23 Season 2017-2018 Thursday, May 17, at 7:30 Sunday, May 20, at 2:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Hélène Grimaud Piano Dvořák Othello, concert overture, Op. 93 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante con moto— III. Rondo: Vivace Intermission Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 I. Poco sostenuto—Vivace II. Allegretto III. Presto—Assai meno presto—Presto IV. Allegro con brio This program runs approximately 2 hours. The May 17 concert is sponsored by Ballard Spahr. The May 17 concert is also sponsored by Jack and Ramona Vosbikian. 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 25 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra Philadelphia is home and impact through Research. is one of the preeminent the Orchestra continues The Orchestra’s award- orchestras in the world, to discover new and winning Collaborative renowned for its distinctive inventive ways to nurture Learning programs engage sound, desired for its its relationship with its over 50,000 students, keen ability to capture the loyal patrons at its home families, and community hearts and imaginations of in the Kimmel Center, members through programs audiences, and admired for and also with those who such as PlayINs, side-by- a legacy of imagination and enjoy the Orchestra’s area sides, PopUP concerts, innovation on and off the performances at the Mann free Neighborhood concert stage. The Orchestra Center, Penn’s Landing, Concerts, School Concerts, is inspiring the future and and other cultural, civic, and residency work in transforming its rich tradition and learning venues. The Philadelphia and abroad. of achievement, sustaining Orchestra maintains a strong Through concerts, tours, the highest level of artistic commitment to collaborations residencies, presentations, quality, but also challenging— with cultural and community and recordings, The and exceeding—that level, organizations on a regional Philadelphia Orchestra is and national level, all of which by creating powerful musical a global ambassador for create greater access and experiences for audiences at Philadelphia and for the engagement with classical home and around the world. US. Having been the first music as an art form. American orchestra to Music Director Yannick The Philadelphia Orchestra perform in China, in 1973 Nézet-Séguin’s connection serves as a catalyst for at the request of President to the Orchestra’s musicians cultural activity across Nixon, the ensemble today has been praised by Philadelphia’s many boasts new five-year both concertgoers and communities, building an partnerships with Beijing’s critics since his inaugural offstage presence as strong National Centre for the season in 2012. Under his as its onstage one. With Performing Arts and the leadership the Orchestra Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated Shanghai Media Group. In returned to recording, body of musicians, and one 2018 the Orchestra travels with three celebrated of the nation’s richest arts to Europe and Israel. The CDs on the prestigious ecosystems, the Orchestra Orchestra annually performs Deutsche Grammophon has launched its HEAR at Carnegie Hall while also label, continuing its history initiative, a portfolio of enjoying summer residencies of recording success. The integrated initiatives that in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Orchestra also reaches promotes Health, champions Vail, CO. For more information thousands of listeners on the music Education, eliminates on The Philadelphia radio with weekly broadcasts barriers to Accessing the Orchestra, please visit on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. orchestra, and maximizes www.philorch.org. 26 Soloist Mat Hennek/DG French pianist Hélène Grimaud was born in 1969 in Aix- en-Provence, where she began her piano studies. She was accepted into the Paris Conservatory at the age of 13 and in 1987 made her recital debut in Tokyo. That same year Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform with the Orchestre de Paris, marking the launch of her musical career, one highlighted by concerts with most of the world’s major orchestras and many celebrated conductors. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2000 and has enjoyed many collaborations with her friend Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Ms. Grimaud’s recordings have been awarded numerous accolades, among them the Cannes Classical Recording of the Year, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Diapason d’Or, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Midem Classical Award, and the ECHO Klassik Award. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon (DG) artist since 2002, her most recent album, Perspectives, is a two-disc personal selection of highlights from her DG catalogue. In addition to performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, highlights of her current season include appearances with the Gothenburg Symphony, where she is artist in residence; concerts with Valery Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic; and a multimedia concert project combining piano works with images from Woodlands, the latest publication by her partner, fine art photographer Mat Hennek. Ms. Grimaud has established herself as a committed wildlife conservationist, a compassionate human rights activist, and a writer. Between her debut in 1995 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and her first performance with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur in 1999, she established the Wolf Conservation Center in New York State. Her love for the endangered species was sparked by a chance encounter with a wolf in northern Florida. Ms. Grimaud is a member of Musicians for Human Rights, a worldwide network of people working in the music field to promote a culture of social change. She is also the author of three books. Hélène Grimaud’s performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra are made possible by a generous gift from Robert Heim and Eileen Kennedy. 27 Framing the Program The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s rise to international Parallel Events fame got enormous assistance from the passionate 1805 Music advocacy of Johannes Brahms, with whom he shared Beethoven Spontini many basic aesthetic principles. Yet Dvořák, unlike Piano Concerto La vestale Brahms, was also dedicated to composing operas as well No. 4 Literature as to writing programmatic pieces. In January 1892 he Chateaubriand completed a cycle of three concert overtures (In Nature’s René Realm, Carnival, and Othello), which he initially called Art Nature, Life, and Love. Today we hear the last of them, Turner inspired by Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Shipwreck History Two magnificent Beethoven compositions round out Victory at the program. Although the composer did not give any Trafalgar indication of extra-musical inspirations for these pieces, quite specific interpretations have accumulated over the 1812 Music past two centuries. Beethoven Weber Symphony Piano Concerto The Fourth Piano Concerto opens magically, with a noble No. 7 No. 2 statement from the soloist, a bardic invocation likened to Literature that on a lyre. The unusual second movement has long Brothers Grimm been linked to the soloistic Orpheus pleading with the Fairy Tales orchestral Furies for entry into the Underworld. A spirited Art Rondo concludes the Concerto. Géricault The Charging Richard Wagner famously characterized Beethoven’s Chasseur Seventh Symphony as “the apotheosis of the dance.” History Beethoven was at the height of his popular fame when the U.S. declares jubilant piece premiered in 1813. In this Symphony, unveiled war on Britain as victory in the Napoleonic wars was close at hand, he brilliantly captured the celebratory spirit of the times 1892 Music Dvořák Tchaikovsky Othello The Nutcracker Literature Wilde Lady Windermere’s Fan Art Toulouse- Lautrec At the Moulin The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only American orchestra with Rouge weekly broadcasts on Sirius XM’s Symphony Hall, Channel 76, History made possible through support from the Damon Runyon Cancer First cans of Research Foundation on behalf of David and Sandy Marshall. pineapples Broadcasts are heard on Mondays at 7 PM, Thursdays at 12 AM, and Saturdays at 4 PM. 28 The Music Othello Overture In the heated musical politics of the late 19th century, Dvořák is not nearly as easy a figure to pin down as one might first think. He is remembered as the quintessential Czech composer, and indeed nationalist sentiment was central both to his self-definition and to much of his music. Yet Dvořák was far from provincial. He actively sought an international reputation and succeeded brilliantly in obtaining one. Early success quickly led to fame far beyond the Czech lands, especially after Brahms recommended him to his own German publisher, Fritz Antonín Dvořák Simrock, who initially published the alluring Moravian Born in Nelahozeves, Duets and Slavonic Dances. Bohemia, September 8, 1841 Died in Prague, May 1, 1904 As Dvořák was quick to point out to the publisher, these pieces proved a “goldmine,” and he wanted to move on to bigger works—symphonies, concertos, and operas that would be heard and judged within a great tradition of Western music, not as a colorful, quaint, local phenomenon. In this respect, we can consider Dvořák within the context of late-19th-century debates about what music should be and do, whether to write “absolute” works as Brahms believed, or “programmatic” ones, infused with extra-musical meanings, as Liszt, Wagner, and Strauss practiced. At first Dvořák seemed solidly in the Brahmsian camp, although from the start he greatly admired Wagner and wrote operas himself. Near the end of his career, however, Dvořák became increasingly drawn to extra-musical sources for his orchestral compositions. From Absolute Music to Works with Stories By the early 1890s, as he turned 50, Dvořák stood at a stylistic and aesthetic crossroads. In January 1892 he completed a cycle of three overtures (In Nature’s Realm, Carnival, and Othello) that he initially called Nature, Life, and Love, and to which he gave the collective opus number of 91.