^ BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN I88I BY s^^ HENRY LEE HI SEVENTY-SECOND SEASON 195 2-T953 Sanders Theatre, Cambridge \^^arvard University^ Boston Symphony Orchestra (Seventy-second Season, 1952-1953) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins Violas Bassoons Richard Burgin, Joseph de Pasquale Raymond Allard Concert-master Jean Cauhap^ Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Georges Fourel Theodore Brewster George Zazofsky Eugen Lehner Rolland Tapley Albert Bernard Contra-Bassoon Norbert Lauga George Humphrey Richard Plaster Harry Dubbs Jerome lipson Vladimir ResnikofF Louis Ar litres Horns Harry Dickson Robert Karol James Stagliano Einar Hansen Reuben Green Harry Shapiro Joseph Leibovici Bernard Kadinoff Harold Meek Gottfried Wilfinger Vincent Mauricci Paul Keaney Emil Kornsand Walter Macdonald Roger Schermanski Violoncellos Osbourne McConathy Carlos Pinfield Samuel Mayes Paul Fedorovsky Alfred Zighera Trumpets Minot Beale Jacobus Langendoen Roger Voisin Herman Silberman Mischa Nieland Marcel Lafosse Stanley Benson Hippolyte Droeghmans Armando Ghitalla Leo Panasevich Karl Zeise Gerard Goguen Sheldon Rotenberg Josef Zimbler Clarence Knudson Bernard Parronchi Trombones Pierre Mayer Leon Marjollet {acob Raichman Manuel Zung William Moyer Kauko Kahila Samuel Diamond Flutes [osef Orosz Victor Manusevitch Doriot Anthony James Nagy James Pappoutsakis Tuba Leon Gorodetzky Phillip Kaplan Vinal Smith Raphael Del Sordo Piccolo Melvin Bryant Harps Lloyd Stonestreet George Madsen Saverio Messina Oboes Bernard Zighera Olivia Luetcke William Waterhouse Ralph Gomberg William Marshall Jean Devergie Timpani Fredy Ostrovsky John Holmes Roman Szulc Basses English Horn Charles Smith Georges Moleux Louis Speyer Willis Page Percussion Ludwig Clarinets Juht Harold Farberman Irving Frankel Gino Cioffi Everett Firth Manuel Valerio Henry Freeman Harold Thompson Henry Portnoi Pasquale Cardillo Eh Clarinet Gaston Dufresnc Librarians Henri Girard Bass Clarinet Leslie Rogers John Barwicki Rosario Mazzeo Leonard Burkat Sanders Theatre, Cambridge \^3hCarvard University^ SEVENTY-SECOND SEASON, 1952-1953 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Third Concert TUESDAY EVENING, December 9 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 Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Charles D. Jackson Theodore P. Ferris Michael T. Kelleher Alvan T. Fuller Lewis Perry N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Francis W. Hatch Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott George E. Judd, Manager T. D. Perry, Jr. N. S. Shirk, Assistant Managers ['J ^Presented for TJour iPleasure t)y[ The EMPLOYERS' GROUP Insurance Companies 110 MILK STREET, BOSTON 7, MASS. THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORP., LTD. AMERICAN EMPLOYERS' INSURANCE CO. THE EMPLOYERS' FIRE INSURANCE CO. Fame Comes Late to Felix s Sister i^T XT' OMEN musicians, I see, have W broken into the news columns sev- eral times lately," Delver Forfax remarked. "I'd like to focus a Httle attention on one case. Critics at a recital by the soprano Rhodora (Mrs. Warren Storey) Smith warmed to the discovery that two sets of songs never heard by them before were touched with genius. And the composer was a Made for Felix by woman. She was, in fact, Felix Mendels- Adele Schopenhauer, sohn's favorite sister, Fanny, wife of Wilhelm this might as well be Hensel, the painter. Fanny Mendelssohn "Perhaps it is hard to understand — but riding her hobby perhaps natural to some people still — that nothing very great was expected if Fanny chose to compose. Songs of distinction had always been composed by men. "Yet the critics at the recent concert rated her songs high above most of those by her famous brother, Felix. " *But of course,' one is tempted to surmise, Telix must have given her valuable technical aid and inspiration.' "Here is what he actually did. When his mother asked him to per- suade Fanny to publish her songs, he wrote: . " 'From my knowledge of Fanny I should say she has neither the inclination nor the vocation for authorship. She is too much of a woman for this. She manages her home and neither thinks of the public, nor the musical world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her from carrying them on, and I can't say that I would approve of it. I will not, therefore, persuade her to take this step.' "But someone did persuade her — maybe her proud artist husband. And music-lovers now are rejoicing in the fact. Although she published three sets of songs, they dropped from active musical Hfe —- the com- poser having been a woman. "Now, more than a century later, Fanny Mendelssohn is hailed as a discovery, a little master — a continuator of Schubert's song art." [2] Sanders Theatre, Cambridge [Hart^ard University^ Boston Symphony Orchestra SEVENTY-SECOND SEASON, 1952-1953 CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director THIRD CONCERT TUESDAY EVENING, December 9 Conducted by RICHARD BURGIN Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for Double String Orchestra Mahler "Songs of a Wayfarer" I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht II. Ging heut morgen iiber's Feld III, Ich hab' ein gliihend Messer IV. Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz INTERMISSION Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 I. Moderate II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo SOLOIST EUNICE ALBERTS, Contralto The Friday and Saturday concerts are broadcast each week from Station WGBH (EM). BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [31 SYMPHONY HALL NEXT OPEN REHEARSAL BY THE Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at Box Office: $2.00 Boston University College of Music All phases of Music and Music Education Outstanding: accredited institution with an eminent faculty of Artists, Composers, Scholars and Educators Courses leading to the deg-rees A.A. in Mus. ; B.Mus. ; M.M. ; M.M.Ed. In conjunction with the Graduate School — M.A. ; Ph.D. In conjunction with the School of Education — M.Ed. ; Ed.D. Special Classes include — Master Classes under — Opera Workshop, Sarah Caldwell, Director Arthur Fiedler Pianists' Workshop, Jules Wolffers, Director Albert Spalding Workshop in Music Education, Renowned visiting Lecturers Paul Ulanowsky Intersession — June 1 to July 11 Summer Session — July 13 to August 22 Outstanding programs available for courses leading to all degrees Complete information upon request Dean Robert A. 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STEPHEN FASSETT, 3 Byron Street, Boston 8 CApitol 7-7125 BY APPOINTMENT ONLY 4] FANTASIA ON A THEME BY THOMAS TALLIS, for Double String Orchestra By Ralph Vaughan Williams Born at Down Ampney, between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, England, October 12, 1872 This Fantasia was written for the Gloucester Festival of 1910, where it had its first performance in the Cathedral on September 6. It was published in 1921. The first performance in this country was by the Symphony Society of New York, March 9, 1922. The first Boston performance was by the Boston Symphony Or- chestra, October 27, 1922. There have been subsequent performances November 23, 1923, December 2, 1932, April 6, 1939, May 1, 1942, and February 19, 1943 "'TT'he Fantasia is scored for string orchestra divided into three sec- " tions," so the composer explains. (1) Full body of strings. (2) Small orchestra of nine players. (3) Solo quartet. These three bodies of players are used in various ways, sometimes playing as one body, sometimes antiphonally, and sometimes accompanying each other." Mr. Williams in the score specifies the second orchestra as consisting of nine players, "two first violin players, two second violin players, two viola players, two violoncello players, and one doublebass player. The solo parts are to be played by the leader of each group." In 1567, Thomas Tallis, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the Court of Elizabeth of England, wrote eight tunes, each in a different mode, for the Metrical Psalter of Archbishop Parker. The Psalter, which now lies in the British Museum, shows the tunes in four-part harmony, each part printed separately. The cantus firmus, according to the following note, is in the tenor part: "The Tenor of these partes be for the people when they will syng alone, the other parts, put for greater queers, or to such as will syng or play priuatelye." Of the eight tunes, Vaughan Williams has chosen the third for the subject of his Fantasia. Each of them, and its corresponding mode, is charac- terized in the following eight rhyming lines: "The first is meeke: deuout to see, The second sad: in maiesty. The third doth rage: a roughly brayth, The fourth doth fawne: and fiattry playth. The fyfth delight: and laugheth the more, The sixth bewayleth: it weepeth full sore. The seuenth tredeth stoute: in froward race, The eyghte goeth milde: in modest pace." Hearers of the twentieth century may look in vain for any sugges- tion of raging or rough braying in the tune of Mr. Williams' choice. [5] "Although this Fantasy may vividly conjure up for the hearer the England of Henry VIII, or of Elizabeth," writes Eric Blom, in his illuminating notes for the program of the B. B. C. Orchestra, "it must be listened to as a modern work and, but for the theme it bor- rows, an entirely original composition.