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New York City Ballet Workshops
JULY 10
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JULY 13
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• Children’s Access Workshop
Free workshops. Registration required.
PlayIN for Brass with The Philadelphia Orchestra
AUGUST 1
Step onto the SPAC stage and play along with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba players of all ages are invited to this shared music-making event.
Free event. Registration required.
Family Nights at SPAC
JULY 12
New York City Ballet Swan Lake & Stars and Stripes
JULY 31
The Philadelphia Orchestra Tchaikovsky Spectacular
AUGUST 17
The Philadelphia Orchestra Disney’s The Lion King in Concert
Join us for lawn games, crafts, face painting, giveaways, and free Stewart’s ice cream.* Family Nights begin at 5:30pm and are free to ticketed attendees.
*Free ice cream available while supplies last
The Philadelphia Orchestra Sound All Around
AUGUST 4
Hosted by principal tuba, Carol Jantsch, Sound All Around introduces youngsters to musicians from The Philadelphia Orchestra through singing, movement, storytelling, and listening.
Free event. Registration required.
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By Je Dingler
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is always busy—he currently serves as artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, music director of Metropolitan Opera, and the music and artistic director of Philadelphia Orchestra, which comes to SPAC this July 31-Aug. 17. But this year, he also jumped into Hollywood’s awards season. First up: the Grammys. He stopped by what was hailed the best awards show in years to scoop up one himself, for Best Opera Recording for Blanchard: Champion. (He already had two additional wins and two more nominations under his belt.) Meanwhile, his work as the conducting consultant for the film Maestro led to appearances at the Venice Film Festival, the Montreal International Film Festival, and of course the movie’s flashy LA premiere with stars Bradley Cooper (Leonard Bernstein) and Carey Mulligan (Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre). The actors even joined Nézet-Séguin at the New York Philharmonic, where Bernstein served as laureate conductor from 1943-1990, for a Q&A and rousing performance of the movie’s soundtrack. Maestro, which follows the great composer Bernstein and his long-suffering wife, was nominated for seven Academy Awards but left empty-handed—not that that stopped Nézet-Séguin from having a glamorous Valentino-bedecked night out with husband Pierre Tourville, in the name of celebrating classical music. Back in Saratoga, Nézet-Séguin will hit the SPAC stage Aug. 8, to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in a SPAC exclusive: Johann Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony the composer’s powerful ode to nature, and the SPAC premiere of Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück for horns and orchestra. –ABBY TEGNELIA
anniversary celebration of Gershwin’s world-famous Rhapsody in Blue with the Marcus Roberts Trio (Aug. 1); and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (Aug. 10), which is returning to SPAC for the first time in more than 15 years, with Albany Pro Musica. And let’s not overlook returning champions such as Yo-Yo Ma (a former cover star of this magazine), who will be playing an evening of moving, Romantic-era music by Dvořák with guest conductor Xian Zhang (Aug. 16). Philadelphia Orchestra Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet- Séguin will also return Aug. 8 to lead a program exclusive to SPAC, featuring Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie) a tone poem celebrating the sublimity of nature, alongside the SPAC premiere of Robert Schumann’s lively Konzertstück for horns and orchestra. As we said, SPAC’s 2024 season will go down as the stuff of legends.
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Dear Friends,
We are delighted to welcome you back for our 2024 Season! Thank you for joining us at SPAC where we cultivate, through unforgettable encounters with great beauty, the unbreakable bonds of community and connection.
This summer season, we celebrate rhythm -- the rhythms in song and dance, the beating of the human heart, undulating waves of water, the orbiting of planets and galaxies, and the turning of the seasons that fill and animate our very days.
And we pay tribute to rhythm’s sister, harmony – the harmony in music, the harmony of the colors in nature, the harmony of choreographed human bodies moving together in space, and most importantly, the harmony of human lives lived in community informed by compassion, understanding, and empathy.
This exploration will reach new heights on our stage when Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, the composer’s powerful and passionate ode to nature, with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The piece paints vivid imagery that allows listeners to revel in the many glorious moments nature has to offer – accentuated by our location at the confluence of human-made and natural beauty.
Thank you, again, for joining us for a spectacular summer at SPAC where revelation, healing and transformation are at the heart of everything we do.
Warmly,
Elizabeth Sobol President & CEO
Dear SPAC supporters,
As the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, it is my distinct honor to welcome you to our 2024 season. I have attended performances at SPAC since I was a little boy. These experiences helped me to understand how broad SPAC’s appeal really is. People from all walks of life can appreciate the beauty of the arts, amidst the natural beauty that surrounds us. SPAC brings our community together and makes our lives more meaningful.
SPAC benefits the community in other ways as well. SPAC is a critical economic engine for the region -- contributing $105 million in economic impact and welcoming 500,000 visitors through our gates annually. These SPAC attendees stay in local hotels, eat at local restaurants, shop at local stores and use local service providers.
Under the exceptional leadership of our President and CEO, Elizabeth Sobol, SPAC is continuing to grow and flourish by investing in its physical campus, presenting year-round music, dance, theater, culinary and literary programming, and through its commitment to bringing robust and thoughtful arts education initiatives to the region. All of these advancements directly benefit our community.
Your prior Chair, Susan Dake, also an exceptional leader, has expertly guided the Board and SPAC, enabling SPAC to not only survive during the challenges presented by COVID-19, but to thrive. I am grateful to her, both personally and on behalf of SPAC, for her mentorship, generosity and guidance over these past years.
I look forward to upholding SPAC’s remarkable history of tradition that has been carried on by the generations before me, while embracing innovation and the future.
Thank you, again, for joining us. Your attendance and support keep SPAC strong and thriving. Enjoy the performance and please visit us again soon.
Charles V. Wait, Jr. Chair SPAC Board of Directors
WELCOME TO
Whether you’re joining us for the first time or you’ve been coming for years, we’re so glad you’re here. If you’ve visited us before, we are counting on your help to make SPAC an open and welcoming place for all. Here are some helpful tips to make your experience great!
How Long Are The Performances?
Most classical concerts and ballets last approximately 2 hours with one or two 20 minute intermission(s). Select productions such as NYCB On and Off Stage are 90 minutes with no intermission. Run times are also listed on our website.
When Do I Applaud?
For orchestral performances, the concert will begin with the Concertmaster coming onstage. The audience claps as a welcome, and as a sign of appreciation to all the musicians. After the orchestra tunes, the conductor (and sometimes a soloist!) will come onstage and everyone will clap to welcome them, too.
A symphony or large orchestral piece may be comprised of multiple movements (they will be listed in your program). The audience will applaud at the conclusion of the entire piece and tries to avoid clapping in between movements so as not to break the concentration of the performers. When in doubt, it’s always safe to wait and follow what the rest of the audience does. If you do applaud between movements, don’t worry, what’s most important is you enjoyed the performance!
For ballet performances with live music, the audience will clap when the conductor first appears. Similar to movements of orchestral pieces, ballets have separate sections. However, unlike the orchestra, audiences will applaud at the end of each section and the ballet as a whole, or even when a dancer does something impressive.
If you are a seasoned concert-goer, it’s important to recognize guests around you may be less familiar with concert behavior. Thank you for helping us create a welcoming environment. We want to make sure that first timers are excited to come back.
Are Phones Allowed?
Before the performance begins, we welcome photography and video of your SPAC experience– feel free to tag us on social media and we may share it to our stories! Once the curtain rises, please silence your electronic devices and refrain from using them until intermission or the end of the performance. The use of flash photography or any kind of recording devices are prohibited.
When Should I Be In My Seat?
Listen for the chimes, which will sound approximately five minutes before the show. If you are sitting in the amphitheater, please stay seated until intermission. Latecomers will be seated with discretion of the ushers until there is a pause in the program.
HOUSE RULES
Smoking is permitted on the SPAC grounds in designated areas only. Please ensure that all cigarette butts are disposed of properly.
Guests are welcome to bring blankets and umbrellas but please consider others around you- if your items are disruptive to others, you may be asked to remove them.
In the event that guests need or prefer to stand or move during a performance, please note that there is a grassy area behind the Julie Bonacio Family Pavilion with access to a video screen which would allow them to continue watching the show.
ACCESSIBILITY
There is an accessible ramp allowing easier access into the amphitheater located on the north side of the venue behind the Hall of Springs Gate. All reserved seats on the lower level (sections 1-14) can be accessed without using stairs. Although the balcony can be accessed via balcony ramps, only the accessible reserved seats behind sections 16-17 can be accessed without using stairs. All other sections of the balcony require the use of stairs.
The venue provides a limited number of courtesy carts to help move guests closer to their seats. These carts are available at most events including SPAC’s classical season and Jazz Festival. Guests may be dropped off at the Route 50 Gate near the Sun Dial or Hall of Springs Gate where venue staff will further assist them. Due to the crowd size, carts are not available for Live Nation Concerts.
Accessible Restrooms
Most restroom locations within the SPAC Grounds offer fully accessible and ambulatory restrooms stalls. Additionally, The Pines main restroom location has two private family/ inclusive restrooms. Upon request, the SPAC Medical Clinic may be accessed for assistance and privacy with accessible restroom needs. Please note that House restrooms and Hall of Springs restrooms are not fully accessible due to stairs.
Assisted Listening Devices
For SPAC events, we offer a limited number of Assisted Listening Devices (ALD) for guests. SPAC’s system is an ultra-high frequency, in-ear personal monitoring system. An induction neckloop for t-switch hearing aids or earbuds are available depending on need. Guests may pick up their ALD at Guest Services prior to the performance. If you’d like to reserve an ALD for future shows, please visit our website or call our Box Office.
Photos by Konrad Odhiambo
SPRING INTO:
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GUILLAUME LETHIÈRE
JUNE 15–OCTOBER 14, 2024
Discover more than 100 paintings, drawings, and sculpture in the first major exhibition ever presented on the Caribbean-born artist who became a leading figure in revolutionary France.
Saratoga County’s Official Tourism Promotion Agency
Guillaume Lethière is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel.
Guillaume Lethière, Woman Leaning on a Portfolio (detail), c. 1799, oil on canvas. Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, museum purchase, 1954.21. Photo: Worcester Art Museum/Bridgeman Images
Surround yourself with music and magic all year long...
Become a 2025 SPAC Member Today!
As a nonprofit organization, your membership is vital to the success of everything we do at SPAC—from artistic programming to education and community initiatives and beyond.
Make every visit to SPAC unforgettable with exclusive member benefits* such as:
• Early ticket access and discounts for Jazz Festival, New York City Ballet, and The Philadelphia Orchestra
• VIP parking
• Live Nation concert ticket presales
• Behind-the-scenes rehearsals for New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra
• Patrons’ Club Dining and Patrons’ Patio for pre-performance refreshments
• President’s Circle members get access to The Pines Terrace, with its breathtaking views of the entire SPAC campus.
Join or renew today to lock in 2024 rates and contribute to SPAC’s work on stage and in our community!
spac.org/membership or call 518.584.9330, ext. 803.
*Benefits vary based on membership level.
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Join SPAC Action Council or Friends of SPAC today!
SPAC Action Council was established in 1977 by SPAC founders Philly Dake and Jane Wait. The Action Council serves as a community of ambassadors, supporting SPAC’s cultural mission, membership, events, and programming by broadening awareness and promoting development.
Friends of SPAC Committee is a dynamic group of local community members, professionals, and performing arts patrons who work in tandem with the SPAC strategic planning and fundraising teams. Their primary focus is to cultivate a younger demographic to support SPAC and promote the arts in our community.
Philadelphia Orchestra The
BY JACOB RITZ
The world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra strives to share the transformative power of music with the widest possible audience, and to create joy, connection, and excitement through music in the Philadelphia region, across the country, and around the world. Through innovative programming, robust education initiatives, a commitment to its diverse communities, and the embrace of digital outreach, the ensemble is creating an expansive and inclusive future for classical music, and furthering the place of the arts in an open and democratic society. In June 2021 the Orchestra and its home, the Kimmel Center, united to form The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc., reimagining the power of the arts to bring joy, create community, and effect change.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his 12th season with The Philadelphia Orchestra, serving as music and artistic director. His connection to the ensemble’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics, and he is embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the community.
Your Philadelphia Orchestra takes great pride in its hometown, performing for the people of Philadelphia year-round, in Marian Anderson Hall and around the community, in classrooms and hospitals, and over the airwaves and online. The Orchestra’s awardwinning education and community initiatives engage over 50,000 students, families, and community members of all ages through programs such as PlayINs; side-by-sides; PopUP concerts; Our City,
Your Orchestra Live; School Concerts; sensoryfriendly concerts; open rehearsals; the School Partnership Program and School Ensemble Program; All City Orchestra Fellowships; and residency work in Philadelphia and abroad.
The Orchestra’s free online video series, Our City, Your Orchestra (OCYO), uncovers and amplifies the voices, stories, and causes championed by unique Philadelphia organizations and businesses. Joining OCYO in connecting with the community is HearTOGETHER, a free monthly podcast featuring artists and activists who discuss music, social justice, and the lived experiences that inform the drive to create a more equitable and inclusive future for the arts.
Through concerts, tours, residencies, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador and one of our nation’s greatest exports. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. The Orchestra also has a rich touring history, having first performed outside Philadelphia in its earliest days. In 1973 it was the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, launching a five-decade commitment of people-to-people exchange.
Under Yannick’s leadership, the Orchestra returned to recording with 13 celebrated releases on the Deutsche Grammophon label, including the GRAMMY® Award–winning Florence Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of radio listeners with weekly broadcasts on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit www.philorch.org
PHOTO
2023–2024 SEASON
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Music and Artistic Director
Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair
Nathalie Stutzmann
Principal Guest Conductor
Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller Chair
Austin Chanu and Tristan Rais-Sherman Assistant Conductors
Joseph Conyers
Education and Community Ambassador
Mark and Tobey Dichter Chair
Charlotte Blake Alston
Storyteller, Narrator, and Host
Osagie and Losenge Imasogie Chair
Frederick R. Haas
Artistic Advisor
Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Experience
FIRST VIOLINS
David Kim, Concertmaster
Dr. Benjamin Rush Chair
Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster
Joseph and Marie Field Chair
Christine Lim, Associate Concertmaster
Marc Rovetti, Assistant Concertmaster
Dr. James F. Dougherty Chair
Barbara Govatos
Robert E. Mortensen Chair
Jonathan Beiler
Hirono Oka
Richard Amoroso
Robert and Lynne Pollack Chair
Yayoi Numazawa
Jason DePue
Larry A. Grika Chair
Jennifer Haas
Miyo Curnow
Elina Kalendarova
Daniel Han
Julia Li
William Polk
Mei Ching Huang
SECOND VIOLINS
Kimberly Fisher, Principal
Peter A. Benoliel Chair
Paul Roby, Associate Principal
Sandra and David Marshall Chair
Dara Morales, Assistant Principal
Anne M. Buxton Chair
Philip Kates
Peter A. Benoliel Chair
Davyd Booth
Paul Arnold
Joseph Brodo Chair, given by Peter A. Benoliel
Boris Balter
Amy Oshiro-Morales
Yu-Ting Chen
Jeoung-Yin Kim
Willa Finck
John Bian
MuChen Hsieh
Eliot Heaton
VIOLAS
Choong-Jin Chang, Principal
Ruth and A. Morris Williams, Jr., Chair
Kirsten Johnson, Associate Principal
Kerri Ryan, Assistant Principal
Judy Geist
Renard Edwards
Anna Marie Ahn Petersen
Piasecki Family Chair
David Nicastro
Burchard Tang
Che-Hung Chen
Rachel Ku
Marvin Moon
Meng Wang
CELLOS
Hai-Ye Ni, Principal
Priscilla Lee, Associate Principal
Yumi Kendall, Assistant Principal
Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr., Chair
Richard Harlow
Orton P. and Noël S. Jackson Chair
Kathryn Picht Read
Robert Cafaro
Volunteer Committees Chair
Ohad Bar-David
John Koen
Derek Barnes
Alex Veltman
BASSES
Joseph Conyers, Principal
Carole and Emilio Gravagno Chair
Gabriel Polinsky, Associate Principal
Nathaniel West, Acting Assistant Principal
David Fay
Duane Rosengard
Michael Franz
Christian Gray
Some members of the string sections voluntarily rotate seating on a periodic basis.
FLUTES
Jeffrey Khaner, Principal
Paul and Barbara Henkels Chair
Patrick Williams, Associate Principal
Rachelle and Ronald Kaiserman Chair
Olivia Staton
Erica Peel, Piccolo
OBOES
Philippe Tondre, Principal
Samuel S. Fels Chair
Peter Smith, Associate Principal
Jonathan Blumenfeld
Edwin Tuttle Chair
Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia, English Horn
Joanne T. Greenspun Chair
CLARINETS
Ricardo Morales, Principal
Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair
Samuel Caviezel, Associate Principal
Sarah and Frank Coulson Chair
Socrates Villegas
Paul R. Demers, Bass Clarinet
Peter M. Joseph and Susan Rittenhouse Joseph Chair
BASSOONS
Daniel Matsukawa, Principal
Richard M. Klein Chair
Mark Gigliotti, Co-Principal
Angela Anderson Smith
Holly Blake, Contrabassoon
HORNS
Jennifer Montone, Principal
Gray Charitable Trust Chair
Jeffrey Lang, Associate Principal
Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson Chair
Christopher Dwyer
Chelsea McFarland
Ernesto Tovar Torres
Shelley Showers
TRUMPETS
(position vacant)
Principal
Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest Chair
Jeffrey Curnow, Associate Principal
Gary and Ruthanne Schlarbaum Chair
Anthony Prisk
TROMBONES
Nitzan Haroz, Principal
Neubauer Family Foundation Chair
Matthew Vaughn, Co-Principal
Blair Bollinger, Bass Trombone
Drs. Bong and Mi Wha Lee Chair
TUBA
Carol Jantsch, Principal
Lyn and George M. Ross Chair
TIMPANI
Don S. Liuzzi, Principal
Dwight V. Dowley Chair
Angela Zator Nelson, Associate Principal
PERCUSSION
Christopher Deviney, Principal
Charlie Rosmarin, Associate Principal
Angela Zator Nelson
PIANO AND CELESTA
Kiyoko Takeuti
KEYBOARDS
Davyd Booth
HARP
Elizabeth Hainen, Principal
LIBRARIANS
Nicole Jordan, Principal
Holly Matthews
STAGE PERSONNEL
Dennis Moore, Jr., Manager
Francis “Chip” O’Shea III
Aaron Wilson
James P. Brandau
Patrick J. Brennan, M.D.
Jeffrey Brown
Elaine Woo Camarda
Sara Cerato*
Joseph Ciresi
Michael M. Cone
Robert R. Corrato
Rev. Luis A. Cortés, Jr.
Sarah Miller Coulson
Robert J. Delany, Sr.
Mark S. Dichter
Jeff Dittus
Joseph M. Field
Mark J. Foley
John Fry
Lauren Gilchrist
Donald A. Goldsmith
Juliet J. Goodfriend
Julia Haller, M.D.
Robert C. Heim
Nina Henderson
Osagie O. Imasogie
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ralph W. Muller, Chair
Matías Tarnopolsky President and Chief Executive Officer
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Music and Artistic Director, The Philadelphia Orchestra
Patricia Harron Imbesi
Erika H. James, Ph.D.
Philip P. Jaurigue
Kenyatta Johnson*
Bennett Keiser
Christopher M. Keith
David Kim*
Neal W. Krouse
Lauren Lambrugo*
Joan Lau
Brook J. Lenfest
Jeffrey A. Leonard
Bruce G. Leto
Tod J. MacKenzie
Joseph M. Manko, Sr.
David Marshall*
John H. McFadden
Jami Wintz McKeon
Stan Middleman
Dara Morales*
Ralph W. Muller
Yannick Nézet-Séguin*
William Polk*
Jon Michael Richter
Caroline B. Rogers
Michele Kreisler Rubenstein
Charles E. Ryan
Kerri Ryan*
Adele K. Schaeffer
Dianne Semingson*
Peter L. Shaw
Adrienne Simpson
Matías Tarnopolsky*
Matthew A. Taylor
Jennifer F. Terry
Sherry Varrelman
Nathaniel West*
Rob Wilson
Dalila Wilson-Scott
Richard B. Worley
Joseph Zebrowitz
Bin Zhang
Michael D. Zisman
James W. Zug*
*Ex-officio
As of July 2024
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Matías Tarnopolsky
President and Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Fleur
Executive Director
Mitch Bassion
Chief Philanthropy Officer
Ashley Berke
Chief Communications Officer
Crystal Brewe
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Audience Experience Officer
Tanya Derksen
Chief Artistic Production Officer
Mario Mestichelli
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Doris Parent
Chief Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Strategies (IDEAS) Officer
Jeremy Rothman
Chief Programming Officer
OPENING NIGHT: TCHAIKOVSKY SPECTACULAR
DAVID ROBERTSON Conductor
GEORGE LI Piano
TCHAIKOVSKY
Polonaise, from Eugene Onegin, Op. 24
TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23
I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso—Allegro con spirito
II. Andantino semplice—Prestissimo—Tempo I
III. Allegro con fuoco
INTERMISSION
TCHAIKOVSKY
Fantasy-Overture, Romeo and Juliet
TCHAIKOVSKY
Solemn Overture, 1812, Op. 49
This program is made possible in part with generous support from Hudson Headwaters Health Network.
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
POLONAISE, FROM EUGENE ONEGIN, OP. 24
Composed in 1878
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840
Died in St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893
Tchaikovsky’s understandable reluctance to tackle Eugene Onegin as an opera came from the fact that Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel was one of the most esteemed works of 19th-century Russian literature. Moreover, without Pushkin’s literary gifts for language and description, the simple story itself was fairly unimaginative.
Musicologist Richard Taruskin notes that the “plot as such was slender and banal: A dreamy country girl falls in love with a young fop from the big city; she impulsively pours out her feelings to him in a letter; she is rebuffed and humiliated; five years later the two encounter one another again and the fop is smitten; by now the country girl has become a society matron who will not abandon her husband for her old love.” Yet Taruskin goes on to observe that Tchaikovksy successfully found musical analogies to Pushkin’s narrative and brilliantly transferred subtle literary characterizations into compelling music.
Tchaikovsky wrote the opera quickly, in about eight months, at a fraught period in his life. Already famous in his own country, in Europe, and beyond, the homosexual composer entered into a disastrous marriage with a young admirer and former pupil, Antonia Ivanovna Milyukova. The union lasted just a matter of weeks (although the couple never divorced), and in its aftermath Tchaikovsky set to work in earnest on Onegin. The first performance was given in March 1879 by students at the Moscow Conservatory under the direction of Nicolai Rubinstein; a professional premiere at the Bolshoi followed nearly two years later.
As in so much of his music, no matter the genre, Tchaikovsky fills his work with the spirit of dance. He adds folk choruses and dances not found in Pushkin, infusing the opera with a vital Russian flavor. The Polonaise we hear tonight opens the third and final act. Eugene Onegin has returned to St. Petersburg and is attending a grand ball in the house of Prince Gremin, a distant relative of his. It is at this event that he will encounter once again a somewhat older and by now far more sophisticated Tatiana, who is married to Gremin. The buoyant dance sets the stage for their reunion. Trumpets establish the distinctive triplemeter accompanimental rhythm characteristic of the polonaise before the full orchestra takes
up more elaborate themes. The dance is in ABA form, with an intimate middle section featuring woodwinds and a long-breathed cello melody.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 IN B-FLAT MINOR, OP. 23
Composed from 1874 to 1875
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Two of the most influential performers of the latter half of the 19th century, both eminent pianists as well as conductors, initially held diametrically opposed views concerning Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. First came the celebrated Russian Nikolai Rubinstein, who had founded the Moscow Conservatory where Tchaikovsky taught. It was with this generous colleague in mind that Tchaikovsky wrote the Concerto in 1874, relatively early in his career, situated between his Second and Third symphonies.
The composer later recalled how a few days after completing the piece in December he played it through for his friend, who promptly exploded that it was “impossible to play, that the passages were commonplace, clumsy, and so awkward that there was no way even to correct them, that as a composition it was bad, vulgar.” Tchaikovsky declared he would “not change a single note,” and published the Concerto the next year as it stood. (He did in fact later revise the piece twice, in 1879 and 1889.)
The enthusiastic response, in contrast, came from the great German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, to whom the Concerto was ultimately dedicated. Bülow told Tchaikovsky that “the ideas are so original, so noble, so powerful; the details are so interesting, and though there are many of them they do not impair the clearness and unity of the work. The form is so mature, ripe, and distinguished for style.” Bülow was the soloist at the premiere in October 1875, which took place in far off Boston, Massachusetts, and sent Tchaikovsky a telegram informing him of the enthusiastic response the piece received, so much so that he had to encore the final movement.
And it no doubt gave Tchaikovsky enormous satisfaction that Rubinstein very soon came around as well and became a staunch advocate of the Concerto. Just a month after the Boston premiere he conducted the first performance in Moscow and later played it as piano soloist
as well, including giving the Paris premiere. (On a later occasion he served as both soloist and conductor.) The Concerto quickly entered the international repertory and it was one of the works Tchaikovsky chose to feature when he conducted concerts in New York marking the inauguration of Carnegie Hall in May 1891.
It is perhaps understandable how musicians, critics, and audiences could either be baffled or entranced by the Concerto, which, in addition to its remarked upon difficulty, has various features that made it seem at the time unusual and modern. The piece famously begins with four French horns blaring out a falling four-note motif in unison, punctuated by mighty orchestral chords (Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso). The piano soloist boldly enters with rich chords that span most of the range of the instrument against which unfolds a sweeping string melody. After this extended introduction, the tempo quickens (Allegro con spirito) for the heart of the movement. Tchaikovsky included a number of borrowed melodies in the Concerto, beginning with a Ukrainian folk tune he had heard sung by a blind beggar (“O caw, caw, black raven”).
An operatically lyrical flute melody opens the second movement (Andantino semplice), in which Tchaikovsky uses a popular French song, “One must have fun, dance, and laugh,” during the fast middle section, creating an overall ABA form. The brilliant finale (Allegro con fuoco) is a rondo with two contrasting themes, the first of them derived from another Ukrainian melody (“Go on, go on, Ivan”), the other one more relaxed.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
FANTASY-OVERTURE, ROMEO AND JULIET
Composed in 1869; revised in 1870 and 1880
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has probably served and inspired more composers than any other single literary work—with the possible exception of Goethe’s Faust. It was an ideal choice of subject for the young Tchaikovsky—who in his early years had struggled with the problem of reconciling Classical forms with new types of Romantic expression that were by their very nature impulsive and anti-formalist. Thus while the largescale structures of his First Symphony (composed in 1866) bedeviled him, the rhapsodic nature of Romeo and Juliet—the first version of which was composed in late 1869—permitted him just the sort of intensity of expression that was to become
the most palpable aspect of his style.
Tchaikovsky had first studied law, not music. He had even begun a job as clerk in the Ministry of Justice in St. Petersburg before deciding to take up the study of composition, his first love. He completed his conservatory studies relatively late, and not until the second half of the 1860s, after he began teaching harmony and musical analysis at what eventually became the Moscow Conservatory, did his musical thinking take on a more rigorously systematic bent. This rigor is heard in the First Symphony, a work of rich, beautiful melodies that longs to burst out of the straitjacket of conventional form. Having worked some of this structuralism out of his system, the composer was ripe for Mily Balakirev’s suggestion in 1868 that he compose a piece based on Romeo and Juliet. The meddlesome Balakirev dictated to Tchaikovsky the specific structure, keys, and thematic shape that he had in mind, and unfortunately the young composer accepted the suggestions of his elder colleague with patience bordering on docility. When the first version was performed in Moscow in March 1870, Balakirev criticized it anyway—so much that Tchaikovsky prepared a new version that summer. The revision was more successful, but 10 years later Tchaikovsky revised the score yet again. It is this last version, formally taut and texturally polished, that is performed today.
Tchaikovsky’s Overture begins with a hymn-like depiction of Shakespeare’s Friar Laurence, with clarinets and bassoons. An ensuing allegro presents the clash of the lovers’ warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet are represented by English horn and muted strings—but their amorous rhapsodizing is interrupted by more family feuding. Finally all three themes are heard in succession: the love theme (perhaps the most famous Tchaikovsky melody of all), the music of the warring families, and Friar Laurence’s music. The piece ends with an ominous flourish.
—Paul J. Horsley
SOLEMN OVERTURE, 1812, OP. 49
Composed in 1880
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
In 1880 Tchaikovsky was asked to write something for the upcoming Exhibition of Industry and the Arts to be held in Moscow. He was presented with three possibilities: write an overture, something for the Tsar’s silver jubilee,
or a piece to mark the consecration of a new cathedral, “a cantata in whatever form or style you like but with a hint of church music that must certainly be Orthodox.” Tchaikovsky chose to pursue the option connected with the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. As it was built to mark Russia’s victory over Napoleon in September 1812, he decided to write a celebratory orchestral work, which he dispatched in just a little over a week’s time.
The 1812 Overture received its premiere in August 1882 in a new hall built for the Exhibition. Over time the Overture emerged as one of the composer’s most popular pieces, indeed as one of the most familiar works in the orchestral repertoire.
As composers have known for centuries, certain subjects invite musical representation more than others. It is a simpler task to convey associations with birds, storms, water than it is abstract events and emotions. Battles have long proved especially inviting. Beethoven took contrasting approaches in two pieces. In his history-making Third Symphony, he grappled with issues of heroism, based on the figure of Napoleon. He also wrote a so-called “Battle Symphony,” better known as Wellington’s Victory, in which war between the English (represented by “Rule Britannia”) and the French (“Marlborough s’en va-t’en guerre”) also includes cannons and other effects, leading to the minor mode dissolution of the French music for their defeat and a final set of variations on “God Save the King” celebrating English victory.
Tchaikovsky probably had Beethoven’s piece in mind when he was composing the 1812 Overture. He also calls upon national themes, beginning with a solo sextet of violas and cellos intoning the Orthodox Russian chant “Save Us, O Lord,” which is juxtaposed with the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” Tchaikovsky brings in as well the Russian folksong “U Vorot” (At the Gate) and part of a duet recycled from his first opera, The Voyevoda. This all leads up to the grand finale making marvelous use of bells and cannons in combination with the Imperial Russian national anthem, “God Save the Tsar!”
David Robertson—conductor, artist, composer, thinker, American musical visionary—occupies some of the most prominent platforms on the international music scene. A highly sought-after podium figure in the worlds of opera, orchestral music, and new music, he is a champion of contemporary composers and an ingenious and adventurous programmer. He has served in numerous artistic leadership positions including chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony, music director of the St. Louis Symphony, music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony, and music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He regularly appears with the world’s great orchestras and made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1999.
In 2023 Mr. Robertson began a three-year tenure as the inaugural Creative Partner of the Utah Symphony and Opera. This season he led the Seattle Symphony, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony, among others. Since his 1996 Metropolitan Opera debut, he has conducted a wide range of
DAVID ROBERTSON
PHOTO BY CHRIS LEE
Met projects, including Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, for which he shared a GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
Mr. Robertson is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France and is the recipient of numerous artistic awards. He serves on the Tianjin Juilliard Advisory Council, complementing his role as director of conducting studies, distinguished visiting faculty of the Juilliard School in New York. Born in Santa Monica, California, he was educated at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he studied horn and composition before turning to orchestral conducting. He is married to pianist Orli Shaham and lives in New York. Learn more at ConductorDavidRobertson.com
Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, pianist George Li, who is making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, has rapidly established a major international reputation and performs regularly with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. His 2023–24 season began with a recital at the Grand Teton Music Festival followed by his debut with the Aula Simfonia in Jakarta, Indonesia. He embarked on an extensive tour in China including recital and concerto performances and gave recitals throughout Europe. He also debuted with the Prague Philharmonia. His United States performances included engagements with the Cincinnati and Milwaukee symphonies, the Florida Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Chicago Sinfonietta, and recitals across the country.
Recent concerto highlights include performances with the Los Angeles, New York, London, Rotterdam, Oslo, St. Petersburg, and Buffalo philharmonics; the San Francisco, Cincinnati, Dallas, Tokyo, Frankfurt Radio, Sydney, Nashville, New Jersey, New World, Montreal, and Baltimore symphonies; London’s Philharmonia; the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin; and the Orchestra National de
Lyon. He has toured Germany with the Moscow Philharmonic and Europe with the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Mr. Li is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist. His albums include solo works by Liszt and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 recorded live with Vasily Petrenko and the London Philharmonic. His upcoming release includes solo pieces by Schumann, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Mr. Li gave his first public performance at Boston’s Steinway Hall at the age of 10 and in 2011 performed for President Obama at the White House. He was the recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the First Prize winner of the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory. Opus 3 Artists is the exclusive representative of George Li.
GEORGE LI PHOTO BY SIMON FOWLER
RHAPSODY IN BLUE CELEBRATES 100
DAVID ROBERTSON Conductor
MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO:
MARCUS ROBERTS
Piano
MARTIN JAFFE
Bass
JASON MARSALIS
Drums
JOHNSON/arr. Hersh
Victory Stride
GERSHWIN/orch. Grofé
Rhapsody in Blue
INTERMISSION
RACHMANINOFF
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
I. Non allegro
II. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)
III. Lento assai—Allegro vivace—Lento assai, come prima—L’istesso tempo, ma agitato—Poco meno mosso—“Alliluya”
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VICTORY STRIDE (ARRANGED BY NICHOLAS HERSH)
JAMES P. JOHNSON
Born in Brunswick, New Jersey, February 1, 1891
Died in New York City, November 17, 1955
The father of the “stride” style of jazz piano, James Price Johnson studied music with his mother, learning a wide variety of gospel and folk styles at a very early age. When the family moved to New York City in 1908, the young man became acquainted with ragtime and other prevalent styles. Later he would study classical music with Bruno Giannini. In 1912 he began playing piano in saloons and nightclubs in New York and Atlantic City, and he developed a style of playing that was distinguished by widely spaced chords and “walking” tenths in the left hand. By the time he had reached his 20s, he was one of the leading “stride” pianists in New York, after which he began to form bands and ensembles of his own.
During the 1920s and ’30s Johnson composed prolifically, and he was best known for his rags and “strides.” In 1921 he recorded the “Carolina Shout,” which would become one of his most popular tunes. He also played piano for the movies, including the 1929 St. Louis Blues (in which he accompanied Bessie Smith’s vocals) and The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson. He wrote stage shows and musicals, including the 1928 Keep Shufflin’ (a collaboration with Fats Waller) and The Kitchen Mechanics Revue of 1930. During the 1930s and ’40s he played for numerous radio broadcasts, including the series This Is Jazz.
Johnson also composed larger works, including a Harlem Symphony (1932) and pieces for piano and orchestra, all of which drew upon a variety of jazz and traditional styles. “Victory Stride” is a driving and colorful amalgam of the whole panoply of the composer’s idioms.
—Paul J. Horsley
RHAPSODY IN BLUE (ORCHESTRATED BY FERDE GROFÉ)
Composed in 1924
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Born in Brooklyn, September 26, 1898
Died in Hollywood, July 11, 1937
George Gershwin’s career is a great American success story, tempered (as with Mozart and Schubert) by early death in his 30s that cut it short. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, he
grew up in a poor household. As Aaron Copland, his slightly younger Brooklyn contemporary, also discovered, music offered opportunities. But while Copland went to study abroad as an American in Paris, Gershwin dropped out of school and started working his way up as a “song-plugger,” playing Tin Pan Alley songs for perspective customers at a music store. Soon he was writing his own songs (his first big hit was “Swanee” in 1919) and enjoying success on Broadway.
The signal event of his early career came at age 25, on Tuesday afternoon, February 12, 1924, at a concert in New York’s Aeolian Hall given by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra. Billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music,” it featured a variety of familiar pieces, including popular fare and comedy, as well as pieces by Edward MacDowell, Victor Herbert, and concluding with one of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches.
Whiteman explained that the purpose of the experiment was to highlight “the tremendous strides which have been made in popular music from the day of the discordant jazz, which sprang into existence about ten years ago from nowhere in particular, to the really melodious music of today which—for no good reason— is still being called jazz.” The comment that the music came “from nowhere in particular” is striking. As the music historian Richard Taruskin keenly observed, this event was “in essence an attempt to sanitize contemporary popular music and elevate it in public esteem by divorcing it from its roots in African American improvised music and securing endorsements from luminaries of the classical music establishment, many of whom were in attendance that evening.” (Among those said to have been there were Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Jascha Heifetz, and Fritz Kreisler.) It was not so much that the music was unusual but rather the idea of presenting performances by a dance band in a concert hall.
Gershwin had written the piece in the space of just a few weeks in a two-piano version that was quickly orchestrated by Whiteman’s favored arranger, Ferde Grofé (1892–1972), best remembered today for his own composition The Grand Canyon Suite. Grofé was intimately familiar with the marvelous instrumental colors Whiteman’s band could produce; he followed suggestions outlined in Gershwin’s piano score, which were supplemented by almost daily meetings with the composer. The famous opening clarinet glissando was contributed by Ross Gorman, who asked permission to change a written-out scale to something more enticing.
The Rhapsody proved to be the highlight of the concert, an enormous success before a capacity audience, as well as with most of the critics. Deems Taylor said the piece “hinted at something new, something that had not hitherto been said in music.” Gershwin, he believed, provided “a link between the jazz camp and the intellectuals.” Even a grumpy voice from Theatre Magazine acknowledged that the wildly popular concert “was often vulgar, but it was never dull.” Whiteman repeated the program a month later and then again at Carnegie Hall in April, as well as in Philadelphia and Boston. In June he and Gershwin made their first recording of the Rhapsody, which sold over a million copies. Over roughly the next decade performances, recordings, and sheet music earned the composer some $250,000, an almost unimaginable sum at the time.
The Rhapsody basically unfolds as a sequence of five Tin Pan Alley–like songs with virtuoso connecting passagework. The piece has been criticized by some as a loose patchwork of relatively interchangeable parts (Gershwin’s own early recordings made cuts so as to fit on one 78 disc), but Howard Pollack has observed that the work might be viewed as a “compressed four-movement symphony or sonata,” along the lines of Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy. For his part, Gershwin said that he “wanted to show that jazz is an idiom not to be limited to a mere song and chorus that consumed three minutes in presentation,” which meant putting the blues “in a larger and more serious form.” Twelve years after its successful premiere he commented that the piece was “still very much alive,” while if he had “taken the same themes and put them in songs they would have been gone years ago.”
—Christopher H. Gibbs
SYMPHONIC DANCES, OP. 45
Composed in 1940
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Born in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873
Died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943
Sergei Rachmaninoff pursued multiple professional careers and juggled different personal identities, often out of joint with the realities of his time and place. He was a Russian who fled his country after the 1917 Revolution and who lived in America and Europe for the rest of his life. He was a great composer who, in order to support himself and his family, spent most of his time performing, both as a conductor and as one of the supreme pianists of
the 20th century. And he was a Romantic composer writing in the age of burgeoning Modernism, his music embraced by audiences but seemingly coming from a bygone world alien to the stylistic innovations of Debussy, Schoenberg, Ives, Stravinsky, and other contemporaries.
The Symphonic Dances was Rachmaninoff’s last composition. He had been frustrated by the hostile reception given to some of his recent pieces and perhaps sensed more than ever being stylistically old-fashioned. The exception among these later works was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, for piano and orchestra, which proved an immediate success and got a further boost when the choreographer Mikhail Fokine created a wildly popular ballet called Paganini, which premiered at London’s Covent Garden in June 1939. At this point Rachmaninoff and his wife were living in a comfortable oceanside estate on Long Island, where Fokine and other celebrated Russians were neighbors. Rachmaninoff had never completed a ballet (unlike most of his great Russian precursors and contemporaries) and wondered whether Fokine might be interested in creating a new piece. (Fokine’s death ended those hopes.)
Another great satisfaction came in late 1939 when The Philadelphia Orchestra presented a “Rachmaninoff Cycle” in Philadelphia and in New York City. The next summer, at age 67, he was inspired to compose for the first time in several years. He informed Eugene Ormandy: “Last week I finished a new symphonic piece, which I naturally want to give first to you and your orchestra. It is called Fantastic Dances. I shall now begin the orchestration. Unfortunately my concert tour begins on October 14. I have a great deal of practice to do and I don’t know whether I shall be able to finish the orchestration before November. I should be very glad if, upon your return, you would drop over to our place. I should like to play the piece for you.” The Symphonic Dances premiered successfully in Philadelphia, although it was less well received a few days later in New York. With time the piece established itself as a dazzling and vibrant compositional farewell, one with poignant private echoes and resonances. It is also a reminder that although Rachmaninoff was a towering pianist and wrote five great works for piano and orchestra, he was also a gifted conductor who composed many pieces that do not involve the piano at all, from operas to evocative large a cappella choral works, three symphonies, and this final orchestral masterpiece.
Rachmaninoff initially thought of titling the three movements “Daytime,” “Twilight,” and
“Midnight,” but ultimately decided against it. The first movement (Non allegro) gets off to a rather subdued start, but quickly becomes more energetic as a rather menacing march. It is notable for its use of solo saxophone, an indication of Rachmaninoff’s interest in jazz. There is a slower middle part and coda, where he quotes the brooding opening theme of his First Symphony. Since in 1940 he—and everyone else—thought the score of that work was lost (it was discovered a few years after his death)—the reference is entirely personal. The magical scoring at this point, with strings evocatively accompanied by piccolo, flutes, piano, harp, and glockenspiel, makes what had originally seemed aggressive more than 40 years earlier in the First Symphony now appear calm and serene.
The Andante con moto offers a soloistic, leisurely, melancholy, and mysterious mood in what is marked “tempo of a waltz” with a grander, faster, and more excited ending. The finale begins with a brief slow section (Lento assai) followed by a lively dance with constantly changing meters (Allegro vivace). After a slower middle section, the ending has further personal resonances. It is the last time Rachmaninoff uses the “Dies irae” chant from the Mass of the Dead, which had become something of his signature tune, beginning with his First Symphony and appearing in many other compositions. He also recalls music he had used in his choral All-Night Vigil nearly 30 years earlier, and here marks the score “Alliluya” (to use the Russian spelling). At the very end he wrote the words, “I thank Thee, Lord.”
Pianist Marcus Roberts, who made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1998, is known throughout the world for his many contributions to jazz music as well as his commitment to integrating the jazz and classical idioms to create something wholly new. He grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where his mother’s gospel singing and the music of the local church left a lasting impact on his music. He began teaching himself to play piano at age five after losing his sight but did not have his first formal lesson until age 12 while attending the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. At age 18 he went on to study classical piano at Florida State University.
Mr. Roberts has won numerous awards and competitions, including the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement and the 2024 Dorothy and David Dushkin Award by the Music Institute of Chicago. His critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music includes solo piano, duets, and trio arrangements of jazz standards as well as original suites of music for trio, large ensembles, and symphony orchestra. He launched his own record label, J-Master Records, in 2009. One of his more recent endeavors is the Modern Jazz Generation, a multigenerational band that is the realization of his long-standing dedication to training and mentoring younger musicians.
Mr. Roberts is also an accomplished composer. He has been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Atlanta Symphony, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra, among others. He was awarded a grant by South Arts and the Doris Duke Foundation for the creation of the audiovideo project Tomorrow’s Promises. In addition to providing support to younger musicians, he continues to find ways to serve the blind and other disabled communities. In 2021 he served as the artistic director for the American Foundation for the Blind’s centennial gala and was a featured speaker/performer at the Disability:IN annual conference. Mr. Roberts is a professor of music at the Florida State University College of Music and a distinguished professor of music at Bard College.
MARCUS ROBERTS
Martin Jaffe, who made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut this past January, is an exciting new voice on the double bass. He is known for his deep sense of groove and his rich and lyrical sound. His musical roots are in jazz, but his background includes both classical and Brazilian music. He is one of New York City’s most in-demand young bassists and has frequently shared the stage with such musical icons as Marcus Roberts, Harold Mabern, Sergio Mendes, and Wynton Marsalis.
Originally from Conway, Massachusetts, Mr. Jaffe moved to New York in 2012 to enroll at Columbia University and the Juilliard School where he studied with bassists Ron Carter and Ray Drummond, among others. In 2012 he was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and in 2013 won the International Society of Bassists’ annual jazz competition. His compositions and arrangements have been widely performed including at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. He has recorded with such artists as Jen Allen, Miro Sprague, Ben Rosenblum, and Chris Pattishall. Mr. Jaffe co-leads an innovative trio with guitarist Jason Ennis and pianist Miro Sprague, which features original compositions by each member drawing on influences from Brazilian music, classical chamber music, and free improvisation.
Jason Marsalis is one of the most gifted drummers in jazz today. He is the youngest son of the late pianist Ellis Marsalis. During his last year of high school at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, he joined the new trio founded by pianist Marcus Roberts. Mr. Marsalis began touring regularly with Mr. Roberts the next year while studying at Loyola University. While he has performed with many other musicians, including Michael White, John Ellis, Shannon Powell, the Marsalis family, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Mr. Marsalis has been the drummer in the Marcus Roberts Trio for 29 years. He has been featured on all of Mr. Roberts’s recordings since joining the Trio and has also released five of his own recordings. His recording The 21st Century Trad Band showcases his remarkably creative approach to soloing while Melody Reimagined, Book 1 (Basin Street Records) highlights his creative imagination by reinventing a series of historic standards for a modern audience.
Mr. Marsalis’s style is heavily influenced by the greats of both jazz and classical music. With Mr. Roberts, he has performed with symphony orchestras all over the world, making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2017. When he is not touring, he can be found working on music or helping to train other young musicians.
MARTIN JAFFE
JASON MARSALIS
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO'S AFRICAN SYMPHONY
WITH THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA
Conductor
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO
Vocalist
MÁRQUEZ
Danzón No. 2
KUTI/arr. Hodge “Lady”*
MAKEBA/arr. Hodge “Nongqongqo (To Those We Love)”*
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya has amassed considerable experience at the helm of orchestras, recently completing seven years as chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and 21 years as music director of the Fort Worth Symphony, where he continues as music director laureate. Previously he has held music director positions with the Eugene Symphony and the Auckland Philharmonia. He regularly conducts such American orchestras as the Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Baltimore symphonies; the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras; and the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2000.
Mr. Harth-Bedoya has a number of close relationships with orchestras including the Taiwan National Orchestra; the BBC Scottish, Danish National, Sydney, NHK, and Tokyo Metropolitan symphonies; and the Munich, Dresden, Helsinki, and Royal Stockholm philharmonics. In 2015 he conducted the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s
opera Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera, the recording of which was nominated for a GRAMMY Award. Previous opera engagements include Puccini’s La bohème at English National Opera and appearances with the Canadian Opera Company and Minnesota Opera. He has led productions of Golijov’s Ainadamar at Cincinnati Opera and the New Zealand Festival, and conducts the work at the Metropolitan Opera in 2024.
With a passionate devotion to unearthing new South-American repertoire, Mr. Harth-Bedoya is the founder and artistic director of Caminos Del Inka, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, performing, and preserving the rich musical legacy of the continent. In 2017 he launched an online catalogue, www.latinorchestralmusic.com. His discography includes releases on Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, FWSO Live, and Naxos. An environmental activist, he is committed to a zerowaste lifestyle and co-founded a food composting company in his home state of Texas.
MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA
PHOTO BY MICHAL NOVAK
BY PATRICK FOUQUE
Five-time GRAMMY Award winner Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today, a creative force with 16 albums to her name. Time magazine called her “Africa’s premier diva” and named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2021. She is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum, the 2016 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award, the 2018 German Sustainability Award, and the 2023 Vilcek Prize in Music.
Ms. Kidjo has cross-pollinated the West-African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk, and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America. After exploring the roads of Africa’s diaspora, offering a refreshing and electrifying take on the Talking Heads album Remain in Light, and reflecting on an icon of the Americas—celebrated salsa singer Celia Cruz—on Kidjo’s latest album, Mother Nature, she joins forces with many of her musical progeny, including some of the most captivating
young creators of West-African music, Afrobeat, Afro-pop, dancehall, hip-hop, and alt-R&B. The GRAMMY-winning Celia includes songs from Cruz’s extensive catalogue but with special focus on her work from the 1950s. In 2014 her memoir, Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (Harper Collins) was released.
Ms. Kidjo made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2023. Her collaboration with Philip Glass, Ifè: Three Yorùbá Songs, was given its US premiere by the San Francisco Symphony, and she helped premiere Glass’s Symphony No. 12 (“Lodger”), a re-imaging of the David Bowie album of the same name, with the LA Philharmonic. She travels the world advocating on behalf of children in her capacity as a UNICEF and Oxfam Goodwill Ambassador. She was named spokesperson for the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative by French President Macron. She also created her own charitable foundation, Batonga, which supports the education of young girls in Africa.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO
PHOTO
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIXTM IN CONCERT
JUSTIN FREER
Conductor
The rebellion begins! Lord VoldemortTM is back, but the Ministry of Magic tries to keep a lid on the truth—including appointing a new, power-hungry Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at HogwartsTM Ron and Hermione convince Harry to secretly train students for the wizarding war ahead. A terrifying showdown between good and evil awaits!
Produced by CineConcerts
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Directed by David Yates
Produced by David Heyman and David Barron
Written by Michael Goldenberg
Based on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Starring:
Daniel Radcliffe
Rupert Grint
Emma Watson
Helena Bonham Carter
Robbie Coltrane
Warwick Davis
Ralph Fiennes
Michael Gambon
Brendan Gleeson
Richard Griffiths
Jason Isaacs
Gary Oldman
Alan Rickman
Fiona Shaw
Maggie Smith
Imelda Staunton
Timothy Spall
Emma Thompson
Julie Walters
Music by Nicholas Hooper
Cinematography by Slawomir Idziak
Edited by Mark Day
Produced by Heyday Films
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Visiters," and a BAFTA for Best Original Television Music in 2007 for "Prime Suspect: The Final Act".
Nicholas Hooper, also known as Nick Hooper, is a British film and television composer and guitarist, born on 23 July 1952. His musical journey in film commenced in the 1980s, marking the onset of a prolific creative period in his life. He is known for his award-winning scores for BBC productions such as "Land of the Tiger" and "Andes to Amazon," along with TV movies "The Girl in the Café" and "My Family and Other Animals" among others.
Hooper's acclaim skyrocketed with his composition for the Harry Potter film series, specifically "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," where he collaborated with director David Yates. These projects were notable as Hooper's involvement in blockbuster films, earning him a Grammy nomination for "Half-Blood Prince”. His other high-profile work includes the soundtrack for the Disney documentary "African Cats," which was among the 97 original scores shortlisted for nomination at the 84th Academy Awards in 2011.
Beyond film scoring, Hooper is a performing guitarist who released a solo guitar album titled "6 Strings" in 2015, followed by "Pete's Trees" with his duo Henderson:Hooper in 2018. In 2019, he featured on a charity double CD "Strings that Nimble Leap." He performs regularly with Gordon Giltrap MBE and The Boot Band. Additionally, he has released three novels: "Above the Void" (2017), "The Occasional Gardener" (2018), and "The Mirror in the Ice Cream Parlour" (2019), showcasing his versatility and creativity across different mediums.
Hooper has been active in the music domain since 1985, with a career spanning over decades, wherein he has contributed to over 250 films, dramas, and documentaries since 1990, making him one of Europe’s leading composers known for original, inspiring, and colorful music.His noteworthy accolades include a BAFTA Award and an Ivor Novello Award for Original Score in 2004 for "The Young
American composer/conductor Justin Freer was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. He has established himself as one of the West Coast’s most exciting musical voices and is a highly sought-after conductor and producer of film music concerts around the world. He began his formal studies on trumpet, but quickly turned to piano and composition, composing his first work at age 11 and giving his professional conducting debut at 16. He has written music for world-renowned trumpeters Doc Severinsen and Jens Lindemann and is in demand as a composer and conductor for everything from orchestral literature to chamber music around the world.
Mr. Freer has served as composer for several independent films and has written motion picture advertising music for some of 20th Century Fox Studios’ biggest campaigns including Avatar, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Aliens in the Attic. As a conductor he has appeared with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the London, Los Angeles, and New York philharmonics. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2014. He is also one of the only conductors to have ever conducted in both the ancient Colosseum and Circus Maximus in Rome.
Mr. Freer has been recognized with numerous grants and awards from organizations including ASCAP, BMI, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and the Henry Mancini Estate. He is the founder and president of CineConcerts, a company dedicated to the preservation and concert presentation of film, curating and conducting full-length music score performances live with film for such wide-ranging titles as Rudy, Gladiator, The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the entire Harry Potter film franchise. Mr. Freer earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music Composition from UCLA. In addition, he was mentored by legendary composer/conductor Jerry Goldsmith.
NICHOLAS HOOPER
JUSTIN FREER
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX™ IN CONCERT, PRODUCED BY CINECONCERTS
Andrew P. Alderete, Chief XR Officer/Head of Publicity and Communications
Andrew McIntyre, Director of Operations
Brittany Fonseca, Senior Marketing Manager
Si Peng, Senior Social Media Manager
Worldwide Representation: WME
Music Preparation: JoAnn Kane Music Service
Sound Remixing: Justin Moshkevich, Igloo Music Studios
About CineConerts
CineConcerts is one of the leading producers of live music experiences performed with visual media and is continuously redefining live entertainment. Founded by Producer/Conductor Justin Freer and Producer/Writer Brady Beaubien, CineConcerts has engaged over 4.8 million people worldwide in concert presentations in over 3,000 scheduled performances in 48 countries through 2025, and recently launched CineConcerts +PLUS, a global digital network and app suite with hundreds of exclusive podcast episodes and produced content. CineConcerts continues to work with some of the most prestigious orchestras and venues in the world including the Chicago Symphony; the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Philharmonia orchestras; and the London, Los Angeles, and New York philharmonics. Recent and current live and digital concert experiences include Elf in Concert, The Pinball Concert (digital), The Polar Express in Concert, Rudy in Concert, The Passion of the Christ in Concert, The Da Vinci Code in Concert, the Harry Potter Film Concert Series, Gladiator Live, The Godfather Live, It’s a Wonderful Life in Concert, DreamWorks Animation In Concert, Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage 50th Anniversary Concert Tour, Breakfast at Tiffany’s in Concert, and A Christmas Dream Live.
About Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment (WBDGTE)
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment (WBDGTE), part of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Brands and Experiences, is a worldwide leader in the creation, development, and licensing of location-based entertainment, live events, exhibits, and theme park experiences based on the biggest franchises, stories, and characters from Warner Bros.’ film, television, animation, and games studios, HBO, Discovery, DC, Cartoon Network, and more. WBDGTE is home to the groundbreaking locations of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal theme parks around the world, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, the WB Abu Dhabi, the FRIENDS Experience, the Game of Thrones Studio Tour, and countless other experiences inspired by the Wizarding World, DC, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Game of Thrones, FRIENDS, and more. With best-in-class partners, WBDGTE allows fans around the world to physically immerse themselves inside their favorite brands and franchises.
AN EVENING WITH JOHN LEGEND: A NIGHT OF SONGS AND STORIES WITH THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
ANTHONY PARNTHER Conductor
JOHN
LEGEND Vocalist and Piano
Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage.
This program is made possible in part with generous support from Bouchey Financial Group.
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
Conductor Anthony Parnther is in his fifth season as music director of California’s San Bernardino Symphony. He is also conductor of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, whose members hail from leading orchestras nationwide; he led the ensemble in its Carnegie Hall debut, featuring the world premiere of I Can by GRAMMY-winner Jon Batiste. Mr. Parnther has conducted many of the world’s preeminent artists, from Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Jessye Norman, and Frederica von Stade to John Legend, Avenged Sevenfold, Wu-Tang Clan, Metro Boomin, and Rihanna. This season’s highlights include guest appearances with the New York Philharmonic; the Seattle, Cincinnati, Vancouver, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Nashville symphonies; and the Chineke! Orchestra, with which he recently made his BBC Proms debut. Other recent engagements include the Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, San Francisco, and Sydney symphonies; the Los Angeles, Buffalo, and Rochester philharmonics; the Royal Scottish National orchestra; and Los Angeles Opera. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2023.
Dedicated to amplifying traditionally underrepresented voices, Mr. Parnther has reconstructed and performed orchestral works by Margaret Bonds, Duke Ellington, Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among others. He also led LA Opera’s world premiere of Tamar-kali’s oratorio We Hold these Truths and Long Beach Opera’s revival of Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five.
One of today’s foremost film conductors, Mr. Parnther leads recording sessions for many of the world’s top international feature films and television series. Recent projects include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Encanto, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Nope, Creed III, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Oppenheimer, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Book of Boba Fett, and League of Legends
ANTHONY PARNTHER
PHOTO BY DARIO ACOSTA
John Legend is an EGOT-winning, critically acclaimed, multiplatinum artist and producer, who has garnered 12 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award and three Emmy Awards, among others. Legend is one of only nineteen people in the prestigious EGOT club and released nine celebrated albums over the course of his career, including Get Lifted (2004), Once Again (2006), Evolver (2008), Love in the Future (2013), Darkness and Light (2016), A Legendary Christmas Deluxe (2019), Bigger Love (2020), LEGEND (2022), and most recently, LEGEND (Solo Piano Version) (2023). In 2022, John’s critically acclaimed Las Vegas Residency, “Love In Las Vegas,” took place at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Upcoming,
Legend will be a coach on Season 27 of NBC’s The Voice. Beyond his music career, Legend is a co-founder of Get Lifted Film Co., a production company which has developed projects with major networks including ABC, NBC, FOX, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and FX, alongside co-founders Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius. Aside from film, TV and theater, Get Lifted has partnered with Zando to form Get Lifted Books, which builds upon Get Lifted Film Co.’s mission of spotlighting stories from dynamic creatives. In 2023, Legend launched Loved01, his effective and affordable unisex skincare brand formulated to treat the needs of melanin-rich skin. As an activist, Legend launched FREEAMERICA in 2015 to change the conversation surrounding criminal justice policies and to end mass incarceration.
JOHN LEGEND
YANNICK CONDUCTS AN ALPINE SYMPHONY
YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Conductor
JENNIFER MONTONE
JEFFREY LANG
CHELSEA MCFARLAND
CHRISTOPHER DWYER
ERNESTO TOVAR TORRES Horns
SCHUMANN
Konzertstück in F major, Op. 86, for horns and orchestra I. Lebhaft— II. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam— III. Sehr lebhaft
INTERMISSION
STRAUSS
An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
KONZERTSTÜCK IN F MAJOR, OP. 86, FOR HORNS AND ORCHESTRA
Composed in 1849
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810
Died in Endenich (near Bonn), July 29, 1856
As the foremost figure among the first generation of musical Romantics, Robert Schumann must count as one of the great experimentalists of Western art. Like Berlioz and Liszt, he took nothing for granted, assumed no formal or aesthetic precedence as gospel. Despite a comprehensive knowledge of music of the past, he continually questioned the presuppositions behind Bach’s fugues, Haydn’s string quartets, Beethoven’s symphonies, Schubert’s lieder. As a pianist Schumann was fully aware of the keyboard works of Bach and Beethoven, for example, but when he began writing piano music in the 1820s and ’30s, he produced a series of Characterstücke that seemed virtually to have no precedent. When he started composing lieder around 1840, he devised cyclic techniques for unifying groups of songs that had deep implications for later notions of musical structure. And his first symphony in D minor (later revised as No. 4) brought this cyclic notion into the symphonic realm, in a work that music theorists still puzzle over.
Likewise, when Schumann approached the concerto he again took nothing as “given.” His first work in the genre was a single-movement Fantasie for piano and orchestra, composed in 1841 for his wife, Clara. This powerful work, which would later become the first movement of the A-minor Piano Concerto, set the scene for his unconventional approach to concertante texture. Later in life he would write elusive and distinctive concertos for cello and for violin, and along the way (in 1849) he composed the unusual Introduction and Allegro for piano and orchestra, Op. 92.
But the most singular among his works for soloists and orchestra is the Konzertstück for horns, composed during the last years of his residence in Dresden. The first part of Schumann’s stay in this tranquil city, where he and Clara had taken up residence after the composer’s nervous breakdown in 1844, had been devoted to works in conservative genres: the Symphony in C, written in 1845–46, was the first symphonic attempt since the tepidly received premiere of the D-minor Symphony in Leipzig in 1841. But as the years progressed, the composer’s daring nature again came to the fore, in such works as the Requiem für Mignon, the Szenen aus Goethes Faust, the
Manfred music, and his only opera, Genoveva. It was a period that saw much variety of instrumental genres, too, in such works as the Fantasy Pieces for clarinet and piano or the Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano.
The Konzertstück for horns and orchestra was composed in Dresden in mid-February and orchestrated in early March 1849, during a period of unprecedented productivity. It received its premiere on February 20, 1850, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The work shows a remarkable command of orchestration—a skill that by this time had been carefully polished through the composition of three symphonies, the Piano Concerto, and numerous smaller works. It also demonstrates a new approach to the valve horn, which is exploited here for all of its increasing chromatic capabilities. Unlike the “natural” or valveless horn prevalent before the 1830s, the valve horn could play chromatically with speed and flexibility. And this new agility is heard from the very outset of Schumann’s dynamic first movement (Lebhaft), which is filled with dissonances, arpeggios, and wide leaps that are as challenging for a horn player as the cascading passagework of the Piano Concerto is for the piano soloist. The movement is an unusual adaptation of sonata form with an open-ended recapitulation. The central movement (Romanze), which follows without pause, is a plaintive song in which the horns are treated as a sort of choral texture; a central movement, which looks forward to Brahms, provides the bridge to the somber reiteration of opening material. The tumultuous finale (Sehr lebhaft) follows without pause, with a persistent ta-ta-TAH rhythm throughout that reminds us, perhaps, of the horn’s origins as accompaniment to the hunt.
—Paul J. Horsley
AN ALPINE SYMPHONY, OP. 64
Composed from 1911 to 1915
RICHARD STRAUSS
Born in Munich, June 11, 1864
Died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, September 8, 1949
During the early years of the 20th century, Europe’s two great conductor-composers observed each other largely from a distance— with bemusement, friendly regard, and some envy. Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler were wise enough to maintain a sincere respect for each other’s artistic gifts. Each conducted and promoted the other’s works. And when Mahler died in 1911, at the age of 50, the slightly younger
Strauss—who would live for nearly four more decades—was moved and saddened. “Mahler’s death has affected me greatly,” he wrote.
It was shortly after this loss that he set to work in earnest on a piece begun much earlier and that can ultimately be viewed as a tribute to Mahler’s spirit. An Alpine Symphony marked Strauss’s return to instrumental music after a decade devoted primarily to writing operas— Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier. It was his first piece sporting this genre-title since his Symphonia domestica of 1903 and reveals an affinity to the natural world similar to that found in many of Mahler’s symphonies. It is a paean to sweeping mountain landscapes, tranquil meadows, and terrifying spring storms—in short, to the grandeur and awe of nature itself.
The initial conception for an “alpine” symphony had occurred to the composer many years before, after an eventful boyhood mountain hike in which Strauss and his friends had become lost on the way up a mountain and then drenched in a torrent on the way down. Once Strauss arrived back home he recorded his musical impressions of this exhilarating adventure. He later wrote to his friend Ludwig Thuille that these early sketches “naturally contained a lot of nonsense and dramatic Wagnerian tone-painting.”
For a number of years after the experience the composer toyed with the idea of a symphony in this vein. In 1900 he wrote to his parents of a work that was gestating in his mind that “would begin with a sunrise in Switzerland.” Some sketches from this time point toward a piece in two movements with the title Tragedy of an Artist. He returned to the project 10 years later, this time for a four-movement work called The Alps. The idea, as musicologist Charles Youmans has observed, was to follow “an artist’s evolving perception of nature to the stage at which it could be used as a liberation from metaphysics.”
Then Strauss heard of Mahler’s death. He noted in his diary: “The death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist is a grave loss. … As a Jew, Mahler was still able to find exaltation in Christianity. As an old man the hero Wagner returned to it under the influence of Schopenhauer. It is absolutely clear to me that the only way the German nation can regain its vitality is by liberating itself from Christianity. … I shall call my alpine symphony ‘The Antichrist’ for it has: moral regeneration through one’s own efforts, liberation through work, adoration of eternal, magnificent Nature.”
Strauss composed most of An Alpine Symphony at his chalet in the mountain setting of Garmisch, completing the sketches in 1914 and orchestrating them during the next year. The work was finished by February 1915. By this time the “Antichrist” title drawn from Friedrich Nietzsche (who had inspired his earlier tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra) had been dropped, although the idea of surmounting religion and all metaphysics through the adoration of nature remained.
Strauss conducted the premiere on October 28, 1915, in Berlin with the Dresden Hofkapelle Orchestra. During rehearsals he commented to the orchestra: “I have finally learned to orchestrate.” Although the piece received mixed reviews, Strauss retained affection for it and chose it as one of the works he wished to present on concerts in England in 1948, the year before his death. Leopold Stokowski led what was billed as a U.S. premiere of An Alpine Symphony in April 1916—though a “hearing” had been presented by the Cincinnati Symphony two days before the first Philadelphia performance.
The vast one-movement composition, which includes some of Strauss’s most vivid tone-painting, calls for an enormous orchestra and lasts longer than any of his other orchestral compositions. He cast it in 22 continuous sections, each carefully titled so as to recount successively the tale of the youthful mountain adventure. The titles serve as a relatively straightforward guide for listening.
“Night” opens with a unison B-flat chord and a descending scale against which is intoned an ominous brass chorale theme; “Sunrise” continues the slow introduction; one is reminded of the famous parallel occurrence in Also sprach Zarathustra. The main body of the work now begins with the vigorous theme of “The Ascent,” which features hunting horns sounded in the distance. “Entry into the Forest” offers some repose and magical orchestration reminiscent of Wagner’s “Forest Murmurs” from Siegfried, coupled with Mahlerian bird calls. Water sounds make an appearance in “Wandering Beside the Brook” and then becomes a torrent with “At the Waterfall.” “Apparition” refers to a legendary Alp fairy or sprite and leads to “On the Flowering Meadows.”
“The Alpine Pasture” opens with cowbells, such as Mahler had used in his Sixth and Seventh symphonies, as well as with yodeling effects. The climbers now get lost in “Through Thicket and Brush on Wrong Paths” before emerging at the magnificent “On the Glacier.” The following “Dangerous Moments” depicts the perils as
they get higher and reach “On the Summit.” The destination has been achieved and there is now “The Vision,” “The Mists Rise,” “The Sun Gradually Darkens,” “Elegy,” and “Calm Before the Storm.”
Next the “Thunderstorm” erupts and is one of the most striking and harrowing musical depictions of a torrent ever composed; it features both a wind machine and a thunder machine. The climbers begin their “Descent” and themes we heard on
the way up pass in rather quick review on the way down. The final three sections are more nostalgic: “Sunset,” “Conclusion,” and “Night,” which bring us back to the music with which the entire symphonic poem began.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair) is currently in his 12th season with The Philadelphia Orchestra, serving as music and artistic director. Additionally, he became the third music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2018. An inspired leader, Yannick is both an evolutionary and a revolutionary, developing the mighty “Philadelphia Sound” in new ways. His collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling and sought-after talents of his generation. He has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, and in 2017 he became an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 2008 to 2018 (he is now honorary conductor).
Yannick signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2018. Under his
leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with 13 releases on that label, including Florence Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, which won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2022.
A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada; an Officer of the Order of Quebec; an Officer of the Order of Montreal; an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; and honorary doctorates from, among others, the Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, McGill University, the University of Montreal, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University.
YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN
PHOTO BY LANDON NORDEMAN
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; the Santa Fe, Bravo! Vail, and La Jolla chamber music festivals; and the Marlboro Music Festival, among others.
Ms. Montone is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Julie Landsman. In 2006 she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is also the winner of the 1996 Paxman Young Horn Player of the Year Award in London.
Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Horn Jennifer Montone (Gray Charitable Trust Chair) is a world-acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She has been on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School since joining the Orchestra in 2006. Previously principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony and associate principal horn of the Dallas Symphony, she was an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University and performer/faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School. She currently coaches on occasion at the New World Symphony. She has performed as a guest artist with the Berlin and New York philharmonics, and the Cleveland, Metropolitan Opera, Saint Paul Chamber, and Orpheus Chamber orchestras. She regularly performs as a soloist with such orchestras as The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which she made her solo debut in 2010; the St. Louis, Dallas, National, and Polish National Radio symphonies; and the Curtis Institute of Music Orchestra. Her recording of the Penderecki Horn Concerto (“Winterreise”) with the Warsaw National Philharmonic won a 2013 GRAMMY Award as Best Classical Compendium.
Ms. Montone made her Weill Recital Hall solo recital debut in October 2008. She has appeared as a featured artist at many International Horn Society workshops and as a soloist and collaborator with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Eric Owens, Christoph Eschenbach, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, and David Soyer. As a chamber musician she performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; the
Jeffrey Lang (Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson Chair) is an orchestral horn player, educator, and studio musician. He is the associate principal horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra and is currently on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. Formerly principal horn of the Israel Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra, he has also performed as guest principal horn of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the New York City Opera, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Lang studied at the Juilliard School and Temple University. He has given master classes in Israel, Finland, Korea, China, and the United States. He is a frequent soloist and has appeared with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Myung-Whun Chung, Kurt Masur, Cristian Măcelaru, and Rossen Milanov. Chamber music performances at home and abroad have included concerts with Bella Davidovitch, Diane Walsh, Simone Dinnerstein, Melvin Chen, Natalie Zhu, Juliette Kang, the Israel Piano Trio, the Wister Quartet, the Canadian Brass, the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, and the
JENNIFER MONTONE
PHOTO BY JESSICA GRIFFIN
JEFFREY LANG
PHOTO BY JESSICA GRIFFIN
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has participated in the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Bard Summerscape, OK Mozart, and the Spoleto Festival.
Mr. Lang records for several TV, film, and commercial artists and was principal horn of Disney’s long running Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast. His solo horn album, One World Horn, is a project for charity presenting unaccompanied horn works from around the world. A live recording of Richard Wilson’s Triple Concerto for Horn, Marimba, and Bass Clarinet with the American Symphony Orchestra is also available on Apple Music. Mr. Lang is a Conn-Selmer Artist and an active member of the Recording Academy, the International Horn Society, and the American Federation of Musicians.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 7:30PM
A passionate educator, Ms. McFarland was a faculty member at the Atlanta Horn Festival, where she was also a featured artist; a faculty member at the 2022 Brass Blast at Kennesaw State University; and a coach at the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. She also filmed a season of Music for the Young produced by the Atlanta Symphony and a French horn clinic for the Georgia Music Educators Association.
Ms. McFarland participated in numerous music festivals, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Music Academy of the West, Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, and the Brevard Summer Music Institute. Active in chamber music, she most recently appeared on WQXR’s Performance Today with the Atlanta Symphony’s Pre-Concert Chamber Music Series. Ms. McFarland lives in Philadelphia with her rescue pup, Frank. When not playing horn, she enjoys running, rock climbing, hiking, and trying new recipes.
Chelsea McFarland joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as third horn in the 2022–23 season. Born in Decatur, Georgia, she fostered a love for orchestral playing with the Atlanta Youth Symphony. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Jennifer Montone and Jeffrey Lang. After graduating in 2018, Ms. McFarland joined the Atlanta Symphony as third horn for four seasons. Additionally, she has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, the New World Symphony, and as a member of Symphony in C.
Christopher Dwyer joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as second horn at the start of the 2020–21 season. He previously served for six seasons as the second horn of the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson. Mr. Dwyer has also held positions with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the New Mexico Symphony.
CHELSEA MCFARLAND
PHOTO BY PETE CHECCHIA
CHRISTOPHER DWYER
Mr. Dwyer has frequently performed as a guest with other major symphony orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. Among his other festival appearances are the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, Music from Angel Fire, Bellingham Festival of Music, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra’s Summer Music Festival.
Mr. Dwyer received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was a student of Eli Epstein and then went on to study with Dale Clevenger as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Mr. Dwyer is an avid baseball fan, hiker, and craft beer enthusiast. He is married to flutist Laura Dwyer and they share their home with two lazy Persian cats.
Mexican-born hornist Ernesto Tovar Torres is the fourth horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra and is in high demand as a soloist and orchestral and chamber musician. Before his tenure in Philadelphia, he served as second horn for the Atlanta Symphony from 2015 to 2017. He has also performed with the Dallas Symphony, the Steamboat Springs String Festival, the Naples Philharmonic, the Bellingham Festival Orchestra (WA), and the Grand Rapids Symphony. Major music festival engagements include the Eastern Music Festival (NC), the Texas Music Festival, the Banff Master Class for Strings and Winds, and Spoleto USA. Mr. Tovar was also a finalist in the 2013 International Horn Competition of America, where he performed the Glière Horn Concerto.
As an educator, Mr. Tovar has presented master classes at various colleges and conservatories around the United States and abroad. Recent
engagements have included the Curtis Institute of Music, Wichita State University, the University of Georgia at Athens, and the Jerusalem Music Center in Israel.
Mr. Tovar received his training at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with William VerMeulen, international horn soloist and principal horn of the Houston Symphony. He holds a bachelor’s degree in horn performance from Oklahoma State University, where he studied with Lanette Lopez-Compton and graduated with honors in May 2014. Mr. Tovar currently resides in Philadelphia with his wife, Marde Meek, and their dogs. Together they enjoy cycling, cooking fine Mexican cuisine, and traveling (when they can find a dog sitter).
ERNESTO TOVAR TORRES
PHOTO BY JESSICA GRIFFIN
AN EVENING OF BRAHMS WITH FABIO LUISI
FABIO LUISI
Conductor
BOMSORI KIM
Violin
BRAHMS
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace—Poco più presto
INTERMISSION
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andante moderato
III. Allegro giocoso—Poco meno presto—Tempo I
IV. Allegro energico e passionato—Più allegro
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 77
Composed in
1878
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Born in Hamburg, May 7, 1833
Died in Vienna, April 3, 1897
The year 1878 was relatively calm for the restless Johannes Brahms. After coming to terms with Beethoven’s shadow—publishing his First Symphony in 1877 after many years of working on it—he set out with friends on a long-awaited first trip to Italy in the spring. He learned some Italian and spent four weeks visiting Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, among other cities. Upon his return to the tiny town of Pörtschach on Lake Wörth, 200 miles southwest of Vienna, Brahms spent a felicitous summer composing his massive Violin Concerto and completing his Piano Pieces, Op. 76.
At the end of August, Brahms sent his violinist friend Joseph Joachim two brief letters revealing that he was busy composing a concerto. With typical modesty, Brahms asked Joachim if he might consider playing it: “Naturally, I was going to ask you to make corrections, thought you should have no excuse either way—neither respect for music that is too good, nor the excuse that the score isn’t worth the trouble.” Joachim received the final solo parts only on December 12, leaving him little time to shape the music before its New Year’s premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Brahms conducting. Infamous early reactions included Joseph Hellmesberger’s “it wasn’t for, but against the violin” and Henryk Wieniawski’s “unplayable.” Sentiments quickly changed after Joachim performed it in Vienna on January 14, 1879, with his own cadenza. Brahms remarked, “The cadenza went so magnificently at our concert here that the people clapped right on into my coda.” The two spent the next six months perfecting the work, which is now a concert hall staple.
Brahms initially intended his Violin Concerto to have four movements like a symphony but by November 1878 conceded, “The middle movements have fallen out—naturally they were the best! I have replaced them with a poor adagio.” In 1853, when Brahms was only 20 years old, Robert Schumann created epic expectations for him by naming him the heir to Beethoven and calling his early piano sonatas “veiled symphonies.” But
perhaps one should understand Brahms’s Violin Concerto as a veiled piano sonata. It sparkles with witty pianistic thirds, beefy chords, and twoagainst-three rhythms. Written for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, four horns, timpani, and strings, the work features traditional orchestration, more typical of Romantic Schubert than early modern Mahler.
The Concerto contains a range of musical elements reflecting the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled by Franz Joseph I and his stylish wife, Elisabeth. The opening movement (Allegro non troppo) suggests a conflict between the external opulence and internal loneliness of Schönbrunn—the Habsburg’s Viennese country palace surrounded by graveled paths, pedestaled sculptures, and manicured gardens. The piece is written in double-exposition concerto form, and begins with strings and woodwinds in a carefree triple meter. The first theme’s arpeggios capture a sense of security and pride, much like the first measures of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. Soon unison strings in a loud dynamic provide a contrasting mood. An oboe announces a more introspective timbre, which will repeat in the second movement. A sudden dotted rhythm in minor presupposes the arrival of the soloist, who enters tempestuously and attacks this mercurial movement, challenging the most virtuosic of violinists.
The Adagio leads the listener into the Austrian countryside. Echoing Beethoven’s struggle against fate in the Fifth Symphony, a plaintive oboe momentarily steals the show, once prompting Pablo de Sarasate, the Spanish virtuoso, to quip that he refused to “stand on the rostrum, violin in hand and listen to the oboe playing the only tune in the adagio.” Before long though, the violinist spins the tune into different layers of splendid melody. The third movement (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace—Poco più presto) starts with an understandably impatient soloist, as in Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. Dicey double stops and hammering hemiolas add variety to the rapid rondo. Brahms did not include a cadenza here, as the soloist has enough knotty passages in Hungarian style to satisfy any player. A humble decrescendo precedes the final loud chords, one more nod to the unshakable Beethoven.
—Aaron Beck
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN E MINOR, OP. 98
Composed from 1884 to 1885
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Haydn composed over 100 symphonies, Mozart some 50, but the most celebrated 19th-century composers dramatically scaled back on such quantity. Beethoven’s formidable nine upped the stakes. The Romantic celebration of originality meant that each new work now carried extraordinary weight. While Mozart had written his first symphony at the age of eight, Beethoven held off until age 29. Many subsequent 19th-century composers waited well into their careers to produce a symphony.
After Robert Schumann more or less discovered the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms in 1853, writing a glowing review that praised him as the new musical messiah, all eyes and ears were on the young composer. Brahms felt under phenomenal pressure to produce an impressive first symphony. He made various false starts and it ultimately took him until age 43 to complete the Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Following the premiere of that glorious work in 1876 the celebrated conductor Hans von Bülow hailed it as “Beethoven’s Tenth.” Brahms’s next symphony, a quite different work in a sunny D major, came quickly the next year. The Symphony No. 3 in F major dates from 1883 and he began the Fourth the following summer.
Brahms composed the Symphony over the course of two summers in the resort of Mürzzuschlag, not far southwest from Vienna. From the outset he had the idea of ending the work with a passacaglia, a Baroque procedure in which a musical pattern is constantly repeated; specifically he wanted to use as its basis the theme of the last movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 150. Brahms composed the first two movements of the Symphony in 1884 and then the fourth and third (apparently in that order) the following summer.
Brahms was acutely aware that the Fourth Symphony was different from his earlier efforts. As was often his practice, he sought the opinion of trusted colleagues to whom he sent the score and eventually played through the piece with composer Ignaz Brüll in a version for two pianos. In early October 1885 he assembled a group of friends, among them the powerful critic Eduard Hanslick, conductor Hans Richter, and his future biographer Max Kalbeck. After the first movement concluded there was no reaction—Hanslick remarked that the experience was like being beaten “by two terribly clever people,” which dissipated some of the tension. The next day Kalbeck suggested scrapping the third movement entirely and publishing the finale as a separate piece.
Despite some polite praise Brahms realized that most of his friends were lukewarm on the piece; he may well have felt that until it was played by an orchestra its true effect could not really be judged. Bülow, with whose formidable court orchestra in Meiningen Brahms often performed, put that ensemble at the composer’s disposal: “We are yours to command.” Brahms could test out the piece, see what he might want to change, and then present the premiere. The event on October 25, 1885, turned out to be a triumph—each movement received enthusiastic applause and the audience attempted, unsuccessfully, to have the brief third-movement scherzo repeated. Over the next month the new work was presented on tour in various cities in Germany and the Netherlands.
The first performance in Brahms’s adopted hometown of Vienna took place in January 1886 with Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Hanslick was now enthusiastic and compared the work to a “dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.”
Although Brahms thought of beginning the first movement (Allegro non troppo) with a brief chordal introduction, he ultimately decided to cut these measures and launch directly into the opening theme, a series of limpid two-note sighs consisting of descending thirds and ascending sixths that bind the movement together. The following Andante moderato opens with a noble horn theme that yields to a magnificently adorned theme for the strings. The tempo picks up in the sparkling third movement (Allegro giocoso), a scherzo in sonata form that gives the triangle a workout.
As mentioned, Brahms initially had the idea of the final movement (Allegro energico e passionato) using the Baroque technique of a passacaglia or chaconne (the terms are often used interchangeably). He slightly altered a ground bass progression from the final chorus of Bach’s Cantata No. 150, “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (For You, Lord, Is My Longing) over which he built a mighty set of 30 variations and coda. In 1877 Brahms had made a piano transcription for left hand alone of Bach’s D-minor Chaconne for solo violin, which provided a model here, as did the last movement of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. The variations, often presented in pairs, begin with a bold statement based on Bach’s theme. Despite a section in major, the movement gradually builds in its tragic force to a thrilling conclusion.
GRAMMY Award-winner Fabio Luisi launched his tenure as the music director of the Dallas Symphony at the start of the 2020–21 season and in January 2021 the orchestra announced an extension of his position through 2028–29. The Italian conductor is in his seventh season as principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony, and in September 2022 he assumed the role of principal conductor of the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. He previously served for six seasons as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and nine seasons as general music director of the Zurich Opera. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2011.
Mr. Luisi’s current season with the Dallas Symphony featured monumental works including Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Brahms’s A German Requiem, and Liszt’s A Faust Symphony. He also led three world premieres: Jessie Montgomery’s Snapshots; Xi Wang’s Year 2020; and Anna Clyne’s Piano Concerto. The season concluded with the first two operas in Wagner’s Ring Cycle The ensemble and Mr. Luisi will continue the complete cycle in the 2024–25 season, marking the first time in recent history an American orchestra has mounted the full Ring. In October 2023 Mr. Luisi and the Dallas Symphony released the second of their recording projects, Brahms’s Third and Fourth symphonies, on the orchestra’s in-house label, DSO Live.
Mr. Luisi received a GRAMMY Award in 2012 for the last two operas of Wagner’s Ring Cycle on DVD on Deutsche Grammophon, recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera. Born in Genoa in 1959, he began piano studies at age four and received his diploma from the Conservatorio Niccolò Paganini. He later studied conducting at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In 2014 he was awarded the Grifo d’Oro, the highest honor given by the city of Genoa, for his contributions to the city’s cultural legacy. Off the podium he is an accomplished composer and a passionate maker of perfumes.
In February 2021 violinist Bomsori Kim, who is making her Philadelphia Orchestra debut, signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Her 2023–24 season included her debut at the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also toured with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra; made debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the National Orchestra of Spain; and returned to the Residentie Orkest, and the Vienna, Montreal, and Singapore symphonies. Previous highlights include appearances with the Rotterdam, New York, and Royal philharmonics; the Barcelona and Danish National symphonies; the Gulbenkian Orchestra; and the Basel and Bavarian Radio chamber orchestras.
In addition to winning the 62nd ARD International Music Competition, Ms. Kim is a prize winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition, the Montreal International Musical Competition, the Sendai International Music Competition, and the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. In 2021 she released her first Deutsche Grammophon solo album, Violin on Stage, with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic. A duo album with pianist Rafał Blechacz, featuring works by Fauré, Debussy, Szymanowski, and Chopin, was released in 2019 by Deutsche Grammophon.
Born in South Korea, Ms. Kim received her bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University, where she studied with Young Uck Kim. She earned her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School. She performs on the Guarnerius del Gesù “ex-Moller,” Cremona, 1725, on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and the Stradivari Society of Chicago, Illinois.
FABIO LUISI
BOMSORI KIM
PHOTO BY KYUTAI SHIMM/DGG
CARMINA BURANA
FABIO LUISI
Conductor
AUDREY LUNA
Soprano
SUNNYBOY DLADLA
Tenor
SEAN MICHAEL PLUMB
Baritone
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
I. Allegro vivace e con brio
II. Allegretto scherzando
III. Tempo di menuetto
IV. Allegro vivace
ORFF
Carmina burana
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi:
1. O Fortuna (chorus)
2. Fortune plango vulnera (chorus)
I. Primo vere:
3. Veris leta facies (small chorus)
4. Omnia Sol temperat (baritone)
5. Ecce gratum (chorus)
Uf dem Anger:
6. Tanz (orchestra)
7. Floret silva (chorus)
ALBANY PRO MUSICA
JOSÉ DANIEL FLORES-CARABALLO
Opalka Family Artistic Director
PHILADELPHIA GIRLS CHOIR
NATHAN WADLEY
Artistic Director
PHILADELPHIA BOYS CHOIR
JEFFREY R. SMITH
Artistic Director
INTERMISSION
8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir (soprano and chorus)
9. (a.) Reie (orchestra) (b.) Swaz hie gat umbe (chorus) (c.) Chume, chum geselle min (small chorus) (d.) Swaz hie gat umbe (chorus)
10. Were diu werlt alle min (chorus)
II. In Taberna:
11. Estuans interius (baritone)
12. Olim lacus colueram (tenor and tenor/bass chorus)
13. Ego sum abbas (baritone and tenor/bass chorus)
14. In taberna quando sumus (tenor/bass chorus)
III. Cour d’amours:
15. Amor volat undique (soprano and children’s chorus)
16. Dies, nox et omnia (baritone)
17. Stetit puella (soprano)
18. Circa mea pectora (baritone and chorus)
19. Si puer com puellula (tenor/bass chorus)
20. Veni, veni, venias (double chorus)
21. In trutina (soprano)
22. Tempus est iocundum (soprano, baritone, chorus, children’s chorus)
23. Dulcissime (soprano)
Blanziflor et Helena:
24. Ave formosissima (chorus)
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi:
25. O Fortuna (chorus)
This program is made possible in part with generous support from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN F MAJOR, OP. 93
Composed in 1812
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born in Bonn, probably December 16, 1770
Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827
Composers writing symphonies in Beethoven’s wake often found themselves privately intimidated as they worked and then publicly subjected to unfavorable critical comparisons once they finished. The Eighth Symphony shows that even Beethoven could find himself in a similar situation: His own new compositions sometimes suffered in comparison with more famous earlier works. Robert Schumann remarked that the Fourth Symphony was like a “slender Grecian maiden between two Nordic giants.” So, too, the Eighth is a shorter, lighter, and far more good-humored work than its imposing neighbors, the celebratory Seventh and the towering Ninth. According to Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny, the extraordinary enthusiasm that greeted the Seventh Symphony was in stark contrast to the puzzled reaction to the Eighth: “That’s because it is so much better” was Beethoven’s alleged response.
Beethoven was given to writing and performing symphonies in pairs. He composed the Fifth and Sixth symphonies—so different in many respects— around the same time and they were premiered on the same concert. The gestation of his next two symphonies, the Seventh and Eighth, was likewise joined, as were some of their early performances.
Both these pairs of unidentical twins raise the issue of Beethoven’s odd and even numbered symphonies—of the common perception of advance in the odd-numbered ones and retreat in the even. Certainly the former are the more popular, praised, performed, and recorded. And as with Schumann’s observation about the Fourth being overshadowed by its towering neighbors, the Eighth also tends to get lost in the crowd. Beethoven referred to it as “my little Symphony in F,” so as to distinguish it from the Seventh, as well as from the longer and more substantial Sixth Symphony, also in F major.
Beethoven composed his Seventh and Eighth symphonies during a critical period in his life and concentrated on the latter during the summer of 1812. He found it advisable for health reasons to leave Vienna during the hot summers, which had the added benefit of getting him closer to the nature that he loved so much. In 1812 he traveled to spas in Bohemia. Meeting for the first and only time the great poet Goethe was not the only
event of biographical interest that summer. It was at this time that Beethoven penned his famous letter to the “Immortal Beloved,” which reveals a reciprocated love, but one whose future course was in serious doubt. Beethoven probably never sent the letter and nowhere indicated the identity of the woman to whom it was written. The mystery surrounding this legendary relationship has inspired a vast scholarly (and pseudo-scholarly) literature, as well as novels, plays, and movies
Beethoven completed the Eighth Symphony in October while in Linz, where he had gone to visit his brother Johann. His health was poor and one can only speculate at the repercussions of the disappointing termination of his relationship with the mystery woman. Despite what appear to be trying circumstances, this Symphony is one of the composer’s most delightful and humorous works.
The Eighth premiered in Vienna on February 27, 1814, on a concert that also included the Seventh Symphony and Beethoven’s popular Wellington’s Victory. The leading periodical of the time, the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, remarked that the audience was extremely interested in hearing his latest symphony but that a single hearing was not enough:
The applause that it received was not accompanied by the enthusiasm which distinguishes a work that gives universal delight. … The reviewer is of the opinion that the reason does not lie by any means in weaker or less artistic workmanship (for here as in all of Beethoven’s work of this kind there breathes that peculiar spirit by which his originality always asserts itself); but partly in the faulty judgment which permitted this symphony to follow the [Seventh in] A major. … If this symphony should be performed alone hereafter, we have no doubt of its success.
The first movement (Allegro vivace e con brio) is dominated by a buoyant opening theme, from which a related second theme emerges. One of Beethoven’s witty touches is that the first and last measures of the movement are the same—it is the sort of thing his teacher Haydn might have done, and indeed the older master’s spirit is often evident in this work. The Symphony has no slow movement, in fact, there is no heaviness anywhere in the piece. In the second movement (Allegretto scherzando), Beethoven delights in the recent invention of the “chronometer” (an early version of the metronome) made available to him by his colleague Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who also fashioned various hearing aids for his use. The incessant ticking of wind instruments sets the pace.
Beethoven must have felt it would be unwise to follow the already humorous Allegretto with a scherzo (literally, joke) and therefore reverted to the more Classical minuet and trio (Tempo di menuetto). Yet the amusing touches do not entirely disappear. Just try dancing to this minuet and you may find yourself tripping over the false downbeats. In the finale (Allegro vivace), Beethoven once again seems more intent on playful display than on the weighty issues he explores in his neighboring symphonies. In this extended rondo, he experiments with dynamics, instrumentation, and concludes with a long, spirited coda.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
precisely because it had been widely regarded as the fascist product of Hitler’s Germany. But once it was heard in the United States, it was an instantaneous success, and Carmina burana—or at least its opening chorus—has become one of the most popular pieces of choral/orchestral music of all time.
CARMINA BURANA
Composed from 1935 to 1936
CARL ORFF
Born in Munich, July 10, 1895
Died there, March 29, 1982
During the mid-1930s, Carl Orff’s position in German culture was, like so many other artists and musicians, decidedly precarious. In 1933 he had been singled out by the culture Kampfbund as a Bolshevist because of the foreign influence (especially that of Stravinsky) in his music. Under the Third Reich, Orff spent much of his time pursuing “safe” musical activities that appeased the Party without necessarily supporting it. And after the war he lied about his associations in order to avoid a career-ending classification by the Allies. If, however, he felt guilt that his career had survived, if not exactly thrived, under Nazi rule, it was primarily guilt by association.
When Orff’s “profane cantata” Carmina burana was premiered in 1937, some officials within the Nazi Party were very critical of the work and its vivid eroticism. But, although not a member of the Nazi Party himself, Orff had high-ranking connections within the government, including some who spoke glowingly of the new cantata as typifying a “radiant, strength-filled life-joy.” And it was a popular success with German audiences right away.
Still, Orff was never really able to escape the fascist associations of Carmina burana. It remained his one popular composition, and the only significant musical work to emerge from Nazi Germany that is still in the performing repertory. From its fully staged Frankfurt premiere in 1937 until the 1950s, Carmina burana was performed only in the formerly Axis countries of Germany, Austria, and Italy. Its United States premiere was delayed
The title refers to a collection of medieval poems uncovered in 1803 at the Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian village of Benediktbeuern, Germany; Carmina burana is Latin for “Songs of Beuern.” The poems, mostly in Latin with some medieval German and French/Provençal texts included, were written by 11th- and 12th-century monks and students. But instead of producing devotional poems, these monks—“Goliards” who had largely abandoned their holy responsibilities— penned irreverent, satirical, bawdy verses in praise of women and alcohol, and humorous satires of the papacy and the Church. Orff selected two dozen poems from the 1847 published edition of Carmina burana and organized them into a loose libretto on themes of love, lust, and springtime, framed by the ubiquitous “O Fortuna” chorus.
The visceral immediacy of Orff’s musical language in Carmina burana is laid out in this powerful opening chorus, which combines pulsating rhythmic ostinatos with chanted choral melodies that parallel the text’s medieval roots. The emphasis on percussion and the vivid orchestration throughout the cantata reflect Orff’s focus on percussion instruments in his Schulwerke (school works) and his esteem for Stravinsky’s ballet Les Noces.
After the opening chorus, the piece lingers briefly on the painful wounds inflicted by Fate before subtly shifting to the emerging joys of Spring. The April sun begins to warm and soften the cold heartlessness of Fortune, and a baritone solo (“Omnia Sol temperat”) turns to thoughts of love, which the chorus enthusiastically affirms (“Ecce gratum”).
In “Uf dem Anger” (On the Green), the lyrics and instrumental interludes paint images of pastoral joy. As the chorus sings of the hope that love will bloom with a fecundity to rival the freshly renewed forest, the overt flirting in these verses suggests that it is not so much “worthy love” but earthly pleasure being sought. Royal brass fanfares (“Were diu werlt alle min”) then announce that no worldly wealth could surpass the pleasure of sleeping with the Queen of England.
With a twist of Fate’s wheel, that elevated aspiration comes crashing down as the scene
shifts to the tavern, and the painful laments (“Estuans interius”) of a lowlife vagrant who has given himself over entirely to vice. A roasting swan—turning on a spit in symbolic imitation of the turning of Fortune’s wheel—similarly laments its miserable fate in mostly falsetto tenor solos (“Olim lacus colueram”). But this roast bird will soon become a gluttonous feast for the tavern’s other patrons. They collectively sing a tribute to the endless rounds of drinking and gambling (“In taberna quando sumus”) in a chorus that parodies the “oom-pah” accompaniment of a traditional Bavarian drinking song.
Another sudden shift moves the action to the perfumed “Court of Love” where a chorus of cupids (“Amor volat undique”) encourage the amorous coupling. But the baritone continues to lament his fate (“Dies, nox et omnia”), resorting, as did the roast swan, to a falsetto voice to express the anguish of his pain. The appearance of a young maiden at first exacerbates his misery, but then develops into a real opportunity to fulfill his desires (“Veni, veni, venias”). In a gentle, pastoral serenade by the soprano soloist (“In trutina”), the maiden decides, too, to give in to pleasure. The joyful chorus that follows (“Tempus est iocundum”) confirms that, as hoped, love has indeed flowered into rapturous bliss, complete with an ecstatic high-D from the soprano. But the hymn to Venus that follows (“Ave formosissima”) is callously interrupted by a verbatim reprise of “O Fortuna,” a pitiless reminder that when one feels at the pinnacle of joy, Fate decrees that the only way is down.
1. Chorus O Fortune! Like the moon ever-changing rising first then declining; hateful life treats us badly then with kindness making sport with our desires, causing power and poverty alike to melt like ice.
Dread destiny and empty fate, an ever-turning wheel, who make adversity and fickle health alike turn to nothing,
in the dark and secretly you work against me; how through your trickery my naked back is turned to you unarmed.
Good fortune and strength now are turned from me. Affection and defeat are always on duty. Come now pluck the strings without delay; and since by fate the strong are overthrown weep ye all with me.
2. Chorus
I lament the wounds that Fortune deals with tear-filled eyes for returning to the attack she takes her gifts from me. It is true as they say, the well-thatched pate may soonest lose its hair.
Once on Fortune’s throne I sat exalted crowned with a wreath of Prosperity’s flowers. But from my happy flower-decked paradise I was struck down and stripped of all my glory.
The wheel of Fortune turns, dishonored I fall from grace and another is raised on high. Raised to over dizzy heights of power the king sits in majesty but let him beware his downfall! For ’neath the axle of Fortune’s wheel behold Queen Hecuba.
I. SPRINGTIME
3. Small Chorus
The joyous face of spring is presented to the world. Winter’s army is conquered and put to flight. In colorful dress Flora is arrayed and the woods are sweet with birdsong in her praise.
Reclining in Flora’s lap Phoebus again laughs merrily covered with many colored flowers.
Zephyr breathes around the scented fragrance; eagerly striving for the prize. Let us compete in love.
Trilling her song sweet Philomel is heard and smiling with flowers the peaceful meadows lie, a flock of wild birds rises from the woods; the chorus of maidens brings a thousand joys.
4. Baritone
All things are tempered by the Sun so pure and fine. In a new world are revealed the beauties of April, to thoughts of love the mind of man is turned and in pleasure’s haunts the youthful God holds sway.
Nature’s great renewal in solemn spring and spring’s example bid us rejoice; they charge us keep to well-worn paths, and in your springtime there is virtue and honesty in being constant to your lover.
Love me truly!
Remember my constancy. With all my heart and all my mind I am with you even when far away. Whoever knows such love knows the torture of the wheel.
5. Chorus
Behold the welcome long-awaited spring, which brings back pleasure and with crimson flowers adorns the fields. The Sun brings peace to all around. Away with sadness! Summer returns, and now departs cruel winter.
Melt away and disappear hail, ice, and snow; the mists flee and spring is fed at summer’s breast; wretched is the man who neither lives nor lusts under summer’s spell.
They taste delight and honeyed sweetness who strive for and gain Cupid’s reward. Let us submit to Venus’s rule and joyful and proud be equal to Paris.
ON THE GREEN
6. Dance: Orchestra
7. Chorus
The noble forest is decked with flowers and leaves.
Small Chorus
Where is my old long-lost lover? He rode away on his horse. Alas, who will love me now?
Chorus
The forest all around is in flower. I long for my lover.
Small Chorus
The forest all around is in flower whence is my lover gone? He rode away on his horse. Alas, who will love me now?
8. Soprano and Chorus
Salesman! Give me colored paint, to paint my cheeks so crimson red, that I may make these bold young men, whether they will or no, to love me.
Look at me, young men all! Am I not well pleasing?
Love, all you right-thinking men, women worthy to be loved! Love shall raise your spirits high and put a spring into your step.
Look at me, young men all! Am I not well pleasing?
Hail to thee, o world that are in joy so rich and plenteous! I will ever be in thy debt surely for thy goodness’ sake!
Look at me, young men all! Am I not well pleasing?
9. (a.) Round Dance: Orchestra
(b.) Chorus
They who here go dancing round are young maidens all who will go without a man this whole summer long.
(c.) Small Chorus
Come, come dear heart of mine, I so long have waited for thee. I so long have waited for thee. Come, come dear heart of mine!
Sweetest rosy-colored mouth, come and make me well again! Come and make me well again, sweetest rosy-colored mouth.
(d.) Chorus
They who here go dancing round are young maidens all who will go without a man this whole summer long.
10. Chorus
If the whole world were but mine from the sea right to the Rhine gladly I’d pass it by if the Queen of England fair in my arms did lie.
II. IN THE TAVERN
11. Baritone
Seething inside with boiling rage in bitterness I talk to myself. Made of matter risen from dust I am like a leaf tossed in play by the winds.
But whereas it befits a wise man to build his house on a rock, I, poor fool, am like a meandering river never keeping to the same path.
I drift along like a pilotless ship or like an aimless bird. Carried at random through the air no chains hold me captive,
no lock holds me fast, I am looking for those like me and I join the depraved.
The burdens of the heart seem to weigh me down; jesting is pleasant and sweeter than the honeycomb. Whatever Venus commands is pleasant toil she never dwells in craven hearts.
On the broad path I wend my way as is youth’s wont, I am caught up in vice and forgetful of virtue, caring more for voluptuous pleasure than for my health, dead in spirit, I think only of my skin.
12. Tenor
Once in lakes I made my home once I dwelt in beauty that was when I was a swan.
Tenor/Bass Chorus
Alas, poor me!
Now I am black and roasted to a turn!
Tenor
On the spit I turn and turn; the fire roasts me through now I am presented at the feast.
Tenor/Bass Chorus
Alas poor me!
Now I am black and roasted to a turn!
Tenor
Now in a serving dish I lie and can no longer fly, gnashing teeth confront me.
Tenor/Bass Chorus
Alas poor me!
Now I am black and roasted to a turn!
13. Baritone
I am the abbot of Cucany and I like to drink with my friends. I belong from choice to the sect of Decius, and whoever meets me in the morning at the tavern by evening has lost his clothes, and thus stripped of his clothes cries out:
Baritone and Tenor/Bass Chorus Wafna! Wafna!
What has thou done, oh wicked fate? All the pleasures of this life thus to take away!
14. Tenor/Bass Chorus
When we are in the tavern we spare no thought for the grave but rush to the gaming tables where we always sweat and strain. What goes on in the tavern where a coin gets you a drink if this is what you would know then listen to what I say.
Some men gamble, some men drink some indulge in indiscretions, but of those who stay to gamble some lose their clothes, some win new clothes, while others put on sack cloth, there no one is afraid of death but for Bacchus plays at games of chance.
First the dice are thrown for wine: this the libertines drink. Once they drink to prisoners, then three times to the living, four times to all Christians, five to the faithful departed, six times to the dissolute sisters, seven to the bush-rangers.
Eight times to delinquent brothers, nine to the dispersed monks, ten times to the navigators, eleven to those at war, twelve to the penitent, thirteen to travelers. They drink to the pope and king alike, all drink without restraint.
The mistress drinks, the master drinks, the soldier drinks, the man of God, this man drinks, this woman drinks, the manservant drinks with the serving maid, the quick man drinks, the sluggard drinks, the white man and the black man drink, the steady man drinks, the wanderer drinks, the simpleton drinks, the wiseman drinks.
The poor man drinks, the sick man drinks, the exile drinks and the unknown, the boy drinks, the old man drinks, the bishop drinks and the deacon, sister drinks and brother drinks, the old crone drinks, the mother drinks,
this one drinks, that one drinks, a hundred drink, a thousand drink.
Six hundred coins are not enough when all these drink too much. And without restraint although they drink cheerfully. Many people censure us and we shall always be short of money, may our critics be confounded and never be numbered among the just.
III. THE COURTS OF LOVE
15. Children’s Chorus
Love flies everywhere and is seized by desire, young men and women are matched together.
Soprano
If a girl lacks a partner she misses all the fun; in the depths of her heart all alone is darkest night;
Children’s Chorus it is a bitter fate.
16. Baritone
Day, night, and all the world are against me, the sound of maidens’ voices makes me weep. I often hear sighing and it makes me more afraid.
O friends, be merry, say what you will, but have mercy on me, a sad man, for great is my sorrow, yet give me counsel for the sake of your honor.
Your lovely face makes me weep a thousand tears because your heart is of ice, but I would be restored at once to life by one single kiss.
17. Soprano
There stood a young girl in a red tunic; if anyone touched her the tunic rustled. Heigh-ho.
There stood a girl fair as a rose, her face was radiant, her mouth like a flower. Heigh-ho.
18. Baritone and Chorus
My breast is filled with sighing for your loveliness and I suffer grievously.
Manda liet, manda liet, my sweetheart comes not. Your eyes shine like sunlight, like the splendor of lightning in the night.
Manda liet, manda liet, my sweetheart comes not. May God grant, may the Gods permit the plan I have in mind to undo the bonds of her virginity. Manda liet, manda liet, my sweetheart comes not.
19. Tenor/Bass Chorus
If a boy and a girl linger together, happy is their union; increasing love leaves tedious good sense far behind, and inexpressible pleasure fills their limbs, their arms, their lips.
20. Double Chorus
Come, come pray come, do not let me die, hyrca, hyrca, nazaza, trillirivos!
Lovely is your face, the glance of your eyes, the braids of your hair, oh how beautiful you are!
Redder than the rose, whiter than the lily, comelier than all the rest; always I shall glory in you.
21. Soprano
In the scales of my wavering indecision physical love and chastity are weighted. But I choose what I see. I bow my head in submission and take on the yoke which is after all sweet.
22. Chorus
Pleasant is the season O maidens, now rejoice together young men.
Baritone
Oh, oh, I blossom now with pure love I am on fire! This love is new, is new, of which I perish.
Soprano/Alto Chorus
My love brings me comfort, when she promises, but makes me distraught with her refusal.
Soprano and Children’s Chorus
Oh, oh I blossom, now with pure young love I am on fire! This love is new, is new, of which I perish.
Tenor/Bass Chorus
In winter time the man is lazy in spring he will become merry.
Baritone
Oh, oh, I blossom, now with pure young love I am on fire! This love is new, is new, of which I perish.
Tenor/Bass Chorus
My chastity teases me but my innocence holds me back.
Soprano and Children’s Chorus Oh, oh, I blossom, now with pure young love I am on fire! This love is new, is new, of which I perish.
Chorus
Come my darling, come with joy, come my beauty, for already I die!
Baritone, Children’s Chorus, and Chorus
Oh, oh, I blossom, now with pure young love I am on fire! This love is new, is new, of which I perish.
23. Soprano
Sweetest boy I give my all to you!
BLANZIFLOR AND HELENA
24. Chorus
Hail to thee most love most precious jewel, hail pride of virgins! Most glorious virgin! Hail light of the world! Hail rose of the world! Blanziflor and Helena! Noble Venus, Hail.
FORTUNE EMPRESS OF THE WORLD
25. Chorus
O Fortune! Like the moon everchanging rising first then declining; hateful life treats us badly then with kindness making sport with our desires, causing power and poverty alike to melt like ice.
Dread destiny and empty fate, an ever-turning wheel, who make adversity and fickle health alike turn to nothing, in the dark and secretly you work against me; how through trickery my naked back is turned to you unarmed.
Good fortune and strength
GRAMMY Award–winning soprano Audrey Luna made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut this past March. Other current and future engagements include her debut at the Teatro alla Scala as Ariel in Adès’s The Tempest; her debut at the Teatro Real Madrid as Madame Mao in Adams’s Nixon in China; Orff’s Catulli carmina and Carmina burana with the Dallas Symphony; Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you with the Barcelona Symphony; and the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Vancouver Opera. She recently set the record for singing the highest written note on the Metropolitan Opera stage, the A above high C, as Leticia in Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, which she also performed in the world premiere at the Salzburg Festival and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Previous Metropolitan Opera appearances include Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Naiad in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Fiakermilli in Strauss’s Arabella, and Olympia in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann Her performance as Ariel, released on DVD on Deutsche Grammophon, was awarded a French Diapason d’Or and the 2013 GRAMMY Award for “Best Opera Recording.”
Ms. Luna has recently appeared on the concert stage with the Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonics; the London, San Francisco, and Seattle symphonies; and the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, among others. Her repertoire for the concert stage includes Brahms’s A German Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Unsuk Chin’s Cantatrix sopranica, Makris’s Symphony for Soprano and Strings, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Ligeti’s Requiem and Le Grande Macabre, Crumb’s Star
now are turned from me. Affection and defeat are always on duty. Come now, pluck the strings without delay; and since by fate the strong are overthrown weep ye all with me.
See Fabio Luisi’s biography on page 56
Child, Beach’s Grand Mass, and Debussy’s The Martyrdom of St. Sebastien.
A new collaboration with the late composer Peter Eötvös and the Calder Quartet of his new work The Sirens Cycle toured to Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, and Paris and is now available on BMC Records.
AUDREY LUNA PHOTO BY FAY FOX
SATURDAY,
gain early experience in roles such as Nemorino in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Il Conte di Libenskof in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, and Dorvil in Rossini’s La scala di seta. He earned his master’s degree at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Tenor Sunnyboy Dladla, one of the most exciting and sought-after Rossinian voices of his generation, made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut earlier this season. Other highlights of the current season include his house debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Orff’s Carmina burana with the London Symphony under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda, Mozart’s Requiem in Salzburg, and a return to the role of Count Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at the Hanover State Opera. The unique sound of his voice combined with an outstanding stage presence have allowed him to combine an active opera career with frequent concert performances. In the 2022–23 season he returned to the Edinburgh Festival for Carmina burana under the baton of Donald Runnicles and appeared in a production of Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Zurich Opera House. He debuted at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro as Oraspe in Aureliano in Palmira. Additional roles at the Hanover State Opera have included Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Leopold in Halévy’s La Juive.
Mr. Dladla has appeared on multiple recordings, including Rossini’s Moses in Egypt live from the Bregenz Festival under the baton of Enrique Mazzola and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann live from Dutch National Opera conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
Mr. Dladla was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and was raised in the small township of Piet Retief. He graduated with distinctions from the University of Cape Town, where he was able to
Since the 2016–17 season, baritone Sean Michael Plumb has been an ensemble member of the Bavarian State Opera, where he has developed an extensive repertoire. He also makes guest appearances at international houses in New York, Houston, Paris, and Lyon. Recent performance highlights included his debut in the title role of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at the Bavarian State Opera and Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. He also debuted with Seattle Opera in The Barber of Seville. He made his Met debut in 2022 as Harlequin in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, a role he reprised in February with the Bavarian State Opera at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. On the concert stage he has sung Orff’s Carmina burana with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony.
Passionate about art song, Mr. Plumb has been presented in numerous German venues and most recently offered programs of works by Strauss, Ives, Barber, and Bernstein in Munich, Schwarzenberg, and Heidelberg. The California native made his Bavarian State Opera debut in 2016 in the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole, and he has continued his devotion to contemporary music having appeared in the world premiere workshop of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain with Opera Philadelphia and Santa Fe Opera, workshop performances in New York and San Francisco of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, and in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at Glimmerglass.
SUNNYBOY DLADLA
SEAN MICHAEL PLUMB
PHOTO BY DARIO ACOSTA
Winner of a 2022 Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, Mr. Plumb was honored by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House as a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts and has won several awards, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Prize. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with teachers Mikael Eliasen and William Stone. Mr. Plumb made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut earlier this season.
FRIDAY, JULY 12 AT 7:30PM SATURDAY, JULY 13 AT 2:00PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 7:30PM
ries concerts each season plus numerous special performances with distinguished local, national, and international partners, with a deliberately curated repertoire that includes classical masterpieces from the choral canon, new compositions from modern and contemporary composers, and popular selections from the worlds of Broadway, traditional, folk music, and more.
APM is dedicated to inspiring new generations of singers through numerous educational programs, including an annual High School Choral Festival for regional choruses offered in partnership with the University at Albany, highly selective music internships and apprenticeships, engagement opportunities through a composer-in-residence program, and the biennial Pro Musica International Choral Festival, which brings students from across the United States and Canada to study and perform with distinguished faculty and worldclass musicians through a week-long festival.
Albany Pro Musica (APM) is the preeminent choral ensemble in New York’s vibrant Capital Region and is renowned for its exceptional technical competency, exquisite artistry, and purposeful programming that is relevant and meaningful in today’s society. Critically acclaimed for its performances of intimate a cappella pieces and large-scale choral works alike, APM offers four se-
SOPRANOS
Martha J. Bond
Madison Chamberlain
Brianne Conner
Bethany Cook
Marie Cox
Diane Deacon
Gwendolyn Delgadillo
Valerie Donovan
Lauren Jurczynski
SooYeon Justesen
Nicole Lash
Heather Lessard
Samantha Lyle
Sabrina Manna
Katie McNally
Rebecca Monaghan
Xinyi Nam
Lorna Jane Norris
Diane B. Petersen
Emily Peterson
Yareli Rodriguez
Stephanie
Saint Germain
Sandra Schujman
Katherine Skovira
Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins
ALTOS
Clara Eizayaga Allen
Hana Askren
Emily Ball
Maria Bedo-Calhoun
Marie Bosman
Carol Christiana
Abigail Cowan
Elizabeth Eschen
Tamiko Everson
Kathryn Farris
Katrina Fasulo
Olivia Faure
Emily Garbenis
Meghan Garrison
Meredith Russell Grosshandler
APM has been led by Opalka Family Artistic Director José Daniel Flores-Caraballo since 2014. He also serves as conductor-in-residence at the University at Albany (SUNY) and chorus director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus. A native of Puerto Rico, he served as dean of academic affairs at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and has led prize-winning choral programs in Puerto Rico and across the mainland United States. He holds a doctorate in sacred music with an emphasis on choral and instrumental conducting from the Graduate Theological Foundation, a master’s in choral conducting and organ from the University of Illinois, and a bachelor’s in music education and instrumental conducting from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.
Elizabeth Helmer
Shou-Ping Liu
Sarah Lyman
Susan Moyle Lynch
Corinne McLeod
Sharon Roy
Gabrielle San Roman
Emily Sturman
Valene Synakowski
Irina Tikhonenko
Julie Weston
Lisa Wloch
TENORS
Augusta Bargeron
Andrew Burger
Paul D’Arcy
Eamon Daley
John Favreau
Dan Foster
William Golden
Caleb Hood
Jacob James
Matthew Kreta
Michael Lotano
Deron Milleville
Saul Morse
Mendon Neyerlin
Xavier Ortiz-Reyes
Josh Overrocker
Joel Pattison
Greg Pratt
Aaron Rueter
John Spinelli
David Wagner
Lincoln Walton
John Xia
BASSES
Eric Arndt
Bill Bott
Ross Brennan
David Castonguay
Matthew Clemens
William Crankshaw
Evan DeFilippo
Joseph Han
Colin Helie
Jared Hunt
Tom Johnson
Andy Kettler
Daniel Lane
David Loy
Michael Murphy
Steve Murray
Noah Palmer
Christopher Price
Benjamin Quist
David Roberts
Ronnie Romano
David Rugger
Eugene Sit
Rex Smith
Ryan Snyder
Daniel Washington
Michael Wolff
ALBANY PRO MUSICA
PHOTO BY GARY GOLD
A highly selective music education program for girls ages six and older, the Philadelphia Girls Choir, which made its Philadelphia Orchestra debut in March, is designed to instill confidence and responsibility through musical achievement. The Choir takes a holistic approach to choral music that relates musicianship and performance to the broader human experience. Cultural diversity and personal development are essential elements of training. Founded in 2012 and in its 11th season under the artistic direction of Nathan Wadley, the Choir began with 18 singers and has grown to include nearly 200 youth divided into four ensembles—Motif, Etude, Cantata, and Concerto. Beginning with the basics of music theory and performance, singers progress over the years to learn more about vocal technique through challenging repertoire. All programs include public performances at locations such as the National Constitution Center, the Academy of Music, the Kimmel Center, and, most recently, the Met Philadelphia for the mayoral inauguration of Cherelle Parker. The Choir has traveled extensively throughout Europe, and has recently successfully competed in the International Johannes Brahms Choir Festival, the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival, and Music in the Parks.
Renowned for its musicianship, intelligence, and interpretive abilities, the Emmy-winning and GRAMMY-nominated Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale (PBCC) has cultivated a devoted worldwide following for its highly acclaimed concerts and SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 7:30PM
performances. Established in 1968 and under the baton of Jeffrey R. Smith since 2004, the Choir is known as “America’s Ambassadors of Song,” proudly representing both the City of Philadelphia and the United States on its many concert tours across the globe. PBCC’s achievements include recordings with internationally renowned orchestras and soloists such as Luciano Pavarotti, television appearances, and praise from critics and audiences worldwide. PBCC has collaborated with many ensembles including The Philadelphia Orchestra (with which it debuted in 1973), the Philly POPS, the Philadelphia Ballet, Opera Philadelphia, the Curtis Institute, the Academy of Vocal Arts, Mendelssohn Chorus, Pig Iron Theater, Vox Ama Deus, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. National television appearances have included Good Morning America, Saturday Night Live, and The Today Show. PBCC is also a regular performer on opening day for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sophie Abbott
Cassandra Arpe
Liping Au
Kai Austin
Callie Bassinger
Thursten HW Brown
Meghan Buckley
Miriam Carino
Gwen Frank
Leila Golzari-Hunt
Anokhi Shome Gale
Jha'lia Graham
Chloe Greenawalt
Rosemarie Groninger
Elizabeth Hanson
Alison Haydu
Kaia Henry
Trinity Hobaugh
Barbara Humes
Kieryn Koh
Aubrey Lane
Abigail Lee
Gina McBean
Isaac Mendenhall
Maeve Meyer
Selah Gonzalez Morgan
Ella Milligan
Avantika Nasta
Cora Perritt
Harry Robert Pfeiffer
Isabella Ponton
Sofia Stanev Potts
Isabella Prall
Freya Reis
Daniel S. Rosta
Conrad Jeffery George Schweiger
Lily Sims
Mackenzie Van Eerden
Trang “Couri” Vo
Viggo Waldman
Ella Wang
Crystal Workman
Fiona Yan
Benjamin Yong
PHILADELPHIA GIRLS CHOIR
PHILADELPHIA BOYS CHOIR & CHORALE
GIL SHAHAM PERFORMS BATES
DALIA STASEVSKA
Conductor
GIL SHAHAM
Violin
BATES
Nomad Concerto, for violin and orchestra
I. Song of the Balloon Man
II. Magician at the Bazaar
III. Desert Vision: Oasis
IV. Le Jazz manouche
INTERMISSION
SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82
I. Tempo molto moderato—Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto)—Presto—Più presto
II. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto
III. Allegro molto—Un pochettino largamente—Largamente assai—Un pochettino stretto
The Bates co-commission and its world premiere performances were made possible through the generous support of Joseph and Bette Hirsch and Carol Kaganov.
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
GIL SHAHAM
PHOTO BY CHRIS LEE
NOMAD CONCERTO, FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA
Composed in 2023
MASON BATES
Born in Philadelphia, January 23, 1977
Now living in Burlingame, California
The music of the American composer Mason Bates defies easy categorization. It often fuses genres that we might consider to be incompatible, even antithetical to one another. Electronic house music and symphonies, for example, seem to make uncomfortable bedfellows, yet they somehow appear destined for one another in one of Bates’s best-known compositions titled Mothership (2011). Commissioned by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas, the piece combines the driving rhythms of techno with orchestral writing that is both colorful and precise. It is this combination of accessibility and hybridity that has helped to propel him to international fame in recent years.
Bates’s music often centers on technology—as an idea and as a medium for the creation of new soundworlds and timbres. Perhaps his most famous work is the GRAMMY Award–winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (2019), which centers on the biography of America’s famous tech guru. And his Philharmonia Fantastique (2021), the composer’s self-described “concerto for orchestra and animated film,” integrates live orchestral performance, digital animations, film, and pre-recorded sound. Bates is fluent in traditional orchestra genres as well and has written three other concertos before the Nomad Concerto, composed for Gil Shaham, which receives its Saratoga premiere on this concert.
Bates explains that the Concerto is “envisioned to showcase Shaham’s legendary Old World sound,” and in this respect is very much in keeping with a tradition of collaborative concerto writing that stretches back centuries. Mozart wrote some of his for Antonio Brunetti; Mendelssohn’s great final work with the help of its dedicatee, the violinist Ferdinand David; and Brahms wrote his for longtime friend Joseph Joachim. Like its predecessors, Bates’s Nomad Concerto was born from the unique alchemy of the composer’s creative imagination and the particular style of the soloist for whom it was written.
One aspect of Shaham’s playing that is particularly influential for the Nomad Concerto can be heard on Nigunim: Hebrew Melodies, a 2013 collaborative album featuring Gil and his sister, pianist Orli Shaham. The keening lyricism that
Shaham brings to such works as Ernst Bloch’s Baal Shem (1923) or Avner Dorman’s Violin Sonata No. 3 (“Nigunim”) (2011) is refracted and transformed in Bates’s Concerto, fused with other musical traditions including that of the Eastern European Roma and early-20th-century jazz. While stylistic mixture has long been a hallmark of Bates’s compositional voice, he explains the particular combination of idioms found in the Nomad Concerto as emerging from the desire to explore “the mysterious and soulful music of the wanderer. … In the same way that nomadic musics have continually reimagined themselves, the many styles informing the concerto are swirled together into a cohesive whole.”
The first movement (Song of the Balloon Man) tells the story of “an old balloon seller wandering through a village singing a doleful tune, which is gradually picked up by the villagers.” The movement opens with ethereal chords and shimmering harmonics in the strings and the violinist enters almost unobtrusively, strumming on his instrument as if it were a mandolin. This pizzicato motif is eventually passed along to the cellos as the soloist opens into ever more lyrical and virtuosic figurations over the course of the movement.
Reminiscent of a scherzo in its playfulness, the second movement (Magician at the Bazaar) showcases Bates’s flair for inventive timbres. While the violin leaps out of the orchestral texture with gossamer-thin threads of melodic energy, the rest of the ensemble responds with radiant splashes of sound largely defined by the creative orchestration of flute and clarinet figurations.
In Desert Vision: Oasis, Bates makes prominent use of the Jewish folk melody “Ani Ma’amin,” setting it within what he describes as “haunting orchestral expanses depicting the vast deserts of the Middle East.” The music of the RomaniFrench jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt (1910–53) provides the inspiration for the fourth and final movement of the Concerto (Le Jazz manouche). Perhaps the most abstract one of the piece, it opens with the soloist performing a steadily accelerating motif sul ponticello that returns several times throughout. Among the more notable features of this finale is its replication of improvisational dialogues in more traditional jazz combos as small melodic motifs are passed back and forth across the ensemble. After a reflective episode of almost Romantic lyricism with lushly orchestrated harmonies, the opening sul ponticello theme returns one last time to help drive the piece to a rousing conclusion.
—Sean Colonna
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 82
Composed from 1914 to 1915; revised in 1916 and again in 1919
JEAN SIBELIUS
Born in Hämeenlinna, Finland, December 8, 1865 Died in Järvenpää (near Helsinki), September 20, 1957
Sibelius agonized more over his Fifth Symphony than over any other composition. Sketched as early as 1912 and written during World War I, the Fifth went through two major versions before reaching the final form published in 1919. Meanwhile the composer himself experienced upheavals and tribulations, which to an extent are mirrored in the struggle for perfection that is apparent in the Symphony. It was a dreadful period of his life. He went through no less than 14 operations in a matter of a few years to remove a tumor in his throat. Meanwhile Russian troops arrived to rough up him and his neighbors—many of whom were killed. Eventually Sibelius and his family were forced to flee the Red Guard and to take up residence in the hospital where his brother worked. There, with food supplies disrupted, they all nearly starved. These horrors culminated with a day-and-a-half-long German bombardment of Helsinki.
Through it all, Sibelius never stopped composing. It is not surprising, then, that the Fifth would bear traces of unrest. The composer conducted the first version of the piece on his 50th birthday, in December 1915, as part of national commemorations of the occasion. (It must be kept in mind that during his lifetime Sibelius was probably the most famous Finn in the world.) Immediately he was dissatisfied with the work, and he withdrew it. This first version is not without interest, and it has been recorded. “Listening to the 1915 version of the symphony is rather like experiencing Hamlet in a dream,” writes the scholar Robert Layton. “There are some familiar signposts and fragments of the familiar lines, but in the wrong places and spoken by strange voices: the image is somehow blurred and confused.” Sibelius reworked the piece during the autumn of 1916, and he conducted the second version in Helsinki in December.
In 1919 he undertook a final revision, “the Fifth Symphony in a new form,” as he wrote in a letter, “practically composed anew, [which] I work at daily. Movement I entirely new, Movement II reminiscent of the old, Movement IV has the old motifs but stronger in revision. The whole, if I may say so, culminates in a vital, triumphant
climax.” He conducted this final version on November 24, 1919.
The Symphony remains in the form of this last version; what Sibelius refers to as Movements I and II in the letter above are now listed as a single movement—which they in fact are, beginning and ending in the key of E-flat major—and thus the Symphony has the feel of a three-movement work. (Interestingly, the printed score calls the piece “Symphonie Nr. 5, in einem Satz,” i.e., in one movement; there is indeed a strong sense in which the movements “flow into” one another.)
The resulting “aggregate” first movement (Tempo molto moderato—Allegro moderato) comprises a lugubrious opening segment with an ascending first theme in the horns and bassoons followed by a snaky woodwind theme in thirds; an assertive G-major theme area pushes the exposition forward. The Allegro moderato, which began its life as a separate scherzo-and-trio movement in the earliest version of the Symphony, employs thematic material from the opening; its reestablishment of the E-flat tonic key ultimately has the effect of a recapitulation of the Tempo molto moderato. All in all, this is one of Sibelius’s most innovative structures.
The Andante mosso, quasi allegretto is a slow movement in the related key of G major, cast in a straightforward single gesture emphasizing coloristic possibilities of pizzicato strings. It is a set of chaconne-like variations—which is to say that the bass line, and not a “melody” per se, generates the greatest part of the discourse. The final Allegro molto sees a return to the tonic key of E-flat. An initial flurry of nervous excitement culminates in the triumphant brass chorale that is like a victorious ringing of bells (one commentator likens it to “Thor swinging his hammer”). The complex harmonic discourse concludes with the ghostlike series of string tremolos and a richly Romantic close featuring a return of the ringing hammer-blows.
Conductor Dalia Stasevska made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in March 2023. Chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony and artistic director of the International Sibelius Festival, she also holds the post of principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony. This season she conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras; the Cincinnati, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Danish National, Frankfurt Radio, Bern, Sydney, and West Australian symphonies; and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Other recent engagements have included the New York, Los Angeles, and Netherlands Radio philharmonics; the Chicago, San Francisco, National, and Toronto symphonies; and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Ms. Stasevska has led opera productions at Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Finnish National Opera, Norwegian National Opera, and the Royal Swedish Opera. The 10 tracks of her most recent album, Dalia’s Mixtape with the BBC Symphony
on Platoon, feature some of the freshest sounds in contemporary music and will be released individually from March to September 2024. Other releases include piano concertos by Rautavaara and Martinů on BIS with the Lahti Symphony and Olli Mustonen.
Ms. Stasevska originally studied violin and composition at the Tampere Conservatory and also studied violin, viola, and conducting at the Sibelius Academy. In October 2020 she was honored with the Order of Princess Olga, Third Class, by Ukrainian President Zelensky for her significant personal contribution to the development of international cooperation, strengthening the prestige of Ukraine internationally, and the popularization of its historical and cultural heritage. Since February 2022, she has actively been supporting Ukraine by raising donations to buy supplies and on several occasions delivering them herself.
DALIA STASEVSKA PHOTO BY VEIKKO KÄHKÖNEN
Gil Shaham, who made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1988, is one of the foremost violinists of our time. The GRAMMY Award winner and Musical America “Instrumentalist of the Year” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors. He regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to championing these solo works, he will join his long-time duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi, in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin, Israel, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies; and the Orchestre de Paris.
Mr. Shaham has recorded more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs, earning multiple GRAMMYs, a Grand Prix du Disque, the Diapason
d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice awards. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His latest recording of Beethoven and Brahms concertos with the Knights was released in 2021.
Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971, Mr. Shaham moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies at the age of seven, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981 he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at the Juilliard School. He also studied at Columbia University. He was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and in 2008 received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and also an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c. 1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins in Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. Opus 3 Artists is the exclusive representative of Gil Shaham.
GIL SHAHAM
PHOTO BY CHRIS LEE
DVOŘÁK’S EIGHTH SYMPHONY
DALIA STASEVSKA
Conductor
JULIETTE KANG
Violin
BARTÓK
Concerto for Orchestra
I. Introduzione: Andante non troppo—Allegro vivace
II. Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando
III. Elegia: Andante non troppo
IV. Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto
V. Finale: Pesante—Presto
INTERMISSION
DVOŘÁK/orch. Waxman
Humoresque in G-flat major, Op. 101, No. 7
First Philadelphia Orchestra performance
DVOŘÁK
Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio—Poco più animato—Tempo I. Meno mosso
III. Allegretto grazioso—Coda: Molto vivace
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA
Composed in 1943
BÉLA BARTÓK
Born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Romania), March 25, 1881
Died in New York, September 26, 1945
Leading European composers during the Second World War faced difficult challenges concerning how to create, survive, and behave. Some were forced to flee for their lives, often ending up in America. Others collaborated—reluctantly or opportunistically or enthusiastically—with the Fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Spain. A few pursued “inner immigration,” remaining in Europe, trying to keep off the radar screen, and all the while composing works with no immediate prospects for performance.
Béla Bartók pursued an honorable path among unattractive options. A fervent anti-Fascist whose views caused him increasing problems with governmental authorities, exile from his native Hungary was self-imposed. He and his wife moved to America in October 1940, soon after the death of his mother freed him from filial obligations. Life abroad also had challenges. Sporadic income from lectures and performances supplemented a stipend from Columbia University, which gave him an honorary doctorate in November. The University hired him not as a composer but rather to pursue ethnomusicological research in folk music, a field in which he was an extraordinary scholarly pioneer and that also had an enormous impact on the original music he composed. Bartók’s health was failing (the eventual diagnosis was leukemia) and he composed very little for some three years.
At the urging of two prominent fellow Hungarians, the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the conductor Fritz Reiner, in May 1943 Bartók received a commission for an orchestral work from Serge Koussevitzky, the enterprising conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Although Bartók was reluctant to start a new project, the $1000 fee must have proved tempting, made all the more attractive when he received a grant from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) that allowed him to work in peace at a sanatorium in Saranac Lake in upstate New York.
In August Bartók began composing the Concerto for Orchestra and completed it in under two months, although he drew upon some musical
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material written years earlier. As he reported to Szigeti, “At the end of August I experienced an improvement in the state of my health. Presently I feel quite healthy: I have no fever, my strength has returned, and I am able to take long walks in the wooded hills around here. In March I weighed 87 pounds, now 105. I’m gaining weight. I’m getting fat. I’m getting limber. You won’t recognize me anymore. Perhaps the fact that I was able to complete the work that Koussevitzky commissioned is attributable to this improvement (or vice versa). I worked on it for the whole of September, more or less night and day.”
The premiere took place over a year later when Koussevitzky led the work to great acclaim on December 1, 1944. Bartók had been frustrated by the American reception of his recent compositions, which were generally viewed as too challengingly Modernist. The Concerto for Orchestra was more approachable and immediately brought Bartók welcome attention and new commissions. His writer’s block now broken, he wrote the Sonata for Solo Violin, the Third Piano Concerto, and most of the Viola Concerto before his death in September 1945 at age 64.
Although the core concerto repertory of the past two centuries features just one instrumentalist in relation to an orchestra, the earlier Baroque concerto grosso often employed multiple soloists. Bartók was hardly the first 20th-century composer to revive this idea, but his dazzling tour-de-force deservedly proved the most famous and influential. He well knew the level of playing that an ensemble like the Boston Symphony was capable of and exploited it to the fullest.
As with many works throughout his career, Bartók does not so much quote folk materials, but rather calls upon the style, gestures, and instrumentation of a wide variety of music from central Europe, including Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The five movements unfold in Bartók’s favored arc shape (ABCBA) with the outer movements in sonata form, scherzos in second and fourth place, all framing an elegiac center. Bartók explained in a program note: “The general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the lifeassertion of the last one.”
The first movement (Introduzione: Andante non troppo—Allegro vivace) begins with a slow, soft, and mysterious introduction dominated by the
lower strings that eventually builds to a fast and vigorous first theme and a more plaintive second theme featuring the oboe. Bartók’s manuscript shows the original title of the second movement was “Presentation of the couples,” which he changed to “Game of the couples” (Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando). He explained that this scherzo “consists of a chain of independent short sections, [played] by wind instruments consecutively introduced in five pairs (bassoons, oboes, clarinets, flutes, and muted trumpets).”
The sections have nothing in common and after a brief brass chorale in the middle, they are recapitulated with a fuller orchestration.
The mournful centerpiece (Elegia: Andante non troppo) is also “chain-like,” this time with three themes. In the second scherzo (Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto) Bartók parodies the so-called invasion section from Shostakovich’s enormously popular Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”). He initially admitted this movement was programmatic—apparently representing the Nazis intruding on cheerful Hungarian life—but withdrew any overt information except for the suggestive title: “interrupted intermezzo.”
The piece concludes with another sonata-form movement, this time in perpetual motion. “The exposition in the finale (Pesante—Presto) is somewhat extended,” Bartók explained, “and its development consists of a fugue built on the last theme of the exposition.” After Koussevitzky gave the first six performances of the Concerto for Orchestra in Boston and New York, Bartók made some fairly minor revisions to the score, mainly with respect to tempos and instrumentation. More significant was a new ending to the work, which the conductor George Szell had originally found rather abrupt. The score therefore includes a more triumphant alternative, which is what is usually performed, including at this performance.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
HUMORESQUE IN G-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 101, NO. 7 (ORCHESTRATED BY FRANZ WAXMAN)
Composed in 1894
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, September 8, 1841
Died in Prague, May 1, 1904
Antonin Dvořák’s Humoresque No. 7 in G-flat major is part of a set of character pieces
composed for piano in the summer of 1894. At that time, he was living in the United States serving as director of New York City’s National Conservatory of Music of America, which was founded by classical music patron and women’s rights advocate Jeannette Thurber. Conceived as a federally funded conservatory based on a European model, the school played an important role in training and educating musicians in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dvořák served as its director from 1892 to 1895, during which time he also composed his popular “New World” Symphony.
In the summer of 1894, Dvořák and his family vacationed in the town of Vysoká u Příbramě in the central Bohemian region of what is now the Czech Republic. Using musical ideas collected in the United States, he created a cycle of eight short piano works reflecting his fondness for the rural Bohemian lifestyle. He titled his new collection Humoresques, employing a term first coined by Robert Schumann to describe pieces of a whimsical or fanciful nature. Humoresque No. 7 emerged from the set to become a popular recital piece on its own and has also lent itself to numerous transcriptions for other instruments.
Among the orchestral transcriptions is the 1947 version by German composer and conductor Franz Waxman. Especially known for his more than 140 movie scores, Waxman began his performing career playing in nightclubs and with jazz bands. Orchestrating jazz led to composing for the silver screen, a career that brought him to Hollywood in the 1930s. He worked for a number of major studios, including MGM, Warner Brothers, and Paramount, and received 12 Academy Award nominations, with two wins.
As a piano piece, Dvořák’s Humoresque No. 7 evokes a summer night’s stroll, with a simple tune ornamented in repetition and a dotted hurdy-gurdy rhythm. When transcribed for violin, the piece takes on a completely new character as a pensive and wistful Adagio. Waxman’s arrangement for violin and orchestra first appeared in the melodrama Humoresque, starring John Garfield and Joan Crawford as a young violinist and his patroness. One of the first motion pictures in which music of the concert hall was central to the drama, this film showcases the violin as a character in itself.
Waxman’s Academy Award–nominated score slows down Dvořák’s original tempo to musically capture the doomed relationship between the two lead characters—in this story, the violin, rather
than love, triumphs over all. Performed on the soundtrack by Isaac Stern (who also provided the on-camera fingering for the character’s violin playing), Waxman’s version of Dvořák’s piece contrasts lush orchestration with a soaring romantic melody that becomes an old friend by the movie’s end.
—Nancy Plum
SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN G MAJOR, OP. 88
Composed in 1889
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Antonín Dvořák is justly hailed as the quintessential Czech composer and undoubtedly proud nationalist sentiment was central to his self-definition, music, and success. Yet he was far from provincial: He actively sought an international reputation and brilliantly achieved one. In 1874 the young composer applied for an Austrian state stipend to benefit needy young artists. He was awarded a grant and the next year, when Johannes Brahms joined the jury, won again, as he did in later years. Early success gradually led to international fame, especially after Brahms recommended him to his own German publisher, Fritz Simrock, who published his Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances. While these small pieces proved a “goldmine,” Dvořák wanted to move on to bigger works—symphonies, concertos, and operas—that would be judged as part of the great Western tradition, not merely as a colorful local phenomenon.
Dvořák succeeded best in this regard with his symphonies but the confusion surrounding their numbering points to the fitful progress of his career. He initiated some of the problems himself because he thought his First Symphony, which he wrote in a matter of weeks at age 24, had been forever lost after he sent it off to a competition in Germany. (It was only discovered 20 years after his death.) In 1881 Simrock released what is known today as the effervescent Sixth Symphony in D major as No. 1, and four years later the brooding Seventh Symphony in D minor as No. 2. The success of these and other pieces led the publisher to request ever more music from Dvořák, who responded with unpublished compositions written years earlier, including his Fifth Symphony from 1875 that was released as No. 3 in 1888.
The circumstances around the publication of Dvořák’s next symphony, the one we hear tonight, marked the turning point in his relationship with Simrock. The German publisher, who had
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undoubtedly helped build the Czech’s career, was understandably much more interested in releasing the small goldmine pieces aimed for domestic consumption than he was in big, costly symphonies. It was what we now know as the Eighth Symphony in G major, Op. 88, that caused a permanent break and was in the end released as Symphony No. 4 by Vincent Novello in England. There is a good bit of poetic justice in this because England was increasingly embracing Dvořák’s music. He travelled there frequently and in 1891 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge, on which occasion the Eighth Symphony was performed. America extended this fame even further when Dvořák was recruited to run the National Conservatory. His next and final Ninth Symphony (“From the New World”) dates from the three years Dvořák lived and taught in New York City during the early 1890s.
Dvořák composed the Eighth Symphony in just over two months in the late summer of 1889 at his country home in Vysoká, some 40 miles south of Prague. The dedication explains a recent honor bestowed on the composer: “To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election.” Dvořák toyed with the idea of premiering the work in Russia for a tour Tchaikovsky had arranged (he opted for the Sixth Symphony instead) and conducted the first performance himself in Prague’s Rudolfinum in February 1890. The next success came when one of his great advocates, the celebrated conductor Hans Richter, led the piece in London and Vienna. About the latter performance, he informed Dvořák: “You would certainly have been pleased with his performance. All of us felt that it is a magnificent work, and so were all enthusiastic. Brahms dined with me after the performance and we drank to the health of the unfortunately absent ‘father’ of [the Symphony]. … The success was warm and heartfelt.”
The G-major Symphony is one of Dvořák’s freshest works, often projecting a pastoral character appropriate to the radiant Bohemian countryside in which he wrote it. The piece begins with a solemn and noble theme stated by clarinets, bassoons, horns, and cellos that will return at key moments in the movement (Allegro con brio). Without a change in tempo this introductory section turns to the tonic major key as a solo flute presents the principal folklike theme that the full orchestra soon joyously declaims. The Adagio is particularly pastoral and traverses many moods, from a passionate beginning to the sound of bird calls, the happy
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music-making of village bands, and grandly triumphant passages.
While Dvořák often wrote fast scherzo-like third movements, this Symphony offers a more leisurely Allegretto grazioso with a waltz character in G minor. In the middle is a rustic major-key trio featuring music that will return in an accelerated duple-meter version for the movement’s coda. Trumpets proclaim a festive fanfare to open the finale (Allegro ma non troppo), which then unfolds as a set of variations on a theme stated by the cellos. The theme looks back to the flute
melody of the first movement and undergoes a variety of variations with wonderful effects along the way, including raucous trills from the French horns and virtuoso flute decorations.
Appointed first associate concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2005, Canadian violinist Juliette Kang enjoys an active and varied career. Previously assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Ms. Kang’s solo engagements have included the San Francisco, Baltimore, Singapore, and KBS (Seoul) symphonies; l’Orchestre National de France; the Hong Kong Philharmonic; the Boston Pops; the Vienna Chamber Orchestra; and every major orchestra in Canada. She has given recitals in Philadelphia, Paris, Tokyo, and Boston. In 1994 she won first prize of the 1994 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and was presented at New York’s Carnegie Hall in a recital that was recorded live and released on CD. She has also recorded the Schumann and Wieniawski violin concertos with the Vancouver Symphony for CBC Records. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut in 2012.
Ms. Kang studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. Festivals she has participated in include Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Kingston, Marlboro, Moab, Skaneateles, Spoleto USA, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival (with her husband, cellist Thomas Kraines), and the Bard Music Festival. With Philadelphia Orchestra colleague violist Che Hung Chen, pianist Natalie Zhu, and cellist Clancy Newman she is a member of the Clarosa Quartet.
After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree at age 15 from Curtis as a student of Jascha Brodsky, Ms. Kang earned a Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Dorothy Delay and Robert Mann. She was a winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists Auditions, and she subsequently received first prize at the 1992 Menuhin Violin Competition of Paris.
JULIETTE KANG
PHOTO BY JEFF MOON
YO-YO MA PLAYS DVOŘÁK
XIAN ZHANG Conductor
YO-YO MA
Cello
NGWENYAMA
Primal Message
First Philadelphia Orchestra performance
KODÁLY
Dances of Galánta
I. Lento—
II. Allegretto moderato—
III. Allegro con moto, grazioso—
IV. Allegro—
V. Allegro vivace
INTERMISSION
DVOŘÁK
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
I. Allegro
II. Adagio ma non troppo
III. Allegro moderato
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
YO-YO MA PHOTO BY JASON BELL
PRIMAL MESSAGE
Composed for viola quintet between 2018 and 2021; arranged for strings, harp, and percussion in 2020
NOKUTHULA NGWENYAMA
Born in Los Angeles, June 16, 1976
Now living in Arizona on Tohono O’odham land
Violist and composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama, known as “Thula,” has successfully finessed a career as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and composer. Her name translates from Zulu as “Mother of Peace” and “Lion,” and she has more than lived up to the leonine moniker with multiple viola competition wins and solo appearances with major orchestras, as well as nationwide commissions for her works.
Born of Zulu/Japanese parentage, Ngwenyama began her musical career with piano and solfège classes. Mesmerized by the sound of the viola, she crafted her own instrument from her grandmother’s French factory violin, and by the age of 13 was playing with orchestras in the Los Angeles area. She won the Primrose International Viola Competition at age 16 and was subsequently awarded a Young Concert Artists International Audition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She began a solo viola career with debuts at Washington’s Kennedy Center and New York’s 92nd Street Y and has since performed with orchestras and as a recitalist worldwide.
Composing from a young age, Ngwenyama honed her skills with a high school theory teacher who had been a student of renowned French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. She attended what is now the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied at the Paris Conservatory and also received a master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. Throughout her dual career as performer and composer, she has been a particular advocate for the viola, bringing the instrument to the forefront of the performance arena.
In 1974 astronomers at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory created a historic interstellar radio message to the globular star cluster Messier 13 as a demonstration of human technological achievement and a greeting of “Hello!” to the universe. The message was not intended as an attempt to enter into conversation with extraterrestrials, but a subsequent article about the event set Ngwenyama to thinking of what might
be included in a salutation of this sort, whether other life forms would hear and feel sound as we do, and what could be musically transmittable as evidence of our humanity.
Primal Message was initially composed for viola quintet, which Ngwenyama expanded to other instrumentations, including a version for harp, percussion, and strings heard on tonight’s concert. The work received its orchestral world premiere during the height of the pandemic on November 5, 2020, to a largely online audience, with Xian Zhang conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As Ngwenyama writes, the one-movement piece is “based on the idea of communicating the things we learn to communicate with each other—our intelligence, our emotions, our goodness.”
To create her meditation on communication in the space age, Ngwenyama visualized the music in terms of numbers, musical intervals and harmonic progressions. “I thought, what about working with some prime numbers—2, 3, 5, 7? I started thinking about having seconds, descending in seconds, going in thirds. Harmonic structure is very easy if we go around V-I-V-I, a very primal harmonic progression. ... I just started having fun with the idea of what a ‘Primal Message’ would sound like.” The resulting composition takes advantage of music’s very close relationship with mathematics to express what might be understood by a listener as the composer’s own “Hello!” to whoever’s out there, with a message of hope for a better world.
Threading throughout the piece is an expressive and pentatonic “scientific fictional” melody the composer has named “Il Cuore” (The Heart) and describes as containing “all the hopes, dreams, and passions of humanity.” Melodic fragments travel through the ensemble, accompanied by raindrops from the harp, with the ebb and flow of things tumbling through space. Quick shifts of tempo and dynamics bring melodic material to the foreground, but the music always returns to the spacious and folklike melody announcing to a cosmic audience, “This is us.”
As a composer, Ngwenyama has been called an “ideal ambassador for Earth at this time in our planet’s young life.” She describes Primal Message as an “inviting examination of our collective evolution through a drive to express, tying us in concert with universal celebration,” and asks, “what could we convey about our emotional intelligence? And are we really ready to connect to another life form, when we’re having such a hard time connecting with each other?”
DANCES OF GALÁNTA
Composed in 1933
ZOLTÁN
KODÁLY
Born in Kecskemét, Hungary, December 16, 1882
Died in Budapest, March 6, 1967
Like his friend and colleague Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály had one lifelong passion: the folk song of central and eastern Europe. Before World War I changed the face of this terrain forever, this adventurous pair traveled to the outermost regions of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, where they transcribed and recorded thousands of folk tunes—as part of what they envisioned would lay the groundwork for a systematic understanding of these peoples. Kodály and Bartók could not have realized that much of the “peasant” music that they recorded would soon disappear. The very concept of peasantry itself, in fact, was to disappear, in the wake of the new “post-feudal” social order after 1918. Nevertheless, much of Kodály’s valuable research helped preserve some of this essential music.
During the war Kodály, who had served as professor of composition at the Budapest Academy of Music since 1912, began writing articles on the findings from his researches. He also found time to compose a number of chamber and piano works containing ample evidence of the effect that folk music had exerted on his outlook. As in Bartók’s music, nearly everything Kodály composed after these early research trips was permeated with the spirit (and sometimes the actual melodies) of the folk songs he had collected. “If I were to name the composer whose works are the most perfect embodiment of the Hungarian spirit,” wrote no less a critic than Bartók, “I would answer, Kodály. His work proves his unshakable faith and trust in the constructive power and future of his people.” Late in life, Kodály summed up his own achievement more modestly: “Around 1900 it was necessary for the Hungarian composer first to collect folksongs. To begin with, we looked only for ‘lost ancient melodies.’ But seeing the village people and the great talent and fresh life being left to perish there, we gained a new idea of a cultured Hungary born of the people. We devoted our lives to bringing this about.” Kodály felt, as acutely as Bartók did, that it was his challenge to make his own music grow from this fundamental material.
The Dances of Galánta, composed in 1933 for the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic, serve as a prime example of this. Built from gypsy melodies Kodály learned from the Galánta region of Hungary, the brief tone-picture casts
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verbunkos-style tunes (the traditional recruiting dance of the early Hungarian folk tradition) into a sort of free-form rondo. The work consists of five dances that are linked in a seamless flow—the first a lugubrious Lento for clarinet and strings; the second (Allegretto moderato) a cheerful romp by the flute (closing with a reprise of the first dance); the third a country-dance for flute, oboe, and orchestra (Allegro con moto, grazioso); the fourth an Allegro featuring a truculent stamping rhythm; the last Allegro vivace summarizes the proceedings of all the previous dances.
—Paul J. Horsley
CELLO CONCERTO IN B MINOR, OP. 104
Composed from 1894 to 1895
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, September 8, 1841 Died in Prague, May 1, 1904
There is a special quality about the music that Dvořák composed during his three-year stay in the United States that has made it particularly dear to American hearts. From the “New World” Symphony to the Te Deum, from the “American” Quartet and Quintet to the Cello Concerto, these works manifest a unique synthesis of European tradition and American directness that seem to have brought out the best in the Czech-born composer. In part this success was a measure of Dvořák’s ability to reduce the more complex contrapuntal style of his earlier works into a more straightforward texture. But also, this music from the early 1890s lent a new prominence to melodies that for many listeners in the United States had a powerfully “American” character. One view on this is that Dvořák wrote these works under the influence of indigenous melodies of Native Americans he met during his travels here; others point to the similarity of these tunes to the AfricanAmerican spirituals that he studied assiduously while he was here. Whatever the focus, Dvořák’s American period (1892–95) was a crucial moment, both in American concert music and in the composer’s own development.
By 1894 he was up to his neck in administrative duties, as director of New York’s National Conservatory of Music, and he had to struggle for every minute of creative time. The Concerto’s inception was inspired, partly, by another cello concerto—the Second of tunesmith Victor Herbert, the premiere of which Dvořák had heard in March 1894 in Brooklyn. Soon after this performance he began to reconsider the longstanding request of Hanuš Wihan, the
best-known Czech cellist of his day, that he write a concerto. He began sketching the piece in November of that year, completing it in February 1895. He sent the solo part to Wihan, who suggested a number of revisions and rather obtusely wrote out elaborate cadenzas for himself in the first and last movements. Dvořák was incensed, writing to his publisher, “I insist on my work being printed as I have written it.” In the end it was Leo Stern who premiered the work, in March 1896 in London; the composer himself conducted. It scored a huge success, as it did in subsequent performances in Prague. Brahms stood in awe at Dvořák’s achievement, calling it a “great and important work,” and commenting that “had I known that such a violoncello concerto as this could be written, I would have tried to compose one myself.”
The first movement (Allegro) begins with a clarinet statement of the pregnant first theme, leading to the assertive second subject; the orchestral exposition takes us finally back to a rather startling statement of the main theme by the solo cello— in the unconventional major key. The second movement (Adagio ma non troppo) is built from a tranquil subject first stated by clarinets and bassoons; a haunting central section follows, with a tune borrowed from one of Dvořák’s own songs, “Lasst mich allein” (Leave Me Alone), which he interpolated here as a tribute to Josefína Čermáková, a friend who had fallen ill and died shortly after the composer’s return to Bohemia in summer 1895.
The work concludes with a finale (Allegro moderato) of cheerful vigor—”closing with a gradual diminuendo,” as Dvořák wrote of the movement, “like a breath, with reminiscences of the first and second movements.” The composer revised this movement in 1895; among other things he extended the coda by more than 60 measures, bringing back the main theme of the first movement and also adding a reference to “Leave Me Alone.”
Conductor Xian Zhang is in her eighth season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony. She also holds the positions of principal guest conductor of the Melbourne Symphony and conductor emeritus of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, where she held the position of music director from 2009 to 2016. In high demand as a guest conductor, she juggles an exceptionally busy diary of guest engagements alongside her titled commitments. From January through May 2024 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut leading Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.
Ms. Zhang made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in June 2012. Symphonic highlights of the 2023–24 season included returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra; the Seattle, Houston, São Paulo State, and National symphonies; and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She remains a popular guest of the London, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore, Montreal, and Toronto symphonies; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa; the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; and Norwegian Opera, where she returned last season for Puccini’s Tosca. Additional opera productions have included Verdi’s Nabucco with Welsh National Opera, Verdi’s Otello at the Savonlinna Festival, Puccini’s La bohème for English National Opera, and Verdi’s La forza del destino with National Opera.
XIAN ZHANG
PHOTO BY BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
Letters for the Future, Ms. Zhang’s recording released in 2022 on Deutsche Grammophon with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Time for Three, won two GRAMMY awards, for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (for Kevin Puts’s Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The recording also includes Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3. Ms. Zhang previously served as principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra.
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36-community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach’s cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, where he began studying the cello with his father at age four. When he was seven, he moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education.
Yo-Yo has recorded more than 120 albums, is the winner of 19 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has
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been a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006, and was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Opus 3 Artists is the exclusive representative of Yo-Yo Ma.
YO-YO MA PHOTO BY JASON BELL
DISNEY’S THE LION KING IN CONCERT
DAMON GUPTON Conductor
Disney
The Lion King
Live in Concert
This performance is a presentation of the feature film The Lion King with a live performance of the film’s score. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the end credits.
Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.
Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Produced by Don Hahn
Screenplay by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton
Songs by Tim Rice and Elton John
Original Score Composed and Arranged by Hans Zimmer
Executive Producers Thomas Schumacher and Sarah McArthur
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight”
Performed by Elton John
Produced by Chris Thomas
Voice Cast
Young Simba Jonathan Taylor Thomas Simba Matthew Broderick Mufasa James Earl Jones Scar Jeremy Irons
Nala Moira Kelly Young Nala Niketa Calame Pumbaa Ernie Sabella
Original Soundtrack from Walt Disney Records, available at Disneymusicemporium.com.
Film Concert Production Credits
President, Disney Music Group Ken Bunt
SVP/GM, Disney Concerts Chip McLean
VP, Disney Concerts Gina Lorscheider
Operations, Disney Concerts Brannon Fells and Royd Haston
Business Affairs, Disney Concerts Darryl Franklin, Leigh Zeichick, Narine Minasian, Elena Contreras, Addison Granillo, Christy Swintek, Svetlana Tzaneva
Marketing, Disney Concerts Lisa Linares
For Bookings Inquiries: Emily.Yoon@TeamWass.com
Hans Zimmer has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which, combined, have grossed more than $28 billion at the worldwide box office. He has been honored with two Academy Awards®, three Golden Globes®, four GRAMMYs®, an American Music Award, and a Tony® Award. His work highlights include Dune:
Part One, Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years a Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored with Benjamin Wallfisch), and Dunkirk, as well as multiple seasons of David Attenborough’s
Prehistoric Planet, including the upcoming third season, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, the follow-up to his Academy Awardwinning score for Dune: Part One. Beyond his award-winning compositions, Mr. Zimmer is a remarkably successful touring artist, having just concluded his second “Hans Zimmer Live” European tour and performing in the Middle East at Dubai’s renowned Coca-Cola Arena for two consecutive nights as well as Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix. His “World of Hans Zimmer” tour, which he curated and directed, started its latest European run of over 50 dates this past March on the heels of Dune: Part Two’s release.
HANS ZIMMER
PHOTO BY LEE KIRBY
Damon Gupton is the first-ever principal guest conductor of the Cincinnati Pops. A native of Detroit, he served as American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony and assistant conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. His conducting appearances include the Boston Pops; the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; the Detroit, San Francisco, Atlanta, Baltimore, National, St. Louis, and Princeton symphonies; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo; and the Sphinx Symphony. Other musical collaborations include work with Marcus Miller, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Common, Leslie Odom Jr., Byron Stripling, Tony DeSare, the Midtown Men, Kenn Hicks, Jamie Cullum, and Massamba Diop in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in Concert. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut conducting Black Panther in 2023.
Mr. Gupton has been featured as a narrator in many performances, including Wynton Marsalis’s The Ever Fonky Lowdown with Juilliard Jazz,
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 7:30PM
FRIDAY, JULY 12 AT 7:30PM
SATURDAY, JULY 13 AT 2:00PM
as well as performances with the Cleveland Orchestra; the Grand Teton and Grant Park music festivals; the Detroit, Colorado, Houston, and Memphis symphonies; the Cincinnati Pops; and on the Videmus recording Fare Ye Well. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Michigan. He studied conducting with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, DC.
An accomplished actor, Mr. Gupton is a graduate of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School and is currently a principal cast member of The Big Door Prize for Apple TV. Other series appearances include The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Black Lightning, Criminal Minds, The Player, The Divide, Prime Suspect, and Deadline. He also appears in Damien Chazelle’s Academy Award–winning films Whiplash and La La Land. His stage roles include the Broadway production of Clybourne Park
DAMON GUPTON
November 9 & 10, 2024
March 8 & 9, 2025
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
As a nonprofit organization, SPAC depends on the generous support of members, corporate and institutional partnerships, and philanthropic gifts.
Because of you, SPAC is able to deliver the best artists from around the world, life-changing arts education, and a unique array of arts and cultural experiences—all amidst majestic natural beauty.
Thank you for being an integral part of making SPAC the Capital Region’s home for arts, nature, and community.
SPAC Evergreen Society
Planned Giving
Your first ballet, romantic dates in the amphitheater, that family feeling at Jazz Fest, and grandchildren dancing on the lawn...these are moments at SPAC that will always hold a special place in your heart.
What better way to honor your memories than with a gift that will support SPAC for generations to come?
Your path to a legacy gift to SPAC can be as simple as:
• Adding SPAC as a beneficiary to your will or trust
• Naming SPAC as a life insurance beneficiary
• Donating a gift from your IRA
SPAC Evergreen Society recognizes those who have made a commitment to support SPAC with a gift from a will or trust, beneficiary designation, or another planned gift.
SPAC was born in 1966 thanks to the philanthropic support of its community. The Evergreen Society, thanks to people like you, will ensure this legacy continues. We are here to
For more information, please contact Christine Dixon at 518-485-9330 ext. 112 or cdixon@spac.org.
envision the perfect piano for your home
Request a complimentary steinway & sons grand piano floor template and select the perfect steinway for your space.
a 171 year legacy of craftsmanship & innovation
Discover why steinway remains at the heart of cultured homes around the world.
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Please scan the QR code or visit: Steinway.com/saratoga
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CHAIR PERSON
Charles V. Wait, Jr
VICE CHAIR
Carl DeBrule
SECRETARY
Judy A. Harrigan, Ph. D
TREASURER
Sean Leonard
MEMBERS
Will Aldrich
Raimundo Archibold
Sonny Bonacio
Sally Bott
STAFF
Elizabeth Sobol President & CEO
Leslie Collman-Smith General Manager
Zack Ashcraft Box Office Assistant, and Group Sales Manager
Adrienne Atiles Director, Grants & Development Communications
Austin Bayliss Senior Director, Events & Special Projects
Melissa Howe Ticketing & Member Services Coordinator
Brittany Kendall Director, Marketing
Gilles Lauzon Controller
Jay Lafond Chief Financial Officer
Cynthia Madcharo Senior Accountant
Maddie McCarthy Development and Events Associate
Dennis Moench VP, Education
Linsey Reardon Education Program and Digital Content Coordinator
Dr. L. Oliver Robinson
Andrea Spungen
Stephan C. Verral
Lisa Vollendorf, Ph. D
Jason C. Ward
TRUSTEES EMERITI
William P. Dake
Charles V. Wait
TRUSTEES OF COUNSEL
John J. Nigro
Hon. Susan Phillips Read
Edward P. Swyer
Linda G. Toohey
Abby Fusco Director, Venue Operations
Timothy Roylance Manager, Box Office
Christopher Shiley VP, Artistic Planning
Francesca Soldevere Arts Educator
Scott Somerville Director of Creative Services
Olivia Szczurko-Walton Administrator and Arts Educator
Heather N. Varney Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships
Kristy Ventre Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
Jill Zygo Director, Arts in Education & Community Programs
Mike Zygo Arts Educator
Saratoga Performing Arts Center uses Steinway Pianos; Steinway and Sons is represented in Saratoga exclusively by Artist Pianos.
A modern collection of classics.
Discover new favorites like WARBY PARKER, SUR LA TABLE, CIRCLES AND JOSIE’S TABLE.
Coming soon: SIMONE’S KITCHEN AND UNION HALL SUPPLY CO.
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is grateful for the contributions of the following individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. As of May 10, 2024
LEGACY
Michael & Stacie Arpey
Stewart’s Shops & The Dake Family
Andrea Spungen
Linda & Michael Toohey
HERITAGE
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Lois & Matthew Emmens
Geraldine Golub
Jane Sanzen & Richard Higgins
Ruthann Marcelle & Paul Gozemba
Lisa & Robert Moser
Diana Ryan
The Swyer Family Foundation
CHAIRMAN
Anonymous (2)
Sally Bott
Gary DiCresce
Judy A. Harrigan, Ph.D.
George R. Hearst III
Teresa A. Kennedy
Steve A. Lemanski
Rebecca & Sean Leonard
LouAnn & John McGlinchey
Norma Meacham
Jeffrey R. Ridha
Deborah & Dexter Senft
Stephen Verral & Susanne D’Isabel
Heather & Jason Ward
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Shannan & Dave Carroll
Terry & Carl DeBrule
Kristen & Matthew Esler
Linda & Bernard Kastory
Mary K. & Leland Loose
Hon. Susan Phillips Read & Howard J. Read
Tas Steiner
DIRECTOR
Anonymous (4)
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Elizabeth G. Brown
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Kenneth Ellis
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Anthony R. Ianniello, Esq.
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Myra & Skip Lewis
Valerie Dillon & Daniel R. Lewis
Micki & Norman Massry
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John J. Nigro
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Maureen Parker
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Marci & Michael Phinney
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A.C. Riley
Jessica & Yli Schwartzman
Rylee & Keith Servis
Brandy & Richard Simmons
Jane & Peter Smith
Frances Spreer Albert
Lewis Titterton
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Donna E. Wardlaw & Robert F. Bristol
E. Richard Yulman
Andrea & Michael Zappone
Thalia & John Zizzo
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Anonymous (1)
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Lisa Morgan
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Margaret Smith
Lisa Sternlicht
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Anonymous (2)
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Timothy Cartwright
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Brian Hall
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The Miller Family
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Nancy Mullen- In Memory of Virginia & John Flagg
John L. Myers & Christine Ames
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Jeffrey Oskin
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Anonymous (4)
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Erika C. Browne
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Linda & Ted Bubniak
Susanne Buhac
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Robert & Ann Bullock
Dr. & Mrs. Stowe Burke
Julie & John Burke
Thomas F. Burleigh
Dr. Elina Burstyn
Sara & Aaron Bush
Gina Butera
Christy A. Calicchia
Nancy Carey Cassidy
Michael J. Carpenter
Leslie & John Cashin
Jack & Siobhan Celeste
Bruce Cerone
Nora & Jeffrey Cheek
Dawn & Matt Chivers
Julie Chlopecki
David C. Christopher
Brendan Chudy
Glenn Clancy/Filtersource.Com, Inc.
Cheryl Clark
Julie M Cochran/Maistrie LLC
Holly & Stan Coleman
Elizabeth & John Collins
Heather Comora
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Therese & Sean Connolly
Cathy Switkes Cooley
Cynthia Corbett
Ellen Cosgrove & Jeffrey Fahl
Wendy & Neev Crane
Mark & Elizabeth Cummings
Kevin Cushing & Sue Hensley-Cushing
Deborah & Richard Czech
Katherine & Jeffrey M. Daly
Marsha Dammerman
Abigail Lee Dansie
L. Berkley & Katharine H. Davis
Theresa & Douglass Davis
Christine & Ed Decker
Jennifer & Ed Degenhart
Judy DeLorenzo & George Estel
Shawn Delp
Christopher Denisulk
Diane & Tom Denny
Linda & Albert Dettbarn
Michael Devellis & Bradley Farrell
Ariel Dickson
Jeremy Dole
Dan Donovan
Judy & Kevin Dooley
Ellen & Todd Downing
Stan & Sharon Drosky
Ann Duffy
Alan Ellis & Mary Dunbar
Christine Dunbar
Anita Dunn
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Dr. Richard & Mrs. Ruth Cheris Edelson
Elizabeth King & Charles Engros
Susanne D. Erb
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Carolyn Fagan
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Carol & Tracy Farmer
Mary & David Farr
Adam Fink
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Cassie & Harvey Fox
Mark A. Franzoso
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Rhoda & Avram Freedberg
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Mary Gavin & Jim LaVigne
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Barbara Frank & Rick Guior
Madison Gurga
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Ann Haggerty
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Pauline & Henry Hamelin
Maria Harrison
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Martin Hellwig
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Dr. Geoffrey Hill
Joseph A. Hinkhouse
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Jon Hosler
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Sara J. Jackson
Arnold Jaffe
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Patricia Joy
Marilyn Kacica & Joseph Dudek
Harriet J. Kalejs
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Grant Kamin
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Michael Greenbaum
Susan Gurian & Bob Sommerville
Catherine Halim
Miles Douglas Hansen
David Harris
Wilhelmina A. Haruk
Jean & Walt Hayes
Judith & Richard J. Heller
Dean J. Henderson
Ray Jett & David Hersh
Thomas E. Hommel
Junko Kobori & Louis Hotchkiss
Michelle Hunt
Nannette & Matthew Hyland
John Iannotti
Terri & Rich Indyk
Diane Irwin
Margie Lee Johnson
Susan O. Johnson
Bryan Ju
Mr. Peter Kahn
Maura Kane
Milly & Al Karoly
Richard Kaufman
Mollie Kavanagh & Dave Ratzer
Marcia & John Keefe
Elain & Robert Kennedy
Sharri & Daniel Kinley
Greg Knight
Judith Knispel
Wojciech Kropiewnicki
Arlene Krouner
Catherine Krylowicz
Amy & Dave Latta
Jack R. Lebowitz
Robert Levy & Kelly MacPherson
Robert J. Lindinger
Diane Lloyd
Barbara & Jim Lombardo
Joann Long
Christopher Lyons
Sheila Mahony Mosher
Sharon & Charles Maneri
Stephanie & John Markowich
H. Carl McCall
Bill McCartney
Christine L. McDonald
Darcy Mcredmond
Richard J. Merck
Linda Mier
Greg Miller
Dolores Monforte
Lorraine & George Morabito
Harry Moran
Edward L. Motter
Elizabeth & John Mowry
Mary Murphy
William F. Murray
Claire Murray
James Myers & Sarah Bilofsky
Roberta Nahill
Eileen Nash
Linda Lee Nelson
Debbie & Pablo Lacayo
Zoe Nousiainen
Victoria Nye Cordi
Mary Alice Nyhan
Michael J. O’Connor
Mary T. O’Connor
Rebecca O’Doherty & Cassandra John
Mary Lynn Olbrych
Margo & Jeff Olson
Marygina & Gerald Ortiz
Peter & Colleen Palleschi
Linda S. Parkoff
Christopher Parks & Lauren Baran
Dr. Crystal Paul
Mr. Michael Penfold
Ralph Pennino
Johanna Petersen
Patricia Peterson
Gretchen M. Piwinski
Jane Porter
Helen Porter
Joseph E. Potvin
Eileen & Daniel Ranalli
Mary Rappazzo Hall
Lizzie Reardon
Elizabeth Reuter
Monica & Wayne Richter
Susan & Kevin Roach
Kassondra Roach
Jo Anne Robbins
Cynthia Roberts
Penny Jolly & Jay Rogoff
Christine & Ken Romano
Mr. Vince Rua
Don Ruberg & Marin Ridgway
Robert F. Rusiecki, Jr.
Samantha Ruth
Kevin Ryan
Steve Allegra
Terri & Robert Sameski
Andrea & Timothy Sayles
Charles D. Schaeffer
Andrea & John Schneiter
Susan Seeley
Ms. Laura Shea
Richard A. Sherman
Pam & Richard Siegel
Steve Sills
Rhea Singsen
Terri & Charles Smith
Phillip & Karen Sparkes
Danny Stevens
Mr. Kenneth W. Stewart
Michael F. Sturdivant
Stacy Styles
Timothy Suprise
Catherine M. Szenczy
Deborah H. Tagliento
Aaron To
Margot Tohn
Jim & Kay Tomasi
Mary & Kevin Tully
Mary Ellen Turner
Jennifer & Andrew Turro
Mr. & Mrs. Edward Van Gelder
Tim VanBenschoten
Heather N. Varney
Tricia Viola
Vogel Family
Robert Walker
Amy Wellman
Alexander & Katherine Wentworth-Ping
Nancy Werner & Roger Risch
Walter Whalen
Andre Wharer
Sarah & D. Billings Wheeler
Tim Wickes
Lawrence & Sara Wiest
Donna & Michael Wilcox
Winnie & Fred Wilhelm
Frank & Cynthia Williams
Mallory & Grant Willsea
Lisa Yanchitis
Melissa M. Zambri & Gina M. Moran
Bruno Zarkower
2024 CORPORATE MEMBERS
GOLD PARTNER
Fingerpaint
Mackey Auto Group
Stewart’s Shops
The Adirondack Trust Company
SILVER PARTNER
Druthers Brewing Company
East Hill Cabinetry
Plug PV Powered by Sunnova
Skidmore College
The Fort Miller Group, Inc.
BRONZE PARTNER
Hoffman Development Corp.
Lift Marketing
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc
Mohawk Honda
Nuvalence
Social Radiant
The Albany and Saratoga Centers for Pain Management
PARTNER
Adirondack Radiology Associates
Austin & Co., Inc.
BPI Mechanical Service
BST & Co. CPA’S, LLP
Empire State University
Fenimore Asset Management
Greno Industries, Inc.
KPTC LLC
Mangino Buick GMC
Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis LLC
Point Breeze Marina
RJG Enterpirses LLC
Saratoga Schenectady Gastroenterology
Associates
Soleno
ASSOCIATE
Anne’s Washington Inn
Bouchey Financial Group
Carpe Diem Real Properties, LLC
Carpenter & Associates Insuring Agency LLC
CDPHP
Couch White, LLP
Ellis Medicine Foundation
Krackeler Scientific, Inc.
Lemery Greisler, LLC
Munter Enterprises, Inc.
Olde Bryan Inn
Omni Development Company, Inc
On Call Plumbing and Heating LLC
Polyset Company, Inc.
R.J. Murray Company
Saratoga Dermatology/Spa City Spa
Teakwood Builders, Inc.
Trustco Bank
UHY Advisors
Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP
Zippy Chicks
SPAC EVERGREEN SOCIETY
Anonymous
Virginia Alston
Elizabeth Louise Berberian
Joyce Bixby
Susan Bokan
Joanne Chaplek
Jane & John Corrou
David
Ellen deLalla
Gary DiCresce
Lois Emmens
Chris Freihofer
Dr. Jon D. Globerson
Richard Higgins
Robert M. & Debbie S. Jaffe
Judith Jameson
Virginia Mee
Denise Polit
Jean A. Richards
Katie Scalamandre
Carla H. Skodinski
Andrea Spungen
James Swenson
Dawn Szurek
Stephen Thomas
Robert Watts
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
Carl E. Touhey Foundation
Charles R. Wood Foundation
Empire State Development
The Little Family Foundation
Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation
Saratoga County, NY
Saratoga Foundation
The Wright Family Foundation
MEMORIAL AND HONORARY GIFTS
In Memory of Phyllis Aldrich
Anonymous (1)
Will Adrich
Elizabeth W. Atcheson
Boilin’ Sister
Susan Dake
Karen Flewelling
Lynne Gelber
Amy Knoeller and James North
Chuck Marshall
Nancy McPhaul
Bernard and Jennifer Mirling
Cecile Picard
Jo Anne Robbins
James Sevinsky
Jessica Schwartzman
Elizabeth Sobol
Cindy Spence
Merrill Stubbs Dorman
David and Claudia Watts
Pen and Bev Williamson
Russell Wise & Ann Alles
In Memory of Philly Dake
Tyler & Krista Keogh
In Memory of Rose Koplovitz
Susan & Tim Delaney
In Memory of Christa V. Kraft
Bonnie Myers
Darlene Landry
Maxine Sherrill
Carolyn Lull
Nicole Clarke
In Memory of: Robert F. & Mary E. Lennon
Jeff & Linda Anderson
Barbara A. Ash
Dan & Lynn O’Rourke
Elaine M. Smith & Paul V. Ertelt
Kenneth D. Wilkins
In Memory of Anthony Manganaro
Joseph E. & Zenia Aoun
Catherine & Larry Belkov
Arthur Black
Greg Gordon
Tom & Tracy Vagrin
Susan Wilson
The Manganaro Family
In Honor of Susan and Bill Dake
Chuck Marshall
Laura Dake Roche
Renee Dake Wilson
Nancy & Mike Ingersoll
The Robert and Lisa Moser Family Foundation
In Honor of Chris Mackey
Chuck Marshall
In Honor of Tas Steiner and Ken Kelly
Keeley Ardman DeSalvo
2024-2025 SEASON
Christian McBride and Ursa Major
McCormack Jazz Series
October 24, 2024 | 7PM
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
October 26, 2024 | 3PM
A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham
November 9, 2024 | 7PM
November 10, 2024 | 2PM
Dorado Schmitt and the Django Festival Allstars with special guest Hot Club Saratoga
McCormack Jazz Series
November 22, 2024 | 7PM
Flamenco Vivo
March 8, 2025 | 7PM
March 9, 2025 | 2PM
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
March 29, 2025 | 3 PM
Alfredo Rodriguez Trio
McCormack Jazz Series
April 5, 2025 | 7PM
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
April 26, 2025 | 3PM
Veronica Swift
McCormack Jazz Series
May 1, 2025 | 7PM
Christian McBride and Ursa Major
A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham
Alfredo Rodriguez
Veronica Swift
Flamenco Vivo
As RPI celebrates our Bicentennial and 200 years of innovation in 2024, we are proud to continue our partnership with SPAC.
Concert Hall at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer
