BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN I88I BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON ACADEMY OF MUSIC PHILADELPHIA EIGHTIETH SEASON 1960-1961 ^TytuMcli/ HIS DEDICATION AND INTERPRETIVE POWERS ARE MOVINGLY REVEALED IN FINEST LIVING STEREO ON RCAVictor records exclusively other recent albums by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony in Living Stereo and regular LP.— Saint- Saens: Symphony No. 3; Beethoven : Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica"). Monophonic only— Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe. EIGHTIETH SEASON, 1960-1961 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Musk Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor CONCERT BULLETIN 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 Richard C. Paine Treasurer Theodore P. Ferris John T. Noonan Francis W. Hatch Palfrey Perkins Harold D. Hodgkinson Sidney R. Rabb C. D. Jackson Charles H. Stockton E. Morton Jennings, Jr. John L. Thorndike Henry A. Laughlin Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Woi.cott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager S. Shirk Norman James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator Leonard Burkat Rosario Mazzeo Music Administrator Personnel Manager SYMPHONY HALL BOSTON 15 [3] Boston Symphony Orchestra (Eightieth Season, i960- 1961) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins Cellos Bassoons Richard Burgin Samuel Mayes Sherman Walt Concert-master Alfred Zighera Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Jacobus Langendoen Theodore Brewster George Zazofsky Mischa Nieland Contra Bassoon Rolland Tapley Karl Zeise Joseph Silverstein Martin Hoherman Richard Plaster Vladimir Resnikoff Bernard Parronchi Horns Harry Dickson Richard Kapuscinski James Stagliano Gottfried Wilfinger Robert Ripley Charles Yancich Einar Hansen Winifred Winograd Joseph Leibovici Harry Shapiro Louis Berger Emil Kornsand Harold Meek John Sant Ambrogio Roger Shermont Paul Keaney Minot Beale Basses Osbourne McConathy Herman Silberman Georges Moleux Trumpets Stanley Benson Henry Freeman Leo Panasevich Roger Voisin Irving Frankel Sheldon Rotenberg Armando Ghitalla Henry Portnoi Fredy Ostrovsky Andre Come Noah Bielski Henri Girard Gerard Goguen John Barwicki Clarence Knudson Leslie Martin Trombones Pierre Mayer Ortiz Walton William Gibson Manuel Zung Samuel Diamond William Moyer Flutes Kauko Kabila William Marshall Doriot Anthony Dwyer Orosz Leonard Moss Josef Pappoutsakis William Waterhouse James Tuba Phillip Kaplan Alfred Schneider K. Vinal Smith Victor Manusevitch Piccolo Laszlo Nagy Timpani George Madsen Ayrton Pinto Everett Firth Michel Sasson Oboes Harold Farberman Lloyd Stonestreet Ralph Gomberg Julius Schulman Percussion Raymond Sird Jean de Vergie Charles Smith John Holmes Violas Harold Thompson Arthur Press Joseph de Pasquale English Horn Cauhape Jean Louis Speyer Harps Eugen Lehner Bernard Zighera Albert Bernard Clarinets Olivia Luetcke George Humphrey Gino Cioffi Jerome Lipson Manuel Valerio Piano Robert Karol Pasquale Cardillo Bernard Zighera Reuben Green E\) Clarinet Bernard Kadinoff Library Vincent Mauricci Bass Clarinet Victor Alpert Earl Hedberg Rosario Mazzeo William Shisler Joseph Pietropaolo [4] EIGHTIETH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED SIXTY-SIXTY-ONE THURSDAY EVENING, March 9, at 8:30 o'clock Program MiLHAUD La Creation du monde Prokofiev *Violin Concerto No. 2, in G minor. Op. 63 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante assai III. Allegro ben marcato INTERM ISS 10 N Franck *Symphony in D minor I. Lento; Allegro non troppo II. Allegretto III. Allegro non troppo SOLOIST JOSEPH SILVERSTEIN BALDWIN PIANO *RCA VICTOR RECORDS [5] LA CREATION DU MONDE, BALLET By Darius Milhaud Born in Aix-en-Provence, September 4, 1892 Milhaud's "The Creation of the World" was composed in 1923 as music for a ballet staged by Blaise Cendrars and Fernand Leger. The ballet was first produced by the Ballets Suedois in Paris. It was performed by the Ballet Theatre in New York in 1939 under the title Black Ritual, with choreography by Agnes de Mille, at the Lewisohn Stadium. Leonard Bernstein conducted it in concert form with the New York City Symphony November 19, 1945. Charles Munch presented it in this form at the Berk- shire Festival July 26, 1953, and in Boston, April 23-24, 1954. The orchestration consists of 2 flutes and piccolo, oboes, 2 clarinets, saxophone in E-flat, 2 trumpets, horn, bassoon, trombone, piano, timpani, and the following per- cussion: snare drum, metal block and wood block, cymbals, tambourine, bass drum and cymbal. The string orchestra is without violas. (The saxophone is scored as if to replace the violas and in their range.) TT^VEN from his earliest days in Paris, Milhaud had been attracted by ''--' popular dance rhythms as material for his music. He then visited the music halls of that city with his companions of the '*Six" and freely borrowed ideas. He wrote tangos in Brazil during the First World War and the liking for them persisted in his later music. He composed the ballet Le Boeuf sur le toit on his return from Brazil to Paris in 1919, about an American speak-easy before he had seen one. He heard the first jazz bands in a London suburb and wrote his "shimmy," Caramel moUj in 1920. Visiting the United States for the first time in 1922, he investigated New York's Harlem and made newspaper headlines by openly praising jazz before it had become the fashion with our symphonists to swear allegiance to that idiom. A result was La Creation du monde, com- posed in the following year for a ballet of Blaise Cendrar. Jazz is freely exploited in this score by a chamber orchestra of size comparable to the usual jazz band. It seems plain enough, although the composer does not admit it in so many words in his fascinating autobiography (Notes sans musique ), that in those years he was by no means averse to a succes de scandale. It can be further inferred that his interest in jazz for his own purposes cooled off after jazz had become symphonically respectable. [copyrighted] ^eolian=^feinner (l^rgan Companj> Designers of the instruments for: THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA THE DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC Joseph S. Whiteford, President and Tonal Director [6] ENTR'ACTE MILHAUD'S EXCURSION INTO JAZZ In his autobiography "Notes Without Music" (published in English by Alfred A. Knopf, 1933), Darius Milhaud tells how he visited the United States in 1922, became acquainted with jazz in New York's Harlem, returned to France and shaped his impressions into the ballet "La Creation du monde." Portions are here quoted from the book, beginning with a description of his visit to Boston. A T Boston I took part in a concert of my works given by a group of -^~*' players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conducted by the flautist Laurent. I gave a lecture at Harvard, and the members of the Harvard Glee Club prepared a surprise for me by singing the Psalm I had composed for them at the request of their director, Dr Archibald T. Davison, whom I had met in Paris on the occasion of a lunch given in his honor, and in honor of the members of the musical delegation from Harvard University, by Marshal Foch. The lunch took place at the Cercle Interallie, and the Marshal had invited musicians of all generations, from members of the Institut to the so-called rebels. When the dessert was served, the young Americans had greeted the Marshal with some of their college yells and Indian war-cries. In Boston, Dr. Davison introduced me to some of his friends, who at once decided to offer me a party. This was right in the middle of Prohibition, and the tiniest authentic drink cost a small fortune. Whisky was served in teacups, which were filled underneath the table. Dr. Davison had chosen the Hotel Brunswick for the party, because it had an excellent jazz orchestra and he knew I would like to hear it. When I arrived in New York, I had told the newspapermen interviewing me that Euro- pean music was considerably influenced by American music. "But whose music?" they asked me; "MacDowell's or Carpenter's?" "Neither the one nor the other," I answered, "I mean jazz." They were filled with consternation, for at that time most American musicians had not realized the importance of jazz as an art form and relegated it to the dance hall. The headlines given to my interviews prove the astonish- ment caused by my statements: "Milhaud admires jazz" or "Jazz dictates the future of European music." Of course, my opinions won me the sympathy of Negro music-lovers, who flocked to my concerts. The chairman of the Negro musicians' union even wrote me a touching letter of thanks. Little suspecting what complications this would cause, I immediately invited him to lunch: no restaurant would serve us, but at last Germaine Schmitz [Mrs. Robert E. Schmitz] solved this delicate problem by asking the manager of the Hotel Lafayette to receive us. 1 was also called upon by Harry Burleigh, the famous arranger of Negro f7] spirituals, who played me Negro folk tunes and hymns, which interested me keenly, for I wished to take advantage of my stay to find out all I could about Negro music. The jazz orchestra of the Hotel Brunswick was conducted by a young violinist called Reissmann, who got from his instrumentalists an extreme refinement of pianissimo tones, murmured notes, and glancing chords, whisperings from the muted brass, and barely formulated moans from the saxophone, which had a highly individual flavor. The regular rhythm was conveyed by the muffled beat of the percussion, and above it he spun the frail filigree of sound from the other instruments, to which the high notes of the violin lent an added poignancy. It made a great contrast to Paul Whiteman's lively orchestra, which I had heard a few days before in New York and which had the precision of an elegant, well-oiled machine, a sort of Rolls-Royce of dance music, but whose atmosphere remained entirely of this world.