Exhibit pays tribute to the Boston Symphony

BOSTON --An exhibit paying tribute to the Boston Symphony Orchestra is alive with memories of the 125 years since its founding by a businessman and amateur musician who yearned for a high-class orchestra in his hometown.

"Boston Symphony Celebrates 125 Years" is on view at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University Law School through June 30.

Barbara Perkel, an assistant archivist for the BSO, said she hopes the exhibit of photographs and memorabilia makes people realize there's "more to the symphony than just the music."

"I think we wanted to choose the most poignant parts of the history of the BSO," Perkel said.

The show also highlights the careers of legendary conductors Serge Koussevitzky, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and James Levine, the BSO's current musical director.

Levine mementoes include a copy of a musical score by Gustav Mahler with Levine's handwriting noting the dates and cities where he has conducted the work along with his signature; and photos of Levine as a young boy, including one where he is practicing the piano at the age of 6.

The BSO gave its first concert on Oct. 22, 1881, realizing a dream for Henry Lee Higginson, a businessman, philanthropist, Civil War veteran and amateur musician who wanted to give Boston an orchestra on a par with those in Europe.

Its original home was the Boston Music Hall, a building now known as the Orpheum and just a short walk from the exhibit gallery, according to Symphony Hall archivist Bridgett Carr.

At one point, the music hall was threatened with demolition, prompting Higginson to set about finding a new home for the BSO. The new hall was designed by famed New York architects McKim, Meade & White.

Higginson "just wanted the new concert hall to be the best that it could be," Carr said, so he insisted that the architects get advice from a Harvard physicist, who acted as their acoustical consultant.

The new Symphony Hall opened in October 1900, at its current location on Huntington Avenue and has world-famous acoustics, Perkel said.

The exhibit includes a model of Symphony Hall with miniature audience members filling the seats, and a wood-and-brass toilet paper roll holder from a Symphony Hall bathroom when it was originally built.

Other reminders of the orchestra's history are major BSO recordings and a model of the RCA company's trademark dog, Nipper.

The Adams Gallery is just off a busy law school lobby, where students dash by on their way to classes.

Bridgett Halay, 31, the administrative director of graduate and international programs at the law school, strolled through the exhibit while `taking a little bit of a breather," on a recent day.

"I think it's great. I didn't know an awful lot about the BSO. I especially like to see... artifacts of more historical items and things like that," Halay said.

"I'm relatively new to the Boston area, so I wouldn't have known very much about it unless I came in here and read about it."