ACADEMY OF MUSIC, PHILADELPHIA. OSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. ARTHUR NIKISCH, Conductor. Eleventh Season, 1891-92. PROGRAMME OF THE FIRST CONCERT, Wednesday Evening, November 4, AT EIGHT O'CLOCK. Historical and Descriptive Notes prepared by G. H. WILSON. PUBLISHED BY C. A. ELLIS, Manager. I The MASON & HAMLIN PIAN Illustrates the same high standard of excellence which has always characterized th- MASON & HAMLIN ORGANS, and won for them the Highest Awards at ALI GREAT WORLD'S EXHIBITIONS since and including that of Paris, 1867 SOLD ON EASY TERMS AND RENTED. MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN AND PIANO CO BOSTON, Mason & Hamlin Hall, 154 and 155 Tremont Street. NEW YORK, 158 Fifth Avenue. CHICAGO, 149 Wabash Avenue. Or^an and Piano Catalogue sent free to any address. WM. G. FISCHER, 1221 Chestnut Street, PHILADELPHIA REPRESENTAT " Boston Academy Symphony d of Music - s^ , , SEASON OF Orchestra l89 .-92 Mr. ARTHUR N1KISCH, Conductor. First Concert, Wednesday Evening, November 4, At 8 o'clock. PROGRAMME. Seethoven --____ Overture, "Leonore," No. 3 lounod - - - - Aria from " Queen of Sheba Cschaikowsky - - Suite, Op. 55 Elegie. Valse melancholique. Scherzo. Tema con Variazioni. Jaint-Saens - - Rondo Capriccioso for Violin - !L Thomas - - Polacca from "Mignon" Wagner - - - - Prelude, "Die Meistersinger SOLOISTS: VIme. LILLIAN NORDICA. Mr. T. ADAMOWSKI, The announcement of the next Concert will be found on page 25. (3) SHORE LINE BOSTON jn NEW YORK NEW YORK U BOSTON Trains leave either city, week-days, as follows, except as noted : DAY EXPRESS at 10.00 a.m. Arrive at 4.30 p.m. BUFFET DRAWING-ROOM CARS. AFTERNOON SERVICE at 1.00 p.m. Arrive at 7.30 p.m. Dining Car beween Boston and New London. "GILT EDGE" LIMITED at 5.00 p.m. Daily, Sundays included, and arrive 11 p.m. Royal Smoking Car through. DINING CAR BETWEEN BOSTON AND NEW LONDON. The last trains between the two cities to leave and arrive at termini the same day. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS at 12.00 o'clock. Daily, Sundays included, and arrive at 7.00 a.m. The LAST TRAIN from either City. Wagner Drawing-room Cars on Day Trains. Compartment Sleeping Cars on Night Trains. Trains leave Boston from Park Square Station ; New York, from Grand Central Station. r J. R. KENDRICK, Gen'l Manager. GEO. L. CONNOR, Gen'l Pass Agent. OLID OOLOITY lE^^ILIE^O^ID. ROYAL BLUE LINE. Finest and Safest Trains in the World BETWEEN New York and Washington VIA Jersey Central, Philadelphia & Reading, and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads. All trains vestibuled, heated by steam, lighted by the Pintsch Gas System, and pro- tected by Pullman's Anti-telescoping Device. Pullman Day Coaches, Parlor Cars, Sleeping Cars, and Dining Cars. New York to Washington in Five Hours. Tickets on Sale at all Railroad Offices. Boston Office, - - 211 Washington Street. (4) . Overture, "Iieonore," No. 3. Bee tli oven The chronology of the four overtures to Beethoven's only opera is not indicated by their numbers. The overture which was written " last, in 1 8 14, is known as the overture to Fidelio," and is played to " " introduce the opera ; while what was in reality the third Leonore overture (Beethoven' wrote it for a performance of the opera at Prague, in 1807, which did not come off) is called "Leonore" No. 1, the first "Leonore" (1805) being styled No. 2, the second and great- est "Leonore" (1806) No. 3. The three "Leonore" overtures are written in the same key, and have much that is related, especially Nos. 2 and 3, the colossal third being a masterly elaboration of the second. Discussion among litterateurs regarding Beethoven's inten- tion in repeating the trumpet signal in the dungeon scene, which is embodied in the overture played to-day, has brought forth the follow- ing note from Beethoven's biographer, Mr. A. W. Thayer, sent from Trieste March 5, 1888, to the New York Tribune : "What was the traditional piu forte in the repetition of the trumpet signal in Beethoven's 'Leonore' overtures? As given, in 1805-06, the clos- ing scene was down in the dungeons of the prison. When the first THE PIANO THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD. The Famous BLUETHNER GRAND, "The Court Piano of Europe." American woods in the delicate parts. Artistic perfection of Tune and Mechanism. WM. D. DUTTON & CO., - - - 1115 Chestnut Street. (5) (6) signal is given, it is heard faintly, because all the doors and passages all are supposed to be closed. On the repetition, these are open ; and the crowd is rushing down into the vaults. The increased loud- ness of the trumpet shows Pizarro that the time to commit the mur- der is now passed. Years ago I had a long talk with Otto Jahn on this finale ; and we came to the conclusion that so much lovely music is lost by the change from the dungeons to the court, on the whole, it would be better to restore the old form." "Taken as 'pure music,' — as a piece of concise construction and strict adherence to musical 'form'" — Grove says, "the ' Leonore, No. 3,' may not, perhaps, be so remarkable as the same great master's overture to ' Coriolan,' that miracle of stern, heroic grand- eur and compression, not wanting also in softer and more graceful lines. But is there not an interest higher even than musical sym- metry, — the interest awakened by variety and complexity, and by wild passion and longing, by suspense and rapture, such as that of which this great composition is so full from beginning to end, which animates every note from the colossal unison at the opening to the fiery speed of its close ? " The only accusation that can be brought against the overture (if the writer may with great diffidence be allowed to express his W. H. BONNER & CO., Music Dealers and Publishers, NO. 1102 CHESTNUT STREET. Have just issued THE INTERMEZZA from "CAVALLERIA RUS- TICANA" as a Piano Solo, -with Organ Part ad lib., also for Four Hands and as a Duete for Violin or Flute and Piano. This beautiful melody has likewise had sacred -words adapted to it by Thos. O'Neill, suitable for Soprano or Tenor Solo, entitled " "We praise thee, Holy Father, for all thy Mercies." (7) opinion) appears to be that it is too vast, not only for an operatic ' prelude, but for the subject of the story on which Fidelio ' is based. Instead of foreshadowing the personal griefs and joys, how- ever momentous, of Leonore and Florestan, the anxieties of a gaoler, the perplexities of a clownish lover, the sufferings of a few prisoners, and the villany of a petty commandant,— a story which surely owes its vitality more to its connection with Beethoven's music than to any intrinsic force of its own, — instead of shadowing forth such comparatively petty occurrences as these, the overture to Leonore always appears to me to be a fitting prelude to any of the most tremendous events or most terrible catastrophes that have occurred in history. The grief and the joy are the griefs and joys not of private persons, but of whole nations, the conflicts are the 1 battles of shaking' of the Hebrew Prophet. The retreat from Moscow, the French Revolution itself, contain nothing more sus- tained, more impetuous, more mournful, more stirring, more pa- thetic, more triumphant, than this wonderful music-picture. As one illustration of what I mean, let me refer to the well-known trumpet- call, which, being played off the stage while the whole action of the orchestra is suspended, has so thrilling and mysterious an effect. Who can connect this passage in the overture with the distant PRIESTLEY'S WU...VI !*f UIUIMV, V/..W..VIVJ , And all their Celebrated Dress Fabrics are GUARANTEED To be Perfectly Satisfactory to the Wearer. They are stamped every five yards, on the under side of the selvedge, with the manufacturers' name (B. PRIESTLEY & CO.) in gilt letters. (8) signal of the arrival of the governor in the opera ? No one. No : it is a totally different thing. Heard in the overture, during the sudden pause which succeeds the tremendous hurry and rush of the instruments up the scale, it has all the effect of a summons to a vanquished nation to lay down its arms : there is a forlorn, desolate, dead-of-night effect about it that is overpowering to me, and I seem, as I listen, to be one of the starving wounded soldiers within the walls of the conquered city, trembling between the relief and the dishonor of the approaching surrender. And in the same way the whole overture appears to me to be lifted far above even the great- ness of the opera which follows it, — lifted from the particular to the universal, from the individual to the national, from the simple to the complex, from the petty to the tremendous, from a misfortune ta a catastrophe." Suite, Op. 55. Tschaikowsky. Elegie. Valse melancholique. Scherzo. Tema con Variazioni. In a late issue of the Vienna Neue Freie Presse, Dr. Hanslick gives some interesting extracts from an autobiographical sketch of F. WEBER & CO., MANUFACTURERS and IMPORTERS OF ARTISTS' MATERIALS. Oil and Water Color Fine China Vases, etc. Painting Outfits. Large Assortment of Works of Art constantly China Painting Ma- on hand. terials. Wax and Paper Flower Drawing Outfits. Materials. Mathematical Instru- ments. Novelties for Deco- rating. Drawing and Painting Studies. Modeller's Requisites. NO. 1125 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. (9) the foremost Russian composer of to-day, supplemented by some remarks of his own, of which the following is a translation: — "Tschaikowsky writes : 'I was seventeen years old when I made the acquaintance of an Italian singing-master named Piccioli, the first person who interested himself in my musical condition.