New-York tribune., 1922-12-01
BerIioz's Fantastic
symphony y"Revived
Observation-Disclosures
Old and Seldom-Heard Com
position That Influenced
Composers of All COun'
tries Is Finely Given
Bv n. (. Krehbiel

On glaneing az the program Of the
concert given by the Boston symphony
Orchestra IN Carnegie Hall last night
ono was tempted 10 credit Mr.. Mon
.eux with an act Of daring In including
Berlioz's "Fanstastic symphony.
True, the work has been heard period
callv In New York during the last
ffty.six years. il having received its
frst American performance AZ the
hands Of the Philharmonic Society
undEr the direction Of Carl Bergman
on January q. 1866.
But the periods seem 90 have grown
onger and Longer and the effect pro-
duced By the work less and less as
time has passed. Yet when Mr. Mon
teux injected the vitalizing fluid OF p
sincere and graphic Interpretation into
its veins last night we were helped
10 n new realization Of what the COM
position stands for in symphonic ms
tory. especially Of the influence which
II exerted upon the composers OF al
countries since Beethoven back 20
whose day IL almost reaches.
For the story Of its composition, the
natives which inspired d. its auto
biograrhical ingredients, the sequence
~ Incidents and passions which the
conn ser told US were ITS poehcai
contents. VIC do not care fig. To US
10, eem ike pOppycock and we arc
strongly tempted TO believe that Der
lioz was o. the same opinion. But ne
certainly did put feature which Bee
tho-en had conceived 10 an ideal - 10
into the symphonic form IN 20 pa pable
a manner that 20 was copied by his sue
cessors and has endured ever since. i
l. still in process. Of growth, tnough
tho communal theme. which has its
full stature in the Fantastic mas.
under the influence Of List. dwindlcd
down 70 a germ" which in the sym
phonies and symphonic rOems OF to-
dav deve'ops into the strangest ana
most contradictory entities or does not
GROW at all, bit contents itself
With donn;ng varied and motley har-
monic and instrumental cOlors.
We confess that we do not quite un-
derstand why Beriioz chops on the
head Of his hero's sweetheart instead
Of the head Of the lover who goes 20
the gallows for the murder ana after
ward transforms he- into hag phf-
tieipating in witches' rcvci. But
perhaps this IS inquiring a little too
curiously, and If he did nothing more
in his final scene than suggest TO LisZi
that I'm his Faust" symphony be
might picture Mephistopf eles az the
spirit Of negation hy parodying the
themes which stand for Faust and
Gretchen eve think Gretchen rs IN it
but we haven't time 20 think long) Pc
u least showed the way 60 q device
that hos been indugtriously cultivated
since. And in spite OF oil that Is In
the music COR only in the verbal pro-
gram which IS outside Of IT. the
"Seene I'm the Fields" remains OF com
pelling beauty, and was made convine-
ingly SO by the excellence of last
nights perform
After the symphony came Vaughan
Williams superb fantasy On theme
by Tails, to which we were introduced
by Mr.. Damroseh last March ana
which evoked thoughts OF tnc Con
sorts for viols" OF the Elizabcthan
period: and then Clouds and "Thc
White Peace X" ingenious bits Of pest
Dehussyism), by the late Charles T..
Critics. aud Glazounoh's "Stenka Ra-
zin," with its familiar Russian echoes.