SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON HUNTINGTON AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUES Branch Exchange Telephone, Ticket and Administration Offices, Com. 1492 FIFTY-SIXTH SEASON, 1936-1937 CONCERT BULLETIN of the Boston Symphony Orchestra INCORPORATED SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor RICHARD BuRGIN, Assistant Conductor with historical and descriptive notes By John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, ItlC. 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 Richard C. Paine Ernest B. Dane Henry B. Sawyer Alvan T. Fuller Pierpont L. Stackpole N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft M. A. De Wolfe Howe Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [417] . Old Colony Trust Company 17 COURT STREET, BOSTON The principal business of this company is 1 Investment of funds and management of property for living persons. 2. Carrying out the provisions of the last will and testament of deceased persons. Our officers would welcome a chance to dis- cuss with you either form of service. ^Allied with The First National Bank of Boston I [418] SYMPHONIANA "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian" (on next week's programme) — Piati- gorsky — The MacDowell Anniversary Exhibition — Mr. Greene's Address to the "Friends." THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT SEBASTIAN It was twenty-five years ago that Debussy composed music to d'Annun- zio's mystery play, "Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien," for a stage production in Paris. The design here reproduced is by Leon Bakst — a sketch of Ida Rubin- stein in the part of the Roman youth, favorite of the Emperor Diocletian, and Captain of the Imperial Archers. When • This and other hand-made Glass; also unusual and attrac- tive Christmas and Wedding Gifts may be obtained in our recently opened Gallery at 77 N EWBURY STREET MRS. WM. FAVERSHAM, Jr. MR. JOSEPH HELLING MR. GEORGE R. SHAW, 2nd Sebastian refused to renounce his Chris- DESIGNERS OF INTERIORS tian faith, the Emperor sadly decreed CONSULTANT DECORATORS that he be bound to a tree and executed by the arrows of his own men. The ar- • • rows vanished, and the grove of laurels was suffused with celestial light. BELL & FLETCHER, Ltd. PIATIGORSKY 654 Madison Avenue 77 Newbury Street Gregor Piatigorsky, who is to appear NEW YORK CITY BOSTON as soloist at the Thursday and Saturday Regent 4-5670 Commonwealth 1425 Symphony concerts of next week, has had a notable record of performances at [419] these concerts in past seasons. The Russian 'cellist was first heard here in The Terfect Gift- the spring of 1931, when he played Schumann's Violoncello Concerto. A year later he appeared in a Haydn a year of the memorial concert, in the D major con- certo of that composer. In 1933 he was heard in Mozart's Horn Concerto as transcribed for the 'cello by Gaspar Cassado, and at the same concert took Atlantic the solo part in Strauss' "Don Quixote." Again he was heard in "Don Quixote" in February 1935, at which time he ap- SPECIAL GIFT RATE peared in the first performance of the Concerto Lirico of Nicolai Berezowsky. $3.50 Own Subscription .... $4.00 ($3.00 if accompanied by a gift order) AND on all new subscriptions we will send without charge the December number, which in- cludes a treat for patrons of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. NOTES ON CONDUCTING Conversations with Koussevitzky GREGOR PIATIGORSKY by The piece by which Piatigorsky first Sylvia G Dreyfus became known in this country as a soloist with orchestra was Dvorak's Gift Name Concerto, which he played in New York Address in the season 1929-30, his first season in America. He has also played this Own Name_ concerto with other orchestras on sev- eral occasions. Its last performance at Address the Boston Symphony concerts was as to Donor long ago as March 30, 1917, when Joseph Send gift card Malkin was the soloist. to Gift Name MacDOWELL ANNIVERSARY THE ATLANTIC EXHIBITION MONTHLY In seventy-five years Edward Mac- Dowell has become far more than a com- 8 Arlington Street, Boston, poser he has grown into an American Massachusetts — artistic tradition. Through his associa- tion with his teacher Raff, with Liszt, [42o] ) with his fellow-student Debussy, he joins the court of the past, yet trans- ferring the great traditions into our day by the force of his inspiration, which Kranich & Bach has caused the creation of literally hun- dreds of "MacDowell Clubs" through- out America and given the incentive to create to a remarkable number of musi- cians, writers, painters and sculptors. As a Trustee of the American Acad- emy at Rome, he recognized the prac- ticability of an extension to his farm at Peterboro, New Hampshire, into a colony of artists where the best pos- sible atmosphere and inspiration could be found. Such a place might become an excellent workshop in which holders of the Academy scholarships might con- $ tinue their progress for a year or two Priced from 675 after their return, remaking connections and rediscovering openings so often Makers of the world's finest forgotten to them. small grand, mastercraftsmen Some suggestion of the achievement have been building the Kranich of the Colony may be seen in the Gal- it is one lery. Bianchini's bronze of the com- & Bach since 1864 and poser, the famed sketch that Ben-Ali of the few pianos still manufac- Haggin would not complete for fear of tured by members of the origi- destroying what he had caught, and nal families who founded the MacDowell's own self-portrait at the company. age of sixteen are all there. Lilla Cabot exquisite tone quality and Perry is represented by her familiar The portrait of Edwin Arlington Robinson, unusual volume of the Kranich godfather of the Colony, who wrote & Bach baby grand are an much of his finest poetry in the same achievement of modern science. "Peterboro Hills" which Mrs. Perry also depicts after a light snow with the In reconditioned grands we sky breaking into sunset. Jeffrey King offer Steinways, Chickerings, Levey shows his "New England Fields I vers & Pond, Knabe, C. C. and Hills" painted in Peterboro; there Harvey, Charles S. Norris, is related work by Charlotte Blass and Hazelton. Priced from $150. Stuyvesant Van Veen. These hills and Small woods are the source of the composer's uprights and grands inspiration; here it is that he produced rented at low rates. those miniature tone-paintings for which Convenient Terms he is peculiarly famous. Very closely connected with the con- certs are lithographs of Koussevitzky N orris &cr Ccompany and Rachmaninoff by Grant Reynard, INCORPORATED who also captured Robinson walking 41 Boylston Street, Boston down the path to MacDowell's log cabin (Between Arlington and Berkeley Sts. in the woods, "haunt of dreams untold." Established 1852 Tel. COM 3033 But of special interest is the large (Continued on next to last page) [421] Cfjanoler & Co. TREMONT AND WEST STREETS // Dressy Hats designed to flatter women 675 Felts with coronation feathers! Felts trimmed with velvet! Wings poised against high crowns of felt hats ! Hatter's Plush ! Beautiful coque feathers on felt. Headsizes 22M to 24. SECOND FLOOR AT CHANDLER'S [422] FIFTY-SIXTH SEASON, NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX AND THIRTY-SEVEN Ninth Programme FRIDAY AFTERNOON, December 18, at 2:30 o'clock SATURDAY EVENING, December 19, at 8:15 o'clock Foote Suite in E major, Op. 63, for String Orchestra I. Prelude II. Pizzicato and Adagietto III. Fugue MacDowell Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra, No. 2, in D minor, Op. 23 I. Larghetto calmato II. Presto giocoso III. Largo; Molto allegro INTERMISSION Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 I. Allegro non troppo II. Andante moderato III. Allegro giocoso IV. Allegro energico e passionato SOLOIST HOWARD GODING MASON AND HAMLIN PIANO This programme will end about 4:20 on Friday Afternoon, 10:05 o'clock on Saturday Evening REMINDER: The next concert of the Afternoon Series will be given Thursday, December 24, at 2:30 [423] THE STORE WITH A WORLD OF GIFTS! JORDAI WE'VE IMPRESSED evenn ^Danta<hant WITH OUR Lous-aizdUna I We went on foot, horseback, rails, wings (and come to think of it, in a sleigh too when we travelled to Russia for regal gifts of sables). Our little trek sifted five continents for ideas. Its results have made Jordan Marsh Company a little world in itself. Its thoroughness impressed Santa so completely that he has parked his four-in-hand here from now till Christmas — while he and his New England impersonators fill up packs and stockings and post offices all the way to the outlying corners of the world that we've just come back from! Notice Santa in our Christmas decorations when you come in. There isn't a wrinkle of worry in his fat, smiling face. He's been at this gift business a long time, too— but for eighty-five years he's been at it where it's fun— in Jordan's World of Gifts! [424] SUITE, E MAJOR, Op. 63, for String Orchestra By Arthur Foote Born at Salem, Mass., March 5, 1853 This suite was composed in 1907, but with a different second move- ment—the "Pizzicato" having been added in 1908. The first per- formance was given at the Boston Symphony concerts, Max Fiedler conducting, on April 16, 1909. The work was published in that year with a dedication to Mr. Fiedler. It was also performed at these con- certs April 8, 1921, and April 3, 1925. The following description of the score was furnished by Mr.