UMS Concert Program, November 20, 1956: Seventy-seventh Annual Choral Union Concert Series -- Vienna Phillharmonic Orchestra

Season: 1956-1957
Concert: Fifth
Complete Series: 3196
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Charles A. Sink, President Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor Lester McCoy, Conductor
Fifth Concert 1956-1957 Complete Series 3196
Seventy-eighth Annual
Choral Union Concert Series
VIENNA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Andre Cluytens, Conductor
Tuesday Evening, November 20, 1956, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Symphony No. 96 in D major ("Miracle").....Haydn
Adagio; allegro Andante
Minuetto: allegro, trio Vivace
Rondo ostinato.........Theodor Berger
Zwischenspiel aus der Oper Notre Dame .... Franz Schmidt
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67......Beethoven
Allegro con brio Andante con moto Allegro Allegro
Andre Cluytens records for Angel Records. The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society.
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No. 96 in D major ("Miracle") . . Franz Josef Haydn
This work was written in 1791 while the composer was in England. He had spent the years 1791-92 and 1794-95 in the British Isles at the invitation of the London impressario, J. P. Salomon. The twelve symphonies he composed during these periods might all be designated as "London" symphonies. They show Haydn at his best and rank among his greatest works. Small wonder, then, that they produced unequaled enthusiasm in England and led to many honors for the sixty-year old composer who had never before traveled outside Austria.
Haydn's influence on the composers who came after him is well known. His music speaks for itself in confirming his genius. It breathes the inner satisfaction and gladness of a religious man at peace with himself, whose joyousness overflowed into his music. Having known adversity and trouble, he considered it his mission to bring relief to others. He described it as a secret feeling which told him: "There are so few happy and contented people here below, everywhere men are oppressed by trouble and care; perhaps your labor may sometimes be a source from which those who are burdened with care may derive a moment's relief and relaxation. Here is a powerful motive for carrying on."
Rondo ostinato.........Theodor Berger
Theodor Berger, leading contemporary Austrian composer, was born in Traismauer, Austria, in 1905. A student at the famous Vienna Music Academy, he was a disciple of Franz Schmidt, the noted Austrian composer of the late-romantic epoch following Bruckner and Mahler. Berger's early compositions, largely chamber works, included a great number of string quartets which are frequently performed in Europe and, more recently, in the United States. His larger orchestral works have found their place in the repertoire of many of the outstanding conductors of this day. His "Malinconia," for 25-part string orchestra, written in 1933, inspired Richard Strauss to compose "Meta?morphoses," also for string orchestra. "Malinconia" was introduced in the United States by Leopold Stokowski. At present Mr. Berger is writing "Sinfonia Parabolica," which will be given its premier performance by Herbert von Karajan in 1957.
"Rondo ostinato," in Spanish idiom, is scored for woodwinds, brasses, and per?cussion. This will be the first performance of the work at these concerts.
Interlude and Carnival Music, from Notre Dame . . Franz Schmidt
Franz Schmidt enjoyed a reputation during his lifetime as one of the greatest symphonic composers in Austria. Notre Dame, composed between 1902 and 1904, added further to his renown. Schmidt first conceived the score for this opera, based on Victor Hugo's masterpiece, while the Vienna Philharmonic was touring France in 1900, under the baton of Gustav Mahler. In December of 1903, Ernst von Schuch premiered the "Symphonic Interlude from an Unfinished Opera" at a subscription performance of the Vienna Philharmonic. The composer had written this in its entirety before complet?ing the opera, and later inserted it note for note in the score of his musical drama. The complete opera was premiered eleven years later by Franz Schalk at the Vienna Hofoper.
In the Interlude and Carnival Music, the symphonist Schmidt treats his thematic material polyphonically, employing the theme and variation form whereby the indi?vidual parts are linked to an organic entity. As in his symphonies, Gypsy scenes pre?dominate, in tribute to the composer's native country.
Symphony No. S in C minor, Op. 67 . . . Ludwig van Beethoven
Irving Kolodin, writing for the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, quotes Hector Berlioz, ten years after Beethoven's death, in the following evaluation of the Fifth Symphony:
"The first movement is devoted to the expression of the disordered sentiments which pervade a great soul when a prey to despair. It is not that calm and concentrated despair which bears the outward appearance of resignation; or the grief, so sombre and silent, which Romeo evinces on hearing of the death of Juliet. Rather it is the terrible fury of Othello, when receiving from the mouth of Iago the empoisoned calumnies which persuaded him of Desdemona's crime .... Listen to those orchestral gasps; to those chords in dialogue between wind and strings, which come and go whilst gradually growing weaker, like the painful respiration of a dying man. These at last give place to a phrase full of violence, in which the orchestra seems to rise again reanimated by a spark of fury .... And then, having done this, say whether this passionate style is not both beyond and above everything which had been yet produced in instrumental music ....
"The Andante presents some characteristic relation with the Allegretto in A minor of the Seventh Symphony, and with that in E-flat of the Fourth. It offers equally the melancholy gravity of the first and the touching grace of the second. The theme, first stated by the violoncellos and the violas, together with a simple pizzicato double-bass accompaniment, is followed by a certain phrase for wind instruments which recurs con?tinually in the same form and in the same key from one end to the other of the move?ment, whatever may be the successive modifications to which the original theme is subject. This persistence of one and the same phrase, in adhering always to its original simplicity, is so profoundly sad that it produces, little by little, upon the soul of the listener an impression impossible to describe, but which is certainly the most powerful of its kind which we have ever experienced.
"The scherzo (Allegro) is a strange composition, the first bars of which, though presenting nothing terrible, cause that strange emotion we are accustomed to experience under the magnetic glance of certain individuals . . . The middle part, or trio, is re?markable for a bass passage executed with all the force of the bow . . ."
Speaking of the transition to the finale, Berlioz writes: "The ear hesitates, un?certain as to the way in which this harmonic mystery is about to issue; when the dull pulsations of the kettle drum, becoming more and more intense, meet the violins who have now rejoined the rhythmic movement and changed the harmony. The chord is now that of the dominant seventh (G,B,D,F) throughout, while the kettle drums obstinately continue their roll upon the C tonic. And then it is that the entire orchestra, reinforced by the trombones which have hitherto not appeared, bursts forth in the major mode upon a triumphal march-theme, and the finale begins. Everybody knows the effect of this thunderstroke, and it is, therefore, useless to detain the reader with any account of it."
Berlioz' concluding words are that this symphony is "of a magnificence and a richness in comparison with which there are few pieces which could appear without being completely crushed."
1957 MAY FESTIVAL
SEASON TICKETS: $13.00--$10.00--$9.00--$8.00. Orders with remittances will be accepted and filed in sequence beginning as of December 1.
SINGLE CONCERT TICKETS will be placed on sale about March 11, at $3.50, $3.00, $2.50, $2.00 and $1.50.
E S S I A
First Concert: Saturday, December 1, 8:30 p.m. Repeat Concert: Sunday, December 2, 2:30 p.m.
Adele Addison, Soprano Howard Jarratt, Tenor
Eunice Alberts, Contralto Kenneth Smith, Bass
University Choral Union
Musical Society Orchestra
Mary McCall Stubbins, Organist
Lester McCoy, Conductor
Tickets (either performance): 75 cents and 50 cents
Chamber Music Festival
Rackham Auditorium
QUARTETTO ITALIANO . . February 15, 16, 17, 1957 Paolo Borciani, Violin Piero Farulli, Viola
Elisa Pegreffi, Violin Franco Rossi, Cello
First appearance in Ann Arbor. This group plays their programs entirely from memory.
Season Tickets: $3.50 and $2.50 Single Concerts: $1.75 and $1.25
Choral Union and Extra Series
dePaur Opera Gala (Extra).......Thurs., Jan. 10
Mixed chorus, orchestra, and soloists, in a program of excerpts from Carmen Jones, Porgy and Bess, and Four Saints. Leonard dePaur, Conductor.
Artur Rubinstein, Pianist (C.U.).....Mon., Jan. 14
Vienna Choir Boys (C.U.).....2:30 p.m., Sun., Jan. 20
Solomon, Pianist (C.U.)........Thurs., Feb. 21
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (C.U.) . . . Tues., Feb. 26 Thor Johnson, Conductor
Boston Pops Tour Orchestra (Extra) . . 2:30 p.m., Sun., Mar. 3 Arthur Fiedler, Conductor
The Cleveland Orchestra (C.U.).....Sun., Mar. 10
George Szell, Conductor
For tickets or for further information, please address: Charles A. Sink, President, University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan.