SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Branch Exchange Telephones, Ticket and Administration Offices, Commonwealth 1492 INC. Dr. SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor FIFTY-THIRD SEASON, 1933-1934 WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY PHILIP HALE AND JOHN N. BURK COPYRIGHT, 1934, 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 EDWARD M. PICKMAN N. PENROSE HALLOWELL HENRY B. SAWYER M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE BENTLEY W. WARREN W. H. BRENNAN, Manager G. E. JUDD, Assistant Manager 681 Jr£ uou wim to £wee /wocw= be/i iw-om the ccwe of uotw investments aAAotnt /tm6/ tee ancles a ^Lmma zJvubt. Old Colony Trust Company 17 COURT STREET, BOSTON Allied with The First National Bank of Boston EXECUTOR * TRUSTEE * GUARDIAN * CONSERVATOR * AGENT 082 1 : CONTENTS I Title Page Page 681 Programme . ...... 685 Analytical Notes Strauss . Orchestral Suite from "Der Burger als Edelmann," Opera based on Moliere's Play, "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" 686 Strauss . Symphonia Domestica, Opus 53 710 Advance Programme 723 Special Concert Announcements .... 724-725 Teachers' Directory ...... 726-728 Personnel Opposite page 728 683 Cljantiler $c Co. Famous for Style and Quality for Over a Century "English Violets" The Lovely Flower Turban in Purple, Black, Navy, Royal Blue 50 12 A beautifully dignified turban with lines that only masters could create is presented for the woman who prefers the distinctively afternoon type hat! Small flowers are massed everywhere save the very top which is of perfectly matched fabric. French Salon— Second Floor. 684 FIFTY-THIRD SEASON, NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE AND THIRTY-FOUR FRIDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 9, at 2.30 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 10, at 8.15 o'clock Strauss . Orchestral Suite from "Der Burger als Edelmann," based on Moliere's Play, "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" Overture to Act I —Jourdain the Bourgeois. Minuet. The Fencing Master. Entrance and Dance of the Tailors. The Minuet of Lully. Entrance of Cleonte. Introduction to Act II (Intermezzo); Dorantes and Dorimene —The Count and Countess. The Dinner (Music at Table and Dance of the Young Kitchen Servants). Strauss Symphonia Domestica, Opus 53 (In one movement) There will be an intermission between the symphonies STEINWAY PIANO City of Boston, Revised Regulation of August 5, 1898,— Chapter 3, relating to the covering of the head in places of public amusement. Every licensee shall not, in his place of amusement, allow any person to wear upon the head a covering which obstructs the view of the exhibition or performance in such place of any person seated in any seat therein provided for spectators, it being understood that a low head covering without projection, which does not obstruct such view, may be worn. Attest: J. M. GALVIN. City Clerk. The works to be played at these concerts may be seen in the Allen A. Brown Music Collection of the Boston Public Library one week before the concert 685 : Suite from the Music for Moliere's ''Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" ("Der Burger als Edelmann") .... Richard Strauss (Born at Mitnicli, June 11, 1SG1) This instrument suite, like the rococo opera Ariadne auf Naxos. is one of the ultimate products, delightful and self-sufficient, of the unwieldy combination of opera and play with music which Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal jointly evolved about Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and first produced at Stutt- gart at the "Little Theatre" on October 25, 1912. The piece was contrived with elaborate care by the composer and his librettist, as their correspondence shows. It was produced lavishly, with ex- pensive actors, singers, and orchestra, mounted by Max Reinhardt (Frieda Hempel, designed for the coloratura part of Zerbinetta, was unable to sing and Margarethe Siems took her place. Victor Arnold was the Jourdain. The composer obtained musicians who owned fine old stringed instruments, among them four Stradivari violins, to assure a rich effect for the solo voices in the orchestra of thirty-six, which the score required. Max Pauer played the piano part. Strauss conducted.) Mr. Arthur Abell, Berlin, correspondent of the Musical Courier, thus described what Beerbohm Tree later called "a delicious out- rage upon Moliere" "Moliere's play, though good old French comedy of its kind, is of no especial interest today, particularly in Hofmannsthal mutila- tion. One Jourdain, a bourgeois of unusually common origin, after making a fortune in trade, has installed himself in a sumptuous home and is surrounded by a host of servants and all the external evidences of wealth. The boorish but good-natured simpleton longs for the polished manners and the allurements of aristocracy. He takes lessons in dancing, singing, fencing, and philosophy; he also becomes an art Maecenas and furthers a young musical genius, the composer of Ariadne auf Naxos. Jourdain is in love with the Marquise Dorimene, a charming widow, and he gives a dinner in her honor. Count Dorantes, a courtly but reprobate nobleman, in return for many financial favors at the hands of Jourdain, in- duces the marquise to accept the invitation by leading her to be- lieve that it is he who is giving the affair for her at Jourdain's house. For the entertainment of his two guests, after the dinner, Jourdain has engaged two troupes of singers who are to present the opera Ariadne auf Naxos and the burlesque The Unfaithful Zerbinetta and Her Four Lovers. Both works have been composed by Jourdain's protege, mentioned above. The music played during the repast is a very clever symphonic poem in miniature, illustrat- ing, chiefly with reminiscences, the different courses. While the Rhine salmon is being served, the orchestra plays snatches from 'Rheingold,' and during the roast mutton the bleating of the sheep from 'Don Quixote' is heard. The banquet is interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Jourdain's wife, who makes a violent scene. The disgusted marquise would leave the house, but is de- tained by the Count for a time. Jourdain finds it necessary, how- ever, 1o curtail li i s program, so lie orders the composer to combine his two works and l<> give them simultaneously. The young apostle of the Muse is in despair, but there is no help for him, and the changes are quickly made. Now comes the opera itself, with 686 Jourdain, his two guests, the young composer and his teacher as audience. Here we have a stage within a stage. Hofmannsthal has made a free and by no means interesting use of the mythological story of Ariadne, who has been deserted by Theseus and left on the desert island of Naxos. She sings her despair and longs for death. In vain do her three companions, the singing nymphs, endeavor to console her. The sudden entrance of Zerbinetta and her lovers trans- ports us from the tragic to the ludicrous. Finally the god Bacchus appears, wins Ariadne's love, and transports her to realms of eternal bliss." There were three Stuttgart performances, after which the "opera- play" passed to other German cities, with varying success, ac- cording to the equipment of the opera houses, and the imagination of their directors in coping with a period piece entirely apart from routine and precedent (Strauss approved the productions at Berlin and Vienna, at least; the sensitive poet was suspicious, took no chances of beholding his pet mangled, and, with the shining excep- tion of the Viennese production, which he warmly praised, stayed scrupulously away.) The piece had a certain success, the wit and charm of the music were pretty generally admitted. But the novelty of beholding the colossal Strauss turned miniaturist could not long induce the public to sit through the four hours which the play and its culminating opera required. While Der Rosenkavalier continued merrily on in the popular favor, their latest essay showed signs of expiring from the stage. Both men realized that they had tried to combine more than one evening would hold, and accordingly, FOR INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLES Pieces in Shorter Forms SCHMIDT'S COLLECTION OF SHORT TRIOS for violin, 'cello and piano D'ALMEYDA, Menuett in G MacDOWBLL, Nautilus PRIML, Twilight MOSZKOWSKI, Dawn in the Forest LEVENSON, PriSre RISHER, Mazurka (Schmidt's Educational Series No. 325) Price, complete, $1.25 net. The above also published separately, as are the following: EDWARD MACDOWELL Net BORIS LEVENSON Net To the Sea $.60 Op. 43, No. 2. Minuet in G ..$.75 From a Wandering Iceberg . .60 ANNA PRISCILLA RISHER A. D. 1620 75 Valse lente 75 Berceuse 75 Starlight 60 From the West .75 Song 75 Andante Religioso 75 DUO CONCERTANTE TO A WILD ROSE by FRANZ DRDLA, Op. 200 by EDWARD MacDOWELL For violin, 'cello and piano (or for For four violins, 'cello and piano. violin and piano) A brilliant and effective number in May also be played by one, two or one movement, dedicated to Fritz three violins and piano. 'Cello ad lib. Kreisler. with all combinations. Price $1.00 net Price 75 cents net 687 Beauty that never ages Tomorrow, as you walk down ever designed. And because they the streets of Boston, try to have that beauty which is date- guess the age of the Packards you less, they will still be in style a see. You'll find it difficult indeed. half dozen years from now. For the lines of a Packard never We invite you to come in and grow old. Even after five or six see these new Packards. Then years' service, a Packard is smart drive one of them—and discover — a car you can be proud to be that the performance of this car seen in.