Season 2020111111----2020202011112222 The Philadelphia Orchestra Thursday, March 11,, at 8:00 Friday, March 22,, at 222:002:00:00:00 Saturday, March 33,, at 8:00 Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Conductor Pepe Romero Guitar Turina Danzas fantásticas, Op. 22 I. Ecstasy II. Dream III. Orgy Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez, for guitar and orchestra I. Allegro con spirito II. Adagio III. Allegro gentile Intermission Palomo from Andalusian Nocturnes, for guitar and orchestra: II. Shattered Smile of a Star IV. Gust of Wind V. Nocturne of Córdoba VI. The Flamenco Stage First Philadelphia Orchestra performances Ravel Bolero This program runs approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes. A regular guest with North America’s top orchestras, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts the Cincinnati, Boston, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, and Montreal symphonies, and the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics in the 2011-12 season. He appears annually at the Tanglewood Music Festival and regularly with the National, Chicago, and Toronto symphonies. Born in Burgos, Spain, in 1933, Mr. Frühbeck studied violin, piano, music theory, and composition at the conservatories in Bilbao and Madrid and conducting at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded the Richard Strauss Prize. From 2004 to 2011 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Dresden Philharmonic. With the 2012-13 season he takes up the post of chief conductor of the Danish National Orchestra. Mr. Frühbeck has made extensive tours with such ensembles as London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony, the National Orchestra of Madrid, and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and he has toured North America with the Vienna Symphony, the Spanish National Orchestra, and the Dresden Philharmonic. Mr. Frühbeck was named Conductor of the Year by Musical America in 2011. His other honors and distinctions include the Gold Medal of the City of Vienna, the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Republic of Austria and Germany, the Gold Medal from the Gustav Mahler International Society, and the Jacinto Guerrero Prize, Spain’s most important musical award, conferred in 1997 by Queen Sofía of Spain. In 1998 Mr. Frühbeck was appointed emeritus conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Navarra in Spain, and since 1975 he has been a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Mr. Frühbeck has recorded extensively for the EMI, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Spanish Columbia, and Orfeo labels. Among his recordings are Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Saint Paul, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina burana, Bizet’s Carmen, and the complete works of Manual de Falla. Mr. Frühbeck made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1969. Guitarist Pepe Romero was born into a musical family in Málaga, Spain, in 1944. His father was guitarist Celedonio Romero and his brothers are guitarists Celin and Angel Romero, with whom he frequently performs as a member of the Romero Quartet. Mr. Romero made his debut at age seven at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville. In the 2012-13 season Mr. Romero will honor the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth and in 2013-14 will tour the world celebrating his own 70th year. He has premiered works by composers including Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Lorenzo Palomo, Padre Francisco de Madina, Paul Chihara, Enrique Diemecke, Ernesto Cordero, and his father. Mr. Romero’s discography includes more than 60 recordings, including 20 concerto recordings with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. His recent recordings include Christmas with Los Romeros for the Deutsche Grammophon label; Madina’s Concierto vasco para 4 guitarras y orquesta with the Romero Quartet and the Basque National Orchestra for the Claves label; The Romeros: Generations; a solo recital release, Corazón Español, on the CPA Hollywood Records label; and another recital recording, Classic Romero. Mr. Romero has also recorded a disc of works by Mr. Palomo with soprano Maria Bayo, the Romero Quartet, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the Seville Royal Symphony for the Naxos label. A new Spanish solo collection will be released this spring by Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Romero is also the author of a guitar method soon to be published by Tuscany Publications. Mr. Romero has served as professor of guitar at the University of Southern California, the University of California at San Diego, Southern Methodist University, and the University of San Diego. He holds honorary doctorates in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Victoria, British Columbia. In June 1996 he received the Spanish Premio Andalucía de la Música. In addition King Juan Carlos I of Spain has knighted Mr. Romero and his brothers into the Order of Isabel la Católica. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1968 as part of the Romeros; his solo debut was in 1998, at the Mann Center. FRAMING THE PROGRAM Today’s concert transports us to Spain and to the distinctive melodies, rhythms, and colors of its musical heritage, with Maestro Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos as our native guide. The inspiration of dance in particular unites this program, as do the evocative sounds of the guitar, an instrument so integrally associated with the Spanish musical tradition. Joaquín Turina’s Danzas fantásticas offer three contrasting dances, originally written for piano and later brilliantly orchestrated by the composer. Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is an extraordinarily popular and often-performed guitar concerto written in dark times. It is also a deeply personal work, especially in its heartfelt second movement. Lorenzo Palomo composed Andalusian Nocturnes for the celebrated guitarist Pepe Romero, the soloist today, who premiered the six-movement suite in Berlin with Maestro Frübeck in 1996. Just as many Spanish composers, including some on the program today as well as Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla, spent extended periods in Paris soaking in French musical trends, so too French composers like Georges Bizet, Édouard Lalo, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel were passionately drawn to Spanish music and wrote some of their most famous pieces based on this inspiration. The concert concludes with Ravel’s dazzling Bolero, which the composer once described as “a piece lasting 17 minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral effects without music—one long and very gradual crescendo.” Parallel Events 1919 Turina Danzas fantásticas Music Elgar Cello Concerto Literature Hesse Demian Art Klee Dream Birds History Prohibition Amendment ratified 1928 Ravel Bolero Music Gershwin An American in Paris Literature Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover Art Beckmann Black Lilies History Fleming discovers penicillin 1919193819 383838 Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez Music Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 Literature du Maurier Rebecca Art Dufy Regatta History Germany invades Austria Danzas fantásticas Joaquín Turina Born in Seville, December 9, 1882 Died in Madrid, January 14, 1949 Toward the end of the 19th century, the pioneering Spanish musicologist, folklorist, and composer Felipe Pedrell undertook groundbreaking research into Spanish art music from earlier periods, including editing the complete works of Tomás Luis de Victoria. Pedrell’s work also fostered an interest in the early folk music traditions of Spain, which had long been neglected by that country’s music schools and conservatories. His research inspired three of his students, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, to turn their attention to the remarkable history of Spanish folk and art music. And before long, another young Spanish composer joined them; from Seville, Joaquín Turina completed the quartet of emerging composers who sought to raise the international profile of Spanish music to the level it had once enjoyed long ago. First Madrid, then Paris But Turina was different from the other three, in heritage, temperament, and compositional voice. The son of a painter of northern Italian descent, young Joaquin was supposed to pursue a career in medicine. But when he expressed a desire to follow music, and showed a pronounced aptitude for it, the family’s artistic sympathies led them to support him and he began piano and theory lessons in Seville. By the age of 15 Turina was already making a name for himself locally as a pianist. Brimming with confidence, and little else, he journeyed to Madrid with the intent of producing his own opera at the Teatro Real, the country’s premier opera house. That project didn’t eventuate, but once in Madrid Turina became better connected with the musical establishment there, enrolled at the Royal Conservatory, and was befriended by Falla, whose passion for Spanish music deeply influenced Turina. At the Madrid Conservatory, both Falla and Turina studied piano with José Tragó, who had studied at the Paris Conservatory. In turn the young protégés both moved to Paris, as well— Turina in 1905 and Falla two years later. After piano studies with Moritz Moszkowski, Turina began composition lessons with Vincent d’Indy at the Scholar Cantorum in Paris, was befriended by Ravel and Debussy, and produced his first published work, the G-minor Piano Quintet of 1907. Turina’s Quintet is closely modeled on César Franck’s, and mostly avoids overt references to Spanish musical styles as it follows the classicism and French-flavored elegance that was promoted at the Schola. But Turina’s older compatriot Albéniz attended the Quintet’s premiere, and afterward invited both Turina and Falla out for drinks and to talk about Spanish music. Albéniz encouraged his younger Spanish colleagues to avoid the Schola-inspired style of the Piano Quintet and look instead to Spanish folk music for inspiration. Turina later recalled, “We were three Spaniards gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight bravely for the national music of our country.” A Closer Look Turina’s best-known orchestral work is the suite Danzas fantàsticas, a set of three dances from 1919 written originally for solo piano, but orchestrated later that year.