Symphony Hall, Boston Huntington and Massachusetts Avenues

SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Telephone, Commonwealth 1492 SIXTY-SEVENTH SEASON, i947" 1 948 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President Henry B. Sawyer . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Philip R. Allen Francis W. Hatch John Nicholas Brown M. A. De Wolfe Howe Alvan T. Fuller Jacob J. Kaplan Jerome D. Greene Roger I. Lee N. Penrose Hallowell Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott George E. Judd, Manager [57] © © © © © © © Only © © you can © © © decide © © ® © © © Whether your property is large or small, it rep- © resents the security for your family's future. Its ulti- © © mate disposition is a matter of vital concern to those © you love. © © To assist you in considering that future, the Shaw- © mut Bank has a booklet : "Should I Make a Will?" © It outlines facts that everyone with property should © © know, and explains the many services provided by © this Bank as Executor and Trustee. © © Call at any of our 2 J convenient offices, write or telephone © for our booklet: "Should I Make a Will?" © © © *Je>Kd<m€il\Jr4iAt ~DefiaKtin&nt © © The Optional © © © Shawmut Bank © 40 Water Street^ Boston Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation & Capital $10,000,000 Surplus $20,000,000 & "Outstanding Strength'" for 111 Tears §H&®®®®©®@@@®®®@©®®®®©®®$ [58] j^D (rv$<7D+(r*vb^J) cnv^r^cr^ SYMPHONIANA European Posters "Romeo and Juliet" Recording EUROPEAN POSTERS The Boston Symphony is starting this season's series of exhibitions by show- ing a group of European posters. Since the later nineteenth century there has been a steady development in the quality of posters, the result in large measure of the participation in this movement of such artists as Cheret, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Val- lotton, Walter Crane, Millais, Beardsley, Brangwyn, and many others. Increas- ingly, serious artists and designers, both in France and England, entered this field, and since the poster is essentially a popular art and very much in the public eye, it has had and should con- tinue to have a considerable construc- on popular taste. tive influence S^trikina a V few Today many gifted painters and designers, both in Europe and America, are working as commercial artists, though in this country perhaps less in ^Jsria/i V jote the production of posters than in other forms of advertising. Nevertheless, es- pecially in the advertisements of many The vamp rising towards of the larger American firms, there has more recently been a distinct decline in the lower hemline . the direction of the sensational, the cheap, and the banal. It may be of the new wrap-around de- interest, therefore, to present such an exhibition at this time to show some tail . the so comfort- ^ of the European achievements in this form of advertising art, both as mile- able open toe . the stones in its development and as ex- amples of its quality during the period much favored sling heel represented. all It is not easy to produce a really good ... in dove-soft suede poster. A* design for this purpose must plus your choice of black, be so clear and striking that it not only will attract attention but also will be brown, wine or green. understood at a glance. Though many posters fulfill these minimum require- 17.95. ments, often in a distressingly strident fashion, few stand up under closer ex- amination. We have tried in this group to show those which not only can bear but also deserve a second look. We hope that they may show that a strong and imaginative design, carried out with good drawing and thoughtful organiza- • Boston tion of color, is both more persuasive and more satisfying than that all too • Wellesley usual vulgarity of subject and crudeness of presentation to which we are today so L> [59] constantly subjected in so many ways. In selecting the material for this exhibition, the emphasis has been placed rather on interest of subject and treat- ment, with a certain amount of variety, than on historical completeness. War posters were deliberately excluded, and the group was limited to European productions as being perhaps less generally known than American. Cheret, a contemporary of Toulouse- Lautrec, was the leading French poster artist toward the end of the last century, while Fouqueray attained his great- est prominence at the time of the First World War. The great German nineteenth century romantic classicist, Arnold Boecklin, is represented by an original painting for the poster announc- ing an exhibition of his work. Stelletski, in a poster advertising an exhibition for the benefit of Russian artists in Paris, draws on the Byzantine artistic heritage of his country for a most interesting design, while the other Russian poster with St. George and the Dragon shows an excellent use of a handsome inscrip- tion with results reminiscent of a page from an illuminated manuscript. The poster publicizing an exhibition for the benefit of wounded Belgian sol- diers shows something of the violence of expressiveness achieved in the best of the war posters, though its use of a symbolic figure instead of an actual scene makes it more classic in appeal and less dated in content. Fred Taylor is one of the many competent designers of English travel posters; Sennett, Brown, Angrave, and Shoesmith are others of this group. Their posters are generally representative of the good work done in England in this field during the more recent years before the last war. Richard B. K. McLanathan Corduroy a king's choice, tailored to a queen's taste in our wonderful breakfast-to-dinner house "ROMEO AND JULIET" coat. RECORDING Red . Toast . Blue . Chartreuse Under the heading "Concert Records" $25 the "New Yorker" has this to say: Four excerpts from the second suite of Prokofieff's lengthy "Romeo and ballet score have been recorded The Trousseau House Boston Juliet" of by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 416 BDYLSTDN STREET under the direction of Serge Kousse- WC1XESLEY ~ HYANNI3 • PALM BEACH vitzky, in Victor album 1129. The re- [6o] which is magnificent. This music, suit '"////}% was composed in 1935, has, for some v been put on records before reason, never | jj that in this country, and it is fortunate exquisite it has been given such an performance the first time out. Prob- ably none of our other important or- chestras could have played it so well. the way I haven't heard the score all ^ through, but it's a reasonable guess that these parts reflect the character of the whole. They are almost completely im- personal, but fascinatingly theatrical in their interpretation of episodes from the great romantic tragedy. I was interested in comparing Prokofieff's approach to the theme with that of Tschaikowsky, whose fantasy overture on the same subject is one of his most gratifying works. Prokofieff's music is, as you might ex- pect, more intellectual, and it is satisfying because of the way it contrasts the dramatic forces involved. It is also less moving and less noble, though ex- tremely persuasive on its own terms. The first of the four excerpts, "Mon- tagues and Capulets," is, I think, the best. A fragile dance theme, which evokes a vision of a pitiable Juliet, is threaded through heavier music pictur- ing a relentless, lumbering promenade by the heads of the two families. "Juliet the Maiden," "Dance," and "Romeo and Juliet's Grave" are the other movements. In the first, a light and im- petuous theme is now and then reined in by more sober and romantic music. The second is a graceful, fleet, but not entirely festive piece ; and the last, and longest, movement is grave, tragic music that eventually becomes an apotheosis of the whole story. "Romeo and Juliet" represented Prokofieff's first attempt to harness his creative instincts, after sixteen years away from Russia, to the stern artistic doctrines of the Soviet Union. The «P compromise apparently was no trouble f at all. [61] One hundred and fifty million dollars for charity That's the amount of money individuals ... which Old Colony Trust Company You will find in Old Colony takes care of as custodian or trus- Trust Company a reliable and tee, in several hundred separate experienced trustee or agent. funds where all the income or all the principal is devoted to charitable, educational, religious or other philanthropic purposes. Many other WORTHY OF YOUR TRUST accounts in Old Colony are devoted in part to such purposes. Old Colony If you are responsible through Trust Company the years to come for the mainte- ONE FEDERAL STREET, BOSTON nance and administration of a T. Jefferson Coolidge charitable endowment . Chairman, Trust Committee Ifyou wish your charitable bene- Robert Cutler, President factions to be continued in certain fields when you will no longer be Allied with here to choose the agencies or The First National Bank of Boston [62] , SIXTY-SEVENTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FORTY-SEVEN AND FORTY-EIGHT Second Program FRIDAY AFTERNOON, October 17, at 2:30 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, October 18, at 8:30 o'clock William Schuman Symphony No. 3 (In two parts, and four movements) I. a. Passacaglia b. Fugue II. c. Chorale d. Toccata Strauss "Don Juan," Tone Poem (after Nikolaus Lenau) , Op. 20 INTERMISSION Ravel "Ma Mere l'Oye" ("Mother Goose") Five Children's Pieces I. Pavane de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty) II. Petit Poucet (Hop o'My Thumb) III. Laideronette, Imperatrice des Pagodes (Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas) IV.

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