— ,r\ JktHti^J ^ I. BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON Q i» ^ 'Villi an i>«? "V/«2 © i vJja SIXTY-EIGHTH SEASON 1948 -1949 1 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Music Director SCHEDULE OF CONCERTS, Season 1948-1949 18 OCTOBER Cambridge (3) 21-22 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XIII) 5 Wellesley Boston (Fri.-Sat. I) 23 Boston (Sun. d) 12 Boston (Tues. A) 25 Boston (Tues. F) 15-16 Boston (Fri.-Sat. II) 28-29 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XIV) 19 Providence (0 22-23 Boston (Fri.-Sat. Ill) FEBRUARY 24 Boston (Sun. a) 26 Cambridge 1 Providence (3) (0 . * 29-30 Boston (Fri.-Sat. IV) 4-5 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XV) 8 Cambridge (4) NOVEMBER 11-12 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XVI) 2 Boston (Tues. B) 16 New York (Wed. 3) 5-6 Boston (Fri.-Sat. V) 17 Newark (0 18 Brooklyn New Haven (1) (3) 9 ' (Sat. 10 New York (Wed. 1) 19 New York 3) 1 Hunter College 22 Boston (Tues. G) 12 Brooklyn (0 25-26 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XVII) e) 13 New York (Sat. 1) 27 Boston (Sun. 16 Providence (2) 19-20 Boston (Fri.-Sat. VI) MARCH 21 Boston (Sun. b) 1 Providence (4) Boston (Tues. 23 C) 4-5 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XVIII) 26-27 Boston (Fri.-Sat. VII) 8 Cambridge (5) 30 Pittsburgh 11-12 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XIX) DECEMBER 14 Hartford 15 New Haven (2) 1 Cleveland 16 New York (Wed. 4) 2 Cincinnati 17 Newark (2) 3 Chicago 18 Brooklyn (4) 5 Milwaukee 19 New York (Sat. 4) 6 Arbor Ann 22 Boston (Tues. H) Detroit 7 25-26 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XX) 8 Rochester 27 Boston (Pension Fund) 10-11 Boston (Fri.-Sat. VIII) 29 Providence (5) 14 Cambridge (2) 17-18 Boston (Fri.-Sat. IX) APRTL 21 Boston (Tues. D) 22-23 Boston (Fri.-Sat. X) 1-2 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XXI) 28 Boston (Pension Fund) 5 Cambridge (6) (Fri.-Sat. XXII) 31-Jan. 1 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XI) 8-9 Boston 12 Philadelphia JANUARY 13 New York (Wed. 5) 2 Boston (Sun. c) 14 New Brunswick Brooklyn 4 Boston (Tues. E) 15 (5) 7-8 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XII) 16 New York (Sat. 5) 11 Springfield 19 Boston (Tues. I) (Fri.-Sat. XXIII) 12 New York (Wed. 2) 22-23 Boston n Washington 24 Boston (Sun. £) (Spec, concert) 14 Brooklyn (2) 26 Boston (Fri.-Sat. XXIV) 15 New York (Sat. 2) 29-30 Boston SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON SIXTY-EIGHTH SEASON, 1948-1949 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burr COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, IflC. The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President Henry B. Sawyer . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Jacob J. Kaplan Alvan T. Fuller Roger I. Lee Jerome D. Greene Lewis Perry N. Penrose Hallowell Raymond S. Wilkins Francis W. Hatch Oliver Wolcott George E. Judd, Manager [1] $5 Only you can decide Whether your property is large or small, it rep- resents the security for your family' s future. Its ulti- mate disposition is a matter of vital concern to those you love. To assist you in considering that future, the Shaw- mut Bank has a booklet: "Should I Make a Will?" It outlines facts that everyone with property should know, and explains the many services provided by this Bank as Executor and Trustee. Call at any of our 2 J convenient offices, write or telephone for our booklet: "Should I Make a Will?" The V^Cgtional Shawmut Bank 40 Water Street^ Boston Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Capital and Surplus $30,000,000 "Outstanding Strength' for 112 Years &mmm&m&&&m&*mm&&m&&mm®®m®®®i& [2] SYMPHONIANA 25 YEARS AGO Serge Koussevitzky's program for his first concert in America, as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in Symphony Hall, October 10-11, 1924, was as follows: Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor for Or- chestra with Organ (Edited by A. Sil- oti) {First performance in America) Berlioz: Overture, "The Roman Carni- val," Op. 9 Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a Honegger: "Pacific 231," Orchestral Movement (First performance in America) Scriabin: "The Poem of Ecstasy," Op. 54 The following "first impressions" are quoted from the reviews of this concert: H. T. Parker, in the Boston Transcript: In Mr. Koussevitzky by the proofs of yesterday dwell those four-fold powers which define and consummate a conductor of the first order. The ability to discover, unfold, curve and modulate the intrinsic and essential line of the music; to weave it into pat- tern; by pace and rhythm to give it motion; by accent to impart it charac- ter. The ability to distribute over the surface of this pattern the harmonic and instrumental colors which are light and shade, heat and cold upon it. The ability appreciate to give to each piece and each composer in it his particular voice, quality, life — fine Vivaldi winding into his staid patterns golden threads of sumptuous, sensuous things . melody; Berlioz lining and coloring his fresco of a dancing, singing, rioting yet stately Rome, Cellini's city; Brahms twining wreaths of fancy round the grave brows of meditation ; Honegger passion- ing in tone for machine, writing the music of mass, drive, impact; Scriabin from the depths of longing, loosing his voluptuous sea, till it scales a heaven of plangent ecstasy. Philip Hale, in the Boston Herald: Mr. Koussevitzky has a commanding figure and that indefinable quality known Boston as magnetism which works its spell on orchestra and audience. When he faces Providence his public he is neither arrogant nor Wellesley obsequious. He at once inspires con- [3] fidence, expectation, curiosity. These are all valuable qualities for a conductor to possess in these nervous, restless, ques- tioning years. anaier s It is evidence that Mr. Koussevitzky Chandl is imaginative; that while he can be sensuous in gaining effects of color, this sensuousness is controlled by a cool head. He probably approves the famous paradox of Diderot. He surely sym- pathizes with the dictum of Mozart: Greeting a "Music should sound." There is no fear in his breast of pedantic saws and cold or stuffed traditions: he thinks for him- self: he feels the music in his own way; new season he hears its appeal without caring how it appealed or appeals to others. He knows that melodic figures should be sung, yet he is not given to senti- mentalism. He realizes the value of tonal proportion. When he delights in Wlith strong contrasts, it is not merely to win the applause of the unthinking. He is dramatic, but yesterday he was not theatrical. enchantingly These are hasty impressions made by his leadership at one concert. It is al- ways rash to prophesy, but, after all, is it rash to predict that the season of feminine 1924-25 will be a brilliant one? Olin Downes, in the New York Times: Koussevitzky is not the prima donna type of conductor that some have called fashions him, but he is a striking figure on the stage. His authority is so complete that it is sensed before it is demonstrated, and when there is an occasion for a dramatic gesture he can make one. from the delicately His gestures, however, are not exces- sive. There were moments when he strapped shoe to allowed the orchestra to play itself, giv- ing the players their heads, with no ani- the romantic hat mating effort on his part save the ex- tremely mobile play of feature and com- swept by curled municating eye. At other moments he was the imperious leader, a hand and ostrich plumes . forefinger outstretched in command, a picture of dynamic, compelling energy. from the bare- In a word, Mr. Koussevitzky has the qualities and the "magnetism" especially shouldered waltz valuable for public success in this coun- try; of the virtuoso conductor. He has dress to the stiff- these but he has more. It is possible to say, after a single concert that at the fabric co'cktail suit least he is a musician who feels deeply his mission, who interprets with flaming . from smoothly temperament and communicative power. fitted gloves to There will, of course, be divisions of a ladylike bag! opinion concerning his readings, but there was no mistaking the excitement of the audience and the enthusiasm of his wel- come. It is plain that there is a new [4] . and significant figure among conductors in America today, and that he is at the live head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Warren Storey Smith, jn the Boston again Post: Report had included Mr. Koussevitzky among the more demonstrative of con- these ductors and to be sure there are mo- ments when, swayed by the music in . hand, he "lets himself go" far more than moments did the reticent Monteux. Nevertheless realistically reproduced Mr. Koussevitzky's manner upon the podium is far from sensational. Often with the he is singularly sparing of gesture: often his expressive left hand hangs idly at his side. But when he would builcf a climax, enforce a telling stroke, or draw from the instruments a melting songful - ness, then are Mr. Koussevitzky's ges- tures equal to the occasion. In his conducting the embodiment of grace and of physical expressiveness, Mr. Koussevitzky seems born to lead an orchestra as Pavlowa was born to dance or Melba to sing. His feeling for musical "values" as revealed in yesterday's con- cert is remarkable.