Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 59,1939
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Fifty-Fourth Season in New York Friday Evening, February 16 Saturday Afternoon, February 17 Boston Symphony Orchestra [Fifty-ninth Season, 1939-1940] SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Personnel Violins IJURCIN, R. ELCUS, G. lauga, N. SAUVLET, H. RESNIKOFF, V. Concert-master GUNDERSEN, R. KASSMAN, N. CHERKASSKY, P. EISLER, D. THEODOROWICZ, J. HANSEN, E. MARIOTTI, V. I EDOROVSKY, P. TAPLFY, R. LEIBOVICI, J. PINFIELD, C. LEVEEN, P. KHIPS, A. KNUDSON, C. ZUNG, M. BEALE, M. GORODETZKY, L. MAYER, P. DIAMOND, S. DEL SORDO, R. FIEDLER, B. BRYANT, M. STONESTREET, L. MESSINA, S. DICKSON, H. MURRAY, J. ERKELENS, H. SEINIGER, S. DUBBS, H. Violas LEFRANC, J. FOUREL, G. BERNARD, A. GROVER, H. CAUHAPE, J. ARTIERES, L. VAN WYNBERGEN, C. WERNER, H. LEHNER, E. KORNSAND, E. GERHARDT, S. HUMPHREY, G. Violoncellos y. BEDETTI, J. LANGENDOEN, J. chardon, STOCKBRIDGE, C. fabrizio, e. ZIGHERA, A. TORTELIER, P. DROEGHMANS, h. ZEISE, K. marjollet, l. zimbler, j. Basses MOLEUX, G. DUFRESNE, G. greenberg, h. GIRARD, H. barwicki, j. vondrak, a. JUHT, L. frankel, i. PROSE, P. Flutes Oboes Clarinets Bassoons laurent, g. GILLET, F. polatschek, v. ALLARD, R. pappoutsakis, j. devergie, j. valerio, m. PANENKA, E. KAPLAN, P. lukatsky, j. cardillo, p. LAUS, A. Piccolo English Horn Bass Clarinet Contra-Bassoon MADSEN, G. SPEYER, L. MAZZEO, R. FILLER, B. Horns Horns Trumpets Trombones valkenier, w. singer, j. MAGER, G. raichman, j. macdonald, w. lannoye, m. LAFOSSE, M. hansotte, l. SINGER, J. shapiro, h. VOISIN, R. L. lilleback, w. gebhardt, w. KEANEY, P. VOISIN, R. SMITH, V. Tuba Harps Timpani Percussion ADAM, E. zighera, b. szulc, R. sternburg, s. caughey, e. POLSTER, M. WHITE, L. ARCIERI, E. Piano LIBRARIAN sanroma, j. ROGERS, L. J. (darttegt* Hall • £fetu fark Fifty-Fourth Season in New York FIFTY-NINTH SEASON," 1939-1940 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor RICHARD BURGIN, Assistant Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Third Concert FRIDAY EVENING, February 16 AND THE Third Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, February 17 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Ernest B. Dane President Henry B. Sawyer . Vice-President Ernest B. Dane Treasurer Henry B. Cabot M. A. De Wolfe Howe Ernest B. Dane Roger I. Lee Alvan T. Fuller Richard C. Paine Jerome D. Greene Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [1] BERKSHIRE SYMPHONIC FESTIVAL OF 1940 at "Tanglewood" (Between Stockbridge and Lenox, Mass.) ^Bostons Symphony Orchestra^ SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Nine Concerts on Thursday and Saturday Eves., and Sunday Afts. Scries A: August 1, 3, 4 The First Symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann and Sibelius. The C major Symphony of Schubert, the Second Sym- phony of Brahms, and the Third of Roy Harris. Other works include Bach's Passacaglia (orchestrated by Respighi), Fame's Suite "Pelleas et Melisande," Stravinsky's "Capriccio" (Soloist J. M. Sanroma, Piano), Prokofieff's "Classical" Symphony, and Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" (Second Suite). Series B: August 8, 10, 11 A TCHAIKOVSKY FESTIVAL (Celebrating the tooth anniversary of the composer's birth) The Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies. The Violin Concerto (Albert Spalding, Soloist). The Overture "Romeo and Juliet," Serenade for Strings, Second Suite and other works to be announced. Series C: August 15, 17, 18 The Third ("Eroica") Symphony of Beethoven, the First of Brahms, and a Symphony of Haydn. Other works include Wagner excerpts, Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler," arias by Dorothy Maynor and BACH'S MASS IN B MINOR with the Festival Chorus of the Berkshire Music Center and Soloists to be announced Subscription blanks may be secured by applying to the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, Inc., 113 West 57th Street, New York. [2] (£uvtw%\t Hall Fifty-Fourth Season in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor THIRD EVENING CONCERT FRIDAY, February 16 Programme d'Indy Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 57 I. Extremement lent; Ties vif II. Moderement lent III. Modere; Tres aniine IV. Introduction, Fugue et Finale INTERMISSION Faure "Pelleas et Melisande," Suite from the Stage Music to Maeterlinck's Tragedy, Op. 80 I. Prelude: Quasi adagio II. "Fileuse": Andantino quasi allegretto III. Molto adagio Debussy "Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un Faune (Eglogue de S. Mallarme)" ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Eclogue by S. Mallarme)") Ravel Orchestral Excerpts from "Daphnis et Chloc" (Second Suite) Lever du Jour — Pantomime — Danse Generale The music of these programmes is available at the 58th Street Library [3] SYMPHONY NO. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 57 By Vincent d'Indy Born in Paris, March 27, 1851; died there December 2, 1931 D'Indy completed his Second Symphony in 1903. It was first performed at a Lamoureux concert in Paris, February 28, 1904. The first performance in America was given at the concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra, December 31, 1904. The first performance in Boston was on January 7, 1905, under the leadership of Mr. Gericke. The composer, making his first visit to this country, conducted this symphony at a concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, December 2, 1905. The Symphony was again performed at these concerts November 6, 1909, December 4, 1909 (by request), January 23, 1920, November 17, 1922, February 13, 1925, January 1, 1932, and February 9, 1940. The Symphony is scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and bass trombone, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, two harps, and strings. The Symphony is dedicated to Paul Dukas. Vincent d'Indy labeled as his First Symphony the "Symphonie sur un air montagnard frangais" composed in 1886. He wrote his Third Symphony, "Sinfonia Brevis dc Bella Gallico" in the years 1916-18. Unlike the First Symphony, based on a popular air, and the Third Symphony, motivated by the events of the last war, the Sym- phony in B-flat is absolute music without any "tags" whatsoever. Contributing an article to the magazine "Musica" of Paris, d'Indy wrote: "Symphonic music, unlike dramatic music, is developing toward complexity: the dramatic element is more and more introduced into absolute music, in such a way that form is here, as a rule, absolutely submissive to the incidents of a veritable action." M. D. Calvocoressi makes this interpretation of d'Indy 's words as applied to the Second Symphony: "To search for an action that is not purely musical in absolute music would be madness. There is, indeed, an action in this symphony, but it is wholly in the music: the putting into play of two principal themes, which present themselves at the beginning side by side, follow each other, war against each other, or, on the con- trary, are each developed separately, associate with themselves new ideas which complete or serve as commentary, and at the end of the work are blended in an immense triumphal chant." Many enthusiastic things have been written about this symphony. Professor Edward Burlingame Hill in his "Modern French Music" of 1924 characterized the Symphony as "not only d'Indy's instrumental masterpiece, but one of the noblest works of its century. Complex and even involved in structure, study is necessary in order to corre- late its elaborate design. Nevertheless, force and beauty of expression are everywhere in evidence, and the dramatic conclusion of the last [4] movement is one of the typical instances in d'lndy's music in which the mind and the heart unite in an invincible grandeur." One of the most lucid and sympathetic of the Symphony's analysts was Arthur Shepherd, once annotator of the Cleveland Orchestra's pro- grammes. Mr. Shepherd wrote: "First movement: Extremement lent, 4-2 time. There is something granitic about the introduction, concerned chiefly with the imbedding of the initial germinal motive: four-cornered, austere, it pervades the whole work in various and varying guises, now as the dominating idea, now as the merest figural accessory. This initial motive is announced in the basses, 'cello, and harps; there is an answering phrase in the wood winds which prefigures the second theme of the main body of the movement. Shortly thereafter the flutes, oboes and bassoons hint at the principal theme. This material is carried insistently forward through a crescendo, and an increased quickening of the rhythm to a change of tempo — Tres vif, 3-4 time, at which juncture the main body of the movement is ushered in with a theme in the solo horn, lightly accom- panied by violas and second violins. "A re-announcement of the theme is made with fuller instrumenta- tion, culminating on a tonic cadence. There follows a subsidiary pas- sage, with a sprightly piquant theme in tripping eighth-notes an- nounced by the wood winds; this is elaborately amplified in alternat- ing choirs, subsiding finally into a diminuendo, whereupon an undulat- ing figure in the horns ushers in the lyrical second theme, played by the first violins. Like the preceding ' thematic material, this second theme is of ample proportion, with broadly extended melodic contour. The development section reveals d'lndy's magnificent technique to the full. There is much discursive dialogue apropos all the thematic ma- terial of the exposition, and the adroit contrast of the ideas together with an extraordinary play of instrumental timbres makes the whole a fascinating study. The form of the movement is quite strict in the traditional sonata-allegro, with the usual recapitulation, and a brisk coda. "Second movement: Moderement lent, D-flat major, 6-4 time. After an introduction of five measures — which harks back to the principal theme of the first movement, the English horn, French horn and clari- net give out a broad cantabile in which the upward stride of a minor- seventh (a prevailing melodic characteristic of the composer) gives it a strong resemblance to the second theme of the first movement.