SEVENTY-NINTH SEASON, 1959-1960 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor CONCERT BULLETIN with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk Copyright, 1959, by Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot President Jacob J. Kaplan Vice-President Richard C. Paine Treasurer Talcott M. Banks Henry A. Laughlin Theodore P. Ferris John T. Noonan Francis W. Hatch Palfrey Perkins Harold D. Hodgkinson Charles H. Stockton C. D. Jackson Raymond S. Wilkins E. Morton Jennings, Jr. Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen M. A. DeWolfe Howe N. Penrose Hallowell Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager Norman S. Shirk James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator Leonard Burkat Rosario Mazzeo Music Administrator Personnel Manager SYMPHONY HALL BOSTON 15 [321] CAN YOU DESCRIBE A LIFE INSURANCE TRUST? If you are unaware of the many advantages of a Life Insurance Trust, it may be that a talk with a Shawmut Trust Officer would show you precisely how this type of protection would best suit your insurance needs. For example, your life insurance can very easily be arranged to provide life-long support for your widow plus a substantial inheritance for your children. In Shawmut 's Personal Trust Department we would be glad to discuss your complete insurance program . with you, your life insurance counsellor and your attorney, or simply write for a copy of our brochure "A Modern Life Insurance Program." Naturally, there would be no obligation. Write or call The Personal Trust Department The Rational Shawmut Bank Tel. LAfayette 3-6800 Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [322] CONTENTS Program (for this week) . • 327 Program (Nov. 27-28) . 381 (Dec. Program 4-5) .... • 383 Q/ifiiriiiikAfjros. Notes (Mugami) Amirov • 329 Copland (The Tender Land) . • 342 Entr'acte Amirov and the Caucasus . • 332 The Gifted Listener (Aaron Copland) .... • 350 Notes Kabalevsky ( Cello Concerto) . • 361 Khrennikov (Symphony No. 1) . 366 Symphoniana EXHIBITION Pictures loaned by the deCordova and Dana Museum of Lincoln, Massa- chusetts, are now on view in the gallery. • • THE GUESTS OF THIS WEEK The Boston Symphony Orchestra wel- comes at its concerts six visitors from Soviet Russia. They have been present at the concerts of three other orchestras in the United States as part of the Inter- nocturnal national Education Exchange Service. costume The visit is the result of the United States-Soviet Exchange agreement of handsome new January 27, 1958. The visit is reciprocal way of evening and follows the journey last season to dressing ... Russia of the four American composers, Roger Sessions, Ulysses Kay, Roy Harris little brocade and Peter Mennin. costume sees The schedule has included concerts you through by the Soviet delegation in which their music was played by the National Sym- cocktails, dinner phony of Washington (October 24), the and theatre Louisville Orchestra (November and 4) with perfect the Philadelphia Orchestra (November 6-7). When the Boston Symphony Or- aplomb ... chestra opens its New York season on our collection November 18, their same music will be priced from performed. 69.95 to 245.00 Although the music of Kabalevsky is familiar to Boston audiences, music by Khrennikov and Amirov is being heard new for the first time. Dmitri Shostakovich, who is in the group, and whose music [323] was played in the other cities, is remem- flAnffii bered in Boston by performances of six his eleven symphonies. Konstantin LAKANNA,inc. I ankevich, a native of the Ukraine, is particularly esteemed by his own coun- trymen for his orchestral works and his THE TROUSSEAU HOUSE OF BOSTON operas. Boris Yarustovsky is a professor at the Moscow State Conservatory and a writer on musical subjects. SAMUEL MAYES Samuel Mayes joined this Orchestra as Principal Cello in 1948 and played in Boccherini's Concerto in B-flat in that season. He has since appeared in Strauss' Don Quixote (1950), Kabalevsky's Con- certo (1953), with Zino Francescatti in Brahms' Double Concerto (1956), and in Bloch's Schelomo last season. Born in St. Louis, Mr. Mayes is the grandson of a Cherokee Indian. At the Ls age of four, he studied cello with Max Steindel of the St. Louis Orchestra and +jfor ^ruL C^venim appeared as soloist with that Orchestra at the age of eight. Entering the Curtis Our wool jersey teagown — simply Institute at twelve, he studied with Felix styled with a softly draped satin Salmond. At eighteen, he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra and became first collar and ascot. Sapphire, Emer- cellist three years later. ald, Moss Green or Coral. Sizes • • 10-20. $49.95 NEW YORK RECITAL BY MRS. DWYER 416 Boylston St. 54 Central St. Doriot Anthony Dwyer and Jesus Boston 16, Mass. Wellesley, Mass. Maria Sanroma will give a joint recital of sonatas for flute and piano in Town KEnmore 6-6238 CEdar 5-4530 Hall, New York, on Sunday evening, November 22, at 5:30. [324] *Z*l m A Monte-Sano coat is always new in shape, exciting in fabric, rich in color Prophetic pace setter from a magnificent winter collection . the stained glass plaid reefer dipped in glowing colors illuminated by the sun shining through cathedral windows ... in richly textured mohair tweed. The French Shop's coat collection, from $125. The Monte-Sano coat collection, from $250, To the lawyer who stands convicted by his family of overwork "I understand, Dad, but how about next Saturday?" " . 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Allied with The First National Bank of Boston [326] SEVENTY-NINTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-NINE - SIXTY Sixth Program FRIDAY AFTERNOON, November 13, at 2:15 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, November 14, at 8:30 o'clock Amirov Kyurdi — Ovshari Mugami (First performance at these concerts) Copland Orchestral Suite from the Opera, "The Tender Land" I. Introduction and Love Music II. (Party Scene III. 1 Finale: The Promise of Living (Conducted by the composer) INTERMISSION Kabalevsky Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 49 I. Allegro II. Largo: Molto espressivo III. Allegretto (Conducted by the composer) Khrennikov Symphony No. 1, Op. 4 I. Allegro non troppo II. Adagio III. Allegro molto (First performance at these concerts) soloist: SAMUEL MAYES These concerts will end at 3:55 o'clock on Friday Afternoon; 10:10 o'clock on Saturday Evening. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS • [327] fur . grand flatterer of all time was never used more richly, more imaginatively, to more beautiful purpose than in our current collection of fur-trimmed fashions! lynx-laden costume shown is one of a one- and few-of-a-kind collection for misses, both stores Boston • Chestnut Hill KYURDI-OVSHARI MUGAMI By FlKRET DZHAMIL AMIROV Born in Gandja (now Kirovabad), Azerbaidjan, November 22, 1922 Composed in 1948, Kyurdi-Ovshari had its first American performance in Houston, Texas, by the Houston Symphony Society on March 16, 1955. This music is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, g trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, military drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, bass drum, bells and strings. This composer, who has devoted himself intensively to the musical folklore of his people, has written two suites under the title Mugami. One is called Shoor and the other Kyurdi-Ovshari, now to be performed. Mugam signifies a dance or song, current among Amirov's people (the plural is mugami or mugamat). Kyurdi means Kurdish and Ovshari refers to the Kurdish tribe. The suite is a succession of short dances or orchestrated melodies, played without break, all of them strongly rhythmic, some of them varied in development. The solo voices are usually the clarinet or the oboe; the orchestration is brilliant and often pointed by the piccolo. A rhythmic accompaniment in the quieter parts tends to utilize the A conductor and 103 musicians interpret a delicate passage with expert finesse. But quietly, so that each note can speak for i itself. ^C Here at Rockland-Atlas, every officer in 5\ Vw our Trust Department is a specialist in his 'particular field, be it investments, admin- istration, or operations. Their harmonious cooperation with testators, beneficiaries and attorneys marks the Rockland-Atlas trust relationship. -w-"^ ESTABLISHED 1833 A Kockland-Atlas NATIONAL BANK of BOSTON Trust Department Main Office: 30 Congress Street, Boston 6, Mass. Telephone: Richmond 2-2100 MEMBER FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION [329] timpani or the plucked strings. The writer of the program notes for the Houston Symphony Society consulted fellow countrymen of Amirov then in Texas and reported about the movements named in the score: Tesnif probably means a song. Shakhanaz may mean comedian. The melody which is heard at the beginning of the last piece in the suite, Mani, was recognized by a native of the region now living in Houston as a song of that name he had known in his youth. Azerbaidjan, S.S.R., so the program annotator of the Houston Sym- phony Society has pointed out, "is a province on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, facing Daghestan and Georgia on the north, Armenia on the west, and Iranian Azerbaidjan on the south.