Season The Philadelphia Orchestra. LiveNote Nights. Stéphane Denève Conductor

Transcription

1 Season Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 The Philadelphia Orchestra LiveNote Nights Stéphane Denève Conductor Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Op Montagues and Capulets (opening) 2. Minuet 3. The Young Juliet 4. Masks 5. Montagues and Capulets (continuation) 6. Romeo and Juliet 7. Friar Laurence 8. The Death of Tybalt 9. Romeo at Juliet s Tomb 10. The Death of Juliet This program runs approximately 1 hour and will be performed without an intermission. LiveNote, the Orchestra s interactive concert guide for mobile devices, will be enabled for this performance. LiveNote Nights is funded in part by the generous support of the Raynier Institute & Foundation. Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit to listen live or for more details.

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3 3 Story Title The Philadelphia Orchestra 25 The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging and exceeding that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin s highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike since his inaugural season in Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions on the Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM. Philadelphia is home, and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado. The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop- Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit Jessica Griffin

4 6 Music Director Chris Lee Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues his inspired leadership of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which began in the fall of His highly collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Nézet-Séguin phenomenal, adding that under his baton, the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better. He has taken the Orchestra to new musical heights. Highlights of his third season as music director include an Art of the Pipe Organ festival; the 40/40 Project, in which 40 great compositions that haven t been heard on subscription concerts in at least 40 years will be performed; and Bernstein s MASS, the pinnacle of the Orchestra s fiveseason requiem cycle. Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal s Orchestre Métropolitain since He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with a CD on that label of Stravinsky s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. He continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. To read Yannick s full bio, please visit

5 26 Principal Guest Conductor Jessica Griffin Stéphane Denève is principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He made his debut with the Philadelphians in 2007 and assumed his current position at the start of the season. He is also chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and in September 2015 becomes chief conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire. From 2005 to 2012 he was music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recent European engagements have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw and Philharmonia orchestras; the Bavarian Radio, Swedish Radio, Vienna, and London symphonies; the Munich Philharmonic; the Orchestra Sinfonica dell Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and the Orchestre National de France. In North America Mr. Denève made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he is a frequent guest. He appears regularly with the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in He has conducted productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Saito Kinen Festival, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, and the Opéra National de Paris. He enjoys close relationships with many of the world s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, James Ehnes, and Natalie Dessay. As a recording artist, Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a double winner of the Diapason d Or, was shortlisted in 2012 for Gramophone s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He works regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the New World Symphony.

6 The Music Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet 27 Sergei Prokofiev Born in Sontsovka, Ukraine, April 23, 1891 Died in Moscow, March 5, 1953 In 1927 Prokofiev decided to visit his native Russia after nearly a decade spent mainly in America and Europe. The trip initiated a gradual process of repatriation, culminating in 1936 when he, his wife, and their two sons moved back permanently. Already by 1933 the Russian public was again becoming aware of his music, and Prokofiev began to receive Soviet commissions. One of the most important of these new commissions came in 1934 from the State Academic Theater (later the Kirov Theater): a proposal to compose what would become his first full-length story ballet. The project for a staged Romeo and Juliet (initially conceived with a happy ending) was the brainchild of the theater s director, Sergei Radlov who had come to admire Prokofiev s music in 1926, when he staged the first Soviet production of his opera The Love for Three Oranges. A Victim of Political Intrigue Alas, Romeo soon fell into a fervor of political intrigue. Sergei Kirov, the Communist Party boss in Leningrad, was assassinated in late 1934, and many of those associated with him, including Radlov, were discredited. Under the regime of the new boss, the dreaded Andrei Zhdanov (who would later be a headache for Shostakovich as well), the theater canceled Prokofiev s ballet. The project was taken over by the Bolshoi, then canceled again; Prokofiev had completed most of the music by 1935, but the ballet would not appear on the Russian stage until 1940, when the Kirov Theater finally took it up again. By this time, however, it had already received a performance in Brno, Czechoslovakia in Despite the intrigue surrounding the piece, the resulting score was a triumph for the composer a giant step forward, in the biographer Harlow Robinson s words, in Prokofiev s evolution as a dramatic and symphonic composer. The Soviet public, which had heard the first two suites to the ballet in concert even before the first staged performance of the full-length work, was enthusiastic about the music; and even the official response to the first Soviet production in 1940 was relatively positive.

7 28 Romeo and Juliet was composed from 1935 to Pierre Monteux was on the podium for the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of music from Prokofiev s Romeo and Juliet, in January 1945 (in a performance of the First Suite). Most recently on subscription Charles Dutoit conducted excerpts in October The Orchestra has recorded several movements from the ballet for EMI, under Riccardo Muti s direction. The score for the selections heard today includes piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, cornet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, tambourine), harp, piano, and strings. The excerpts on today s concert run approximately 40 minutes in performance. A Closer Look Prokofiev compiled suites from the complete ballet score in 1936, 1937, and 1946, sometimes adjusting the instrumentation. The result is three suites worth of brilliant music, from which conductors often choose according to individual taste, mixing and matching among the various pieces. Although the plot of Shakespeare s drama is rearranged, there are undoubted gains in musical effectiveness. The selection on today s program begins with the opening of the Montagues and Capulets, the famous depiction of the dance of the knights at the Capulet ball in Act I including the entrance of the Duke of Verona, who informs the feuding families that they must make peace. The Minuet depicts with great pomp and circumstance the arrival of the guests at the ball. In The Young Juliet, the doomed heroine s maid attempts to dress her for the ball, while Juliet resists the efforts in a humorous dance. Masks, also from the great ball, illustrates the disguised Montagues entering. The selections continue with the remaining section from Montagues and Capulets, followed by Romeo and Juliet, a pas de deux for the lovers at the start of Act III, after their night together. The music for Friar Laurence is a lyrical passage, square and hymn-like, that provides a respite from the proceedings. In The Death of Tybalt, Romeo duels fiercely with Tybalt, who has killed his friend Mercutio. The final piece of the Second Suite, the climactic Romeo at Juliet s Tomb, is a poignant, lachrymose funeral march in which the desperate hero slays Paris and then poisons himself. The Death of Juliet is the final music of the ballet, a noble and moving eulogy played as both families approach the funeral vault. Paul J. Horsley Program note All rights reserved. Program note may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

8 April/May The Philadelphia Orchestra 29 The remainder of the season is filled with outstanding live performances rich with incomparable and unforgettable musical experiences. Don t miss a concert. Great seats are still available Order today! Romeo and Juliet Thursday, April 23 8 PM Friday, April 24 2 PM Saturday, April 25 8 PM Stéphane Denève Conductor The Philadelphia Singers Chorale David Hayes Music Director Williams Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind Lindberg Graffiti, for chorus and orchestra Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet Bernstein s MASS Thursday, April 30 8 PM Friday, May 1 8 PM Saturday, May 2 8 PM Sunday, May 3 2 PM Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Kevin Vortmann Tenor Westminster Symphonic Choir Temple University Concert Choir The American Boychoir Kevin Newbury Stage Director Bernstein MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers These performances are made possible in part by the generous support of the William Penn Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Presser Foundation. TICKETS Call or log on to PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning 1 hour before curtain. All artists, dates, programs, and prices subject to change. All tickets subject to availability.

9 30 Tickets & Patron Services Thank you for joining us in Verizon Hall. We want you to enjoy each and every concert experience you share with us. We would love to hear about your experience at the Orchestra and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please don t hesitate to contact us via phone at , in person in the lobby, or by at patronserverices@philorch.org. Subscriber Services: Patron Services: Fire Notice: The exit indicated by a red light nearest your seat is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency, please do not run. Walk to that exit. No Smoking: All public space in the Kimmel Center is smoke-free. Cameras and Recorders: The taking of photographs or the recording of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts is strictly prohibited. Phones and Paging Devices: All electronic devices including cellular telephones, pagers, and wristwatch alarms should be turned off while in the concert hall. Late Seating: Late seating breaks usually occur after the first piece on the program or at intermission in order to minimize disturbances to other audience members who have already begun listening to the music. If you arrive after the concert begins, you will be seated as quickly as possible by the usher staff. Accessible Seating: Accessible seating is available for every performance. Please call Patron Services at for more information. You may also purchase accessible seating online at Assistive Listening: With the deposit of a current ID, hearing enhancement devices are available at no cost from the House Management Office. Headsets are available on a firstcome, first-served basis. Large-Print Programs: Large-print programs for every subscription concert are available in the House Management Office in Commonwealth Plaza. Please ask an usher for assistance. PreConcert Conversations: PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning one hour before curtain. Conversations are free to ticket-holders, feature discussions of the season s music and music-makers, and are supported in part by the Wells Fargo Foundation. Lost and Found: Please call Web Site: For information about The Philadelphia Orchestra and its upcoming concerts or events, please visit Subscriptions: The Philadelphia Orchestra offers a variety of subscription options each season. These multi-concert packages feature the best available seats, ticket exchange privileges, guaranteed seat renewal for the following season, discounts on individual tickets, and many other benefits. For more information, please call or visit Ticket Turn-In: Subscribers who cannot use their tickets are invited to donate them and receive a tax-deductible credit by calling Tickets may be turned in any time up to the start of the concert. Twenty-four-hour notice is appreciated, allowing other patrons the opportunity to purchase these tickets. Individual Tickets: Don t assume that your favorite concert is sold out. Subscriber turn-ins and other special promotions can make lastminute tickets available. Call Ticket Philadelphia at or stop by the Kimmel Center Box Office. Ticket Philadelphia Staff Gary Lustig, Vice President Carrie Farina, Director, Patron Services Michelle Harris, Director, Client Relations Dan Ahearn, Jr., Box Office Manager Gregory McCormick, Training Manager Catherine Pappas, Project Manager Jayson Bucy, Patron Services Manager Kate Diem, Business Operations Coordinator Elysse Madonna, Program and Web Coordinator Tad Dynakowski, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Michelle Messa, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Patricia O Connor, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Thomas Sharkey, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office James Shelley, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Maureen Esty, Lead Patron Services Meg Hackney, Lead Patron Services Julia Schranck, Lead Patron Services Elizabeth Jackson-Murray, Priority Services Megan Chialastri, Patron Services Jared Gumbs, Patron Services Stacey Ferraro, Patron Services Kristina Lang, Patron Services Brand-I Curtis McCloud, Patron Services Steven Wallace, Quality Assurance Analyst