MFr^h JllHTil rl /*-"*& i Mi 11 i*z53sL ^BOSTON 1 /fe SYMPHONY 1 ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN 1881 BY M HHENRY LEE HIGGINSON VETERANS MEMORIAL '-. ; ( V: % . .''P / Y AUDITORIUM '1 EIGHTY-FIRST SEASON 1961-1962 ; 2 uving sif«fo EBEEEBEaiS w THE CONDUCTOR: MUNCH THE ORCHESTRA: BOSTON ... and their artistry is im- mortally inscribed in "these four treasured albums' to own and to enjoy always.* In Living Stereo and Mon- aural Hi-Fi. @ rca\1ctor@ The most trusted name in sound EIGHTY-FIRST SEASON, 1961-1962 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor CONCERT BULLETIN with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot President Talcott M. Banks Vice-President Richard C. Paine Treasurer Theodore P. Ferris John T. Noonan Francis W. Hatch Palfrey Perkins Harold D. Hodgkinson Sidney R. Rabb C. D. Jackson Charles H. Stockton E. Morton Jennings, Jr. John L. Thorndike Henry A. Laughlin Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager Norman S. Shirk James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator Leonard Burkat Rosario Mazzeo Music Administrator Personnel Manager SYMP HO NY HALL BOSTON 15 [3] *Pie4&tt& s4vetufSTEINWAY'PtottcUty The standard piano of the world The choice of discriminat- ing musicians all over the world. We invite you to select your piano as the art- ists do, from our large se- lection of beautiful Stein- way Consoles and Grands. HAMMOND ORGAN There is a Hammond Or- gan for every use whether it be for the home, the Church or the professional. You may see, hear and play ALL Hammond Models in our Organ Department. We cordially invite you to visit our High-Fidelity Salon where you may hear Stereophonic sound at its best on the finest in Stereo High-Fidelity equipment — THE FISHER. Exclusive Steinway Piano and Hammond Organ Representatives for All This Territory 256 Weybosset Street Open Mondays [4] EIGHTY-FIRST SEASON NINETEEN HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE -SIXTY-TWO Three Hundred and Sixty-second Concert in Providence Second Program TUESDAY EVENING, November 28, at 8:15 o'clock RICHARD BURGIN, Conductor Molssorgsky Prelude to Khovanshchina Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, in C minor, Op. 18 I. Moderato II. Adagio sostenuto III. Allegro scherzando INTERMISSION Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 I. Moderato II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo SOLOIST GARY GRAFFMAN Mr. Graffman plays the Steinway Piano By order of the Chief of the Providence Fire Department, smoking is allowed only in the ticket lobby and the lower lobby of the auditorium. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [5] "KHOVANSHCHINA": PRELUDE TO ACT 1 By Modest Petrovich Moussorgsky Born in Karevo, in the government of Pskov, March 21, 1839; died in St. Petersburg, March 28, 1881 Moussorgsky wrote the larger part of the opera "Khovanshchina" between the years 1872 and 1875, working on it intermittently through the remaining six years of his life. His colleague, Rimsky-Korsakov, filled out and fully orchestrated the score in 1881. The first performance was at St. Petersburg in 1885. There was a performance in Moscow in 1897. The instrumentation of the Prelude calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bas- soons, 4 horns, timpani, harp, tam-tam, and strings. 4 4 \7~ hovanshchina is a formidable name, especially when written as X\- ' Chowanschtschina' in the German transliteration" (so writes Oskar von Riesemann, in his readable life of Moussorgsky). "The word (the accent is on the first 'a') looks as if it were invented to display the tongue-twisting properties of the Russian language. The last syllables hiss like a brood of snakes. What is the meaning of this monstrous word? Nothing much — its sense is more innocent than one would fancy. The last syllables are only a contemptuous suffix in Russian, like '-ery' in English. When the young Czar Peter (not yet 'the Great') was told of a plot that the two Princes Khovansky had formed against him, he dismissed the whole affair with a contemptuous shrug, and the word 'Khovanshchina!' and gave orders to let the matter drop. The After tonight's concert, Enjoy a drink and late supper in the Rhode Island's Only Dining Room with Dancing Nightly Sheraton ^Biltinore GEORGE THOMAS CULLEN, General Manager [6] 'dropping' meant that the two Princes Khovansky, father and son, were publicly hanged; but otherwise the conspiracy had no further result, so far as the Russian Empire was concerned." Moussorgsky devised a different end for each of them, to suit his dramatic purposes, but was otherwise essentially faithful to history. His introduction, Moussorgsky calls "Dawn on the Moskva River." It is a musical landscape in which the composer prepares his audience to see the quarters of the Streltsi in Moscow, in the early morning. Riesemann attributes the "five melodic variations" which are the basis of this prelude to "a method of musical expression long familiar to the Russian people, through their popular songs. When a song is sung in a Russian village — especially by several singers in succession — no two stanzas are usually sung alike. Each singer tries to introduce individual variations in the melody to suit his or her own voice and mood, and in accordance with the meaning of the particular verse. Thus the song loses all rigidity and seems to be a living, breathing organism, capable of varying with every moment. This peculiarity of Russian folk-song becomes in Moussorgsky's hands a most effective means of musical expression, which he employs in many of his works, and nowhere more successfully than in this prelude; it is always the same landscape, some- what melancholy and monotonous, that we see before us, and yet it seems constantly to change its appearance, in accordance with the changing light." [copyrighted] • furniture • carpeting • lamps • accessories • interior planning contemporary furniture NEW INTERIORS JAckson 1-6042 680 no. main street • providence, r. i. [7] CONCERTO NO. 2, IN C MINOR FOR PIANOFORTE WITH ORCHESTRA, Op 18 By Sergei Vassilievitch Rachmaninoff Born in Onega in the government of Novgorod, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943 Composed in the year 1900, Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto for Pianoforte was first performed by the Philharmonic Society of Moscow on October 27, 1901, the composer as soloist. (There had been a performance of the last two movements at a benefit concert December 2, 1900.) It was published in the same year. It was his Second Concerto which contributed more than any other piece to the early popularity of Rachmaninoff. The curious circum- stances under which he wrote it have been disclosed in his memoirs.* For two years Rachmaninoff suffered from a "mental depression," con- nected with certain contretemps in his career as composer and conduc- tor in Moscow. His friends, alarmed at his state of apathy, tried various means of rousing him. A visit to Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana was inef- fective, but treatment under Dr. Nicolai Dahl, a radical in his profes- sion, and a pioneer in the field of auto-suggestion, had very decided results. "My relations had told Dr. Dahl," wrote Mr. Rachmaninoff, "that he must at all costs cure me of my apathetic condition and achieve such results that I would again begin to compose. Dahl had asked what manner of composition they desired and had receive the answer, 'A Concerto for pianoforte,' for this I had promised to the people in London and had given it up in despair. Consequently I heard the same hypnotic formula repeated day after day while I lay half asleep in an armchair in Dahl's study. 'You will begin to write your Concerto. * "Rachmaninoff's Recollections," Told to Oskar von Riesemann. c 2 — 4 H \ OV 6 Z tne I T /-\\\c\or\aao £ i-l L A °f Y cunion S \— Q E R For Better Luggage And Leather Goods To suit the taste From a carefully chosen selection of the most discriminating VISIT D. °ilV. ^ound± Co, JObcL 52 WASHINGTON STREET • PROVIDENCE, R. I. GARDEN CITY WAYLAND SQUARE You will work with great facility. The Concerto will be of an .' excellent quality. It was always the same, without interruption. Although it may sound incredible, this cure really helped me. Already at the beginning of the summer I began again to compose. The mate- rial grew in bulk, and new musical ideas began to stir within me — far more than I needed for my Concerto. By the autumn I had finished two movements of the Concerto — the Andante and the Finale — and a sketch for a Suite for two pianofortes whose Opus number 17 is explained by the fact that I finished the Concerto later by adding the first movement. The two movements of the Concerto (Op. 18) I played during the same autumn at a charity concert directed by Siloti. The two movements of my Concerto had a gratifying success. This buoyed up my self-confidence so much that I began to compose again with great keenness. By the spring I had already finished the first movement of the Concerto and the Suite for two pianofortes. "I felt that Dr. Dahl's treatment had strengthened my nervous system to a miraculous degree. Out of gratitude I dedicated my second Con- certo to him. As the piece had had a great success in Moscow, everyone began to wonder what possible connection it could have with Dr. Dahl. The truth, however, was known only to Dahl, the Satins,* and myself." Rachmaninoff's latest biographer, Victor Seroff, tells us that the second theme of the last movement was actually composed by Rach- * The Satins were the friends with whom he stayed at that time.