SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Branch Exchange Telephone, Ticket and Administration Offices, Com. 149s FIFTY-SIXTH SEASON, 1936-1937 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra INCORPORATED SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Richard Burgin, Assistant Conductor with historical and descriptive notes By John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1937, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, IllC. 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 M. A. De Wolfe Howe Henry B. Cabot Roger I. Lee Ernest B. Dane Richard C. Paine Alvan T. Fuller Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [729] . Old Colony Trust Company 17 COURT STREET, BOSTON The principal business of this company is: 1 Investment of funds and management of property for living persons. 2. Carrying out the provisions of the last will and testament of deceased persons. Our officers would welcome a chance to dis- cuss with you either form of service. zAllied with The First National Bank a/' Boston [730] SYMPHONIANA Serge Prokofieff The Pushkin Centenary SERGE PROKOFIEFF The accompanying head of Serge Prokofieff is reproduced from the origi- nal drawing by Alexandre Iacofleff which • Considering the rarity of old French porcelain apothecary jars, its not likeiy that lamps made of them will become common. Any reproduction would be obvious, as the texture of the old porcelain gives these pieces their charm. The inscriptions are of course all different, and the coloring of the decorations is varied There is one to be had in black and white. The plain silk shade carries a color from the jar as a piping. It would be difficult to find a more attractive table lamp of medium size. This may be obtained in our recently opened Gallery at 77 N EWBURY STREET may be seen in the First Balcony Gallery MRS. WM. FAVERSHAM, Jr. among the musical prints from the col- MR. JOSEPH HELLING lection of Mr. Donald B. Willson. MR. GEORGE R. SHAW, 2nd DESIGNERS OF INTERIORS THE PUSHKIN CENTENARY CONSULTANT DECORATORS The next programme will be dedi- GALLERY GIFTS cated to the memory of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, who died on the tenth of February, 1837, at the age of thirty-eight. Pushkin is beloved by the Russians above all other poets both for BELL & FLETCHER, Ltd. the beauty of his song and for its sound 654 Madison Avenue 77 Newbury Street CITY BOSTON common sense. Even more surely than NEW YORK Regent 4-5670 Commonwealth 1425 Glinka was the father of modern Rus- sian music was he the founder of modern [73 1 ] Russian literature, and his anniversary, this year, is being observed through- out the Russian-speaking world. andT<omorrow It would probably be safe to say that no other author has so fired his com- Let Lewandos Revive and patriots to musical speech. Glinka, Renew Your Evening Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mu- sorgsky have all fallen under the spell Things ready for another of his romantic lyricism, as such scores SYMPHONY as Russian and Ludmilla, Eugene Oniegin, The Tale of the Golden Cock- EVENING erel, and Boris Godounov prove. But these are only familiar titles out of a myriad. For 108 years, smart Boston has been coming to Lewandos. "In 1899, on the occasion of the celebration of the one-hundredth anni- Your clothes are beautifully cleansed and smartly finished by Lewandos painstaking methods. Call MID 5700 EVENING DRESSES $1.50 up CLOAKS, WRAPS .25 up ALEXANDER PUSHKIN versary of Pushkin's birth," writes TUXEDO or "TAILS" Avrahm Yarmolinsky in the introduc- .25 up tion to his collected edition of the poet's works recently issued by Random House, "an underground revolutionary organization issued a leaflet in which You CatLs Rely ofu> it repudiated him on the grounds that 'he was never a friend of the people, but a friend of the Czar, the gentry, the bourgeoisie.' Such an attitude is ewandos now regarded as dangerously purblind. L The society, seeing itself as the new Call MID 5700 heir of all the ages, accepts him as a precious part of its patrimony. In con- nection with the centenary, active ef- [732] forts are being made to bring the poet to the attention of the masses. Millions of copies of his works are being printed both in the original and in the various Kranich & Bach languages of the Union. Critics are busy commenting on them, graphic artists are illustrating them, composers are setting them to music, producers are staging his plays, and his tales in dramatic form, and for some time a Pushkin hour has been an obligatory feature of radio programmes. His writings are looked upon as the proper pabulum for youths, and as the model for young authors. Under the hammer and sickle, as under the double-headed eagle, exegesis and research center upon the poet's life and works, so that the already monumental $ body of Pushkin scholarship grows Priced from 675 apace. of the world's finest "The new Russia, as did the old, Makers reveres in him the greatest poet of the small grand, mastercraftsmen nation, the man who shaped the literary have been building the Kranich language and fathered its literature. fie Bach since 1864 and it is one But it justifies delight in him in new of the few pianos still manufac- ways. He is found to be as congenial tured by members of the origi- with the present social order as he was nal families who founded the formerly felt to be with the old. company. Responsible interpreters represent him as one who, though not a man of the The exquisite tone quality and masses, felt with them by reason of his unusual volume of the Kranich deep humanity, and had their emancipa- & Bach baby grand are an tion at heart; as a writer whose work achievement of modern science. possessed a buoyant, life-affirming quality In reconditioned grands we expressive of the attitude of a rising offer Steinways, Chickerings, social class; as an author who pro- gressed from a personal lyricism to an Ivers 8c Pond, Knabe, C. C. objective, realistic art; as a good Harvey, Charles S. Norris, European, a citizen of the world, a Hazelton. Priced from $150. Renaissance man with universal inter- Small uprights and grands ests; as a free spirit, unhampered by rented at low rates. skepticism and mysticism, rejoicing in the clear light of reason, and combat- Convenient Terms ing, however indirectly, the powers of darkness." Norris <S* Company The portrait illustrated here, from INCORPORATED the painting of V. S. Troninin, shows 41 Boylston Street, Boston Pushkin in 1827. It is reproduced from (Between Arlington and Berkeley Sts.) the new biography of the poet by Dr. Established 1852 Tel. COM 3033 E. J. Simmons being issued in honor of the anniversary. [7SS] Cijanbler & Co: TREMONT AND WEST STREETS Widely Spaced Designs might have been created for the shorter women! This splash of color here and there . appliqued or woven in the very silk . is a fashion that the woman who is not tall wears beautifully ! The touch of print brings a freshness . the dark background makes them perfect for wear right now ! ! 1 p95 to 09 95 The spaced x design nvith Sizes 16% to 26 /2 rhinestone clip is 19.95. Third Floor at Chandler's [734] FIFTY-SIXTH SEASON, NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX AND THIRTY-SEVEN Fifteenth Programme FRIDAY AFTERNOON, February 5, at 2:30 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, February 6, at 8:15 o'clock Mozart Symphony in D major (Koechel No. 504) I. Adagio; Allegro II. Andante III. Finale: Presto Prokofieff March and Scherzo from the Opera, "The Love for Three Oranges" Prokofieff Third Concerto for Pianoforte, Op. 26 I. Andante — Allegro II. Theme — Andantino Variation. I. L'istesso tempo Variation II. Allegro Variation III. Allegro moderato Variation IV. Andante meditativo Variation V. Allegro giusto Theme L'istesso tempo III. Allegro, ma non troppo INTERMISSION Prokofieff Scythian Suite, "Ala and Lolli," Op. 20 I. The Adoration of Veles and Ala II. The Enemy God and the Dance of the Black Spirits III. Night IV. The Glorious Departure of Lolli and the Procession of the S~n SOLOIST SERGE PROKOFIEFF STEINWAY PIANO This programme will end about 4:25 on Friday Afternoon, 10:10 o'clock on Saturday Evening Jascha Heifetz will give a recital in Symphony Hall, Sunday Afternoon, February 14 (see page 774). [735] ! cowii A COLLECTION OF FINE lJ~^Z%iLaH ART INCLUDING MANY MUSEUM PIECES $2.00 to $15,000 From an ancient country whose prestige is based on its magnificent art, come these rare treasures at prices possible only through the sacrifice of their owner, A. Khan Rahimi, an authoritative Persian collector. From a I5th century Koran, formerly $30,000 and now $15,000 . through the indescribably lovely tapestries, brocades, shawls, jewelry from ancient royal families . to comparatively inexpensive cigarette boxes, the exhibition merits your attention, and the sale commands it FIFTH FLOOR IN THE ANNEX [736] SERGE SERGEIVITCH PROKOFIEFF Serge Prokofieff was born on the Sontsovka estate, government of Ekaterinoslav, in the Russian Ukraine, on April 24, 1891. He spent his childhood upon the steppes of south Russia, although his father came from Moscow and his mother from St. Petersburg. His mother was an excellent pianist, and strains of Beethoven or Chopin ringing through the Prokofieff household undoubtedly nurtured the musical precocity of the boy. At the age of five he produced a composition which he called "Le Galop Hindou/' and in which he did not venture upon the still unex- plored domain of the black keys.