i9^4\\Ci949 SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON SIXTY-EIGHTH SEASON, 1948-1949 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, IflC. The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot President Jacob J. Kaplan Vice-President Richard C. Paine Treasurer Philip R. Allen M. A. De Wolfe Howe John Nicholas Brown Roger I. Lee Alvan T. Fuller Lewis Perry Jerome D. Greene Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Raymond S. Wilkins Francis W. Hatch Oliver Wolcott George E. Judd, Manager [249] Only you can decide Whether your property is large or small, it rep- resents the security for your family' s future. Its "ulti- mate disposition is a matter of vital concern to those you love. To assist you in considering that future, the Shaw- mut Bank has a booklet: "Should I Make a Will?" It outlines facts that everyone with property should know, and explains the many services provided by this Bank as Executor and Trustee. Call at any of our 27 convenient offices, write or telephone for our booklet: "Should I Make a Will?" The Vocational Shawmut Bank 40 Water Street^ Boston Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Capital and Surplus $30,000,000 "Outstanding Strength" for 112 Years [250] SYMPHONIANA "Tribute" Orchestra to Broadcast Orchestra Opens Its New York Season Honor for Richard Burgin "TRIBUTE" lothes Ross Parmenter c By for Wanting to give some tangible ex- pression of their regard for Serge Kous- the sevitzky during his twenty-fifth and final season with the Boston Symphony lady Orchestra, a number of his admirers wrote the conductor and asked what of sort of a testimonial he would find most acceptable. discriminating "Truly," he replied, "there is only one way in which I would wish you to tastes • • • do this — by a gift to the orchestra, a big gift." And he underlined the word created big. The friends like the idea and last by week they launched a campaign to make sure the gift would be really big. Strik- famous ing while the glow of admiration for the retiring conductor is hot, they are designers asking his fans to show their apprecia- tion to the tune of $200,000. The plan is for to add this sum to a reserve of $50,000 to form the Serge Koussevitzky Fund. women The new fund will be for emergencies. It will be different from the endowment who fund, for only the income of that fund is expendable, whereas both the know principal and the income of the new fund will be available to the orchestra and in the event of any sudden need of money. appreciate —New York Times, November 7, 1948. fine ORCHESTRA TO BROADCAST things • . • It will be remembered that one of Henry L. Higginson's primary inten- tions when this Orchestra gave its first concerts was to make its music avail- able to the widest possible audience. This he did in pre-radio days by open- ing the final rehearsal each Friday after- noon to all who paid a small admission fee at the door. It is now many years since the Friday afternoon "rehearsals" have become in every sense concerts, retaining something of their original pur- pose only in the "rush" line in the sec- ond balcony. The actual rehearsals of Boston the Orchestra are held behind closed doors. Providence Dr. Koussevitzky has agreed to sub- Wellesley mit a half hour of the Orchestra's re- [*5»1 hearsal each Monday to be broadcast. The rehearsal will be on the network of the National Broadcasting Company from 1 to 1:30, beginning next Monday, anaier s November 22 (on local station WBZ). Chandl The rehearsal will proceed in the usual way with occasional interruptions and repetition of a phrase by the orchestra according to the audible directions of the conductor. These broadcasts are de- signed to give music lovers and es- Gifts and pecially students the opportunity to ob- serve a great orchestra and its conductor actually at work. The rehearsal broad- casts will continue into the summer, Fashions including the Pops and Berkshire Festi- val series. In addition to the Boston Symphony broadcasts there will be a weekly series for a brilliant by the Pops orchestra each Sunday from 5:30 to 6:00 P.M., E. S. T., over the same network. Arthur Fiedler will conduct. and This series will begin on December 12 and will be given under the sponsorship of RCA Victor. successful The two series of broadcasts are in effect the renewal of an old and well- remembered association. Concerts were holiday! also broadcast by the National Broad- casting Company in the years 1935, '36, and '37. Chandler's delight- HONOR FOR RICHARD BURGIN ful Gift Shop . In recognition of Richard Burgin's a perfect setting efforts in behalf of the music of Gustav Mahler, he is awarded this week the for fascinating Mahler medal by the Bruckner Society of America. The medal, which bears the inscription, "My time will yet come," suggestions! The was designed by Julio Kilenyi. Among the holders of the Mahler medal are Fur Salon . for all Koussevitzky, Ormandy, Reiner, Walter, Rodzinski, and Mitropoulos. the luxury that women love! The ORCHESTRA OPENS ITS Street Floor ... a NEW YORK SEASON gold mine of Olin Downes, N. Y. Times, November 11, 1948 brilliant accessories There is no use to claim infallibility. It may be unconscious favoritism toward for yoOr own an orchestra with which we grew up. But it is the inescapable conclusion, and costumes or for to the best of this deponent's knowledge and belief, after hearing brilliant per- formances in preceding weeks by other fashion-wise gifts! symphonic ensembles, that there is no other orchestra in the country which for finish, glow of tone and distinction [*6»] of style equals the Boston Symphony. This orchestra gave its first New York concert of the season last night in Carnegie Hall. Dr. Koussevitzky started his program with the first score that he interpreted when he came to America at his opening concert October 10-11, 1924, in Boston's Symphony Hall. The orchestra, as all know, was then a body of historic distinction. No doubt it played Vivaldi's D minor Concerto Grosso beautifully at the time. But one does not believe it could have played as beautifully as it did last night. Dr. Koussevitzky has been at work upon it for twenty-four years. There is no string tone like it for vibrancy, transparency and luster. Some think that Dr. Koussevitzky pitches his strings too high and thereby gains a spurious brilliancy. It is too bad, but we fear that if this is the reason, other conductors will have to adopt a similar pitch, and we are far from cer- tain that this device would in itself se- finer gift this cure the Boston Symphony standard of What tone-quality. From the first sound on- Christmas than a superb ward the performance of Vivaldi's music was a feast to the ear and the under- Fidelitone Phonograph standing. Needle ... to give It is not improbable that Dr. Kous- sevitzky, with memories crowding him countless hours of musical close, and at the beginning of his last enjoyment to your friends. season with the orchestra to which he has contributed so much, put his last ounce of effort into securing maximum results on this particular occasion. But he has never spared the last effort to gain his artistic end. Whatever the con- Fidelitone ditions and motivations, he set forth the noble simplicities of Vivaldi music with PHONOGRAPH NEEDLES a mastery and a beauty that will long be remembered. The program was of familiar music, a wide selection as too many programs seem to be today, with the single exception of the recently at your favorite composed "Symphony for String Or- chestra," with trumpet obbligato, by record shop Arthur Honegger. This was played here last season and met with a generally cold • • . up to five dollars reception. One might recall in this con- nection Beethoven's growl when it was ItcwtftonaUct remarked that the "Eroica" symphony PERMO, was a hard nut to crack — or words to Chicago 26 that effect, "because it is so much better than the others." Mr. Honegger's sym- phony for strings is the greatest and the most intense music that he has produced. It seeks no exterior effect, as most of his scores do. It is very dark and very tragic in the first two movements. Composed in Paris during the period of the German occupation, it has all the emotional connotations of that place and time. The dolorous "ostinato" figure for [253] — the strings heard soon after the begin- ning haunts the whole of the opening movement, as a thought, an agony, that persists and cannot be laid aside. The slow movement is yet more somber, mounting, in a dramatic crescendo, to an extraordinary climax of grief. The tri- umph of the finale, music of wild re- joicing, with the trumpet sounding the chorale in the final pages, appears to complete the unmistakable emotional scheme of the work. Coupled with all this is the drastic simplicity, starkness, concentration of the, writing; the power and logic of the counterpoint, linear and harmonic; the drama of the tonal forces involved. The antagonists are invisible; the crisis is that of Armaggedon. A most masterful score; one that will make its way slowly because of the unpretentiousness and also unpicturesqueness of the writ- ing; one that bites deep and that will long endure because of its emotion and sincerity.