Fifty-Fifth Season in New York Thursday Evening, March 13 Saturday Afternoon, March 15 Boston Symphony Orchestra [Sixtieth Season, 1940-1941] SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Personnel Violins BURGIN, R. ELCUS, 0. LAUGA, N. KRIPS, A. RESNIKOFF, V. cundersen, R. Concert-master KASSMAN, N. CHERKASSKY, p LEIBOVia, J. THEODOROWICZ, J. HANSEN, E. MARIOTTI, V FEDOROVSKY, P. TAPLEY, R. EISLER, D. PINFIELD, C. BEALE, M. SAUVLET, H. KNUDSON, C. ZUNG, M. LEVEEN, P. GORODETZKY, L. MAYER, P. DIAMOND, S. DEL SORDO, R. FIEDLER, B. BRYANT, M. STONESTREET, L. messina, s. DICKSON, H. MURRAY, J. ERKELENS, H. seiniger, s. DUBBS, H. Violas LEFRANC, J. FOUREL, G. VAN WYNBERGEN, C. GROVER, H. CAUHAPE, J. ARTIERES, L. BERNARD, A. WERNER, H. LEHNER, E kornsand, E. GERHARDT, S. humphrey, '• Violoncellos BEDETTI, J. LANGENDOEN, J. DROEGHMANS, H. STOCKBRIDGE, C. FABRIZIO, E. ZIGHERA, A. CHARDON, Y. ZEISE, K. MARJOLLET, L. zimbler, j. Basses MOLEUX, G. JUHT, L. GREENBERG, H. GIRARD, H. BARWICKI, J. DUFRESNE, G. FRANKEL, I. PAGE, W. PROSE, P. Flutes Oboes Clarinets Bassoons LAURENT, G. CILLET, F. POLATSCHEK, V. ALLARD, R. PAPPOUTSAKIS, J. DEVERGIE, J. VALERIO, M. panenka, e. KAPLAN, P. LUKATSKY, J CARDILLO, P. LAUS, A. Piccolo English Horn Bass Clarinet Contra-Bassoon MADSEN, G. speyer, l. MAZZEO, R. FILLER, B. Horns Horns Trumpets Trombones VALKENIER, W. SINGER, J. MAGER, G. raichman.j. MACDONALD, W. LANNOYE, M LAFOSSE, M. hansotte, l. SINGER, J. SHAPIRO, H. VOISIN, R. L. lilleback, w. GEBHARDT, W. KEANEY, P. VOISIN, R. SMITH, V. Tuba Harps Timpani Percussion ADAM, E. zighera, b. SZULC, R. STERNBURG, S. caughey, e. polster, m. WHITE, L. arcieri, e. Librarian rogers, l. j. I II I mil t-ii,BTrrrriiBaBttaMBaaiaMHiailliBMMBaMiMHBBMiiiii<^ Qlurm^xt Mall • Jf^m fork Fifty-Fifth Season in New York SIXTIETH SEASON, 1940-1941 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor RICHARD BURGIN, Assistant Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Fourth Concert THURSDAY EVENING, March 13 AND THE Fourth Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, March 15 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Ernest B. Dane President Henry B. Sawyer Vice-President Ernest B. Dane ...... Treasurer Henry B. Cabot M. A. De Wolfe Howe Ernest B. Dane Roger I. Lee Reginald C. Foster Richard C. Paine Alvan T. Fuller Henry B. Sawyer Jerome D. Greene Edward A. Taft N. Penrose Hallowell Bentley W. Warren G. E. JuDD, Manager . C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [1] Friends of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA A N THE last season of 46 weeks the total attendance at our concerts reached the impressive figure of 750,000. Apparently increasing numbers of people are searching for the outlet that music provides from nervous tension of the mind, the body, and the spirit. European experiences indicate the current war is to be largely one of nerves. The greatest service, therefore, that the Orchestra can render to the general public is to continue to bring to them the healing effect of great music, even though it costs us more per concert than is received in revenues. It is through the Society of Friends of the Or- chestra that those generous citizens who recognize the importance of this service can contribute to the financial support of the Orchestra. It is the Friends who, in the final analysis, make these concerts possible. Contributions of any amount sent to the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Treasurer's Office, 6 Beacon Street, Boston, will constitute enrollment and be an encouraging indication that you value our efforts. Reginald C. Foster^ Chairman, Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. [2] (DarttrgtP Hall Fifty-Fifth Season in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor FOURTH EVENING CONCERT THURSDAY, March 13 Programme Mahler Symphony No. 9 I. Andante comedo II. Im Tempo eines gemachlichen Landlers III. Rondo: Burleske IV, Adagio INTERMISSION MoussoRGSKY Prcludc to "Khovanstchina" LiADov "Baba-Yaga," Tone Picture, After a Russian Folk Tale, Op. 56 RiMSKY-KoRSAKOv Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 Alborada — Variations — Alborada — Scene and Gypsy Song — Fandango of the Asturias The music of these programmes is available at the 58th Street Library [3] SYMPHONY NO. g By GusTAV Mahler Born at Kalischt in Bohemia, on July 7 i860; died at Vienna on May 8, 1911 Mahler wrote the complete score of his Ninth Symphony in the summer of 1910, after sketches made in the previous year. The first performance took place in Vienna, June 26, 1912 (under Bruno Walter). The first performance in the United States was given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Kousse- vitzky, October 16, 1931. The orchestration calls for four flutes and piccolo, three oboes and English horn, three clarinets, E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, four bassoons and contra-bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, bass drum and cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, chimes. Glockenspiel, snare drum, two harps, and strings. In the finale, the fourth bassoon, the third trumpet, and the second harp are omitted, and only the following percussion are used; timpani, bass drum, and cymbals. 1ATE in 1907, Mahler came to America, where for three seasons (until ^ within a year of his death) he conducted opera performances, and the Philharmonic concerts in New York. It was his intention to earn a sufficient fortune to retire from his strenuous 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 respectively, returning to his native Austria, he composed "Das Lied von der Erde" and the Ninth Sym- phony. A Tenth Symphony, upon which he worked in 1909, remained an uncompleted fragment. According to Bruno Walter and other of Mahler's acquaintances, the composer hesitated to give the number nine to a symphony, and called "Das Lied von der Erde" a song cycle instead. Beethoven's prec- edent of nine had never been exceeded. Bruckner had not lived to finish his Ninth, and Mahler did not live to finish a tenth.* Mahler, so Bruno Walter believes, hesitated even to show the score of his Ninth Symphony to the conductor. "He probably brought it back from Vienna in the spring of 1910, but I cannot recall having seen it at the time and it is likely that it came to me only after his death. Perhaps, too, he was prevented by superstitious awe from telling me of the fact that after all a ninth had come into existence. Up to that time, I had never noticed even a trace of superstition in his clear, strong spirit, and even on that occasion it turned out to be not that but an onlv- * Glazounov, having written his English Symphony in 1907, refrained from a Ninth through the twenty-nine years that remained of his life. Nicolas Miaskovsky, having long since shattered the superstition, has completed his twenty-first symphony. [4] too-well-founded foreboding of the terrible consistency of the Parcae." Death, which had been a recurrent motive in his symphonies, even from the First, and in his "KindertotenliedeVj' 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" expressed 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 (forebod- ing)," and in the fourth movement: "The devil dances this with me; madness leaps at me, accursed. Destroy me that I may forget what 1 am; that I may cease to be — that I may forget!" And at the end of the movement: "Farewell, my play instruments, farewell!" 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 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 lifetime. 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. Two movements 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. Paul Bekker,t in his analysis of the score, empha- sizes Mahler's departure from the symphonic structure — the sonata form he had always adhered to. "Here there emerges an unprece- dented, fantastic expression of power, without rule, improvisatory, yet bearing the marks of an inner law of its own. It is lacking in the dualism of themes, their significant interrelation, development in the expected ways. Yet a vastly thought structure is observable. There is * "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 Flute." 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," "Awaiting a Friend — The Farewell of a Friend." It was performed at these concerts December 7, 1928, December 6, 1930, and November 6, 1936.