Concerts Reviewed

(* indicates premiere)

December 8, 1918

Rédemption, César Franck

Ghiselle, Prélude and Act II, Scene 1, César Franck

Le Chasseur maudit, César Franck

Le Poème de la forêt, Albert Roussel

Le Ciel en nuit s’est déplié, Louis de Serres

Bernadette, Pierre de Bréville

Le Jet d’eau, Claude Debussy

Roméo et Juliette, op. 17, Hector Berlioz

December 15, 1918

Le Carnaval romain, “Ouverture caractéristique,” op. 9, Hector Berlioz

Rapsodie de printemps, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht*

Fantaisie sur deux airs populaires angevins, Guillaume Lekeu

Piano Concerto, Edvard Grieg

Shah Féridoûn, op. 39, Blair Fairchild*

Symphony no. 5, C minor, op. 67, Ludwig van Beethoven

December 22, 1918

Symphony no. 4, C-sharp minor, op. 21, Albéric Magnard

Tentation, Scène lyrique pour chant et orchestre, Alfred Kullmann*

Rêves, op. 65, Florent Schmitt

Orpheus, Poème symphonique, Franz Liszt

Sheherazade, op. 35, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

December 29, 1918

L’Enfance du Christ, op. 25, “Le Repos de la Sainte Famille pendant la fuite en Egypte,” Hector Berlioz

Movements from the Weihnachtsbaum Suite: “La Nuit de Noël” and “Les Trois rois mages,” Franz Liszt

Les Béatitudes, no. 4, “Quatrième Béatitude,” César Franck

Oratorio de Noël, op. 12, “Tecum principium (m. VII, trio),” Camille Saint-Saëns

Six pièces pour le grand orgue, op. 16-21, “Prélude, Fugue and Variation,” in B minor, and “Finale,” in B-flat major, César Franck

Tableaux pittoresques, op. 56, “Le matin dans la campagne,” “Paysage de montagne,” and “Fête populaire,” Joseph Jongen

L’Apprenti sorcier, Paul Dukas

To understand music, one should have neither sentimentality, nor hostility; to judge it, one should feel only revolt, indifference, or confidence; to love it, one should be either emotionally sensitive enough to recognize Beauty no matter what its mode of expression, or educated enough to find the “directing thought” no matter the era in which it was expressed.

Indeed, a certain number of unchanging feelings, of continuously renewed impressions, have been translated through the ages, during periods that have each had their development, their climax, and their decline. These periods link together, overlap in such a way that each climax calls forth a new progression, each decline sees an apogee.