ACADEMY OF MUSIC, BROOKLYN. BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. ARTHUR NIKISCH, Conductor. Eleventh Season. 1891-92. PROGRAMME OF THE First Rehearsal and Concert Friday Afternoon, November 6, at 2.30. Saturday Evening, November 7, at 8.00. Historical and Descriptive Notes prepared by G. H. WILSON. PUBLISHED BY 0. A. ELLIS, Manfger. The MASON & HAMLIN PIANC Illustrates the same high standard of excellence which has always characterized the MASON & HAMLIN ORGANS, and won for them the Highest Awards at ALL GREAT WORLDS EXHIBITIONS since and including that of Paris, 1S67. SOLD ON EASY TERMS AND RENTED. MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN AND PIANO CO. BOSTON, Mason & Hamlin Hall, 154 and 155 Tremont Street. NEW YORK, 158 Fifth Avenue. CHICAGO, 149 Wabash Avenue. Or'-in and Piano Catalogue sent free to any address. ' Boston Academy Symphony of Music #' _. , , SEASON OF Orchestra ^i-^ Mr. ARTHUR N1KISCH, Conductor. First Rehearsal and Concert, Friday Afternoon, November 6, Saturday Evening, November 7. PROGRAMME. Beethoven ------ Overture, " Leonore," No. 3 " Gounod _-_-_ Aria from the " Queen of Sheba Tschaikowsky _______ Suite, Op. 55 Elegie. Valse melancholique. Scherzo. Tema con Variazioni. " Wagner - Aria, " Hall of Song," from " Tannhaeuser Wagner _____ Prelude, "Die Meistersinger Soloist, Mme. LILLIAN NORDICA. The announcement of the next Concert will be found on page 15. (3) SHORE LINE BOSTON Tfl NEW YORK NEW YORK TOU BOSTON Trains leave either city, week-days, as follows, except as noted: DAY EXPRESS at 10.00 a.m. j A i live at 4.30 p.m. BUFFET DRAWING-ROOM CARS. AFTERNOON SERVICE at 1.00 p.m. Arrive at 7.30 p.m. Dining Car beween Boston and New London. "GILT EDGE" LIMITED at 5.00 p.m. Daily, Sundays included, and arrive n p.m. Royal Smoking Car through. DINING CAR BETWEEN BOSTON AND NEW LONDON. The last trains between the two cities to leave and arrive at termini the same day. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS at 12.00 o'clock. Daily, Sundays included, and arrive at 7.00 a.m. The LAST TRAIN from either City. Wagner Drawing-room Cars on Day Trains. Compartment Sleeping Cars on Night Trains. Trains leave Boston from Park Square Station; New York, from Grand Central Station J. R KENDRICK, Gen'l Manager. GEO. L. CONNOR, Gen'l Pass'r Agent. olid ooxjOIsty :raAjlxj:r,o.a.:d- ROYAL BLUE LINE. Finest and Safest Trains in the World BSTWBEN New York and Washington VIA Jersey Central, Philadelphia & Reading, and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads. All trains vestibuled, heated by steam, lighted by the I intsch Gas Sjstem, and pro- tected by Pullman's Anti-telescoping Device. Pullman Day Coaches, Parlor Cars, Sleeping Cars, and Dining Cars. New York to Washington in Five Hours Tickets on Sale at all Railroad Offices. Boston Office, - - 211 Washington Street. (4) Overture, "Lieonore," No. 3. Beethoven. The chronology of the four overtures to Beethoven's only opera is not indicated by their numbers. The overture which was written last, in 1 8 14, is known as the overture to " Fidelio," and is played to " introduce the opera; while what was in reality the third " Leonore overture (Beethoven wrote it for a performance of the opera at Prague, in 1807, which did not come off) is called "Leonore" No. 1, the first "Leonore" (1805) being styled No. 2, the second and great- est "Leonore" (1806) No. 3. The three "Leonore" overtures are written in the same key, and have much that is related, especially Nos. 2 and 3, the colossal third being a masterly elaboration of the second. Discussion among litterateurs regarding Beethoven's inten- tion in repeating the trumpet signal in the dungeon scene, which is embodied in the overture played to-day, has brought forth the follow- ing note from Beethoven's biographer, Mr. A. W. Thayer, sent from Trieste March 5, 1888, to the New York Tribune : "What was the traditional piu forte in the repetition of the trumpet signal in Beethoven's 'Leonore' overtures? As given in 1805-06, the clos- ing scene was down in the dungeons of the prison. When the first signal is given, it is heard faintly, because all the doors and passages are supposed to be closed. On the repetition, these are all open ; and the crowd is rushing down into the vaults. The increased loud- ness of the trumpet shows Pizarro that the time to commit the mur- der is now passed. Years ago I had a long talk with Otto Jahn on this finale ; and we came to the conclusion that so much lovely music is lost by the change from the dungeons to the court, on, the whole, it would be better to restore th$ old form." "Taken as 'pure music,' — as a piece of concise construction and strict adherence to musical 'form'" — Grove says, "the 'Leonore, No. 3,' may not, perhaps, be so remarkable as the same great Dainty Fabrics For Dancing and Evening Dresses, House and Tea Gowns. SOFT SATINS, BROCADE SILKS, CRAPES, EMBROIDERED CHIFFONS, GAUZES, EASTERN SILKS, KAMIL CLOTHS, SOFT WOOLS, etc., IN EXQUISITE COLORINGS. "ROYAL ENGLISH SERGES" for Street Wear, Carriage Wraps, and Evening Cloaks. Coarse and fine weaves in NEW shades. These Specialties can Only be Obtained from our Offices. 5i St IIzTlO 1 lJNUlA 11 U U OXI, and 53 Summer , Boston, US A Agents of LIBERTY & CO., London. (5) mas /enure to ' Coriolan,' that miracle of stern, heroic grand- eur and compression, not wanting also in softer and more graceful lines. Hut is there not an interest higher even than musical sym- metry, — the interest awakened by variety and complexity, and by wild passion and longing, by suspense and rapture, such as that of which this great composition is so full from beginning to end, which animates every note from the colossal unison at the opening to the fiery speed of its close? "The only accusation that can be brought against the overture (if the writer may with great diffidence be allowed to express his opinion) appears to be that it is too vast, not only for an operatic ' prelude, but for the subject of the story on which Fidelio ' is based. Instead of foreshadowing the personal griefs and joys, how- momentous, of Leonore and Florestan, the anxieties of a gaoler, the perplexities of a clownish lover, the sufferings of a few prisoners, and the villany of a petty commandant,— a story which surely owes its vitality more to its connection with Beethoven's music than to any intrinsic force of its own, — instead of shadowing forth such comparatively petty occurrences as these, the overture to Leonore always appears to me to be a fitting prelude to any of the most tremendous events or most terrible catastrophes that have occurred inhistorv. The grief and the joy are the griefs and joys not of private persons, but of whole nations, the conflicts are the 'battles of shaking' of the Hebrew Prophet. The retreat from Moscow, the French Revolution itself, contain nothing more sus- tained, more impetuous, more mournful, more stirring, more pa- thetic, more triumphant, than this wonderful music-picture. As one illustration of what I mean, let me refer to the well-known trumpet- call, which, being played off the stage while the whole action of the orchestra is suspended, has so thrilling and mysterious an effect. Who can connect this passage in the overture with the distant signal of the arrival of the governor in the opera ? No one. No : it is a totally different thing. Heard in the overture, during the PRIESTLEY'S fl [ X/MV..VIV, j And all their Celebrated Dress Fabrics are GUARANTEED To be Perfectly Satisfactory to the Wearer. They are stamped every five yards, on the under side of the selvedge, with the manufacturers' name (B. PRIESTLEY & CO.) in gilt letters. (6) ; sudden pause which succeeds the tremendous hurry and rush of the instruments up the scale, it has all the effect of a summons to a vanquished nation to lay down its arms : there is a forlorn, desolate, dead-of-night effect about it that is overpowering to me, and I seem, as I listen, to be one of the starving wounded soldiers within the walls of the conquered city, trembling between the relief and the dishonor of the approaching surrender. And in the same way the whole overture appears to me to be lifted far above even the great- ness of the opera which follows it, — lifted from the particular to the universal, from the individual to the national, from the simple to the complex, from the petty to the tremendous, from a misfortune to a catastrophe." Suite, Op. 55. Tschaikowsky. Elegie. Valse melancholique. Scherzo. Tetna con Variazioni. In a late issue of the Vienna Nene Freie Presse, Dr. Hanslick gives some interesting extracts from an autobiographical sketch of the foremost Russian composer of to-day, supplemented by some— remarks of his own, of which the following is a translation : " Tschaikowsky writes: 'I was seventeen years old when I made the acquaintance of an Italian singing-master named Piccioli, the first person who interested himself in my musical condition. The influence he gained over me was enormous, and even now I have not quite outgrown it. He was an out-and-out enemy of German music and through him I became an enthusiastic admirer of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti considering it as an accepted fact that Mozart and NEW NIGHT LINE BOSTON, BROOKLYN, and LONG ISLAND CITY LIMITED TICKETS, $5.00. The only Line Running Solid Pullman Vestibuled Trains BETWEEN THE ABOVE POINTS VIA Long Island and Eastern States Line. Train leaves New York & New England depot daily (Sundays included) at 11.00 P.M.