Symphonic programs: 1911 versus 2011

[alberto]

In 1911 Torino, Italy, enjoyed a particularly rich season of 33 symphonic concerts.
There was an impressive list of conductors : Toscanini (5 concerts), Mengelberg (2), V.Safonoff (3), F. Steinbach (2), the young Vittorio Gui (7); Tullio Serafin (2). And a very impressive list of composers-conductors: Debussy (1 concert); Elgar (2); Kajanus (2); d'Indy (1); Piernè (1). I have omitted lesser names.
The majority of the works programmed were (as usual then) contemporary or "modern" (wasn't Wagner modern in 1911?).
The most performed composers were:
1) Wagner (orchestral excerpts)
2) Beethoven
3) Debussy (indeed the most performed in relation to his not large orchestral output)
4) Brahms
5) R.Strauss
6) Elgar
7) Martucci
Sibelius
Unsung (more or less) pieces (by today's standards) (I have indicated the conductor when on paper interesting or exceptional):
-Arensky Variations on a theme of Tchaicovsky (Safonoff)
-Bach-Mahler Suite for orch. (cond. Toscanini!)
-Bolzoni Occasional Cantata
-M.E.Bossi Concerto for organ, strings, horns and timpani (composer at the organ, son Renzo Bossi cond.)
-M.E.Bossi Intermezzi Goldoniani (Serafin)
-Bruneau Prelude from Act Four of Messidor (cond. Piernè)
-Chabrier Gwendoline overture (cond. Debussy!)
-Da Venezia Suite Veneziana (cond. Mengelberg !)
-d'Indy Fervaal prelude to First Act (Piernè)
-d'Indy Istar (cond. d'Indy!)
-Dukas Prelude to third Act of Ariane (cond.Debussy!)
-G.A.Fano Cantata on verse by Heine and Carducci (Serafin)
-Gade Echoes of Ossian, concert overture (Mengelberg)
-Goldmark Sakuntala, Concert overture
-Goldmark In the garden from Rustic Weddind Symphony
-Golmark Prelude to Second act of Queen of Sheeba (all cond. by Gui)
-Jaernefelt Preludium
-Jaernefelt Ballet scene (both cond. Kajanus)
-Lalo Namouna suite (d'Indy)
-Liadov The enchanted lake (Safonoff)
-Kajanus Finnish Rhapsody
-Kajanus Berceuse (both cond. Kajanus)
-Kuula Popular song (Kajanus)
-Luigi Mancinelli Scene Veneziane, Intemezzi for Cleopatra (composer conducting)
-Martucci First Symphony
-Martucci Novelletta, Tarantella (Toscanini)
-Martucci notturno (Gui)
-Massenet Scenes Alsatiennes (Gui)
-Melartin First Symphony, scherzo only (Kajanus)
-Palmgren The seasons (Kajanus)
-Piernè Ramuntcho suite (Piernè)
-Rabaud La Procession Nocturne
-Reger Eine Lustspiel Ouverture (Steinbach)
-Respighi Aretusa (Serafin)
-Roger Ducasse Sarabande (Debussy)
-Roger Ducasse Suite Francaise
-Scriabin First Symphony (Safonoff)
-Sinigaglia Le baruffe chiozzotte, overture (Serafin)
-Svendsen Carnival in Paris (Gui)
-Wolf-Ferrari The secret of Susanna, overture (Serafin)
Of course the gap and spread between average public and contemporary music had not begun.
That would begin very slowly and very gradually after first world war.A bit less slowly and less gradually after the second.
I would ask if the afore programs (from a golden age?) can suggest to anyone comments and/or comparison with present time.

[albion]

Fascinating post, alberto!

The enterprise of certain programme-builders in the early years of the twentieth-century was quite astounding. Under the direction of Dan Godfrey, the 1910-11 season of concerts in Bournemouth included the following repertoire, much of it composer-conducted:

Holbrooke: Miniature Suite
Stanford: Symphony No.5
Adam Carse: Symphony No.2
Bantock: Pierrot of the Minute; Helena Variations; Three Songs of the East
Parry: Symphony No.4
Coleridge-Taylor: The Bamboula; Petite Suite de Concert
Mackenzie: La Savannah
Hamilton Harty: With the Wild Geese
Montague Philips: Piano Concerto No.1
Charles Maclean: First Characteristic Piece - Bavarian Fanni
Henry Holloway: Symphony No.2
John David Davis: Prelude to The Cossacks
Henry Walford Davies: Festal Overture
Ernest Austin: Variations on The Vicar of Bray
Percy Bowie: Scherzo; Over the Hills
Harry Keyser: Tone Poem, Othello
Algernon Ashton: Concert Overture
Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2
Debussy: Fetes
Jan Blockx: Flemish Dances
Jarnefelt: Tone Poem, Korsholm
Gustav Jensen: Landliche Serenade
John St Anthony Johnson: Two National Dances
Arthur Friedlander: Three Dances
Paul Juon: Five Pieces for String Orchestra
Kalinnikov: Symphony No.2
MacDowell: Piano Concerto No.2
Jean Rogister: Fantasie Concertante
August Lindner: Cello Concerto
Ferdinand Hiller: Piano Concerto

there were also works by Bertini, Thomas Arthur Burton, Charles Fairweather, Frank Heddon Bond, Charles H. Fogg, John Greenwood, Charles Hoby, J. McClintock, Joseph Pitt and David Williams and this is just a sample of what was played during the season.

I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to what music you might hear in Bournemouth today, but if you were to suggest to one of the locals that he might actually enjoy Bavarian Fanni you might not get quite the response you anticipated. 

[Alan Howe]

Extraordinary, isn't it? How impoverished our concert life is today by comparison. Shows how the bean-counters have gained the upper hand, although the conductors and orchestras themselves must bear their share of the blame.

Sorry, I'd better stop there: I feel a rant coming on. And then I'd be neglecting the good work done by those who do promote unsung music.

[jimmattt]

I remember (too) many years ago poring through a book in the Chicago library listing all the pieces performed by CSO from its beginnings in 1891, I believe, and was struck by how much variety there was, way beyond what you would expect. I have no access to it anymore, but remember that they played Mrs. Beach's piano concerto and the Oboe concerto by Countess Grandval in the years around 1900. Wish I could remember more. Interesting thread, I hope someone in Chicago researchs the CSO and included its 1911 programs here, as well as other orchestras, just fun for me.

[mbhaub]

Fascinating to say the least. What intrigues me is not so much what is there, but what's not there. The season isn't over-loaded with Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven. When Mahler was in NY even he complained about the obilgatory "classics" concert featuring Wolfgang's music. He also complained about having to do Tchaikovsky's 6th repeatedly, which then was still pretty new music. I would havebeen a great time to be a concert goer, indeed. But let's be honest: how many contemporary composers today would hold your interest in the way that some of the one's listed could, and still do? The damage done to concerts, and to music in general, by so many modern composers is never going to heal. And I'm not just commenting on the 2nd Viennese creations, but the wretched atonal stuff that came later and poisoned the well. And with so much laziness in programming these days, concert promoters have turned off those of us who actually know something beyond the basics.

[eschiss1]

if I wanted to blame someone it would be some people a good deal more popular who have blasted people's good taste to pieces really, especially since even if I liked Schoenberg's music less, I'd remember what Henry Wood (who didn't especially care for it, I gather, but premiered, or gave the London premiere of, several of Schoenberg's more difficult works, also if I remember) wrote when asked why he conducted it...

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hurrah for Eric. What is to blame is not the "wretched atonal stuff" but the easy, complacent, unchallenging stuff that has numbed and eroded our ears and minds.

[alberto]

On reading Mabhaub reply, I must add something about some those Torino 1911 programs.
Unwilling to be too long, I didn't report all the works programmed.
If I do, maybe a better judgement may arise.
First I forgot some unsung:
-Glazunov Spring (cond. Gui), dear to many in the forum, included myself
-Metzl (a rather obscure Russian composer) The engulfed bell (cond.Safonoff)

Today rarely sung by sung composers:
-Bizet Jeux d'enfants (cond.Gui)
-Grieg Two elegiac melodies (Mengelberg)

Very great or great composers then and now (some more performed then than now):
-Berlioz Carnaval Romaine (Piernè)
-Berlioz Love scene from Romeo et Juliette (d'Indy)
-Dukas L'Apprenti sorcier (cond. both Toscanini and d'Indy)
-Franck Symphony (Piernè)
-Franck Psichè and Eros from Psichè (d'Indy)
-Liszt Les Preludes (Mengelberg)
-Mendelssohn A midsummer Night's Dream overture and scherzo, (Safonoff)
-Mendelssohn Ruy Blas overture (Elgar)
-Mussorgsky (arr.Rimsky) Night on Bald Mountain (Gui)
-Rimsky Russian Easter overture (Safonoff)
-Saint Saens Symphony n.3 (Gui)
-Schubert Unfinished Symphony (Gui)
-Schubert Ballet Musik from Rosamunde (Steinbach)
-Schubert Variations on an original theme (orh.T.Gouvy) (Gui)
-Schumann Manfred overture (Safonoff)
-Schumann Abendlied (Safonoff)
-Tchajcovskj Simphony n.6 (Safonoff)

There was, besides the Wagner pieces, a lot of opera overtures (not likely, at least some, to be heard today):
Méhul La chasse du Jeune Henri (d'Indy)
Nicolai The Merry Wives of Windsor (Serafin)
Rameau (!) Zais (d'Indy)
Rossini Semiramide (Serafin)
Rossini William Tell (Toscanini)
Rossini Siege of Corinth
Smetana The Bartered Bride (Gui)
Verdi Nabucco (Gui)
Verdi Sicilian Vespers (Gui)
Weber Euryanthe (cond. both by Toscanini and by Elgar)

I omit some lesser Italian contemporary composers.

Mozart was well represented by 1911 standards:
-Simphony in D major (I suppose K504 ) (Toscanini)
-Serenade Posthorn (maybe not complete)
-Symphony in G minor (I suppose K550, not K183) (cond.Elgar)
-Gavotta from Idomeneo (Steinbach)

There was no one work by Haydn: certainly a fault

Pre-classical music : a crucial point as that (scantly performed, or even known in 1911) since some decades  tends to disappear gradually from today symphonic concerts, and left to specialists and to small, or very small ensembles.

There were, besides the so-called Bach-Mahler suite for orch. and the Rameau overture:
-J.S. Bach Third Brandeburg Concerto (Steinbach)
-J.S. Bach Prelude To Christamas Oratorio (Gui)
- Corelli Christmas Concerto (Mengelberg)
-Gluck Dances from Armida (Toscanini)
-de Lalande Musiques pour le souper du Roi (d'Indy: I suppose in a d'Indy realisation)
- Handel a Largo and a Menuet not better identified

Anyway I found those programs intriguing and well balanced. But they belong to an era that had to face not a long past.   

[TerraEpon]

Maybe  Jeux d'Enfant doesn't get much concert play, but it's played on the radio aaaaaaaall the time.

[John H White]

I wonder what Adam Carse's symphonic music was like. I'd only come across him as a writer of easy pieces for violin and 'cello.