jCfa BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 7 fe X •ml UIIHIl H #1 SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON 1954-1955 Academy of Music, Brooklyn Under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn 1954 - 1955 THE WOMEN'S COMMITTEE FOR The Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerts IN BROOKLYN Mrs. Carroll J. Dickson, Chairman Mrs. Edward C. Blum Mrs. William H. Good Mrs. H. Haughton Bell Vice-Chairman Vice-Chairman Vice-Chairman Mrs. Frederick H. Rohlfs Mrs. Miles Kastendieck Chairman Membership Co-Chairman Membership Mrs. Irving G. Idler Mrs. Thomas K. Ware Chairman Boxes Chairman Junior Committee Mrs. Elias J. Audi Mrs. Percy R. Gray Mrs. Valentine K. Raymond Mrs. Charles L. Babcock, Jr. Mrs. Arthur C. Hallan Mrs. Donald Ross Mrs. Bernard S. Barr Mrs. J. Morton Halstead Mrs. Irving J. Sands Mrs. John R. Bartels Mrs. James M. Hills Mrs. Donald Gray Schenk Mrs. George M. Billings Mrs. Raymond V. Ingersoll Mrs. Oscar P. Schoenemann Mrs. Robert E. Blum Mrs. Henry A. Ingraham Mrs. Eliot H. Sharp Mrs. Irving L. Cabot Mrs. Charles Jaffa Mrs. Frank E. Simmons Mrs. Otis Swan Carroll Mrs. Darwin R. James, Jr. Mrs. Donald G. C. Sinclair Mrs. Oliver G. Carter Mrs. James Vincent Keogh Mrs. Ainsworth L. Smith Mrs. Francis T. Christy Mrs. John Bailey King Mrs. Harry H. Spencer Mrs. Donald M. Crawford Mrs. Warner King Mrs. E. A. Sunde Mrs. Russell V. Cruikshank Mrs. Almet R. Latson, Jr. Mrs. David W. Swanson Mrs. Sidney W. Davidson Mrs. M. Paul Luther Mrs. Hollis K. Thayer Mrs. Berton J. Delmhorst Mrs. Eugene R. Marzullo Mrs. Theodore N. Trynin Mrs. Remick C. Eckardt Mrs. Carleton D. Mason Mrs. Franklin B. Tuttle Mrs. James F. Fairman Mrs. Edwin P. Maynard, Jr. Mrs. Adrian Van Sinderen Mrs. Merrill N. Foote Mrs. Richard Maynard Mrs. Robert F. Warren Mrs. Lewis W. Francis Miss Helen McWilliams Mrs. Carl T. Washburn Mrs. George H. Gartlan Mrs. Alfred E. Mudge Mrs. Harold E. Weeks Mrs. Edwin L. Garvin Miss Emma Jessie Ogg Mrs. Walter F. Wells Mrs. Harrison R. Glennon, Jr. Mrs. William M. Parke Mrs. George N. Whittlesey Mrs. Andrew L. Gomory Mrs. William B. Parker Mrs. R. Whitney Gosnell Mrs. Frank H. Parsons Miss Elizabeth Wright Academy of Music, Brooklyn SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON, 1954-1955 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Fifth Concert FRIDAY EVENING, March 11 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burr The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President Jacob J. Kaplan . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . Treasurer Talcott M. Banks, Jr. C. D. Jackson John Nicholas Brown Michael T. Kelleher Theodore P. Ferris Palfrey Perkins Alvan T. Fuller Charles H. Stockton Francis W. Hatch Edward A. Taft Harold D. Hodgkinson Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS Philip R. Allen M. A. DeWolfe Howe N. Penrose Hallowell Lewis Perry Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager G. ) W. Rector Assistant J. J. Brosnahan, Assistant Treasure* N. S. Shirk \ Managers Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager [1] Berkshire Festival, 1955 Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director July 6 - August 14 At Tanglewood (SIX WEEKS) LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS Guest Artists . conductors: PIERRE MONTEUX, LEONARD BERN- STEIN, THOR JOHNSON; pianists: RUDOLF SERKIN, EUGENE ISTO- MIN, LEONARD BERNSTEIN; violinist: ISAAC STERN; cellist: GREGOR PIATIGORSKY; singers: MARGARET HARSHAW, JENNIE TOUREL, LEONTYNE PRICE (and others to be announced) ; Choruses: Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, G. Wallace Woodworth. Conductor; Berkshire Festival Chorus, Hugh Ross, Conductor. A Beethoven Season The Festival concerts for 1955, as planned by Mr. Munch, will be largely dedicated to the music of Beethoven, and will include the nine symphonies, Fidelio (Act II) in concert performance, the violin concerto, two piano concertos, and the principal overtures. Mr. Bernstein will conduct the Missa Solemnis in memory of Serge Koussevitzky. The Wednesday evening chamber series will consist of selected quartets, trios and sonatas of Beethoven. Weekly Schedule FRIDAY EVENINGS AT 8:30 SATURDAY EVENINGS AT 8:30 SUNDAY AFTERNOONS AT 2:30 The first two week-ends will consist of "Bach-Mozart" concerts by a chamber orchestra from the Boston Symphony, in the Theatre-Concert Hall. The concerts of the last four week-ends will be given by the full Orchestra in the Music Shed. The chamber music concerts will be given on Wednesday evening of each week in the Theatre-Concert Hall by famous chamber groups. Series Subscriptions for each week now available at the Festival Office, Symphony Hall, Boston. Thomas D. Perry Jr., Mgr. Programs on request. [«] JOHK MCCOLLUM, tenor, replaces David Pole ri in the performance of "The Damnation f, of ^aust 5 Academy of Music, Brooklyn Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director FIFTH CONCERT FRIDAY EVENING, March 11, at 8:30 o'clock Program Berlioz "The Damnation of Faust," Dramatic Legend, Op. 24 I 1. A plain in Hungary 2. Dance of the peasants 3. Another part of the plain II 4. In the north of Germany 5. Faust and Mephistopheles 6. Auerbach's cellar in Leipzig 7. Woods and meadows on the banks of the Elbe 8. Chorus of soldiers and students marching toward the town INTERMISSION III 9. Evening, in Marguerite's chamber 10. Mephistopheles, Faust 11. Marguerite, Faust (hidden) 12. A square before Marguerite's house 13. Marguerite's room (Duet) 14. Faust, Marguerite, Mephistopheles and Chorus IV 15. Marguerite's room (Romance) 16. Foiests and caves (Invocation to nature) 17. Mephistopheles, Faust 18. Plains, mountains, valleys (The ride to the abyss) 19. Pandaemonium; Epilogue (on Earth) (A voice on earth: DONALD GRAMM) 20. In Heaven; The Apotheosis of Marguerite CHORUS The Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society G. Wallace Woodworth, Conductor SOLOISTS Marguerite .... SUZANNE DANCO, Soprano Faust DAVID POLERI, Tenor Mephistopheles . MARTIAL SINGHER, Baritone Brander .... DONALD GRAMM, Bass Concerts by this orchestra will be broadcast on Saturdays from Boston 8:30-9:30 E.S.T. on the NBC Network. BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [3] . "THE DAMNATION OF FAUST," Dramatic Legend, Op. 24 By Hector Berlioz Born at Cote St. Andre, France, December 11, 1803; died in Paris, March 8, 1869 Berlioz began to compose La Damnation de Faust, Legende Dramatique, in 1845 and completed it October 19, 1846. He prepared the text, with the assistance of A. Gaudonniere, and based it upon the French translation of Goethe's Faust by Gerard de Nerval. The first performance was at the Opera-Comique in Paris, December 6, 1846. It was first performed in America on February 12, 1880, when Dr. Leopold Damrosch introduced it in New York. The full work was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on November 30, 1934, when Serge Koussevitzky conducted; the Cecilia Society Chorus, Arthur Fiedler, Conductor, assisted. Mr. Munch revived it on February 19, 1954, recorded it, and conducted it at Tanglewood. The Damnation of Faust was first adapted for the stage by R. Gunsbourg and produced at the Monte Carlo Theatre, February 18, 1893. There have been numerous operatic productions elsewhere, the first in New York City having been at the Metropolitan Opera House, December 7, 1906. The work still holds the stage of the Paris Opera. The following instruments are called for: 3 flutes and 2 piccolos, 2 oboes and 2 English horns, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets-a-pistons, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, timpani, percussion, 2 harps and strings. The score is dedicated to Franz Liszt. "The prevailing characteristics of my music are passionate expression, inner ardor, rhythmic impulse, and the unexpected." — Berlioz {Memoirs) PART I The first part is joyous in mood — joyous after the rather grave opening air of the solitary Faust, beginning in the violas, a musical delineation of his char- acter at one stroke, impassioned, eager, darkly colored. At this point, Faust delights in nature, but he is at odds with the simple carefree life of country folk, which he beholds as they dance in a rollicking chorus, and the equally carefree life of soldiers on the march. The familiar Hungarian March (too familiar out of context) closes this part. Scene I (A plain in Hungary) Faust, alone in the fields, at sunrise Le vieil hiver a fait place au printemps; De ma poitrine ardente un souffle pur La nature s'est rajeunie; s'exhale. Des cieux la coupole infinie J'entends autour de moi le reveil des Laisse pleuvoir mille feux £clatants. oiseaux, Je sens glisser dans l'air la brise matinale; Le long bruissement des plantes et des eaux. Oh! qu'il est doux de vivre au fond des solitudes, Loin de la lutte humaine et loin des multitudes! [4] Scene II {Dance of the Peasants) Chorus: Les bergers laissent leurs troupeaux; Ils passaient tous comme l'eclair, Pour la fete ils se rendent beaux Et les robes volaient en l'air; Rubans et fleurs sont leur parure; Mais bientot on fut moins agile: Sous les tilleuls, les voila tous Le rouge leur montait au front, Dansant, sautant comme des fous. Et Tun sur Tautre dans le rond, Ha! hal ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Landerira! Landerira! Suivez done la mesure! Tous tombaient a la file. Faust: Ne me touchez done pas ainsi! — Paix! ma femme n'est point ici! Quels sont ces cris, ces chants? quel est Profitons de la circonstance! ce bruit lointain? . Dehors il l'emmena soudain, Ce sont des villageois, au lever du matin, Et tout pourtant alia son train, Qui dansent en chantant sur la verte Ha! ha! ha! ha! pelouse. Landerira! De leurs plaisirs ma misere est jalouse.