Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 63
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THE JUHIOIt ifAGUE MtESENTS THE COMMUNITY CONCERT SEkl ES • I : ! Cttitg Att&tt0rtum • g^prngfirlft Boston Symphony Orchestra SIXTY-THIRD SEASON, 1943-1944 SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor TUESDAY EVENING, January 4 The Programme has been changed as follows: Prokofieff "Classical" Symphony, Op. 25 I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Gavotta: non troppo allegro IV. Finale: molto vivace Debussy Two Nocturnes Nuages Fetes RiMSKY-KoRSAKOv Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Alborada — Variations — Alborada — Scene and Gypsy Song — Fandango of the Asturias INTERMISSION Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major. Op. 92 I. Poco sostenuto; Vivace II. Allegretto III. Presto; Assai meno presto; Tempo primo IV. Allegro con brio Tne Community Concert Association Sponsored by THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF SPRINGFIELD Presents The Boston Sympnony Orcnestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM Springfield, Massacnusetts January 4-, 1944 Springfield Community Concert Association OFFICERS President, Mr. Raymond T. King First Vice-President, Mrs. Donald A. Benjamin Second Vice-President, Mrs. Carl Ekberg Treasurer, Mr. George C. Stebbins Executive Secretary, Mrs. Willard D. Leshure Recording Secretary, Mrs. Russell F. Swett Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Reynolds G. Clark DIRECTORS Mrs. Chester B. Bulkley Mrs. Corydon K. Litchard Mrs. C Castle Day Mrs. John H. Mitchell Mr. Benjamin B. Kalman Mr. Hans Passburg ARTIST COMMITTEE Mrs. John H. Mitchell, Chairman Miss Hazel Clark Mrs. Frederick B. Robinson Rev. James Gordon Gilkey, D. D. Dr. George L. Schadt Mr. Benjamin B. Kalman Miss Ursula Toomey Mr. Hans Passburg Mrs. Janet Wallace SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE Mrs. Carl Ekberg, Chairman Mr. Milton Berliner Mr. Paul Craig Miss Hazel Clark Miss Ursula Toomey Mr. Willard Clark Miss Gladys Waldron Mr. Raymond T. King, ex-ojficio This store's plans are focused to a future of great new possibilities to make this SHOPPING CENTER FOR WESTERN NEW ENGLAND identified, even more, as an institution of vital importance to this alert New England community. fCFBES^WAllACE . BOND THAT COUNTS <ir&:i:^aji6»io Every War Bond you buy shortens the war. But the War Bond that really counts, the War Bond that brings victory, is the War Bond you figure you can't buy. When it doesn't seem possible to buy another Bond, when you have to do without and sacrifice to get the money — that's the Bond that does the job. Because that's the Bond with all-out will-to-win behind it! ALBEPJ STEIGEfx COMPANY — BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ' SERGE KOUSSEVrrZKY, CONDUCTOR The Boston Symphony Orchestra excels all others not only in the judgment of the Springfield Community Concert audience, but of America's leading critics. Unde- its superlative conductor, precision of ensemble and tonal beauty have won it an unsurpassed reputation. It is with great satisfaction that the Community Concert Associa- tion again presents this orchestra. Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, who celebrates his 20th year as leader of the Boston Symphony Orchestra this year says, ''Great music is a necessity of life. Nothing less a necessity." Tne Comraunity Concert Association Presents Tne Boston Sympnony Orcnestra Serge Koussevitzky, Conductor PROGRAMME Prokofieff . "Classical" Symphony, Op. 25 I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Gavotta: non troppo allegro IV. Finale: molto vivace Sibelius . , Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 I. (Tempo molto moderato II. (Allegro moderato, ma poco a poco stretto III. Andante mossoy quasi allegretto IV. Allegro molto Intermission Beethoven . Sym.phony No. 7 in A major. Op. 92 I. Poco sostenuto; Vivace II. Allegretto III. Prctfto; Assai meno presto; Tempo primo IV. Allegro con brio Historical and Descriptive Notes by John N. Burk Copyright, 1942, by Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. THE INSTRUMENT OF THE IMMORTALS THIS STEINWAY RODE IN A FLYING FORTRESS! The newspapers report that a Steinway Victory Vertical was dispatched to United States troops in the bomb-bay of a Flying Fortress! This specially built piano is furnished by our Govern- ment to soldiers and sailors in far places of the world — England, Australia, New Guinea, and elsewhere. Steinway & Sons are also building glider wings and parts for our Armed Forces. And the morale-building effect of the Steinway on the home front is not to be overlooked, either — as friends gather around this famous piano for the music they love. A limited num- ber of new Steinways is still available for purchase. In Massachuseffs and New Hampshire, new SfeJnways are sold on/y by -^ M. STEINERT & SONS A New England Institution since 1860 1231 Main Street, Springflteld J A. W. Prouty, Vice-President Stores in Boston and Worcester ANNOTATIONS "CLASSICAL" SYMPHONY, Op. 25 By Serge Prokofieff Born in 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 Rus- sian I Symphony Orchestra in New York played this symphony for the first time in America. I The work is dedicated to Boris Assafieff, a writer on musical subjects whose pen name is "Igor Gleboff." 11 WRITTEN in 1916-17, considerably before "neo-classicism" set in, this symphony in min- * iature surely cannot be looked upon as a pledge to past ways. It might rather be con- sidered 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, s' pianissimo, a mere accompanying figure which nevertheless 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 quite in order to their purposes. The out, i have found and own working ; recapitulation, and coda are virtuously observed. The episodic byplay turns up a sauce of J "modern" wit which the periwigged masters could scarcely have approved. } SYMPHONY, E-FLAT MAJOR, NO. 5, Op. 82 j \ By Jean Sibelius Born at Tavastehus, Finland, December 8, 1865; living at Jarvenpaa \ The Fifth Symphony was composed in the last months of 1914, and first performed at Hels- 'f ^ ingfors, December 8, 1915. Sibelius revised the Symphony late in 1916, and the revision was * performed December 14 of that year. There was a second revision which brought the score into its it performed at Helsingfors, No- I final form in the autumn of 1919. In this form was ? vember 25, 1919. TO a world steeped in lavish colorings, tending toward swollen orchestrations, lush chrom- atizations, Sibelius gave a symphony elementary in theme, moderate, almost traditional in : form, spare in instrumentation. The themes at first hearing are so simple as to be quite feat- i ureless; the succession of movements makes no break with the past. However, any stigma of ' retrogression or academic severity is at once swept aside by the music itself. It goes without saying that Sibelius set himself exactly those means which the matter in hand required, and f j using them with consummate effectiveness created a sound structure of force, variety and ' grandeur which no richer approach could have bettered. Once embarked upon a movement, even from apparently insignificant beginnings, this unaccountable spinner of tones becomes as I '. if possessed with a rhythmic fragment or a simple melodic phrase. When his imagination is similar i alight, vistas unroll; the unpredictable comes to pass. There was in Beethoven a very if enkindhng spark 'i magic; and yet SibeHus could never be called an imitator. It is as an passed f in some strange way across a century. The thematic basis of the first movement is the opening phrase, set forth by the French I i 8 PRESENTS THE NEXT CONCERT LASSICS BY THE GREATEST will be OMPOSERS EZIO PINZA ONDUCTORS Ba sso RECORDED ON Tuesday Evening, Fenruary 15, 1944 Vlcian. (leco^uJU MARLYN CRITTENDON Music Consultant 122.1 Main Street A Complete Selection of Victor Recordings are Available by THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Carlisle's RECORD SHOP Tel. 4-3171 1548 MAIN ST. horn. The whole exposition of this theme is confined to the winds, with drums. The second subject enters in woodwind octaves. The strings simultaneously enter with a characteristic background of rising tremolo figures, and in the background, through the first part of the movement, they remain. A poignant melody for the bassoon, again set off by the strings, brings a greater intensification (in development) of the second subject. The climax is reached as the trumpets proclaim the motto of the initial theme, and the first movement progresses abruptly, but without break into the second, which in character is an unmistakable scherzo. The broad 12-8 rhythm of the first movement naturally divides into short bars of triple rhythm (3-4) as a dance-like figure is at once established and maintained for the duration of the movement.