Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 71, 1951-1952
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BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON 1951-1952 Palmer Auditorium, New London CONNECTICUT COLLEGE CONCERT Boston Symphony Orchestra (Seventy-first Season, 1951-1952) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins Violas Bassoons Richard Burgin, Joseph de Pasquale Raymond Allard Concert-master Jean Cauhap6 Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Georges Fourel Theodore Brewster Gaston Elcus Eugen Lehner Rolland Tapley Albert Bernard Contra-Bassoon Norbert Lauga George Humphrey Boaz Piller George Zazofsky Jerome Lipson Paul Cherkassky Louis Artieres Horns Harry Dubbs Robert Karol James Stagliano Vladimk Resnikoff Reuben Green Harry Shapiro Joseph Leibovici Bernard KadinoS Harold Meek Einar Hansen Vincent Mauricci Paul Keaney Harry Dickson Walter Macdonald Violoncellos Emil Kornsand Osbourne McConathy Carlos Pinfield Samuel Mayes Alfred Zighera Paul Fedorovsky Trumpets Minot Beale Jacobus Langendoen Nieland Roger Voisin Herman Mischa Silberman Marcel Lafosse Roger Schermanski Hippolyte Droeghmanf Karl Zeise Armando Ghitalla Stanley Benson Ren6 Voisin Gottfried Wilfinger Josef Zimbler Bernard Parronchi Trombones Clarence Knudson Enrico Fabrizio Marjollet Raichman Pierre Mayer Leon Jacob Lucien Hansotte Manuel Zung Fl.UTIS John Coffey Samuel Diamond Georges Laurent Josef Orosz Victor Manusevitch James Pappoutsakis James Nagy Phillip Kaplan Tuba Leon Gorodetzky Vinal Smith Raphael Del Sordo Piccolo Melvin Bryant Madsen George Harps Lloyd Stonestreet Bernard Zighera Saverio Messina Oboes Olivia Lueickc Sheldon Rotenberg Ralph Gomberg Leo Panasevich Jean Devergie William Waterhoiise John Holmes Timpani Roman Szulc English Horn Bassks Charles Smith Speyer Georges Moleux Louis Willis Page Percussion Clarinets Ludwig Juht Max Polster Gino Cioffi Irving Frankel Simon Sternburg Manuel Valerio Harold Farberman Henry Greenberg Pasquale Cardillo Henry Portnoi E\) Clarinet Henry Freeman Librarians Henri Girard Bass Clarinet Leslie Rogers John Barwicki Rosario Mazzeo Leonard Burkat Palmer Auditorium ^^Connecticut College\ New London SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON, 1951-1952 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin TUESDAY EVENING, January 15 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President Jacob J. Kaplan . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Charles D. Jackson Theodore P. Ferris Lewis Perry Alvan T. Fuller Edward A. Taft N. Penrose Hallowell Raymond S. Wilkins Francis W. Hatch Oliver Wolcott • George E. Judd, Manager T. D. Perry, Jr. N. S. Shirk, Assistant Managers O] presented for LJour [Pleasure vii The EMPLOYERS' GROUP Insurance Companies 110 MILK STREET, BOSTON 7, MASS. THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORP., LTD. AMERICAN EMPLOYERS' INSURANCE CO. THE EMPLOYERS* FIRE INSURANCE CO. Speaking of Programs , , , COMEONE touched off a heated discussion of television, radio, and ^^ musical program-making. Delver Forfax, the insatiable researcher, drew a folder from a desk drawer, and said: ''Let's see some examples from the 'Good Old Days.' "Here's an 1837 announcement of the Theatre Royal, Dublin — a leader in its time. 'The celebrated Norwegian Violinist, MR. OLE BULL, is engaged for TWO NIGHTS ONLY. This present Monday . the performance will commence with . A New Way to Play Old Debts. Mr. Ole Bull will perform. Between the Second and Third acts of the Play, a Grand Concerto, in three parts; . Between the Third and Fourth acts, a QUARTETTE on ONE VIOLIN. After the Play ... he will introduce Variations on several favorite Irish Airs, including Rory O'More & St. Patrick's Day.' "Another program was to open with Pll Be Your Second, followed by Bellini's / Capuletti e Montecchi. Mr. Bull was to play before the opera, after Act i, and at the close. "Now let's look for improved program-making. Here's an 1839 announcement. First comes 'the Comic Piece,' X.Y.Z., after which, an INTERLUDE IN w^HicH Mr. VAN AMBURGH Will Exhibit His Fearless AND Extraordinary Performances With His LIVING LIONS, TIGERS, LEOPARDS, &c.. Introducing A LAMB AMONG THE LIONS. The performance . will terminate with A GRAND CHAR- ACTERISTIC TABLEAU Representing the Wild Animals and their Tamer Enveloped by a Burning Forest.' "To conclude, there was a duet. The Keel Row, and a hornpipe. "Ah, the Good Old Days !" Delver sighed sardonically. [2] . Palmer Auditorium ^Connecticut College^ New London Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director TUESDAY EVENING, January 15, at 8:30 o'clock Program ERNEST ANSERMET Conducting Beethoven Symphony No. 5, in C minor, Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante con moto III. C Allegro, Trio IV. {Allegro INTERMISSION Tchaikovsky Concerto for Violin, in D major. Op. 35 I. Allegro moderato II. Canzonetta: Andante III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo Stravinsky Divertimento, 'Xe Baiser de la Fee," Allegorical Ballet I. Sinfonia II. Danses Suisses: Valse III. Scherzo IV. Pas de deux Adagio — Variation — Coda SOLOIST ANSHEL BRUSILOW ———^-^—^— BALDWIN PIANO ^^^ VICTOR RECORDS The Friday and Saturday concerts will be broadcast each week on Station WGBH (FM) [3] ERNEST ANSERMET ERNEST Ansermet, bom in Vevey, Switzerland, November ii, 1883, began his career as a professor of mathematics at the University of Lausanne, and at the Sorbonne, but studied music with Den^r^az in Lausanne, Gedalge in Paris, and Otto Barblan and Ernest Bloch in Geneva. He became conductor of the Kursaal concerts in Montreux in 1912, and succeeded Stavenhagen as director of the Geneva Sub- scription Concerts in 1914. In 1915 he toured Europe and both Americas as conductor of Diaghileff's Ballet Russe. In 1918 he founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He conducted the symphony orchestra at Buenos Aires in the seasons 1924-27, and in 1936-37 re- turned to conduct in South America and several cities of the United States. Having conducted concerts over Radio Suisse during the war, he resumed his activities as guest conductor in Europe in 1946, and returned to this country in the season 1947-1948 for guest appearances. On January 25, 28-29, 1949, he appeared as guest conductor of this Orchestra, and has visited this country each season since then. SYMPHONY NO. 5, IN C MINOR, Op. 67 By LuDwiG VAN Beethoven Born at Bonn, December 16 (?), 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827 The Fifth Symphony was completed near the end of the year 1807, and first performed at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, December 22, 1808, Beethoven conducting. The parts were published in April, 1809, and the score in March, 1826. The dedication is to Prince von Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky. The Symphony is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and double-bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings (the piccolo, trombones and double-bassoon, here making their first appearance in a symphony of Beethoven, are used only in the Finale). The most recent performance in this series of the Boston Symphony Orchestra w^as October 7, 1949. (Charles Munch, in his first concerts as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, repeated the opening program of the opening of Symphony Hall, fifty years before.) • IT IS POSSIBLE to find an affinity of rhythmic units through the four movements of the Fifth Symphony. But the similarity (and it is nothing more) should be kept within the bounds of a superficial obser- vation. Beethoven may not have been even aware of it — he was too deep an artist to pursue a unifying theory. A still greater mistake is to look upon the initial four-note figure with its segregating hold as more than a segment of the theme proper. Weingartner and others [4] after him have exposed this fallacy, and what might be called the enlightened interpretation of this movement probably began with the realization that Beethoven never devised a first movement more conspicuous for graceful symmetry and even, melodic flow. An isolated tile cannot explain a mosaic, and the smaller the tile unit, the more smooth and delicate of line will be the complete picture. Just so does Beethoven's briefer "motto" devolve upon itself to produce long and regular melodic periods. Even in its first bare statement, the "motto" belongs conceptually to an eight-measure period, broken for the moment as the second fermata is held through an additional bar. The movement is regular in its sections, conservative in its tonalities. Its very regularity, its incredible compactness, adds to the power of the symphony which, when it was first heard, disrupted all contemporary notions of what a symphony was supposed to be. The Andante con moto (in A-flat major) is the most irregular ol the four movements. It is not so much a theme with variations as free thoughts upon segments of a theme with certain earmarks and re- currences of the variation form hovering in the background. The first setting forth of the melody cries heresy by requiring 48 bars. The first strain begins regularly enough, but, instead of closing on the tonic A-flat, hangs suspended. The wood winds echo this last phrase and carry it to a cadence which is pointedly formal as the strings echo it at the nineteenth bar. Formal but not legitimate. A close ai the eighth bar would have been regular, and this is not a movement of regular phrase lengths. Regularity is not established until the end of the movement when this phrase closes upon its eighth bar at last! The whole andante is one of the delayed cadences. The second strain of the melody pauses upon the dominant and proceeds with an out- burst into C major, repeats in this key to pause at the same place and dream away at leisure into E-flat. The two sections of melody recur regularly with varying ornamental accompaniment in the strings, but again the questioning pauses bring in enchanting whispered vagaries, such as a fugato for flutes, oboes and clarinets, or a pianis- simo dalliance by the violins upon a strand of accompaniment.