UMS Concert Program, March 9, 1952: Sixth Annual Extra Concert Series -- Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Season: 1951-1952
Concert: Fifth
Complete Series: 3076
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Charles A. Sink, President Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor
Lester McCoy, Associate Conductor
Fifth Concert 19S1-1952 Complete Series 3076
Sixth Annual
Extra Concert Series
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RAFAEL KUBELIK, Conductor
Soloist: Arthur Grumiaux, Violinist
Sunday Evening, March 9, 1952, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Overture to The Bartered Bride.......Smetana
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.......Bartok
Allegro non troppo Andante tranquillo Allegro molto
Arthur Grumiaux
intermission
Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") in E-flat major, Op. SS . . Beethoven
Allegro con brio Marcia funebre Scherzo
Allegro molto
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra uses the Baldwin piano, and records for Mercury.
Note:--The University Musical Society has presented the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in concert on seventeen previous occasions; and at the May Festivals from 1905 to 1935 inclusive.
THE SHAW CHORALE will be heard March 18; and RUDOLF SERKIN, Pionist, on March 31, in the Choral Union Series.
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES By Felix Borowski
Overture to The Bartered Bride .... Friedrich Smetana
Smetana made the first sketches for his opera, "The Bartered Bride," in the summer of 1863, but the score was not completed until three years later. The overture to the opera was played in America long before the opera itself was given. Theodore Thomas introduced it at a young people's matinee, Steinway Hall, New York, Novem?ber 12, 1887, and gave it to Chicago for the first time at one of the Summer Night concerts in the old Exhibition Building in July of the following year. The material of the overture is drawn partly from music in the opera itself.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.....Bela Bartok
Bartok was born in a district of Hungary--Torontal--which, after the first Great War, became part of Jugoslavia. The boy showed talent for composition at an early age, and when he was only ten years of age he appeared in public, both as pianist and composer.
Early in his activity as a composer he had been influenced by the music of Brahms. Later, having freed himself from that influence, Bartok became absorbed in the study of Hungarian folkmusic. Together with his friend, Kodaly, he made a searching investigation of the national music which, he believed, had been vitiated by alien--particularly gypsy--influences.
Meanwhile Bartok's music had taken on some of the influences of the modernistic trend that was making itself apparent in almost every country. The Concerto for violin and orchestra was composed at Budapest in 1937-1938, and it was first heard in America at a concert of the Cleveland Orchestra, January 21, 1943, and on that occasion the program book contained the following analysis:
"I. Allegro non troppo, 4-4. The solo violin announces the main theme after six introductory measures for harp and plucked strings, and continues with rhapsodical passage-work introducing a canonic statement of the theme by strings and woodwind. A tranquil version of the theme for the violin introduces the transitional theme which enters in the manner of a fugato. The legato second subject is, according to the com?poser, 'a kind of twelve-tone theme, yet with pronounced tonality.' In the develop?ment section of an extremely economical sonata form, these themes are put to various uses, the devices of augmentation and inversion being particularly exploited. A varied recapitulation leads to a solo cadenza of great difficulty. The brief coda contains further developments of the principal subject, which has been consistently in the forefront of the musical unfolding of the movement.
"II. Theme and Variations. Andante tranquillo, 9-8. The theme is stated by the solo violin over a light accompaniment in the lower strings, punctuated by harp har?monics and strokes of the kettledrums. Strings and wind instruments repeat the last two measures of the theme. There are six variations, after which the solo instrument restates the theme in its original form over an accompaniment of woodwind, harp, celesta and three solo violas. Again the two final measures are echoed--this time by the divided first and second violins, the solo violin returning to conclude the repetition.
"III. Rondo. Allegro molto, 3-4. The entire rondo is conceived as a free variation on the opening movement. The principal episode is based on the main theme of the first movement in a new guise. Subsequent episodes, constructed from the transitional and second subjects of the first movement, are joined by a rapid connecting theme in triplets which finally brings the concerto to a close."
Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") in E-flat major,
Op. 55.........Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven's third symphony is one of the outstanding works that belong to the second of the three periods into which the master's compositions generally are divided. In the first of these periods Beethoven was held to have been influenced by Haydn and Mozart and by the traditions that belonged to the last decades of the eighteenth century. In the second, his complete individuality was expressed, and in the third a transcendental handling of musical thought and technique set the music of that period apart from that of previous years.
I. Allegro con brio, E flat major, 3-4 time. After two resounding chords for the full orchestra the principal theme is set forth by the violoncellos. After this theme
has been heard in the full orchestra another idea is given out, conversationally as it were, by the woodwind. The second subject proper appears after a descending passage, fortissimo, in the full orchestra. The first phrase of it is heard in the woodwind, piano, rising to a crescendo, the strings then continuing it. Another section of the subject appears in a vigorous forte given to the whole orchestra. There is a codetta, in which the material of the principal theme is suggested. This closes the Exposition.
The Development is elaborate. After some preliminary matter in the strings there ensues a working out of the conversational passage in the woodwind previously re?ferred to. There is then heard development of the principal theme, and a return is made to the subject worked out before. Following this comes a tranquil episode, the melody of which is given to the oboe. At the close of the Development occurs the well-known passage in which the horn gives out the first four notes of the principal theme--the chord of E-flat--while the violins play B-flat and A-flat against it. The Recapitulation follows immediately with the principal theme in the 'cellos, as before. The second subject arrives in E-flat, and there is a very long and elaborate coda, in which previous material is worked over.
II. Marcia Funebre. Adagio assai, C minor, 2-4 time. The introduction of a funeral march into a symphony was something of a departure from the traditions in the period in which Beethoven passed his existence. The subject of the march is an?nounced, pianissimo, by the first violins, to be taken up eight bars later by the oboe. The second theme, in E-flat major, appears in the strings. Development of the two subjects follows and what may be considered as the trio of the march is ushered in with the section (Maggiore) in which a melody is put forward successively by the oboe and flute, the violins playing an accompaniment of triplets. The violins continue this melody, and it is worked out in different instruments. The minor mode and the first subject in the violins return; but the after-treatment of this theme is different, fugal development of it entering at the tenth measure. The motive of the fugato is presented, fortissimo, by the full orchestra. There is a slight reminiscence of the first theme, following which there comes an outburst in the horns and trumpets. The first subject returns in the oboe and clarinet, and is immediately followed by the second theme, again in the strings, and in E flat, as before. Toward the close of the movement a tranquil melody is sung by the first violins, and the first theme comes back frag-mentarily as the movement finishes.
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace, E-flat major, 3-4 time. Beethoven originally in?tended this movement to be a Minuet. Six measures of introduction in the strings, sempre pianissimo e staccato, precede the first theme in the oboe and first violins. Practically the whole material of the scherzo is based on this. The trio (in the same key) is announced by the three horns, which play an important part in the unfolding of this section. There are passages for the woodwind, answered by similar ones in the strings, and the horn subject returns. The scherzo is then repeated in a shortened version.
IV. Finale. Allegro molto, E-flat major, 2-4 time. The movement begins with an impetuous passage in the strings and seven chords, fortissimo, in the full orchestra. The theme is then put forward by the strings, pizzicato. This is, however, the bass of the real theme, which occurs later. There is a touch of Beethoven's humor in the re?presentation of this subject in the strings with answering notes on the unaccented beats by the woodwind.
In the first variation the theme is put forward by the second violins, with a conversational passage between the violoncellos and the first violins. All other instru?ments are silent. In Variation II the theme is in the first violins, accompanied with a triplet figure in the other strings. The third variation presents the theme proper in the oboe, with a broken-chord figure running against it in the first violins, which later take up the theme itself. The fourth variation is an extended fugal treatment of the first portion of the theme. The first violins and flute bring back (in D major) the second portion, and there is a continuation of it in the flutes and oboes, with a running counterpoint in the first violins. A new idea is put forth in an energetic passage in G minor in the first violins and woodwind; but the bass of this is made up of the first four notes of the theme.
The second part of the theme returns gently in C major in the first violins, and there follows contrapuntal treatment of the first portion, a fugato being a characteristic feature of it; but both parts of the theme are worked into the fabric of the movement. There is a pause on a chord played by the full orchestra, and the tempo changes to Poco andante. Here the woodwind introduce a further variation of the theme, it being continued by the strings. Following this there occurs a passage in the first violins and oboes (arpeggios in the clarinet) curiously suggestive of a portion of the "Leonore" Overture No. 3, and the second portion of the theme is called out, fortissimo, by the basses, woodwind and trumpets. A grandiose coda concludes the symphony.
MAY FESTIVAL
MAY 1, 2, 3, 4, 1952
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA AT ALL CONCERTS
ELEANOR STEBER, Soprano PATRICE MUNSEL, Soprano ASTRID VARNAY, Soprano PATRICIA NEWAY, Soprano SET SVANHOLM, Tenor MACK HARRELL, Baritone PHILIP DUEY, Baritone GEORGE LONDON, Bass
NATHAN MILSTEIN, Violinist GUIOMAR NOVAES, Pianist EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor THOR JOHNSON, Conductor ALEXANDER HILSBERG, Conductor MARGUERITE HOOD, Conductor UNIVERSITY CHORAL UNION FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS
PROGRAMS
THURSDAY, MAY I, 8:30
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor Eleanor Steber, Soprano
Short Symphony......Swanson
"Exultate, jubilate". Motet, K.165 . Mozart Eleanor Steder
"Le Festin de l'Araignee" . . . Roussel
"Nun eilt herbei" and "Frohsinn und
Laune" from Merry Wives oj Windsor . Nicolai Marietta's Lied from Die Tote Stadt . Korngold Csardas from Die Flcdcrmaus . . Strauss Miss Steber
Suite No. 2 from the Ballet,
Daplmis et Chloi.....Ravel
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 8:30
University Choral Union Thor Johnson, Conductor
Patricia Neway, Soprano Philip Ducy, liaritonr Set Svanholm, Tenor George London, Bass
"The Damnation of Faust" . . . Berlioz Choral Union and Soloists
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:30
Alexander Hilsbcrg and Marguerite Hood, Conductors
Nathan Milstcin, Violinist Festival Youth Chorus
Overture to "Russian and Ludmilla" . Glinka
Sons Cycle from the Masters
......Arr. Russell Howland
Festival Youth Chorus
Symphony No. 5 in Fi-flat major . Schubert
Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 . . Dvorak Nathan Milstein
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 8:30
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
Astrid Varnay, Soprano
Set Svanholm, Tenor
Overture to The Flying Dutchman . Wagneh
Act I, Scene III, from Die Walkiire . Waone Astrid Varnay and Set Svanholm
Prelude to Tristan and Isolde . . Wagneh
NiRht Scene--Act II, Scene III
from Tristan and Isolde. . . . Wagnes Miss Varnay and Mr. Svanholu
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2:30
Thor Johnson, Conductor
University Choral Union
Mock Harrell, Baritone
Guiomar Novaes, Pianist
Overture to "Coriolanus", Op. 62. . Beethoven
"BeUhazzar's Feast".....Walton
Choral Union and Mack Hahrell
Concerto No. 4 in G major.
Op. 58.......Beethoven
Guiomar Novaes
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 8:30
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor Patrice Munsel, Soprano
I'.i -:u :'..;:i.[........HAUG
"Chacun le sail" from
La Fille du Regiment . . . Donizetti "O mio bahbino caro" from
Gianni Sclticci......Puccini
"Mi chiamano Mimi" from
La Bohhnt......Puccini
Patrice Munsel
Symphony No. S in E-flat major, Op. 82.......Sibelius
Lucy's Arietta from The Telephone . Menotti
Willow Sons .... Coleridoe-Taylok
Suite from Die Fledrrmaus . . . Strauss
Miss Munsel
SEASON TICKETS: $10.00--$9.00--$8.00
SINGLE CONCERTS: $2.50--$2.00--$1.50
On sale at the University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower