Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Summer, 1967-1968

IAN 13 ***>*!& EIGHTH WEEK August 18, 19, 20, 1967 7 .T)S TWO MAGNIFICENT RECORDING ACHIEVEMENTS BY THE BOSTON SYMPHONY UNDER ERICH LEINSDORF BOSTON I NTLSSON I , ^v Wagner r Rt SYMPH()NY CHOOKASIAN aZtZ ?ATTTl?M j [i/yUIrjiVJ LEINSDORF BERGONZ1 Pro M"liir" Vohtngnti &&L**j6kl*m\ FLAGELLO \ Complete Boston Symphony Orchestra/Leinsdorf Konya • Amara Gorr Dooley • Hines • Marsh Boston Chorus Pro Musica • Patterson rca Victor nvtwsHoovt The first absolutely complete Verdi Requiem featurin; Lohengrin on records. four celebrated soloists rca Victor d @The most trusted name in sound ^*- EIGHTY-SIXTH SEASON 1966-1967 BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHEST ERICH LEINSDORF, Music Director Charles Wilson, Assistant Conductor Thirtieth Berkshire Festival - 1967 MUSIC SHED AT TANGLEWOOD Concert Bulletin of the EIGHTH WEEK Copyright, 1967, by Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. The Trustees of The BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. President Vice-President Treasurer FIenby B. Cabot Talcott M. Banks John L. Thorndtkb Philip K. Allen Francis W. Hatch Henry A. Laughlin >v. Abram Berkowitz Andrew Heiskell Edward G. Murray Theodore P. Ferris Harold D. Hodgkinson John T. Noonan Robert H. Gardiner E. Morton Jennings, Jr. Mrs. James FI. Perkins Sidney R. Rabb Raymond S. Wilkins Trustees Emeritus Pale rey Perkins Lewis Perry Edward A. Taet Tangleivood Advisory Committee Alan J. Blau George E. Mole Jesse L. Thomason Lawrence K. Miller Whitney S. Stoddard Robert K. Wheeler H. George Wilde Chairmen of the Boards of Selectmen (Ex Officio): Stockbridge, Arthur W. Maskell, Jr. Lenox, John Pignatelli Lee, Andre Jaotjbn Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager Norman S. Shirk James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator William Moyer Harry J. Kraut Orchestra Personnel Manager Assistant to the Manager Sanford R. Sistare Andrew Raeburn Press and Piihlicity Assistant to the Music Director James F. Kiley, Tanglewood Superintendent TANGLEWOOD LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS 7 — 1 >T)S " "* r* PROGRAM NOTES At the conclusion of last year's season at Tanglewood, John N. Burk brought to a close 48 years of service as program annotator To hi-fi people, for the Orchestra's concerts. His work is internationally known, and the word Dual doesn't mean by many he was considered the dean of program annotators. He is also the double or twofold* author of distinguished books on Bee- thoven, Mozart and Clara Schumann. With his permission, much of his writ- ing is being used for this season's program notes. The editor of the programs this summer will be Donald T. Gammons. GUNTHER SCHULLER was born in New York City in 1925. His professional music career began at the age of sixteen when he joined the French horn It means perfection. section of the Ballet Theatre Orchestra. A year later he was appointed first chair horn player with the Cincinnati Sym- phony. At the age of nineteen, he be- came a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he remained for the next fifteen years, the last nine of them playing solo horn. In 1959 Mr. Schuller resigned from the Metropolitan Orchestra so that he could devote more time to composing. Mr. Schuller' s works have been commis- sioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Ford Foundation, to name a few. Under com- mission of the Hamburg State Opera he Hi-fi experts, who composed a jazz-oriented opera, The choose Dual for their own Visitation, which received its world stereo systems, agree that premiere in Hamburg last year. Other Dual automatic turntables recent commissions include Gala Music, written for the 75th anniversary play your records as of the they Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Sacred were meant to be played. Cantata, composed for the American Perfectly. With low-friction Guild of Organists; and Triplum, com- tonearm bearings for flaw- missioned by the Lincoln Center Fund for the New York Philharmonic on the less Yz-gram tracking, to- occasion of the Lincoln Center Festival tally accurate anti-skating 1967. Among his numerous awards was compensation for balanced the Darius Milhaud award for the best tracking on both groove film score of 1964, which he won for his music for the walls, and with extra- Polish film Yesterday in Fact. Many of his works have been gentle cueing for precise recorded, including Seven Studies on placement of stylus on rec- Themes of Paul Klee with the Boston ord. Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mr. Leinsdorf. The Dual 1015, $89.50. Mr. Schuller has Other been appointed the models from $69.50 ninth President of the New England to $129.50. For full informa- Conservatory, where his duties will com- tion, write United Audio mence at the beginning of the 1967-68 academic year. He has been associate Products, Inc., Dept. CP, professor of music at Yale 535 Madison Avenue, University, New and is chairman of the Composition De- York, N.Y. 10022. partment of the Berkshire Music Center here at Tanglewood, a position he has held since 1963. (Continued on page 4) — 2 — WEEKEND PRELUDE Friday Evening, August 18, at 7:00 WAGNER Siegfried Idyll BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Joseph Silverstein, Alfred Krips, Violin Ralph Gomberg, Oboe Burton Fine, Viola Gino Cioffi, Pasquale Cardillo, Clarinet Jules Eskin, Cello Sherman Walt, Bassoon Henry Portnoi, Bass James Stagliano, Harry Shapiro, Horn Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Flute Armando Ghitalla, Trumpet Wagner wrote the Siegfried Idyll in 1870 as a Christmas and birthday gift for his wife Cosima. It was also a belated celebration of the birth of their son Siegfried. A group of thirteen skilled instrumentalists played this music on the stairway of Triebschen, the Wagner home, as a serenade to Cosima who was in the chamber above. It was intended as a private personal gift never meant for public performance. However, due to financial difficulties Wagner later reluctantly parted with the score. At the time Cosima wrote in her diary: "My secret treasure is becoming common property; may the joy it will give mankind be commensurate with the sacrifice I am making." IVES VERDI A Farewell to Land Non t'accostare all' Urna (Do not approach the urn) From the Incantations In solitaria Stanza (In a solitary room) At the River Perduta ho la Pace (I have lost peace) i Mists Ad una Stella (To a star) Rough Wind PHYLLIS CURTIN, Soprano RYAN EDWARDS, Piano In 1923 Charles Ives left at the New York Public Library a privately printed book. It contained 114 songs which he had composed over a period of 30 years. He was "cleaning house" as he said, putting his work on the "clothes line" for all to see. For a long time few people cared to see. Grad- ually, however, musicologists, professional singers and record companies have brought much of this material to the attention of the listening public. Naturally the collection is uneven, but many of the songs are daring and original treatments of a wide range of texts—from the poetry of many masters to contemporary prose and his own thoughts and jottings. The music itself is as varied as the texts—sometimes quietly reminiscent or nostalgic as in "Mists" or "A Farewell to Land," at other moments ruggedly dramatic and dissonant. It may almost be said that these songs, covering almost every aspect of the American scene, are in a way a counterpart to the work of Walt Whitman in prose and verse. The greater part of Verdi's small output of songs was written com- paratively early in his career—most of them between 1838 and 1845. As one would expect, they are quasi-operatic in approach, never attaining the chamber music intimacy which we find in the German lied. Throughout the nineteenth century the dominance of opera had effectively prevented the development of a body of Italian art songs comparable to that of other nations. Nevertheless it is interesting to hear music of Verdi apart from the operas, as we will tomorrow evening in a performance of his great Requiem. 7 — 3 — X)S The BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAM- BER PLAYERS were formed three sea- sons ago from the Orchestra's principal At the players, and have given many concerts in Boston, New York, Washington, and in other parts of the United States. Berkshire Festival Their repertoire includes many pieces of music that cannot often be heard in public, since they need a combination of instruments which regular chamber groups cannot provide. The Siegfried Idyll is just one of these. Before this year's Tanglewood season, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players made an eight week tour of Britain, West Ger- many, and the Soviet Union, where they were greeted with extraordinary enthu- siasm. They have recorded many works for RCA Victor in repertoire ranging from Mozart to Elliott Carter. PHYLLIS CURTIN, whose training was all in the United States, is now internationally known in the musical world. A familiar figure at Tanglewood, she had early experience in the Opera De- partment of the Berkshire Music Center, and has appeared many times in the Shed at concerts of the Berkshire Festival, as well as giving many recitals here. She was invited by Mr. Leinsdorf to sing in the American premiere of Benjamin these Pianists . Britten's War Requiem at Tanglewood in 1963, and last summer sing in the performance of Bach's 5/. John Passion, JOHN which was repeated in Boston earlier BROWNING this year. Her travels have taken her to many VAN CLIBURN parts of the world and she has sung in almost all the leading opera houses. Her EVELYNE CROCHET repertoire is enormous, and she is as expert on music of the eighteenth century as on the most avant-garde contem- MALCOLM FRAGER porary.

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