TRUS 51X: Frederick P. Cabot Correspondence Files, 1918-1932

Correspondence generated in the course of administering the functions of president of the Trustees, and overseeing the operations of the BSO. Included with the correspondence are relevant enclosures, e.g. lists, agendas, minutes, clippings, contracts, brochures, ticket stubs, programs, and income and expenditure charts. Among the activities and topics documented are non-profit incorporation and drafting of by-laws; recruitment, hiring, management, and assessment of conductors, instrumentalists, and other orchestra personnel; financial affairs, including fundraising campaigns, the Endowment Fund, bequests, salaries, and taxes; responses to public and legislative pressures concerning loyalty, immigration, and naturalization of foreign artists in the aftermath of World War I; subscribers and ticket pricing; contract terms and conditions negotiated through the Orchestra Committee and outside agents; prospects for unionization through the American Federation of Musicians or by other means; affairs of the BSO Pension Institution; tours and trips, including a proposed foreign tour in 1928 that never materialized; public reaction to performances; litigation; Symphony Hall building modifications, leases, and rentals; music critics and the press; benefit concerts; recording plans and contracts with the Victor Talking Machine Company; and the planning, implementation, and response to early experiments with live radio broadcasting from Symphony Hall in the early and mid-1920s. Correspondents include members of the first BSO board of trustees, especially Frederick E. Lowell, Ernest B. Dane, Bentley W. Warren, Galen L. Stone, Mark A. DeW. Howe, and Henry B. Sawyer. Other BSO-connected correspondents include W. H. Brennan, George E. Judd, Henry Lee Higginson, F. L Higginson, Ida S. Higginson, Charles M. Loeffler, Richard Burgin, Georges Longy, Philip Hale, and John N. Burk. Of the BSO conductors, the largest amount of correspondence is with Serge Koussevitzky, but there are also letters to, from, or regarding Wilhelm Gericke, Karl Muck, Pierre Monteux, Henri Rabaud, and George Henschel. Also, correspondence concerning Pops conductors Agide Jacchia, Clement Lenom, Alfredo Casella, and Arthur Fiedler. The series also includes correspondence with or about composers and conductors such as Ottorino Respighi, Henry Wood, Arturo Toscanini, Tulio Serafin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Sergei Prokofief, Aaron Copland, Arthur Schnabel, Arthur Honegger, Fritz Reiner, Felix Weingartner, Igor Stravinsky, Bruno Walter, Pablo Casals, Maurice Ravel, and Wilhelm Furtwaengler.