[Harvard University'} '% *m BOSTON symphony orchestra FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY L. HIGGINSON FIFTY-NINTH SEASON 1939-1940 [7] Thursday Evening, March 28 at 8 o'clock BERKSHIRE SYMPHONIC FESTIVAL OF 1940 at "Tanglewood" (Between Stockbridge and Lenox, Mass.) Boston^ Symphony Orchestras SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Nine Concerts on Thursday and Saturday Eves., and Sunday Afts. Series A: August 1, 3, 4 The First Symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann and Sibelius. The C major Symphony of Schubert, the Second Sym- phony of Brahms, and the Third of Roy Harris. Other works include Bach's Passacaglia (orchestrated by Respighi), Faure's Suite "Pelleas et Melisande," Stravinsky's "Capriccio" (Soloist J. M. Sanroma, Piano), Prokofieff's "Classical" Symphony, and Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" (Second Suite). Series B: August 8, 10, 11 A TCHAIKOVSKY FESTIVAL (Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth) The Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies. The Violin Concerto (Albert Spalding, Soloist). The Overture "Romeo and Juliet," Serenade for Strings, Second Suite and other works to be announced. Artur Rodzinski will conduct one of the three programmes. Series C: August 15, 17, 18 The Third ("Eroica") Symphony of Beethoven, the First of Brahms, and a Symphony of Haydn. Other works include Wagner excerpts, Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler," arias by Dorothy Maynor and BACH'S MASS IN B MINOR with the Festival Chorus of the Berkshire Music Center and Soloists to be announced Subscription blanks may be secured by applying to the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, Inc., Stockbridge, Mass. §>atttorfi 3Itf?atr£ • Harvard University • (Eatttbrtftg? FIFTY-NINTH SEASON, 1939-1940 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Richard Burgin, Assistant Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Seventh Concert THURSDAY EVENING, March 28 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Ernest B. Dane ...... President Henry B. Sawyer .... Vice-President Ernest B. Dane . Treasurer Henry B. Cabot M. A. De Wolfe Howe Ernest B. Dane Roger I. Lee Alvan T. Fuller Richard C. Paine Jerome D. Greene Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [1] As Others See Us Brookline, Mass. March 12, 1940. Dear Mr. Foster: I am afraid that this must be my last contribution to the Boston Symphony, since I am moving back to the West this year. Important as undoubtedly are our contributions to the war sufferers abroad, I am sorry to hear that it is at the ex- pense of our cultural institutions, which give so much happiness to so many people. The Boston Symphony has meant a great deal to me during my stay in Boston. Yours truly, To: Mr. Reginald C. Foster Chairman, Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Symphony Hall [a] Miss SUZANNE STEN will be unable to appear in tonight's performance* Miss JOAN PEEBLES will sing in her place* *• g>atttorB 2Hj?atr? • Harvard University • (Eambnbg? Boston Symphony Orchestra FIFTY-NINTH SEASON, 1939-1940 SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor SEVENTH CONCERT THURSDAY EVENING, March 28 IGOR STRAVINSKY, Conducting Programme Stravinsky "Apollon Musagete" ("Apollo, Leader of the Muses"), Ballet Scene I. Birth of Apollo Scene II. Variation of Apollo (Apollo and the Muses) — Variation of Polymnia— Variation of Terpsichore — Apollo and Terpsichore — Coda (Apollo and the Muses) — Apotheosis INTERMISSION Stravinsky "Oedipus Rex," Opera Oratorio in Two Acts (Text by J. Cocteau, after the Drama of Sophocles) P Raoul obin Tenor ". '. J ' Tne^ Shephera } Jocasta . Suzanne Sten, Mezzo-Soprano Creon . Tiresias . I-Mack Harrell, Baritone The Messenger Speaker . Paul Leyssac Chorus . The Harvard Glee Club G. Wallace Woodworth, Conductor Prologue: Speaker Act I. Act II. Oedipus; Chorus Speaker Speaker Jocasta; Oedipus Creon; Oedipus Speaker Speaker Chorus; Messenger; Shepherd; Oedipus Chorus; Tiresias; Oedipus Epilogue; Speaker; Messenger; Chorus STEINWAY PIANOFORTE [31 APOLLON MUSAGETE" ("APOLLO, LEADER OF THE MUSES"), a Ballet By Igor Stravinsky Born at Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, on June 17, 1882 Stravinsky composed this ballet for string orchestra for Elizabeth Coolidge's Chamber Music Festival at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., in 1928. It was performed on April 27, by Adolph Bolm and his company. Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russe introduced the ballet in Paris at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, in June, 1928, with Stravinsky conducting, and Serge Lifar, Alice Nikitina, and Lubov Tchernicheva were in the cast. The music was played in concert form by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, Dr. Serge Koussevitzky conducting, October 12, 1928. It was repeated January 26, 1934. The orchestral score, written for string instruments only, is divided into six parts: the first violins are divided into two groups, the second violins and violas are each a single group, the violoncellos are divided into two groups, and the double-basses are independent. The Parisian performance of "Apollon Musagete" greatly interested the composer, according to his own statement, in that it gave him his first chance to hear the music and test its effect. The division of the string orchestra into six groups brought a special problem of dynamic balance. Attending rehearsals for a performance in Berlin, the com- poser found that the full quota of players obscured the "clarity and plasticity of the musical line" and resulted in a "confusion of sound and excessive resonance." By cutting the string orchestra to half its nor- mal size, he found that "everything became sharp and clear." The mounting of the ballet by Diaghilev in Paris brought a difference of opinion between the composer and the impresario. "As I have already said, I had pictured it to myself as danced in short white ballet skirts in a severely conventionalized theatrical landscape devoid of all fan- tastic embellishment such as would have been out of keeping with my primary conception. But Diaghilev, afraid of the extreme simplicity of my idea, and always on the lookout for something new, wished to enhance the spectacular side, and entrusted scenery and costumes to a provincial painter, little known to the Paris public — Andre Bau- chant, who in his remote village, indulged in a genre of painting some- what in the style of the douanier Rousseau. What he produced was interesting, but, as I had expected, it in no way suited my ideas. "My work was very well received, and its success was greater than I had expected, seeing that the music of 'Apollo' lacked those elements which evoke the enthusiasm of the public at a first hearing." A Paris correspondent of the London Times wrote of the production in this wise: [4] " 'Apollo Musagetes' has no story and is little more than a series of 'divertissements' dealing with the birth of the god and his in- spiration of the Muses. It is dancing rather than action or symbolic significance which counts in 'Apollo.' The choreography by M. Balan- chin is founded no doubt on the steps and movements of the classic school, and, while presenting new elements of striking origi- nality and beauty, avoids the grotesque attitudes which have marked the productions of recent years. M. Lifar is the Etruscan Apollo of Veii come to life. From the moment when he emerges from the rock upon which his mother Leto is sitting until the chariot descends from the sky to carry him and the Muses to their new home upon Par- nassus, he maintains the lines and gestures of archaic sculpture. Com- pared with the god, the Muses Terpsichore, Calliope, and Polymnia seem strangely nineteenth-century in their formal ballet skirts and tight mauve bodices, but the contrast is not unpleasant, and Mmes. Nikitina, Tchernicheva, and Doubrovska convey with their accus- tomed grace and beauty the special attributes of each." f copyrighted] "OEDIPUS REX/' Opera-Oratorio By Igor Stravinsky Born at Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, on June 17, 1882 "Oedipus Rex," an opera-oratorio in two acts, after Sophocles (text by Jean Cocteau, translated into Latin by J. Danielou) was composed in the years 1926-27. It had its first concert performance at the Theatre Sarah-Bernhardt in Paris on May 30, 1927 under the composer's direction. The piece was first produced with scenery and costumes at the Knoll-Oper in Berlin, in February, under the direction of Otto Klemperer. There were concert performances in London by the British Broadcasting Corporation; in Amsterdam, in Dresden, and other cities under Stravinsky's conductorship. The first performance in America was given at the concerts of the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra, February 24, 1928. On this occasion, the soloists were Margaret Matzenauer, Mezzo-Soprano; Arthur Hackett, Tenor; Fraser Gange, Baritone; Paul Leyssac, Speaker, and choruses from the Harvard Glee Club. There was a staged performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the League of Composers, April 10, 1931, and at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on April 21, Leopold Stokowski conducting.* * Robert Edmond Jones made the stage and costume designs. The characters were visually represented by sculptured images of heroic size (executed by Remo Bufano) which "moved on a high platform, with lofty and restrained gestures in the spirit of archaic, tragic drama." The speaker was invisible. l5l It is scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, three clarinets and E-flat clarinet, two bassoons and contra-bassoon, four