Fifty-Fourth Season in New York \ ^ '.^ BOSTON syaphony orchestra FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY L. HIGGINSON FIFTY-NINTH 1939-1940 [2] ' •{ Thursday Evening, January 11 Saturday Afternoon, January 13 Boston Symphony Orchestra [Fifty-ninth Season, 1939-1940] SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Personnel Violins BURGIN, R. ELCUS, C. lauca, N. SAUVLET, H. RESNIKOFF, V. Concert-master GUNDERSEN, R. KASSMAN, N. CHERKASSKY, P. EISLER, D. THEODOROWICZ, J. HANSEN, E. MARIOTTI, V. I I DOKOVSKY, P. TAPLEY, R. LEIBOV1CI, J. PINFIELD, C. I I.VEEN, P. KEIFS, A. KNUDSON, C. ZUNC, M. BEALE, If. CORODETZKY, L. MAYER, P. DIAMOND, S. DEL SORDO, R. FIEDLER, B. BRYANT, M. STONESTREET, L. Ml SSINA, S. DICKSON, H. MURRAY, J. ERKELENS, H. SE1NIGER, S. DUBBS, H. Violas LEFRANC, J. FOUREL, G. BERNARD, A. GROVER, H. CAUHAPE, J. ARTIERES, L. VAN WYNBERGEN, C. WERNER, H. LEHNER, E. KORNSAND, E. GERHARDT, S. HUMPHREY, G. Violoncellos BEDETTI, J. LANGENDOEN, J. chardon, y. STOCKBRIDCE, C. I ABRIZIO, E. ZIGHERA, A. TORTELIER, P. droeghmans, h. /I l.sE, K. MARJOLLET, L. 7IMBLER, J. Basses MOLEUX, G. DUFRESNE, G. greenberg, h. girard, h. barwicki, j. vondrak, a. JUHT, L. frankel, i. prose, p. Flutes Oboes Clarinets Bassoons laurent, g. GILLET, F. polatschek, v. ALLARD, R. pappoutsakis, j devergie, j. valerio, ii. PANENKA, E. KAPLAN, P. lukatsky, j. cardillo, p. LAUS, A. Piccolo English Horn Bass Clarinet Contra-Bassoon MADSEN, G. SPEYER, L. mazzeo, R. PILLER, B. Horns Horns Trumpets Trombones valkenier, w. SINGER, J. MAGER, G. raichman, j. macdonald, w. LANNOYE, M. LAFOSSE, M. HANSOTTE, l. SINGER, J. SHAPIRO, H. VOISIN, R. L. lilleback, w. gebhardt, w. KEANEY, P. VOISIN, R. SMITH, V. Tuba Harps Timpani Percussion ADAM, E. zighera, b. SZULC, R. sternburg, s. caughey, e. POLSTER, M. WHITE, L. arcieri, e. Piano Librarian sanroma, j. rogers, l. j. 1 QJantrgt? Hall • £fom fark Fifty-Fourth Season in New York FIFTY-NINTH SEASON, 1939-1940 Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor RICHARD BURGIN, Assistant Conductor Concert Bulletin of the Second Concert THURSDAY EVENING, January 1 AND THE Second Matinee SATURDAY AFTERNOON, January 13 with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Ernest B. Dane President Henry B. Sawyer .... Vice-President Ernest B. Dane Treasurer Henry B. Cabot M. A. De Wolfe Howe Ernest B. Dane Roger I. Lee Alvan T. Fuller Richard C. Paine Jerome D. Greene Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager [1] The Continuing Language B efore the ill-fated attempt to build the Tower of Babel, "the whole earth was of one language, and one speech." Then came the confounding of language, "that they may not understand one another's speech." With divergent tongues the peoples <>! the world went their several ways, and their failures to understand one another's speech, and much besides, have been the cause of infinite disaster, of which the wars now tearing Europe and Asia asunder are the latest tokens. Of the one language and one speech that prevailed before the confusion of tongues an imperishable remnant still exists. That is the speech of music, the language under- stood by peoples of every tongue. In the world as we look out upon it today, it is more important than ever be- fore that this bond of unity should be pre- served. The Boston Symphony Orchestra counts it a privilege to contribute as it may to the continuance of this unifying influ- ence. It is a privilege, moreover, in which every Friend of the Orchestra may share. Reginald C. Foster Chairman, Friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 12] (Eartwgt* Hall Fifty-Fourth Season in New York Boston Symphony Orchestra SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor SECOND EVENING CONCERT THURSDAY, January 11 Programme Beethoven Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 2 1 I. Adagio molto; Allegro con brio a„j„„«.„ —^nKJla mn mntn PROKOFIEFF'S "Classical* Symphony, Op. 25 will be played instead of Beethoven's Symphony No, 1 Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 I. Allegretto II. Tempo andante ma rubato III. J Vivacissimo; Lento e suave IV. { Finale: Allegro moderato SOLOIST JOSEPH SZIGETI The enclosed catalogue contains application blanks for the Berkshire Symphonic Festival of 1940, as well as for the Berkshire Music Center. [3] SYMPHONY NO. 1 in C MAJOR, Op. 21 By Ludwig van Beethoven Born at Bonn, December 16 (?), 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827 The original manuscript of this symphony has not been found, and there is no certainty as to when it was composed, but sketches for the Finale were found among the exercises in counterpoint which the young composer made for Albrechtsberger as early as 1795. It was on April 2, 1800, in Vienna, that this symphony had its first performance. It was published in parts at the end of 1801. The full score did not appear in print until 1820. The orchestration includes two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. It is dedicated to Baron van Swieten. Beethoven, giving his first public concert in Vienna "for his own benefit," after making due obeisance to the past with a sym- phony of Mozart and airs from Haydn's "Creation," submitted his popular septet, and one of his piano concertos, playing, of course, the solo part; he also improvised upon the pianoforte. Finally he pre- sented to the audience his newly completed Symphony in C major. The concert was received with marked interest, and a certain amount of critical approval. Indeed the young man was not without a reputation in Vienna as a pianist with almost uncanny powers of improvisation, who had written a number of sonatas, trios, quartets, and sets of varia- tions. In the orchestral field he had not yet committed himself, save in two early cantatas and in the two piano concertos (in B-flat and in C) which he had written a few years before for his own use. The critic of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, while commend- ing parts of the concerto and the Septet as a work of "taste and feel- ing," felt called upon to administer a mild rebuke upon the young man who had stepped out with rather too much temerity and confi- dence upon the hallowed ground of the symphony which Mozart and Haydn had cultivated in such careful and orderly fashion. The writer admitted in the symphony "much art, novelty, and wealth of ideas," but added: "Unfortunately there was too much use of the wind instruments, so that the music sounded more as if written for a wind band than for an orchestra."* It was after a performance in the more conservative Leipzig Gewandhaus about a year later that a critic found in the symphony "a caricature of Haydn pushed to ab- surdity." Opinions such as these from Beethoven's contemporaries give * Professor Tovey agrees with this criticism, pointing out that Beethoven does lean upon the wind sections in this symphony, a not unnatural result of his considerable experience with " Hftrmoniemusik" at that time. It might also be that the critic was misled by an ill- balanced performance, for it was particularly bad. [4] pause to us of later days who are inclined to accept this particular first symphony as fundamentally docile to the traditions of the cen- tury which had just passed — bold in many matters of detail certainly, but even there not without precedent in the symphonies of Haydn. The adverse criticisms rankled the proud and aspiring Beethoven, who, offering the symphony to Hofmeister, wrote: "As for the Leip- zig O. [Ochsenf], let them just go on talking; they will never by their chatter confer immortality on anyone, neither can they take it away from anyone for whom Apollo has destined it." This was in January, 1801. In April he wrote imperiously to the firm of Breitkopf and Hartel, who had a proprietary interest in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung: "Advise your critics to exercise more care and good sense with regard to the productions of young authors, for many a one may thereby become dispirited, who otherwise might have risen to higher things." Beethoven was to have the satisfaction of praise from this journal which in 1805 called this symphony "a glorious production, showing extraordinary wealth of lovely ideas, used with perfect con nection, order, and lucidity." The satisfaction was sometimes dubious, as when the First Symphony was extolled at the expense of his later ones. Beethoven, anxious to make his mark in the world as a composer in the larger forms, had at this time his first two piano concertos and the symphony to offer for publication, and accordingly proposed one of them, together with the septet and the piano sonata, Op. 22, to Hofmeister, at that time partnered with Kuhnel in the house which was later known as "Peters." Hofmeister was then a Kapellmeister in Leipzig, and Beethoven addressed him as "my dear brother in art." He offered the brace of compositions for the equivalent of $140, of which the symphony was listed at $50. "Perhaps you will be aston- ished," he wrote, "that I make no difference between a sonata, a sep- tet and a symphony, but I make none because I think that a sym- phony will not sell so well as a sonata, although it should surely be worth more." Fixing the total price at "seventy ducats," he wrote: "I do not understand any other money than Viennese ducats; how many thalers and gulden that make is no affair of mine, for I am a bad business man and reckoner." Beethoven spoke the sober truth about his abilities as a business man.