SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON , Telephone, Commonwealth 6-1492 ! SEVENTY-SIXTH SEASON, 1956-1957 CONCERT BULLETIN of the -. - • Boston Symphony Orchestra - CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk COPYRIGHT, 1957, BY BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. • Henry B. Cabot Presiden t Vice-President Jacob J. Kaplan Richard C. Paine Treasurer " Talcott M. Banks, Jr. E. Morton Jennings, Jr. Theodore P. Ferris Michael T. Kelleher Alvan T. Fuller Palfrey Perkins . Francis W. Hatch Charles H. Stockton Harold D. Hodgkinson Edward A. Taft C. D. Jackson Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS . • Phi ui> R. Allen M. A. DeWolfe Howe N. Penrose Hallowell Lewis Perry ' Thomas D. Perry, Jr., Manager Rector AssistantAssis Brosnahan, Assistant Treasurer G. W. I J. J. N. S. Shirk j Man agers Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager 1201 [ ] 1 \ THE LIVING TRUST How It Benefits You, Your Family, Your Estate Unsettled conditions . new inventions . political changes . interest rates and taxes, today make the complicated field of in- vestments more and more a province for specialists. Because of this, more and more men and women, with capital to invest and estates to manage, are turning to the Living Trust. WHAT IT IS The Living Trust is a Trust which you establish to go into effect during your lifetime, as part of your overall estate plan, and for the purpose of receiving professionai management for a specified ) portion of your property. It can be arranged for the benefit of yourself, members of your family, or other individuals or charities —and can be large or small. We will be glad to meet with you and your attorney, in strict con- fidence, to discuss a Living Trust as it fits in with your situation. For an appointment, at your convenience, please write or call the Personal Trust Department of the National Shawmut Bank, Boston, Massachusetts. No obligation, of course. Send for the Shawmut Bank's informative new booklet, "The Living Trust". It tells the whole story. Yours without charge. The National Shawmut Bank 1 - h of Boston \m§--life Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [ 1202] • • : . - SYMPHONIANA Mendelssohn and "The Greatest of Christian Works" MENDELSSOHN AND "THE GREATEST OF CHRISTIAN WORKS" In the year 1829, two young musicians in Berlin, Felix Mendelssohn, aged 20, and his friend the singer and actor Eduard Devrient became aware that a great work of Bach lay at hand of which the world knew nothing. "Old Bach" was then considered old-fashioned, and was less regarded as a composer than his son Philip Emanuel. Few musicians would have been interested if the fact had been brought to their attention that Johann Sebastian Bach, a hundred years before, had composed Passions to the four gospels and led them at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig at the Good Friday services. Yet Carl Friedrich Zelter, the aging director of the Singakademie, had ac- quired the music of his Passion Accord- ing to St. Matthew and tried out parts of it with his chorus. His young pupil Felix Mendelssohn and Devrient with him were at once interested as the score was sampled, and on further investigation the fine choruses, the quiet and wonderfully expressive part of Jesus excited them. Devrient talked Mendels- sohn into approaching Zelter and get- ting his permission for a public perform- ance. Although Mendelssohn, knowing Zelter's cautious and unenterprising endowed with the dual ability ways, hesitated to anger his teacher, to look beautifully gracious at the two at last extracted from him a reluctant consent. home, or pack to a traveling The forces of the Singakademie were minimum . silk and rayon accordingly mustered for the double blend in gold or navy with chorus, an orchestra brought together. white dots . sizes 10 to 20. Mendelssohn, it was decided, would con- duct, Devrient would sing the part of Christ. Their next step was to find the other solo singers. 416 BOYLST0N ST., BOSTON KE 6-6238 As the two musicians set out to make 54 CENTRAL ST., WELLESLEY WE 5-3430 their calls they were filled with a sud- [1203] den elation, a sense that an important V musical revelation was at hand. Devrient describes this moment in his Recollec- tions of Felix Mendelssohn: "We were speaking of the strange chance that, just a hundred years after the work could have been last heard, it should now again see the light. 'And to think,' said Felix triumphantly, standing still in the middle of the Opern Platz, 'that it should be an actor and a Jew who give back to the people the greatest of Christian works.' "Felix was quite carried away by his joyful mood; on other occasions he avoided all reference to his Jewish descent." They had no trouble in persuading the four best singers in the opera to join in their venture. "Their participation in the rehearsals, and the greater finish these now as- sumed, gave a fresh impetus to our work. Musicians and amateurs all thronged to the rehearsals, anxious to understand it better and better. All were amazed, not only at its architectonic grandeur ) of structure, but at its abundance of melody, its wealth of expression and of passion, at its quaint and affecting dec- lamation, and at its dramatic power. No one had ever suspected old Bach of all this. "But Felix's share in making the splendid properties of this work felt and is as as the undertak- Two part harmony . known memorable ing itself. His perfect mastery of all our silk dress with its own its details was only half his merit. His matching orlon cardi- energy, perseverance, tact, and clever tones gan, in ice cream calculation of the resources at hand, for only 35.00 . made this masterpiece modern, intelli- a wonderful way to gible, and lifelike once more. Those who did not witness this, his first and live this summer, greatest achievement in conductorship, in town or can scarcely realize or appreciate the country. magnificent powers of this youth of twenty. The revered presence of Zelter gave still greater importance to the orchestral rehearsals. Until these took place, Felix had both to accompany and to conduct, a difficult matter with the (Continued on page 1235) [1204] — ' .; : - - GaUiuva Jvr*# • SE • instant success . • • the wee windblown jacket costume $69.95 important So tiny, yet so tremendously and clearly, one of the freshest looks figures in a long, long, time. Suddenly under have a delicious new proportion this jutting top. And the superbly can slender dress, of immaculate detail, Soft well afford to be independent. pure wool in navy. 8 to 14. floor filene's french shops, seventh [1205] \ FINANCIAL JUDGMENT WITH THE HUMAN TOUCH The Sorter, foreground will arrange punched cards in any sequence. The Calculator, in back, makes computations based on information fed to it from punched cards and records the answers. Following investments electronically ) Old Colony Trust Company has been a pioneer in the use of electronic and mechanical aids to record cash and investment transactions, prepare statements, compile lists of securities for investment review, and the like. These aids enable Old Colony's officers to act faster on investment matters . main- tain closer contact with the holdings of all accounts . and keep service costs at a minimum. Skilled financial help — combined with a large measure of human understanding — has made Old Colony New Eng- land's largest trust institution. Old Colony would be glad to discuss your estate plans with you and your lawyer at any time. As a first step, write for the 24-page booklet, "Wills and Trusts." Augustin H. Parker, Jr. President WORTHY OF YOUR TRUST T. Jefferson Coolidge Old Colony Chairman, Trust Committee Trust Company Arthur L. Coburn, Jr. Chairman, Trust Investment Committee ONB FEDERAL STREET, BOSTON Allied with The First National Bank of Boston [ 1206] • • • SEVENTY-SIXTH SEASON • NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-SIX AND FIFTY-SEVEN Twenty-third Program Kg I THURSDAY AFTERNOON, April 18, at 2:15 o'clock I SATURDAY EVENING, April 20, at 8:30 o'clock 3B Bach The Passion According to St. Matthew (Opening Chorus and Part II) Soprano: Adele Addison Contralto: Florence Kopleff Tenor: John McCollum Bass: Mack Harrell Bass: James Joyce HARVARD GLEE CLUB and RADCLIFFE CHORAL SOCIETY (G. Wallace Woodworth, Conductor) Harpsichord: Daniel Pinkham Organ: Alfred Nash Patterson Viola da Gamba: Alfred Zighera There will be an intermission after the Chorale "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (First verse) BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS [1207] \ ) your Easter hat for '57 will be the most flattering in years There's something infinitely feminine, devastatingly charming about a little tilted brim . and so many of this year's hats have them! The line is soft, wearable and there are some delicious variations on the theme awaiting you now in our second floor salon and in Chestnut Hill. FASHIONS OF DISTINCTION [1208] • - . THE PASSION ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW By Johann Sebastian Bach Born in Eisenach, March 21, 1685; died in Leipzig, July 28, 1750 Bach's Passionsmusik nach dem Evangelisten Matthaus (composed 1728-1729) was first performed on Good Friday (April 15) 1729, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The text, incorporating passages from the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, had been prepared by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). Bach later revised and expanded the text and the music. The St. Matthew Passion, unnoticed when first performed, repeated subsequently at Leipzig as a matter of routine, was unknown elsewhere until Mendelssohn brought it to light a century later at the Singakademie in Berlin on Good Friday, 1829, thereby starting a general awakening to the greatness of Bach.* But the St.