UMS Concert Program, Third: The Cleveland Orchestra --

Concert: 3337
Complete Series: 1961 Eightythird Season 1962
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Charles A. Sink, President Gail W. Rector, Executive Director Lester McCoy, Conductor
Third Concert Sixteenth Annual Extra Series Complete Series 3337
RUDOLF SERKIN
Pianist
Monday Evening, November 27, 1961, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata in G major, Op. 31, No. 1
Allegro vivace Adagio grazioso Rondo: Allegretto
Sonata in Csharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2
Adagio sostenuto Allegretto Presto agitato
INTERMISSION
Sonata in Bflat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier")
Allegro Scherzo Adagio sostenuto
Largo--Allegro risoluto
Columbia Masterworks Records NOTE--The University Musical Society has presented Rudolf Serkin on nine previous occasions.
The Stein'iVay is the official piano of the University Musical Society. ARS LONGA VITA B R E V I S
November 27, 1961,

1961 Eightythird Season 1962
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Charles A. Sink, President Gail W. Rector, Executive Director Lester McCoy, Conductor
Second Concert Sixteenth Annual Extra Series Complete Series 3335
The Cleveland Orchestra
GEORGE SZELL, Conductor
Thursday Evening, November 16, 1961, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Symphony No. 92 in G major ("Oxford").....Haydn
Adagio; allegro spiritoso Adagio Menuetto Presto
Concert Music for String Orchestra and
Brass Instruments, Op. SO.......Hindemith
Massig schnell, mit Kraft (moderately fast, with force) Lebhaft; langsam; lebhaft (lively; slow; lively)
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73......Brahms
Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso, quasi andantino Allegro con spirito
Note.--The University Musical Society has presented The Cleveland Orchestra on twenty previous occasions since 1935.
The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
1961 UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY CONCERTS 1962
Rack ham Auditorium
Chamber Music Festival
The Juilliard Quartet.....Friday, February 23, 8:30 p.m.
Quartet in Bflat major, Op. 103........Haydn
Quartet No. 5.............Bartok
Quartet in D minor "Death and the Maiden," Op. posth. . . Schubert
The Eger Players......Saturday, February 24, 8:30 p.m.
Horn Trio, Op. 40, in Eflat major........Brahms
Variations on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu," Op. 121a . Beethoven
Elegy...............Poulenc
Elegy for Mippy I.........Leonard Bernstein
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34.....ProkofieffEger
Beaux Arts Trio......Sunday, February 25, 2:30 p.m.
Trio in Eflat major, Op. 1, No. 1.......Beethoven
Trio in A minor.............Ravel
Trio in C major, Op. 87..........Brahms
Series Tickets: $5.00 and $4.00 Single Concerts: $2.50 and 2.00
Special Chamber Music Concert
Richard DyerBennet, Classical Folk Singer--Saturday, January 13, 8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $2.50 and $2.00
Hill Auditorium
All concerts begin at 8:30 unless otherwise indicated.
Emil Gilels, Pianist........Tuesday, February 13
Boston Pops Tour Orchestra .... 2:30, Sunday, February 18
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra . . . 2:30, Sunday, March 4
Leontyne Price, Soprano.......Monday, March 12
American Ballet Theatre.......Saturday, March 24
Tickets: $4.00--$3.50--$3.00--$2.25--$1.50
Annual Christmas Concerts
Messiah (Handel).......8:30, Saturday, December 2
2:30, Sunday, December 3
Ilona Kombrink, soprano Ara Berberian, bass
Elaine Bonazzi, contralto Mary McCall Stubbins, organist
Richard Miller, tenor Lester McCoy, conductor
University Choral Union and University Symphony Orchestra
Ann Arbor May Festival
The Philadelphia Orchestra.......May 3, 4, 5, 6
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor; guest conductors and soloists. Orders for series tickets accepted, and filed in sequence, beginning December 1.
For tickets and information, address: University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower
alternate shape, as a fragment that reminds inescapably of the "Blues" and specifically of a phrase made worldfamous by Gershwin.
There follows a brilliant melody for the strings; the "oompah" accompaniment from the brass is much more subtly handled than is customary in the band music which this section distantly resembles. Above the head of the fugue theme, hinted at by the horns, the violins offer a tender melody which will, however, soon regain vigor. The fugue returns, with dramatic pileups of brass sonorities and inventive developments of previous material. A lively coda is largely based on the rhythm of the "band" section and on the "Blues" fragment. The work comes to a powerful close, again solidly planted on the tonality of Dflat.
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 .... Johannes Brahms
From the very beginning of the first movement (Allegro non Iroppo, D major, 34), we sense that a solid wisdom animates the graceful flowing of this music. In his invaluable Essays in Musical Analysis, Donald Francis Tovey devotes more than three pages to this movement alone, demonstrating the ingenious progression and relationship of the themes; he shows us what a master lesson in composition Brahms has provided. But even without so thorough a study, we can recognize the mastery by the way in which the technique serves the music, never the other way round. If we fix in our minds the motive or "germ cell" played at the outset by the cellos and basses, we shall find it permeating the entire texture, animating several of the subjects, and forming a kind of motto idea for the movement. We shall allow ourselves to be swept along by the gorgeous "second theme" in Fsharp minor, first sung by cellos and violas. Those of us who know the "Horn Trio," Op. 40, will be struck by the many sonorities here which recall that glorious composition. How subtle are the syncopated chords in the wood?winds during the last reminders of the motto at the close!
The elusive character of the slow movement (Adagio non Iroppo, B major, 44) has often been remarked upon. The four principal themes seem to be stated by inference more than with emphasis; at moments, we hardly know whether to listen to the melodies themselves or to their countersubjects, whether to pay greater attention to themes or to textures. As Tovey put it in 1902, "it is never the complexity of Brahms that makes him difficult for us; it is simply his originality. And this slow movement is intensely original."
We may be sure that the third movement (Allegretto grazioso, quasi andantino) is much simpler in sound and outward appearance than it actually b, and a much larger structure than one would suspect from casual acquaintance. One could describe it as a variant of the classical minuet or scherzo with two trios. The graceful oboe melody accompanied by pizzicato cellos finds itself suddenly transformed into a new subject, Presto ma non assai. To recognize the disguise at once is one of the pleasures enjoyed by the astute listener. This is not the only transformation, however; the opening theme is inverted and altered in yet more fanciful ways, with some declamatory statements in the composer's favorite Phrygian mode, and some sharply accented rhythms in the Hungarian manner. Nor is it far, at one point, to the atmosphere of Mendelssohn's scherzos with their elfin whispers and mysterious horn calls. And how Schubertian are the majorminor alternations that pervade the movement! The close, perhaps, partakes of a "second naivete."
If there can be no question as to the intentional sorcery wrought upon the themes of the Allegretto, one may take the risk of claiming that the finale subject (Allegro con spirito, D major, alia breve) is a not too distant bloodrelative of the motto from the first movement. Consciously or not, the composer may have wished to round out the symphony by returning to the basic shapes with which he had begun the work.
There are hints of this relationship also later in the movement, in a "quintes?sential" section marked Iranquillo. Yet to the ear, the whole piece represents perhaps the most vivacious and brilliant finale in the whole output of Brahms; there is nothing since the symphonic finales of Haydn that matches the healthy vigor and irresistible impetus of this music. Syncopations and offaccents abound, and the contrast between the brilliant explosions of brasses and the quietly mysterious ruminations of winds and strings produces a unique sense of urgency. The composer's inventive and constructive skills are here at their highest; nothing, not even the wildly revolving scale passages, is arbitrary in choice and effect, and the most genuine vitality infuses the entire complex structure. When, at the end, it is the second theme which is declaimed by horns and trumpets and then virtually trilled by trumpets, horns, and winds, with the trombones blasting out the D major triad, it would be a dull hearer indeed who could fail to be rejuvenated by such triumphant exhilaration.
1961 UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY CONCERTS 1962
Rackham Auditorium
Chamber Music Festival
The Juilliard Quartet.....Friday, February 23, 8:30 p.m.
Quartet in Bflat major, Op. 103.........Haydn
Quartet No. S.............Bartok
Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden," Op. posth. . . Schubert
The Eger Players......Saturday, February 24, 8:30 p.m.
Horn Trio, Op. 40, in Eflat major........Brahms
Variations on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu," Op. 121a . Beethoven
Elegy...............Poulenc
Elegy for Mippy I.........Leonard Bernstein
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34.....ProkofteffEger
Beaux Arts Trio......Sunday, February 25, 2:30 p.m.
Trio in Eflat major, Op. 1, No. 1.......Beethoven
Trio in A minor.............Ravel
Trio in C major, Op. 87..........Brahms
Series Tickets: $S.OO and $4.00 Single Concerts: $2.50 and $2.00
Special Chamber Music Concert
Richard DyerBennet, Classical Folk Singer--Saturday, January 13, 8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $2.50 and $2.00
Hill Auditorium
All concerts begin at 8:30 unless otherwise indicated.
Galina Vishnevskaya, Soprano.....Tuesday, November 21
Rudolf Serkin, Pianist.......Monday, November 27
Emil Gilels, Pianist........Tuesday, February 13
Boston Pops Tour Orchestra . . . . 2:30, Sunday, February 18 Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra . . . 2:30, Sunday, March 4
Leontyne Price, Soprano.......Monday, March 12
American Ballet Theatre......Saturday, March 24
Tickets: $4.00--$3.50--$3.00--$2.25--$1.50
Annual Christmas Concerts
Messiah (Handel).......8:30, Saturday, December 2
2:30, Sunday, December 3
Ilona Kombrink, soprano Ara Berberian, bass
Elaine Bonazzi, contralto Mary McCall Stubbins, organist
Richard Miller, tenor Lester McCoy, conductor
University Choral Union and University Symphony Orchestra
For tickets and information, address: University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower