Assisted by soloists and choruses, the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky will present this week the first of a series of five concerts devoted to the music of Johannes Brahms. Beginning with the regular Friday afternoon and Saturday evening programs, when the orchestra will play the Academic Festival Overture, and the Second and Third Symphonies, the four remaining concerts of the Brahms Festival will present the majority of this composer's compositions, including songs, choral works, chamber music, and piano compositions.

The Harvard and Radcliffe choruses, under the direction of A.T. Davison '06, and G.W. Woodworth '24, will be heard in the choral numbers. Margaret Matzenauer, mezzo-soprano, Artur Schnabel, pianist, Jeannette Vreeland, soprano, and Fraser Gange, baritone, will be soloists, while the Burgin String Quartet, organized and conducted by the concert-master of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will play Tuesday evening.

The music of Brahms has been missing from the regular programs of the Boston Symphony Orchestra so far this year, but the performance of so much of his work this month will more than requite Bostonians for his absence hitherto on concert programs of the orchestra.

The compositions to be played, and their place on the programs open to the general public follow:

Sunday afternoon, March 23: Variations on a Theme by Haydn; Pianoforte Concerto in B-flat No. 2; Symphony No. 4 in E minor.

Monday evening, March 24: A Song of Destiny; A German Requiem.

Tuesday evening, March 25: Liebeslieder (Mixed Chorus); Pianoforte Works (Artur Schnabel); Songs (Margaret Matzenauer); Quintet in F minor.

Wednesday evening, March 26: Rhapsody (Male Chorus, Alto and Orchestra); Pianoforte Concerto in D minor, No. 1; Symphony No. 1 in C minor.