PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION FESTIVAL HALL, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Tuesday Evening* May 18, 1915 ^^-.•^ BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHCSTRH THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON i9i4r-l9l5 ^M progrtwve; Tickets S^"e££ Exposition Ticket Office, for the remaining concerts S C <^ 343 Powell Street on sale at the mm (St. Francis Hotel) Thirty-fourth Season, 1914-1915 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor Violins. Witek, A. Roth, 0. Hoffmann, J. Rissland, K. Concert-master. Koessler, M. Schmidt, E. Theodorowicz, J Noack, S. Mann, F. Bak, A. Traupe, W. Goldstein, H. Tak, E. Ribarsch, A. Baraniecki, A. Sauvlet, H. Habenicht, W. Fiedler, B. Berger, H. Goldstein, S. Fiumara, P. Spoor, S. Sulzen, H. Kurth, R. Griinberg, M. Pinfield, C. Gerardi, A. Ringwall, R. Gunderson, R. Gewirtz, J. Violas. Ferir, E. Werner, H. Gietzen, A. v.Veen, H. Wittmann, F. Schwerley, P. Berlin, W. Kautzenbach, W Van Wynbergen, C. Blumenau, W. Violoncellos. Warnke, H. Keller, J. Barth, C. Belinski, M. Steinke, B. Malkin, J. Nagel, R. Nast, L. Folgmann, E. Warnke, J. Basses. Kunze, M. Agnesy, K. Seydel, T. Ludwig, 0. Gerhardt, G. Jaeger, A. Huber, E. Schurig, R. Flutes. Oboes. Clarinets. Bassoons. Maquarre, A. Longy, G. Sand, A. Sadony, P. Brooke, A. Lenom, C. Mimart, P. Mueller, E. Chevrot, A. Stanislaus, H. Vannini, A. Fuhrmann, M. Battles, A. English Horn. Bass Clarinet. Contra-Bassoon. Mueller, F. Stumpf, K. Mosbach, J. Horns. Horns. Trumpets. Trombones. Wendler, G. Jaenicke, B. Heim, G. Alloo, M. Lorbeer, H. Miersch, E. Mann, J. Belgiorno, S. Hain, F. Hess, M. Bach, V. Mausebach, A. Resch, A. Hiibner, E. Kloepfel, L. Kenfield, L. Tuba. Harps. Tympani. Percussion. Mattersteig, P. Holy, A. Neumann, S Zahn, F. Senia, T. Cella, T. Kandler, F. Burkhardt, H. Organ. Librarian. Assistant Librarian. Marshall, J. P. Sauerquell, J. Rogers, L. J. PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION FESTIVAL HALL SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA lostoira Symptomj Qrdbesta Thirty-fourth Season, 1914-1915 Dr. KARL MUCK, Conductor TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 18 WAGNER PROGRAMME Overture to "Rienzi" Overture to "The Flying Dutchman" Introduction and Bacchanale from "Tannhauser" Act I (Paris Version) Prelude to "Lohengrin" Prelude to "Tristan and Isolde" Prelude to "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg" Funeral Music from "Dusk of the Gods" Prelude to "Parsifal" There will be an intermission of ten minutes after the prelude to Lohengrin HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY C. A. ELLIS PUBLISHED BY C. A. ELLIS, MANAGER l Overture to the Opera "Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes." Richard Wagner (Born at Leipsic, May 22, 1813; died at Venice, February 13, 1883.) Wagner left Konigsberg in the early summer of 1837 to visit Dresden, and there he read Barmann's translation into German of Bulwer's "Rienzi."* And thus was revived his long-cherished idea of making the last of the Tribunes the hero of a grand opera. "My impatience of a degrading plight now mounted to a passionate craving to begin something grand and elevating, no matter if it involved the temporary abandonment of any practical goal. This mood was fed and strength- ened by a reading of Bulwer's 'Rienzi.' From the misery of modern private life, whence I could nohow glean the scantiest material for artistic treatment, I was wafted by the image of a great historico- political event, in the enjoyment whereof I needs must find a distrac- tion lifting me above cares and conditions that to me appeared noth- ing less then absolutely fatal to art." During this visit he was much impressed by a performance of Halevy's "Jewess" at the Court The- atre, and a warrior's dance in Spohr's "Jessonda" was cited by him afterward as a model for the military dances in "Rienzi." Wagner wrote the text of "Rienzi" at Riga in July, 1838. He began to compose the music late in July of the same year. He looked toward Paris as the city for the production. "Perhaps it may please Scribe," he wrote to Lewald, "and Rienzi could sing French in a jiffy; or it might be a means of prodding up the Berliners, if one told them that the Paris stage was ready to accept it, but they were welcome to pre- cedence." He himself worked on a translation into French. In May, 1839, he completed the music of the second act, but the rest of the music was written in Paris. The third act was completed August 11, 1840; the orchestration of the fourth was begun August 14, 1840; the score of the opera was completed November 19, 1840. The overture to "Rienzi" was completed October 23, 1840. The opera was produced at the Royal Saxon Court Theatre, Dresden, October 20, 1842. * The first performance of the opera in America was at the Academy of Music, New York, March 4, 1878. The overture is scored for one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two valve horns, two plain horns, one serpent, two valve trumpets, two plain trumpets, three trombones, one ophi- cleide, kettledrums, two snare-drums, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, and strings. The serpent mentioned in the score is replaced by the double-bassoon, and the ophicleide by the bass tuba. All the themes of the overture are taken from the opera itself. The overture begins with a slow introduction, molto sostenuto e maestoso, * Bulwer's novel[was published at Londonlin threc^volumes in 1835. D major, 4-4. It opens with "a long-sustained, swelled and dimin- ished A on the trumpet," in the opera, the agreed signal for the up- rising of the people to throw off the tyrannical yoke of the nobles. The majestic cantilena of the violins and the 'cellos is the theme of Rienzi's prayer in the fifth act. The development of this theme is abruptly cut off by passage-work, which leads in crescendo to a for- tissimo return of the theme in the brass against ascending series of turns in the first violins. The development of the theme is again interrupted, and recitative-like phrases lead to a return of the trumpet call, interspersed with tremolos in the strings. The last prolonged A leads to the main body of the overture. This begins Allegro energico, D major, 2-2, in the full orchestra on the first theme, that of the chorus, "Gegriisst sei hoher Tag!" at the beginning of the first finale of the opera. The first subsidiary theme enters in the brass, and it is the theme of the battle hymn ("Santo spirito cavaliere") of the revolutionary faction in the third act. A transitional passage in the 'cellos leads to the entrance of the second theme,—Rienzi's prayer, already heaid in the introduction of the overture,—which is now given, allegro, in A major, to the vio- lins. The "Santo spirito cavaliere" theme returns in the brass, and leads to another and joyful theme, that of the stretto of the second finale, "Rienzi, dir sei Preis," which is developed with increasing force. The free fantasia is short, and is devoted almost wholly to a stormy working-out of the "Santo spirito cavaliere" theme. The third part of the movement is a shortened repetition of the first; the battle hymn and the second theme are omitted, and the first theme is followed immediately by the motive, "Rienzi, dir sei Preis," against which trumpets and trombones play a sonorous counter-theme, which is very like the phrase of the nobles, "Ha, dieser Gnade Schmach er- druckt das stolze Herz!" in the second finale. In the coda, molto piu stretto, the "Santo spirito cavaliere" is developed in a most ro- bust manner. Overture; to "The; Flying Dutchman" . Richard Wagne;r (Born at Leipsic, May 22, 1813; died at Venice, February 13, 1883.) The overture is scored for one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets, four horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, one bass tuba, kettledrums, harp, strings. It was sketched at Meudon near Paris in September, 1841, and com- pleted and scored at Paris in November of that year. In 1852 Wagner changed the ending. In i860 he wrote another ending for the Paris concerts. It opens Allegro con brio in D minor, 6-4, with an empty fifth, against which horns and bassoons give out the Flying Dutchman motive. There is a stormy development, through which this motive is kept sounding in the brass. There is a hint at the first theme of the main body of the overture, an arpeggio figure in the strings, taken from the accompaniment of one of the movements in the Dutchman's first air in act i. This storm section over, there is an episodic Andante in F major in which wind instruments give out phrases from Senta's ballad of the Flying Dutchman (act ii.). The episode leads directly to the main body of the overture, Allegro con brio in D minor, 6-4, which begins with the first theme. This theme is developed at great length with chromatic passages taken from Senta's ballad. The Flying Dutch- man theme comes. in episodically in the brass from time to time. The subsidiary theme in F major is taken from the sailors' chorus, "Steuer- mann, lass' die Wacht!" (act iii.). The second theme, the phrase from Senta's ballad already heard in the Andante episode, enters f in the full orchestra, F major, and is worked up brilliantly with fragments of the first theme. The Flying Dutchman motive reappears jj in the trombones. The coda begins in D major, 2-2. A few rising arpeggio measures in the violins lead to the second theme proclaimed with the full force of the orchestra.