S- ,'r^^-'<^- ^GyO\. -/ -L BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN I88I BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 7 k. ^9 X 'illl ""^ .^^ l^ H r vm \f SEVENTY -FIRST SEASON 1951-1952 Carnegie Hall, New York ; RCA VICTOR RECORDS BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Recorded under the direction of Charles Munch Beethoven ** Symphony No. 7 Beethoven *"Gratulations" Minuet Berlioz *Beatrice and Benedict Overture Brahms Symphony No. 4 Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, in G minor Soloist, Yehudi Menuhin Haydn Symphony No. 104 ("London") Ravel La Valse Schubert Symphony No. 2 Among the recordings under the leadership of Serge Koussevitzky Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, Mozart Eine kleine Nachtmusik; in F; Brandenburg Concerto No. Serenade No. 10, in B-Flat, K. 6, in B-Flat; Suite No. 1, in C; 361; Symphony No. 36, in C, K. Suite No. 4, in D 425, "Linz"; Symphony No. 39, in E-Flat, K. 543 Beethoven Symphony No. 3, in E- Flat» "Broica" ; Symphony No. 5, Prolcofleff Concerto No. 2, in G Minor, in C Minor, Op. 67; Symphony Op. 63, Heifetz, violinist; Sym- No. 9, in D Minor, "Choral" phony No. 5 ; Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 , Eleanor Roosevelt, narrator Brahms Symphony No. 3, in F, Op. 90 Ravel Bolero; Ma M6re L'Oye Suite Haydn Symphony No. 92, in G, "Ox- ford"; Symphony No. 94, in G, Schuhert Symphony No. 8, in B Minor, "Unfinished" "Surprise" ; Toy Symphony Khatchaturian Concerto for Piano Tchaikovsky Serenade in C, Op. 48 and Orchestra, William Kapell, Symphony No. 4, in F Minor, Op. pianist 36; Symphony No. 5, in E Minor, Op. 64 Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4, "Ital- ian" Wagner * Prelude to "Lohengrin" COMMEMORATIVE ALBUM— (to be available this Fall Sihelius Symphony No. 2, in D, Op. 43 R. Strauss Don Juan, Op. 20 Wagner Siegfried Idyll Recorded under the leadership of Pierre Monteux Stravinsky "Le Sacre du Printemps" (Oct. 1951) 45 r.p.m. **3S 1/S (L.P.) and 1,5 r.p.m. Carnegie Hall, New York Sixty-sixth Season in New York SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON, 1951-1952 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Second Concert WEDNESDAY EVENING, December 5 AND THE Second Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, December 8 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President . Vice-PresideJit 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 [1] Boston Symphony Orchestra (Seventy-first Season, 1951-1952) 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 Arti^res Horns • Harry Dubbs Robert Karol T f a. 1 James Stagliano Reuben Green Vladimk ResnikofE Harry Shapiro Joseph Leibovici Bernard Kadinoff Harold Meek Einar Hansen Vincent Mauricci Paul Keaney Harry Dickson Walter Macdonald Violoncellos Emil Kornsand OsI)ourne McConathy Samuel Carlos Pinfield Mayes Alfred Zighera Paul Fedorovsky Trumpets Minot Beale Jacobus Langendoen Mischa Nieland Roger Voisin Silberman Herman Marcel Lafosse Roger Schermanski Hippolyte Droeghmans Karl Zeise Armando Ghitalla Stanley Benson Rene Voisin Zimbler Gottfried Wilfinger Josef Bernard Parronchi Enrico Fabrizio Trombones Clarence Knudson Leon Marjollet Jacob Raichman Pierre Mayer Lucien Hansotte Manuel Zung Flutes John Coffey Samuel Diamond Georges Laurent Josef Orosz Victor Manusevitch James Pappoutsakis Nag^ James Phillip Kaplan Tuba Leon Gorodetzky Vinal Smith Raphael Del Sordo Piccolo Melvin Bryant George Madsen Harps Lloyd Stonestreet Bernard Zighera Saverio Messina Oboes Olivia Luetcke Sheldon Rotenbcrg Ralph Gomberg Leo Panasevich Jean Devergie William Waterhousc John Holmes Timpani Roman Szulc English Horn Basses Charles Smith Louis Speyer Georges Moleux Willis Page Percussion Clarinets Ludwig Juht Max Polster Gino Cioffi Irving Frankel Simon Sternburg Manuel Valerio Harold Farberman Henry Greenberg Pasquale Cardillo Henry Portnoi £b Clarinet Henry Freeman Librarians Henri Girard Bass Clarinet Leslie Rogers John Barwicki Rosario Mazzeo Leonard Burkat [2] Carnegie Hall, New York Sixty-sixth Season in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director SECOND EVENING CONCERT WEDNESDAY, December 5 Program PIERRE MONTEUX Conducting Wagner Prelude to "Parsifal" Debussy Excerpts (Act I) from "Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien" (Mystery Play by Gabriele d'Annunzio) Prelude: The Court of the Lilies Dance of Ecstasy and Finale Wagner Excerpts from "Gotterdammerung" Daybreak and Siegfried's Rhine Journey Siegfried's Death Music INTERMISSION Debussy N^; ^ I'l?'^''??'''Poeme^"^^^^lDanse ( Jeux, Wagner Overture to "Tannhauser" 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] PIERRE MONTEUX PIERRE MoNTEUx was born in Paris, April 4, 1875. ^^ began his career as violist at the Opera Comique and the Concerts Colonne. From 1912 he conducted Diaghileff's Ballet Russe, introducing such music as Stravinsky's Petrouchka, La Sacre dii Printemps, and Ros- signol; Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe and Debussy's Jeux. He toured the United States with the Ballet Russe in 1916-17. He conducted at the Paris Opera and his own Concerts Monteux in Paris. He became conductor at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1917-18 and was the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra 1919-1924. In the ten years following he was a regular conductor of the Amsterdam Kon- zertgebouw and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. He became con- ductor of the San Francisco Orchestra in 1935, a position from which he has announced his retirement at the end of the present season. Mr. Monteux visited Boston with the San Francisco Orchestra April 13, 1947, and returned to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra January 26-27-28, 1951. PRELUDE TO "PARSIFAL" By Richard Wagner Born at Leipzig, May 22, 1813; died at Venice, February 13, 1883 The libretto for "Parsifal" was completed in 1877, the first draft of the score in the spring of 1879, and the full orchestration in January 1882. The first perform- ance was at Bayreuth, July 26, 1882, but the Prelude was finished in December 1878, and performed on Christmas Day at the Villa Wahnfried, Wagner's house at Bayreuth, the composer conducting members of the orchestra from Meiningen. The following orchestra is required: three flutes, three oboes and English horn, three clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contra-bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, and strings. THE preljjde is the preparation to enter the sacred boundaries of Montsalvat, upon a mountain of medieval Spain, where a group of Knights are sworn to the keeping of the Holy Grail. Wagner, draft- ing an explanation of the prelude for a performance before King Ludwig II of Bavaria at Munich in 1880, gave it a triple heading: "Love — Faith: Hope?" The theme of "Love" is the mystic music of the Eucharist, repeated over extended arpeggios. It is linked with the liturgic "Dresden Amen," a cadence of ascending sixths. The theme of Faith appears as a stately and sonorous asseveration from the brass choirs. The development of the motive of the Eucharist gives poignant [4] intimation of the agony of Amfortas. The mood is unresolved; it was with special intent that the composer wrote a question mark after the title "Hope." He thus clarified his meaning: "First theme: Love. Take my body, take my blood, in token of our love. "Second theme: Faith — promise of Redemption through Faith. Strong and firm does Faith reveal itself, elevated and resolute even in suffering. In answer to the renewed promise, the voice of Faith sounds softly from the distant heights — as though borne on the wings of the snow-white dove — slowly descending, embracing with ever-increasing breadth and fulness the heart of man, filling the world and the whole of nature with mightiest force, then, as though stilled to rest, glancing upward again toward the light of heaven. "Then once more from the awe of solitude arises the lament of lov- ing compassion, the agony, the holy sweat of the Mount of Olives, the divine suffering of Golgotha; the body blanches, the blood streams forth and glows now in the chalice with the heavenly glow of blessing, pouring forth on all that lives and languishes the gracious gift of Redemption through Love. For him we are prepared, for Amfortas, the sinful guardian of the shrine, who, with fearful rue for sin gnawing at his heart, must prostrate himself before the chastisement of the vision of the Grail." "Shall there be redemption from the devouring torments of the soul? Once again we hear the promise, and — we hope!" [copyrightedI EXCERPTS, "THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT SEBASTIAN" (Mystery Play of Gabriele d'Annunzio) By Claude Debussy Born at Saint-Germain (Seine-et-Oise), France, August 22, 1862; died at Paris, March 25, 1918 Debussy composed his music to the play of d'Annunzio in the year 1911. The first production took place at the Theatre Chdtelet in Paris, Monday, May 22, 1911.* The choreographer was Fokine; the designer of scenery and costumes, Leon •Philip Hale gives the date as May 21, from the authority of the printed play, and the "Annales du TMdtre." He has also noted that May 20 is given in a reduction for piano and voices by Andr6 Caplef, published at the time. But lAon Vallas notes that the final dress rehearsal, to which many were invited, was given on Sunday, May 21.