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PURE WOOL® "The Wool mark is your assurance of a quality tested product made of pure wool" -----------------------------------OCTOBER, 1971 I BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC I 3 Thursday Evening, October 28, 1971 , 8:30 p.m. Subscription Performance The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences presents the Boston Symphony Orchestra \X:'illiam Steinberg, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Associate Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, Conducting Polonaise and Krakoviak from 'A Life for the Tsar' MIKHAIL GLINKA Symphony in C IGOR STRAVINSKY Mode.rato alia breve Larghetto concertante Allegretto Largo - tempo giu sto, alia breve IN TERMISSION Concerto for flute, oboe, piano and percussion EDISON DENISOV Overture: allegro moderato Cadenza: Iento rubato - allegro Coda: allegro giusto DORIOT ANTHONY DWYER, flute RALPH GOMBERG, oboe GILBERT KALISH, piano EVERETT FIRTH, percussion Symphony No. 2 in B minor, Op. 5 ALEXANDER BORODIN Allegro Scherzo: prestissimo - allegretto Andante Finale: allegro The Boston Symphony Orchestra records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. BALDWIN PIANO DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON AND RCA RECORDS 4 I BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC I OCTOBER, 1971 The Brooklyn Academy of Mus 1 c The t. Felix Street Corporation Administrative Staff Board of Directors : Harvey Lichtenstein, Director Seth S. Faison, Chairman Lewis L. Lloyd, General Manager Donald M. Blinken, President John V. Lindsay, Honorary Chairman Charles Hammock, Asst. General Manager M arti·n P. Carter Jane Yackel, Comptroller Barbaralce Diamonstein Thomas Kerrigan, Assistant to the Director Mrs. Henry Epstein David Midla· nd, Production Manager Richard M . Hexter Becky Hannum, Assistant to the Director Peter C. R. Huang Ruth Lipton, Associate Press Representative Gilbert Kaplan J anc Biral, Manager of Harvey Lichtenstein Audience and Community Development Alan J . Patricof Mimi Johnson, Stage Translator David Picker J an H ash, Administrative Assistant Richard C. Sachs Betty Rosendorn, Administrator, Education Program William Tobey The St. Felix Street Corporation is responsible Sarah Walder, Education Program for programming at the Brooklyn Academy Michele Kelsey, Administrative Secretary of Music. Adele Allen, Press Secretary Sylvia Rodin, Administrative Assistant Foundution nnd Corporate Contributors Frances M. Seidenburg, Financial Secretary Abraham and Straus Pearl Light, Administrative Assistant Anonymous Evelyn August, Staff Assistant Doll Foundation Debby Shaw, Dance Center Registrar Institutional l·nvestors Fund The Lepercq Foundation Henry and Lucy Moses Foundation House Staff The National Endowment for the Arts Alfredo Salmaggi, Jr., House Manager New York Community Trust James Hillary, Box Office Treasurer New York State Council on the Arts Bill Griffith, Assistant Treasurer Edward Noble Foundation Robert Blum, Assistant Treasurer Celia and David Picker FoundatiO-n Rockefeller Bros. Fund, Inc. John Cooney, Stage Crew Chief The Rockefeller Foundation John Va· n Buskirk, Master Carpenter Rosenwald Family Trust Edward Cooney, Assistant Carpenter The Sachs Foundation, Inc. Donald Beck, Master Electrician van Ameringen Foundation Louis Beck, Assistant Electrician Thomas Lough lin, Master of Properties Business Sponsors Charles Brette, Custodian Bankers Trust Pela Ullmann, Wardrobe Supervisor Manufacturer's Ha·nover Trust John McLain, Lighting Designer Seatrain Shipbuilding Corporation Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences OFFICERS: James Q . Riordan, Chairman Thomas S. Buechner, President Justin J. Murphy, Vice-Chairman Robert S. Rubin, Vice-Chairman Seth S. Faison, Executive Vice-President Covington H ardee, Vice-President John E . Heyke Jr., Vice-President Donald G. C. Sinclair, \/ice-President Mrs. Fra·nklin B. Tuttle, Vice-President William B. Hewson, Secretary Paul F . Ely, Treasurer Thomas A . Donnelly, Vice-President for Administration Mrs. George Liberman Chairman of Institute Symphony Series OCTOBER , 1971 I BROOKLYN ACAOEMY OF MUSIC I 5 Program Notes MIKHAIL GLINKA (1804-1857) Polonaise and Krakoviak from 'A Life for the Tsar' Probably nobody would have been more Baron's text had arrived. The opera wa~ surprised th an Mikhail G linka himself to fi nished early in 1836, and wa~ accepted for know that he was posthumously dubbed the production at the Grand Theatre in St. 'father of Russian music'. A spoiled dilet­ Petersburg. There was a glittering premiere tante and an incurable libertine, he used on December 9, attended by Tsar ichola~ his musical gift to divert himself with little I and his family, and reaction was generally regard to the verdict of posterity. Glinka enthusiastic. After the success of A Life was brought in close contact with the folk for th e Tsar Glinka was appointed Kape/1- music of Russia from his early years. His m eister of the Imperial Chapel and as usual , uncle maintai ned an orchestra of serfs, his interest in hard work soon waned, and and he began to learn the piano with his he resigned two years later. During these governess, and the violin with a member of years Glinka worked on his second opera the serf orchestra. During school vacations Ruslan and Ludmila, which he finished Glinka used to conduct or perform with his eventually in 1842. The premiere took place uncle's orchestra, and in St. Petersburg at the Bolshoi Theatre, St. Petersburg, in would often appear at soirees as pianist, December of that year. Dispirited by the violinist and si nger. After he finished failure of Ruslan and his domestic prob­ school, he had ambitions neither for public lems, Glinka went abroad again. He spent service nor business. Music was to be his a year in Paris, where he became friendly career. with Berlioz, then went on to Spain. which he found enchanting. He returned In July 1833 Glinka traveled to Baden, to Russia in 1847, but becoming ill and and took the waters there, which made him restless once more, he set out the followin g increasingly ill. He became incapable of year for Warsaw. His last years were spent controlling the movement of hi s hands and partly in the Polish capital, partly in Paris, feet, and suffered wild halluci nat ions. Even­ partly in Russia. He wrote his MemoirJ tually he tried homeopathy, and was re­ during 1854 and 1855, then, interested sud­ stored to health with amazing suddenness. denly in the music of Bach, decided to go He resumed composing, and it was at this to Berlin once more to study counterpoint time that he wrote the melody which he with his old teacher Siegfried Dehn. later used for the Krakoviak in A Life for Glinka's health finally gave way for the the Tsar. Continuing on to Berlin, he be­ last time and he died in the Prussian capital gan his first serious stud y of composition on February 15, 1857. with Siegfried Dehn, who had been a pupil of Cherubini, and was teacher of Peter A Life for the Tsar is constructed in the Cornelius and Anton Rubinstein. In the typical style of the French grand opera. spring of 1834 he returned to Russia, and It has four acts and an epilogue, a large decided to start work on an opera. His number of choral and ensemble pieces, friend Zhukovsky, the poet and critic, sug­ divertissements for the corps de ballet, and gested the historical legend of Ivan Susanin. an imposing finale. The underlying theme Susanin was a peasant who, it was said, of the patriotism and heroism of the Rus­ had saved Russia and the first Romanov sian people is expressed in the two elaborate Tsar in 1613 from Polish invaders by di­ folk choruses which begin and end the recting the advancing enemy into the depths opera. Glinka used at least two traditional of a forest instead of to the Tsar's lodging. Russian songs in his score, while many of The Poles, realizing at last that they had the other pieces are written in the style been duped, killed Susanin, but the Tsar of Russian folk music. The second act, was meanwhile able to find safety. The from which the Polonaise and Krakoviak libretto was entrusted to Baron Rosen, are both taken, is devoted to the Poles, and secretary to the Tsarevich. Rosen had no the flavor of the music is in distinct con­ easy task: Glinka became so carried away trast to that which Glinka wrote for the that he often wrote the music before the Russian scenes. ANDREW RAEB RN 6 I BROOKLY N ACADEMY OF MUSIC I OCTOBER, 1971 IGOR STRAYINSKY (1882-1971 ) Symphon y in C A description of the 'Symphony in C' by net JOin this group. All in trument take Sol Babitz in the January 1941 issue of turns, singly and in groups, in carrying the Musical Quarterly is derived from a the sweetly ornamented melodies. study of the score previous to its perform­ The third movement consists of a minuet, ance - a study in which the writer was passepied and fugue . In the dance we have aided by the composer explaining his music a ta te of the rhythmic complexity to sub­ at the piano. In reading the core. the form tle movement, ending on the dominant. As unfolds before the eye as clearly a that the voices enter, the fugue unfold in a of a classical work. Yet the page a a splendor difficult to describe. Here are whole reveals a visual difference portentous inversions, augmentations and diminutions of the new sounds contained. The economy as integrated as those of Bach. Later the and simultaneous richness of the opening part thin out, some of the voice are con­ movement are evident. Throughout there centrated into rhythmic figures. Then, after is a certain breathle sne s which adds life a beat of silence, a freely developed variant to the already busy music. The second sub­ ject, in F. is introduced by a grandiose of the fugue begin .