But the Sunday concert was free of ceremony; and at the end, the audience greeted the performance as if it were just any old subscription concert, with three minutes of applause and a few isolated bravos.
The New York Society Library is a grand old subscription library that was founded in 1754.
Audiobooks.com, a one-year old subscription service that competes with Amazon's Audible.com, is today dropping its prices.
The Philharmonic, like other ensembles, has been trying to find its way at a time when classical music occupies less bandwidth in the broader culture; the old subscription model of selling a season's worth of tickets at a time is dying; and high fixed costs make the economics of running an orchestra tougher than ever.
Unless the TV companies offer deals that less expensive and more flexible, a growing number of these fans will eschew the old subscription model and watch football online for free.
The old subscription model that orchestras relied on to fill seats is on the decline as audiences now prefer to make last-minute decisions about their leisure time.
"However, while scientific publication is in the middle of a transition from publication in traditional subscription-based journals to open access and general openness, the financial model is still based on the old subscription model, with payment of fees to the publishers.
One also has to address the fact that stability, a sense of community, and adventurousness in programming, is underwritten in many cities in Europe, America and Asia by the good old subscription system dating back to the earliest public concerts in the 18th century.
"There are more young faces in the audience here than there have been since the inception of this place!" The remark ennobled the scattering of mostly white and schlumpy student hipsters among the old subscription audience, but that didn't make it true.
It said the failure to remove the old subscription was down to "human error".
