New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-01-08
MOnteux Presents
Surprise at Boston
Orchestra Concert
Mozart Movements Given
on Program, and Some
OF RachmaninoH's Arc
Played ut Carnegie Hal!
By II. F.. krchl,;cl

Mr. Montcux, at the third afternoon
concert of the Boston Orchestra in
Carnegie Hall yesterday. gave his audi
. .h, a surprise OF quietly pleasur-
apie kind with symphony which does
not belong to the familiar last three
works of the kind by Mozart, and an un :
oenlabie shock by playing three move
nehts OF suite by Darius Milhaud.
I'M. Inc symphony (Mr. Montcux omitted
'hc mlnuet was the so-caled "Hafr-
ner IN D-not altogether a stranger
10 old concertgoers like a score or so
OF others by Mozart, but still one that
Is played so infrequently that it sound
ca as nc" as anything can which has
so pronounced Mozartian physiog-
no,'y. lux last movement, at least, en-
elllea 1t to companionship with the E
na'' ~ MINOR and c major symphonies
which are the only works in their
form by the composer with which the
public is familiar.
Alter 1T had been played and en-
loyed by all of the hearers whose ears
nave remained open to the charms Of
cuphony Mr.. Monteux threw the helm
lar over and set sail for the high seas
OF modern cacophony, though he did
not reach the turbulence of tho Gulf
stream until he came TO the suite by
Milhaud ~
rms was new to local programs IT
was written for play designed for an
opeh,alr theatcr with tank stage, in
which, among other thinrs seals arc
supposed to make mock Of the love of
an ola man for a young girl a sub
Jec'' we submit, not necessarily in
Vocativc of satircal mocking We do
not know whether or not the seals
were in the music played Yesterday
nor whether the nocturnc which was
prayed was the nocturnal bacchanalc
msoe OF silence which a program note
informed us the author had requested
bcen made of silence we fancy the
audience would have found it moro en-
loyable AS it was, it awakened in us
lmagin'ngs of what might be the re-
suit mad the composer given each Of
the orchestral musicians transcript
Of his themes and hidden him fall in
whenever and wherever he pleased. re-
gardless of their tonaity. The themes
we're all agreeable and ingenious in
themselves and their exposition at the
beginning of each movement promised
much pleasure. After that Al. Milhuud
like Cocthc's Mephistophclcs, in con
versation with the ambitious young
scholar, seemed to say that he was
weary Of rational discourse and thence
forth would play the very devil. And
this he did until our ears ached.
When the composition was played for
the first time in Paris, year ago last
October, Mr.. Hale tells us it provoke I'd
such an uproar of Kisses and howls
that the police cleared the fauteuis of
the balcony. New Workers never give
such frank expression to their senti-
ments. If bad music is played at a
concert by al orchestra Of good men
(and all our orchestras are composed
of good men, and so are the conductors
good msn) they applaud mildly and
relapse into grateful silence. Perhaps
they are afraid to express their con
victions: or maybe their attitude is
like that of the Hindu before his idol
hc knows that it is ugly, but feels that
it is great.
The other music Of the afternoon was
RachmaniHoff's "The Island of the
Dead" and some of the ballet in Boro-
din's opera, "Prince Igor"