 1 concert featured the U.S. debut of Canadian-born violinist Kathleen Parlow; the New York Times reviewer described her performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto as a "remarkable achievement" and praised her "unexpected authority",[75][76] and would have equally high praise for her "consummate technical accuracy...beauty of tone...spirit...[and]fire" when she returned to play Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No.