UMS Concert Program, October 22: Boston Symphony Orchestra -- Henry Lee Higginson

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

BOSTON
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON
SEVENTY-FIRST SEASON 1951-1952
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor Monday Evening, October 22
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
l
'9 20 21 22
23
26-17
3? NOVEMBER
2-3 4 6 8
9-10 is '3 14
7 20
23-24 27 9 3?
DECEMBER
1
4 5 6
8 11
'3 i4-5
18
21-22 28-29
JANUARY
4-5
8
9
UYllesley
Boston
Boston
Boston
Springfield
Troy
Syracuse
Buffalo
Detroit
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Toledo
Boston
I'rovidence
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)
(Fri.-Sat. Ill)
)
(Fri.-Sat. IV) (Sun. a)
(') (Rehearsal)
(Fri.-Sat. V)
(Wed. i)
(?)
(')
(Sat. i)
(Tues. B)
(Fri.-Sat. VI)
(2)
(Rehearsal) (Fri. VII)
(Sat. VII)
(') (Wed. 2)
) ()
(Sat. 2)
)
(Rehearsal) (Fri.-Sat.VIII) (Tues. C) (Fri.-Sat. IX) (Fri.-Sat. X)
(3)
(Fri.-Sat. XI) (Tues. D) (Rehearsal)
I 1-12
5
16
17 18
'9 22
25-26 27 29
FEBRUAR 1-2 5
8-9 12
3 '4 5 16
'9 22-23
24 26 28 29
MARCH
1 4
7-8 11 12 '3 14 15 18 21-22
5
28-29
3?
APRIL
1
4-5
10
12
'3
'5 18-19
so
22 25-26
Boston
New London
New 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)
(Tucs. E)
(Fri.-Sat.XlII)
(Sun. )
(3)
(Fri.-Sat.XlV)
(4)
(Fri.-Sai. XV)
(Wed. 4)
(3)
(4)
(Sat..,)
(Tues. F)
(Fri.-Sat.XVI)
(Sun. d)
(4)
(Rehearsal) (Fri. XVII)
(Sat. XVII) (Tues. G) (Fri.-Sat.XVIII)
(Wed. 5)
)
(5)
(Sat. 5)
(Tues. H)
(Fri.-Sat.XIX)
(5)
(Fri.-Sat. XX) (Sun. e)
(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 Second Concert
MONDAY EVENING, October 22
with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk
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, Assistant 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
MONDAY EVENING, October 22, at 8:30 o'clock
Program
Rameau........................Suite from the Opera, "Dardanus"
I. Entree
II. Rondeau du sommeil -
III. Rigaudon
IV. Rondeau gai
Schumann..................Symphony No. 4, in D minor, Op. 120
I. Ziemlich langsam; lebhaft
II. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam
III. Scherzo: Lebhaft
IV. Langsam; lebhaft
(Played without pause)
INTERMISSION
Strauss.........."Death and Transfiguration," Tone Poem, Op. 24
Ravel.......................................Rapsodie Espagnole
I. Prelude a la uit
II. Malaguena
III. Habanera
IV. Feria
BALDWIN PIANO RCA VICTOR RECORDS
[3]
SUITE FROM "DARDANUS"
3y Jean Philippe Rameau Born in Dijon, September 25, 1683; died in Paris, September 12, 1764
"Dardanus, Trage'die lyrique en cinq actes et un prologue," to the text o? Le Clerc de la Bruere, was first performed at the Acade'mie Royale de Musique in Paris, October 19, 1739. This Suite is drawn from two edited by Vincent d'Indy.
Although Rameau showed himself a musician at the age of seven, ?_ playing upon his father's clavecin and although in his early man?hood he made his mark in Paris as organist, violinist, and musical theorist, it was not until 1733, at the age of fifty, that he composed his first ambitious stage work. This was "Hippolyte et Aricie," a setting of Racine's "Phedre." It was as a musical theorist that Rameau had at?tracted most attention. His several treatises on the science of his art, and in particular the investigation of the disposition of chords, though not always found acceptable according to later views, were undoubtedly a stimulus to constructive thought on the subject.
The composer had long sought recognition in the profitable field of opera, but success in opera at that time depended upon an alliance with a librettist of the highest standing, and this alliance he had not been able to make. A collaboration with the two-edged Voltaire did him no good, for the resulting piece, "Samson," was banned on the eve of performance. After "Hippolyte et Aricie," which gave him the theatrical standing he had lacked, he. produced operas, ballets and divertissements in quick succession. "Dardanus," which was preceded in the same year by his Ballet "Les Fetes d'He'be," had an immediate success and continued in the active repertory until years after his death. It even inspired a parody by Favart, Panard and Parmentier called "Arlequin Dardanus" in 1740. Rameau became the composer of the day in Paris. He was thunderously applauded on his every appearance at the Opera, appointed the successor of Lully as Com-positeur de cabinet for Louis XV, and recommended for the badge of nobility.
It has been said against Rameau, no doubt with justice, that he lacked the true dramatic instinct of Lully'before or Gluck after him; that he was careless of the librettos he accepted, and was more inter?ested in the treatment of his orchestra from the purely musical point of view than in theatrical effect, or the handling of the voice. He is said to have made the damaging admission that he could set even the Gazette de Hollande to music. And in his old age he remarked one evening to the Abbe Arnaud: "If I were twenty years younger, I would go to Italy, and take Pergolesi for my model, abandon something of my harmony and devote myself to attaining truth of declamation, which should be the sole guide of musicians. But after sixty, one can-
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not change; experience points plainly enough the best course, but the mind refuses to obey."
The defense of Rameau lies in his widespread and clamorous suc?cess, based, not upon an easy acquiescence to popular mode, but in harmonic innovation which was courageous as well as engaging, and made him enemies in reactionary quarters. Rameau, delving deep in his earlier years into the science of harmony, wrote voluminously and brilliantly upon the subject. He was always ready to put his theory into practice, and in turn to modify that theory to his practical experience.
[COPYRIGHTED 1
SYMPHONY IN D MINOR. No. 4, Op. 120
By Robert Schumann Born at Zwickau, June 8. 1810: died at Endenich, July 29, 1856
Composed in 1841, at Leipzig, this symphony was first performed at a Gewand-haus concert on December 6 of the same year. Schumann made a new orchestration hi December, 1851, at Diisseldorf, and the revision was performed there on March 3. 1853, at the Spring Festival of the lower Rhine. It was published in December. 1853, as his Fourth Symphony.
qchumann wrote this symphony a few months after the completion ikJ of his First Symphony in B-flat. The D minor Symphony was numbered four only because he revised it ten years later and did not publish it until 1853, after his three others had been written and published (the Second in 1846, the Third in 1850). This symphony, then, was the second in order of composition. It belongs to a year notable in Schumann's development. He and Clara were married in the autumn of 1840, and this event seems to have stirred in him a new and significant creative impulse: 1840 became a year of songs in sudden and rich profusion, while in 1841 he sensed for the first time in full degree the mastery of symphonic forms. He had written two years before to Heinrich Dorn, once his teadier in composition: "I often feel tempted to crush my piano -it is too narrow for my thoughts. I really have very little practice in orchestral music now; still I hope to master it." The products of 1841 show that he worked as well as dreamed toward that end. As Mr. W. J. Henderson has well described this moment of his life: "The tumult of young love lifted him from the piano to the voice. The consummation of his manhood, in the union with a woman of noble heart and commanding intellect, led him to the orchestra. In 1841 he rushed into the symphonic field, and composed no less than three of his orchestral works."
"Prelude and Studies."--W. J. Henderson.
[5]
These works were the First, the "Spring" Symphony, which he began in January 1841, four months after his marriage, and completed in a few weeks; the "Overture, Scherzo and Finale" of April and May, and the D minor Symphony, which occupied the summer months. There might also be mentioned the "phantasie" in A minor, composed in the same summer, which was later to become the first movement of the piano concerto. But the two symphonies, of course, were the trium?phant scores of the year. The D minor Symphony, no less than its mate, is music of tender jubilation, intimately bound with the first full spring of Schumann's life -like the other a nuptial symphony, instinct with the fresh realization of symphonic power.
The manuscript of the symphony bears the date June 7, 1841, and at the end --"finished at Leipzig, September 9, 1841." Clara observed still earlier creative stirrings, for she recorded in her diary under the date of May 31: "Robert began yesterday another symphony, which will be in one movement, and yet contain an adagio and a finale. I have heard nothing about it, yet I see Robert's bustle, and I hear the D minor sounding wildly from a distance, so that I know in advance that another work will be fashioned in the depths of his soul. Heaven is kindly disposed toward us: Robert cannot be happier in the com?position than I am when he shows me such a work." On September 13, which was Clara's birthday, and when also their first child, Marie, then twelve days old, was baptized, Robert presented the young mother with the completed score of the symphony. And the composer wrote modestly in the diary: "One thing makes me happy --the consciousness of being still far from my goal and obliged to keep doing better, and then the feeling that I have the strength to reach it."
The first performance was at a Gewandhaus concert on December 6, Ferdinand David conducting. It was a friendly event, Clara Schumann playing piano solos by their colleagues Mendelssohn, Chopin, Stern-dale Bennett. She appeared jointly with Liszt, in his "Hexameron" for two pianos. Schumann's new "Overture, Scherzo, and Finale" was also played. Unfortunately, the success of the B-flat major Symphony in the previous March was by no means repeated in the new D minor Symphony. The criticisms were not favorable. Clara Schumann, who always defended her husband, wrote that "Robert's Symphony was not especially well performed," and the composer himself added: "It was probably too much of me at a single sitting; and we missed Men?delssohn's conducting too; but it doesn't matter, for I know the things are good, and will make their way in their own good time."
But Schumann laid the work aside. It does not seem that he could have considered a revision for some time, for he offered the manu?script to a publisher in 1843 or !44 as his "Second Symphony, Op. 50." According to the testimony of Brahms, many years later, Schu-
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mann's dissatisfaction with the symphony preceded its first perform?ance. "Schumann was so upset by a first rehearsal that went off badly," wrote Brahms to Herzogenberg, October 1886, "that subsequently he orchestrated the symphony afresh at Diisseldorf." This revision was made in December, 1851. The fresh score was performed at Diisseldorf on March 3, 1853, at the Spring Festival of the lower Rhine. This time the work had a decided success, despite the quality of the orchestra which, according to Brahms, was "bad and incomplete," and notwith?standing the fact that Schumann conducted, for, by the testimony of his contemporaries, he was conspicuously ineffectual at the head of an orcheswa. When in the following autumn the committee urged that Schumann conduct only his own works in the future, Clara wrote bitterly about the incident.
From the following letter (to Verhulst) it appears that Schumann made the revision because of urgent friends: "When we last heard that Symphony at Leipzig, I never thought it would reappear on such an occasion as this. 1 was against its being included, but was persuaded by some of the committee who had heard it. I have scored it afresh, and it is now more effective." Schumann dedicated the symphony to Joseph Joachim, who was then twenty-two years old. He wrote on the manuscript: "When the first tones of this symphony were awakened, Joseph Joachim was still a little fellow; since then the symphony and still more the boy have grown bigger, wherefore I dedicate it to him, although only in private." The score was published in December, 1853.
The Symphony is integrated by the elimination of pauses between the movements, and by thematic recurrence, the theme of the intro?duction reappearing at the beginning of the slow movemeni, a phrase from the slow movement in the Trio of the Scherzo. The principal theme of the first movement is used in the Finale, and a subsidiary theme in the first movement becomes the leading theme in the Finale. This was a true innovation, foreshadowing the cyclic symphonies of many years later. "He desires," in the opinion of Mr. Henderson, "that
I NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
Harrison Kellkr, Director
Malcolm Holmes, Dean
DEPARTMENT SUPERVISORS
Opera Department Boris Goldovsky
Voice Department Frederick Jagel
Piano Department Howard Goding
Violin Department
Richard Burgin
Organ Department
George Faxon
Church Music
Everett Titcomb
Theory and Composition
Carl McKinley
Music Education
Leta Whitney Academic Department
Jean Demos Popular Music Wright BriERs
Private and class instruction in all branches of musical subjects.
For further information, apply to the Dean, 290 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass.
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His instructions to his musicians are a mixture oj French, English and German--with French predominating.
THE WORLD'S GREATEST ARTISTS
[8]
CkdesMimck
Music and the Munch family of Strasbourg are longtime friends. Charles Munch's father was an or?ganist and founded the celebrated choir of St. 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" HitIioz: Beatrice and Benedict;
Overture Schubert: Symphony No. 2,
in B-Flat Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E Minor,
Op. 98 Ravel: La Valse Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, in A,
Op. 92
Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Vrniiltii. violinist.
?On both 45 rpm and Long Play.
ARE ON
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the hearer's feelings shall pass, as his own did, from one state to the next without interruption. In a word, this is the first symphonic poem, a form which is based upon the irrefutable assertion that 'there is no break between two successive emotional states.' " Its "community of theme is nothing more or less than an approach to the leit motive system." The Symphony is the most notable example of the symphonic Schumann abandoning customary formal procedure to let his romantic imagination take hold and shape his matter to what end it will. It should be borne in mind that the Symphony was first thought of by its composer as a symphonic fantasia, that it was published by him as "Introduction, Allegro, Romanze, Scherzo and Finale, in One Move?ment." It was in this, the published version, that he eliminated pauses between the movements, although this does not appear in the earlier version save in the joining of the scherzo and finale. The work, save in the slow movement, has no "recapitulations" in the traditional sense, no cut and dried summations. Warming to his theme, Schumann expands to new thematic material and feels no necessity for return. The score is unmistakably of one mood. It is integrated by the threads of like thoughts. Thematic recurrence becomes inevitable, because this unity of thought makes it natural.
The first movement is finely oblivious of academic requirements. The whole movement hangs upon the reiteration of the principal theme, a restless, running figure in sixteenth notes which appears and reappears constantly in every part of the orchestra, entwined with others. There is no contrasting second theme, but only a slight devia?tion from this one. Two episodic themes -the one consisting of brief rhythmic chords, the other of a flowing melody -carry the movement to its end in a triumphant D major. The Romanze is in song form. The melody from the introduction to the first movement is introduced in the first part, while in the middle section the violin solo weaves a delicate embroidery. The Trio of the Scherzo is based upon the orna?mental solo passage from the slow movement. After the repetition of the main section, the Trio again begins, recalling the precedent of Beethoven where the Scherzo theme would be expected to break in and bring a conclusion. Instead, the Trio dies away in a long diminu?endo, and leads into the introduction to the Finale (a true bridge passage, which has been compared to the famous pages which connect the last two movements of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony). This intro?duction brings back the motto-like principal theme of the first move?ment, which still appears as an accompaniment to the initial theme of the Finale -broadly proclaimed. The second subject recalls the Larghetto from Beethoven's Second Symphony. The development and conclusion are characteristically free.
[COPYRICHTED] [10]
'TOD UND VERKLARUNG" ("DEATH AND TRANSFIGURA?TION"), Tone Poem, Op. 24
By Richard Strauss Born at Munich, June 11, 1864; died at Garmisch, September 8, 1949
Tod und Verklarung was first performed from the manuscript, the composer conducting, at Eisenach, June 21, 1890, when his "Burleske" was also first heard. Anton Seidl gave the first American performance with the Philharmonic Society of New York, January 9, 1892. Emil Paur introduced it at the Boston Symphony concerts, February 6, 1897.
The tone-poem is dedicated to Friedrich Rosch and scored for three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, double-bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two harps, gong, strings.
Wien Death and Transfiguration first appeared, an unrhymed poem was printed in the score, giving a more explicit story than Strauss, always reticent about such matters, usually attached to his symphonic poems. The verses were unsigned but were soon discovered to be from the pen of none other than Alexander Ritter, the militant champion of Wagner and Liszt, who had recruited the youthful Strauss at Meiningen to the cause of "programme music." The verses, it was found out, were actually written after the music had been composed, and were inserted in the score as it went to the printer. The analyst forthwith questioned the authenticity of the words as a direct guide to the music. But surely Strauss and Ritter must have been too intimately associated at this time not to have a clear understanding.
It was Ritter who had goaded the brilliant young musician to set his back firmly upon symphonies and sonatas, and fly the banner of "Musik ah Ausdruck." Assuming that the older man could har-dly have done more than help the younger one to find himself, the fact remains that Strauss, embarking upon programme music with the Aus Italien which he called a "symphonic fantasia," in 1886, made quick and triumphant progress with three symphonic poems: Mac beth, Don Juan, and Tod und Verklarung, all within the space of three years.
The work divides naturally into four parts:
1. In a dark room, silent except for the ticking of the clock, is a dying man. He has fallen asleep and is dreaming of childhood.
2. The struggle between life and death begins anew.
Strauss wrote of Ritter: "His influence was in the nature of the storm-wind. He urged me on to the development of the poetic, the expressive in music, as exemplified in the works of Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz. My symphonic fantasia, Aus Italien, is the connecting link between the old and the now methods."
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We Meet Delver Forfax
Like the musical world, the insurance j 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:
Col. Higginson and Tchaikovsky
a
I see by the Tchaikovsky
New York papers that has just made his first 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 men 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.' "
3He sees his life over again. He remembers childhood, youth, and the strivings of manhood after ideals that are still unrealized.
4. From heaven comes to him what he had vainly sought upon earth, "Welterlosung, Weltverklarung": "World-redemption, world-transfiguration."
The poem of Alexander Ritter has been paraphrased as follows:
A sick man lies upon his mattress in a poor and squalid garret, lit by the flickering glare of a candle burnt almost to its stump. Ex?hausted by a desperate fight with death, he has sunk into sleep; no sound breaks the silence of approaching dissolution, save the low, monotonous ticking of a clock on the wall. A plaintive smile from time to time lights up the man's wan features; at life's last limit, dreams are telling him of childhood's golden days.
But death will not long grant its victim sleep and dreams. Dreadly it plucks at him, and once again begins the strife; desire of life against might of death! A gruesome combat! Neither yet gains the victory; the dying man sinks back upon his couch, and silence reigns once more.
Weary with struggling, rett of sleep, in the delirium of fever he sees his life, unrolled before him, stage by stage. First, the dawn of childhood, radiant with pure innocence. Next, the youth who tests and practices his forces for manhood's fight. And then the man in battle for life's greatest prize: to realize a high ideal, and make it all the higher by his act -this the proud aim that shapes his course. Cold and scornful, the world heaps obstacle after obstacle in his path: if he deems the goal at hand, a voice of thunder bids him "Halt" -"Let each hindrance be thy ladder," he thinks. "Higher, ever higher mount!" And so he climbs, and so he urges, breathless with hallowed fire. All that his heart had ever longed for, he seeks it still in death's last sweat -seeks, but never finds it! Though now he sees it more and more plainly; though now it looms before him, he yet can ne'er embrace it wholly, ne'er put the last touch to his endeavor. Then sounds the iron stroke of Death's chill hammer; breaks the earthly shell in twain, enshrouds the eye with the pall of night.
JULES WOLFFERS
PIANIST TEACHER
152 BEACON STREET
WABAN G8, MASSACHUSETTS
But now from on high come sounds of triumph; what here on earth he sought in vain, from heaven it greets him: Deliverance, Transfiguration I
Death and Transfiguration had a wide vogue in its early days. Biilow admired it with reservations -"a very important work in spite of sundry poor passages, and also refreshing." Professor Niecks, dis?cussing programme music, considered it "the most musical of all Strauss' programmes." Ernest Newman, in his book of 1908, praised this tone poem as Strauss' nearest approximation to "a perfect fusion of matter and style," truly symphonic in thematic development, show?ing "quite a Beethovenian unity and breadth of conception." Mauke pointed out that here, if anywhere, Strauss heeded the ways of Liszt, and made his score upon the model of Tasso. The piece, for the benefit of its earlier hearers, was minutely dissected, thematically catalogued bit by bit. Wilhelm Mauke, Strauss' most industrious analyst, wrote a description sixteen pages long, with twenty-one examples in notation. Max Steinitzer disapproved Mauke's "un-Straussian distillations."
[copyrighted]
RAPSODIE ESPAGNOLE
By Maurice Ravel Born at Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenees, March 7, 1875; died in Paris, December 28, 1937
The "Rapsodie Espagnole," composed in 1907. was first performed at the Colonne Concerts in Paris, March 15, 190S. Theodore Thomas gave the piece its first Ameri?can performance in Chicago, November 12, 1909. Georges Longy introduced it in Boston at a concert of the Orchestral Club on January 26, 1910. The first per?formance by this Orchestra was on November si, 1914. The composer included it upon his program when he appeared as guest conductor of this Orchestra January 14, 1928.
Ravel has used two piccolos, two flutes, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and sarrusophone (contra-bassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, strings, and a large percussion: timpani, bass drum, cymbals, side drum, triangle, tambourine, gong, xylophone, celesta, and two harps. The work is dedicated to "Mon cher Maitre, Charles de Beriot."
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The "Rapsodie Espagnole" was one of the first pieces to draw gen?eral attention to Ravel's skill in orchestral writing. His recurring fondness for fixing upon Spanish rhythms as a touchstone for his tancy antedates the rhapsody in the "Al'borada del Gracioso" as a piano piece, and the "Habanera" from "Les Sites Auriculaires," for two pianos. As he transformed the "Alborada" into bright orchestral dress, so he incorporated the "Habanera" as the third movement of the "Rapsodie Espagnole."
The "Prilude a la nuit" opens with, and is largely based upon, a constant, murmuring figure of four descending notes, upon which tne melodic line is imposed. The figure, first heard in the muted strings, pianissimo, is carried on in one or another part of the orches?tra witnout cessation, save tor the pause of a free cadenza, for two clarinets and two bassoons in turn, with a brief interruption where the initial figure is given to the celesta.
In the Malaguena, Ravel gives a theme to the double-basses, which is repeated and used in the manner of a ground bass. A theme derived trom this first takes full shape in the bassoons and then the muted trumpets. A slow section presents a rhapsodic solo for the English horn. The movement closes with a reminiscence of the characteristic figure from the opening movement.
The Habanera is dated "1895" in the score, recalling the "Habanera" tor two pianofortes. It has a subtilized rhythm and delicacy of detail which is tar removed trom associations ot cate or street. It evolves from a triplet and two eighth notes in a bar of duple beat, with synco?pation and nice displacement of accent.
The Feria ("Fair") continues the colorful scheme of the Habanera -fragmentary solo voices constantly changing, and set oS rhythmi?cally with a percussion of equal variety. This finale assez animi (6-8) moves with greater brilliance and a more solid orchestration. A middle section opens with a solo for English horn, which is elaborated by the clarinet. There is a return to the initial material of the movement and a fortissimo close.
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RCA VICTOR RECORDS
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Recorded under the direction of Charles Munch Jieethoven Symphony Xo. 7 Beethoven "Qratulations" Minuet Berlioz 'Beatrice and Benedict Overture Brahms ''Symphony Xo. 4 Haydn "Symphony No. 104 ("London") Hard La Valse Schubert "Symphony Xo. 2
Recorded under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky
(Neicly Recorded)
Haydn "Oxford" Symphony No. 02; 'Toy Symphony Mozart "Eine Kleine Nacbtmnrifc
Prokofieff "Peter and the Wolf (Xnrmtor: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt) Watiicr 'Prelude to Act I. "Loheiigriu"
Bach, J. 8. Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, f. : Suites 1, 2, 3, 4; Prelude in E major
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 2. 3. 5, 8, 9; Missn Soleninis, 'Overture to Eginont
Berlioz Symphony "Harold in Italy"
(William Primrose) ; Three Pieces from "Damnation of Faust"; Roman Carnival Overture
Brahms Symphonies Nos. 3, 4: Vio?lin Concerto (Heifetz) ; Academic Festival Overture
Copland "El Salon Mexico"; "Appa?lachian Spring": "A Lincoln Por?trait" (Melvyu Douglas)
Debussy "ii Mer"
Orii a "Spring"
Handel Larghetto (Concerto No. 12) ; Air from "Semele" (Dorothy May-nor)
Bauson Symphony No. 3
Haydn "Surprise" Symphony. No. 94
Khachattiritiii Piano Concerto (Wil?liam Kapell)
Mendelssohn "Italian" Symphony, No. I
Mozarl Symphonies in K major (26) ?. B-flat (83); C major (86); K-flat (30) ; Serenade fof Winds: Overtures. 9"Idomeneo." "Impresario." "La Clemenza dl Tito": Air from "The Magic Flute" (Dorothy Maynor)
I'ixtmi Prelude anil Allegro (Organ: R. Power Biggs)
I'rokofleff 'Classical Symphony : Vio?lin Concerto No. 2 (Heifetz); "Lieu-teiiiint Kije" Suite; "Ijove for Three Oranges," Scherzo and March; Suite No. 2, "Romeo and Juliet"; Dance from "Shout"; Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninoff "Isle of the Dead"; "Vocalise"
Ravel "Daphnis and Chloe" Suite No. 2; Rapsodie Espagnole; ""Mother Goose" Suite; "Bo?lero" ; "Pavane for a Dead Infanta"
N'ui'c-De6i(ssi"Gymnop6dies"land2
Schubert "Unflnished" Symphony; ?Symphony No. 5
Shostakovitch Symphony No. 9
Sibelius Symphony No. 2
Strauss, .. Waltzes: "Voices of Spring." "Vienna Blood"
Strauss, R. "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"; "Don Juan"
Stravinsky "Song of the Volga Barge?men"
Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 0: Strinir Serenade; "Fran-cesca da Rimini"
Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in D minor
Wagner Prelude and Good Friday Spell, "Parsifal"; "Flying Dutch?man" Overture
Weber "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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