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Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa, Music Director

Colin Davis, Principal Guest Conductor Joseph Silverstein, Assistant Conductor

20, 22 November 1975 at 8:30 p.m. 21 November 1975 at 2:00 p.m. Symphony Hall, Boston Ninety-fifth season Program Program Notes

James Levine conducting Claude Debussy, 1862-1909

Debussy: 'Images' pour orchestre 'Images' pour orchestre Completed in the years between 1909 and 1912, the three Gigues Images were first performed by the Boston Symphony as follows: Gigues April 1917 (Karl Muck conducting); Iberia Iberia April 1911 and Rondes de Printemps November 1910 (Max Par les rues et par les chemins Fiedler conducting). The most recent performances were in November 1971 (Michael Tilson Thomas conducting). Peter (In the streets and byways) Maag conducted Iberia in the 1974/75 season. The work was Les parfums de la nuit recorded for RCA Victor by the BSO with Charles Munch (The fragrance of the night) (VICS-1391) and for Deutsche Grammophon with Michael Le matin d'un jour de fête Tilson Thomas (DG 2530145). (The morning of a festival day) The work is scored for 3 flutes, piccelo, 2 oboes, English horn, oboe d'amore, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, Rondes de printemps (Spring round) contra bassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, castanets, snare drum, mili- Intermission tary drum, cymbals, xylophone, celesta, bells, 2 harps and strings. Gigues. Leon Vallas pointed out that Debussy flavored Symphony No. 2 in C Major Op. 61 Schumann: his three Images with the popular music of three countries: Iberia from Spain, Rondes de Printemps from French songs Sostenuto assai— allegro ma non troppo and Gigues from British folk music. Gigues, says M. Vallas, Scherzo: allegro vivace 'seem to have been inspired by memories of England. Adagio espressivo Debussy had visited the country and more than one of his Allegro molto vivace compositions recall some aspects of life there. One of the essential elements of this score is a popular air, a jig, which The concert on Friday will end about 3:40, the concerts on Debussy borrowed, perhaps unconsciously, and possibly Thursday and Saturday about 10:10. the plaintive melody played by the oboe d'amore is also derived from English folk music. Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra record exclusively for Iberia. Manuel de Falla, a Spanish purist who might well Deutsche Grammophon have frowned upon a quasi-Spanish product of France, Baldwin Piano Deutsche Grammophon Records wrote of Iberia in an article printed in the Chesterian: 'The echoes from the villages, a kind of sevillana — the generic theme of the work — which seems to float in a clear atmos- The Next Program phere of scintillating light; the intoxicating spell of Andalu- sian nights, the festival gaiety of a people dancing to the Wednesday, November 26, 1975 at 8:30 pm (Thursday '10') joyous strains of a banda of guitars — all this whirls in the Friday, November 28, 1975 at 2:00 pm air, approaches and recedes and our imagination is contin- Saturday, November 29, 1975 at 8:30 pm ually kept awake and dazzled by the power of an intensely Tuesday, December 2, 1975 at 8:30 pm expressive and richly varied music.' Falla further states that Thursday, December 4, 1975 at 8:30 pm Debussy thus pointed the way towards the use of the fun- damental elements of popular music, rather than folk tunes Colin Davis, conductor as such. Rondes de Printemps. The Rondes takes for its principal Mendelssohn: Excerpts from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' theme the French children's song 'Nous n'irons plus au Sibelius: Tapiola Op. 112 bois' which appears in various guises as the principal Symphony No. 6 in D minor Op. 104 refrain in a piece distinctively suggestive of the classical The Friday concert will end about 3:45 pm, the Wednesday, rondo form. Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday concerts about 10:15 pm. Adapted from notes by John N. Burk For up-to-date recorded concert information please call C-O-N-C-E-R-T. . . . II. Scherzo. Allegro vivace. The scherzo starts with a fig- Robert Schumann, 1810-1856 ure related to the motto, but the mood here is more agitated Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61 and wilder, and the harmonic background is sharper, more vivid. At the close the motto returns. "Drums and Trumpets (trombe in C) have been sounding III. Adagio espressivo. The third movement is a melan- persistently in my head for the past few days," wrote choly, romantic song sung first by the violins, then by the Schumann to his friend Mendelssohn, late in 1845. "I don't oboes. It grows in yearning and passion to an ecstatic cli- know what is to come of it." max in the woodwind instruments against poignant trills of What came of it was a symphony, Schumann's third. But the violins. There is a short passage of counterpoint for since it was published second it has always been known as contrast, and the song returns to close in the sweeter major his Symphony No. 2 in C major. The drums and trumpets mode. When Schumann completed this movement, the of Schumann's obsession grew into the fanfare-like motto crown of the Symphony and one of his most beautiful which opens the Symphony and returns in three of its four pages, he was in such nervous misery that the Symphony movements. had to be put temporarily aside. The Second Symphony is the only one of Schumann's IV. Allegro molto vivace. "In the finale," wrote four clearly connected with the mental tragedy that brought Schumann, "I first began to feel like myself again; and his career to an end in 1854 and two years later took his life. indeed, I was much better after I had completed the work." Schumann's psyche seems to have been so frail and sensi- The movement is brilliant and vigorous. The final appear- tive that he suffered from shock which a more ordinary per- ance of the motto theme is victorious, exultant. son might have taken in his stride. So sensitive that he eventually collapsed in his struggle with the material world Note by Edward Downes, reprinted by permission of the and the intellectual and emotional strain of composing. New York Philharmonic. For a few years Schumann's ecstatically happy marriage to Clara Wieck seemed to have given him immense new James Levine resources of physical and emotional stamina. But after a trip to Russia, Schumann was troubled by a growing ner- Born in Cincinnati in 1943, Mr. Levine made his debut as vousness, occasional loss of his memory, and composing piano soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony at the age of exhausted him. In 1844 he had a serious breakdown. He ten. After a year at the Juilliard School where he completed had to give up all work, including the editorship of the cru- the undergraduate requirements, he left to join the con- sading Neue Zeitschrift ffir Musik, which he had founded. ducting staff of the Cleveland Orchestra under George In the fall he and Clara moved back to the quiet atmos- Szell where he remained for six years. phere of Dresden, where he gradually recovered his health. Mr. Levine has been appointed Music Director of the It was in the course of his convalescence that he wrote the C Metropolitan Opera (beginning in 1976-77) the second man major Symphony. He began actual work on the Symphony and first American to hold that position. For the past three in December 1845 when, as he himself said, "I was still half seasons he has been the Metropolitan's Principal Conduc- sick. . . . I sketched it while I was in a state of physical suf- tor (a post which was especially created for him), and con- fering. I may even say it appears to have been influenced by ducts about 40 performances there each season. the spiritual exertions with which I was trying to combat Since 1973 he has been Music Director of the Ravinia Fes- my bodily state. The first movement is full of this struggle, tival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and in and is very capricious and refractory." addition to conducting, has appeared as pianist in concerti I. Sostenuto assai — Allegro ma non troppo. The mysteri- and chamber music. ous, slow introduction begins like a troubled dream. It opens, very softly, with a sort of motto which will recur from time to time throughout the Symphony. Simultan- eously, we hear an ominous creeping figure in the strings, which also develops considerable importance. The motto theme repeats, then increases gradually, and a little cadenza-like outburst of the violins leads directly into the main fast part of the movement. Its rhythms are nervous, almost feverish, recalling in transmuted form Schumann's troubled fancies. At the climax of the first movement, the motto theme returns. BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEW OZAWA . Alustc

First violins Cellos Contra bassoon Joseph Silverstein Jules Eskin Richard Plaster Concertmaster Philip R. Allen chair Charles Munch chair Martin Hoherman Horns Emanuel Borok Mischa Nieland Charles Kavaloski Max Hobart Jerome Patterson Helen Sagoff Slosberg chair Rolland Tapley Robert Ripley Charles Yancich Roger Shermont Luis Leguia Max Winder Carol Procter David Ohanian Harry Dickson Ronald Feldman Richard Mackey Gottfried Wilfinger Joel Moerschel Ralph Pottle Fredy Ostrovsky Jonathan Miller Leo Panasevich Martha Babcock Trumpets Sheldon Rotenberg Armando Ghitalla Alfred Schneider Basses Andre Come Stanley Benson William Rhein Harold D. Hodgkinson chair Rolf Smedvig Gerald Gelbloom Gerard Goguen Raymond Sird Joseph Hearne Ikuko Mizuno Bela Wurtzler Trombones Cecylia Arzewski Leslie Martin Ronald Barron Amnon Levy John Salkowski William Gibson John Barwicki Gordon Hallberg Second violins Robert Olson Victor Yampolsky Lawrence Wolfe Tuba Personnel Managers Fahnestock chair Henry Portnoi Chester Schmitz William Moyer Marylou Speaker Harry Shapiro Michel Sasson Flutes Timpani Ronald Knudsen Doriot Anthony Dwyer Everett Firth Librarians Leonard Moss Walter Piston chair Sylvia Shippen Wells chair Victor Alpert Bo Youp Hwang James Pappoutsakis William Shisler Laszlo Nagy Paul Fried Percussion Michael Vitale Charles Smith Stage Manager Darlene Gray Piccolo Arthur Press Alfred Robison Ronald Wilkison Lois Schaefer Assistant timpanist Harvey Seigel Thomas Gauger Jerome Rosen Oboes Frank Epstein Program Editor Sheila Fiekowsky Ralph Gomberg Mary H. Smith Mildred B. Remis chair Harps Gerald Elias Bernard Zighera Vyacheslav Uritsky John Holmes Wayne Rapier Ann Hobson Violas Burton Fine English Horn Charles S. Dana chair Laurence Thorstenberg Reuben Green Clarinets Eugene Lehner Harold Wright George Humphrey Ann S.M. Banks chair Jerome Lipson Pasquale Cardillo Robert Karol Peter Hadcock Bernard Kadinoff E-flat clarinet Vincent Mauricci Earl Hedberg Bass Clarinet Joseph Pietropaolo Felix Viscuglia Robert Barnes Michael Zaretsky Bassoons Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sherman Walt Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts 02115. Edward A. Taft chair (617) 266-1492. Roland Small Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Executive Director Matthew Ruggiero " When it comes to the care of my skin, I trust Elizabeth Grady Face First' ,

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