Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 32,1912
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SANDERS THEATRE . CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY !00fom g>gmpljmttj ©rrliestra Thirty-second Season* 1912— J9J3 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor Programme nf % SEVENTH CONCERT WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 27 AT 8.00 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY C. A. ELLIS PUBLISHED BY C. A. ELLIS, MANAGER Shown EXCLUSIVELY at Steinert Hall and our stores throughout New England STEINWAY Grand and Upright pianos in all regular models, and PIANOS in special designs of distinctive architectural styles. PIANOLA Steinway,Weber and other makes of Pianos, in 88-note PLAYER-PIANOS styles with all the exclusive Pianola features, including the Metrostyle and The- modist, at prices as low as $550. THE NEW ENGLAND- A series of quality pianos MADE PIANOS of distinctive musical char- acteristics—superb values THE HUME at their respective prices, THE JEWETT from $275 up. THE WOODBURY M. STEINERT & SONS CO. Steinert Hall, 162 Boylston Street New England's Largest Piano House SANDERS THEATRE .... CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY Thirty-second Season, 1912-1913 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor SEVENTH CONCERT THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 27 AT 8.00 PROGRAMME Beethoven .... Symphony in D major, No. 2, Op. 36 I. Adagio molto; Allegro con brio. IE. Larghetto. III. Scherzo: Allegro; Trio. IV. Allegro molto. Mozart Three German Dances (K. 605) Schumann . Concerto in A minor, for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 54 I. Allegro affettuoso. II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso. III. Allegro vivace. Haydn . Symphony in G major (Breitjgopf and Hartel, No. 13) I. Adagio; Allegro. II. Largo. III. Menuetto; Trio. IV. Finale, Allegro con spirito. soloist/ Mr, NORMAN WILKS The Mason & Hamlin Pianoforte used There will be an intermission of ten minutes after the Beethoven symphony 3 : Miss Maggie Teyte THE DISTINGUISHED PRIMA DONNA Writes as follows of the fltemt&I|antlut PIANO Mason & Hamlin Co., Gentlemen The Mason & Hamlin Piano blends with the voice re- markably,—its singing quality and its carrying musical tone unite in making it unrivaled. Very truly yours, (Signed) MAGGIE TEYTE. ESTABLISHED 1854 492 Boylston Street - - - - Boston V_» i jLViJTXlWlN X 111( XJ IVAXXJ V^XN., J. ^ V_» . -<i , V_/^ . £ \J . lyUJUVVlVJ V-ft-lN xjxvxv xxivj v xvx>i (Born at Bonn, December 16 (?), 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827.) In 1 801 Beethoven's deafness, which had begun with a roaring in his ears, grew on him. He suffered also from frightful colic. He consulted physician after physician. He tried oil of almonds, cold baths and hot baths, pills and herbs and blisters. He was curious about galvanic remedies, and in his distress he wrote: "I shall as far as possible defy my fate, although there must be moments when I shall be the most miserable of God's creatures. ... I will grapple with fate; it shall never pull me down." Dr. Schmidt sent him in 1802 to the little village of Heiligenstadt, where, as the story goes, the Emperor Protus planted the first vines of Noricum. There was a spring of mineral water,—a spring of marvel- lous virtues,—which had been blessed by Saint Severinus, who died in the village and gave the name by which it is known to-day. Beet- hoven's house was on a hill outside the village, isolated, with a view of the Danube valley. Here he lived for several months like a hermit. He saw only his physician and Ferdinand Ries, his pupil, who visited him occasionally. Nature and loneliness did not console Beethoven. He had been in dismal mood since the performance of the First Symphony (April 2, 1800). The powers of darkness, "finstere Machte," to quote Wasie- lewski's phrase, had begun to torment him. He had already felt the first attacks of deafness. It is possible that the first symptoms were in 1796, when, as a story goes, returning overheated from a walk, he plunged his head into cold water. "It would not be safe to say that the smallpox, which in his childhood left marks on his face, was a remote cause of his deafness." In 1800-01 Beethoven wrote about his deafness and intestinal troubles to Dr. Wegeler, and to the clergy- man, Carl Amenda, in Kurland. It was at the beginning of October, 1802, that Beethoven, at Heiligenstadt, almost ready to put an end to his life, wrote a letter to his brothers, the document known as "Beet- hoven's will," which drips yew-like melancholy. Furthermore, Beethoven was still passionately in love with Giulietta Guicciardi, of whom he wrote to Wegeler, November 16, 1801: "You can hardly believe what a sad and lonely life I have passed for two years. My poor hearing haunted me as a spectre, and I shunned men. It was necessary for me to appear misanthropic, and I am not this at all. This change is the work of a charming child who loves me and is loved by me. After two years I have again had some moments of pleasure, and for the first time I feel that marriage could make me happy. Unfortunately, she is not of my rank in life, and now I cer- tainly cannot marry." Beethoven, however, asked for her hand. One of her parents looked favorably on the match. The other, probably the father, the Count Guicciardi, refused to give his daughter to a man without rank, without fortune, and without a position of any kind. Giulietta became the Countess Gallenberg. Beethoven told Schindler that after her marriage she sought him out in Vienna, and she wept, but that he despised her. Yet during the sad period of the winter of 1802-03 Beethoven composed the Second Symphony, a joyous, "a heroic lie," to borrow the descriptive phrase of Camille Bellaigue. For many years biog- raphers of Beethoven gave 1800 as the date of the composition. Auto- graph sketches bought by Kessler of Vienna, for from one florin twenty- five to three florins, at the sale of the composer's effects, fix the year as 1802. These sketches contain the musical ideas of the Pianoforte Concerto in D major (1805), of the overture on the name of Bach (1822), of an overture, or an opera, "Macbeth" (1808). The sketches for the symphony are mixed with those of three sonatas for pianoforte and violin (Op. 30); three pianoforte sonatas (Op. 31); the trio, "Tremate" (Op. 116). The symphonic sketches fill completely seven large pages. The autograph score of the Second Symphony has been lost, and it thus shared the fate of that of the First Symphony. The separate parts were published in March, 1804, by the Bureau of Arts and Industry (afterward Haslinger) at Vienna. The title ran: "Grand Symphony, composed and dedicated to His Highness Monseigneur the Prince Charles de Lichnowsky,* by Louis Beethoven, Op. 36." The score was not published until 1820. The symphony was arranged by Beethoven as a trio for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, and published in September, 1806, An arrange- ment by Ries as a quintet, with double-bass, flute, and two horns ad lib., was published in 1807. Hummel's arrangement for pianoforte, with accompaniment of flute, violin, and violoncello, was published in London in 1826. The first performance of the Second Symphony was at the Theater an der Wien, April 5, 1803. The programme included Beethoven's oratorio, "Christus am )elberge," the First Symphony, the Concerto in C minor for pianoforte and orchestra, and, according to Ries, "a new piece which I do not remember." The rehearsal began at 8 a.m., and it was "a terrible one, which lasted two hours and a half, and left Beethoven more or less discontented." Ries adds: "The Prince Charles Lichnowsky, who had been present from the beginning, ordered large baskets of bread and butter, cold meat, and wine to be brought in. He invited in a friendly manner every one to partake, and all helped themselves with both hands. As a result everybody grew good- humored. Then the prince demanded that the whole oratorio should be rehearsed again, so that it would go well at night, and the first work of this kind that Beethoven had produced might be performed publicly •An interesting account of this prince and his relations with Beethoven is to be found in "Beethoven's Widmungen," by Dr. Carl Leeder, of Vienna, a series of articles contributed to Die Musik, Jahrg. in., Heft 12, 13, 19, 23; Jahrg. IV. (1004-05), Heft 21, 22. " in a manner worthy of the composer. The concert began at six o'clock, but it was so long that certain pieces were not performed." The prices of admission were raised. Some were doubled, and the prices of the reserved, seats were tripled. The receipts amounted to eighteen hundred gulden. The review of the concert published in the Allgemeine musikaliscke Zeitung, May 25, 1803, was very short, and no mention was made of the symphony. The reviewer gave four lines to the oratorio, and reproached Beethoven for having raised the admission prices. The symphony was performed at Leipsic, April 29, 1804, and Spazier characterized it as "a gross monster, a pierced dragon which will not die, and even in losing its blood (in the finale), wild with rage, still deals vain but furious blows with his tail, stiffened by the last agony." Spazier, who died early in 1805, was described by his contemporaries as a learned and well-grounded musician and a man of sound judgment. A Leipsic critic found that the symphony would gain if certain passages were abbreviated and certain modulations were sacrificed. Another declared that it was too long; that there was an exaggerated use of the wind instruments; that the finale was bizarre, harsh, savage.