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Home , Arthur Judson, Eugene Ormandy

UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY presents THE PHILHARMONIC- ORCHESTRA OF NEW YORK

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC 1842; NEW YORK SYMPHONY 1878 ; CONSOLIDATED 1928 In the third Spring and Summer Series of sponsored broadcast concerts

CARNEGIE HALL SUNDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 27, 10 45, AT .3:00 RM. 4,247TH CONCERT AND 577TH BROADCAST

under the direction of

Assisting Artist: ARTUR RUBINSTEIN, PIANIST

PROGRAM BEETHOVEN .... Symphony No. 4, in B flat major, Opus 60

I. Adagio; allegro vivace III. Allegro vivace. Trio. Un poco meno allegro II. Adagio IV. Finale: allegro, ma non troppo

INTERMISSION (5 minutes) BEETHOVEN...... Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4, • in G major, Opus 58 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante con moto III. Rondo: vivace The Star-Spangled Banner

(Program subject to change without notice)

Broadcast coast-to-coast over the Columbia Network

THE PHILHARMONIC-SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 113 West 57 th Street, New York 19, N.Y. Artur Rodzinski, Musical Director , Manager Bruno Zirato, Associate Manager PROGRAM FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 27th, 1945

BEETHOVEN . . Symphony No. 4, in B flat major, Opus 60 instrument must wait for its entrance until the orchestra has played one of the longest introductions in any concerto. In the , Beethoven lets his soloist speak first, and all alone. After a few short bars, the piano falls silent and (Born at Bonn, December 16 (?), 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827) the orchestra has the next sixty-eight measures to itself. It has been observed that Beethoven’s even-numbered are for the most By so doing, Beethoven upset the convention dictating that a concerto should part gentle and serene, while the odd-numbered, excepting the first, are charged properly begin with a sort of miniature orchestral prelude. with greater vigor and dramatic force. If Beethoven had followed his first plan this The concerto also stands apart for its brief but exquisitely poetic slow move­ sequence would have been interrupted, because after the Third Symphony, the ment. Here, within a mere seventy bars, piano and strings unite in a dialogue that dynamic “Eroica,” he began sketching the great C-minor that eventually became is among the glories of musical art. No. 5. For some reason he laid these sketches aside in favor of the B-flat-major Liszt’s famous remark that the slow movement reminded him of Orpheus Symphony, which he completed in 1806. taming the wild beasts with his music has been received both with agreement The position of this work between the bolder “Eroica” and Fifth Symphonies and protest. “This is so apt,” wrote the late Donald Tovey, “that it is almost free places its docile character in sharper relief. ’s famous remark is from the general objection that such comparisons tend at first to substitute their as apt as anything that has been said about it: “A slender Greek maiden between own vividness for that of the music and then to lose their vividness in the necessity two Norse giants.” for tiresome qualifications of detail.” There used to be a romantic legend that the symphony owed its origin to the On the other hand, Abraham Veinus, in his book The Concerto, complains: composer’s love for the Countess Therese von Brunswick. Many believe that “More than any other composer, Beethoven enjoys the dubious distinction of Beethoven’s famous love letter to “my immortal beloved” was intended for her, bringing out the worst in a critic. Wagner runs him a close second, and the reader and that they were betrothed at about that time. The late Romain Rolland there­ with a taste for such delicacies will find a substantial library of beautiful nonsense fore called the Fourth Symphony “a love song,” but there are no facts to sustain and bad prose accumulated around the two. The reader is advised to believe, if such a conclusion. it gives him any pleasure, that the slow movement of the fourth Beethoven piano Some of the most rapturous praise of the symphony has come from another concerto depicts Orpheus taming the wild beasts. However, this was not Frenchman, the composer Berlioz, who said it was “generally lively, nimble, Beethoven’s idea. The interpretation seems to have started with Liszt.” joyous, or of a Heavenly sweetness.” Of the slow movement, he wrote: “It is only Veinus then contents himself with saying merely that the slow movement is in the works of one of the giants of poetry that we can find a point of comparison “a model of inspired simplicity . . . one of the noblest inspirations in our entire with this sublime page of the giant of music.” He heard “many teasing but charm­ concerto literature.” ing allurements” in the scherzo and “a jingling of sparkling notes” in the finale. Those who heard the first performance in 1807 were not so favorably impressed. Weber, then twenty years old, could only ridicule the work, saying THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER that some of its slow passages seemed to progress “at the rate of three or four notes per quarter of an hour.” (The conductor will lead the audience and orchestra in our national anthem) But, in a later age, Sir George Grove could write such a poetic estimate as thisi “The movements, fit in their places like the limbs and features of a lovely statue.”

INTERMISSION (5 minutes) The Steinway is the Official Piano of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society Complimentary tickets to these broadcasts will be discontinued after the concert of BEETHOVEN . . . Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4, September 30, 1945. The regular subscription season will begin on Thursday evening, October 4, 1945. Prospectus of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society giving full informa­ in G major, Opus 58 tion on the subscription series for the season 1945-46, is available in the racks in the lobby or will be mailed on request. There is an odd contrast between the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Subscription orders are now being accepted at the offices of the Society, Room Concerto, which was composed at about the same time. In the latter, the solo 1609 at 113 JF. 57th St., N. Y. 19, N. Y., from 9:30 to 5:00, Saturdays from 9:30 to 12:00. UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY announces the engage­ ment of conductors and soloists for its third Spring and Summer Series of Philharmonic-Symphony broadcasts as follows:

JUNE 3—: Alexander Brailow- , pianist sky, pianist 10—Eugene Ormandy 12—; 17—; Artur Gyorgy Sandor, pianist Schnabel, pianist 19—Dimitri Mitropoulos; 24—George Szell , violinist

JULY 1—Artur Rodzinski 26—Dimitri Mitropoulos 8—George Szell SEPT. 2— 15—George Szell; Pierre 9—F ritz Reiner ; Nathan Luboshutz and Genia Milstein, violinist Nemenoff, duo-pianists 16—Fritz Reiner; Ania 22—Eugene Ormandy; Dorfmann, pianist Erica Morini, violinist 23—Fritz Reiner; Carol 29—Eugene Ormandy Brice, contralto AUG. 5—Dimitri Mitropoulos; 30—Artur Rodzinski

PROGRAM SUNDAY JUNE 3 at 3:00 p.m. under the direction of EUGENE ORMANDY

Assisting Artist: Rudolf serkin, pianist

HANDEL ...... Concerto for Orchestra, in D major ( Transcribed by Eugene Ormandy) HAYDN ■ ■ ■ Symphony No. 88, in G major (B. & H. No. 13) INTERMISSION BEETHOVEN...... Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 1, in C major, Opus 15 THE DOORS CLOSE AT 2:45 EM. Requests for tickets for the Summer series of concerts should be addressed to United States Rubber Company. Radio Department, 1230 Sixth Avenue, New York. Please allow four weeks for your request to be filled. It is requested that guests who are unable to use their tickets kindly return them to the same address. Tickets so returned will be given to men in the Armed Services.