SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Branch Exchange Telephone, Ticket and Administration Offices, Com. 1492 FIFTY-FIFTH SEASON, 1935-1936 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra INCORPORATED Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor RICHARD Burgin, Assistant Conductor with historical and descriptive notes By John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Bentley W. Warren President Henry B. Sawyer Vice-President Ernest B. Dane Treasurer Allston Burr Roger I. Lee Henry B. Cabot William Phillips Ernest B. Dane Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Pierpont L. Stackpolf, M. A. De Wolfe Howe Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. SPALDING, Assistant Manager [921] c£ wM comAanu tb to be> (obfcdeb ab Gxecater- ana manaae ^ranm ab tee ow ah t. zSvlanu7Tueavb 0/ ex/iewiwice and a cemMeie o-^aani^atien enaMe u& to oMew wient ana /wwmAt bewwce. Old Colony Trust Company 17 COURT STREET, BOSTON tAlliedwith The First National Bank of Boston [922] 1 Contents Title Page ......... Page 92 Programme ......... 925 Analytical Notes: Mahler: Symphony No. 9 . 927 Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, in G major . 940 Bach: Chaconne for Violin (Arranged for Orchestra by Alfredo Casella) ..... 950 Entr'acte: "Gustav Mahler — A Conversation on the Night of his Death," by Paul Stefan ..... 936 To the "Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra" 945 Berkshire The Symphonic Festival .... 947 The Next Programme ....... 961 Events in Symphony Hall ...... 962 Concert Announcements .... 963 The St. Matthew Passion ...... 964-965 Teachers' Directory . 966-968 Personnel Opposite page 968 [923] Cljanbler & Co. TREMONT AND WEST STREETS Second Floor Fine Feathers make chic hats $15 Take a sprightly Scotch cap . develop it in navy grosgrain . exaggerate its height in front . Add one long, sharp quill in several shades of blue and plaster bright blue feathers tipped with scarlet right in front! What a grand hat with a loose- swinging swagger ... a fitted double breasted coat ... or any one of a dozen suits! 924] FIFTY-FIFTH SEASON, NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE AND THIRTY-SIX Twentieth Programme FRIDAY AFTERNOON, March 27, at 2:30 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, March 28, at 8:15 o'clock Mahler Symphony No. 9 I. Andante comodo II. Im Tempo eines gemachlichen Landlers III. Rondo Burleske IV. Adagio INTERMISSION Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major for string orchestra (with the Sinfonia from the Cantata "Christ lag in Todesbanden") Allegro moderato Sinfonia Allegro Bach Chaconne for Violin unaccompanied (transcribed for orchestra by Alfredo Casella) (First performances in the United States) This programme will end about 4:25 on Friday Afternoon, 10:10 o'clock on Saturday Evening Alexander Constantinovitch Glazounov (August 10, 1865 — March 21, 1936) Pictures, autographs and music of Glazounov are being shown in the Huntington Avenue Foyer [925] 1 mm VICTOR RECORDS We would like to direct your attention with strong em- phasis to these extraordinary recordings, which mark a real advance in the development of Victor higher fidelity recording. Both emotionally and intellectually they place in your hands exceedingly desirable entertainment. Song Recital (Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf) Mme. Lotte Lehmann M 292 $7.50 Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) Lawrence Tibbett—Helen Jepson and Chorus C 25 6.50 Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Sibelius, Opus 39) Eugene Ormandy—Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra—M 290 10-00 The Twenty- Four Preludes (Chopin, Opus 28) Alfred Cortot M 282 8.00 Symphony No. 40 (Mozart) Koussevitzky—London Philharmonic Orchestra . M 293 6.50 Concerto No. 2 (Beethoven, Opus 19) Arthur Schnabel — London Philharmonic Orchestra—M 295 8.00 Symphony No. 4 in A major (Italian) (Mendelssohn) Boston Symphony Orchestra under direction of Dr. Serge Koussevitzky ..... M 294 6.50 BOSTON MUSIC CO. 116 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. TEL. HANCOCK I 56 Charles W. Homeyer & Co., Inc. 498 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. NEXT TO HOTEL BRUNSWICK M. STEINERT & SONS 162 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. TEL. HANCOCK I9OO [926] SYMPHONY NO. 9 By Gustav Mahler Born at Kalischt in Bohemia, on July 7 [?] i860; died at Vienna on May 8, 1911 Late in 1907, Mahler came to America, where for three seasons 1 (until death overtook him just twenty-five years ago) he conducted opera performances, and the Philharmonic concerts in New York. It was his intention to earn a sufficient fortune to retire from his strenu- ous and exhausting efforts of conducting, and to devote himself at leisure to the creative work which, through the career of this tireless musician, had been for the most part crowded into his summers. That retirement he never knew. In the summers of 1908 and 1909 respec- tively, returning to his native Austria, he composed "Das Lied von der Erde" and the Ninth Symphony. A Tenth Symphony, upon which he worked in 1909, remained an uncompleted fragment.* * According to Mahler's acquaintances, he had a superstitious dread of exceeding Beethoven's numerical precedent of nine, and for that reason published his "Das Lied von der Erde," which is in effect a symphony, as a song cycle. Bruckner had not lived to finish his ninth. Mahler did not live to finish a tenth. It is interesting to note that Glazounov, who was said to hold the same superstition, stopped short at eight, and, refraining from writing a Ninth, had lived thirty years since the completion of his last symphony. Miaskovsky, breaking the jinx, has written a thirteenth with impunity. Latest Classical Albums for Pianoforte In Schmidt's Educational Series Vol. Net Vol. Net 408 Ten Bach Pieces .75 366 Portrait Albums .75 A representative collection of moderately Pupil's Classics, Vol. Ill difficult compositions. The Selected and Edited by Ten Compositions by Beethoven, Brahms, CUTHBERT HARRIS Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schumann and Schubert with portraits of these composers. 401 Ten Classical Pieces 1.00 By Ph. E. Bach, J. S. Bach, Rameau, 434 A Schumann Compendium .75 Handel, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms Twelve favorite pieces, carefully edited by and Franck. CUTHBERT HARRIS Edited and Arranged by ARTHUR FOOTE A Standard Edition of Sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart Vol. VoL 168a. b. Ten Sonatas by Beethoven 171a. b. Nine Sonatas by Mozart Selected and Edited by Selected and Edited by ARTHUR FOOTE ARTHUR FOOTE Two Vols., each $1.00 Two Vols., each $1.00 THE ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT CO. 120 Boylston St. [927] Death, which had been a recurrent motive in his symphonies, even from the First, and his "Kindertotenlieder," became the dominating prepossession of the last three works. The death of his child, October 15, 1907, had saddened him, and he soon came to know that he had but a short time to live. Suffering from angina, which grew worse with the strain of conducting, his end is considered to have been hastened by his heavy schedule of concerts in 1909 and 1910. The last sym- phonies were as a triple farewell to life.* "Das Lied von der Erde" ex- pressed a philosophy of pessimism and withdrawal from the world. The Ninth Symphony is even more markedly a dismissal of life. Through the sketches of the Tenth Symphony, which was to be in five movements, were such remarks as these: "Deathwork (fore- boding)," and in the fourth movement: "The devil dances this with me; madness leaps at me, accursed. Destroy me that I may forget what I am; that I may cease to be — that I may forget!" And at the end of the movement: "Farewell, my play instruments, farewell!" * "The Song of the Earth" was based upon a collection of Chinese Poems which Hans Bethge had put into verse under the title "The Chinese Mute." It is in six movements, each with a poem to be sung by tenor or contralto—"The Drinking Song of Earthly Woe," "Autumn Solitude," "Of Youth," "Of Beauty," "The Drunkard in Springtime," "Await- ing a Friend—The Farewell of a Friend." It was performed at these concerts December 7, 1928, and December 6, 1930. OLIVER DITSON COMPANY, INC. Retail Music Store 359 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MASS. For All Published MUSIC Largest stock of sheet music and music books in New England. Every outstanding American and Foreign publisher represented. DITSON'S 359 BOYLSTON STREET TEL. COMMONWEALTH 1350 [928] Mahler at different times expressed his desire to hear his new works once, justly performed. Mahler the creator was tremendously solicitous about his unpublished music — carried the manuscripts of his sym- phonies about with him in a trunk in which he jealously guarded from possible loss. Once published and properly performed, his works no longer concerned him. He was not interested in their repetition. The last three symphonies were not performed in his life time. Bruno Walter, "anointed apostle" of Mahler, performed "Das Lied von der Erde" in Munich in November 1911, six months after its composer's death, and the Ninth in Vienna, in June, 1912. Dr. Koussevitzky gave the work its first performance in this country at the Boston Symphony concerts, October 16, 1931, repeating it December 8, 1933. Two move- ments of the Tenth Symphony were performed by Franz Schalk at a Festival in Vienna, October 11, 1924. In his Ninth Symphony, Mahler does not resort to the swollen forces he sometimes used. There are wood winds in threes (with a fourth flute), the usual brass and strings, for percussion — timpani, triangle and Glockenspiel. Paul Bekker,* in his detailed analysis of the score, emphasizes Mahler's departure from the symphonic struc- * Paul Bekker: "Qustav Mahler's Symphonien." 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