The Boston Symphony Orchestra will give the first of the nine Thursday evening concerts In Sanders Theatre at 8 o'clock tonight. Conductor Serge Koussevitsky was so pleased with the reception which his opening program received at Symphony Hall last Friday and Saturday nights that he has chosen to repeat it for the first performance in Cambridge.

The program commences with Weber's "Overture to 'Der Freischurtz'," an overture of many themes of which the slow movement and the Allegro are sung everywhere. Below that is a long, groaning melody, thrown out by the clarinet, which is a novel contrast. Following the overture are two Debussy Nocturnes, "Nuages" and "Fetes." The composer explains the former as "The unchangeable appearance of the sky, with the slow and solemn march of clouds dissolving in a gray agony tinted with white." The latter is described as "Rhythm dancing in the atmosphere with bursts of brusque light. There is also the episode of a procession (a dazzling and wholly idealistic vision) passing through the festival and blended with it; but the main idea and substance obstinately remain--always the festival and its blended music--luminous dust participating in the universal rhythm of all things."

Ballet Suite Included

The ballet suite, "Chout", follows, and comprises four parts: (a) Danse des filles des buffons, (b) Dans la chambre a coucher du marchand, (c) La jeune femme est devenue chevre, and (d) Danse finale. Prokofleff wrote the ballet in 1915, but it was not produced until 1921. The music is quite colorful throughout, and might even be characterized as rowdy in spots.

The climax of the program will be the Beethoven "Eroica Symphony." In his production last Saturday night, Mr. Koussevitzky multiplied the wood winds into fours and strengthened the brass against the weight of the string choir. This rendered it, in the opinion of many of those who heard it, the most vivid performance of "The Eroica" that Boston has heard in many years.

A limited number of tickets are on sale at the University Book Store on Massachusetts Avenue. Season tickets for the nine concerts, which will be given at intervals until April, cost $12.00, tax included.