r" BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN I88I BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON » / • Q '^^illl A' iiiii/i/ 77yPy<^ « H SEVENTIETH SEASON 1950-1 95 I Carnegie Hall, New York Boston Symphony Orchestra [Seventieth Season, 1950-1951] CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins Violas Bassoons Richard Burgin, Joseph de Pasquale Raymond Allard Concert-master Jean Cauhape Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Georges Fourel Theodore Brewster Gaston Elcus Eugen Lehner Rolland Tapley Albert Bernard Contra-Bassoon Norbert Lauga George Humphrey Boaz Piller George Zazofsky Jerome Lipson Paul Cherkassky Louis Artieres Horns Harry Dubbs Robert Karol James Stagliano Reuben Green Vladimir Resnikoff Harry Shapiro Joseph Leibovici Charles Van Wynbergen Harold Meek Einar Hansen Siegfried Gerhardt Paul Keaney Harry Dickson Walter Macdonald Violoncellos Emil Kornsand Osbourne McConathy Carlos Pinfield Samuel Mayes Alfred Zighera Paul Fedorovsky Trumpets Minot Beale Jacobus Langendoen Mischa Nieland Roger Voisin Herman Silberman Marcel Lafosse Hippolyte Droeghmans Roger Schermanski Harry Herforth Karl Zeise Rene Voisin Clarence Knudson Josef Zimbler Pierre Mayer Bernard Parronchi Trombones Manuel Zung Enrico Fabrizio Samuel Diamond Leon Marjollet Jacob Raichman Victor Manusevitch Lucien Hansotte James Nagy Flutes John Coffey Josef Orosz Leon Gorodetzky Georges Laurent Raphael Del Sordo James Pappoutsakis Melvin Bryant Phillip Kaplan Tuba John Murray Vinal Smith Piccolo Lloyd Stonestreet Henri Erkelens George Madsen Harps Saverio Messina Oboes Bernard Zighera Stanley Benson Elford Caughey Sheldon Rotenberg Ralph Gomberg Devergie Gottfried Wilfinger Jean Joseph Lukatsky Timpani Basses Roman Szulc English Horn Georges Moleux Charles Smith Louis Speyer Willis Page Ludwig Juht Clarinets Percussion Irving Frankel Polster Gino Cioffi Max Henry Greenberg Manuel Valerio Simon Sternburg Henry Portnoi Pasquale Cardillo Victor di Stefano Gaston Dufresne E\) Clarinet Henri Girard Librarians Henry Freeman Bass Clarinet Leslie Rogers John Barwicki Rosario Mazzeo Leonard Burkat Carnegie Hall, New York Sixty-fifth Season in New York SEVENTIETH SEASON, 1950-1951 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Second Concert WEDNESDAY EVENING, December 6 AND THE Second Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, December 9 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President . Vice-President Jacob J. Kaplan Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Charles D. Jackson Theodore P. Ferris Lewis Perry Alvan T. Fuller Edward A. Taft N. Penrose Hallowell Raymond S. Wilkins Francis W. Hatch Oliver Wolcott George E. Judd, Manager T. D. Perry, Jr. N. S. Shirk, Assistant Managers in I The Last Nail Is The One to Drive Home First Whether it's a ten-story building or a A contract bond, competently written hy twenty-mile highway, the best beginning The Man with The Plan, your local Em- for a happy ending is a bond ... a contract ployers' Group Insurance Agent, is sound bond . written by an Employers' insurance that guarantees that the last Group Agent. nail will be driven . that the job will Anyone who has invested money in any be completed ... no matter what unex- construction project can appreciate the pected trouble the contractor might importance of that bond. Without it, the have to face. complete job and all the money that goes Always drive the last nail first. Always into it are left to fate. It's a gamble. Many be sure a construction job will be finished unforeseen circumstances can mean noth- hy first insisting on an Employers' Group ing but ruin. But with an adequate bond Contract Bond . one that is large . there's no gamble, no fate involved. enough to cover all hazards completely. The Insurance Man Serves America The Employers' Group ^^^^fu^^a^ecc C^^/s^^tu^^e^^^ 110 MILK STREET, BOSTON 7, MASS. THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORP., LTD. AMERICAN EMPLOYERS' INSURANCE CO. THE EMPLOYERS' FIRE INSURANCE CO, [2] Carnegie Hall, New York Sixty-fifth 5eason in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director SECOND EVENING CONCERT WEDNESDAY, December 6 Program SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY (Music Director Emeritus) Conducting Sibelius "Pohjola's Daughter," Symphonic Fantasia, Op. 49 Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 82 I. I Tempo molto moderato II. I Allegro moderato, ma poco a poco stretto III. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto IV. Allegro molto INTERMISSION Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 I. Un poco sostenuto; Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS The music of these programs is available at the Music Library, 58th Street Branch, the New York Public Library. [3] On the announcement that Dr. Koussevitzky would terminate his conductorship in Boston after twenty-five years, he received invita- tions to conduct orchestras in North and South America, Europe, and the youthful state of Israel. Immediately after the 1949 Berkshire Festival, Dr. Koussevitzky fulfilled his first California engagement — a set of concerts in the Hollywood Bowl. In early October he con- ducted the Brazil Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro — his first appearance in South America. Beginning in January, 1950, he ful- filled engagements — lasting into June — in Havana, Israel (debuts in each case), Rome, Brussels, Paris, and London. He had not had the opportunity to conduct in Europe for years. The remark of a critic in Rome is typical: "Although 76, he put into his performance the vigor and enthusiasm of a man of 30, adding to that youthful vigor all the experience of a career of many years." From July 8 to August 13 last, he conducted at the Berkshire Festival. He flew from New York to Paris on September 21, and within the week had flown to Israel. After filling return engagements there until November, he flew on the sixth of that month to Paris, and whence to New York, arriving the eighth. From November 21 through December 9 he will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra at home and on visits to Providence, Newark, New York, Brooklyn, and Washington. Subsequently he will conduct the Israel Philharmonic on its first American tour. [4] "POHJOLA'S DAUGHTER," SYMPHONIC FANTASIA, Op. 49 By Jean Sibelius Born at Tavastehus, Finland, December 8, 1865 Composed and published in 1906, Pohjola's Daughter was first performed under the composer's direction in St. Petersburg at a Siloti concert in December of the same year. Sibelius first conducted the work in Finland at a concert of the Helsingfors Orchestra, September 25, 1907. The first performance in this country was on June 4, 1914, at a concert of the Litchfield County Choral Union in Norfolk, Connecticut, the composer, on a visit to America, conducting this and others of his tone poems. The piece was first played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra January 12, 1917, under the direction of Karl Muck. The orchestration includes: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contra-bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones and tuba, harp, timpani and strings. "ttjohjola's Daughter" was one of Sibelius' later settings of epi- X sodes from the "Kalevala," the mythological folk epic of Fin- land which was for long the bible and main resource of Sibelius, seeking poetical subjects for his descriptive music. The "Kalevala" furnished him abundantly with its exploits of gods and men, closely interwoven in the telling with images of nature, and destinies con- trolled by sorcery. The two characters concerned in this symphonic fantasia are the daughter of "Pohjola" (pronounced as if "Pohyola"). which was the name for the North Country, identified with Lapland, and Vainamoinen, one of the four heroes of the "Kalevala." "Pohjola's Daughter" is drawn from the eighth Runo, or canto, of the "Kalevala," which is called "Vainamoinen's Wound." Vainamoinen is a son of the Wind and the Virgin of the Air. He appears a vigor- ous old man: "Vainamoinen old and steadfast" is the constant refrain of the poem. Vainamoinen is a famous bard; he is also of great strength and skill, can accomplish Herculean labors. But when, on his sleigh journey homeward from the northland, he encounters the fair daughter of Pohja (the North) seated on a rainbow, spinning, he meets more than his equal. So runs the "Kalevala"*: * The strong suggestion of "Hiawatha" in this translation by W. F. Kirby ("Everyman's Library") recalls the fact that Longfellow modeled his poem on the metre and style of the Finnish "Kalevala," which had been assembled and published in 1835 (in its own language) by Elias Lonnrot. There arose a heated controversy in America and England as to whether Longfellow had borrowed too heavily from his Finnish source. Ferdinand Freiligrath settled the case to the apparent satisfaction of the literary world. He decided (in the "Athenaeum," London, December 29, 1855), that "Hiawatha" was written in "a modified Finnish metre, modified by the exquisite feeling of the American poet, according to the genius of the English language and to the wants of modern taste." He found "no imitation of plot or incidents by Longfellow." [5] Lovely was the maid of Pohja, Famed on land, on water peerless. On the arch of air high-seated, Brightly shining on the rainbow. Clad in robes of dazzling lustre. Clad in raiment white and shining; There she wove a golden fabric. Interwoven all with silver. And her shuttle was all golden, And her comb was all of silver. Verses, printed in the score in German, have been translated as follows: "Vainamoinen, leaving the gloomy Kingdom of Pohjola and the home of sombre songs, goes homeward on his sledge. Hark! What noise is that? He looks upward. There on the rainbow Pohjola's daugh- ter sits and spins, brilliant, high up in the blue air.