Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 53,1933-1934, Trip
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LYRIC THEATRE . BALTIMORE Tuesday Evening, April 3, 1934, at 8.30 " '"*« ^V^; ^\":^*^^^KH Sfflnffln hP ,r *ep ' : : - ; -V .,: . ; :-'-: h '*^f?f9t$l r < -...: - J.^ HP"'4 I"" 1 1 r S^rK^ssSots | "^ O^v? 'i^L. : : ' ^ - ^ ' . ; '•' II '' '. -- .. , i . g §1 ] •'•'1 i * B jHf fts H .7 miiJ». Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY LYRIC THEATRE BALTIMORE FIFTY-THIRD SEASON, 1933-1934 CONCERT BULLETIN OF THE INC. Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE AND IOHN N. BURK COPYRIGHT, 1934, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, INC THE OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. BENTLEY W. WARREN President HENRY B. SAWYER Vice-President ERNEST B. DANE Treasurer ALLSTON BURR ROGER I. LEE HENRY B. CABOT WILLIAM PHILLIPS ERNEST B. DANE EDWARD M. PICKMAN N. PENROSE HALLOWELL HENRY B. SAWYER M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE EDWARD A. TAFT BENTLEY W. WARREN W. H. BRENNAN, Manager G. E. JUDD, Assistant Manager 1 The Trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra wish to express their great satisfaction with the immediate and enthu- siastic response to the Orchestra's proposal to renew its series of concerts in Baltimore, and take pleasure in announcing the continuance of the series for the coming season at the • LYRIC THEATRE • ON THE TUESDAY EVENINGS OF November 13 - January 29 - April 2 Season 1934-1935 Three Concerts by the Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Season Prices will remain the same: $3., $4., $5., $7., $9. Boxes $90. NO TAX Boxholders will please renew their subscriptions direct to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Starr, 4512 Woodlawn Road, Roland Park, Telephone: University 8729. All other renewals and applications should be made to T. Arthur Smith Concert Bureau, 327 North Charles Street An early renewal of your subscription will greatly facilitate the allotment of seats to new applicants. LYRIC THEATRE BALTIMORE Fifty-third Season, 1933-1934 Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor LAST CONCERT THIS SEASON TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 3 AT 8.30 PROGRAMME Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, for String Orchestra I. Allegro moderato. II. Allegro. Sibelius . Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47 I. Allegro moderato. II. Adagio di molto. III. Allegro ma non tanto. Brahms .... Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 I. Un poco sostenuto; allegro. II. Andante sostenuto. III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso. IV. Adagio; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio. SOLOIST RICHARD BURGIN There will be an intermission of ten minutes before the symphony 3 : —; Concerto, G major, No. 3 (of the Brandenburg Set) for three Violins, three Violas, three Violoncellos, with Bass by the Cembalo John Sebastian Bach (Born at Eisenach on March 21, 1685; died at Leipsic on July 28, 1750) This composition is the third of the six Brandenburg Concertos. Completed on March 24, 1721, they were written in answer to the wish of a Prussian prince, Christian Ludwig, Margraf of Branden- burg, the youngest son of the Great Elector by a second wife. This prince was provost of the Cathedral at Halberstadt. He was a bach- elor, living now at Berlin and now on his estate at Malchow. Fond of music, and not in an idle way, he was extravagant in his tastes and mode of life, and often went beyond his income of nearly fifty thousand thalers. In May, 1718, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, at whose court Bach was Capellmeister, journeyed to Carlsbad to drink the waters. He took with him Bach and a quintet from his orchestra ; also his clavicembalo with three "servants to care for it" he was also thus attended when he visited Carlsbad in 1720. The Margraf may have been at Carlsbad, and as he was very fond of music and had his own orchestra, he undoubtedly attended Leopold's musical parties. At any rate, he gave Bach a commission. It was on March 24, 1721, that Bach—possibly some one at the Court—wrote a dedication in French "A son altesse royale, Monseigneur Cretien Louis, Margraf de Brand- eribourg, etc., etc., etc. Monseigneur, Two years ago, when I had the honor of playing before your Royal Highness, I experienced your condescending interest in the insignifi- cant musical talents with which heaven has gifted me, and under- stood your Royal Highness's gracious willingness to accept some pieces of my composition. In accordance with that condescending command, I take the liberty to present my most humble duty to your Royal Highness in these Concerti for various instruments, begging your Highness not to judge them by the standards of your own re- fined and delicate taste, but to seek in them rather the expression of my profound respect and obedience. In conclusion, Monseigneur, I most respectfully beg your Royal Highness to continue your gracious favor toward me, and to be assured that there is nothing I so much desire as to employ myself more worthily in your service. With the utmost fervor, Monseigneur, I subscribe myself, Your Royal Highness's most humble and most obedient servant, Jean Sebastien Bach. Coethen, 24 March, 1721."* Translation into English by Charles Sanford Terry ("Bach: A Biography" London, 1928). These concertos—"Concerts avec Plusieurs Instruments"—were intended as a gift for the Margraf's birthday in March. Nothing is known about the reception in Berlin, nor is it positively known whether they were ever played at the palace of the Margraf. "The condition of the autograph suggests that, like the parts of the Kyrie and Gloria of the B minor Mass at Dresden, it was never performed by the recipient." It was the Margraf's habit to catalogue his li- brary. The name of Bach was not found in the list, although the names of Vivaldi, Venturing Valentiri, Brescianello, and other writers of concertos were recorded. After the death of the Margraf in 1734, Bach's score was put for sale with other manuscripts in a "job lot." Spitta thinks that Bach's concertos were probably among "77 concertos by different masters and for various instruments at 4 ggr (altogether 12 thlr, 20 ggr)" or "100 concertos by different masters for various instruments—No. 3, 3 16th." The Brandenburg concertos came into the possession of J. F. Kirnberger. They were later owned by the Princess Amalie, sister of Frederick the Great and a pupil of Kirnberger. Their next and final home was the Royal Library, Berlin, No. 78 in the Amalienbibliothek. They were edited by S. W. Dehn, and published by Peters, Leipsic, in 1850. Bach retained a copy of the score and performed the music at Cothen, by Prince Leopold's orchestra, reinforced by visiting players, THE ANALYTIC SYMPHONY SERIES Edited and annotated by PERCY GOETSCHIUS, Mus. Doc. Published by Oliver Ditson Company, Inc. The Analytic Symphony Series comprises thirty-four volumes covering the most important symphonies of the world's greatest masters. Each volume is presented in playable two-hand piano score, and contains complete analytical notes on the structure and orchestration in addition to critical notes appraising the significance of the composition and its salient points. Copies may be had from your Music Dealer or the Publishers OLIVER DITSON COMPANY, Inc. 359 Boylston Street Boston, Mass. ; before the concertos were offered' elsewhere. "The first concerto is scored for two horns, an instrument just coming into vogue, of which Bach made no other use at Cothen. His Capelle contained no horn player, and an entry in the accounts, under the date, 6 June, 1722, 'An die beyden Waldhornisten, so sich alhier horen lassen, 15 Thaler,' indicates with considerable certainty a performance of the Concerto and not improbably the first one" (C. S. Terry). The first movement, in a somewhat different form, was used by Bach for the opening section—entitled a Sinfonia or Concerto—of his Whitsuntide cantata: "Ich liebe den Hochsten von ganzem Gemtithe," scored for two oboes, two horns, taille (oboe da caccia), three violins, three violas, three violoncellos, and continuo.* I. G major, 2-2. The strings, divided into three groups, begin with a lively theme. The movement consists of developments in many forms of portions of this theme ; for example, the motive of the first measure is used with a new figure in opposition; measures 4, 5, 6 are contrapuntally treated. A half-cadence on D introduces the work- ing-out of motives from the third measure of the theme, while the initial motive of the first measure appears in violoncellos (and double basses), until the chief theme leads to a cadence, G major. A new episode is based on the second part of the second measure. When G major again comes, a new theme is opposed to the chief theme. The voices alternate in double counterpoint. At last the movement ends with the chief theme. "One passage," says Spitta, "is as fine as anything in the whole realm of German instrumental music. The chief subject is given out in the second violin part; the first violin then starts an entirely new subject, which next appears in the second violin, drawing in more and more instruments, and is at last taken up by the third violin and third viola and given out weightily on their G strings; this is the signal for a flood of sound to be set free from all sides, in the swirl of which all polyphony is drowned for several measures." Spitta refers here to a place near the middle of the movement. In the original score there is a transitional measure, adagio, 4-4, "two big chords, forming what is known as a Phrygian cadence, and landing us for a moment in B major. Their purpose," thinks Fuller- Maitland, "clearly is to avoid the monotony of beginning the new movement in the same key as the old.