Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 12, 1892
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MECHANICS' HALL, WORCESTER. BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. ARTHUR NIKISCH, Conductor. Twelfth Season, 1892-93. PROGRAMME OF THE FIRST CONCERT Tuesday Evening, Nov. 22, At 7.45 o'clock. With Historical and Descriptive Notes by William F. Apthorp. PUBLISHED BY C. A. ELLIS, MANAGER. : MASON AND HAMLIN IMPROVED PIANOS Represent that same High Standard of Excellence which has achieved a Reputation for their ORGANS AS THE STANDARD 0F THE WORLD. New " Liszt " MODEL, No These Instruments have been supplied to Churches, Convents, Sisters of Charity, Missionaries, and Schools the world over. L9CAI2 REPRESENTATIVES G. L. GORHAM & GO., NQ. 454 MAIN STREET, WORCESTER. (2) Boston Mechanics' Symphony # ^ OrcnGSTrsi season of 1892-93 Mr. ARTHUR NIKISCH, Conductor. First Concert, Tuesday Evening, November 22, At 745. PROGRAMME. Overture, " Sakuntala " Groldmark ------- , Saint-Saens - Concerto for Piano, No. 4, in C minor, Op. 44 Allegro moderato ; Andante. Allegro vivace ; Andante ; Allegro. Wagner - Vorspiel and "Liebestod," from "Tristan und Isolde" Soli for Pianoforte a Rameau _______ Gavotte -with Variations b Schubert-Tausig - - - - - - -- March Militaire 7 Tschaiko^sky ----- Symphony No. 5, in E minor J Andante. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza. Valse (Allegro moderato). Finale (Andante maestoso). Soloist, Mrs. FANNY BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER. THE PIANOFORTE IS A STEINWAY. (3) V [A^DIE^' JAILOR^ TAILORING DEPARTMENT. We are exhibiting Models of Street Gowns, Jackets, Capes, etc. (designed by our own artist), which are considered the handsomest we_ have yet produced. DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT. Mme. L. LACHAMBRE, Designer and Fitter. Paris Models of Visiting Costumes/ Wraps, Reception and Ball Dresses. All the latest novelties in Silks and Woollens. Orders in Both Departments Executed at Short Notice. 252, 256, 258 BOYLSTON STREET. — r Mr. ADOLPH NOVY is connected with our DRESSIUflKING DEPARTMENT. He makes a specialty of TAILOR-MADE GOWNS, TAILOR-MADE COATS, TAILOR- MADE OPERA WRAPS R. H. STEARNS^& CO. 21 Rue Martel, TREMONT STREET & TEMPLE PLACE, PARIS. BOSTON. (4) rw Overture to "Sakimtala" (F major), Op. 13. Karl Goldmark. Karl Goldmark was born at Keszthely, Hungary, on May 18, 1832. He first studied the violin at the Musikverein at Oedenburg in 1842, then in Vienna of Leopold Jansa, and during the winter of 1847-48 at the Con- servatorium of Joseph Bohm. He was also a pupil in the harmony class at the Vienna Conservatorium ; but all his studies at that institution were cut short by the revolution of 1848, and in composition he was for the most part self-taught. The year 1858, which he spent in Pesth, was es- pecially devoted to earnest self-directed studies in the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Robert Schumann. He found a firm friend in Joseph Hellmesberger, the elder, who had much of his chamber music and orches- tral and choral work performed at his own concerts. For some time Goldmark was known mainly as a violinist, and his best known work was his suite for pianoforte and violin, Op. 11 : indeed, so often did he play this composition in various German cities that one day a wag, seeing his name, ' ; Karl Goldmark," on a hotel register, played him the trick of add- u ing in his own hand, et suite." Goldmark's reputation as a composer first became universal through his now well-known concert overture " Sakuntala," L. P. L Evening Wraps for Ladies, . ALSO . FRENCH MANTLES and CAPES. Shapes that cannot be found elsewhere — no duplicates. Very extensive assortment, many of them are being shown for the first time. 202 BOYLSTON STREET. BOSTON. 290 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. [51 which, soon after its performance by the Philharmonic Society in Vienna in 1865, was given almost all over Europe and the United States. Ten years later his opera " Die Konigin von Saba " placed his name upon the pinnacle of fame, and in its turn made the round of the musical world, excepting France, where foreign operas are hardly ever given until their composers have become recognizedly "classic." Ever since 1875 Gold- mark has been recognized as the only thoroughly successful German opera composer since Richard Wagner: even Anton Rubinstein has not run him very hard in this field. Still, Goldmark is not exclusively, nor even princi- pally, an opera composer, although the most unquestionable element in his talent is probably his dramatic gift : his concert and chamber music have won distinguished recognition everywhere, and he certainly stands in the first rank among orchestral writers to-day. He is an elaborately careful and laborious composer, writing slowly, and subjecting his works to search- ing self-criticism before giving them to the world. He is of Hebrew blood, and has all the conviction of the importance of details that belongs to his race. He is a brilliant master of orchestration, and delights in the most sumptuous orchestral coloring, perhaps to the extent of grazing monotony. The charge of a lack of elevation of style and nobility of inspiration has been brought against him ; but in this matter he certainly does not stand far below many another of his famous contemporaries. His prevailing fault is a tendency toward the theatrical in musical effect. The story of Sakuntala (or Cakuntala), in Kalidasa's Sanskrit poem, is this : Sakuntala was the daughter of a nymph, and was brought up by the chief of a caste of holy priests as his own daughter, in a grove frequented by penitents. One day the great king Dushyanta, while out hunting, came to the grove, and, seeing Sakuntala, fell in love with her. It was agreed between the two that she should follow the king to his court some days later, he giving her a ring by which she was to be identified. Sakuntala, engrossed by thoughts of her love, forgot to show the due rites of hospi- tality to a powerful priest who was visiting the grove ; and he, in revenge, threw a charm over king Dushyanta, robbing him of all recollection of his betrothed (according to Gandharver's version of the story, already his wife). Sakuntala afterwards lost the ring while washing linen in a sacred stream. When at last her family and friends brought her to Dushyanta's court as his wife, he failed to recognize her, and repudiated her : her own friends refused to escort her home again, as she was already married to a stranger. She was thus left alone to her despair, when her mother, the nymph, took pity on her. The ring was found by some fishermen, who brought it to the king. At sight of it his recollection of Sakuntala returns. He finds her once more, on a warlike expedition he makes against some evil demons ; and he and she live happily together ever after. Goldmark's overture to this story begins with a calm, placid, slow move- ment, expressive of the quiet of the sacred grove. It has been suggested that the low trills on the violas, 'celli, and bassoon are meant to recall the gurgling of a spring of water, in allusion to Sakuntala's nymph parentage. (6) The meaning of the two succeeding themes (the first on two 'celli soli and clarinet, the second on the first violins, doubled by an oboe) is not easy to prin- determine. They are of a sensuous, languishing character \ and the cipal figure of the first is constantly used as an accompaniment, or counter- theme, to the second. Perhaps these two interwoven themes mean Du- shyanta and Sakuntala. A short stringendo passage leads to a movement poco piu mosso, in which a brisk hunting motive is introduced, first on all the brass instruments, then dispersed all over the orchestra : this is the principal allegro theme of the overture. The work has nothing in common with the regular overture form, and is, so to speak, a free dramatic fanta- sia from beginning to end, very elaborately worked out, and scored for full modern orchestra (with English horn, tuba, and harp) with the most gor- geous richness of coloring. Vorspiel and " JLiebestod " (Prelude and "Iiove-death") froni •' Tristan und Isolde" Richard Wagner, 1813-1883. Wagner's " Tristan und Isolde " was the first work in his third manner ever performed. It was written at the time of his greatest power, when he was between forty and fifty. He was still in exile from Germany, and had been " " working for years on his mighty tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen ; but, as this wr ork progressed, he began to feel more and more keenly his long separation from the public, which had had no new work from him since " Lohengrin." He accordingly interrupted his work on the " Nibelungen," to write an opera, or lyric drama, of ordinary dimensions, that could be easily performed by a small troupe and on a small stage. That only Wagner could ever have imagined that "Tristan" would be an "easy" means of re-establishing his long severed connection with the opera-going public need not to be said. The technical difficulty of the work was so unprece- dented that it was long before it could be mounted at all ; and, when it was given in Munich in 1865, its musical character was so utterly new and hard to grasp understandingly that it positively terrified and dumfounded (7) the general public. The common verdict was that Wagner had out- Wagnered himself. But time works wonders, and this once obscure and unintelligible work is now regarded as the most perfect of all the com- poser's tragic creations. The selections given this evening are the instrumental prelude and the finale of the last act (Isolde's dying speech over Tristan's dead body). The prelude runs for the most part on two motives,— the magic love-potion and Tristan's look of begging for mercy as Isolde comes to tend him after he has killed her knight, Morold, in single combat, in which he himself has been wounded.