Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives
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.ff Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Colin Davis, Principal Guest Conductor Joseph Silverstein, Assistant Conductor 26 November 1975 at 8:30 p.m. (Wednesday) 28 November 1975 at 2:00 p.m. 29 November 1975 at 8:30 p.m. 2, 4 December 1975 at 8:30 p.m. Symphony Hall, Boston Ninety-fifth season Baldwin Piano Deutsche Grammophon Records Program Program Notes Colin Davis conducting Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Incidental Music from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Mendelssohn: Incidental Music from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' The Incidental Music to Shakespeare's comedy was per- formed complete under Seiji Ozawa's direction at the 1975 I. Overture Berkshire Festival, and these excerpts were last played by II. Scherzo the Boston Symphony with Erich Leinsdorf in 1962. III. Nocturne The instrumentation calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, IV. Wedding March 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle and strings. Sibelius: Tapiola, Tone Poem Op. 112 Youthful miracles are seldom repeated. Mendelssohn composed his Overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Intermission at seventeen (1826), with a miraculous deftness and deli- cacy, an elfin imagination and humor then unmatched. Yet, near the end of his life (1843), Mendelssohn did match the Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 Op. 104 miracle. He was invited by the King of Prussia to compose incidental music for a Berlin production of Ein Sommernachts- I. Allegro molto moderato traum. His youthful enthusiasm for Shakespeare surged II. Allegretto moderato back. With the most felicitous ease he wove the early III. Poco vivace themes into new pieces and ideas flowed with the Roman- Allegro molto N. tic freshness, the grace and imagination of old. Among the dozen new numbers composed for that per- The Friday program will end at approximately 3:55 p.m.; the formance were the Scherzo, the Nocturne and Wedding concerts of Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday at approximately 10:25 p.m. March. I. Scherzo. This bit of orchestral magic with its shimmer- ing strings, its whispering laughing woodwinds, its echo of Next Week's Program: Bottom's bray taken over from the Overture—introduces the opening scene of Act II, a woodwind dialogue between 5 December 1975 at 2:00 p.m. Puck and a Fairy. The famous flight of the solo flute at the 6 December 1975 at 8:30 p.m. Colin Davis conducting end is one of Mendelssohn's loveliest inspirations. II. Nocturne. This entr'acte music, with its dreaming solo Beethoven: Missa Solemnis in D horn, evokes the magic slumbers of the lovers at the close (Cahill, Reynolds, Tappy, Lloyd, Tang. Fest. Chorus) of Act III. III. The gorgeous Wedding March introduces the wed- This program will end at about 4:00 p.m. on Friday and 10:30 p.m. ding celebration of Theseus, Duke of Athens and Hippo- on Saturday lyta, Queen of the Amazons. The familiar music echoes the regal splendor and joyousness which Shakespeare's verbal Call C-O-N-C-E-R-T for up-to-date program information pageantry evokes in our imagination. Note by Edward Downes, reprinted by permission of the New York Philharmonic. restrict himself to the austere, classical orchestra of most of jean Sibelius (1865 -1957) his symphonies, permitting himself the mild relaxation and Tapiola, Tone Poem Op. 112 luxury of a harp, which he had not employed since the First, and a bass clarinet, which he had not elsewhere Tapiola' was written in 1924 for the Symphony Society employed at all. of New York and performed by that group under Walter "The suggestion of balance between extremes is further Damrosch in 1926. The first performance by the Boston symbolically reflected in the tonality of the first movement, Symphony was in 1932, and the most recent performance which is ostensibly that of D minor, but with the B natural, under Colin Davis's direction in 1973. giving the impression of hovering ambiguously between Tapiola is the mythological name for Finland—more par- major and minor. This modal atmosphere, unusual in the ticularly the word signifies the domain of Tapio, the forest music of Sibelius, which is almost invariably strongly tonal god, who was often invoked by the heroes of the 'Kalevala' in character, can also be perceived in the other movements; (the great epic of Finland) in their hunt for game. Printed in it is a characteristic which imparts an underlying spiritual the score is this verse: unity to the whole four movements." Widespread they stand, the Northland's dusky forests On the surface the Sixth Symphony appears more con- Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams; ventional than the Fifth. It is cast in four movements that Within them dwells the Forest's mighty God are numbered and each in its traditional place. However, it And wood sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets. can hardly be called "wild and impassioned in character." Tapiola is a conspicuous instance of Sibelius' favorite Although there are moments in the finale when this might device of taking a fragment of a theme and through many seem to be true, the work ultimately ends with a quiet pas- repetitions and transformations building up an imposing sage in the strings. structure. Cecil Gray's description is in order: "It begins with a phrase given by the strings which consists of two Adapted from Notes by John N. Burk bars of a few notes only, moving in conjunct motion within the compass of a fourth—as plain and straightforward Colin Davis outwardly as a fragment of Gregorian chant, yet so preg- Colin Davis, the Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston nant with possibilities that it is no exaggeration to say that Symphony is Musical Director of the Royal Opera House, the entire work evolves from it. At the very outset it is Covent Garden. His conducting career began in 1949, in repeated with variations by different instrumental combi- 1957 he became assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish nations no fewer than 22 times, and the transformations it Orchestra, and soon after taking the place of an ailing Otto subsequently undergoes are infinite in number and extent. Klemperer at short notice for a concert in Festival Hall, he Even when the theme itself is not actually there in some was appointed Musical Director of the Sadlers Wells Opera. form or another, it makes its spiritual presence felt He made his United States debut with the Minneapolis throughout." Symphony and has guest conducted the New York Philhar- monic as well as the Boston Symphony. In 1967 Colin Davis Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957) became Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony, a post Symphony No. 6, Op. 104 which he relinquished at the end of the 1970-71 season to take up his duties at Covent Garden. His performances at As early as 1918, Sibelius had outlined plans for a new Covent Garden of La Clemenza di Tito, Peter Grimes and the symphony. Of it he wrote: "Somber with pastoral con- much discussed new production of Wagner's Ring have trasts. Probably in four movements, with the end rising to a been highlights of his conducting career during the past somber roaring of the orchestra in which the main theme is year, and he has been invited to conduct both at the Paris drowned." The symphony, completed five years later, was Opera and at the Bayreuth Festival. Just before coming to first performed under the conductor's direction at a concert Boston, Mr. Davis spent a month as guest conductor with in Helsinki. The first United States performance was in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He records exclusively for 1926 by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Stokowski con- Philips Records, and has already made the first in a series of ducting, and the Boston Symphony first performed the the complete symphonies of Sibelius for that company with work with Koussevitzky in 1930. The Orchestra most the Boston Symphony Orchestra. recently performed the work in 1952 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. The Sixth Symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, harp and strings. Cecil Gray writes of the Symphony: "The keynote of the work consists in a sense of serenity and poise, avoiding every kind of extreme, and this characteristic is found in every aspect of it. The composer does not make use of the lavish palette of the modern orchestra, nor does he here BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 5E131 OZAWA First violins Cellos Contra bassoon Joseph Silverstein Jules Eskin Richard Plaster Concertmaster Philip R. Allen chair Charles Munch chair Martin Hoherman Horns Emanuel Borok Mischa Nieland Charles Kavaloski Max Hobart Jerome Patterson Helen Sagoff Slosberg chair Rolland Tapley Robert Ripley Charles Yancich Roger Shermont Luis Leguia Max Winder Carol Procter David Ohanian Harry Dickson Ronald Feldman Richard Mackey Gottfried Wilfinger Joel Moerschel Ralph Pottle Fredy Ostrovsky Jonathan Miller Leo Panasevich Martha Babcock Trumpets Sheldon Rotenberg Armando Ghitalla Alfred Schneider Basses Andre Come Stanley Benson William Rhein Harold D. Hodgkinson chair Rolf Smedvig Gerald Gelbloom Gerard Goguen Raymond Sird Joseph Hearne Ikuko Mizuno Bela Wurtzler Trombones Cecylia Arzewski Leslie Martin Ronald Barron Amnon Levy John Salkowski William Gibson John Barwicki Gordon Hallberg Second violins Robert Olson Victor Yampolsky Lawrence Wolfe Tuba Personnel Managers Fahnestock chair Henry Portnoi Chester Schmitz William Moyer Marylou Speaker Harry Shapiro Michel Sasson Flutes Timpani Ronald Knudsen Doriot Anthony Dwyer Everett Firth Librarians Leonard Moss Walter Piston chair Sylvia Shippen Wells chair Victor Alpert Bo Youp Hwang James Pappoutsakis William Shisler Laszlo Nagy Paul Fried Percussion Michael Vitale Charles Smith Stage Manager Darlene Gray Piccolo Arthur Press Alfred Robison Ronald Wilkison Lois Schaefer Assistant timpanist Harvey Seigel Thomas Gauger Jerome Rosen Oboes Frank Epstein Program Editor Sheila Fiekowsky Ralph Gomberg Mary H.