Ninth Symphony Concert Tonight.

At the concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Sanders Theatre this evening the following program will be played: Mendelssohn, Overture "Melusina"; Tschaikowsky, Concerto for violin: Beethoven, Overture to "Coriolanus"; Schuman, Symphony No 1.

This is a magnificent program which affords a rather unique oportunity to compare two different types of descriptive music--the Mendelssohn "Melusina" and the Beethoven "Coriolanus," each its kind a pure work of genius. In the "Melusina we find the same Mendelssohn as in the "Midsummer Nights Dream" music and in the "Fingal's Cave," with his wonderful poetic power of suggesting the phenomena of nature.

In the Beethoven overture we have a most striking contrast, for here the descriptive suggestion is not of the elements of the outward world, but of the emotions and passions of a human soul. The agitated opening theme strongly typifies the tempest-tossed soul of the hero, and the beautiful lyrical second theme, the supplicating appeals of his mother. The overture as a whole is doubtless a tone picture of a scene in the Volscian camp, before the gates of Rome, between Coriolanus, Volumnia, and Virgilia, which ends with the hero's, death.

Schumann's symphony in Bb major is most appropriate to this season of the year, for it is always known as his "Spring" symphony. To quote the composer's own words: "I wrote the symphony in the vernal passion that sways men until they are very old, and surprises them again with each new year. The first entrance of trumpets is to be sounded as though from on high, like unto an awakening call; it begins to grow green everywhere, butterflies take wing, birds pour forth their melodies, and little by little all things come that pertain in any way to spring."