New-York tribune., 1920-01-11
Boston Orchestra
Heard i'm Concert
Of Program Music
List Includes Characteristic
Pieces by Noted Compos-
ers of Last Century, From
Beethoven to Debussy
By H. E. Krehbiel

All the music at the concert of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carne-
gle Hall yesterday afternoon was OF tre
descriptive or programmatic kind The
oldest of the compositions was Bee
thoven's Pastoral" symphony, written
In 1903; the youngest Debussy's "Jeux,"
written in 1918. The third, which
came last in the order of performance.
was RimskyKorsakoff's "Stanka Ra-
zine" composed in 1885-three dis
nnct types, the second as far away
from the third, despite it's chronology
cal nearness, as the third from the
flrst, in matter, treatment, purpose and
form.
AS widely divergent, too, each from
the other is the appeal made to the
ear, the imagination and emotions.
Composer Explained Work
To his symphony Beethoven, though
proclaiming that his aim was to give
expression to feelings rather than to
attempt to paint pictures in tones,
gave a verbal commentary for each
movement-the awakening of pleasur
able sensations at the sight of rural
landscapes; a scene by the side of a
brook; merrymaking of country folk
Interrupted by a storm of thunder,
lightning and rain; a shepherds song
and the feeling of gratitude and JOY
after the storm
Here the dilineation Of externals was
confined to the idealized murmuring Of
the brook, the suggestions of birdsong
and the equally idealzed tonal picture
OF the tempest. The cast was purely
subjective impressionism.
A beautifully clear, unaffected per-
formance, in which all instruments in
the harmonious coterie spoke euphoni-
ously and with the voices with which
nature endowed them, made the SYM
phony delight. 1t was rapturoust ty
welcomed and rewarded with applause.
long continued, unequivocal, hearty,
sincere. The piece by Debussy was
differently received. On its conclusion
there was moment of silence, as Of
doubt. Then came a perfunctory pat.
ter of complimentary handclapping
which gradually grew decorously and
died away. The impression which it
made was that the audience had recog,
nized duty of courtesy to a name
and the performers, and had done it,
The people in our concert rooms are
always polite. They have been taught
that it is unpardonably rude to ex.
press disapprobation and bad manners
to withhold Thank you" even if they
feel no cause for gratitude, On this
notion of good breeding at home, and
had frankly given Mr.. Monteux to
understand that in playing this piece OF
Debussy's he had wasted fifteen or
twenty minutes of time which NIGH.
have been much more profitably en-
ployed.
Music Written for Ballet
The piece by Debussy called "Jeux''
dancers when they were in Paris six
years ago. Listening to it before
reading description Of the balles
which it was designed to illustrate, OF
accompany, or expound, or justify, and
guided only by it's title W. tried to
imagine that the composer had med
at music for playthings, and I'd to
coniure them up in our fancy. P.s the
dolls were headless and armies, the
animals legless, the whole company q
mere collection of disconnected mem7
bers That was the reason why the
music was all spasmodc squeaks and
now and then shimmering harmony Of
strings and punctuations of drum taps
and cadaverous rattle of bones, and
multitudinous reiteration Of phrases
ended almost as soon as begun.
The rhythm seemed to be that of a
waltz, but there was never sequence
enough of phrases to break into even
what Byron called "a damned, see-saw,
up-and-down sort of time; and SO, in
our mind, the playthings were simply
tumbling about. We would not have
known that they were playthings at
all if it had not been for the ilumina-
tive title. After the performance we
read the description of Mr.. Nijinsky' s