THE PHILHARMOKIC-SYMPHOIY SOCIETY 1842 OF JEW YORK 1878 CONSOLIDATED 1028 ARTUR RODZINSKI, Musical Director

1946 ONE HUNDRED FIFTH SEASON 1947

CARNEGIE HALL THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31, 1946 at 8:45 FRIDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 1, 1946 at 2:30

4380th and 4381st Concerts

Under the Direction of ARTUR RODZINSKI Assisting Artists: MAGGIE TEYTE, Soprano MARTIAL SINGHER,

PROGRAM LALO Overture to the , “Le Roi d’Ys” BIZET Symphony in G major I. Allegro vivo II. Adagio III. Allegro vivace; Trio IV. Allegro vivace INTERMISSION DEBUSSY Excerpts from the Opera Pélleas et Mélisande ’ ACT I. Scene 1—A Forest Scene 2—The Vaults of the Scene 2—A Room in the Castle Scene 3—A Terrace at the ACT II. Scene 1—A Well in the Entrance of the Park Vaults Scene 2—A Room in the Castle ACT IV. Scene 2—A Room in the Scene 3—Before a Grotto Castle ACT III. Scene 1—A Tower of the Scene 4—A well in the Castle Park

ARTHUR JUDSON, Manager BRUNO ZIRATO, Associate Manager THE STEINWAY is the Official Piano of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society ------COLUMBIA AND VICTOR RECORDS------“Buy Victory Bonds”

These concerts will end on Thursday at approximately 10:45 p.m., and on Friday at approximately 4:30 p.m. ORCHESTRA PENSION FUND — It is requested that subscribers -who are unable to use their tickets kindly return them to the Philharmonic-Symphony Offices, 113 W. 57 th St., or to the Box Office, Carnegie Hall, at their choice either to be sold for the benefit of the Orchestra Pension Fund, or given to the uniformed men through the local organizations instituted for this purpose. All tickets received will be acknowledged.

Holders of cards in the New York Public Library who wish to obtain scores of any of the works on this program for home study should apply at the Music Branch of the New York Public Library, '121 East 5 Sth St., which has a large collection of music available for circulation.

Marion Rous will give weekly lectures in the Carnegie Hall Art Gallery on Current Phil­ harmonic-Symphony Programs during the season 1946-1947. For particulars telephone WAtkins 9-2170 or write to 5 S Charles Street, New York 14, N. Y.

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM* By Robert Bagar and Louis Biancolli

Overture to the opera, “Le Roi d’Ys” EDOUARD LALO (Born at Lille, France, January 17, 1823; died at , April 22, 1892)

From an old Breton legend of the submerged city of Ys, Edouard Blau fashioned the libretto for Lalo’s three-act opera, “Le Roi d’Ys” (“The King of Ys”). The same story inspired Debussy’s celebrated piano piece, “La Cathédrale Engloutie” (“The Engulfed Cathedral.”) Although Lalo had begun work on the best known of his three in 1876, it was not till 1881 that he had sketched out the whole work, and not till May 7, 1888, that it was produced by the Paris Opéra Comique. As early as 1876, however, Lalo entrusted Adolphe Théophile Manoury, one of the chief of the Paris Opéra, with an aria from “Le Roi d’Ys” for a concert of the Société Nationale. And, several years before the premiere of the opera, the overture had already begun its popular career in the concert halls. Though the American premiere of “Le Roi d’Ys” occurred in New Orleans on January 23, 1890, New York waited till 1922 for a hearing. Early that year the Company produced it with a cast headed by Frances Alda (Rozenn), (Margared), (Mylio), Giuseppe Danise (Karnac), and Léon Rothier (the King). In a sense, the production was a long-deferred fulfillment of a promise made by the management thirty-two years earlier. The prospectus of the German season of 1889-90 had included Lalo’s “Le Roi d’Ys” among its plans. Despite the brilliant cast, the opera

*Notes on this program may not be reprinted in their entirety' without the written consent of th» Society. Excerpt# from' the notes can be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author# and to the Society. aroused small response. After the five performances of the 1921-22 season, “Le Roi d’Ys” returned to its slumbers. Today, the opera is remembered largely because of the overture and Mylio’s aria, Vainement, ma bien-aimee — a beautiful aubade, the melody of which Lalo borrowed from a Breton folk-song. As for Lalo himself, he is best known to concert-goers as the composer of the “Symphonie Espagnole.” Most critics would agree that his orchestral writing far excels his operatic in grasp of style and imaginative force. The story of “Le Roi d’Ys” centers in a court triangle. Margared and Rozenn, daughters of the King of Ys — or Is as it is sometimes spelled — both love the young knight Mylio. Of the two, the warrior prefers Rozenn for her gentle disposition, Margared being the domineer­ ing type. During Karnac’s absence, Margared has been promised as bride to Karnac, a neighboring prince long at war with the city of Ys. All are assured the marriage will bring hostilities to an end. Margared, however, changes her mind when Mylio returns from the wars. Thus rebuffed Prince Karnac challenges his foe to fresh battle, and Mylio accepts. In the ensuing fight, Karnac is defeated. But all is not lost, for Margared, a prey now to jealousy because of her sister’s approach­ ing marriage to Mylio, shows him how to turn the tables on his foes. All he need do is to open the floodgates, for the city is protected by a dyke. The prince eagerly accepts her plan, and soon, as Rozenn and Mylio are being wed, Margared gives a wild shoutthe sea is pouring into the doomed city! Remorseful now, she cries out that the flood will rise till it reaches its prey.” At length, as the people run for safety to the hills, Margared confesses her guilt, and climbing to the highest peak, plunges into the swirling waters. Thereupon Saint Corentin ap­ pears on the surface of the sea and the flood waters miraculously ebb away. In the overture to “Le Roi d’Ys” Lalo quite plainly sought to epito­ mize the dominant moods and action of his opera, as well as to introduce the three central characters in their most revealing moments . In the introductory section of the overture a clarinet solo presents the valiant Mylio by way of a melody borrowed from the knight’s defiant aria, Si le del est plein de flammes, (“If the sky is full of flames”), which appears in the first act. This introductory passage is divided by a flourish of trumpets from the overture proper, which begins with an Allegro in D minor, largely depicting the conflicting emotions of Mar­ gared — her love for Mylio, her hatred of the suitor forced upon her, and her jealousy of her sister Rozenn. The trumpet figure reappears in a new guise, and we presently make the acquaintance of the gentle Rozenn herself through an Andantino in B-flat major built around the girl’s tender query, En silence powquoi souffrir? (“Why do you suffer in silence ? ). Earlier material is then reviewed briefly and the overture ends brilliantly on the theme of Mylio’s forceful aria. L. B. Symphony in C major GEORGES BIZET (Born in Paris, October 25, 1838; died at Bougival, near Paris, June 3, 1875) This symphony was written in 1885, when Bizet was seventeen years of age. He tried his hand at another such work in 1860, a “fan- tasie symphonique,” which he wrote during his stay in Italy as a holder of the Prix de Rome. It was revised several times, given its first performance at a Pasdeloup Concert in Paris in 1869 and published in 1880 under the title Roma. There are two versions of the discovery of the present work. In an article in the French periodical Le Ménestrel of November 11, 1938, Paul Bertand says the C Major Symphony was “discovered some years ago by our friend Jean Chantavoine [French musicologist and for many years General Secretary of the Paris Conservatory].” However, the score which was brought out in Vienna in September, 1935, by Universal Edition offers an explanatory preface in German, French and English. The English version reads, “begun October 29, 1855 ; finished November, 1855. . . . The symphony by Georges Bizet has, it is strange to say, fallen into oblivion. The Glasgow music writer, D. C. Parker, has called the attention of General Music Director Felix von Weingartner upon the autograph of the work, which is preserved in the library of the Paris Conservatoire, whereupon Mr. Weingartner conducted the world premiere of the work in Basel on February 26, 1935.” Weingartner later conducted the Symphony in Vienna. Paris first heard it in June, 1936, under Charles Munch. It was played there again in October, 1938, as part of the program commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Bizet’s birth. Eugène Bigot was the con­ ductor. Sir Hamilton Harty conducted its initial performance in Eng­ land at a concert of the Symphony Orchestra. It was added to the Philharmonic-Symphony’s repertory by John Barbirolli on October 17, 1940. It has been observed that Bizet, while not showing a great deal of originality in this work, gives evidence of a remarkable instinct to follow the best models. The first movement’s two subjects, for instance, have been likened in spirit, if not more, to Beethoven and Mozart, respective­ ly, although the orchestration already foreshadows the Bizet of “Carmen,” and that, as we all know, is quite an individual job. The slow movement with its mournful oboe theme against pizzicato in the violas, brings Rossini to the mind of one observer. And the movement, as a whole, has a maturity not ordinarily found in the works of seventeen-year-olds. The first Allegro vivace is a fast Minuet, in which the dance is the thing, with alternating passages of song to provide contrast. The Trio, employing the same material, is also dance-like, except that this time it is a sort of peasant dance. Afterwards, the Minuet returns in all its lightness and grace. A march episode in the final section recalls the later music of the little boys in “Carmen.” In general, the beginning of the movement is a perpetuum mobile for the first violins. Then the march theme is played against string figures, following which a plain and unaffected song acts as a middle part of the exposition. The music then gets de­ veloped, and a climax leads into the recapitulation. A cheery Coda finishes the work. R. C. B.

Excerpts from the Opera “Pélleas et Mélisande” (Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, August 22, 1862; died in Paris, March 25, 1918) That Debussy knew what he wanted in an operatic subject is re­ vealed in a declaration he made to his old master Ernest Guiraud, three years before the publication in Brussels of Maurice Maeterlinck’s dra­ ma “Pélleas et Mélisande.” He said, “I would seek a poet who would merely hint at things and who would allow me to graft my thought on his; whose characters belong to no time and no place and who would allow me, here and there, to show more art than he.” On the Boulevard des Italiens, one evening in the summer of 1892, Debussy bought a copy of Maeterlinck’s recently published drama. As he read it, he almost immediately began setting certain scenes in his mind. But not until he saw the piece at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Paris- iens, the following May, did he make the decision to utilize the text for an opera. As Wagner preaches in virtually all of his librettos the renunciation of self, salvation through self-immolation, so does Maeterlinck preach, says Edward Lockspeiser, “the fatalistic philosophy that man’s in­ capacity from the mysterious forces which determine the course of life is the tragedy of his existence. In this pessimistic view there is only one certain reality — death. Death hovers over all Maeterlinck’s plays, liberating his creatures from their world of dreams. Character, then, and qualities of the mind are not what we have to look for. Maeter­ linck’s ‘Pélleas et Mélisande’ has nothing to appeal to the psychologist; but it has some beautiful poetry.” This poetry and this veiled, hinting of things, this simple story, which, like the stories of “Tristan und Isolde” and “Paolo e Francesca,” deals with one version of the same old triangle — two men and a woman, the men related by ties of blood — provided Debussy, then, with the ideal he was seeking. It took him ten years, or so, to complete the opera, a decade of activity which is a chronicle of mingled discouragement, hopefulness and stern self-criticism. Once, in the spring of 1895, he told a friend that he had finished the opera; “this morning,” he said, “to be historical.” Yet within a few weeks he was revising it, making all sorts of changes. And there is testimony to the effect that he discarded the whole thing, so dissatisfied did he become with what he had done. The second version was completed in 1897, and this, too, might have gone the way of the other, had it not been for the persuasive arguments of Pierre Louys. Although Albert Carré agreed to produce “Pélleas et Mélisande” at the Opéra-Comique the same year, it did not get its premiere there until April 30, 1902, André Messager conducting. The blame for the five-year delay may be laid as much to Debussy, who kept taking back the score to make further improvements (virtually up to curtain time) as to the management, which, though it had accepted the work, felt un­ certain about putting on an opera of such extreme novelty. At length “Pélleas et Mélisande” was produced, yet not without trouble, just before the performance, from an unexpected quarter — Maeterlinck. It seems he had taken for granted that his recently acquired wife Georgette Leblanc would be the Mélisande. When he discovered this was not to be so, he wrote a letter to the director of the Paris “Figaro,” in which he disavowed all modifications of his text. “In short,” he declared, “the ‘Pélleas’ in question is a work that has become foreign, almost inimical to me; and, deprived as I am of any control over my own work, I am reduced to hoping that its failure (the opera) will be immediate and resounding.” The curious thing is that Maeterlinck had, ten years earlier, given his wholehearted sanction to any changes Debussy wished to make. He had given him, in fact, complete authority to revise the text as he re­ quired, though most of Debussy’s revising, consisted of cutting lines and scenes, rather than actual changing of words. Pélleas et Mélisande,” an “impressionist tone picture” in five acts is a unique opera, whose whole theme is of tragedy moving to its con­ summation in an atmosphere remote and strange and dreamy. The characters Mélisande, a young girl; Golaud, her husband, and Pélleas, his half brother, seem almost wraith-like. The singing is closer to song­ speech than song and in that respect helps better to carry out the dra­ matic idea which is fully developed in the orchestra — Debussy’s uppermost thought. The story is very simple : Golaud has married the young, frightened, vague Mélisande, whom he has met in a forest. He brings her to the castle of his grandfather, Arkël, King of an imaginary land, Allemonde. There she meets Pélleas and, quite innocently and naturally, the two are drawn to each other. As their friendship grows, Golaud becomes suspicious. And when Pélleas and Mélisande, having at last confessed their love, cling together in an embrace, Golaud runs his sword through Pélleas, killing him, and wounding both Mélisande and himself. He recovers, but she, after the birth of her child, is dying. While reproach­ ing himself for having misunderstood their friendship, Golaud would still know from Mélisande herself whether it was a forbidden love. Faintly she says, “No, no.” But Mélisande dies before Golaud can be convinced. At any rate, the opera was generally well received, although there had been some silly goings on during the dress rehearsal. The original cast comprised Mary Garden, as Mélisande; Jeanne Gerville-Réache, Genevieve; Jean Périer, Pélleas; Hector Dufranne, Golaud; Felix Vieuille, Arkël, and one Blondin (a boy) Yniold. As previously men­ tioned, André Messager conducted. Pélleas et Mélisande” was introduced to this country by Oscar Kammerstein, at the Manhattan , on February 19, 1908. The cast, with one exception (Vittorio Arimondi, instead of Vieuille, as Arkël) was the same as that of the premiere. The first Metropolitan performance occurred on March 21, 1925, with Lucrezia Bori, Kathleen Howard, Edward Johnson, Clarence Whitehill and Léon Rothier as the principals. The opera has slid in and out of the repertory at the Metropolitan, its latest revival taking place on January 26, 1944, when Martial Singher appeared as Pélleas, the first baritone to do so in America. In the cast with Mr. Singher were Bidu Sayao, Margaret Harshaw, Lillian Raymondi, Lawrence Tibbett and Alexander Kipnis, with Emil Cooper to conduct. Maggie Teyte, who studied the role of Mélisande with Debussy, has sung it numerous times in the principal European opera houses, though never in this country. The present excerpts from “Pélleas and Mélisande” are a synthesis, in a manner of speaking, of the personal drama involving the hero and heroine. Orchestral music ties together the various vocal episodes, which — with necessary deletions — represent the substance of the parts of both characters as they relate to each other. R.C.B. THE PHILHARMONIC-SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 1946 ONE HUNDRED FIFTH SEASON 1947 Musical Director ARTUR RODZINSKI Guest Conductors GEORGE SZELL CHARLES MUENCH LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI BRUNO WALTER Assistant Conductor WALTER HENDL

Conductor, Concerts for Young People RUDOLPH GANZ Violins Violas Flutes Horns J. Corigliano W. Lincer J. Wummer J. Chambers Concertmaster J. Vieland A. Ghignatti J. Singer D. Katz F. Heim L. Ricci M. Rosenker H. Hyams B. Gaskins W. Namen Asst.C oncertmaster J. Fick M. Fischer W. Gray Piccolo R. Schulze S. Lipschitz F. Gullino R. Sabinsky B. Gaskins Trumpets D. Rosensweig G. Imparato W. Vacchiano M. de Stefano G. Morgulis Oboes N. Prager G. Rabin B. Bardos H. Gomberg J. Smith R. Henkle M. Tartas E. Brenner M. Boltuch W. Dembinsky F. Prior L. Busch M. Nazzi Trombones J. Gewirtz 'Cellos G. Pulis I. Strassner L. Rose English Horn L. V. Haney L. Temerson C. Stern M. Nazzi A. Ostrander A. Belfer N. Dinger L. Fishzohn R. Sims Clarinets Tuba A. Gerardi A. Guidi S. Bellison W. Bell W. Nowinski N. Stutch O. Conrad M. Borodkin M. Ormandy A. Williams Timpani J. Fishberg M. Caiati L. Schaller S. Goodman I. Pogany M. Forstat Percussion A. Schuller J. Malkin E-Flat Clarinet A. Neveux W. Feder S. Borodkin A. Bass A. Williams W. Rosenberger M. Kreiselman A. Layfield M. Dayan Bass Clarinet Harp L. Rudin L. Schaller L. Sherman Basses T. Cella S. Barozzi A. Fortier D. Ostrowska M. Weiner J. De Angelis Bassoons R. Heinz F. Zimmermann W. Polisi Organ A. Lora R. Brennand M. Zegler E. Nies-Berger A. Dubensky C. Raviola S. Kovar E, Settanni W. Chartoff R. Sensale Librarians L. A. D’Amico B. Schlossberg H. Keresey R. Schenk D. Rybb Contra Bassoon N. Van Praag A. Stirn M. Polisi R. Sensale H. Goettich Baggage Master Press Representative S. Gold Miss Dorie Jarmel Orchestra Personnel Manager Asst. Orch. Personnel Mgr. Maurice Van Praag Ben A. Gaskins