Season 2012-2013

27 Season 2012-2013 Thursday, December 6, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, December 7, at 2:00 Saturday, December 8, Gianandrea Noseda Conductor at 8:00 Denis Matsuev Piano Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 I. Allegro, ma non tanto II. Intermezzo: Adagio— III. Finale: Alla breve Intermission Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 I. Largo—Allegro moderato II. Allegro molto III. Adagio IV. Allegro vivace This program runs approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes. These concerts are made possible in cooperation with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation. 3 Story Title 29 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin Renowned for its distinctive vivid world of opera and Orchestra boasts a new sound, beloved for its choral music. partnership with the keen ability to capture the National Centre for the Philadelphia is home and hearts and imaginations Performing Arts in Beijing. the Orchestra nurtures of audiences, and admired The Orchestra annually an important relationship for an unrivaled legacy of performs at Carnegie Hall not only with patrons who “firsts” in music-making, and the Kennedy Center support the main season The Philadelphia Orchestra while also enjoying a at the Kimmel Center for is one of the preeminent three-week residency in the Performing Arts but orchestras in the world. Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and also those who enjoy the a strong partnership with The Philadelphia Orchestra’s other area the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Orchestra has cultivated performances at the Mann Festival. an extraordinary history of Center, Penn’s Landing, artistic leaders in its 112 and other venues. The The ensemble maintains seasons, including music Philadelphia Orchestra an important Philadelphia directors Fritz Scheel, Carl Association also continues tradition of presenting Pohlig, Leopold Stokowski, to own the Academy of educational programs for Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Music—a National Historic students of all ages. Today Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Landmark—as it has since the Orchestra executes a and Christoph Eschenbach, 1957. myriad of education and and Charles Dutoit, who community partnership Through concerts, served as chief conductor programs serving nearly tours, residencies, from 2008 to 2012. With 50,000 annually, including presentations, and the 2012-13 season, its Neighborhood Concert recordings, the Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Series, Sound All Around is a global ambassador becomes the eighth music and Family Concerts, and for Philadelphia and for director of The Philadelphia eZseatU. the United States. Having Orchestra. Named music been the first American For more information on director designate in 2010, orchestra to perform in The Philadelphia Orchestra, Nézet-Séguin brings a China, in 1973 at the please visit www.philorch.org. vision that extends beyond request of President Nixon, symphonic music into the today The Philadelphia 30 Conductor Sussie Ahlburg Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda is music director of the Teatro Regio in Turin, chief guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, Victor De Sabata Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, laureate conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, principal conductor of the Orquesta de Cadaqués, and artistic director of the Stresa Festival near his hometown of Milan. He served as the first foreign principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre from 1997 to 2007 and regularly conducts many of the leading international orchestras. Mr. Noseda made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2010 and has returned several times since to lead the ensemble, most recently this past summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Recent highlights of Mr. Noseda’s career include performances of Britten’s War Requiem with the London Symphony and Chorus in London and New York; his highly anticipated debut at the Teatro alla Scala in June 2012 with a new production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller; and debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Vienna State Opera. During the 2012-13 season he makes debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with the London Symphony in a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto by Robert Carsen. In addition to conducting numerous productions in Turin each season, Mr. Noseda’s work with the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Regio includes major recording projects, international tours, and residencies he instituted in Asia and Europe. In May 2013 he takes the ensemble to Vienna for the first time, performing Verdi’s Requiem at the Konzerthaus. Mr. Noseda has conducted five Verdi operas at the Metropolitan Opera, most recently last season’s revival of Macbeth; he returns to the Met in the 2013-14 season. A supporter of young artists, Mr. Noseda led a multi-city tour of the European Union Youth Orchestra in August 2012. He also maintains an intense collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic; his live performances of Beethoven’s complete symphonies from Manchester with that ensemble in 2005 have seen more than 1.4 million downloads from BBC Radio 3. An exclusive Chandos artist since 2002, Mr. Noseda’s discography includes over 35 recordings featuring, among others, works by Prokofiev, Karłowicz, Dvorˇák, Shostakovich, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, and Bartók. 31 Soloist Evgeny Evtuhow Known internationally as a Rachmaninoff expert, pianist Denis Matsuev, who is making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, has spent the last five years collaborating with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation and its president, the late Alexander Rachmaninoff, the grandson of the composer. Mr. Matsuev was chosen by the Foundation to perform and record unknown pieces of Rachmaninoff on the composer’s own piano at the Rachmaninoff house, Villa Senar, in Lucerne. In the 2012-13 season the Foundation is presenting a series of concerts illuminating the composer’s works. Born in Siberia, Mr. Matsuev became a fast-rising star after his triumphant victory at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998. He now appears regularly with orchestras in his native Russia, including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and the Russian National Orchestra, as well as other celebrated orchestras of the world. Recent appearances include performances with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta in Russia and with the Royal Philharmonic and Charles Dutoit at the Annecy Music Festival in France. Upcoming highlights include tours with the London Symphony and the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons and the Israel Philharmonic and Kurt Masur. Mr. Matsuev is a frequent guest at the Ravinia Festival and the Hollywood Bowl in the U.S.; the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival in Great Britain; the Chopin Festival in Poland; the Budapest Spring Festival in Hungary; and Stars of the White Nights Festival in Russia. He is artistic director of three international festivals promoting gifted young musicians: the Annecy Music Festival; Stars on Baikal in his hometown of Irkutsk; and Crescendo, with events in cities from Moscow to New York. Mr. Matsuev is also the president of the charitable foundation New Names, supporting children’s music education in Russia. Mr. Matsuev’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Mr. Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra was recently released by the new Mariinsky label. 32 Framing the Program During the latter part of his career Sergei Rachmaninoff Parallel Events remarked that he often composed with the sound of The 1907 Music Philadelphia Orchestra in his head. From the time of his Rachmaninoff Mahler first American tour in 1909 he showed a special affinity Symphony Symphony for the Orchestra’s lush tone and started writing most of No. 2 No. 8 his symphonic works for it, including the Fourth Piano Literature Concerto, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Conrad Third Symphony, and the masterly Symphonic Dances, his The Secret last work. As an eminent pianist, Rachmaninoff said that Agent he would “rather perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra Art Chagall than any other of the world.” More than a century later, Peasant the Orchestra’s singular sound still makes it the premier Women interpreter of the great Russian’s compositions. History Rachmaninoff’s long and fruitful relationship with the Bank Panic of Philadelphians began with his first appearance in this 1907 country at the Academy of Music, when he conducted his 1909 Music recently finished Second Symphony, which we hear today. Rachmaninoff Strauss In addition to the five works he wrote for the Orchestra, Piano Concerto Elektra the composer also collaborated in landmark recordings, No. 3 Literature including of the popular Third Piano Concerto that opens Wells the program. Composed in 1909, the work surpassed Tono-Bungay the success of his two earlier essays in the genre and Art has come to rival Tchaikovsky’s First as the supreme late Matisse Romantic piano concerto. The Dance History Peary reaches the North Pole 33 The Music Piano Concerto No. 3 The first decade of the 20th century was a decisive period in Rachmaninoff’s life, during which growing political unrest in his native Russia was threatening to make his quasi-aristocratic lifestyle obsolete. Early in 1906 he resigned his position as conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and temporarily settled in Dresden, where he spent part of the next several years. But Rachmaninoff still returned to the stately solitude of Ivanovka, the family country estate where he frequently summered, at least until the upheaval and aftermath of World War I made it Sergei Rachmaninoff impossible for him to return to Russia at all. Born in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873 A Concerto for America By 1909, when Rachmaninoff Died in Beverly Hills, composed his Third Piano Concerto, he must have sensed California, March 28, 1943 that grave changes were in store for his country, and that emigration was likely.

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