Season 2019-2020
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23 Season 2019-2020 Saturday, February 1, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Sunday, February 2, at 2:00 Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Daniil Trifonov Piano Boulanger Of a Sad Evening Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”) I. Allegro II. Adagio un poco mosso— III. Rondo: Allegro Intermission Farrenc Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 35 I. Andante—Allegro II. Andante III. Scherzo: Vivace IV. Andante—Allegro This program runs approximately 2 hours. These concerts are sponsored by Ralph Muller and Beth Johnston. These concerts are part of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s WomenNOW and BeethovenNOW celebrations. Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM, and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 24 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra community centers, the Mann Through concerts, tours, is one of the world’s Center to Penn’s Landing, residencies, and recordings, preeminent orchestras. classrooms to hospitals, and the Orchestra is a global It strives to share the over the airwaves and online. ambassador. It performs transformative power of The Orchestra continues annually at Carnegie Hall, music with the widest to discover new and the Saratoga Performing possible audience, and to inventive ways to nurture its Arts Center, and the Bravo! create joy, connection, and relationship with loyal patrons. Vail Music Festival. The excitement through music The Philadelphia Orchestra Orchestra also has a rich in the Philadelphia region, continues the tradition of history of touring, having across the country, and educational and community first performed outside around the world. Through engagement for listeners Philadelphia in the earliest innovative programming, of all ages. It launched its days of its founding. It was robust educational initiatives, HEAR initiative in 2016 to the first American orchestra and an ongoing commitment become a major force for to perform in the People’s to the communities that it good in every community that Republic of China in 1973, serves, the ensemble is on a it serves. HEAR is a portfolio launching a now-five-decade path to create an expansive of integrated initiatives commitment of people-to- future for classical music, that promotes Health, people exchange. and to further the place champions music Education, The Orchestra also makes of the arts in an open and enables broad Access to live recordings available on democratic society. Orchestra performances, and popular digital music services Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now maximizes impact through and as part of the Orchestra in his eighth season as the Research. The Orchestra’s on Demand section of its eighth music director of The award-winning education and website. Under Yannick’s Philadelphia Orchestra. His community initiatives engage leadership, the Orchestra connection to the ensemble’s over 50,000 students, returned to recording, with musicians has been praised families, and community seven celebrated CDs on by both concertgoers and members through programs the prestigious Deutsche critics, and he is embraced such as PlayINs, side-by- Grammophon label. The by the musicians of the sides, PopUP concerts, Free Orchestra also reaches Orchestra, audiences, and Neighborhood Concerts, thousands of radio listeners the community. School Concerts, sensory- with weekly broadcasts on Your Philadelphia Orchestra friendly concerts, the School WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For takes great pride in its Partnership Program and more information, please visit hometown, performing for the School Ensemble Program, www.philorch.org. people of Philadelphia year- and All City Orchestra round, from Verizon Hall to Fellowships. 25 6 Music Director Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will lead The Philadelphia Orchestra through at least the 2025–26 season, an extraordinary and significant long-term commitment. Jessica Griffin Additionally, he became the third music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in August 2018. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His intensely collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, and in summer 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) and was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses. Yannick signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG) in 2018. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with five CDs on that label. His upcoming recordings will include projects with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Orchestre Métropolitain, with which he will also continue to record for ATMA Classique. Additionally, he has recorded with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records, and the London Philharmonic for the LPO label. 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 Montreal; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; the Prix Denise-Pelletier; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal, the Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, McGill University, the University of Montreal, and the University of Pennsylvania. To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit philorch.org/conductor. 26 Soloist Dario Acosta—Deutsche Grammophon Dario Acosta—Deutsche Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, winner of Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year, has made a spectacular ascent in the classical music world as a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. He first appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga in 2013 and made his subscription debut in 2015, just weeks after Deutsche Grammophon (DG) released the Grammy-nominated recording Rachmaninoff Variations with him, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. An exclusive DG artist, he recently added a first Grammy Award to his string of honors, winning Best Instrumental Solo Album of 2018 for his Liszt collection, Transcendental. This fall brought the DG release of Mr. Trifonov’s Destination Rachmaninoff: Arrival, following Destination Rachmaninoff: Departure, both also recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Mr. Nézet-Séguin. As 2019–20 artist in residence of the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Trifonov joins that ensemble for concertos in New York and Europe, and he gives the New York premiere of his own Piano Quintet. In addition to these current performances, season highlights also include collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony; Bach-themed solo recitals in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Europe; and a return to Carnegie Hall with fellow pianist Sergei Babayan. Mr. Trifonov recently undertook four major season-long residencies: at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein, and with the London Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic. Other recent highlights include launching the New York Philharmonic’s 2018–19 season; headlining the gala finale of the Chicago Symphony’s 125th anniversary celebrations; and collaborating with such preeminent ensembles as the Cleveland and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras; the Boston and Bavarian Radio symphonies; and the Munich and London philharmonics. He regularly gives solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and other prestigious venues around the world. Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, he attended Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music before pursuing piano and composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. 27 Framing the Program This concert unites The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Parallel Events two principal initiatives this season: BeethovenNOW, 1809 Music celebrating the composer’s 250th birthday, and Beethoven Spontini WomenNOW, which spotlights women innovators and “Emperor” Fernand Cortez creators. Concerto Literature Irving The concert opens and closes with works by two Rip van Winkle extraordinary yet underrecognized French composers. Lili Art Boulanger has the distinction of being the first woman to Constable win the coveted Prix de Rome, which had earlier helped to Malvern Hill launch the careers of Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, and History many others. The haunting and powerful Of a Sad Evening Napoleon is one of