The musical entertainment that is offered during the next fortnight is of a decidedly varied nature: three symphony concerts, three ballet performances, and a week of grand opera fill an imposing list. As has been widely advertised, the Metropolitan Opera Company is making its annual pilgrimage to the Boston Opera House for one week, beginning next Monday. Although four of the evenings are already sold out, some expensive seats still remain for "Aida" on Tuesday evening, "Madamo Butterfly" on Wednesday afternoon, "Fidelio" in Friday night, and "Rigoletto" on Saturday evening.

Three Symphony Concerts

Tonight in Sanders Theatre, the Boston Symphony is giving the sixth concert in its Cambridge series. The program, composed of numbers previously played in Boston, consists of Haydn's Symphony in E flat no. 99, Faure's "Elegie" for Cello and Orchestra, Ravel's "Rapsodie Espagnole", and the preludes "Lohengrin," "Tristan und Isolde," and "Die Meistersinger". The second half should certainly satisfy Wagner devotees; the first bears especial tribute the Dr. Koussevitzky's skill in program-making.

The weekly concerts by the Symphony in Boston on Friday and Saturday give every evidence of being superb and among the most distinguished in the series. The First Symphony of Beethoven opens the program. Composed in 1800 when Beethoven was thirty years old, it acted more as a trial balloon for the great symphonies which followed it than as an original contribution to the literature. The style and the methods employed are very reminiscent of Haydn and Mozart, but even in this early work, a certain individuality is already present which was for a time to make Beethoven the black sheep in the musical fold. The use of a dominant seventh chord to open the work is an example of this.

Sibelius's First Symphony

Also on the program is Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor for Violin in which Nathan Milstein, the young Russian virtuose is to be the soloist. The concert closes with Sibelius's First Symphony Like Beethoven, the great Finnish composer is orienting himself in this work and does not attain quite the characteristic breadth and scope which are so typical of his later symphonies, notably the Fifth.

Hollywood Ballet in Boston

To complete the musical roster, the Hollywood Ballet is giving three performances at the Opera House on Friday evening, and Saturday afternoon and evening. Armed with the reputation it has won at the Hollywood Bowl, the company is touring American with a repertoire which includes a new ballet by Ferde Grofe.