New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-24
OPENING OF THE
SYMPHONIC SEASON
Old Music and New Heard in
Concerts Held in
Aeolian Hall.
By H. E. KREHBIEL.

The fioodgates of the symphonic
season were opened at Aeolian Hall by
the Symphony Society yesterday after
roon. From now till next spring the
public will be asked to patronize from
three to six such concerts every week,
and when the financial balance shall
be struck in April there will be some
Querulous questionings (there always
are) why one or the other of the in
stitutions met with a more generous
response than this or the other of its
rivals. No answer would be accepted
as a true explanation, and the wise
observer of musical affairs, knowing
this, is not likely 10 attempt one. To
him it will be sufficient 10 ponder the
interesting features of the entertain
ment as they present themselves 20
him and extract as much pleasure and
profit from them as he can, and, If it
be his calling and duty, to convey them
to others. The most devoted lover of
music will not be able to hear every
thing, and it will be easy for such an
one to content himself with his own
enjoyment without begrudging his fell
low men their pleasures.
The Symphony Society's season
opened auspiciously. An excellent
band presented itself in excellent con-
dition. Familiar music was played to
the delight of large number of per
sons TO whom its familiarity made il
NupIQnDnps and a nnW1lfN
piqued curiosity which a fine exposi-
ton satisfied. Brahms's second SYM
phony received a luminous and virile
reading, Mr.. Damrosch succeeding by
an admirably developed climax in
sending a thrill through his hearers
early in the first movement and key
ING them up to a high pitch of recep-
tivity, which Mr.. Zimbalist preserved
and intensified throughout Bruch's
violin concerto in G minor, and which
endured to the last note of the after
moons music. The violinist was in ad-
mirable fettle, as indeed he needed
to be in view of the emotional stand
ard which Mr.. Damrosch and the or
chestra set for him. The young Rus
sian, however, rose to the crest OF
every billow. even when an immOder-
ately sonorous surge threatened to en-
gulf him.
There were such surges in the con-
certo, and also in Debussy's second
orchestral nocturne ("Revels by
Night'O, with which the concert was
brought to a close. The French com
poser's harmonies and instrumental
combinations are frequently poignant
to the verge of psinfulness, when tenn
perately administered; they become
~
rOsch forgets the laws of just proper
ton. A brazen fortissimO may become
a dreadful thing in Aeolian Hall.
Mr.. Damrosch has promised his
patrons considerable new music Of the
latter day French school this season,
and he began the fulfilment of his
promise by producing some music
composed by Alexander Roussel for q
ballet. entitled "The Spiders Festival"
The scenes which the music is de-
signed to accompany and illustrate
were described by the conductor in a
few remarks. II was well that this
was done; but it would, perhaps, have
been better had the music been con-
sorted with the stage pictures. With
ont these, either physically presented
or evoked by the Imagination, the COM
position mas little else than strange
ness and ingenuity of harmonic and
orchestral device TO commend it. After
much which seemed like disconnected
striving. a pretty waltz, with a tilmy
instrumental texture, ran out into
profoundly beautiful coda (the dance
of ephemera and their death, we were
told, but some hearers must have
wondered at the heavings and groan-
ings of the instruments while an ant
sought to drag away rose leaf. But
as the scene was not before them the
listeners may not all have thought of
the right thing at the right moment
When the fancy becomes thus confused
y is the penalty which must be paid
Tor detaching music from the pictures
for which IL was made