Evening star., 1940-11-10
Beloved
Masterpiece
Series Opens
Symphony Concert
Presented This
Afternoon

The first concert in this seasons
Beloved Masterpieces" series will
be played by the National Symphony
Orchestra under the direction OF
Hans Kinder at pm. this after
noon in Constitution Hall.
The Beloved Masterpieces" series,
similar to the pop" concerts in
other cities, was inaugurated by DR..
Kinder last year in response to
urgent requests that the orchestra
play entire programs of well known
and well loved music. Many OF the
National Symphony's patrons felt
that the familiar classics could be
as great a drawing card as distln-
guished soloists. 1t turned out that
they were right, and the Beloved
Masterpieces" series was among the
orchestra's most popular concerts
of last season.
Continuing the policy which he
established last year, DR.. Kinder
will feature one of the great
symphonies on each of the Beloved
Masterpieces" concerts. For the
high light of today's program, DR..
Kinder has chosen the Brahms
Fourth Symphony In E Minor"
The concert will open with Men,
delssohn's 'rFingal's Cave" overture,
and will include two Debussy items,
Afternoon of a Faun" and "Fes-
tivals" and LISTS Les Preludes."
The Brahms fourth was the last
symphony to be composed by one OF
the greatest masters of that musical
form Of the 18th century. Composed
in the summers of 1884 and 1885,
Brahms not only felt confident OF
its worth even before its first per-
formance, but also conceived q
special liking for it. Because of the
latter, he conducted its premiere on
October 25, 1885, and then. with the
Meiningen Orchestra, which had
introduced it, he went on tour, con-
Quoting it. Brahms gave no pro-
gram for the work, and it has been
interpreted in various ways-from
"a discourse on human frailty" to
an expression of "the dramatic
truthfulness of fine tragedy"
The first bars of the overture,
"Fingals Cave" were written by
Mendelssohn in that natural phe-
nomenon on the little island Of
Staffa off the Scottish coast. That
was in 1929, and the work did not
receive its final revision until 1882.
But in the interim the composition
had not lost evidence of its original
inspiration instead, MendelSsohn
had tried to put into it more train
oil, sea gulls and salt fish" The
result is one of Mendelssohn's
closest approximations of program
music, rugged, somber and melan-
choly in keeping with its subject.
Debussy's The Afternoon of a
Faun' and Festivals" are two of the
most characteristic, if different, ex-
pressions of the impressionistic COM
poser. The Afternoon of a Faun."
suggested by Mallarme's poem of the
same name, is appropriately pagan
, and sensual-depicting in terms Of
music the pleasures of an amoral
creature on warm. sunny day.
Debussy's own description of "Fes-
tivals" might be the description of a
painting of Monet or by any other
painter of the "plein air" school
Movement, rhythm, dancing in the
, atmosphere. with bursts of brusque
light : luminous dust participat-
ing in the universal rhythm of all
/ things
Les Preludes," Franz LISTS most
/ famous symphonic poem, is based
on text by the French romantic
poet, Lamartine The poem likens
life to a succession of preludes to
death, and LISTS musical setting
for it exhibits his programmstic
writing at its best.