Season 2019-2020
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23 Season 2019-2020 Thursday, December 12, at 7:30 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, December 13, at 2:00 Saturday, December 14, Cristian Măcelaru Conductor at 8:00 Leonidas Kavakos Violin Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 I. Nocturne: Moderato II. Scherzo: Allegro III. Passacaglia: Andante— IV. Burlesque: Allegro con brio Intermission Marsalis Blues Symphony I. Born in Hope II. Swimming in Sorrow III. Reconstruction Rag IV. Southwestern Showdown V. Big City Breaks VI. Danzon y Mambo, Choro y Samba VII. Dialog in Democracy First Philadelphia Orchestra performances This program runs approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes. These concerts are sponsored by Neal Krouse. The December 12 concert is also sponsored by Lyn M. Ross. The December 14 concert is also sponsored by Medcomp. 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 five 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 26 Conductor Adriane White Cristian Măcelaru has established himself as one of the fast-rising stars of the conducting world. He is chief conductor of the WDR Symphony in Cologne and music director and conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the world’s leading festival dedicated to contemporary symphonic repertoire. He was recently named music director of the Orchestre National de France (beginning with the 2021–22 season) and the inaugural artistic director and principal conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony (effective immediately). He has performed regularly on the podium of the world’s great orchestras, including the Chicago, St. Louis, National, Bavarian Radio, City of Birmingham, and Danish National symphonies; the New York, Rotterdam, and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Cleveland, Royal Concertgebouw, and Scottish Chamber orchestras; and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Mr. Măcelaru recently completed his tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra as conductor-in-residence, a title he held for three seasons until August 2017. Prior to that he was the Orchestra’s associate conductor for two seasons and assistant conductor for one season. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut in April 2013 and continues a close relationship with the ensemble, leading annual subscription programs and other special concerts. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2019–20 season include the gala opening at the WDR Symphony with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Dvořák’s Te Deum, his BBC Proms debut conducting the BBC Symphony, and collaborations with the Barcelona, Swedish Radio, San Francisco, and Seattle symphonies; the Orchestre National de Lyon; the Orchestre de Paris; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; and the Dresden Philharmonic. Mr. Măcelaru was born in Timișoara, Romania, and comes from a musical family. An accomplished violinist from an early age, he was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony and made his Carnegie Hall debut with that orchestra at the age of 19. He also played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. In 2012 he received the Solti Emerging Conductor Award, followed in 2014 by the Solti Conducting Award. He resides in Bonn with his wife, Cheryl, and children, Beni and Maria. 27 Soloist Marco Borggreve Violinist Leonidas Kavakos is known for his virtuosity, superb musicianship, and the integrity of his playing. By age 21 he had won three major competitions: the Sibelius (1985), Paganini (1988), and Naumburg (1988). This success led to his recording the original version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, the first recording of this work in history, which won the Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award in 1991. Mr. Kavakos was Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2014, and he is the 2017 winner of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, Denmark’s most prestigious musical honor. Mr. Kavakos has been a regular guest of The Philadelphia Orchestra since making his debut in 1999 at the Mann Center and has appeared with the ensemble on a European tour. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2019–20 season include the Sony release of his recording of the Beethoven Concerto as soloist/conductor with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and a US tour with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing Beethoven trios, concluding with three concerts at Carnegie Hall. In North America Mr. Kavakos performs with the Chicago, Houston, and Montreal symphonies, as well as with the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Boston. In Europe he performs with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw and Mariinsky orchestras, and the Orchestre de Paris, among others. He performs in Asia with the Singapore Symphony and the Hong Kong, Seoul, and Taiwan philharmonics, and he gives recitals in Shanghai and Xinghai. He has also built a strong profile as a conductor and this season leads the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic, and the RAI National Symphony in Turin. Mr. Kavakos has an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical. His previous releases include the Mendelssohn Concerto and the Mozart concertos playing and conducting with the Camerata Salzburg. In 2017 he joined Mr. Ma and Mr. Ax for a recording of the Brahms piano trios. Upcoming projects include the complete Bach solo sonatas and partitas. Mr. Kavakos plays the “Willemotte” Stradivarius violin of 1734. 28 Framing the Program During the rollercoaster ride that characterized Dmitri Parallel Events Shostakovich’s career he could never be entirely 1948 Music sure when he would be in good favor with the Soviet Shostakovich Messiaen authorities. He was most forcefully denounced in 1936 Violin Concerto Turangalîla and 1948. At the time of the latter rebuke, he was No. 1 Symphony composing his First Violin Concerto and felt it best to keep Literature the work hidden until times were calmer—he had to wait Auden seven years, until after Joseph Stalin’s death. Age of Anxiety Art As trumpeter, composer, bandleader, educator, impresario, Moore and tireless advocate, Wynton Marsalis has emerged Family Group as the preeminent figure in jazz today. He continually History searches for ways to challenge himself and to reach Gandhi new audiences. Following in the illustrious tradition of assassinated Gershwin, Ellington, Bernstein, and others, Marsalis has found imaginative paths to connect jazz and classical idioms, as in his Blues Symphony. Marsalis combines his gifts as composer, historian, and educator in this seven- movement work that explores jazz’s evolution. The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world with three weekly broadcasts on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall, Channel 76, on Mondays at 7 PM, Thursdays at 12 AM, and Saturdays at 4 PM. 29 30 The Music Violin Concerto No. 1 The career of Dmitri Shostakovich, perhaps the greatest artistic figure that the Soviet Union produced, proved to be a roller-coaster ride of triumph and condemnation. He had just turned 11 in 1917 when the October Revolution ended the three-century reign of the Romanovs and Russia headed into the brave new world of Communism.