Concerts Reviewed (all at the Théâtre de l’Opéra)

(asterisk indicates premiere)

October 11, 1923

Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, Hector Berlioz

Symphony no. 2, op. 23, Albert Roussel

Concerto for two pianos, K. 365, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Alborada del gracioso, Maurice Ravel

La Valse, Maurice Ravel

October 18, 1923

Symphony in D major, Bernardo Polaci

Octet, Igor Stravinsky*

Violin Concerto no. 1 in D major, Sergey Prokofiev*

Symphony no. 3 in E flat major, Ludwig van Beethoven

October 25, 1923

Symphony, Luigi Boccherini

TillEulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op. 28; TrV 171, Richard Strauss

La Mer, 3 symphonic sketches: “I: De l’aube à midi sur la mer,” “II: Jeux de vagues,” “III: Dialogue du vent et de la mer,” Claude Debussy

Le Sacre du printemps [The Rite of Spring], Igor Stravinsky

November 8, 1923

Parade, Erik Satie

Vieille prière bouddhique, Lili Boulanger

Overture to Le ballet de l’avenir, Maurice Delage*

Trois poèmes, Maurice Delage*

Extracts from Knyaz'Igor’ [PrinceIgor], Aleksandr Borodin

Koussevitzky Concerts

With indefatigable zeal, Serge Koussevitzky travels the field of music, enjoys finding the forgotten paths, seeing the great roads of the past again, walking resolutely along new routes. It seems that nothing can stop his curiosity, that nothing can weaken his enthusiasm, and that nothing can ever get in his way. With a confidence that, so to speak, never fails him, Serge Koussevitzky puts together programs in which the ensemble of works, of tendencies, of epochs, of different styles seems to have been suggested by a spontaneity that does not know what doubt is. And what comes from it is an extraordinary impression of life. Serge Koussevitzky is always an innovator. One feels that, for him, there are no immutable truths. Even when he approaches the earliest works, it is their life in our present that, without worrying about tradition, he sees above all else. And it is again this religion of active life that makes him constantly seek the movement of thought towards the future.

If, during these last concerts, great importance has been given to early music, how much greater was that given to modern music.