V^ A BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON SEASON Sunday Afternoon Series BAYARD TUCKERMAN, JR. ARTHUR J. ANDERSON ROBERT T. FORREST JULIUS F. HALLER ARTHUR J. ANDERSON, JR. HERBERT S. TUCKERMAN J. DEANE SOMERVILLE A square knot — fast becoming the most famous in America as the standard for use in Red Cross First Aid bandaging. It holds fast, but can readily be adjusted. Your insurance protection should be similarly secure, yet conform to current conditions and values. It will pay you to tie up with an agency such as ours, one capable of giving you complete insurance services. We shall consider it a privilege to serve you OBRION, RUSSELL & CO. Insurance of Every Description 108 Water Street Boston 6, Mass. LA fayette 3-5700 ——MM SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON Telephone, Commonwealth 6-1492 SEVENTY-FIFTH SEASON, 1955-1956 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President Jacob J. Kaplan . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Talcott M. Banks, Jr. CD. Jackson John Nicholas Brown Michael T. Kelleher Theodore P. Ferris Palfrey Perkins Alvan T. Fuller Charles H. Stockton Francis W. Hatch Edward A. Taft Harold D. Hodgkinson Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen M. A. DeWolfe Howe N. Penrose Hallowell Lewis Perry Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager G. W. Rector ) Assistant J. J. Brosnahan, Assistant Treasurer N. S. Shirk \ Managers Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager [1] THE LIVING TRUST How It Benefits You, Your Family, Your Estate Unsettled conditions . new inventions . political changes . „ interest rates and taxes, today make the complicated field of in- vestments more and more a province for specialists. Because of this, more and more men and women, with capital to invest and estates to manage, are turning to the Living Trust. WHAT IT IS The Living TrusJ: is a Trust which you establish to go into effect during your lifetime, as part of your overall estate plan, and for the purpose of receiving professional management for a specified portion of your property. It can be arranged for the benefit of yourself, members of your family, or other individuals or charities —and can be large or small. We will be glad to meet with you and your attorney, in strict con- fidence, to discuss a Living Trust as it fits in with your situation,, For an appointment, at your convenience, please write or call the Personal Trust Department of the National Shawmut Bank, Boston, Massachusetts. No obligation, of course. Send for the Shawmut Bank's informative new booklet, "The Living Trust". It tells the whole story. Yours without charge. The National Shawmut Bank of Boston Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [»] : SYMPHONIANA "Fidelio" in Beethoven's Vienna Reminiscence THE TROUSSEAU HOUSE OF BOSTON "FIDELIO" IN BEETHOVEN'S VIENNA The inclusion of Beethoven's Over- ture to Fidelio on this week's program may be counted among twenty-five per- formances of this work by the orchestras of America in recognition of a notable event. On Saturday evening, November 5, the Vienna Staatsoper, rebuilt in almost exact replica from the Opera House originally constructed in 1869, was re-opened with Fidelio. On April 27, the Austrian Chancellor Julius Raab spoke of the re-opening at a special meeting of Parliament. Chan- cellor Raab said: "On November 5 Beethoven's opera Fidelio will be presented in the newly built house on the Ringstrasse. It would be a splendid gift to the Austrian people if this immortal hymn to freedom and humanity by the greatest composer of all time could resound in a free and independent Austria. "The whole world would applaud if the immortal strains of the prisoners' song 'Hail to the day, hail to the hour for which we long have yearned' could be heard by a finally liberated Austria." The Staatsoper is dear to the Vien- nese for its beauty as a building, but still more for the memories it holds of innumerable great performances and great singers. The demolition of the Opera House by bombs in 1945 was looked upon as a major tragedy. All that remained of the structure was the Mm 1 outer shell, part of the stairways, loggia, and foyer. The task of rebuilding has been a principal post-war concern by the citizens of Vienna, to whom music is always of the first importance. shadow plaid teagown in The dedicatory performance will be a soil and crease resistant attended by visitors from all parts of the world. Karl Boehm will conduct. wool, softly aglow with Particulars of the new plan were described by John MacCormac in the shining satin . aqua or New York Times (June 19, 1955) "Present work on the outside of the dusty rose, Opera House, and that part of the in- sizes 10 to 20 45.00 terior which wasn't destroyed by fire, is a labor of restoration. Thus the new facade will look almost exactly like the old one. What was left of the original 416 Boylston St., Boston frescoes of Moritz von Schwind has 54 Central St., Wellesley been painstakingly restored. (Modern Austrian art will be represented by thirteen splendid new tapestries and a [3] scenic painting on the proscenium iron curtain.) "Where restoration proved impossible, reconstruction was attempted, but the C^handl er s interior has gained important new fea- tures, both decorative and Tremont and West Streets, Boston technical. They include the most elaborate stage mechanism of Europe. "In the auditorium the decorative effects will be unobtrusive and modern, although components will retain the gold, red and white of imperial times. After debate, it was decided to keep the loges which were so prominent a feature of the old house, with an ante- room for each. But part of the center box, once reserved for Franz Josef, will now be made available for radio and television technicians. "The new house, the national theatre of a republic, will be a director's dream and an opera-goer's pleasure place, and not an emperor's monument. No longer will occupants of cheaper seats be hidden behind pillars and under pointed arches, or denied access to balconies, public rooms and staircases once re- served for the Kaiser and the archdukes. For their convenience, elevators are being installed and a cafeteria and smoking room added. Some back seats will be equipped with headphones for the hard of hearing, and others with reading lamps for those who like to follow the score. The auditorium will be surrounded by three long promenade halls, while the third and fourth gal- leries will have open-air terraces facing the Ring and Opera streets. "The auditorium, the stage and some of the special rooms will be air condi- tioned, the air being drawn from the Imperial Palace gardens. Firemen will patrol the building night and day and a thermostatic system will report to a central control point any rise of temp- erature in any room. "The pride and glory of the recon- maaniHcenI structed Opera House, however, will be f its stage. It is high enough to hold Vienna's tallest apartment building. The mink . visible stage has been enlarged to sixty feet square, bigger than that of the Paris Opera. Leftward is a side stage. the fitting accompaniment to Finally, there is a revolving stage sixty all your grand moments . feet in diameter, which when not in use folded in the middle and hoisted choose from the richest can be into the flies. colors and the finest "The visible stage is divided into six each sixty feet wide and ten designs available this season sections feet deep, which can be pushed back or FUR forward, lowered or raised, thus per- CHANDLER'S SALON- mitting a complete change of scene to SECOND FLOOR be prepared below while another is {Continued on page 33) [4] Harvey Berin's black velvet cocktail mixed with Never have you been glorified as you will be this winter, in the unexpected splendor of little cocktail gowns like this. Sheathing the figure in an entirely new way, to suggest the shape underneath, rather than define it. Of night-black Martin's rayon velvet — the rising Empire lines heightened with inlays and bandings of mat black satin, 10 to 16. filene's french shops, seventh floor [5] Mr. Steppington Rises to the Occasion You can count on Mr. Step- for the free booklet, "Invest- pington to bring order out of ment Management and Invest- chaos in Town Meeting. ment Consultation." But when it comes to his own investment problems, he pre- fers to have Old Colony Trust Company take charge of the WORTHY OF YOUR TRUST situation. Through an Investment (~\\ J~\ (~^ f^ll OlMV Management Account, Old VyLvJLy K^KJL^VJL Colony relieves him of' the Trust Company burdensome details of security ONE FEDERAL STREET, BOSTON care. At the same time, he T. Jefferson Coolidge knows his investments are un- Chairman, Trust Committee der the constant, active super- Robert vision of a staff experienced in Cutler Chairman, Board of Directors all phases of the management of securities. Augustin H. Parker, Jr. To learn how you can ben- President efit through an Investment Arthur L. Coburn, Jr. Management Account, send Chairman TrustInvestment Committee } Allied with The First National Bank of Boston [6] SEVENTY-FIFTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE AND FIFTY-SIX First Program SUNDAY AFTERNOON, November 6, at 3:00 o'clock Beethoven Overture to "Fidelio" Milhaud Symphony No. 6 I. Calme et tendre II. Tumultueux III.