On Thursday evening, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, now in its forty-first year, gave a brilliant opening to the Cambridge series of concerts at Sanders Theatre. The program was as follows: Mendelssohn, Italian Symphony; Rimsky-Korsakow, "Sadko"; Liszt, Concerto in a major; Rabaud, Danees from "Marouf". Mr. Erwin Nyiregyhazi was the soloist.

How fresh the Mendelssohn symphony sounded! Perhaps the harmonic scheme appears rather evident to some. The work was composed eighty-eight years ago. Many question the title of "Italian" symphony because the first three movements do not suggest Italy in any way. Mendelssohn was not writing a tone-poem. What exquisite light passages for strings it contains, and what a wealth of thematic material so skillfully developed!

"Sadko", composed by Rimsky Korsakow in 1867, has been called the first Russian symphonic poem. It was the germ from which the opera of the same name sprang in 1896. Korsakow re-orchestrated the tone-poem in 1891, the new version of which is always played. How it recalled the unforgettable Diaghileff Ballet Russe, and the gorgeous Bakst settings and costumes! Korsakow is always remarkably effective with the orchestra, no matter if at times he sounds banal on the pianoforte. The combination of the barbaric splendor or Russian folk-music and oriental sensuousness never fails to charm; his orchestration will forever serve as a perfect model. It is a pity then to think that he is only known to us through "Scheherazade", "Capricco Espagnol", and "LeCoq d'Or", when there are some fifteen other operas and ballets totally unknown outside of Petrograd, Moscow, and Paris.

Soloist's Rendering Superb

Few people in the audience Thursday night had ever heard of Mr. Nyiregyhazi before. Few will ever forget him. They did not know he was a Hungarian of only eighteen years of age. His playing of Liszt's pyrotechnic concerto was superb, and he surpassed both previous performances in Boston. His technique was flawless; his control of tone in the more sentimental passages was in excellent taste. Fortunately "Sadko" had sufficiently aroused a decidedly frigid audience to give him the warm applause he merited.

The dances from "Marouf" by Rabaud suffer in concert presentation. Their oriental monotony becomes occidental monotony, and the contrast they make to the rest of this charming opera cannot be realized. True there are some extremely clever orchestral effects, but the ballet and settings are felt to be lacking. The highly contrapuntal climax does not "sound" through with the clarity of the rest of the opera. "Marouf" has been performed in its entirely in New York, and at the Opera Comisue in Paris.

When all is said and done, Mr. Monteux deserves no end of praise. Ever since the doubtful days of two years ago, the orchestra has steadily improved until it now approaches its old standard again. No one may conduct Beethoven and Wagner like Toscanni, nor Brahms and Strauss like Muck, but Mr. Monteux is probably the most well balanced conductor we have had in years, and he excels in the contemporary music of the Russian and French Schools.