Boston Symphony Orchestra concert programs, Season

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
The State University of New Jersey
IN
MEMORY OF CHARLES MUNCH
September
26, 1891
-
November
6,
1968
Symphony Orchestra
^Boston
Erich Leinsdorf
Music Director
THE RUTGERS UNIVERSITY CHOIR
F.
Austin Walter, Director
Erich Leinsdorf, Conducting
Soloists:
SHERRILL MILNES
SARAMAE ENDICH
Baritone
Soprano
Program Notes Copyright © by Alec Robertson
The
University
Gymnasium
Thursday Evening, November
8:30 o'clock
21, 1968
I
"Wedding" Cantata No. 202
for
Soprano
J.
S.
Bach (1685-1750)
Aria: Weichet nur, betriibte Schatten
Recitative:
Die Welt wird wieder neu
Aria: Phobus
Recitative:
mit schnellen Pferden
eilt
D'rum
Wenn die
Recitative: Und
Aria:
sucht auch
Friihlings
dieses
Amor
liifte
sein
Vergnugen
streichen
das Gliicke
ist
Aria: Sich iiben im Lieben
Recitative:
So
sei
das
Band der keuschen Liebe
Gavotte: Sehet in Zufriedenheit
Saramae Endich, soprano
Ralph Gomberg, oboe
Joseph Silverstein, violin
Charles Wilson, harpsichord continuo Jules Eskin,
Henry
'cello
Sherman Walt,
Portnoi, double bass continuo
continuo
bassoon continuo
Program Note:
composer at Cothen, where he had no duties
Duke's chapel, Bach is said to have composed a large number of
secular cantatas, but only one of these, our cantata No. 202, is preserved complete,
two more being known to us from subsequent adaptations in the church cantatas.
During
to
perform
We
his period of office as court
in the
Wedding
composed at Cothen in its original
version. Bach was often unwilling to leave good material composed for a special
occasion aside, but the dance-like character of the cantata would have prevented
him from using the music subsequently in a church work. It should be said here,
however, that Bach, in the manner of this time, did not recognize any sharply defined difference between sacred and secular music.
It
is
have, therefore, the
cantata
even probable, that Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena, sang the
Wedding cantata. We do not know what couple the libretto
possible, or
solo soprano part in this
was written for or its author. The charming text indicates that they were young
and its poetic conceits evidently appealed to Bach. The work is scored for oboe,
bassoon, strings and harpsichord and, as "table music," it would have been performed during the Gargantuan feast, common at these ceremonies.
— INTERMISSION —
II
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Brahms (1833-1897)
Chorus: Selig sind, die da Leid tragen
Chorus:
Denn
alles
Fleisch es
ist
wie Gras
Baritone and chorus: Herr, lehre doch mich, dass ein
Chorus:
Wie
lieblich sind deine
Ende
Wohnungen
Soprano and chorus: Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
Baritone and chorus:
Denn wir haben
hie keine bleibende Statt
Chorus: Selig sind die Toten
Saramae Endich, soprano
The Rutgers
Sherrill Milnes, baritone
University Choir
BOSTON SYMPHONY| ORCHESTRA
ERICH LEIIySDORF, Mulic Director
NOVEMBER 1968
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
'Wedding' cantata no. 202 for soprano 'Wei diet nur, betrubte
Schatten' (Vanish, gloomy shadows)
ARIA
gloomy shadows;
and winds, be gone!
Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten,
Frost und Winde, geht zur Ruh'!
Vanish,
Florens Lust will der Brust
Nichts als frohes Gluck verstatten,
The pleasures of spring bring the heart
Nothing but happiness;
Denn
sie traget
Blumen
zu.
Frost
For with
it
come
the flowers.
RECITATIVE
Die Welt wird wieder neu, auf Bergen
und in Griinden will sich die Anmuth
doppelt Schon verbinden, der Tag is von
der Kalte frei.
The world decks itself anew; on hills
and dales everywhere, charm and beauty
strive to unite; the days are no longer
cold.
ARIA
Phobus eilt mit schnellen Pferden,
Durch die neugeborne Welt,
Ja, weil sie ihm wohl gefallt
Will er selbst ein Buhler werden.
Phoebus hastens with
his
speedy
horses
Through the newborn world.
Because the world pleases him
He joins
so,
in the pleasures of love.
RECITATIVE
D'rum sucht auch Amor sein Vergnugen,
in die Wiesen lacht, wenn
Florens Pracht sich herrlich macht, und
wenn in seinem Reich, den schonen
Blumen gleich, auch Herzen feurig
wenn Purpur
his pleasure, when
the meadows are covered with laughing
purple, when the flowers bloom
magnificent. Like flowers, ardent hearts
are the conquerors in Cupid's kingdom.
Cupid too seeks
siegen.
ARIA
Wenn
Und durch bunte
When the spring breezes blow
And fan the colorful fields,
auch Amor auszuschleichen
Urn nach seinem Schmuck zu seh'n
Welcher, glaubt man, dieser ist:
Dass ein Herz das andre kiisst.
Then Cupid steals out
To display his magic charm,
The charm, so we believe,
To make one lover kiss another.
die Fruhlingslufte streichen
Felder weh'n,
Pflegt
RECITATIVE
Und
dieses ist das Glucke: dass durch
hohes Gunstgeschicke zwei Seelen
einen Schmuck erlanget, an dem viel
Heil und Segen pranget.
ein
And
this is happiness: that by a lucky
chance, two souls find Cupid's charm,
on which sparkle the jewels of
happiness and fortune.
ARIA
Sich iiben im lieben, in Scherzen sich
To
herzen
together
1st besser als Florens vergangliche Lust
Hier quellen die Wellen, hier lachen
Is better than the fleeting pleasure
the
flowers bring.
und wachen
Here rise the springs, here the palm
branches
Nod merrily and watch over united
Die siegenden Palmen auf Lippen und
Brust.
dally in love, to
lips
and
bind two hearts
breasts.
RECITATIVE
So sei das Band der keuschen Liebe,
verlobte Zwei, vom Unbestand des
Wechsels frei. Kein jaher Fall, noch
Donnerknall erschrecke die verliebten
Triebe!
So, blessed pair, may the bonds of
purest love keep you free from the
uncertainties of fate. May no ill wind
nor thunderbolt disturb your tender
devotion.
GAVOTTE
Sehet
in
Zufriedenheit
May fortune smile
And bring you everlasting happiness,
And may your love blossom
Tausend helle Wohlfahrtstage,
Dass bald bei der Folgezeit
Eure Liebe Blumen trage.
Through the passing
years.
Translation by
Andrew Raeburn
JOHANNES BRAHMS
deutsches Requiem (A
Ein
German Requiem)
op. 45
CHORUS
1
Selig sind, die
denn
da Leid tragen,
werden.
sie sollen getrostet
Blessed are they that mourn;
be comforted.
for they shall
Matthew 5 :4
Die mit Tranen, saen
werden mit Freuden ernten.
Sie gehen hin und weinen,
und tragen edlen Samen,
und kommen mit Freuden
They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and
weepeth,
bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing,
und bringen
ihre Garben.
bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalms 125:5-
CHORUS
Denn
und
alles Fleisch es ist
alle Herrlichkeit
wie Gras
des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret
und die Blume
abgefallen.
For
all flesh is
and
as grass,
the glory of man
as the flower of grass.
all
The grass withereth
and the flower thereof
falleth
I
So seid nun geduldig, lieben Briider,
Zukunft des Herrn.
bis auf die
Siehe ein Ackermann wartet
auf die kdstliche Frucht der Erde
und ist geduldig dariiber,
empfahe
den Morgenregen und Abendregen.
bis er
away.
Peter 1:24
Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience
he receive
the early and latter
for
it,
until
rain.
James 5:7
I
MUNCH
CHARLES
September 26 1891 - November 6 1968
Munch, Music Director
Charles
of the Boston
from
tra
Symphony Orches-
1949
peacefully
in
sleep
his
died
1962,
to
in
the
morning of November 6
1968 at Richmond, Virginia. He
had conducted the Orchestre de
early
Paris,
tor
of which he was conduc-
and music director,
cert at Raleigh,
two days
North Carolina,
earlier.
Born
in
from
a distinguished
family.
con-
in a
Strasbourg, he
His
father
violin teacher
was
and with
came
musical
his
first
his three
brothers and two sisters he spent
much time during his childhood
making music. He contemplated
a
medical career, and went at
the age of twenty-one to study
in Paris.
in
the
But he was soon devoting his time to the violin. After service
first
in Berlin
world war, he resumed
and
his career as a
student of Carl Flesch
as concertmaster of the Strasbourg Orchestra.
He moved
where he spent eight years in the first desk of the violins in
the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwangler and Bruno
to Leipzig,
Walter.
In
1932 Charles Munch settled
career.
He founded
the Orchestre
the Lamoureux Concerts.
cities
soon followed.
In
in
Paris,
and began
Symphonique de
Engagements
as
Paris
conducting
his
and conducted
guest conductor
1937 he became conductor of the
in
Paris
other
Con-
was in 1946;
he conducted the Boston Symphony on December 27 and in the following month made the first of his many appearances with the New
servatory Orchestra. His
first
visit
to the United States
York Philharmonic.
In
the spring of 1948 Charles
Koussevitzky as Music Director
Munch was engaged to succeed Serge
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his
tenure to begin with the 1949-50 season. Meanwhile,
in
the
autumn
of 1948, he toured throughout the United States with the Orchestre
National de
la
Radiodiffusion Franchise, of which he was conductor.
:
Ich will euch trosten,
wie einen seine Mutter
whom
As one
so will
trostet.
I
his
mother comforteth,
comfort you.
Isaiah 66:13
Sehet mich an: ich habe
eine kleine Zeit Muhe und Arbeit
how
gehabt
und habe grossen Trost funden.
and found
Behold with your eyes /
that I laboured but a
little,
much
for myself
rest.
Ecclesiastes 51 :27
BARITONE AND CHORUS
Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende
we no
For here have
continuing
city,
Statt,
sondern die zukunftige suchen wir.
we
but
seek one to come.
Hebrews 13:14
shew you
Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis.
Behold,
Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,
wir werden aber alle verwandelt
werden;
und dasselbige plotzlich in einem
we
shall
but
we
in a
moment,
Augenblick
zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.
Denn es wird die Posaune schallen
und die Toten werden auferstehen
eye,
I
not
a mystery;
sleep,
all
be changed,
shall all
the twinkling of an
in
trump:
trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised
at the last
for the
unverweslich,
und wir werden verwandelt werden.
Dann wird erfullet werden
das Wort, das geschrieben steht:
and we shall be changed.
Then shall be brought to pass
Der Tod
Death
verschlungen
Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?
Holle, wo ist dein Sieg?
ist
in
den
Sieg.
incorruptible,
the saying that
O
O
I
Herr, du bist wurdig
zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und
Thou
Kraft,
is
written,
swallowed up in victory.
death, where is thy sting?
grave, where is thy victory?
is
art
Corinthians 15:51-2, 54-5
worthy,
to receive glory
O Lord,
and honour and
power:
denn du hast alle Dinge erschaffen,
und durch deinen Willen
haben sie das Wesen und sind
for thou hast created all things,
and
for thy pleasure
they are and were created.
geschaffen.
Revelation 4:11
CHORUS
Selig sind die Toten,
die
in
dem
Herren sterben, von nun
an.
der Geist spricht,
dass sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit;
denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.
Ja,
Blessed are the dead
in the Lord from
henceforth
Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them.
Revelation 14:13
which die
Ewigkeit.
But the word of the Lord endureth for
I Peter 1:25
ever.
Die Erloseten des Herrn werden
And
wiederkommen,
return,
und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen;
Freude, ewige Freude wird uber ihrem
Haupte sein;
Freude und Wonne werden sie
and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads:
Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet
in
the
ransomed of the Lord
shall
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
ergreifen,
und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg
and sorrow and sighing
miissen.
away.
BARITONE
shall flee
Isaiah 35:10
AND CHORUS
doch mich, dass ein Ende
mit mir haben muss, und mein Leben
ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muss.
Siehe, meine Tage sind einer
Herr, lehre
Handbreit vor
dir,
und mein Leben
ist
wie nichts vor
dir.
make me
Lord,
to
know mine
end,
my days, what it is;
that may know how frail am.
Behold thou hast made my days as an
and the measure of
I
I
handbreadth;
and mine age
is
as nothing before
thee:
Ach, wie gar nichts sind
man
verily every
alle
Menschen,
die doch so sicher leben.
Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen,
at his best state
altogether vanity.
Surely every man walketh in a vain
is
shew:
und machen ihnen viel vergebliche
Unruhe;
sie sammeln und wissen nicht,
wer es kriegen wird.
surely they are disquieted in vain:
he heapeth up riches,
and knoweth not who
shall gather
them.
Nun
Herr,
wes
soil ich
mich trosten?
And now,
Lord,
what wait
I
for?
Ich hoffe auf dich.
my hope
Der Gerechten Seelen
But the souls of the righteous
are in the hand of God,
and there shall no torment touch
sind in Gottes
Hand
und keine Qual ruhret
sie an.
is
in thee.
Wisdom
them.
Psalms 39:4-7
of
Solomon
3:1
CHORUS
Wie
lieblich sind
deine Wohnungen,
Herr Zebaoth!
Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich
nach den Vorhofen des Herrn;
mein Leib und Seele freuen
sich
dem
How
amiable are thy tabernacles,
Lord of hostsl
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
O
for the courts of the Lord:
my
heart
and my
lebendigen Gott.
Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause
for the living
wohnen,
house:
they will be
in
die loben dich immerdar!
flesh crieth
out
God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy
still
praising thee.
Psalms 84:1-2,4
SOPRANO AND CHORUS
habt nun Traurigkeit;
aber ich will euch wieder sehen
und euer Herz soil sich freuen,
und eure Freude soil niemand von
Ihr
And
but
ye
I
now
therefore have sorrow:
you again,
will see
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you.
euch nehmen.
John 16:22
During
with the Boston Symphony, Charles
his years
Orchestra on
and included
Paris,
tour of Europe,
first
its
in
May
Munch
led the
1952, which opened
in
his birthplace Strasbourg. In the spring of the fol-
lowing year he and the Orchestra toured to the West Coast. The second
European tour, in 1956, took the Orchestra to Moscow and Leningrad;
was the
this
later
Charles
of a western orchestra to the USSR. Four years
first visit
Munch
introduced the Orchestra to Japan and other
Far
Eastern countries.
Symphony
After his retirement from the Boston
in
1962 he returned
each season as one of the Orchestra's guest conductors. During 1967
he was appointed conductor of the newly founded Orchestre de
the
French orchestra to be
first
made
debut
its
fully
Paris,!
subsidized by the State, which
Theatre des Champs-Elysees on November 14
at the
of
!
The concert was by all accounts a great occasion, and already
during the last twelve months the Orchestra's high standard of playing
under Charles Munch had begun to galvanize France's concert life.
last year.
In
1933 Charles
Munch
author and translator.
Commander
married
Genevieve Maury, a distinguished
Mme Munch
died
1956.
in
He was made
a
Honor by the French government in
1945. In the summer of 1967 he became a Grand Officer in the Order,
an honor awarded to only a very small number of distinguished public
figures.
the Legion of
in
During
his last years
Munch
Charles
lived in a beautiful eigh-
teenth century house near Versailles.
On October
Symphony
23
last
he led a concert by the Orchestre de
when he conducted Debussy's
Hall, Boston,
Paris
in
La mer, Medea's
meditation and dance of vengeance by Samuel Barber and the Sym-
phony
no.
Charles
people
1
in
C minor
Munch was
who
a
of Brahms.
man who
instilled
is
perhaps best
summed up
the art of expressing the inexpressible.
or the intelligence define.
Its
It
in his
rises far
domain
is
own words:
for
me
all
the most precious
gift that
the
alike.
'Music
is
above what words can
the imponderable and
impalpable land of the unconscious. Man's right to speak
is
in
shared his devotion to music, players and audiences
His dedication
mean
love and loyalty
this
language
heaven has bestowed on us/
—
Program Note:
Brahms completed the Requiem in 1866, except for the fifth movement, which
two years later. The first performance of the six movements was given
composed
he
Good Friday, April 10, 1868, Brahms himself conducting. The Oraon
in Bremen
New York, conducted by Leopold Damrosch, gave the United States
of
torio Society
The first performance by the Boston Symphony Orchesa Pension Fund concert on March 28, 1926, under the direction of
tra was given at
The instrumentation: 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets,
Koussevitsky.
Serge
premiere
2
on March
15, 1877.
trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba, timpani, harp and strings.
bassoons, 4 horns, 2
incautious friend once questioned Brahms as to the nature of his religious
and received an abrupt answer which precluded any further conversation on
the topic. "I have my faith," he said. We know from Max Kalbeck, one of Brahms'
greatest champions, and the author of a four-volume biography of the composer
(1904-1914), that "Nothing made him angrier than to be taken for an orthodox
church composer on account of his sacred compositions."
An
beliefs
is to the motets with German words, and to the "Three Sacred
words familiar in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.
Latin
with
Choruses"
The reference
Brahms composed these, and many others, all for unaccompanied voices,
Hamburg Ladies Choir (disbanded in 1858 when he moved to Vienna) and
Vienna Philharmonic Society's Chorus, not for church use.
Brahms presumably chose to
call his greatest
choral
work
A German
for his
for the
Requiem
from the Latin Requiem Mass and make it clear that the text came
from the Lutheran Bible. Schiitz's title Musi\alisches Exequien associates his work
with an actual burial service but Brahms' came to be associated with, and in part
inspired by, the deaths of Schumann in 1856 and of his own mother in 1861. The
second number, "Behold all flesh is but as grass," had its origin in a slow movement
for an abortive symphony begun at the time of the Schumann tragedy, of which
material from the first movement was used up in the corresponding movement of
the D Minor Piano Concerto, and in 1861 he had already arranged the text of four
movements of what was turning out to be a cantata. By 1866 he had added two
more movements, and last of all
and surely with special thought of his mother
to disassociate it
—
"Now hath man sorrow but yet I shall
your heart with rejoicing," to which the chorus respond
give you comfort as one whom his mother comforts."
came the lovely soprano solo, with chorus,
again
behold you and
"Yea,
I
will
fill
Brahms was a life-long student of Luther's Bible and Florence May, his friend,
and first English biographer, tells us "the text culled from various books of
the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha have been chosen ... as parts of
the people's book of Luther's Bible, the accepted representative to Protestant nations
of the highest aspirations of man, and have been arranged so as to present the ascending ideas of sorrow consoled, doubt overcome, death vanquished." Brahms does not
pupil,
pray once, let
alone twice, for the dead.
Brahms' point of view, in part, could be that of one who looks back from death
to life, and there finds consolation. This is the spirit of the great funeral speech
upon those who have fallen in war which Thucydides puts into the mouth of
Pericles.
do not now commiserate the parents of the dead who stand here; I would
comfort them. You know that your life has been passed amid manifold vicissitudes; and that they may be deemed fortunate who have gained most honour,
whether an honourable death like theirs, or an honourable sorrow like yours, and
whose days have been so ordered that the term of their happiness is likewise the
"I
rather
term of their life
.
.
.
remember
comforted by the Glory of those
that your
who
life
of sorrow will not last long, and be
are gone."
I
As G. Lowes-Dickenson
says in his
little
gem
of a
book The Gree\ View
oi
Life (Methuen, 1896), "This represents perhaps what we call the typical attitude
of the Greek. To seek consolation for death, if anywhere, then in life, and in life
not as it might be imagined beyond the grave, but as it had been and would be lived
on earth. ... It is the spirit," Mr. Dickenson adds, "that Goethe noted as inspiring
the sepulchral monuments of Athens."
The Requiem
is not an oratorio, it is a choral symphony. Brahms had only once
and not altogether successfully, in the D Minor Piano Concerto, scored for
full orchestra and now he used even larger forces, adding three trombones and tuba
to the brass section, a third drum and a harp to the percussion, and paying far
before,
greater attention to tone color. This
ment from which
the music
is
in
is
immediately apparent in the opening movetrumpets and violins are excluded, for
clarinets, all bright tones
—
—
mourning.
Brahms quotes the words of Christ twice, "Blessed are they that mourn: for
they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4, the third of the Beatitudes, in the first
movement of the work) and "Now hath man sorrow, but yet I shall again behold
you and
your heart with such rejoicing as no
fill
at the start of the fifth
and
last
man
taketh from you" (John 16:22)
composed movement.
complete performance of the Requiem,
1868, Brahms composed the Four Serious Songs, under the shadow of a mortal
ness. This wonderful work became his farewell to music and to the world.
Twenty-eight years after the
first
in
ill-
from the dark sayings of Ecclesiastes to the
Paul in the thirteenth chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, ending with "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" setting the words to a great phrase that soars heavenwards.
In the
last
of these songs he turned
radiant words of
my
St.
he had said, and perhaps we may find in St. Paul's words
it, according to his own interpretation. Brahms died on
April 3, 1897, and the Serious Songs were sung, we are told, in almost all the towns
of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Holland as if a requiem for the master.
"I
have
faith,"
his personal expression of
(The greater part of Alec Robertson's note on Brahms appears in his bock
Requiem, published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Praeger.)
Thomas D.
Perry,
Jr.,
Baldwin Piano
Sherrill
Milnes records for
Manager
RCA
RCA
Bannister Harpsichord
Records
Records