Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 62,1942-1943, Trip
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
(Earttegte ifall • New fork Fifty-Seventh Season in New York Thursday Evening, March 11 Saturday Afternoon, March 13 VICTOR RED SEAL RECORDS by the Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Also Sprach Zarathustra Strauss Battle of Kershenetz Rimsky-Korsakov Bolero Ravel Capriecio ( Jestis Maria Sanroma, Soloist) Stravinsky Classical Symphony Prokofieff Concerto for Orchestra in D major K. P. E. Bach Concerto Grosso in D minor Vivaldi Concerto in D major ( Jascha Heifetz, Soloist) Brahms Concerto No. 2 (Jascha Heifetz, Soloist) ; Prokofieff Concerto No. 12 — Larghetto Handel Damnation of Faust : Minuet — Waltz — Rakoczy March Berlioz Danse ; Debussy-Ravel Daphnis et Chloe — Suite No. 2 Ravel filegie (Violoncello solo: Jean Bedetti) Faur§ "Enchanted Lake" . Liadov Fair Harvard Arr. by Koussevitzky Friihlingsstimmen — Waltzes (Voices of Spring) Strauss Gymnopedie No. 1 Erik Satie-Debussy "Khovanstchina" Prelude Moussorgsky La Valse Ravel "La Mer" ("The Sea") Debussy Last Spring Grieg "Lieutenant Kije" Suite Prokofieff Love for Three Oranges — Scherzo and March Prokofieff Ma Mere L'Oye (Mother Goose) Ravel Mefisto Waltz Liszt Missa Solemnis Beethoven Passion According to Saint Matthew (Three Albums) Bach "Peter and the Wolf" Prokofieff Pictures at an Exhibition Moussorgsky-Ravel Pohjola's Daughter Sibelius "Romeo and Juliet," Overture-Fantasia Tchaikovsky Rosamunde — Ballet Music Schubert Salon Mexico, El Aaron Copland San Juan Capistrano — 2 Nocturnes Harl McDonald Sarabande Debussy-Ravel Song of Volga Boatmen Arr. Iby Stravinsky "Swanwhite" ("The Maiden with Roses") Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major ("Spring") Schumann Symphony No. 2 in D major Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D major Sibelius Symphony No. 3 Harris Symphony No. 4 in A major ("Italian") Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 in E minor Brahms Symphony No. 4 in F minor Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major Sibelius Symphony No. 6 in B minor ( "Pathetique" ) ." Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 8 in F major Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in B minor ( "Unfinished" ) Schubert Symphony No. 29 in A major Mozart Symphony No. 34 in C major Mozart Symphony No. 94 in G major ("Surprise") Haydn Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major Haydn Tapiola ( Symphonic Poem) Sibelius Waltz (from String Serenade) Tchaikovsky Wiener Blut — Waltzes (Vienna Blood) Strauss «HHi (Eantrgt* Hall • £fero fork Fifty-Seventh Season in New York SIXTY-SECOND SEASON, 1942-1943 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Fourth Concert THURSDAY EVENING, March 11 AND THE Fourth Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, March 13 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Jerome D. Greene . President Henry B. Sawyer . Vice-President Henry B. Cabot . Treasurer Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Roger I. Lee Reginald C. Foster Richard C. Paine Alvan T. Fuller William Phillips N. Penrose Hallowell Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [ 1 ] In Order that bodily Spirit Refreshened by zJMusic May Remain £trong To H. B. Cabot, Treasurer Symphony Hall, Boston In recognition of the inner strength that the Orchestra brings to the many thousands in New York and elsewhere, I ask to be enrolled as a member of the Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Current Season and herewith enclose the sum of $ for the support of the Orchestra. Name Address Cheques are payable to Boston Symphony Orchestra. Payments may be made with enrollments or at any time you specify during the season. Gifts to the Orchestra are deductible donations under the Federal Income Tax Law. [2] fflarttegte Hall Fifty-Seventh Season in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductoi FOURTH EVENING CONCERT THURSDAY, March 11 Programme Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis for Double String Orchestra Roy Harris Symphony No. 5 I. Prelude II. Chorale III. Dance Fugue {First performance in New York) INTERMISSION Schumann Symphony No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 3S I. Andante un poco maestoso; Allegro molto vivace II. Larghetto III. Scherzo: Molto vivace. Trio I: Molto piu vivace. Trio II IV. Allegro animato e grazioso BALDWIN PIANO The music of these programmes is available at the Music Library, 58th Street Branch, The New York Public Library. t 3 J FANTASIA ON A THEME BY THOMAS TALLIS, for Double String Orchestra By Ralph Vaughan Williams Born at Down Ampney, between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, England, October 12, 1872 This Fantasia was written for the Gloucester Festival of 1910, where it had it:> first performance in the Cathedral. It was published in 1921. The first performance in this country was by the Symphony Society of New York, March 9, 1922. The first Boston performance was by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, October 27, 1922. In the seventieth year of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the musical world is reminiscently aware of his extensive contribution to his art, personal — and English — in a special sense. Of the much thai has been said about his music, the following, written by Guido Pannain for the Rassegna Musicate, is perhaps as apt as any: "During the 19th century, musical England was merely a German colony. Of late an awakening of national feeling has taken place in English music, constituting an awakening after two centuries of slum- ber, of aesthetic consciousness — or conscience. What the Russian com- posers of the igth century did, composers of all other nations have attempted to do in the 20th century. Their intentions were no doubt excellent — as good as any of those with which hell is paved. National spirit, bereft of its natural historical function, becomes mere national- ism — and, in music, nationalism always turns straight to folklore, so that it means setting the cart before the horse, the programme be- fore the deeds. Russian folk-tunes were beautiful wild flowers, primi- tive, and essentially 'anti-occidental,' which by their very nature pro- vided an antidote to the romanticism in which western music was sinking. English folk-song is neither primitive nor wild. It is a beau- tifully wrought jewel, the product of a long tradition and of idiosyn- crastic custom, so dignified, refined, and smooth, that it might be the outcome of a thorough course of musical education. And now we have English composers eagerly exploiting this music, which suits them very well; but at the same time they have to take into accouni the modern methods which have revolutionized current technique. "The one who sees his way most clearly amid these conflicting ten- dencies is, in my opinion, Vaughan Williams. He is at all times re- strained, tranquil in emotion, unbending to passion, and never falls a prey to the lure of virtuosity. He evinces a sense of mastery, a power to bend events to his will which we do not find in others, who in turn may be more alert and more skilful in the art of stepping into the limelight. Many of the modern English composers continually risk falling out of the German frying-pan into the French fire. Others commit the mistake of trying to achieve a style conceived in the ab- stract, a style in which they themselves are not present. From all these C43 errors Vaughan Williams is saved by his sense of proportion. He is a fine melodist, and genuinely lyrical despite his simplicity and re- straint. His music is instinct with the spirit of folk-music, never over- laden nor plethoric. His versatile temperament expresses itself as con- vincingly in contemplative moods as in moods of comedy." "The Fantasia is scored for string orchestra divided into three sec- " tions," so the composer explains. (1) Full body of strings. (2) Small orchestra of nine players. (3) Solo quartet. These three bodies of players are used in various ways, sometimes playing as one body, sometimes antiphonally, and sometimes accompanying each other." Mr. Williams in the score specifies the second orchestra as consisting of nine players, "two first violin players, two second violin players, two viola players, two violoncello players, and one doublebass player. The solo parts are to be played by the leader of each group." In 1567, Thomas Tallis, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the Court of Elizabeth of England, wrote eight tunes, each in a different mode, for the Metrical Psalter of Archbishop Parker. The Psalter, which now lies in the British Museum, shows the tunes in four-part harmony, each part printed separately. The cantus firmus, according to the following note, is in the tenor part: "The Tenor of these partes be for the people when they will syng alone, the other parts, put for greater queers, or to such as will syng or play priuatelye." Of the eight tunes, Vaughan Williams has chosen the third for the subject of his Fantasia. Each of them, and its corresponding mode, is charac- terized in the following eight rhyming lines: "The first is meeke: deuout to see, The second sad: in maiesty. The third doth rage: a roughly brayth, The fourth doth fawne: and flattry playth. The fyfth delight: and laugheth the more, The sixth bewayleth: it weepeth full sore. The seuenth tredeth stoute: in froward race, The eyghte goeth milde: in modest pace." Hearers of the twentieth century may look in vain for any sugges- tion of raging or rough braying in the tune of Mr. Williams' choice. "Although this Fantasy may vividly conjure up for the hearer the England of Henry VIII, or of Elizabeth," writes Eric Blom, in his illuminating notes for the programme of the B. B. C. Orchestra, "it must be listened to as a modern work and, but for the theme it bor- rows, an entirely original composition. Its form, however, approxi- mates to one that was current in Tallisjs own lime — the fantasia or fancy for a consort of viols.