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s L BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FOUNDED IN I88I BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON
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1955 1956 SEASON Sanders Theatre, Cambridge \3Tarvard University^ Boston Symphony Orchestra
(Seventy-fifth Season, 1955-1956) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins Violas Bassoons Richard Burgin Joseph de Pasquale Sherman Walt Concert-master Jean Cauhape Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Eugen Lehner Theodore Brewster George Zazofsky Albert Bernard Contra-Bassoon Roll and Tapley George Humphrey Richard Plaster Norbert Lauga Jerome Lipson Robert Karol Vladimir Resnikoff Horns Harry Dickson Reuben Green James Stagliano Gottfried Wilfinger Bernard Kadinoff Charles Yancich Einar Hansen Vincent Mauricci Harry Shapiro Joseph Leibovici John Fiasca Harold Meek Emil Kornsand Violoncellos Paul Keaney Roger Shermont Osbourne McConathy Samuel Mayes Minot Beale Alfred Zighera Herman Silberman Trumpets Jacobus Langendocn Roger Voisin Stanley Benson Mischa Nieland Leo Panasevich Marcel Lafosse Karl Zeise Armando Ghitalla Sheldon Rotenberg Josef Zimbler Gerard Goguen Fredy Ostrovsky Bernard Parronchi Clarence Knudson Leon Marjollet Trombones Pierre Mayer Martin Hoherman William Gibson Manuel Zung Louis Berger William Moyer Samuel Diamond Richard Kapuscinski Kauko Kabila Josef Orosz Victor Manusevitch Robert Ripley James Nagy Flutes Tuba Melvin Bryant Doriot Anthony Dwyer K. Vinal Smith Lloyd Stonestreet James Pappoutsakis Saverio Messina Phillip Kaplan Harps William Waterhouse Bernard Zighera Piccolo William Marshall Olivia Luetcke Leonard Moss George Madsen Jesse Ceci Oboes Timpani Noah Bielski Ralph Gomberg Roman Szulc Alfred Schneider Jean Devergie Everett Firth Joseph Silverstein John Holmes Percussion Basses English Horn Charles Smith Georges Moleux Louis Speyer Harold Farberman Gaston Dufresne Clarinets Harold Thompson Ludwig Juht Gino Cioffi Piano Irving Frankel Manuel Valerio Henry Freeman Pasquale Cardillo Bernard Zighera Henry Portnoi E\) Clarinet Librarians Henri Girard Bass Clarinet Leslie Rogers John Barwicki Rosario Mazzeo Victor Alpert, Ass't Sanders Theatre, Cambridge ^Harvard University^
SEVENTY-FIFTH SEASON, 1955-1956 Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor
Concert Bulletin of the
Fifth Concert
TUESDAY EVENING, March 6
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. C. D. 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. Rector Assistant W. ( J. J. Brosnahan, Assistant Treasurer N. S. Shirk \ Managers Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager
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" InInhishookhis book I Am a Conductor *.W<;~ ^"'V'"°-ffl HBEBHBC^^i^S Other recordings by Munch: Charles Munch wrote, "Let no one be **The Damnation of Faust astonished then that I consider my (Berlioz) (Complete). Three Loog work a priesthood, not a profession. It Play records (LM-6114) $11.98. is not too strong a word. And like all **Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz) sacred callings, that of the conductor (Complete). Two Long Play records supposes a total self-renunciation (LM-6011) $7.98 and a profound humility." fT [8J SEVENTY-FIFTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE AND FIFTY-SIX Fifth Concert TUESDAY EVENING, March 6 Program Mozart Adagio and Fugue for String Orchestra, K. 546 Mozart Serenade in B-flat major for 13 Wind Instruments, K. 361 Largo; Molto allegro Adagio Menuetto Rondo; Allegro molto Beethoven Overture, Leonore No. 2 INTERMISSION Debussy "Prelude a I'Apres-midi d'un Faune" (Eclogue by Stephane Mallarme) Tchaikovsky "Romeo and Juliet," Overture-Fantasia Performances by the orchestra are broadcast each week on Monday evenings from 8:15 to 9:00 P.M. on the NBC Network. The Friday afternoon concerts at 2:15 and Saturday evening con- certs at 8:30 are broadcast direct by Station WGBH-FM. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [»] ADAGIO AND FUGUE IN C MINOR FOR STRINGS, K. 546 By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born in Salzburg, January 27, 1756; died in Vienna, December 5, 1791 Mozart wrote the Fugue at first for two pianofortes, December 29, 1783 (K. 426). In June, 1788, in Vienna, he arranged the piece for strings, adding an intro- duction. It was performed at the concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra November 25-26, 1910, Max Fiedler conducting it (according to the program) for the first time in Boston. MOZART, living in a musical age which was harmonically and melodically inclined, was seldom required to compose strict fugues. Masses for the Church called for fugal choral writing, and a great quantity of church music by Mozart, of which his C minor Mass is an outstanding example, is proof in itself of his contrapuntal abili- ties (and yet a traditional master like Padre Martini found Mozart's church music a compromise with the severities of the past) . Mozart brought the fugue up to date for eighteenth century uses by giving it the fluent play found in his Overture to The Magic Flute, or in the finale of his ''Jupiter" Symphony where all the customary fugal manipulations, cleverly concealed, can be detected by the ex- pert.* The Fugue in C minor, like others which he wrote in his Vienna years, is evidence enough that Mozart could assume with ease the robe of the fugal logician, and acquit himself handsomely within archaic and prescribed bounds. "The effect of the C minor Fugue," so Otto Jahn has written, "rests neither on the sound effects of the pianoforte nor on those of the stringed instruments. It is so broadly conceived, so earnestly and with such ruthless severity carried out, that the external means of expres- sion fall into the background before the energetic enunciation of the laws of form, obeyed consciously, but without servility. Quite other- wise is the case with the introduction, which, written originally for strings, is expressly adapted to their peculiarities of sound effect. The harmonic treatment, and more especially the enharmonic changes, are of extraordinary beauty and depth, and occasion remarkable effects of suspense and climax. Most admirable is the art with which the character of the movement as an introduction is maintained, and the defiant style of the following fugue clearly indicated, at the same time that the mind is tuned to a pitch of longing and melancholy which makes the entry of the categorical fugue a positive relief and stimu- lant." • • Gottfried, Baron van Swieten, whom Mozart met in Vienna, was a devoted, even an obstinate admirer of the music of Handel and Sebas- tian Bach, composers who in Vienna in his day were little known and seldom performed. The Baron's insistence that musicians should play this music and all of his friends listen to it had the fortunate result of * Mozart, like Beethoven, turned out "canons" for diversion. Sometimes he lifted them to higher purposes, as in his wind octet in C minor. [4l leading Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven after them into a wider ac- quaintance and a deepened interest in the music of Bach and Handel. This wealthy musical amateur held private musical sessions (borrow- ing the French title ''Concert Spirituel") each Sunday in Vienna from noon until two, and at these Mozart and Haydn each provided their talents as performers. For the trio or quartet groups of van Swieten's Sunday sessions, Mozart arranged eight fugues from Bach's "Well Tem- pered Clavichord," one from "The Art of Fugue" and one from an organ sonata, writing his own introductions or adapting movements from Bach. Jahn is of the opinion that the string arrangement of the Fugue in C minor and its introduction were made expressly for a quartet at the Baron's.* So insatiable was this enthusiast that Mozart * And yet John BarbiroUi, who studied the manuscript of the fugue, believes that it was undoubtedly intended for a larger string group : "The whereabouts of the manuscript of the Adagio is at present unknown, but it is obvious from the manuscript of the Fugue (now in the possession of the British Museum), that Mozart intended it for string orchestra, and not for string quartet ; for at Bar 110 I found, on examining the manuscript, that he writes separate lines for the 'cellos and basses (with of course different parts), his two staves being clearly marked, 'violoncelli' and 'contrabassi'. Apart from this incontrovertible evidence, another interesting and vitally important point which Mozart — with his amazing instinct for orchestration — must have realized at the time, is that the whole piece sounds as unsatisfactory for string quartet as it is magnificent for orchestra. The Adagio is of a wondrous beauty and depth of feeling, and the Fugue a marvel of contrapuntal felicity." PEOPLE AHEAD OF THE TIMES FLY AIR FRANCE CHARLES MUNCH. Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra ONLY 11 HOURS 5 MINUTES NON-STOP TO SUPER "C CONSTELLATIONS Tourist and First Class Flights every Saturday from Boston. Daily from New York SAVE ON FAMILY TRAVEL -Write for Free Folder AIRTHE WORLD'SFRANCELARGEST AIRLINE SEE YOUR TRAVEL AGENT. AIR FRANCE. OR 493 BoyUton St , Boston, (Opiey 7 S350 [5] wrote his father in Salzburg to yansack the house for fugues or even some of the church music which Leopold (himself something of an old- schooler) had once written and decently laid away in his attic. Mozart also revised several oratorios of Handel for performances which the Baron organized. It was thus an accidental circumstance which deflected the creative thoughts of Mozart, and perhaps in some degree Haydn, into the old fugal channels. Beethoven later encountered van Swieten in Vienna in the same way, and this master's love for both Bach and Handel was no doubt greatly deepened, just as his acquaintance with their music, then difficult of access, was much extended. Beethoven copied out Mozart's fugue in C minor for his own study, an incident which confirms the importance of Mozart as in the line of great contrapuntal masters, like Beethoven after him. The appearance of the Baron van Swieten on the musical scene in Vienna was thus as significant as the Baron himself, musically con- sidered, was unimportant. He composed a series of symphonies which, Haydn once remarked, were "as stiff as himself." It was in Berlin that van Swieten had acquired his love for music in the strict style. Born in 1734, the son of the physician to the Empress Maria Theresa, Gottfried was trained for a diplomatic career and in 1771 was ap- pointed by Josef II as Austrian Ambassador at the Court of Prussia. In Berlin there had grown up a deliberate cultivation of the music of Bach and Handel. Frederick the Great had been severe and un- compromising in his musical tastes. Friedemann Bach, living there, was an advocate of his father's style. Emmanuel Bach, chafing at these rigidities, left for Hamburg. F. W. Marpurg, with his famous handbook on general bass, was a force in Berlin, and so was J. P. Kirnberger. Kirnberger, who had been a pupil of Sebastian Bach, was chamber musician to the Princess Amalie of Prussia, a sister of the reigning king. The Princess pointedly frowned on Gluck, and favored performances of Bach. The cult which grew up in Berlin was ao conservative that when the music by the "modernist" Haydn was performed, individuals were seen to leave the auditorium in pro- [Jlie 0dpes yiuie B&a^r'a SOLID SILVER FLUTES — PICCOLOS in-14 Pti'iJmnut i'trrrt. Instnn Ifi. iltaHiV lest. The Baron van Swieten did not carry his love of Bach and Handel so far as this. He was ready to admit the importance of Mozart and Haydn, especially insofar as they profited by the earlier masters. "As far as music is concerned," he wrote, "I have gone back to the times when it was thought necessary before practising an art to study it thoroughly and systematically. In such study I find nourish- ment for my mind and heart, and support when I am discouraged by any fresh proof of the degeneracy of the art." When fortune took the Baron van Swieten from Berlin to Vienna, he carried with him a quantity of scores by Handel and Bach, together with such other fugues as he had been able to lay his hands on. Establishing himself in Vienna about 1778, he succeeded his father as Prefect of the Imperial Library. He took advantage of his position, rank and wealth to organize invitation concerts where fugues, then anything but popular in Vienna, were the principal fare. The Baron never permitted anything less than complete attention from his audi- ence. "Whenever a whispered conversation arose," so Jahn tells us, "His Excellency would rise from the seat in the first row, draw himself up to his full majestic height, measure the offenders with a long, serious look, and then very slowly resume his seat. The proceeding never failed of its effect. ... In his intercourse with artists, however highly he might estimate them and their works, his demeanor was always that of a grand seigneur, and he enforced his own views with an air of somewhat overbearing superiority. This was Haydn's ex- perience, and Mozart can scarcely have escaped some measure of annoyance from the same source." [copyrighted] iSa CAMBRIDGE TRUST COMPANY Harvard Square Our Trust Department would welcome your inquiry. Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 17J . SERENADE FOR THIRTEEN WIND INSTRUMENTS (K. 361) By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born in Salzburg, January 27, 1756; died in Vienna, December 5, 1791 Mozart composed this Serenade at the end of 1780 or early in 1781 and it may have been performed that season by the Hofkapelle at Munich. The instruments called for are 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset-horns, 4 French horns, 2 bassoons and contra-bassoon (or double bass) COMPOSING this Serenade while he was at work on his Idomeneo in Munich, Mozart had plainly learned a thing or two in Paris and Mannheim about wind players and was probably taking advantage of the excellent clarinets in the Munich Opera Orchestra (clarinets were still rarely encountered at that time — Mozart was to avail him- self of the instrument later in Vienna) . The Serenade has seven move- ments of which a first minuet, a second adagio and theme with variations are omitted in this performance. Jean Frederic Schinck describing a Stadler Concert in Vienna in 1784 wrote: "I have heard a piece for wind instruments in four movements by Herr Mozart today. Ma^ificent! It consisted of thir- teen instruments, including two clarinets, two basset-horns, a bass, and at each desk sat a master. What powerl What grandeur, nobility, magnificence!" This writer describing a revised version made in Vienna was quicker than most of his contemporaries to single out the dominance of clarinet color in the four instruments which included two basset-horns. Mozart provides a reedy foil with the two oboes, for the dulcet clarinet tone is undisputed by the limpid clarity of flutes, which, if used, would result in a "mixture" in the high register unsuited to the master's immediate purposes. The addition of four horns, two bassoons and a contra-bassoon (the original score indicated a double bass, perhaps because of the unavailability of the other instrument at the time) made what was then called a "Harmoniemusik," useful at parties and in vogue for out-door purposes. The incomplete description by Schinck fails to clarify a problem of early versions of this work. Otto Jahn describes a string quintet (which came into the possession of the Ge- sellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna) for two violins, two violas and cello which contains four of the seven movements (the ones played at the present performance) the manuscript evidently written in a child- ish hand and inscribed in a still different hand as of January 25, 1768. Otto Jahn has assumed that this string version was therefore an early study for the wind piece by the composer at the age of twelve. Alfred Einstein in his edition of the Koechel Catalogue was certain that the [81 boyish handwriting "had nothing to do with Mozart," but he did admit this to be "one of the great mysteries of Mozart investigation." Georges de Saint-Foix, a close scholar of Mozartean authenticity, goes further and indignantly refutes Jahn's theory: "Mozart in 1768 would have been absolutely incapable of composing or even of con- ceiving at that time any one of the movements of this Serenade, which is one of the most splendid which he has written, but it is quite probable that he would have wished to make known to the Viennese under more accessible form the outstanding masterpiece which we believe he had composed in Munich during or just after Idomeneo. . . . it was much later, perhaps about 1787-88 that he enlarged the work adding a Romanze followed by one of the most beautiful of his varia- tions as well as a minuet. It is then quite believable that he was limited in Vienna to a transcription of the Serenade to a version for string quintet as he had been in exactly the same way on another occasion with the Serenade for Winds in C minor [K. 388] in the summer of 1782." Saint-Foix is second to none in his admiration for the Serenade in B-flat: "This work, as surprising in ensemble as in detail, is the certain result of conquests realized by Mozart in Idomeneo, notably in the dominance of wind instruments. It shows a grandeur and power comparable to the inspiration of the Kyrie in D minor" [K. 341]. LgopyrightcdJ Hear these performances ^^ALIVE" with new RCA Victor high fidelity CHARLES MUNCH . . . Among the exciting performances conducted by Charles Munch which are yours on RCA Victor "New Orthophonic" High Fidelity Records: Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (Complete) Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust (com- plete) Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet (complete) Brahms: Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat. Artur Rubinstein, pianist Honegger: Symphony No. 5 Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess RCA Victor FIRST IN RECORDED MUSIC '** ^/ew Orthophonic" High Fidelity Recording -us lusiu ( no- [9] OVERTURE, LEONORE NO. 2 By LuDwiG VAN Beethoven Born at Bonn, December 16 (?) , 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827 The orchestra for this (and the Overture No. 3 as well) consists of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, horns, 2 trumpets (and trumpet off-stage) 4 , 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. THE Overture Leonore No. 5 retains all of the essentials of its predecessor, Leonore No. 2.* There is in both the introduction, grave and songful, based upon the air of Florestan: '7n des Lebens Fruhlingstagen/' in which the prisoner sings sorrowfully of the darkness to which he is condemned, and dreams hopefully of the fair world out- side. The main body of the Overture, which begins with the same theme (allegro) in both cases, rises from a whispering pianissimo to a full proclamation. This section of working out, or dramatic struggle, attains its climax with the trumpet call (taken directly from the opera, where the signal heard off stage, and repeated, as if closer, makes known the approach of the governor, whereby the unjustly imprisoned Florestan will be saved from death). In the "No. 2," the coda of jubi- lation, introduced by the famous string scales of gathering tension for the outburst, follows almost immediately the trumpet calls of de- liverance — surely the inevitable dramatic logic, even though it went directly against the formal convention which required a reprise at this point. Beethoven, more closely occupied in the "No. 2" with the events of the opera itself, omitted the reprise, following the trumpet fanfare with a soft intonation of Florestan's air, a sort of hymn of thanksgiving, as if the joy of the freed prisoner must be hushed and holy in its first moments. The melody is suspended on its final cadence, and the last three unresolved notes, hovering mysteriously, become the motto of the famous string passage in which the emotion is released. Beethoven sacrificed this direct transition in the "No. 3" Overture. He evidently felt the need of a symphonic rounding out, and ac- cordingly inserted a full reprise,f delaying the entrance of the coda of jubilation which dramatic sequence would demand closely to fol- low the trumpet fanfare. But the subject had developed in Bee- thoven's imagination to a new and electrifying potency. The "third Leonore Overture" shows in general a symphonic "tightening" and • A variant upon the "No. 2" Overture, with alterations apparently in Beethove^^'s own hand, was discovered in 1926, in the files of Breitkopf and Hartel at Leipzig. t Wagner reproached Beethoven for not omitting the conventional but undramatic reprise in his Overture Leonore No. 8 ("Ueher Franz Liszts symphoniaehe Dichtungen," 1867). lo [ I an added forcefulness. The introduction eliminates a few measures, the development many measures, in which music of the greatest beauty is discarded. Beethoven, having thus shortened his development, evens the total length by adding the reprise and enlarging the coda. Romain Rolland (in his invaluable study of "Leonora" in Bee- thoven the Creator) weighs the points of the two overtures, and, seeking a preference, decides: "Let us prefer them bothl" He considers the possibility of finding a place for the "third" overture in per- formances of the opera, and admits his conversion to the practice ot playing it between the prison scene and the finale of the opera. He had inclined to the opinion of many that it would overshadow its surroundings and "sate the ear with a banquet of C major before the C major orgy of the finale." Having heard it thus played, however, at the centennial performances in Vienna, he "realized the tremen- dous effect of the symphonic No. 3 spreading itself out like a triumphal arch between the love-duet in the prison and the final choral and popular apotheosis in the broad daylight. . . . Placed there, the over- ture reveals the veritable drama that Beethoven wished to write, and in spite of his epoch, has written." "Neither the first nor the second," he finds, "is suitable as an in- troduction to the opera. They are both too gigantic: they crush the earlier scenes; how can we descend from these epics to the babblings of the gaoler's family? The No. 4, in E major, is more complaisant; it introduces us into Florestan's prison by the service stairs. It is in- tended for the bourgeois first act, but without contradicting the gen- eral sense of the opera; Beethoven the lion has donned the skin of the Singspiel. As regards the No. 2, I fear we must resign our- selves to this; it is too complete a drama in itself; it would only be a duplication of the other drama; it suffices by and for itself. "But the No. 3 is another matter. This is not, like the No. 2, a summary of the action: it is its lyrical efflorescence, its transposition to an inward stage; or, to employ a metaphor that is the antithesis of this and is perhaps more exact, it is the roots of the drama in the universal soul. To fill this role the ancients had the tragic Chorus; but they lacked the superhuman means of the modern symphony — those Choruses without words, those Oceanides of the orchestra that send their waves beating upon Prometheus' rock." (copyrightedI -Q^ [11] 'PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAUN" (After the Eclogue of Stephane Mallarme) By Claude Debussy Born in St. Germain (Seine and Oise) , August 22, 1862; died in Paris, March 26, 1918 Debussy completed his Prelude a I'Apres-midi d'un Faune in the summer of 1894. The Prelude was performed at the concerts of the Societe Nationale, December 22, 1894, Gustave Doret conducting. It was published in 1895. The orchestration is as follows: 3 flutes, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 harps, antique cymbals, and strings. The first performance in the United States was by the Boston Orchestral Club, Georges Longy, conductor, April 1, 1902. The first performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra was December 30, 1904. The Prelude did not find its way into the concerts of the Paris Conservatoire until the end of 1913. IT would require a poet of great skill and still greater assurance to at- tempt a translation of Mallarme's rhymed couplets, his complex of suggestions, his "labyrinth," as he himself called it, "ornamented by flowers." The poem opens: Ces nymphes, je les veux perpetuer. Si clair, Leur incarnat leger, qu'il voltige dans I'air Assoupi de sommeils touffus. Aimai-je un reve? Arthur Symons (in his The Symbolist Movement in Modern Litera- ture) writes: "The verse could not, I think, be translated," and this plain dictum may be considered to stand. We shall therefore refrain, and quote the faithful synopsis (quite unsuperseded) which Edmund Gosse made in his Questions at Issue: "It appears in the florilege which he has just published, and I have now read it again, as I have often read it before. To say that I understand it bit by bit, phrase by phrase, would be excessive. But, if I am asked whether this famous miracle of unintelligibility gives me pleasure, I answer, cordially. Yes. I even fancy that I ob- tain from it as definite and as solid an impression as M. Mallarm^ desires to produce. This is what I read in it. A faun — a simple, sensuous, passionate being — wakens in the forest at daybreak and tries to recall his experience of the previous afternoon. Was he the fortunate recipient of an actual visit from nymphs, white and golden goddesses, divinely tender and indulgent? Or is the memory he seems to retain nothing but the shadow of a vision, no more sub- stantial than the 'arid rain' of notes from his own flute? He cannot tell. Yet surely there was, surely there is, an animal whiteness among the brown reeds of the lake that shines out yonder. Were they, are they, swans? No! But Naiads plunging? Perhapsl Vaguer and vaguer grows that impression of this delicious experience. He would resign his woodland godship to retain it. A garden of lilies, [1*1 ARE YOU A FRIEIVD OF THE ORCHESTRA? Every subscriber should be. Won't you sign the attached blank and become a Friend? The Orchestra needs your help. To the Trustees of Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Symphony Hall, Boston I ASK to be enrolled as a member of the Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the year 1955-1956 and I pledge the sum of $ for the current support of the Orchestra, covered by check herewith or payable on Name Address Checks are payable to Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Gifts to the Orchestra are deductible under the Federal Income Tax laws. [13) golden-headed, white-stalked, behind the trellis of red roses? Ah I the effort is too great for his poor brain. Perhaps if he selects one lily from the garth of lilies, one benign and beneficent yielder of her cup to thirsty lips, the memory, the ever-receding memory may be forced back. So when he has glutted upon a bunch of grapes, he is wont to toss the empty skins in the air and blow them out in a visionary greediness. But no, the delicious hour grows vaguer; ex- perience or dream, he will never know which it was. The sun is warm, the grasses yielding; and he curls himself up again, after worshipping the efficacious star of wine, that he may pursue the dubious ecstasy into the more hopeful boskages of sleep. "This, then, is what I read in the so excessively obscure and un- intelligible UApres-Midi d'un Faune; and, accompanied as it is with a perfect suavity of language and melody of rhythm, 1 know not what more a poem of eight pages could be expected to give. It supplies a simple and direct impression of physical beauty, of har- mony, of color; it is exceedingly mellifluous, when once the ear un- derstands that the poet, instead of being the slave of the Alexandrine, weaves his variations round it, like a musical composer." The poem ends in a nostalgic haze: Non, mats I'dme De paroles vacante et ce corps alourdi Tard succombent au fier silence de midi: Sans plus il faut dormir en I'oubli du blaspheme, Sur le sable altere gisant et comme j'aime Ouvrir ma bouche a I'astre efficace des vins! Couple, adieu; je vais voir I'ombre que tu devins. According to a line attributed to Debussy, the Prelude evokes "the successive scenes of the Faun's desires and dreams on that hot afternoon." [copyrighted] KXEISEL HALL, BLUE HILL, MAIXE Summer School July 2nd to August 25th, 1956 INTENSIVE ENSEMBLE and INDIVIDUAL TRAINING Distinguished Faculty includes: JOSEPH FUCHS - LOUIS PERSINGER EDOUARD DETHIER - FRANK KNEISEL ARTUR BALSAM - MARIE ROEMAET - LIEFF ROSANOFF MARIANNE KNEISEL, Director 190 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK 24, N. Y. [14I 'ROMEO AND JULIET," Overture-Fantasia (after Shakespeare) By Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky Born at Votkinsk in the government of Viatka, Russia, May 7, 1840: died at St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893 Tchaikovsky completed his Overture-Fantasia in the year 1869. The piece was first performed. on March 16, 1870, at a concert of the Musical Society in Moscow. It was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, February 7, 1890. It is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bas- soons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, harp and strings. WHEN Tchaikovsky attempted to portray the romance of Romeo and Juliet in tones, he reached what might be called his first full musical realization. It was the first ambitious work which in his maturer years he remained willing to acknowledge without reserva- tions (the First Symphony he composed in 1866, the Opera Voye- vode in 1867, the Symphonic Poem Fatum in 1868, the Opera Undine early in 1869; the last three works he sought, with partial success, to obliterate by destroying the scores) . As was the case with Fatum, Tchaikovsky dedicated Romeo and Juliet to Mily Alexei- vitch Balakirev, the opinionated and dogmatic mentor of the youthful St. Petersburg group. Who at this time took under his wing the Sanders Theatre . Cambridge Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director SIXTH CONCERT T^uesday Evenings March -?/, ^95^ at 8.30 o^clock ['5l promising professor from Moscow with all of the close possessiveness he was accustomed to practice upon his own neo-Russian brood. Balakirev gave Tchaikovsky the idea for Romeo and Juliet, advised him what episodes to treat, just what kind of themes to use, and just how to build with them. The younger man took this advice — or, where he saw fit, left it — with all possible docility.* Balakirev advised his new protege to follow the sonata form, open- ing with an introduction of religious suggestion depicting Friar Lau- rence. For the main body of the Overture, the first theme was to depict the street brawls between the Montagues and Capulets, a raging "allegro with sword cuts," and for a contrasting second theme, melo- dious music of the two lovers. To this extent of his advice, Tchai- kovsky seems to have followed Balakirev's scheme. The introductory andante of Friar Laurence is in the Overture first intoned by the wood winds. In the allegro giusto the atmosphere of tension and hostility between the two houses is plainly discerned, and no less so the love theme suggestive of the balcony and chamber scenes. This melody, which is first played by the English horn and viola, is developed into a glamorous succession of chords in gentle pulsation (it has been compared with the composer's well-known song, his setting of Goethe's "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" which was composed at the same time) . A setting of this theme with words from the play, *'Oh, tarry, night of ecstasy I'* was found by his friend Sergei Taneiev among his posthumous papers. It was in the form of a "Duo from Romeo and Juliet," and was set for orchestra by Taneiev. The stormy theme and the love theme are developed, the Friar Laurence motive recurring toward the close, although there is no formal restatement. The Over- ture, ending in suitable tragic vein, subsides to a pianissimo, the song of Romeo at last heard in accents of grief, and rises at last to a suc- cession of great, shattering chords. Tchaikovsky rewrote his Overture in the summer following its completion, changing the introduction and omitting a dead march which had been included toward the end of the first manuscript. The Overture, to Tchaikovsky's discomfiture, was scarcely noticed when it was first performed at Moscow. The reason had nothing to do with its merits: Nicholas Rubinstein, who conducted, had been the subject of a violent controversy within the school, and the concert became the scene of a demonstration in his favor. Tchaikovsky, in later years, contemplated an opera on Romeo and Juliet. * When, in 1873, Tchaikovsky composed a symphonic fantasia on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Vladimir Stassov, who advised him about this piece quite in the Petersburg tradition, re- proached him with having neglected to include the nurse in his Romeo and Juliet. r COPYRIGHTED 1 [i61 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director OPEN REHEARSAL on THURSDAY EVENING MARCH 8 In SYMPHONY HALL af 7:30 P.M. 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