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SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON Telephone, Commonwealth 6-1492

SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON, i954-!955 CONCERT BULLETIN of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra

CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director

Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor

with historical and descriptive notes by

John N. Burk

COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc.

The TRUSTEES or the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc.

Henry B. Cabot . President

. Vice-President Jacob J. Kaplan

Richard C. Paine . Treasurer

Talcott M. Banks, Jr. C. D. Jackson John Nicholas Brown Michael T. Kelleher Theodore P. Ferris Palfrey Perkins Alvan T. Fuller Charles H. Stockton Francis W. Hatch Edward A. Taft Harold D. Hodgkinson Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen M. A. DeWolfe Howe N. Penrose Hallowell Lewis Perry

Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager

G. Rector J Assistant Assistant W. J. J. Brosnahan, Treasurer

N. S. Shirk \ Managers Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager

[433] THE LIVING TRUST

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[434] :

SYMPHONIANA

EXHIBITION

Etchings by Michel Ciry, loaned by THE TROUSSEAU HOUSE OF BOSTON courtesy of Arthur Heintzelmann and the Boston Public Library, are on view in the Gallery. • • the SALE 15 NEW WORKS COMMISSIONED FOR BOSTON SYMPHONY'S 75TH SEASON that really Is The Boston Symphony Orchestra will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a SALE the 1955-56 season. In honor of the occasion, the Orchestra, its Music Direc- tor, Charles Munch, and the Serge Every item from our regu- Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress have jointly com- lar stocks. Nothing bought missioned fifteen new works by lead- for sale purposes. ing contemporary composers. The amount for each commission, to be shared by the two organizations, will be $2,000. Works for symphony or- chestra of approximately 20-30 min- 20% to 50% OFF utes in length will be written by six European composers, eight from the States from South United and one negligees, teagowns America • Benjamin Britten (England) Henri Dutilleux (France) • silk, nylon lingerie Gottfried von Einem (Austria) Jacques Ibert (France) • household and Darius Milhaud (France) decorative linens Goffredo Petrassi (Italy)

Samuel Barber (United States) • children's things Leonard Bernstein (United States) (Wellesley Shop only) Aaron Copland (United States) Howard Hanson (United States) Bohuslav Martinu (United States) Walter Piston (United States) SPECIAL JANUARY William Schuman (United States) Roger Sessions (United States) VALUES in Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazil) WAMSUTTA The first to be performed will be Martinu's Symphonic Fantasies, already SHEETS • CASES completed. It was Mr. Munch who asked the composer to write the work. MARTEX He will conduct it at the concerts of next week, and in New York the week following. He hopes to receive the LUXOR TOWELS remaining works by September of 1955 and will perform most or all of them during the ensuing season. Each 416 Boylston St., Boston score will carry the inscriptions: "Commissioned in celebration of the 54 Centra! St., Wellesley 75th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, Music Director."

L 43! "Dedicated to the memory of Serge Anniversary by Serge Koussevitzky and Natalie Koussevitzky." and performed under his direction. The original manuscript scores will Other works composed for the half- be deposited ultimately in the Serge century season (1930-31) and per- Koussevitzky Collection in the Library formed by Dr. Koussevitzky include: of Congress. Konzertmusik for String and Brass In- The Boston Symphony Orchestra, struments by ; Sym- since its founding in 1881 by Henry Lee phony (No. 1) by ; Higginson, has figured prominently in Leggenda Sinjonica by Alexander

introducing new works often hotly de- Steinert ; Ode (for the 50th Anniver- bated when first heard, but destined sary of the Boston Symphony Orches- to become classics. Early conductors tra) by Edward Burlingame Hill

such as Georg Henschel, Arthur (poem by Robert Hillyer) ; Symphony Nikisch and Wilhelm Gericke suc- No. 2 ("Romantic") by Howard Han- ceeded, over opposition, in making son; Symphony No. 4 by Serge Brahms popular. brought Prokofieff; Metamorphoseon (Theme forward such composers as Strauss and and Variations) by Ottorino Respighi; Debussy. Pierre Monteux, as conduc- Symphony (No. 3) in G minor by Al- tor of the Orchestra from 1919 to 1924, bert Roussel; Overture by Serge Kous- introduced Stravinsky to symphony sevitzky and Symphonic Ode by Aaron concerts, and this composer's Sym- Copland. phony of Psalms was one of the works Under the direction of Charles Munch commissioned for the Orchestra's 50th since 1949, the Boston Symphony Or-

(Continued on page 477)

Hear these performances come ^ALIVE" with new RCA Victor high fidelity

CHARLES MUNCH . . . Among the exciting performances conducted by Charles Munch which are yours on RCA Victor "New Orthophonic" High Fidelity Records:

Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust (com- plete) Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet (complete)

Brahms : Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat. Artur Rubinstein, pianist Honegger: Symphony No. 5

Roussel : Bacchus et Ariane

Ravel : Pavane for a Dead Princess Charles Munch Conducts French Music

. . . Rhapsodie Espagnole and La Valse (Ravel)

rca\/ictor FIRST IN RECORDED MU SI C "New Orthophonic" High Fidelity Recording -ms lusiins voice

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[438] .

SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR AND FIFTY-FIVE

Tenth Program

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, December 31, at 2:15 o'clock

SATURDAY EVENING, January 1, at 8:30 o'clock

Pfitzner Overture to "Das Christelflein," Op. 20

Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 I. Allegro non troppo

II. Adagio III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

INTERMISSION

Bach Chorale Prelude and Chorale "The Old Year is Past" (with chorus) (Arranged by Charles Munch)

Honegger A Christmas

(First performance in America) Baritone solo: MAC MORGAN THE CECILIA SOCIETY CHORUS, Hugh Ross, Conductor

SOLOIST JOSEPH SZIGETI

The first part of each Saturday evening concert will be broadcast (8:30-9:30 E. S. T.) on the NBC Network (Boston Station WBZ) Both concerts entire will be broadcast from Station WGBH-FM.

This program will end about 4:05 o'clock on Friday Afternoon, 10:20 o'clock on Saturday Evening. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS

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[440] OVERTURE TO "DAS CHRISTELFLE1N" ("The Little Christ Elf") —A Christmas Fairy Tale, Op. 20 By Hans Pfitzner

Born in Moscow,* May 5, 1869; died in , May 22, 1949

Das Christelflein, Weihnachtsmarchen, set to a play by Use von Stach, was com- posed as incidental music in 1906 and first produced in December 11 of that year. (The Overture alone was introduced by E. N. Reznicek in Berlin on No- vember 23.) In 1917 the composer rewrote his score as an in two acts. The Overture was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, November 15, 1907 and repeated October 18-19, 1 9 12 > when Karl Muck was conductor. The Overture is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, harp, timpani and triangle.

The story of Das Christelflein is described as "a miracle-tale of medi- eval days, in which an elf takes pity on a poor family, pleads their case in Paradise, so that they sit down to a roast and wine through the intervention of the Child Jesus."

It could be said that when Hans Pfitzner died at 81 the last exponent

* The place of Pfitzner's birth was due to the fact that many Germans were engaged for the Imperial Theatre orchestras in the Czarist regime and Pfitzner's father played at the Moscow Imperial Opera. The family returned to , where Pfitzner's father conducted at the opera. There Hans obtained his first musical education.

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[441 ] of the Romantic era in German opera had gone. More than thirty years had passed since his opera (the Overture to which Mr. Munch introduced at these concerts January 27-28, 1950) had made its mark in Central Europe, and Palestrina, like its predecessors, had long ceased to hold the stage. Yet Palestrina was received with admira- tion in its day. It may have been the composer's preoccupation with a high-minded subject, the absence of any "love interest," an important female part, or other popular elements, which have prevented this opera from finding its way into many opera houses, or assuring its composer a continuing livelihood in his old age. Pfitzner was one of those composers whose music perpetually invited controversy. In his day he had ardent supporters in Central Europe and sharp attackers. There were frequent performances of his and occasional ones of his smaller works in Berlin, Frankfort or Mu- nich — few in other parts of the world. Those performances became the topic of disputation. "Der Fall Pfitzner" was spurred by the com- poser, who seldom denied himself the privilege of statements in the press. In the early years of this century he was considered by many a "modern," because of his individual assertiveness based upon an ad- vanced Wagnerian chromaticism. Yet he was no Schonbergian — his ways were based more firmly on Romantic German tradition. A

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[442] A Matter of Trust

MOZART

Once a composer has completed his symphony, he entrusts the music he has conceived to performers who come after him. An incompetent performance of a great masterwork does not carry through the composer's intention— it takes great skill, knowledge and experience to bring out the spirit as well as the letter of a song or tone poem.

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[443 ] champion in 1904 was P. N. Cossmann, who wrote in a pamphlet: "Von Pfitzner's Personlichkeit muss gesagt werden dass sie unmodern ist;

denn er ist kein Schweinehund." Philip Hale quoted this line with relish, remarking that " 'Schweinehund' is a word for Squire Western, for a theologian of Milton's time rather than a calm, dispassionate discusser of esthetics." Which "moderns" at that time Herr Cossmann

considered "pig-dogs," it would be interesting to know. It is true that

even Die Rose vom Leibesgarten (1901) , the most Romantic of operas, was found by some disturbingly modern. Philip Greeley Clapp in the Boston Transcript, October 16, 1912 wrote of Pfitzner that "his real personality and achievements are hidden behind a bodyguard of per-

sonal friends and pupils who stoutly maintain that he is the greatest

living exponent of some esthetic principle or other," while he is "the pet aversion of one or two powerful critics." Clapp thus names him a candidate for a "martyr's crown." Pfitzner was never a happy man. He often voiced his disapproval of contemporary composers and complained when his operas were neglected, disregarded or adversely criticized. When he left Berlin and was conducting concerts in Munich in 1907, he gave out an inter- view objecting that the Berlin public had given him little attention,

the critics unfavorable attention, and the publishers none at all. In

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[445] Munich, on the other hand, he had won many performances for his operas and much applause. Trouble seemed to follow him. When he conducted the Augusteo in Rome, in 1912, he stopped the orchestra in the middle of the performance, bringing the fury of the players and public scandal upon his head.

Palestrina, set to a by the composer and first performed under the direction of in Munich, June 12, 1917, en- joyed a considerable success during the first World War and revealed a fresh and impressive aspect of the composer's abilities.

Pfitzner obtained his first musical education at Frankfort, studying counterpoint and composition with Yvonne Knorr and piano with . The young Pfitzner composed while teaching and con- ducting for a living. He not only combined these activities at Frank- fort, but continued to do so through the best years of his life. He moved to Coblenz and later to Mainz. From 1896 until 1907 he lived in Berlin, busy in both capacities. He conducted the Kaim Orchestra in Munich, 1907-08. He became Director of the Conservatory at in 1908, and in 1910 Director of the Municipal Opera there. Later he conducted in Munich and in Coburg; from 1920, he long held master classes in the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Pfitzner thus became a Kapellmeister from necessity rather than by choice.

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DIRECTORS

James Barr Ames David H. Howie Ropes, Gray, Best, Trustee Coolidge & Rugg Robert M. P. Kennard James Bangs O. Vice President & Trust Officer Vice President & Treasurer Edward F. MacNichol William H. Best Vice President & Secretary Ropes, Gray, Best, Coolidge & Rugg Edward H. Osgood, Jr. Vice President Trust Winthrop H. Churchill & Officer Investment Counsel Richard C. Paine Charles K. Cobb Treasurer, State Street Investment Scudder, Stevens & Clark Corporation

David F. Edwards William A. Parker Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board, Saco-Lowell Shops Incorporated Investors

Robert H. Gardiner Philip H. Theopold Vice President & Trust Officer Minot, DeBlois & Maddison

Carl J. Gilbert James N. White Treasurer, Gillette Company Scudder, Stevens & Clark Francis C. Gray Wiese President Robert G. Scudder, Stevens & Clark Henry R. Guild Herrick, Smith, Donald, Farley Ralph B. Williams & Ketchum Vice President & Trust Officer

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[447] Financial success never came to him, nor could he have subsisted on his efforts as composer. He remained contemptuous of catering to general applause and true to his high and sometime austere ideals as exemplified in Palestrina. Dr. Edgar Istel, defending him, bewailed the relationship between "the artist who holds his art as something unfalteringly serious and holy, and the world — a conglomeration of reluctance and boredom, which looks only for a wit to entertain their weary hours." As a result of the bombing in the last war, Pfitzner lost three homes in succession, according to a news report of his death, and the subse- quent inflation reduced his income to the vanishing point. Some still remembered him as an outstanding figure in the world of music and in his later years he was supported by contribution from the Philharmonic Orchestra.

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JOHN MASON BROWN Lecture: "Seeing Things"

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Born at Hamburg, May 7, 1833; died at Vienna, April 3, 1897

Composed in the year 1878, Brahms' Violin Concerto had its first performance

by the Gewandhaus Orchestra in on January 1, 1879, Joachim playing the solo and Brahms conducting.

The orchestral part of the concerto is scored for 2 flutes, two oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. The concerto has been performed at Boston Symphony concerts by Franz Kneisel

(December 7, 1889) ; (November 28, 1891); Franz Kneisel (April 1 5» J893, February 13, 1897, December 29, 1900); Maud MacCarthy (November 15,

1902, December 19, 1903); Fritz Kreisler (March 11, 1905) ; (No-

vember 25, 1905) ; Carl Wendling (October 26, 1907) ; Felix Berber (November 26,

1910); Anton Witek (January 20, 1912) ; Carl Flesch (April 3, 1914); Anton Witek (November 24, 1916); Richard Burgin (December 17, 1920); Georges Enesco (Jan-

uary 19, 1923); Jacques Thibaud (January 15, 1926) ; Albert Spalding (December

2, 1927); Jascha Heifetz (March 15, 1929) ; Nathan Milstein (March 13, 1931);

Bronislaw Huberman (Tuesday afternoon concert, December 18, 1934) ; Jascha

Heifetz (December 17, 1937) ; Paul Makovsky (Monday-Tuesday Series, December 2,

1940) ; Joseph Szigeti (March 17, 1944) ; Efrem Zimbalist (March 29, 1946); Jascha

Heifetz (February 28, 1947) ; Ginette Neveu (October 24, 1947) ; Arthur Gru- miaux; January 23-24, 1953, Isaac Stern.

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[450] SYMBOLS OF SECURITY

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1 [45 ] Like Beethoven, Brahms tried his hand but once upon a violin con- -* certo — like Beethoven, too, he was not content to toss off a facile display piece in the style of his day. The result was pregnant with sym- phonic interest, containing much of Brahms' best. Joachim, for whom the concerto was written, might protest, argue, threaten, as violinists or pianists have before and since against obdurate composers. Brahms consulted his friend readily and at length, but mainly for such work-a- day practicalities as fingering and bowing.* For years the concerto was avoided as unreasonably difficult by the rank of violinists seeking a convenient "vehicle" in which to promenade their talents. The work has triumphantly emerged and taken its secure place in the repertory of concertos — for high musical values and as such has become the ultimate test of breadth and artistic stamina in the violinist who dares

choose it. It was inevitable that Hans von Bulow, who called the piano con- certos "symphonies with piano obbligato," should have coined a cor- responding epigram for this one. , said Bulow, wrote con- certos for the violin, and Brahms a concerto against the violin. We

* Karl Geiringer reproduces in his Life of Brahms a solo passage from the Concerto as originally written, Joachim's suggested emendation of it in the interest of effectiveness, and Brahms' ultimate alteration, accepting in general Joachim's configuration, but treating it in his own way.

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[45*] DID YOU KNOW. . .

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did you know that Franz Joseph Haydn's composi- tions include, among many others, 104 symphonies, 16 over- tures, 76 quartets, 68 trios, 54 sonatas, 31 concertos, 24 operas,

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[453] hasten to add Huberman's improvement on Bulow in his dissertation about the concerto form: "Brahms' concerto is neither against the vio- lin, nor for the violin, with orchestra: but it is a concerto for violin against orchestra, — and the violin wins." The word, "concerto," say the etymologists, derives from the Latin "certare" to strive or wrestle.

"Your delightful summer holiday," wrote Elisabet von Herzogen- berg to Brahms, "your beloved Portschach, with its lake from whose waves there rise D major symphonies and violin concertos, beautiful as any foam-born goddess!" In other words, this idyllic spot on the Worther See in Carinthia, Brahms' chosen retreat for three summers from 1877, gave birth to two works in the sunny key of D major — the Second Symphony and the Violin Concerto* — which were linked in character by his friends at the time, and have been by his commentators ever since.

* Brahms completed his Second Symphony in the autumn of 1877 ; the concerto just a year later.

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[455] Dr. Dieters found in the two a similarity of mood; Miss May goes so far as to say that "the sentiment is maintained at a loftier height in the concerto, although the earlier composition, the symphony, has a limpid grace which has an immediate fascination for a general audi- ence." Walter Niemann associates the two as "among Brahms' great idyllic instrumental pieces with a serious tinge." He thus compares the two first movements: "The virile struggle of this so-called 'harsh' composer against his tender North German emotional nature, his con- flict with self, follows almost the same course as in the first movement of the Second Symphony. Thus the entry of the solo violin, after the rush of the great, broad tutti of the orchestra which precedes it, pro- duces a truly regal effect, as it improvises freely on the principal theme, and works it up from the idyllic to the heroic mood." Individuals may differ about the justness of comparing the two works quite so closely. Some may admit nothing more in common between the two than a thematic simplicity, largely based on the tonic chord, and a bounteous melodic fertility; in general — the familiar and infinitely cherished "poetic" Brahms. As usual in making his first venture in one of the larger forms, Brahms, with the expectant eyes of the musical world upon him, pro- ceeded with care. In 1878, when he wrote his violin concerto, the

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[457] composer of two highly successful symphonies and the much beloved Deutsches Requiem had nothing to fear for his prestige in these fields. About concertos, matters stood differently. His single attempt to date, the D minor Piano Concerto, had begun its career eighteen years before with a fiasco, and was to that day heard only on sufferance, out of the respect due to the composer of numerous far more biddable scores. In writing a violin concerto, Brahms was looked upon as a challenger of Beethoven, of Mendelssohn, and of his popular contem- porary, Max Bruch. Brahms wrote his concerto for Josef Joachim (Joachim's copy of the score is inscribed "To him for whom it was written") . It is to be taken for granted that Brahms, who had often consulted his old friend about such works as the First Piano Concerto and the First Symphony, should in this case have looked for the advice of the virtuoso who was to play it. Writing to Joachim early in the autumn of 1878, he hesi- tated about committing himself, yielding the manuscript for a per- formance in the coming winter. He even "offered his fingers" as an alternative, for a concert in Vienna. The score, with a fair copy of the solo part, which he sent for Joachim's inspection, was in its ultimate form of three movements, proper to concertos. He had first worked upon the symphonic procedure of two middle movements, but gave

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[458] up the scherzo, and considerably revised the adagio. "The middle movements have gone," he wrote, "and of course they were the best! But I have written a feeble adagio." Kalbeck conjectures the derelict scherzo may have found its way into the Second Piano Concerto, where Brahms succumbed to the temptation of a symphonic four movement outlay. There was an interchange of correspondence about the solo part, of which Brahms sent Joachim a rough draft on August 22. Joachim complained of "unaccustomed difficulties." The composer seems to have held his own with considerable determination. An initial per- formance for Vienna was discussed, and given up. The problem was approached once more in mid-December, when Brahms sent Joachim a "beautifully written" copy of the solo part, presumably with correc- tions. "Joachim is coming here," he then wrote from Vienna, "and I should have* a chance to try the concerto through with him, and to decide for or against a public performance." The verdict is reported on December 21: "I may say that Joachim is quite keen on playing the concerto, so it may come off after all." It "came off" in Leipzig, at a Gewandhaus concert on New Year's Day, 1879. Joachim of course played, and Brahms conducted. The composer had protested a plan to have his C minor symphony played on the same programme, "because the orchestra will be tired as it is,

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[459] and I don't know how difficult the concerto will prove." Accordingly, Beethoven's Seventh ended the concert, which otherwise consisted of an overture, and some airs sung by Marcella Sembrich (then twenty- one) , Joachim adding, for good measure, Bach's Chaconne. The critic

Dorffel, in a rapturous review, admits: "as to the reception, the first movement was too new to be distinctly appreciated by the audience, the second made considerable way, the last aroused great enthusiasm." Yet Kalbeck reports a lack of enthusiasm, which he attributes to the soloist: "It seemed that Joachim had not sufficiently studied the con- certo or he was severely indisposed." Apparently the violinist was not wholly attuned to the piece at first, for after he and Brahms had played it in Vienna, the latter wrote from that city: "Joachim played my piece more beautifully with every rehearsal, and the cadenza went so mag- nificently at our concert here that the people clapped right on into my coda" (so much for concert behavior in Vienna, 1879) . In April of that year, having further played the work in Budapest, Cologne, and twice in London, Joachim seems to have had a musical awaken- ing. Writing to Brahms about further changes he said: "With these exceptions the piece, especially the first movement, pleases me more and more. The last two times I played without notes."

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[460] "This concerto for violin is now more than half a century old," wrote Lawrence Gilman in an analysis which is informative yet char- acteristically free from dry dissection. "It is still fresh, vivid, com- panionable — unaged and unaging. "The main theme of the first movment (Allegro non troppo, D major, 3-4) is announced at once by 'cellos, violas, bassoons, and horns. "This subject, and three contrasting song-like themes, together with an energetic dotted figure, marcato, furnish the thematic material of the first movement. The violin is introduced, after almost a hundred measures for the orchestra alone, in an extended section, chiefly of passage-work, as preamble to the exposition of the chief theme. The caressing and delicate weaving of the solo instrument about the melodic outlines of the song themes in the orchestra is unforgettable.

"This feature is even more pronounced in the second movement

(Adagio, F major, 2-4) , where the solo violin, having made its compli- ments to the chief subject (the opening melody for oboe) , announces a second theme, which it proceeds to embroider with captivating and tender beauty. Perhaps not since Chopin have the possibilities of deco- rative figuration developed so rich a yield of poetic loveliness as in this

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Concerto. Brahms is here ornamental without ornateness, florid with- out excess; these arabesques have the dignity and fervor of pure lyric speech. "The Finale (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace, D major,

2-4) is a virtuoso's paradise. The jocund chief theme, in thirds, is

stated at once by the solo violin. There is many a hazard for the soloist: ticklish passage work, double-stopping, arpeggios. Also there

is much spirited and fascinating music — music of rhythmical charm and gusto."

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[462] JOSEPH SZIGETI

Joseph Szigeti was born at Budapest, Hungary, on September 2, 1892. His principal master was Jeno Hubay. Szigeti gave public concerts in Berlin, and London at the age of thirteen. He lived in England from 1906 to 1913, making constant tours of Europe. In 1917 he became Professor of the master violin classes of the Con- servatory at Geneva. He played for the first time in this country in December 1925. He appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony

Orchestra on March 19, 1926, in Beethoven's Violin Concerto, on

November 8, 1935, in ProkofiefFs First Concerto, on January 5, 1940, in Bloch's Concerto, and on March 17, 1944, in Brahms' Concerto. Of the many works which have been dedicated to Szigeti are Ernest Bloch's "Nuit Exotique" Bartok's First Rhapsody, Joseph Achron's "Stempenyu," Casella's Concerto, Hamilton Harty's Concerto, Proko-

fieff's "Song Without Words," Tansman's "Cinq Pieces," Templeton Strong's "Une vie d'artiste," and Eugene Ysaye's unaccompanied Sonata in G minor.

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[463] ENTR'ACTE HANS PFITZNER By Hans F. Redlich

The following estimate of Pfitzner as man and artist was written shortly after his death for The Music Review by Hans F. Redlich. Mr. Redlich is a composer, con- ductor and musicologist of Vienna,, who since 1939 has made his home in England.

Hans Pfitzner, who died at Salzburg on 22nd May, 1949, a few days after his 80th birthday, belongs with the surviving to the royal line of the Wagner tradition. With his undisputed masterpiece, the musical legend Palestrina (1917) he created — almost a whole decade after Strauss' most successful operas — the last Music- drama in the trail of Bayreuth to arouse and hold the musical attention of German-speaking audiences through more than 30 years. Pfitzner embarked on his operatic career with Der arme Heinrich in 1895, a year after Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel had demonstrated that Wagner's style of realistic declamation could be applied successfully to a simple fairy tale. Pfitzner, no less uncompromising a Wagnerian, took his cue from the subtly chromaticized music accompanying the

death agonies of Tristan. In his first opera this kind of music covers the whole canvas of James Grun's rather trite versification of the mediaeval German legend, in which a plague-stricken knight a la

Tannhauser is at last healed and redeemed through the self-sacrificing offices of an innocent maiden a la Elsa. In his next opera, Die Rose

vom Liebesgarten (1901) , Pfitzner asserts himself in a style of effusive and colourful Romanticism, culminating in folk-melodies and purely

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[464] orchestral episodes of great descriptive beauty. This opera, suffering from the inanities of its symbolized libretto, reveals Pfitzner's spiritual relationship with the early German Romantics, like Weber and E. T. A. Hoffmann, the latter's Undine (1817) being successfully re- vived with Pfitzner as editor and conductor. Only in his third great operatic work did Pfitzner arrive at his full musical stature. Its libretto (written by the composer himself in true Wagnerian fashion and headed by a very humanistic quotation from Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea) deals with one of the most topical cultural problems of the day: the relationship between artist and authority, as reflected in the struggle between ecclesiastic hierarchs, politicians and composers, to preserve the dignity of liturgical music at the time of the Council of Trent. Pfitzner's self-identifying sympathies are clearly with the highly individualistic artist Palestrina, who refuses to submit to official pressure, following only the promptings of his own genius. The creative outcome of this spiritual combat is the Missa

Papae Marcelli, which is conceived in a scene of ecstatic fervour against a sonorous background of angelic voices and ghostly apparitions of Palestrina's predecessors. The callousness of official politics, vividly expressed in the fact of Palestrina's brutal arrest and the factitious uproar at the end of the Council session (end of act II) are finally contradicted by the highest authority, humbling itself in Cardinal Borromeo before the spiritually triumphant artist and honouring him, the shattered vessel of a higher ethical message, by the Pope's personal visit. This solution, which in the eternal conflict, artist versus author- ity, so unmistakably sides with the former is characteristic of Pfitzner's cultural outlook. Those who have had occasion to arouse the displeas-

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[4^5] ure of authority in totalitarian countries know, to their dismay, how different reality is from Pfitzner's imaginary Papal Rome. Pfitzner's music in this work successfully integrates the sonorities of mediaeval and Renaissance music into the orbit of a highly individual post-Wagnerian opera style, uniting typical features of Meistersinger and Parsifal with the composer's peculiar conception of modal har- mony, and painting on a vivid canvas the legend of the dying middle ages and the upsurging Renaissance, as reflected in the history of Italy's ecclesiastic music of that particular period. The performance of this work (Munich, 1917) was the high-water mark in the com- poser's career, who from now on was considered a public figure in his country, receiving in rich measure the customary honours and titles due to a German composer of highest distinction. Unfortunately, in later years Pfitzner became more notorious for his tiresome polemical quarrels with Busoni, , Paul Bekker and others on the controversial subject of "Modern Music" (as conceived by the re- formers of 1918) , than famed for new creative exploits. Like his master , he had an uncanny aptitude for turning the admirers of his music into implacable enemies of his various writings. This is a pity, as Pfitzner, the composer, proved in later years capable of

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[466] ,

remarkable development in the field of choral, symphonic and cham-

ber music. His rather unequal Cantata Von deutscher Seele (1921) , on beautiful poems by Eichendorff, is only a symphonic excrescence from his many inspired lieder, but his early string Quartet and piano Quintet pave the way to so daring and uncompromising a work as the string Quartet in C sharp minor, op. 36 (composed in 1925 and turned

into a Symphony in 1932) , a clear offspring of the late quartets of Beethoven and acoustically related to certain characteristics of atonal-

ity. Pfitzner, who seemed happiest when inspired by romantic subjects,

composed a charming Christmas opera Das Christelflein (first com- posed in 1906 as incidental music to a play, turned into a full

opera in 1917) , besides incidental music to Ibsen's Vest auf Solhaug and Kleist's Kdthchen von Heilbronn. A late opera Das Herz (1931) on an impossible libretto, proved a failure, but a spate of concertos and works of symphonic character during the last decades showed that his fervour had not abated, even if the gulf between him and the younger generation in had become more pronounced than ever.

Pfitzner, who was born in 1869 * n Moscow of German parents, spent

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[467] a great part of his life as a conductor, opera director and later as a distinguished academician in various German music centres. Years spent in Strasbourg (1908-16) before it had returned to France, may have fostered his inherent rabid nationalism. This made him persona non grata in the Republic as well as in the Third Reich. His perverse predilection for galling polemics even involved him in serious conflicts with Nazi authoritarians, just as his Furor teutonicus before had shocked his many friends from liberal quarters. Among these were (who conducted a magnificent performance of Die Rose at the Vienna State Opera in 1905 and whose wife specially befriended him), Bruno Walter (who conducted the first performance of Pales- trina in Munich, 1917) and (who in his Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen (1918), published a masterly assessment of Pales- trina and of its creator's Schopenhauer-inspired "sympathy with death") . Pfitzner was never an Antisemite or a Nazi, he belonged with all the regrettable characteristics of his nagging and exasperating personality to an earlier stratum of German cultural life: to the nationalist-minded Romantics like Goerres, Jahn and Arndt. He stood uncompromisingly for the universality of the humanistic world-concep- 5^&M

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[468] tion, and for the preservation of the rich inheritance passed on to posterity by Classicism and the Romantic movement. He lovingly edited E. T. A. Hoffmann and Schumann, cleverly interpreted Wagner and ingeniously absorbed wide tracts of mediaeval music concepts into his own musical language. His settings of Eichendorff poems are not unworthy successors of Schumann's Liederkreis and 's Eichendorff lieder, while his few essays in chamber music reveal him as a most imaginative guardian of the classical tradition. Pfitzner's music has a distinct flavour of its own, something intensely

German in its mixture of ponderous, often scholarly (but never aca- demic) historicism and nostalgic romantic effusiveness. For that reason it does not travel well and seems condemned to eternal parochial fame much like Bruckner's symphonies. Pfitzner shares with Bruckner the regrettable fate in this country of never having been given a fair deal. No better amends could be made than to grant the dead what has so far been denied to the living artist: a fair hearing. A performance of

Palestrina would, if prepared in a spirit of sympathetic understanding, go a long way to prove that in an epoch so devoid of great creative personalities we can ill afford to ignore the artistic message of this late musical humanist.

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[469] .

CHORALE PRELUDE AND CHORALE, "DAS ALTE JAHR VERGANGEN 1ST" By Johann Sebastian Bach

Born in Eisenach on March 21, 1685; died at Leipzig, July 28, 1750

Arranging the Prelude and Chorale for orchestra, Charles Munch has used the following instruments: 2 flutes, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone and strings. The first performance of his orchestration was at these concerts, January 2, 1952.

The Chorale tune was first published in 1588 and its composer was Johann Steurlein. Bach made two settings of the Chorale (No. 35 and 36 in the Bach Gesellschaft, Vol. 39) and the first of these is the one he used for the Chorale Prelude in his Orgelbiichlein.

Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Dass du uns in so grosser G'fdhr Behiitet hast lang' Zeit und Jahr.

(The old year is past — we thank Thee Lord Jesus, that through the long year Thou hast protected us in such great danger.)

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[470] A CHRISTMAS CANTATA By Arthur Honegger

Born in Le Havre, March 10, 1892

Une Canlate de Noel, for baritone solo with chorus, organ and orchestra, was composed in 1953* for the 25th Anniversary of the Chamber Orchestra of Basle and for its founder, Paul Sacher. It was first performed by that orchestra and con- ductor on December 18, 1953. The first performance in France was on January 9, 1954, by the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, under the direction of Georges Tzipine. The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, harp, organ and strings. There is an alternating part for chorus of children.

The composer has revealed the source of this work as "the first portion of La Passion de Selzach as it was conceived by the poet, Caesar von Arx, which began with the episode of the Nativity of Christ.

* At the end of the score is inscribed : "Paris, January 5, 1953, after a sketch of January 24, 1941."

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[471] It is this part of the work, almost finished in 1940, which has served me as the basis for the Cantate de Noel, not without undergoing in the

course of its writing a number of necessary changes. The first chorus, somewhat developed, brings the anguished appeal of humanity to the Saviour, to the child born of the Virgin, whose name, Emmanuel, signifies 'God with us' (Saint Matthew). "In answer to this cry, the archangel announces to the shepherds the coming of the Messiah. "Then, from over all the earth, the joyous and naive songs welcom- ing the event are intermingled, terminating in the hymn Laudate Dominum. An orchestral postlude extends the composite of Christmas songs.

"The score is written in a style both simple and tonal, in a way

which is compatible with the character of these songs, whose artless poetry exerted such a charm in our childhood." The Cantata opens with a somber largo for the organ and the strings from which develops an andante, the other instruments enter- ing, together with the wordless tones of the chorus. There follows what the composer has referred to as Vappel angoisse to the text from

Psalm 130 "Out of the depths I cried" (De profundis clamavi) . The tempo doubles while the chorus maintains a sustained unison and this leads to the triumphant proclamation "O komm Emmanuel!" by the full chorus, alternating with "Freu dich, O Israeli" The baritone, at

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[472] first accompanied by organ and trumpets, sings "Be not afraid, for I ." have come to bring you tidings of great joy (Fiirchtet euch nichi) The chorus answers with the Christmas song Es ist ein Reis ent- sprungen. The score recommends that each Christmas carol be sung

in its original language. With this are combined the Gloria in excelsis and the Noel, II est ne le divin enfant. The combination of traditional melodies recalls a similar procedure in the Chants des Morts. The Christmas chorale, Vom Himmel hoch, reaches a climax and a diminu- endo after which the Gloria in excelsis is repeated by the baritone and taken up by the chorus. After the last broad "Amen" the orchestra alone brings an extended final section, ending pianissimo.

Chorus:

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine. Domine exaudi vocem meam.

O komm, O komm, Emmanuel! Nach Dir sehnt sich dein Israel. In Siindenjammer weinen wir und fleh'n, Und flehen hinauf zu Dir.

Freu dich, freu dich, O Israel! Bald kommt, bald kommt Emmanuel O komm du wahres Licht der Welt, Das uns're Finsternis erhellt. Wir irren hier in Trug und Wahn, O fiihr uns auf des Lichtes Bahn!

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[473] Freu dich, freu dich, O Israel! gekommen ist Emmanuel.

Baritone Solo: Fiirchtet euch nicht, denn ich verkundige euch. Grosse Freude die der ganzen Welt widerfahren ist. Euch ist Christus der Heiland geboren; In einem Stalle in Bethlehem, Da werdet ihr finden in einer Krippe das Jesuskind.

Chorus:

Es ist ein Reis entsprungen aus einer Wiirzel zart.

II est n£ le divin enfant, Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes.

(Gloria in excelsis Deo.)

Wie uns die Alten sungen aus Jesse kam die Art.

II est ne le divin enfant, Chantons tous son avenement, und hat ein Blumlein bracht. Mitten im kalten Winter wohl zu der halben Nacht, Das Reis das ich da meine davon Jesaias sagt.

II est n£ le divin enfant, Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes.

Maria ist's die Reine die uns das Blumlein bracht.

Chantons tous son avenement, aus Gottes ew'gem Rat.

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[474] Hat sie ein Kind geboren unci blieb doch reine Magd. Gloria. Vom Himmel hoch, ihr Engelein, kommt! Susani, Susani, Susani! Kommt singt und klingt, kommt pfeift und trombt. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Von Jesu singt und Maria, Eia, Eia! O du frohliche, O du selige Welt ging verloren, Christ ist geboren, kommt pfeift und trombt. Alleluia, Alleluia! Freue, freue dich, O Christenheit! Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar, Schlaf — Susani, Susani, Susani! Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh. Vom Himmel hoch, ihr Engelein, kommtl Hirten erst kund gemacht, Singt Fried den Menschen weit und breit, Gott Preis und Ehr!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Christ is erschienen Uns zu versiihnen.

Baritone Solo: Gloria in excelsis Deo,

Chorus: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes,

flEVER BEFORE in America's industrial history has the essential need of catalogs and other forms of printed information and

material been so clearly evident. Efforts to resume

production, to re-sell neglected markets, are helped by

the up-to-date bulletins issued by the suppliers to Industry

—or hampered by the lack of them. Now is the time to

revise or replace your catalogs and mailing pieces.

Let us help you schedule your printing needs.

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272 CONGRESS STREET • BOSTON • LIBERTY 2-7800

[475] Baritone Solo: Gloria in excelsis Deo, Et in terra Pax hominibus Bonae voluntatis!

Chorus: Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, Laudate eum omnes populi. Quoniam confirmata est super nos Misericordia ejus Et Veritas Domini manet in aeternum. Gloria Patri et Filio, Et Spiritui Sancto! Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, Laudate eum omnes populi. Sicut erat in principio Et nunc et semper et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Mac Morgan was born in Texarkana, Texas, and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. He obtained his principal musical education at the Eastman School in Rochester. His career has included numerous operatic and concert engagements. For several summers he has been a member of the opera department of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.

Anita Davis-Chase Announces MYRA HESS

SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY AFT. JANUARY 23

Check payable to Symphony Hall and self addressed stamped envelope must accompany mail orders to Box Office

Tickets: $4.40, $3.85, $3.30, $2.75, $2.20, $1.65, $1.10 (tax incl.) Steinway Piano

ffw the concert Qf&H-Qthorn

any record gives "full dress per- jfTL formance" with a G-E car- tridge. Listen to a diamond stylus unit tomorrow. G-E diamonds augment faithful reproduction... CARTRIDGES add years to record life. AND STYLI generalOelectric

476 1 {Continued from page 436) chestra has continued its interest in who died in that year. The Serge new music and the repertory for the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the past five years has included many Library of Congress was founded in premieres, as well as performances of 1950. Both before and after the death many other contemporary works by of Dr. Koussevitzky, the two Founda- American and European composers. tions have carried on the work he be- Serge Koussevitzky, during his who gan, encouraging the growth of musical twenty-five years as conductor of this culture and the development of musical Orchestra (1924-1949) added immeas- talent by commissioning many Ameri- urably to the recognition of contem- porary composers, established in 1942 can and European works. Some have the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, since become an important part of the Inc., in memory of his wife, Natalie, world's symphonic repertory.

Stravinsky MASS and Mozart REQUIEM SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 at SANDERS THEATRE 8:30 p.m. M. I. T. CHORAL SOCIETY Klaus Liepmann, Conductor with the ZIMBLER SINFONIETTA and Assisting Artists Nancy Teickey, soprano Donald Sullivan, tenor Eunice Alberts, alto James Clancy, tenor Paul Matthen, bass Tickets: $1.00, $1.50, and $2.00 at Book Clearing House, 423 Boylston St., or by mail from Room 14-N236, M. I. T. (Please make checks payable to M. I. T.)

Boston Symphony Orchestra

CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director

OPEN REHEARSALS

In SYMPHONY HALL at 7:30 P.M.

JANUARY 5, Wednesday MARCH 3, Thursday

FEBRUARY 2, Wednesday APRIL 14, Thursday

Single Tickets at Box Office $2.00

[477] WHY M COMMON AXES IS BETTER THAN UN UNCOMMON AXIS BY x*

Today's high-fidelity loudspeaker isn't one any more, it's three: 1 part low, 1 part midrange, 1 part high. The new nomenclature for this mellifluous beast is Triaxial, meaning 3 speakers with a common axis. Three separate speakers would take up 3 times as much space, hence the emphasis on "tri-ax" today. One of our very favorite speaker manufacturers, namely Electro-Voice, has gone all out this season for the 3-in-l speaker with two 12" models and one 15". The Electro-Voice 12TRX-B is a real bargain in triaxials at $58.51. Mounted right smack in its center is the famous E-V T35B super tweeter that chirps like a bird from 2000 to 15,000 cycles per second. Its 12" cone reproduces the 35 cycle groan of Mr. Biggs' organ, smiling all the while. We at Radio Shack will be happy indeed to tell you how easy it is to replace your present speaker with an Electro-Voice triaxial. In our famous Audio Comparator you can compare it against any other make and let your ears decide. Radio Shack also carries the entire Electro-Voice line of speaker sys- tems, cabinets, cartridges, microphones, amplifiers. Oh yes — let's not forget E-V's weatherproof outdoor speaker ($38.22) for al fresco hi-fi, the latest fad! RADIO SHACK CORPORATION 167 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON

BROWNING (NOT BOB'TJ TUNING IS HIGHER THEN FI, THMTS NO LIE!

Browning Laboratories of Winchester, Mass., has a repu- tation for making high-fidelity tuners capable of with- standing all onslaughts of competition and (especially) writers of advertising claims, present company excepted. Browning just doesn't know how to make anything less than the best, and who should know this better than your old pal Radio Shack whose audio technicians curl a lip in nothing flat at equipment tljat fails to meet its specifi- cations? Whether it's FM alone, FM'and AM combined, monaural or binaural, there's a Browning tuner to satisfy the musically discriminating listener. Newest Browning is a trim little FM tuner priced less than $80. For Radio Shack's classical music programs on WXHR, WCRB and WCOP, you just couldn't ask for a finer instrument. Feel, look at, listen to a Browning tuner and you'll know — without taking a ppst-graduate course in elec- tronics at Graymatter on the Charles — that this Win- chester company is behaving in a manner to make New Englanders proud of their area's performance in tech- nical and musical matters. Radio Shack is busily doubling the size of its store to give folks like Browning more display and folks like you more elbow room.

RADIO SHACK CORPORATION 167 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON

[478] SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR AND FIFTY-FIVE

Eleventh Program

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, January 7, at 2:15 o'clock

SATURDAY EVENING, January 8, at 8:30 o'clock

Moussorgsky Prelude to "Khovanstchina"

Schumann Symphony No. 4, in D minor, Op. 120

I. Ziemlich langsam; Lebhaft II. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam III. Scherzo: Lebhaft IV. Langsam; Lebhaft (Played without pause)

Martinu Fantaisies Symphoniques (Symphony No. 6)

I. Lento; Allegro; Lento II. Allegro III. Lento; Allegro (First performance) INTERMISSION

Beethoven Concerto for Pianoforte, No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73

I. Allegro II. Adagio un poco mosso III. Rondo: Allegro ma non tanto

SOLOIST ROBERT CASADESUS Mr. Casadesus uses the Steinway Piano

The first part of each Saturday evening concert will be broadcast (8:30-9:30 E.S.T.) on the NBC Network (Boston Station WBZ). Both concerts entire will be broadcast from Station WGBH-FM. This program will end about 4:15 o'clock on Friday Afternoon, 10:30 o'clock on Saturday Evening.

Scores and information about music on this program may be seen in the Music Room of the Boston Public Library. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS

[479] MUSICAL INSTRUCTION LEONARD ALTMAN Teacher of Pianoforte

280 Dartmouth Street Boston, Massachusetts KE 6-5183 TA 5-9745

JOSEPH U. BOUDREAU Representing M. ISIDOR PHILIPP

Piano Instruction for advanced students interested in serious study.

In Boston on Tuesdays. Telephone LA 3-2736 for information. STAGEFRIGHT Can be cured Short Course of Instruction Goodhue Studio Cambridge KIrkland 7-8516 Call mornings DAVID BLAIR McCLOSKY TEACHER OF SINGING VOICE THERAPIST BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC, BOSTON, MASS. DIRECTOR: PLYMOUTH ROCK CENTER OF MUSIC AND DRAMA, INC. By Appointment CO 6-6070 FOR GREATER LISTENING-PLEASURE learn to follow the music from printed score Simplified instruction by SAMUEL SEINIGER Conductor of the BOSTON SALON ORCHESTRA A Sinfonietta of Boston Symphony Players My orchestrations have been performed by , Boston Symphony, and "Telephone Hour" Orchestras 211 Park Drive, Boston Tel. CO 6-7859 THOMPSON STONE VOCAL COACHING and INSTRUCTION

169 Bay State Road, Boston COeley 7-7*65

VOCALIST MUSICIAN SARA LOCKE MARGIA NADELL PIANIST — TEACHER TEACHER OF VOICE CULTIVATION Associate Instructor at Brandeis University Breath Control— Diction— Articulation 280 Dartmouth Street Studio, Steinert Bldg., 162 Boylston St. KE 6-5183 CH 3-1388 For appointment, Tel. GA 7-7585

[480]