5^ r r" GC^;;iN- ^ BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN I88I BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON |/f|\ f|S SANDERS THEATRE '^\|l Vl'fr 1 1 fc'^-^^ (Harvard University) 6C -^4^ iU EIGHTIETH SEASO 1960-1961 HIS DEDICATION AND INTERPRETIVE POWERS ARE MOVINGLY REVEALED IN FINEST LIVING STEREO ON RCAVictor records exclusively Other recent albums by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony in Living Stereo and regular L.P.— Saint- Saens: Symphony No. 3; Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica"). Monophonic only— Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe. [2] EIGHTIETH SEASON, 1960-1961 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor CONCERT BULLETIN with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The trustees of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot President Talcott M. Banks Vice-President Richard C. Paine Treasurer Theodore P. Ferris John T. Noonan Francis W. Hatch Palfrey Perkins Harold D. Hodgkinson Sidney R. Rabb C. D. Jackson Charles H. Stockton E. Morton Jennings, Jr. John L. Thorndike Henry A. Laughlin Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager Norman S. Shirk James J. Brosnahan Assistant Manager Business Administrator Leonard Burkat Rosario Mazzeo Music Administrator Personnel Manager SYMPHONY HALL BOSTON 15 [S] Boston Symphony Orchestra (Eightieth Season, i960- 1961) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director RICHARD BURGIN. Associate Conductor PERSONNEL Violins CrxLos Bassoons Richard Burgin Samuel Mayes Sherman Walt Concert-master Alfred Zighera Ernst Panenka Alfred Krips Jacobus Langendoen Theodore Brewster George Zazofsky Mischa Nieland Contra Bassoon Rolland Tapley Karl Zeise Joseph Sih'erstein Martin Hoherman Richard Plaster Vladimir Resnikoff Bernard Parronchi Horns Harry Dickson Richard Kapuscinski Stagliano Gottfried Wilfinger James Robert Ripley Charles Yancich Einar Hansen Winifred Winograd Joseph Leibovici Harry Shapiro Louis Berger Harold Meek Emil Kornsand John Sant Ambrogio Roger Shermont Paul Keaney Osbourne McConathy Minot Beale Basses Herman Silberman Georges Moleux Trumpets Stanley Benson Henry Freeman Leo Panasevich Roger Voisin Irving Frankel Sheldon Rotenberg Armando Ghitalla Henry Portnoi Fredy Ostrovsky Andre Come Henri Girard Noah Bielski Gerard Goguen John Barwicki Clarence Knudson Leslie Martin Trombones Pierre Mayer Ortiz Walton William Gibson Manuel Zung William Moyer Samuel Diamond Flutes Kauko Kahila William Marshall Doriot Anthony Dwyer Josef Orosz Leonard Moss James Pappoutsakis William Waterhouse Tuba Phillip Kaplan Alfred Schneider K. Vinal Smith Victor Manusevitch Piccolo Laszlo Nagy Timpani George Madsen Ayrton Pinto Everett Firth Michel Sasson Oboes Harold Farberman Lloyd Stonestreet Gomberg Julius Schulman Ralph Percussion de Vergie Raymond Sird Jean Charles Smith John Holmes Violas Harold Thompson Arthur Press Joseph de Pasquale English Horn Jean Cauhape Louis Speyer Harps Eugen Lehner Bernard Zighera Clarinets Albert Bernard Olivia Luetcke George Humphrey Gino Cioffi Jerome Lipson Manuel Valerio Piano Robert Karol Pasquale Cardillo Bernard Zighera Reuben Green E\) Clarinet Bernard Kadinoff Library Vincent Mauricci Bass Clarinet Victor Alpert Earl Hedberg Rosario Mazzeo William Shisler Joseph Pietropaolo [4] EIGHTIETH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED SIXTY- SIXTY-ONE Fifth Program TUESDAY EVENING, April i8, at 8:30 o'clock Schumann Overture to "Genoveva" Mendelssohn Octet for Strings, in E-flat major, Op. 20 I. Allegro moderate ma con fuoco II. Andante III. Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo IV. Presto INTERMISSION Beethoven Symphony No. 4, in B-flat major. Op. 60 I. Adagio; Allegro vivace II. Adagio III. Allegro vivace IV. Allegro, ma non troppo BALDWIN PIANO rCA VICTOR RECORDS [5] OVERTURE TO THE OPERA "GENOVEVA," Op. 81 By Robert Schumann Bom in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810; died in Endenich, near Bonn, July 29, 1856 Genoveva, an opera in four acts to a text of Robert Reinick rewritten by the composer, was composed in 1847 and first performed at Leipzig, June 25, 1850. The opera was produced in various opera houses of central Europe in the seventies and eighties. It has been rarely performed in the present century. The overture was performed at the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig, February 25, 1850, at a pension fund concert conducted by Schumann. It was performed for the first time in Boston at a concert of the Harvard Musical Association, March 1, 1866. It was first played at the concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, March 10, 1883. The overture requires 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings. COMPOSERS like Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn or Brahms, lack- ing a sufficient instinct for the theater, sometimes nourished secret or avowed ambitions to compose operas, that broad avenue to possible fame and fortune. Schubert made attempts, while the self-critical Mendelssohn and Brahms knew better than to step out of the chamber or concert hall where they were in their own element. Schumann with his literary turn of mind tried once to achieve an opera, and put his heart into a single, protracted effort. He had written to Griepenkerl as early as 1842, "Do you know what is my morning and evening prayer as an artist? German opera. There's a field for work." Schumann played with thoughts of various famous subjects which have since been treated by others: Maria Stuart, Till Eulenspiegel, Faust, the Nihel- ungenlied, Sakuntala. When he asked Reinick in 1847 ^^ make a libretto out of the drama of Genoveva, he was aware of Tieck's drama, Leben und Tod der Heiligen Genoveva, and Hebbel's drama Genoveva [6] of 1843. He reshaped Reinick's libretto to his musical purposes and called upon Hebbel to help solve his difficulties, but Schumann in 1847 was morose and uncommunicative, and Hebbel, visiting him in Dres- den, departed baffled. Schumann, who had recently listened to a read- ing by Wagner of his projected Lohengrin without understanding how such a text could be set to music at all, was at last compelled to work out his own quite by himself. According to a tale in Voragine's Golden Legend of the 13 th century, retold by later doctors of theology, Genevieve, the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, is plotted against in her husband's absence by his steward, Golo. She is falsely accused of infidelity, banished into the forests and only after many years exonerated. The story of Schumann's opera is more involved although still based on the pique of the central villain, Golo, when the heroine has (in libretto English) "resisted his amorous importunities." There are dire sub-plots which fail in the end before the abiding virtues of the steadfast wife, Genoveva, while Golo is at last seen to jump from a cliff in despair. Philip Hale, discussing this opera in his program notes, decided that Schumann, "a Romanticist, did not appreciate nor recognize the value of a dramatic subject. In his revision of the text, he did not individualize sharply his characters. Golo is an ordinary villain of melodrama, Genoveva is a good and tiresome person, Siegfried [the husband] is a ninny. The music, however beautiful or noble it may be, lacks the most essential quality: it is never dramatic." BOCA GRANDE PALM BEACH (oO^CMAwJfil^ INC. The Ritz Carlton Hotel Pretty Clothes for All Occasions MANCHESTER WATCH HILL BRIGGS & BRIGGS, INC. presents on RCA VICTOR RECORDS BERLIOZ REQUIEM CHARLES MUNCH with the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ALL BOSTON SYMPHONY RECORDINGS available at BRIGGS & BRIGGS, INC. 1270 MASS. AVE. HARVARD SQUARE Opp. Widener Library KI 7-2007 [7] Yet it should be noted that Schumann could be intensely dramatic in a symphonic sense and that the overtures to such works as Genoveva and Manfred attain their purposes with fine certainty and have accordingly found a place in concert halls. Mr. Hale in his interesting note, gives a formidable list of composers who have treated the subject of the virtuous Genevieve, including Haydn (in an opera for marionettes), Piccini, Huttenbrenner (remembered as the friend of Schubert), and many others long since forgotten. Offenbach contributed music to "a reckless and impudent parody" produced in Paris in 1867. "The censor objected, not to the indecencies of the text, not to the degradation of the pure Genevieve of the old legend, but to a duet on the ground that the gendarmerie should not be ridiculed." The difficulty was solved when the character of the gendarme was raised to the rank of sergeant. Schumann submitted his opera to Leipzig, but was forced to wait through three years of postponements before it was finally mounted. Much was made of the event, friends gathered from far and wide. The retiring Schumann was acutely embarrassed at the friendly demonstra- tion, especially when he was dragged out upon the stage and, according to the custom of the time, a laurel wreath was placed upon his head. There were three performances and the opera was shelved. [copyrighted] SCHOENHOF'S, INC. foreign B^oks 1280 Massachusetts Avenue Harvard Square, Cambridge Exclusive Headquarters of Assimil Language Record Courses Grammars and Dictionaries for 100 Languages LiBRAiRiE Francaise; All French Books, Classical and Modern Fine Pictures — Custom Framing on Premises — Moderately Priced CAMBRIDGE TRUST COMPANY Complete Banking Facilities HARVARD SQUARE Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [8] OCTET FOR STRINGS, in E-flat major, Op. 20 By Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Born in Hamburg, February 3, 1809; died in Leipzig, November 4, 1847 Mendelssohn composed his String Octet in 1825. The parts, all individual, consist of 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos. It was performed by the string sections of this Orchestra November 7, 1885, and again on November 26, 1920. The composer made an orchestration of the Scherzo for London in 1829, when he conducted his "First" Symphony in C minor there and inserted this in place of the existing third movement. The orchestration calls for wood winds in pairs, horns, trumpets, timpani and strings. A PREFATORY notc by the composer on the score of the Octet indicates -^"^ the suitabiHty of this music for larger forces: "This Octet must be played by all instruments in symphonic style.