On the evening of July 18, I followed a long line of people carrying blankets, chairs, coolers, and bags from The Buttermilk Market and Dean & Deluca through Central Park’s 79th St entrance. We were all heading to the Great Lawn for the New York Philharmonic’s annual Concert in the Park.

For 42 summers, the New York Philharmonic has been bringing Classical music to Central Park. As much of an Upper East Side summer tradition as the Jitney, attending the Concert is a quintessential New York experience. Half the fun is the pre-concert picnic, which gives us an excuse to purchase a picnic dinner from the nearest gourmet grocery, gather all our friends to stake out a spot with blankets and colorful balloons, and enjoy a few bottles of wine. It’s Classical music’s answer to tailgating.

Usually, the Philharmonic performs two concerts in Central Park, but because of a rain-out the week before and the popularity of Beethoven’s 5th, this evening’s concert was especially crowded. Even the threat of another thunderstorm didn’t keep people away. Like a microcosm of the Manhattan real estate market, folks who got there first claimed large pieces of the Lawn, while others willingly accepted smaller and smaller spaces as the time for the concert grew nearer.

The program for this evening’s concert featured The Chairman Dances by John Adams, Violin Concerto No.1 by Prokofiev, and Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven. Featured artists were Marin Alsop, Conductor, and Leila Josefowicz on the Violin. Ms. Alsop, a regular guest Conductor with the Orchestra, made her Philharmonic debut conducting a Parks concert in 1990. As the Soloist for the Violin Concerto, Ms. Josefowicz was making her Philharmonic debut this evening.

The first few bars of The Chairman Dances had just begun when we felt the first heavy splats of raindrops. I leaned over to the nearest group and said, “Did you feel that?” “Yes,” they said. “It’s coming.” Umbrellas started to pop up all over as the rhythm of the rain increased, oddly keeping time to the persistent heartbeat of the music, adding to the piece’s dramatic effect. Very few people left, however, as the moderate rain washed away the heat of the 100-degree day.

The Chairman Dances is an “out-take” of Adams’ full-length opera, Nixon in China, based on Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 meeting with Mao Tse-tung. The piece is a “foxtrot” between Chairman Mao and his bride, Chiang Ch’ing. Described as “slinky and sentimental” and “bravura and bounding,” it is a work for mostly horns, woodwinds and percussion, with light accents of strings, piano and harp.

As the piece came to a close, so did the rain (for the moment). After much milling around on stage, it was announced that the program would be cut short: there would be no intermission, and after Violin Concerto No. 1, the Orchestra would only perform the First and Fourth (final) movements of Beethoven’s 5th.

This appeased the audience as the sweet, cutting sound of Leila Josefowicz’s violin tripped through the Andantino of the Concerto. The speed of the Concerto’s first movement seems to reflect the turmoil Prokofiev was going through in 1917, the year he was about to leave Russia for Western Europe and the States. Actually, he describes the work as “lyrical,” which is borne out in the final movement, and the piercing clarity of the violin sliced through the hub-bub of the crowd.

The weather continued to hold as the Orchestra played the “most famous four notes in history.” The crowd cheered at the opening “buhm, buhm, buhm-buhm” and settled down to listen to the point, counterpoint, essential themes and silences that make up Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor.”

As the piece ended, Mother Nature held off from her fireworks to allow for the traditional man-made ones, supplied this evening by Bay Fireworks. A large, leafy elm was in my way, but I could still see them twinkling through the leaves.

After 42 seasons, the Philharmonic staff knows how to time the weather. Though it was sad not to hear all of Beethoven’s 5th, the downpour really began as we were hitting the exits, most likely, had it been played, somewhere in the middle of the 4th movement Allegro. Picnic baskets and camp chairs led the way as we all jostled for cabs and subway stations, bringing the 42nd season of Concerts in the Parks to a close.