Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 87, 1967-1968
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' *-%?$$$ Wl I / k^O "' -V:/,.. ,.,..->•:;..:'': r % # BOSTON /:'& SYMPHONY il v';S 1 ORCHESTRA I H Ik FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON >7 ,%> / I \\u... 10 AfiW \ ^K /; -V *f ,. ;, «:;5 eS<^X «?%r\\ m> 'W ffi* I'S'ii v., ;|?:':^ ; ;~%; ^..vy .:,>' ^";.;>x EIGHTY-SEVENTH SEASON 1967-1968 Exquisite Sound From the palaces of ancient Egypt to the concert halls of our modern cities, the wondrous music of the harp has compelled attention from all peoples and all countries. Through this passage of time many changes have been made in the original design. The early instruments shown in drawings on the tomb of Rameses II (1292-1225 B.C.) were richly decorated but lacked the fore-pillar. Later the "Kinner" developed by the Hebrews took the form as we know it today. The pedal harp was invented about 1720 by a Bavarian named Hochbrucker and through this ingenious device it be- came possible to play in eight major and five minor scales complete. Today the harp is an important and familiar instrument providing the "Exquisite Sound" and special effects so important to modern orchestration and arrange- ment. The certainty of change makes necessary a continuous review of your insurance protection. We welcome the opportunity of providing this service for your business or personal needs. We respectfully invite your inquiry CHARLES H. WATKINS & CO. Richard P. Nyquist — Charles G. Carleton 147 Milk Street Boston, Massachusetts Telephone 542-1250 OBRION, RUSSELL & CO. Insurance of Every Description EIGHTY-SEVENTH SEASON 1967-1968 BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ERICH LEINSDORF Music Director CHARLES WILSON Assistant Conductor THE TRUSTEES OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC. HENRY B. CABOT President TALCOTT M. BANKS Vice-President JOHN L. THORNDIKE Treasurer PHILIP K. ALLEN E. MORTON JENNINGS JR ABRAM BERKOWITZ HENRY A. LAUGHLIN THEODORE P. FERRIS EDWARD G. MURRAY ROBERT H. GARDINER JOHN T. NOONAN FRANCIS W. HATCH MRS JAMES H. PERKINS ANDREW HEISKELL SIDNEY R. RABB HAROLD D. HODGKINSON RAYMOND S. WILKINS TRUSTEES EMERITUS PALFREY PERKINS LEWIS PERRY EDWARD A. TAFT THOMAS D. PERRY JR Manager NORMAN S. SHIRK JAMES J. BROSNAHAN Assistant Manager Business Administrator SANFORD R. SISTARE HARRY J. KRAUT Press and Publicity Assistant to the Manager ANDREW RAEBURN MARY H. SMITH Program Editor Executive Assistant Copyright 1967 by Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc. SYMPHONY HALL BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS 579 TWO MAGNIFICENT RECORDING ACHIEVEMENT I THE BOSTON SYMPHONY UNDER ERICH LEINSDM i „- - BOSTON NILSSONp OTATTT17M SYMPII0NY CHOOKASIaS nrjyUlrjlVJ leinsdorf beroonzj ^t^U**/^^ FLAGELLO h & The first absolutely complete Verdi Requiem feaur Lohengrin on records. four celebrated so: rca Victor @The most trusted name in sound BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ERICH LEINSDORF Music Director CHARLES WILSON Assistant Conductor FIRST VIOLINS CELLOS BASSOONS Joseph Silverstein Jules Eskin Sherman Walt Concertmaster Martin Hoherman Ernst Panenka Mischa Nieland Alfred Krips Matthew Ruggiero Karl Zeise George Zazofsky Robert Ripley Rolland Tapley CONTRA BASSOON Sant Ambrogio Roger Shermont John Richard Plaster Max Winder Luis Leguia Stephen Geber Harry Dickson HORNS Carol Procter Gottfried Wilfinger Patterson James Stagliano Fredy Ostrovsky Jerome Ronald Feldman Charles Yancich Leo Panasevich Harry Shapiro Noah Bielski Thomas Newell Herman Silberman BASSES Benson Paul Keaney Stanley Henry Portnoi Rotenberg Ralph Pottle Sheldon William Rhein Alfred Schneider Joseph Hearne Schulman TRUMPETS Julius Bela Wurtzler Gerald Gelbloom Armando Ghitalla Leslie Martin Raymond Sird Roger Voisin John Salkowski John Barwicki Andre Come SECOND VIOLINS Buell Neidlinger Gerard Goguen Clarence Knudson Robert Olson William Marshall TROMBONES Michel Sasson FLUTES William Gibson Samuel Diamond Josef Orosz Leonard Moss Doriot Anthony Dwyer Kauko Kahila William Waterhouse James Pappoutsakis Ayrton Pinto Phillip Kaplan TUBA Amnon Levy Chester Schmitz Laszlo Nagy PICCOLO Michael Vitale TIMPANI Victor Manusevitch Lois Schaefer Toshiyuki Kikkawa* Everett Firth Max Hobart OBOES John Rorman PERCUSSION Ralph Gomberg Christopher Kimber Charles Smith Spencer Larrison John Holmes Harold Thompson Hugh Matheny Arthur Press Assistant Timpanist VIOLAS ENGLISH HORN Thomas Gauger Surton Fine Laurence Reuben Green Thorstenberg HARPS £ugen Lehner Bernard Zighera erome Lipson CLARINETS Olivia Luetcke Robert Karol Gino Cioffi \kio Akaboshi* Pasquale Cardillo LIBRARIANS Bernard Kadinoff Peter Hadcock /incent Mauricci Victor Alpert E\) Clarinet iarl Hedberg William Shisler oseph Pietropaolo lobert Barnes BASS CLARINET STAGE MANAGER 'izhak Schotten Felix Viscuglia Alfred Robison VILLIAM MOYER Personnel Manager members of the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra participating in a one season exchange with Messrs George Humphrey and Ronald Knudsen 581 :J At the / Boston Symphony Concerts / this year, these Pianists • JOHN BROWNING RITA B0UB0ULIDI MALCOLM FRAGER GARY GRAFFMAN GRANT JOHANNESEN play only Simpleip SplendorT So right for this new season—our * STHNWAY paisley wool kaftan outlined with IN MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW HAMPS* gold braid. Petite, Small, Medium, NEW STEINWAYS AVAILABLE ONLY FR Large. $135.00 416 BOYLSTON STREET 54 CENTRAL STREET ML STEINERT & SOU BOSTON 02116 WELLESLEY 162 BOYLSTON STREET • BOST< KEnmore 6-6238 CEdar 5-3430 ALSO WORCESTER and SPRINGFIELD 582 .'"'. THE FUND FOR THE BOSTON SYMPHONY To carry on our heritage .... The final crescendo — the lights come up and ap- plause fills the hall — but more than applause is needed to carry on The Boston Symphony Orchestra's musical heritage. The Orchestra needs continuing financial support which in its early years came from Henry Lee Higgin- son and a small group of wealthy men. But now it looks for support from music lovers in all walks of life. Today, thoughtful friends can insure their continued participation in carrying on our musical heritage as proudly as before by including The Symphony in their estate plans. The Fund for The Boston Symphony has initiated a deferred gifts program under the leadership of Harold Hodgkinson, a member of The Board of Trustees, and Hugh K. Foster. They invite your inquiry. 583 M For his den or office, this set from Italy—decanter and six glasses of green-tinted glass, covered with antiqued, tooled mahogany brown leather emblazoned with bronze heraldic crest, $30. Men's Boutique. BOSTON: At the start of The Freedom Trail, 140 Tremont Street, 482-0260. CHESTNUT HILL: 232-8100. SOUTH SHORE PLAZA: 848-0300. 584 Contents Program for December 15 and 16 1967 587 Future programs 637 Program notes Wagner - Tristan und Isolde - Prelude 588 by John N. Burk Elgar - Falstaff 594 Mozart - Three German dances 614 Dvorak - Three Slavonic dances 620 Strauss - Suite from 'Der Rosenkavalier' 622 by James Lyons Notes from the Music Director 630 Recent recordings by the Orchestra 635 585 v'-y mMmoI m J "Gerald and I were discussing my money, Daddy, ." and he has some really neat ideas . Fortunately, Lucy's father consented to give Gerald only her hand in marriage — not the tidy sum Aunt Agatha left her. That's safely tucked away in an investment management account at Old Colony. Under this arrangement, Old Colony assumes, full responsibility for Lucy's money. Makes the day-to-day investment decisions, clips the coupons, exercises the options, keeps the records and supplies the necessary data at tax time. Father sleeps better nights, knowing that Lucy's nestegg is under the full-time care of a team of investment specialists whose expertise he knows from personal experience. And Gerald? Frankly, he might as well forget the tip his barber gave him about sesame-seed futures! Possibly you know someone in your family whose portfolio could benefit from this sort of professional attention. If so, send 'em round! THE FIRST & OLD COLONY The First National Bank of Boston and Old Colony Trust Company 586 EIGHTY-SEVENTH SEASON 1967-1968 Tenth Program Friday afternoon December 15 at 2 o'clock Saturday evening December 16 at 8.30 ERICH LEINSDORF conductor WAGNER Tristan und Isolde - Prelude ELGAR Falstaff - symphonic study for orchestra op. 68 First performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra INTERMISSION MOZART Three German dances K. 605 First performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra DVORAK Slavonic dances from op. 72 no. 2 Allegretto grazioso no. 6 Moderato, quasi menuetto no. 8 Grazioso e lento, ma non troppo, quasi tempo di valse STRAUSS Suite from 'Der Rosenkavalier' The concert will end at about 3.50 on Friday and at about 10.20 on Saturday BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS 587 Program Notes RICHARD WAGNER Tristan und Isolde - Prelude Program note by John N. Burk Wagner was born in Leipzig on May 22 1813 and died in Venice on February 13 1883. He wrote the poem of Tristan und Isolde in Zurich in the summer of 1857. He began to compose the music just before the end of the year, completed the second act in Venice in March 1859, and the third act in Lucerne in August 1859. The first performance was at the Hoftheater in Munich on June 10 1865. The first performance in America took place at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on December 1 1886; the first Boston performance at the Boston Theatre on April 1 1895. The instrumentation: 3 flutes, 2 oboes and english horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and strings. Wagner's subjects usually lay long in his mind before he was ready to work out his text. And he usually visualized the opera in hand as a simpler and more expeditious task than it turned out to be. He first thought of Siegfried as light-hearted' and popular, as suitable for the small theater in Weimar, for which its successor, Die Gotterdammerung, was plainly impossible. But Siegfried as it developed grew into a very considerable part of a very formidable scheme, quite beyond the scope of any theater then existing. When Siegfried was something more than 588 I v*Ni N ^\> r..'.$: half completed, its creator turned to Tristan und Isolde for a piece marketable, assimilable, and performable.