Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 63,1943-1944, Trip

]iool0^gi{aU • NpuiHattptt i#^ BOSTON '"<^^w SYAPnONY ORCnCSTRS FOUNDED IN 1881 5Y HENRY L. HIGGINSON SIXTY-THIRD SEASON (^^^^ 1943-1944 / ',i Wednesday Evening, November 17 Under the auspices of the School of Music, Yale University Daggett M. Lee, Series Manager Boston Symphony Orchestra [Sixty-third Season, 1943-1944] SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Personnel Violins BURGIN, R. ELCUS. G. LAUGA, N. KRIPS, A. RESNIKOFF, V. Concert-master tapley, r. KASSMAN, N. CHERKASSKY, P LEIBOVICI, J. THEODOROWICZ, J. HANSEN, E. DICKSON, H. FEDOROVSKY, P. zazofsky, G. EISLER, D. PINFIELD, C. BEALE, M. DUBBS, H. KNUDSON, C. ZUNG, M. LEVEEN, P. gorodetzky, L. MAYER, P. DIAMOND, S. DEL SORDO, R. HILLYER, R. BRYANT, M. STONESTREET, L. messina, s. TRAMPLER, W. MURRAY, J. ERKELENS, H. sei niger, s. SAUVLET, H. Violas LEFRANC, J. FOUREL, G. VAN WYNBERGEN, c. GROVER, H. CAUHAPfe, J. ARTIERES, L. BERNARD, A. WERNER, H. LEHNER, E. KORNSAND, E. GERHARDT, S. HUMPHREY , G. Violoncellos BEDETTI, J. LANGENDOEN, J. DROEGHMANS, H. ZEISE, K. FABRIZIO, E. ZIGHERA, A. ZIMBLER, J. NIELAND, M. MARJOLLET, L. Basses MOLEUX, G. JUHT, L. GREENBERG, H. GIRARD, H. BARWICKI, J. DUFRESNE, G. FRANKEL, I. PORTNOI, H. PROSE, P. Flutes Oboes Clarinets Bassoons LAURENT, G. GILLET, F. POLATSCHEK, V. ALLARD, R. PAPPOUTSAKIS, J. DEVERGIE, J. VALERIO, M. panenka, e. KAPLAN, P. LUKATSKY, J. CARDILLO, P. LAUS, A. Piccolo English Horn Bass Clarinet 1Contra-Bassoon MADSEN, G. SPEYER, L. MAZZEO, R. PILLER, B. Horns Horns Trumpets Trombones VALKENIER, W. LANNOYE, M. MAGER, G, raichman, j. MACDONALD, W SHAPIRO, H. lafosse, m. hansoite, l. MEEK, H. GEBHARDT, W. voisin, r. l. COFFEY, J. KEANEY, P. VOISIN, R. OROSZ, J. Tuba Harps Timpani Percussion ADAM, E. ZIGHERA, B. SZULC, R. sternburg, s. CAUGHEY, E. polster, m. smith, c. arcieri, e. Librarian rogers, l. j. M00l0pg ifall • Yale University • N^m ^Vim\\ SIXTY-THIRD SEASON, 1943-1944 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the First Concert WEDNESDAY EVENING, November 17 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The trustees of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Jerome D. Greene . President Henry B. Sawyer . Vice-President Henry B. Cabot . Treasurer Philip R. Allen N. Penrose Hallowell John Nicholas Brown M. A. De Wolfe Howe Reginald C. Foster Roger I. Lee Alvan T. Fuller Richard C. Paine Bentley W. Warren G. E. JuDD, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [1] THE INSTRUMENT OF THE IMMORTALS William Kapell uses the STEINWAY exclusively • This artist says of the Steinway: Playing on a Steinway is always a joy to me. It is^^un- surpassed in its beautiful tone quality and action. William Kapell You can still purchase a new Steinway for your home, on reasonable terms. Loomis Temple of Music STEINWAY SALES STEINWAY SERVICE 837-39 CHAPEL STREET THE MUSIC CENTER OF NEW HAVEN fa] M00l0^g Mall • Yale University • JJ^tU Jfau^tt Boston Symphony Orchestra SIXTY-THIRD SEASON, 1943-1944 SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor FIRST CONCERT WEDNESDAY EVENING, November 1 Programme Prokofieff "Classical" Symphony, Op. 25 .. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Gavotta: non troppo allegro IV. Finale: molto vivace Khatchatourian Piano Concerto I. Allegro ma non troppo e maestoso II. Andante con anima III. Allegro brillante INTERMISSION Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 I. Moderate II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo SOLOIST WILLIAM KAPELL STEINWAY PIANO [3] •CLASSICAL" SYMPHONY, Op. 25 By Serge Prokofieff Born at Sontsovka, Russia, April 23, 1891 The first performance of the "Symphonie Classique" was in Petrograd, April 21, 1918, the composer conducting. Prokofieff arrived in New York in September, and in December the Russian Symphony Orchestra in New York played this symphony for the first time in America. It was introduced at the Boston Symphony concerts January 26, 1927, and last performed in this series March 27, 1942. The work is dedicated to Boris Assafieff, a writer on musical subjects whose pen name is "Igor Gleboff." The symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. WRITTEN in 1916-17, considerably before "neo-classicism" set in, this symphony in miniature surely cannot be looked upon as a pledge to past ways. It might rather be considered a momentary dalliance with the eighteenth-century formula. It would probably be as mistaken to look for reverence in the ''Symphonie Classique" as to look for irreverence in it. Let us say that the composer had a single and passing impulse to weave his own bright threads into an old pattern. Prokofieff gives himself precisely the orchestra of Mozart or Haydn; he is punctilious in his formal procedure. He is also concise — so much so that the four movements occupy no more than thirteen minutes — about half the usual duration of the symphonies which he took as model. D major is the prevailing key. The first movement, with clipped phrases, staccato and to the point, sets forth its themes, its development, its recapitulation and coda, all complete. The Larghetto is in simple rondo form, beginning and ending with a charming pizzicato in the strings, pianissimo, a mere accompanying figure which never- theless lingers in the memory. The theme and its development has a suggestion of eighteenth-century ornamentation, but is in less serious vein. Prokofieff departs from the letter rather than the spirit of his models in choosing a gavotte instead of the rigidly customary minuet. The Finale gives, naturally, a far greater freedom to his fancy, although he sets himself a first theme upon the common chord which his forbears might have found quite in order and to their own pur- poses. The working out, recapitulation, and coda are virtuously ob- served. The episodic byplay turns up a sauce of "modern" wit which the periwigged masters could scarcely have approved. [COPYRIGHTID] r4] PIANO CONCERTO By Aram Khatchatourian Born in Tiflis, Armenia, on June 6, 1903 This concerto was composed in 1935 and then performed in Moscow and other parts of the Soviet Union. Its first American performance was at the Juilliard School of Music in New York on March 14, 1942, when the late Albert Stoessel conducted and the soloist was the Armenian girl pianist Maro Ajemian. There was another performance by the same musicians at a Russian Relief concert in the Cosmopolitan Opera House in New York on May 17. The concerto was first heard in Boston at the Pop Concerts in Symphony Hall on July 13, 1942, when Bernhard Weiser was the soloist and Arthur Fiedler conducted. At a performance in Cin- cinnati, February 5, 1943, Eugene Goossens conducted and Artur Rubinstein took the solo part. The accompaniment is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, small drum, bass drum, cymbals, and strings. nnHE country which produced Michael Arlen and William Saroyan -* has now also a composer who is attracting the attention of the musical world — Aram Khatchatourian. Nicolas Slonimsky, always a principal source of Western information on Soviet music, has de- voted a special article to this composer.* This writer points out that while Russian composers, particularly those of the nationalist group in St. Petersburg, were always attracted by the melodies of the Rus- sian Orient, "it was only after the revolution that the minority nations brought forth native composers who make use of melodic and rhythmic resources of their countries not in the form of exotic stylization, but as creative reconstruction." Khatchatourian, he continues, is such a composer. "His life his- * "Aram Khatchatourian, A New Soviet Composer," by Nicolas Slonimsky, American Review on the Soviet Union, February, 1941. >>TtfTTTfTTTTTTfTTfTyTfTTTfTMfTffTTTf' Two Ncw England Instttutjons positon insurance Companp Incorporated 1873 0lh Colon? Snsiurance Companp Incorporated 1906 87 Kilby Street, Boston, Massachusetts [5I tory is typical o£ musicians of his generation who entered adolescence at the time of the Revolution. He was the son of an Armenian book- binder. He began to study music very late, at the age of nineteen, when he went to Moscow, and enrolled in a music school. He selected the 'cello as his instrument, but soon his interest turned to creative composition. His first teacher was Michael Gnessin. Later he studied under Miaskovsky and Vassilenko at the Moscow Conservatory. He learned the formal science quickly, supplementing his studies with the analysis of masterworks, from Bach to Ravel. "Khatchatourian began to write music almost as soon as he had mastered the rudiments. In 1926, after three years of study, he composed a 'Dance' for violin and piano, and in the next year wrote a piano piece, 'Poem.' These were simple pieces inspired by the melodies of his native Armenia, and this folk character has remained the chief characteristic of his style. "At one time Khatchatourian was interested in the effective em- ployment of dissonance in modern music. Among the products of this period was a piano piece, 'Study in Ninths.' But this phase of modernistic experimentation was brief. Soon Khatchatourian returned to his true vocation; the recreation of his native Caucasian folk music within the bounds of new harmony. "Although Khatchatourian started late, he was in no hurry to catch up with the times, and to build up an imposing catalogue of opus numbers. His first performances were invariably successful with the public and the press; what is more important, second and third performances followed with similar success." Khatchatourian's Symphony, completed in 1934, was written as a celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Sovietization of Armenia. This Symphony is pointed out by Mr. Slonimsky as the composer's "most significant composition," and he calls it "an authentic expression of the spirit of Armenian music.

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