UMS Concert Program, October 21: Boston Symphony Orchestra -- Henry Lee Higginson

Season: SEVENTY-FIRST
Complete Series: 1951-1952
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor

ff
r BOSTON
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON
SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON
1951i952
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor Sunday Evening, October 21
SEVENTY-THIRD ANNUAL CHORAL UNION CONCERT SERIES, OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AUSPICES UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director SCHEDULE OF CONCERTS, Season 1951-1952
OCTOBER
3
5-6 9
12-13 16
17 18
19 20 21
22
26-S7
3? NOVEMBER
2-3 4 6 8
g-10 12 13 i-l
7 20
23-24 27 29 3?
DECEMBER 1 4 5 6
11
13 M-15
18
21-22 28-29
JANUARY
1 4-
Wellesley
Boston
Boston
Boston
Springiield
Troy
Syracuse
Buffalo
Detroit
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Toledo
Boston
Providence
Boston
Boston
Cambridge
Boston
Boston
Hartford
New Haven
New York
Washington
Brooklyn
New York
Boston
Boston
Providence
Boston
Boston
Boston
Newark
New York
Washington
Brooklyn
New York
Cambridge
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Providence Boston Boston Boston
(Fri.-Sat. I) (Tuesday A) (Fri.-Sat. II)
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(Fri.-Sat. IV) (Sun. a)
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(Fri.-Sat. V)
(Wed. i) )
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(Rehearsal) (Fri. VII)
(Sat. VII)
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(Sat. 2)
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(Fri.-Sat.VIII) (Tues. C) (Fri.-Sat. IX) (Fri.-Sat. X)
(3)
(Fri.-Sat. XI) (Tues. D) (Rehearsal)
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9
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27 29
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Mew London
Mew York
Philadelphia
Brooklyn
New York
Boston
Boston
Boston
Cambridge
Boston
Providence
Boston
New Brunswick
New York
Washington
Brooklyn
New York
Boston
Boston
Boston
Cambridge
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
New Haven
New York
Newark
Brooklyn
New York
Boston
Boston
Cambridge
Boston
Boston
Providence
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Boston
Cambridge
Boston
(Fri.-Sat. XII) (Wed. 3)
(3)
(Sat. 3)
(I ucs. E)
(Fri.-Sat.XIII)
(Sun. c)
(3)
(Fri.-Sat.XIV)
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(Fri.-Sat. XV)
(Wed. )
(3)
(4)
(Sat. 4)
(Tues. F)
(Fri.-Sat.XVI)
(Sun. (I)
(4)
(Rehearsal) (Fri. XVII)
(Sat. XVII) (Tues. G) (Fri.-Sat.XVIII)
(Wed. 5)
(2)
(5)
(Sat. 5) (Tues. H) (Fri.-Sat.XIX)
(5)
(Fri.-Sat. XX)
(Sun. c)
(5)
(Fri.-Sat.XXI) (Thurs. XXII) (Sat. XXII) (Pension Fund) (Tues. I) (Fri.-Sat.XXIII) (Sun. f)
(6) (Fri.-Sat.XXIV)
Hill Auditorium [University of'Michigan] Ann Arbor
SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON, 1951-1952
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor
Concert Bulletin of the First Concert
SUNDAY EVENING, October 21
with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Blrk
The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc.
Henry B. Cabot . . President Jacob J. Kaplan . . Vice-President Richard C. Paine . . Treasurer
Philip R. Allen John Nicholas Brown Theodore P. Ferris Alvan T. Fuller N. Penrose Hallowell Francis W. Hatch
M. A; De Wolfe Howe Charles D. Jackson Lewis Perry Edward A. Taft Raymond S. Wilkins Oliver Wolcott
Georcf. E. Judd, Manager T. D. Perry, Jr. N. S. Shirk, Assistayit Managers
Tanglewood, 1952
THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Charles Munch, Music Director
THE BERKSHIRE FESTIVAL
Fifteenth Season Charles Munch, Conductor
THE BERKSHIRE MUSIC CENTER Tenth Anniversary Season
To receive later announcements, address subscription office, Symphony Hall, Boston, Mass.
Hill Auditorium [ University of Michigan] Ann Arbor
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
SUNDAY EVENING, October 21, at 8:30 o'clock
Program
Beethoven ........................Overture to "Egmont," Op. 84
Honegger......................................Symphony No. 5
I. Grave II. Allegretto III. Allegro marcato
INTERMISSION
Tchaikovsky.....Symphony No. 6 in B minor, "Pathetique," Op. 74
I. Adagio; Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro con grazia
III. Allegro molto vivace
IV. Finale: Adagio lamentoso
BALDWIN PIANO
RCA VICTOR RECORDS
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OVERTURE TO GOETHE'S "EGMONT," Op. 84
By Ludwig van Beethoven Born at Bonn, December 16 (), 1770; died at Vienna, March s6,i87
Composed in 1810, the Overture (together with the incidental music) wa& first performed at a production of Goethe's play by Hartl in the Hofburg Theater in Vienna, May 24, 1810.
The orchestration of the Overture requires two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
IT is said that Beethoven hoped to get a commission for music to Schiller's William Tell, and would have preferred it. Certainly there are no signs of half-heartedness in the Egmont music.
The heroic Count of the Netherlands, champion of liberty and independence for his people, meeting death on the scaffold under an unscrupulous dictator, was an ideal subject for the republican Bee?thoven. His deep admiration for Goethe is well known.
Without going into musical particularization, it is easy to sense in the overture the main currents of the play: the harsh tyranny of the Duke of Alva, who lays a trap to seize Egmont in his palace, and ter?rorizes the burghers of Brussels, as his soldiery patrol the streets, under the decree that "two or three, found conversing together in the streets, are, without trial, declared guilty of high treason"; the dumb anger of the citizens, who will not be permanently cowed; the noble defiance and idealism of Egmont which, even after his death, is finally to pre?vail and throw off the invader.
Goethe in the autumn of 1775 happened upon a history of the Netherlands, written in Latin by Strada, a Jesuit. He was at once struck with the alleged conversation between Egmont and Orange, in which Orange urges his friend in vain to flee with him, and save his life. "For Goethe," writes Georg Brandes, "this becomes the con?trast between the serious, sober, thoughtful man of reason, and the genial, carefree soul replete with life and power, believing in the stars and rejecting judicial circumspection. Egmont's spirit is akin to his; he is indeed blood of his blood." The poet wrote his play scene by scene in the ensuing years, completing it in Rome in 1787.
It has been objected that the Egmont of history was not the romantic martyr of Goethe; that he was a family man who was com?pelled to remain in Brussels as the danger increased, because he could not have fled with all of his children. Yet Goethe stated, not un-plausibly, in 1827, that no poet had known the historical characters he depicted; if he had known them, he would have had hard work in utilizing them. "Had I been willing to make Egmont, as history
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informs us, the father of a dozen children, his flippant actions would have seemed too absurd; and so it was necessary for me to have an?other Egmont, one that would harmonize better with the scenes in which he took part and my poetical purposes; and he, as Clarchen says, is my Egmont. And for what then are poets, if they wish only to repeat the account of a historian"
[COPYRIGHTED]
SYMPHONY NO. 5
By Arthur Honegger
Born in Le Havre, March 10, 1892
This Symphony was completed last December in Paris (indications on the manu?script score show the dates of completion of the sketch and the orchestration of each movement. First movement: September 5, October 28; Second movement: October 1, November 23; Third movement: November 10, December 3.)
The orchestra includes three flutes, two oboes, and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani and strings.
The Symphony was written for the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and is dedicated to the memory of Natalia Koussevitzky.
Arthur Honegger wrote his First Symphony for the 50th anniversary 1of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and it was performed at these concerts February 13, 1931. His Second Symphony for Strings had its first American performance by this Orchestra December 27, 1946. The Third Symphony (Symphonie Liturgique) was performed here November 21, 1947, and the Fourth Symphony (Deliciae Basiliensis) April i, 1949.
The Symphony begins with the orchestra in full sonority in a broad theme:
The music soon subsides and a second subject is heard from the clarinets and then the English horn:
The initial fortissimo subject returns and is then treated pianissimo
The music from which these examples are taken is copyright 1951 by Editions Salabert.
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by the divided strings with ornamental figures in the woodwinds, picked up by the strings. The movement ends pianissimo.
The second movement (allegretto 3-8) has a scherzo character with two interpolations suggestive of a slow movement. It opens with a duet in light staccato between the clarinet and the first violins:
It progresses cumulatively as the theme is given to the single and the combined woodwinds, with occasional muted brass. There is a climax and a short adagio section in common time which is eloquent in a theme for the cellos and ends in a crescendo with predominant brass. There is a more agitated recurrence of the allegretto subject. The adagio returns briefly before the end.
The finale (4-4) opens with repeated staccato notes from the brass, at once taken up by the strings which carry a swift string figure in a persistent forte until the very close. The perpetual motion generates rhythmically incisive episodes in a symphony of tragic import through?out.
Under the title "Symphonie No. 5" the composer has written in a cryptic parenthesis: " (di tre re)." The answer may be found at the end of each movement, where the last note is a drum tap on D, pianissimo.
[COPYRIGHTED]
SYMPHONY NO. 6, IN B MINOR, "PATHETIC," Op. 74 By Peter Ilitsch Tchaikovsky
Born at Votkinsk in the government of Viatka, Russia. May 7, 1840; died at St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893
Completed in 1893, Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony was first performed at St. Petersburg, October 28 of the same year.
Following the composer's death Napravnik conducted the symphony with great success at a concert of Tchaikovsky's music, November 18, 1893. The piece at?tained a quick popularity, and reached America the following spring, when it was produced by the New York Symphony Society, March 16, 1894. It was performed bv the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 28 following, Emil Paur con?ducting.
The orchestration consists of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tarn tarn and strings.
'"t'alking with his brother Modeste on the day after the first per-
A formance of the Sixth Symphony, Tchaikovsky discussed the
problem of a title, for he was about to send the score to the publisher.
He had thought of calling it "A Programme Symphony" and had
written to his nephew, Vladimir Davidoff, of this intention, adding, "This programme is penetrated by subjective sentiment. . . . The programme is of a kind which remains an enigma to all -let them guess it who can." And he said to Modeste when the question of a title was under discussion, "What does 'programme symphony' mean when I will give it no programme" In other words, he foresaw that to give it such a name would at the same time explain nothing and invite from every side a question which he could not answer. He ac?cepted Modeste's suggestion of "Pathetique" but thought better of it after the score had been shipped to Jurgenson, and wrote his preference for the number and nothing else. But the symphony was published as the "Pathetique"; Jurgenson had evidently insisted upon what was a good selling title. We can only conclude from these cir?cumstances that there was some sort of programme in Tchaikovsky's mind but that the "subjective" sentiment of which he spoke was more than he could explain. Plainly, too, the word "Pathetique," while giving the general character of the music, fell short of conveying the programme.
Modeste's title "Pathetique" was an obvious first thought, and an apt one, because the symphony has all the habiliments of melan?choly -the stressing of the minor mood, the sinking chromatic melodies, the poignant dissonances, the exploration of the darkest depths and coloring of the orchestra, the upsweeping attack upon a theme, the outbursts of defiance. But these are not mere devices, as Tchaikovsky used them. If they were, the symphony would be no better than a mass of mediocre music in the affecting style then being written. They were externals useful to his expressive purpose, but no more basic than the physical spasm which is the outward sign of an inward impulse. There is a deeper motivation to the symphony -a motivation which is eloquent and unmistakable in the music itself and which the word "Pathetique" serves only vaguely to indicate.
There have always been those who assume that the more melan?choly music, of Tchaikovsky is a sort of confession of his personal
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Music Education
Leta Whitney Academic Department
Jean Demos Popular Music Wright llriggs
Private and class instruction in all branches of musical subjects.
For further information, apply to the Dean, 290 HlINTlNGTON Ave., Boston. Mass.
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His instructions to his musicians are a mixture of French, English and German--uith French predominating.
THE WORLD'S GREATEST ARTISTS
[8]
CUesMunck
Music and the Munch family of Strasbourg are longtime friends. Charles Munch's father was an or?ganist and founded the celebrated choirofSt. Guillaume. Sunday after?noons and evenings were set aside for chamber music, so much so that neighbors nicknamed their home "the music box." It was in Paris in 1932 that Charles Munch made his official conducting debut . . . the city which was his home until he came to Boston. His music-making today reflects the consecration of his early years, combined with the elan and elegance of a true Parisien.
Encore your favorite performances by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra whenever you wish. Your choice, on RCA Victor Red Seal recordings, includes:
Haydn: Symphony No. 104, in D,
"London" Berlioz: Beatrice and Benedict:
Overture Schubert: Symphony No. 2t
in B-Flat
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, ' Op. 98 Knrel: La Vahe Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, in A,
Op. 92 Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G Minor.
Menuhin, violinist.
?On both 45 rpm and Long Play.
VRE ON
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troubles, as if music were not a work of art, and, like all the narra?tive arts, a structure of the artist's fantasy. The symphony, of course, is colored by the character of the artist himself, but it does not mir?ror the Tchaikovsky one meets in his letters and diaries. The neurotic fears, the mental and physical miseries as found in the diaries have simply nothing to do with musical matters. Tones to Tchaikovsky were pure sensuous delight, his salvation when life threatened to become insupportable. And he was neither the first nor the last to re?sort to pathos for the release of music's most affecting and luxuriant expression. The fact that he was subject to periodical depressions and eiations (he showed every sign of elation while at work upon the symphony) may well have attuned him to nostalgic music moods. But the general romantic trend of his time certainly had a good deal more to do with it. His generation revelled in the depiction of sorrow. The pathos of the jilted Tatiana of Pushkin actually moved Tchaikovsky to tears and to some of his most dramatic music. But Tchaikovsky enjoyed nothing more than to be moved to tears -as did his admirers, from Nadejda von Meek down. "While composing the [sixth] symphony in my mind," Tchaikovsky had written to his nephew, "I frequently shed tears."
There can be no denying that the emotional message of the "Pathelique" must have in some way emanated from the inmost nature of its composer. But the subtle alchemy by which the artist's emotional nature, conditioned by his experience, is transformed into the realm of tone patterns is a process too deep-lying to be perceived, and it will be understood least of all by the artist himself. Tchaikov?sky, addicted like other Russians to self-examination, sometimes tried to explain his deeper feelings, especially as expressed in his music, but invariably he found himself groping in the dark, talking in high-sounding but inadequate generalities. At such times he accused him?self of "insincerity"; perhaps we could better call it attitudinizing to cover his own vague understanding. Only his music was "sincere" -that is, when he was at his best and satisfied with it, as in the "Pathtttique." He wrote to Davidoff, to whom he was to dedicate the symphony, "I certainly regard it as quite the best -and especially the most sincere -of all my works. I love it as I never loved any one of my musical offspring before." Here is a case where the artist can express himself as the non-artist cannot; more clearly even than he consciously knows himself.
The final impression of the "Pathetic" Symphony when it is listened to without preconceptions is anything but pessimistic. The first move?ment and the last, which are the key movements of the symphony, are very similar in plan. The duality in each case consists of a spare and desolate theme and another of sorrowful cast which is neverthe-
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less calm and assuaging. Each theme is developed independently in separate alternating sections, each working up into an agitated form. But the second theme has always the final answer. Eacn movement ends gently with a gradual and peaceful subsidence.
The bassoon softly sets forth the first theme, Adagio, in rising sequences accentuating the minor. The violas carry it down again into the depths, and after a suspensive pause the theme becomes vigorous and rhythmic in an Allegro non troppo as it is developed stormily over a constant agitation of string figures. The figure melts away and after another pause the second theme, tranquil and singing in a clear D major, spreads its consolation. "Tenera-mente, molto cantabile, con espansione," reads the direction over it. The theme is developed over a springy rhythm in the strings and then, in an Andante episode, is sung without mutes and passion?ately, the violins sweeping up to attack the note at its peak. This theme dies away in another long descent into the depths of the bas?soon. And now the first theme returns in its agitated rhythmic form and works up at length to violent and frenzied utterance. Another tense pause (these pauses are very characteristic of this dramatic symphony) and the second theme returns, in a passionate outpour?ing from the violins. Its message is conclusive, and at last passion is dispersed as the strings give out soft descending pizzicato scales of B major. The strife of this movement, with its questionings and its outbreaks, is at last resolved.
The second movement, an Allegro con grazia in 54 rhythm through?out, has relics of the traditional scherzo in its repeats, trio and da capo, but there is nothing scherzo-like in its mood. It moves at a steady, even pace, gracefully melodic, a foil to the great variety of tempo and the extreme contrasts of the movement before. The main section offers a relief from melancholy, and only the trio, with its constant descent and its reiteration of drumbeats, throws a light cloud over the whole. Here there is another verbal clue: "Sweetly and softly" ('Con dolcezza e flebile").
After the placidity of this movement, the third bursts upon the scene with shattering effect. It seems to pick up the fitful storminess of the first movement and gather it up into a steady frenzy. Again the strings keep up a constant agitation as the brass strides through fragments of a martial theme. Pomp is here, with clashing cymbals. But when with a final abrupt outburst the movement has ended, the frenzies of defiance (if such it is) are completely spent.
Again the complete contrast of a dark lamentation in the strings, as the last movement begins. With its melodic descent, its dissonant chords, the symphony here reaches its darkest moments. Then comes the answering theme in a gentle and luminous D major. "Con lenezza
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We Meet Delver Forfax
ike the musical world, the insurance world has its romantic side.
And like the insurance world, that of music has its factual side.
This was impressed on an insurance man visiting Symphony Hall. His interest was aroused when he caught sight of a man standing before a bookcase filled with bulky scrapbooks, and poring over one of them.
"These are contemporary newspaper accounts of the Boston Symphony Orches?tra's activities through the years," the man at the book stack replied to a ques?tion.
"And what's the job you're doing" the visitor queried further.
"I dig after forgotten facts. Legends have a way of getting substituted for musical history. But there are plenty of facts as romantic as the legends."
The insurance man was convinced and fascinated by some examples.
And so the Employers' Group feels that the pleasure of Boston Symphony patrons may be enhanced by some of the dis?coveries of the research man, whom we shall call Delver Forfax.
On the adjoining page we present Del?ver in his account of:
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Col. Higginson and Tchaikovsky
uwsee by the New York papers that Tchaikovsky has just made his first A American appearance as composer-con?ductor. It also says here that Colonel Henry L. Higginson was in the distinguished audience." The newspaper from which Delver Forfax looked up was a yellowed clipping in a Boston Symphony scrapbook.
"It happened 60 years ago, on May 5, 1891. A very interesting overlooked anniversary. On the stage, and in the audience, Tchaikovsky and Col. Higginson took part in the dedication by the New York Symphony Society of its new home, Music (later, Carnegie) Hail.
What an Introduction!
"The Colonel had founded his Boston Symphony Orchestra ten years before. What music of Tchaikovsky, who was just turning fifty-one, had Higginson's mien played in Boston's Music Hall up to now Exactly three complete works and two fragments. Tchaikovsky's name first went on a Boston Symphony program with the "Marche Slave," in 1883. Then, at wide intervals, came the First Piano Concerto, the Serenade for Strings, and the 'Romeo and Juliet' Overture. What about the five symphonies then existing Only the two middle movements of the Fourth had been played.
Fruition After Disappointment
"If Colonel Higginson had expected to make new discoveries for his orchestra to play, the new Music Hall dedication concert was no help. The long program of speeches and of music conducted by Walter Dam-rosch (aged 29) assigned little time to-Tchaikovsky. The audience and musicians were thrilled to see him, the critics praised his conducting. But what masterpieces of his did he present None -just his quite un-extraordinary march for the coronation of Czar Alexander III.
"But more and better works were conducted by Tchaikovsky in the course of three more festive concerts shared with Damrosch. In?cluded was his Third Suite. Colonel Higginson may have heard it -although I haven't seen documentary proof. But at any rate, Arthur Nikisch introduced it with success at a Boston Symphony concert toward the start of the fol?lowing season.
"The Courier called it 'a characteristic and worthy product ... of a kind that might be expected ... of the original yet not eccentric, bold yet not reckless genius who stands first today among Russian composers.'"
e devozione," the composer directs, lest we miss its character of "gen?tleness and devotion." The theme is sung by the strings over soft pul?sations from the horns. The anguished opening theme returns in more impassioned voice than before. But when this voice has lapsed into silence in the dramatic way which by this time has become inevitable, there comes a chain of soft trombone chords that might well have been labelled "con devozione," and once more there is heard the quiet descending scale theme by the muted strings. Now passion is gone as well as violence, as the melody descends into the deepest register of the 'cellos and melts into silence. If the composer ends darkly, he is at least at peace with himself. Resignation is a strange word to use for Tchaikovsky, but it seems to fit here.
When Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of his newly completed Sixth Symphony in 1893, one might reasonably have expected a great success for the work. The composer then commanded favorable attention, having attained eminence and popularity -though nothing remotely approaching the immense vogue this very symphony was destined to make for him immediately after his death, which occurred nine days after the first performance. The composer believed in his symphony with a conviction which he by no means always felt for his newest scores as he presented them to the world. His preliminary doubts about the melancholy finale, the adagio lamen-toso, read like astonishment at his own temerity in having followed his own artistic dictates with so sure a hand against all symphonic tradition.
He had good reason to believe that the broad and affecting flood of outpouring emotion would sweep the first audience in its cur?rent. But such was not the case. The performance, according to Tchaikovsky's scrupulous brother Modeste, "fell rather flat. The sym?phony was applauded, and the composer recalled; but the enthusiasm did not surpass what was usually shown for one of Tchaikovsky's new compositions. The symphony produced nothing approaching that powerful and thrilling impression made by the work when it was conducted by Napravnik, November 18, and later, wherever it was played." The critics, too, were cool. The Viedemosti found "the
JULES WOLFFERS
PIANIST TEACHER 1572 BEACON STREET WABAN 68, MASSACHUSETTS
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thematic material not very original, the leading subjects neither new nor significant." The Syn Otechestva discovered Gounod in the first movement and Grieg in the last, and the Novoe Vremja drew this astonishing conclusion: "As far as inspiration is concerned it stands far below Tchaikovsky's other symphonies."
Cases such as this, and there are plenty of them, where a subse?quently acknowledged masterpiece first meets an indifferent reception, invite speculation. Was the tardy general acceptance of new ideas mostly to blame, or was the first audience perhaps beclouded by a grop?ing and mediocre performance, intransigeance on the part of the play?ers It would seem that even a reasonably straightforward performance of anything quite so obvious as the "Pathetic" Symphony should have awakened a fair degree of emotional response.
Mankind's propensity to find presentiments of death in the sym?phony, which Rimsky-Korsakov had plentiful opportunity to observe, was circumstantially combated by Modeste and by Kashkin, who were careful to account for each of Tchaikovsky's actions in the year 1893. There are quoted a number of letters written while he was at work upon the symphony; he speaks about the progress of his score, aiways in a tone of buoyant confidence in his music. Kashkin last saw him shortly before the performance of his symphony; Modeste was with him until the end. Both say that he was in unfailing good spirits. Death was mentioned in the natural course of conversation at the funeral of his friend Zvierev in October. Zvierev, as it happened, was one of sev?eral friends who had died in close succession. Tchaikovsky talked freely with Kashkin at this time. Friends had died; who would be the next 10 go "I told Peter," wrote Kashkin, "that he would outlive us all. He disputed the likelihood, yet added that he had never felt so well and happy." And from Modeste: "A few years ago one such grief would
Koussevitzky Tribute An Eye For Music
by MARTHA BURNHAM HUMPHREY
This handsome, delightful book re?flects the golden final decade of Koussevitzky's unequalled career in vivid action sketches and the artist's "informal, but well-informed com?mentary."
Also presented are visiting conduc?tors, soloists, sidelights of the period -Pops, Esplanade Concerts, Doc?tors' Symphony, Tanglewood. WITH MEMORIAL SUPPLEMENT Koussevitzky's History Year by Year Boston: H. M. TEICH & CO. $3.50
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Address. SYMPHONY HALL.
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['5]
have affected Tchaikovsky more keenly than all of them taken together seemed to do at this juncture." And elsewhere: "From the time of his return from England (in June) until the end of his life, Tchaikovsky was as serene and cheerful as at any period in his existence."
Modeste follows the last days of his life, day by day. On November ist, he went to the theatre with friends, was "in perfect health." Tchaikovsky laughed at Warlamov's distaste for spiritualism and pre?occupation with death, and said: " 'There is still time enough to be?come acquainted with this detestable snub-nosed one. At any rate, he will not have us soon. I know that I shall live for a long time.' -When we walked home about 2 a.m., Peter was well in body and mind." It was at luncheon that day (November 3) that Tchaikovsky drank a glass of water that had not been boiled, and laughed at his friend's fear of cholera. But the disease had seized him that night, and Peter said to his brother: "I think this is death. Good-by, Modi." Shortly before his death, which occurred at three o'clock on the morning of November 6, Tchaikovsky, delirious, talked reproachfully of Mrae. von Meek, whose friendship with him had ended in a break, hurt feelings and cruel mis?understanding. Modeste will admit no deliberate intent in his death, but there are those who believe that he drank the glass of germ-infested water because life had become intolerable to him; who claim that his cheerfulness was assumed to conceal his darker feelings from those about him. Still, the testimony of Modeste must be given great weight. No one was so close to Peter at this time. Peter, as open-natured as a child, never in his letters withheld from his intimate friends, least of all from his cherished "Modi," his spells of woeful depression, and the faithfulness with which Modeste records his brother's weaknesses in?spires confidence.
Whatever conclusion may be reached about Tchaikovsky's death, to attempt to connect the Sixth Symphony with any brooding intentions of death is to go against the abundant evidence of Modeste. "The year of 1893 opened with a period of serene content, for which the creation of his Sixth, or so-called 'Pathetic' Symphony is mainly accountable. The composition of this work seems to have been an act of exorcism, whereby he cast out all the dark spirits which had possessed him in the preceding years." And Modeste goes on to describe a year peaceful in creation, of which there are cheerful bulletins of progress to his nephew Davidov, to Kashkin, to his publisher Jurgenson, or to his brother. The only cloud in his content was the temporary homesickness of his jour?ney to England -a mood which invariably descended on him when he was away from home and among strangers. Modeste Tchaikovsky may have been a more acute psychologist than some of our moderns when he spoke of the Sixth Symphony as a "casting out of the dark spirits that had possessed him."
What inner atronies of spirit preceded, and, it is said, resulted in his unhappy marriage, Modeste has not glossed over or tried to hide. If his passing allusion to them was slight and unparticularized, the decencies of the period and the near memory of his brother more than exonerated him. fCOPYWCHTED]
r.6]
RCA VICTOR RECORDS
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Recorded under the direction of Charles Munch Iteethoven "Symphony No. 7 Beethoven "Gratulatton8M Minuet Berlioz 'Beatrice and Benedict Overture Brahms Symphony No. 4 Haydn "Symphony Xo. 104 ("London") Ravel Lu Valse Schubert "Symphony No. 2
Recorded under the direction of Seboe Koussevitzky
(Newly Recorded)
Haydn ""Oxford" Symphony No. ill': Toy Symphony Mozart "Eine Klelne Nachtmnslk
Prokofleff Peter and the Wolf (Xarmtor: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt) Wagner Prelude to Act I. "Lobeiigrln"
Bach, J. S. Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (!: Suites !. 2, 3, 4; Prelude in R major
Beethoven Symphonies Nor. 2. 3. .". 8, ?9: Miss:i Solemnly 'Overture to Egmont
Bcrlio; Symphony "Hnrold in Italy" i William Primrose); Three Pieces from "Damnation of Faust"; Roman Carnival Overture
Brahms Symphonies Nos. 3, 4: Vio?lin Concerto (llelfetz): Academic Festival (vertnre
Copland "El Salon Mexico"; "Appa?lachian Spring"; "A Lincoln Por?trait" (Melvyn Douglas)
Debussy "I.a Mer"
Oricg "Spring"
Handel Larghetto (Concerto No. 12) : Air from "Semele" (Porothy Mny-nor i
Hanson Symphony No. 3
IIit in!n "Surprise" Symphony, No. 94
Khachaturian Piano Concerto (Wil?liam Kapell)
Mendelssohn "Italian" Symphony, No. 4
Mozart Symphonies in K major (26) ; B-il.-u (33); C major (36); E-flat (89); Serenade for ?Vinds: Overtures, "Idomeneo," ?"Impresario," "La Clemenza di Tito" : Air from "The Jlagic Flute" (Dorothy Maynor)
PUtnn Prelude mid Allegro (Organ: B. Power Itixu's)
i'ii,!.-iii it 'Classical Symphony: Vio?lin Concerto No. 2 (Heifetz) ; "Lieu?tenant Kije" Suite; "Love for Three Oranges," Scherzo and March; Suite Xo. 2. "Roinoo and Juliet"; Dance from "Shout"; "Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninoff "Isle of the Dead"; "Vocalise"
Havel "Daphnla and Chloe," Suite No. 2; Rapsodle Espagnole; "Mother Goose" Suite: Bo-lero" : "Pavane for a Dead Infanta"
SoJe-De68j"Gymnop6dle8"land2
Schubert ""Unfinished" Symphony; Symphony No. f
Shostakovitch Symphony No. 9
Sibelius Symphony No. 2
strains, .. Waltzes: "Voices of Spring," "Vienna Blood"
siruus. A". Till Knlenspiegel's Merry l'ranks": "I)on Juan"
Stravinsky "Song of the Volga Barge?men"
Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, fl: String Serenade; "Fran?cesco da Rimini"
Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in 1) minor
Wagner Prelude and Good Friday Spell, "Parsifal": "Flying Dutch?man" Overture
'tt'cbcr "Oberon" Overture
Recorded under the direction of Leonard Bernstein Stravinsky "L'Histoire du Soldat," "Octet for Wind Instruments
?Also 45 r.p.m. Also 33 13 (L.P.) and 45 r.p.m.

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great artists, provides a
challenge which few pianos
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Orchestra and by Charles Munch, its conductor, is a distinguished
tribute to Baldwin's exacting standards of excellence. The distinction,
the enduring joy of owning a Baldwin is within the reach of all.
in
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