Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 85, 1965-1966
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JML ill BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON VETERANS MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM If" N \ •SiC:^--^^L^' EIGHTY-FIFTH SEASON 1965-1966 The Boston Symphony MAHLER/ SYMPHONY N BER&W'OZZECK^Extaptii.'J'hr^fe Cuiti».& under Leinsdorf BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCKES" ERICH LErNSDORF "It is a revelation" said HiFi/Stereo Review of the Leinsdorf, Boston Symphony recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. In this remarkable performance the emotions, tensions and, perhaps most of all, the superb structure of the work come through with brilliant clarity. Coupled with it in a 2-record album are excerpts from Wozzeck with Phyllis Curtin as Berg's non-heroine, Marie. Another symphonic masterpiece, Brahms' First Symphony, exhibits the Bostonians' famed "glorious mellow roar" in a Dynagroove recording which, Jike the Mahler, cannot fail to enrich any collection of fine music. RCA Victor ©The most trusted name in sound IGHTY-FIFTH SEASON, 1965-1966 CONCERT BULLETIN OF THE Boston Symphony Orchestra ERICH LEINSDORF, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot • President Talcott M. Banks • Vice-President John L. Thorndike Treasurer Abram Berkowitz E. Morton Jennings, Jr. Theodore P. Ferris Henry A. Laughlin Robert H. Gardiner Edward G. Murray Francis W. Hatch John T. Noonan Andrew Heiskell Mrs. James H. Perkins Harold D. Hodgkinson Sidney R. Rabb Raymond Wilkins TRUSTEES EMERITUS Richard C. Paine Palfrey Perkins Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Oliver Wolcott Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager S. Shirk Norman James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator Rosario Mazzeo Harry J. Kraut Orchestra Personnel Manager Assistant to the Manager Sanford R, Sistare Andrew Raeburn Press and Publicity Assistant to the Music Director ,;.•».<• SYMPHONY HALL BOSTON [31 1 llWBsH3h Steinway at any stage Concert appearances show that when pianists perform with the great American orchestras, the piano on the stage is, almost without exception, a Steinway. At AVERY'S you may choose your fine piano from these time-honored names STEINWAY. since 1853-112 years SOHMER. since 1872-93 years CHICKERING . since 1823 - 142 years EVERETT. since 1883-82 years CABLE-NELSON. since 1904- 61 years Headquarters for HAMMOND ORGANS and FISHER STEREO PHONOGRAPHS Established 1924 Exclusive Steinway Piano Representative for All This Territory 256 Weybosset Street GA 1-1434 41 Thursday, February 17, 1966 Tonight's concert will be conducted by Richard Burgin. SfMiel Ighty-fifth season NINETEEN HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE -SIXTY-SIX Three Hundred and Eighty-fourth Concert in Providence ?(1 Fourth Program THURSDAY EVENING, February 17, at 8:30 o'clock iRAHMS Symphony No. 3, in F major, Op. 90 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante III. Poco allegretto IV. Allegro INTERMISSION ahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 I. Allegro non troppo II. Adagio III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace SOLOIST ZINO FRANCESCATTI By order of the Chief of the Providence Fire Department, smoking is allowed only in the ticket lobby and the lower lobby of the auditorium. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [5] SYMPHONY NO. 3, IN F MAJOR, Op. 90 By Johannes Brahms Born in Hamburg, May 7, 1833; died in Vienna, April 3, 1897 Composed in 1883, the Third Symphony was first performed at a concert of th Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, December 2, 1883, Hans Richter conducting. Th first American performance was in New York, October 24, 1884, at a Novelty Concer by Mr. Van der Stucken. The first performance in Boston was by the Boston Sym phony Orchestra, under Wilhelm Gericke, on November 8, 1884. The Symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and contra bassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings. >t*he world which had waited so many years for Brahms' First Sym *• phony was again aroused to a high state of expectancy when si: years elapsed after the Second before a Third was announced a< written and ready for performance. It was in the summer of 1883, a Wiesbaden, that Brahms (just turned fifty) completed the symphon which had occupied him for a large part of the previous year. Brahms attending the rehearsals for the first performance, in Vienna, expressec himself to Bulow as anxious for its success, and when after the per formance it was proclaimed in print as by far his best work, he wai angry, fearing that the public would be led to expect too much of it and would be disappointed. He need not have worried. Those who while respecting the first two symphonies, had felt at liberty to weigl • furniture • carpeting • lamps • accessories • interior planning contemporary furniture NEW INTERIORS JAckson 1-6042 680 no. main street • providence, r. i. M [6] tEes I and argue them, were now completely convinced that a great sym- phonist dwelt among them; they were only eager to hear any new score, to probe the beauties which they knew would be there. The Vienna premiere was a real occasion. There was present what Kalbeck called the "Wagner-Bruckner ecclesia militans" whose valiant attempt at a hostile demonstration was quite ignored and lost in the general enthu- siasm. For the second performance, which was to be in Berlin, Brahms made conflicting promises to Wiillner and Joachim. Joachim won the honor and Brahms repeated the new symphony, with Wiillner's orches- tra, three times in Berlin, in the month of January. Biilow at Mein- ingen would not be outdone, and put it twice upon the same program. City after city approached Brahms for a performance, and even from France, which to this day has remained tepid to Brahms, there came an invitation from the Societe des Concerts modernes over the signature of Benjamin Godard. When the work was published in 1884 (at an initial fee to the composer of $9,000), it was performed far and wide. "Like the first two symphonies, the Third is introduced by a 'mot- to,' "* also writes Geiringer; "this at once provides the bass for the grandiose principal subject of the first movement, and dominates not only this movement, but the whole Symphony. It assumes a particularly important role in the first movement, before the beginning of the recapitulation. After the passionate development the waves of excite- ment calm down, and the horn announces the motto, in a mystic E-flat major, as a herald of heavenly peace. Passionless, clear, almost objective serenity speaks to us from the second movement. No Andante of such * F-A-F. "The best known of his germ-motives" (Robert Haven Schauffler: "The Unknown Brahms"), "was a development of his friend Joachim's personal motto F-A-E. This stood for Frei aber einsam (Free but lonely), which young Johannes modified for his own use into F-A-F, Frei aber froh (Free but glad). The apparent illogicality of this latter motto used to puzzle me. Why free but glad ? Surely there should be no 'ifs' or 'buts' to the happiness conferred by freedom ! Later, however, when I learned of Brahms' peasant streak, the reason for the 'but' appeared. According to the Dithmarsh countryman's traditional code, a foot-free person without fixed duties or an official position should go bowed by the guilty feeling that he is no better than a vagabond. Brahms the musician was able to conquer this conventional sense of inferiority, but Brahms the man—never." RHODE ISLAND CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS 1965 • 1966 Wednesday, 13 October BRAHMS QUARTET (Piano and Strings) Tuesday, 16 November NETHERLANDS STRING QUARTET Tuesday, 1 February BAROQUE CHAMBER PLAYERS (Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, and Double Bass) Tuesday, 19 April KROLL STRING QUARTET All concerts will be held at 8:30 p.m. in the Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium. These concerts are sponsored by the Music Department in Brown University. Season Tickets : $9.00, $7.50, $6.00 ($4.00 Students) Single Admission: $2.50, $2.25, $1.75, $1.25 Apply BROWN UNIVERSITY, Box 1903 or AVERY PIANO CO. M emotional tranquillity is to be found in the works of the youthful Brahms. Particularly attractive is the first theme of the following Poco Allegretto, which (in spite of its great simplicity) is stamped with a highly individual character by its constant alternation of iambic and trochaic rhythms. Further, Brahms contrived to make the concise three- fold form of the work more effective by orchestrating the da capo of the first part in quite a different manner. Such a mixture of simplicity and refinement is charactertistic of Brahms in his later years. The Finale is a tremendous conflict of elemental forces; it is only in the Coda that calm returns. Like a rainbow after a thunderstorm, the motto, played by the flute, with its message of hope and freedom, spans the turmoil of the other voices." Walter Niemann stresses the major-minor character of the symphony, pointing how the F major of the first movement and the dominant C major of the second is modified to C minor in the third, and F minor in long portions of the Finale. This is the procedure by which Brahms' "positive vital energy is limited by strongly negative factors, by melan- choly and pessimism. ... It is these severe, inward limitations, which have their source in Brahms' peculiarly indeterminate 'Moll-Diif nature, that have determined the course of the 'psychological scheme' [innere Handlung] of this symphony." Thus is Brahms the "first and only master of the 'Dur-MolV mode, the master of resignation." As elsewhere in Brahms' music, this symphony has called forth from commentators a motley of imaginative nights. Hans Richter, its first conductor, named it Brahms' "Eroica," a label which has clung to it ever since.