Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 32,1912-1913, Trip

PARSONS THEATRE . HARTFORD Thirty-second Season) (912-J9I3 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor Itagramm? of % Third and Last Concert WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 4 AT 8.15 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY C. A. ELLIS PUBLISHED BY C. A. ELLIS, MANAGER 1 i i i m This Piano is Endorsed by Hundreds of the Leading Music Teachers of New England They know the satisfaction of owning pianos that come up to the highest standards. They appreciate the wonderful Jewett tone. THE JEWETT IS THE FAVORITE PIANO OF NEW ENGLAND More Jewett Pianos are bought by the people of New England each year than of any other make of equal cost. PRICES: Notwithstanding many important improvements — in the past two years, the various Jewett Pianos are sold at the same prices — from $375 up, and on the same easy terms if desired. Sold exclusively at our own Stores throughout New England . STEINERT & SONS CO 777 CHAPEL STREET, NEW HAVEN, 313 MAIN STREET, SPRINGFIELD, and other principal cities of New England . PARSONS THEATRE . HARTFORD Fortieth Concert in Hartford Thirty-second Season, 1912-1913 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor THIRD AND LAST CONCERT TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 4 AT 8.J5 PROGRAMME ^ Brahms .... Symphony No. 2, in D major, Op. 73 I. Allegro non troppo. II. Adagio non troppo. III. Alleg etto grazioso, quasi andantino. IV. Allegro con spirito. Richard Strauss . Tone-Poem, "Don Juan" (after N. Lenau), Op. 20 Schumann .... Concerto in A minor, for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 54 I. Allegro affettuoso. II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso. III. Allegro vivace. Berlioz Overture, "Le Carnaval Romain," Op. 9 SOLOIST Mr. NORMAN WILKS Mason & Hamlin Piano There will be an intermission of ten minutes after the symphony 3 — %la(&uim "After the Symphony Concert 99 a prolonging of musical pleasure by home-firelight awaits the owner of a "Baldwin." The strongest impressions of the concert season are linked with Baldwintone, exquisitely exploited by pianists eminent in their art. Schnitzer, Pugno, Scharwenka, Bachaus De Pachmann! More than chance attracts the finely-gifted amateur to this keyboard. Among people who love good music, who have a culti- vated knowledge of it, and who seek the best medium for producing it, the Baldwin is chief. In such an atmosphere " it is as happily at home " as are the Preludes of Chopin, the Liszt Rhapsodies upon a virtuoso's programme. THE BOOK OF THE BALDWIN free upon request. SfefAjfn inn No. 366 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK — Symphony No. 2, in D major, Op. 73 Johannes Brahms (Born at Hamburg, May 7, 1833; died at Vienna, April 3, 1897.) Chamber music, choral works, pianoforte pieces, and songs had made Brahms famous before he allowed his first symphony to be played. The symphony in C minor was performed for the first time at Carlsruhe on November 4, 1876, from manuscript and with Dessoff as conductor. Kirchner wrote in a letter to Marie Lipsius that he had talked about this symphony in 1863 or 1864 with Mme. Clara Schumann, who then showed him fragments of it. But no one knew, it is said, of the existence of a second symphony before it was completed. The second symphony, in D major, was composed probably at L,ich- tenthai in the summer of 1877, the year that saw the publication of the first. It was played by Brahms and Ignaz Briill as a pianoforte duet (arranged by the composer) to invited guests at the pianoforte house of his friend Ehrbar in Vienna a few days before the date of the first performance, the announced date December 11. Through force of circumstances the symphony was played for the first time in public at the succeeding Philharmonic concert of December 30, 1877.* Richter conducted it. The second performance, conducted by Brahms, was at the Gewandhaus, Leipsic, on January 10, 1878. The review written by Eduard Hanslick after the performance at Vienna may serve to-day those who are unwilling to trust their own judgment. "It is well known that Wagner and his followers go so far as not only to deny the possibility of anything new in the symphonic form, i.e., new after Beethoven,—but they reject the very right of absolute instrumental music to exist. The symphony, they say, is now super- • Reimann, in his Life of Brahms, gives January 10, 1878, as the date, and says Brahms conducted. The date given in Erb's "Brahms" is December 24, 1877. Deiters and Miss May give December 30, 1877, but contemporaneous music journals, as the Signale, say December 20, 1877. The MUSICAL CLUB of HARTFORD Present? the following Schedule for the Season of 1912-1913 MARGUERITE STARELL, Soprano ARTHUR PHILIPS, Baritone MARIE NICHOLS, Violinist Unity Hall, Tuesday Evening, January 7, at 8.15 CORINNE WELSH, Contralto FRANK ORMSBY, Tenor HANS KRONOLD, 'Cellist Unity Hall, Friday Evening, February 7, at 8.15 ifemt Im Boston 's Great Art "Product Q Everywhere recognized as musically the most beautiful piano the world has ever seen Represented by GALLUP & ALFRED 201 ASYLUM STREET fluous since Wagner has transplanted it into the opera: only Liszt's symphonic poems in one movement and with a determined poetical programme have, in the contemplation of the modern musical world, any vitality. Now if such absurd theories, which are framed solely for Wagner-Liszt household use, again need refutation, there can be no more complete and brilliant refutation than the long row of Brahms 's instrumental works, and especially this second symphony. "The character of this symphony may be described concisely as peace- ful, tender, but not effeminate serenity, which on the one side is quick- ened to joyous humor and on the other is deepened to meditative serious- ness. The first movement begins immediately with a mellow and dusky horn theme. It has something of the character of the serenade, and this impression is strengthened still further in the scherzo and the finale. The first movement, an Allegro moderato, in 3-4, immerses us in a clear wave of melody, upon which we rest, swayed, refreshed; undisturbed by two slight Mendelssohnian reminiscences which emerge before us. The last fifty measures of this movement expire in flashes of new melodic beauty. A broad singing Adagio in B major follows, which, as it appears to me, is more conspicuous for the skilful development of the themes than for the worth of the themes themselves. For this reason, undoubtedly, it makes a less profound impression upon the public than do the other movements. The scherzo is thoroughly delightful in its graceful movement in minuet tempo. It is twice interrupted by a Presto in 2-4, which flashes, spark-like, for a moment. The finale in D, 4-4, more vivacious, but always agreeable in its golden serenity, is widely removed from the stormy finales of the modern school. Mozartian blood flows in its veins. "This symphony is a contrast rather than a companion to the first symphony of Brahms, and thus it appears to the public. The hearer PARSON'S THEATRE, HARTFORD The Choral Club of Hartford 80 MALE VOICES RALPH L. BALDWIN, Conductor SECOND CONCERT Friday Evening, April 18, 1913 SOLOISTS TO BE ANNOUNCED Tickets and Particulars at GALLUP & ALFRED'S Music Store, 201 Asylum Street, after April 12. 7 is affected by the first as though he read a scientific treatise full of deep philosophical thought and mysterious perspectives. The inclination of Brahms to cover up or do away with whatever might look ' like an effect ' is carried to squeamishness in the symphony in C minor. The hearer cannot possibly grasp all the motives or the divisions of motives which, however, slumber there as flowers beneath the snow, or float as distant points of light beyond the clouds. It is true that the second symphony contains no movement of such noble pathos as the finale of the first. On the other hand, in its uniform coloring and its sunny clearness, it is an advance upon the first, and one that is not to be underestimated. "Brahms has this time fortunately repressed his noble but dangerous inclination to conceal his ideas under a web of polyphony or to cover them with lines of contrapuntal intersection; and if the thematic development in the second symphony appears less remarkable than that in the first, the themes themselves seem more flowing, more sponta- neous, and their development seems more natural, more pellucid, and therefore more effective. We cannot, therefore, proclaim too loudly our joy that Brahms, after he had given intense expression in his first symphony to Faust-like conflicts of the soul, has now in his second returned to the earth,—the earth that laughs and blossoms in the vernal months." M EH LIN PIANOS always respond to the most exacting demands made upon them. For this reason they are preferred by musicians, in fact Mehlin Pianos are often called "The Musicians' Ideal" The Mehlin " Inverted Grand" is the only " Upright" built on the prin- ciple of the Grand. It has the Grand Scale, Sounding Board and Tone. For Art Catalog and full particulars apply to WM. WANDER & SONS 239 Asylum Street, Hartford, Conn. — — Yet some may prefer this short sketch by Hugues Imbert, one of the first in France to admire Brahms: "The second symphony, which was played at a Popular Concert in Paris, November 21, 1880, and at the Paris Conservatory Concert of December 19 of the same year, does not in any way deserve the reproach made against it by Victorin Joncieres,—that it is full of brushwood. Nor should it incur the reproach made by Arthur Pougin,—that it is childish ! It is true that the first movement contains some dissonances which, after a first hearing, are piquant and not at all disagreeable.

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