23 Season 2014-2015

Wednesday, January 28, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, January 30, at 2:00 Saturday, January 31, Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor at 8:00 Kirill Gerstein Piano

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante con moto III. Allegro— IV. Allegro

Intermission

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro

Shostakovich/from Suite from The Gadfly, Op. 97a: arr. Atovmyan I. Overture: Moderato con moto III. People’s Holiday: [Allegro vivace] VII. Prelude: Andantino XI. Scene: Moderato

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes.

The January 28 concert is sponsored by MEDCOMP.

designates a work that is part of the 40/40 Project, which features pieces not performed on subscription concerts in at least 40 years.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 24

Please join us immediately following the January 30 concert for a Chamber Postlude, featuring members of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 I. Allegro non troppo II. Scherzo: Allegro III. Andante IV. Finale: Allegro lomodo Mark Livshits Piano Kimberly Fisher Violin Kirsten Johnson Viola John Koen Cello 3 Story Title 25 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging—and exceeding—that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky’s and transcriptions on the Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM. Philadelphia is home, and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado. The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra’s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop- Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org. 6 Music Director

Chris Lee Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues his inspired leadership of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which began in the fall of 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Nézet-Séguin “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” He has taken the Orchestra to new musical heights. Highlights of his third season as music director include an Art of the Pipe Organ festival; the 40/40 Project, in which 40 great compositions that haven’t been heard on subscription concerts in at least 40 years will be performed; and Bernstein’s MASS, the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s five- season requiem cycle.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with a CD on that label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. He continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor. 26 Soloist

Sasha Gusov “It’s really a special treat, even among great orchestras, to play with The Philadelphia Orchestra,” says Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein, who made his debut with the Philadelphians in 2007 and likens playing with the ensemble to performing chamber music: “All the members are making chamber music with each other and with whoever is partnering with them,” he says. The jazz-trained Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist. Since receiving the Award in 2010, he has shared his prize through the commissioning of boundary-crossing new works by Oliver Knussen, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Timo Andres, and Alexander Goehr, with additional commissions scheduled for future seasons. Mr. Gerstein’s orchestral highlights this season include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Boston Symphony and Charles Dutoit; Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety with the Nashville, New Jersey, and St. Louis symphonies; Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for his Minnesota Orchestra debut with Courtney Lewis; and Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days under the baton of the composer himself with the San Francisco Symphony. In recital he appears on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuosos series, performing works by Bartók, Bach, and Liszt. Mr. Gerstein’s second solo recording featuring Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition and Schumann’s Carnaval was released by Myrios Classics in June 2014. His first solo recording with works by Schumann, Liszt, and Knussen, also on Myrios, was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2010. He also collaborated with Tabea Zimmermann on two recordings of sonatas for viola and piano by Rebecca Clarke, Vieuxtemps, Brahms, Schubert, and Franck. In summer 2014 Mr. Gerstein recorded the Tchaikovsky First Concerto and the Prokofiev Second Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He is now artist- in-residence in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music and a member of the piano and chamber music faculty at the Boston Conservatory. 27 Framing the Program

The final week of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s St. Parallel Events Petersburg Festival this month, which began with 1807 Music celebrations of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, concludes Beethoven Spontini with the great master of the third generation: Dmitri Symphony La vestale Shostakovich. Like Tchaikovsky before him, he visited No. 5 Literature Philadelphia just once. His connections to the Orchestra, Byron however, were unmatched by any other American Hours of ensemble. Of his 15 symphonies, seven received their first Idleness U.S. performance by the Philadelphians. During his visit Art here in 1959 Shostakovich oversaw the U.S. premiere and Turner Sun Rising in a the world premiere recording of his First Cello Concerto Mist with Eugene Ormandy and Mstislav Rostropovich as History soloist. Britain abolishes The concert today features a selection of music slave trade Shostakovich composed for the film The Gadfly. During his struggling student days he earned money 1955 Music Shostakovich Piston accompanying silent movies and went on to write many The Gadfly Symphony No. 6 film scores. Shostakovich was a formidable pianist and he Literature composed various pieces to display his talents. He wrote Nabokov his witty Second Piano Concerto to showcase those of his Lolita son, Maxim. Art The Philadelphia Orchestra is engaged in a multi- Dalí season project of pairing symphonies and concertos by The Lord’s Supper Beethoven and Shostakovich. The concert today features History Beethoven’s Fifth, a musical monument that needs no Churchill resigns introduction. The Symphony has been at the core of the ensembles’ repertory ever since its very first concert in 1957 Music November 1900. Shostakovich Walton Piano Concerto Cello Concerto No. 2 Literature Dr. Seuss The Cat in the Hat Art Chagall Self-Portrait History Sputnik I and II launched 28 The Music Symphony No. 5

Beethoven’s Fifth did not immediately become the world’s (or even the composer’s) most famous symphony. During his lifetime the Third, the mighty “Eroica,” was performed more often and the second movement of the Seventh (movements were often heard separately) deemed “the crown of instrumental music.” But over the course of the 19th century the Fifth gradually came to epitomize both Beethoven’s life and musical style. It often appeared on the inaugural concerts of new orchestras, such as when The Philadelphia Orchestra first performed in November Ludwig van Beethoven 1900. The Fifth Symphony picked up further associations Born in Bonn, probably in the 20th century, be they of Allied victory during the December 16, 1770 Second World War or through its frequent appearances in Died in Vienna, March 26, popular culture. 1827 It is easy to account for both the popularity and the representative status of the Fifth. The celebrated music critic Donald Francis Tovey called it “among the least misunderstood of musical classics.” With the rise of instrumental music in the 18th century, audiences sought ways to understand individual works, to figure out their meaning. One strategy was to make connections between a piece of music and the composer’s life. In this regard, no life and body of work has proved more accommodating than Beethoven’s, whose genius, independence, eccentricities, and struggles with deafness were already well known in his own time. Music and Meaning In the fall of 1801, at age 30, Beethoven revealed for the first time the secret of his increasing hearing loss and stated in a letter that he would “seize Fate by the throat; it shall not bend or crush me completely.” It has not been difficult to relate such statements directly to his music. The struggle with “Fate” when it “knocks at the door,” as he allegedly told his assistant Anton Schindler happens at the beginning of the Fifth, helped endorse the favored label for the entire middle period of his career: Heroic. The Fifth Symphony seems to present a large-scale narrative. According to this view, a heroic life struggle is represented in the progression of emotions, from the famous opening in C minor to the triumphant C-major coda of the last movement. For Hector Berlioz, the Fifth, more than the 29 previous four symphonies, “emanates directly and solely from the genius of Beethoven. It is his own intimate thought that is developed; and his secret sorrows, his pent-up rage, his dreams so full of melancholy oppression, his nocturnal visions and his bursts of enthusiasm furnish its entire subject, while the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and orchestral forms are there delineated with essential novelty and individuality, endowing them also with considerable power and nobility.” In Beethoven’s Time Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony over the course of some four years, beginning in the spring of 1804, during the most productive period of his career. Among the contemporaneous works were the Fourth and Sixth symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, Mass in C, three “Razumovsky” string quartets, and the first two versions of his lone opera Fidelio. Large-scale pieces like the opera, or commissions like the Mass, interrupted his progress on the Fifth, most of which was written in 1807 and early 1808. The Symphony was premiered later that year together with the Sixth (their numbers in fact reversed) at Beethoven’s famous marathon concert at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on December 22. This legendary event also included the first public performance of the Fourth Piano Concerto (the composer was soloist), two movements from the Mass, the concert aria Ah! Perfido, and the “Choral” Fantasy, Op. 80. Reports indicate that all did not go well. Second-rate musicians playing in third- rate conditions after limited rehearsal had to struggle their way through this demanding new music, and things fell apart during the “Choral” Fantasy. But inadequate performance conditions did not dampen enthusiasm for the Fifth Symphony, which was soon recognized as a masterpiece. The novelist, critic, and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote a long and influential review in which he hailed “Beethoven’s Romanticism … that tears the listener irresistibly away into the wonderful spiritual realm of the infinite.” A Closer Look Another reason for the great fame and popularity of the Symphony is that it exemplifies the fingerprints of Beethoven’s heroic style. One of these identifying features is its “organicism,” the notion that all four movements seem to grow from seeds sown in the opening measures. While Beethoven used the distinctive rhythmic figure of three shorts and a long in other works from this time (Tovey remarked that if this indeed represents fate knocking at the door it was also knocking 30

Beethoven composed his at many other doors), here it unifies the entire Symphony. Symphony No. 5 from 1807 to After the most familiar of all symphonic openings 1808. (Allegro con brio), the piece modulates to the relative Fritz Scheel conducted the major key and the horns announce the second theme with first Philadelphia Orchestra a fanfare using the “fate rhythm.” The softer, lyrical second performances of the Fifth, in theme, first presented by the violins, is inconspicuously November 1900, as part of accompanied in the lower strings by the rhythm. the Orchestra’s first concert. A The movement features Beethoven’s characteristic series of eminent conductors building of intensity, suspense, a thrilling coda, and also have led the piece here over mysteries. Why, for example, does the oboe have a brief the years: Artur Rodzinski, unaccompanied solo cadenza near the beginning of Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer, the recapitulation? Beethoven’s innovation is not simply José Iturbi, Erich Leinsdorf, that this brief passage may “mean” something, but that Klaus Tennstedt, Daniel listeners are prompted in the first place to ask themselves Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, and, what it may mean. of course, Leopold Stokowski, The second movement (Andante con moto) is a rather Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo unusual variation form in which two themes alternate, Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, the first sweet and lyrical, the second more forceful. Christoph Eschenbach, and Beethoven combines the third and fourth movements, Charles Dutoit. Most recently which are played without pause. In earlier symphonies on subscription concerts, David he had already replaced the polite minuet and trio with a Zinman led the work in January 2012. more vigorous scherzo and trio. In the Fifth the Allegro scherzo begins with a soft ascending arpeggiated string The Philadelphia Orchestra has theme that contrasts with a loud assertive horn motif recorded the Symphony four (again using the fate rhythm). The trio section features times: in 1931 with Stokowski extraordinarily difficult string writing, in fugal style, that for RCA; in 1955 and 1966 defeated musicians in early performances. Instead of an with Ormandy for CBS; and in 1985 with Muti for EMI. exact return of the opening scherzo section, Beethoven recasts the thematic material in a completely new The piece is scored for piccolo, orchestration and pianississimo dynamic. The tension two flutes, two oboes, two builds with a long pedal point—the insistent repetition clarinets, two bassoons, of the same note C in the timpani—that swells in an contrabassoon, four horns, two enormous crescendo directly into the fourth movement trumpets, three trombones, Allegro, where three trombones, contrabassoon, and timpani, and strings. a piccolo join in for the first time in the piece. This The Fifth Symphony runs finale, like the first movement, is in sonata form and approximately 35 minutes in uses the fate rhythm in the second theme. The coda to performance. the Symphony may strike listeners today as almost too triumphantly affirmative as the music gets faster, louder, and ever more insistent. Indeed, it is difficult to divest this best known of symphonies from all the baggage it has accumulated through two centuries and to listen with fresh ears to the shocking power of the work and to the marvels that Beethoven introduced into the world of orchestral music. —Christopher H. Gibbs 31 The Music Piano Concerto No. 2

The composer we perhaps too often associate with somber portrayals of the emotional turmoil of an artist under Stalinism was also one of the wittiest musicians since Joseph Haydn. “When listeners laugh at a concert of my symphonic music, I am not in the least bit shocked,” wrote in a Soviet magazine in 1934. “In fact, I am pleased.” This composer’s early scores are characterized by a sardonic and effervescent humor that is as profound as it is satirical. There was frequently a weird tinge as well—the word often applied in early criticism was “grotesque.” Dmitri Shostakovich Born in St. Petersburg, “I want to defend the right of laughter to appear in what September 25, 1906 is called ‘serious’ music,” Shostakovich wrote, touching on Died in Moscow, a truth known to great composers through the ages: that August 9, 1975 humor in art exists not just to elicit laughter, but to reveal truth. In Shostakovich, comedy and despair coexist as comfortably and intricately as they do in any music; humor is a means of coping with the unbearable. That there is a sharp edge to this humor should come as no surprise from one who embodied so completely the contradictions of living under the schizoid and unpredictable Soviet regime. Witty Piano Concertos Shostakovich’s early stage works (, The Golden Age, ) had dealt up ample servings of this sardonic wit, and the First Symphony of 1925 had its moments of youthful zest and joie de vivre as well. But it was with the First Piano Concerto, written in the summer of 1933, that the composer brought the full force of his droll humor into the concert hall and which served him as an effective vehicle for his own performances as a brilliant pianist. We must fast forward nearly a quarter of a century, to 1957, for Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, written this time not to display his own keyboard artistry, but rather that of his son, Maxim, a gifted pianist who went on to become a noted conductor. Much had happened in the meantime, both in the turbulent history of the Soviet Union and the rollercoaster ride that was Shostakovich’s career. After official condemnation for his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1936, his rehabilitation with the Fifth Symphony the following year, and yet another official rebuke in 1948, Shostakovich slowly worked his way back 32

into the government’s good graces. With Stalin’s death in 1953 a general thaw in political oppression and the gradual rehabilitation of some intellectuals meant a less stressful and more comfortable life for the composer, now clearly the leading musician in the Soviet Union. Shostakovich had done little in the realm of the concerto during these years. He withheld his First Violin Concerto, written for David Oistrakh, until after Stalin’s death, and composed a Concertino for Two Pianos, which Maxim first presented with a classmate in 1954. The Second Concerto was premiered on Maxim’s 19th birthday on May 10, 1957, as part of his graduation from the . It was the last of the works Shostakovich wrote for pedagogical use by his children. Like J.S. Bach and other composers before him, he produced a variety of keyboard pieces for his two children, beginning with the Children’s Notebook, Op. 69, for his daughter, Galina (who eventually became a biologist), and various pieces for Maxim. A Closer Look The youthful exuberance and Haydnesque wit found in the First Concerto, but largely absent from his orchestral compositions in the intervening years, returns in full force. Shostakovich wrote to composer Edison Denisov that the Second Concerto had “no artistic merit,” a remark that minimizes the joyous and beautiful qualities of a piece that in the end may be more cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic than various substantial works where those qualities seemed forced or inauthentic. In any case, Shostakovich performed the Concerto many times himself and made a recording of it. (As evidence of the continuing family tradition, Maxim later conducted a recording featuring as soloist his own son, Dmitri, who bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather. The two also gave the Philadelphia Orchestra premiere of the Second Concerto.) David Rabinovich, one of Shostakovich’s early Soviet biographers, wrote about the work in 1959: “The Concerto shows the composer as though his own youth had returned to him.” He goes on to state: “The tremendous evolution that has taken place in Shostakovich in the past two decades has made its imprint on this concerto. The musical idiom is incomparably simpler and clearer than in the early pianoforte works. There can be no doubt that the composer made every effort to create a concerto to which the youth will be receptive. [Compared with his earlier keyboard works, including the First Piano Concerto], the only difference is that now all these things have a more tender sound, and the former sarcasm and unkind grotesqueries have been turned into sweet and gentle playfulness.” 33

Shostakovich composed his A solo bassoon initiates a witty neo-Classical style that Second Piano Concerto in soon accelerates with a military sounding theme for piano 1957. and orchestra, complete with snare drum (Allegro). (The Pianist Linda Child presented military mood was picked up in the movie 2000 one movement of the Concerto for a segment called the “Steadfast Tin Soldier.”) The to a Philadelphia Orchestra haunting second movement (Andante) seems a throwback audience for the first time on not to earlier Shostakovich, but to the previous century. It a Junior Student Concert on provides a searching meditation for strings and keyboard March 5, 1963, with William soloist before the playful mood returns in the irrepressible Smith conducting. The perpetual motion finale (Allegro). Much of the piano entire work was first heard passagework has the character of a mechanical piano at the Mann Center on June student exercise, such as the notorious Carl Czerny studies 28, 1982, with conductor fledgling piano students are subjected to. It was perhaps a , the sly way Shostakovich could make sure his son practiced! composer’s son, and Dmitri M. Shostakovich, his grandson, —Paul J. Horsley/Christopher H. Gibbs as soloist. The most recent subscription performances were in October 2006, with pianist Stewart Goodyear and Christoph Eschenbach conducting. The Second Concerto is scored for solo piano, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, side drum, and strings. Performance time is approximately 20 minutes. 34 The Music Selections from Suite from The Gadfly (arranged by Levon Atovmyan)

Nobody, not even the composer himself, would claim that Shostakovich’s best music is found in his movie soundtracks. While they were frequently written in the service of official Soviet agendas, and therefore required to be “accessible,” the limitations of the genre itself also resulted in a somewhat mollified version of Shostakovich’s musical genius. Using Film to Stimulate Other Works And yet the sheer number of his film scores—nearly 40, dating from Dmitri Shostakovich 1928 to 1970—denotes them as a significant group within Shostakovich’s oeuvre. Even the diluted, short-breathed musical cues he produced for film show evidence of a master’s hand. And at times he acknowledged their influence on his other concert works. Shostakovich noted that writing film scores kept his musical reflexes alert and stimulated his narrative gifts, so that after producing a film soundtrack he often felt immediately inspired to write a longer, more serious work such as a symphony or string quartet. Rather than simply illustrating the film in music, Shostakovich hoped to use music as a narrative counterpoint to the visuals. Shostakovich’s experience producing film music goes back to his student days at the Petrograd Conservatory, when he used to provide piano accompaniments to silent films at the local cinema. One day in 1923, the 17-year-old composer brought along two friends, a violinist and a cellist, and the three of them spent the entire film rehearsing one of his recent compositions, the Piano Trio, Op. 8. The film’s audience was decidedly unenthused by the sounds they heard that day, but the experience symbolizes Shostakovich’s willingness to let his classical training deeply inform the music he would later produce for cinema. An Unknown Side of the Composer’s Oeuvre Many of Shostakovich’s film scores remain largely unknown, though recent editions and professional recordings continue to bring more of them to light. The better-known soundtracks date mostly from the latter part of his career, including adaptations of Shakespearean tragedies including King Lear (1970) and Hamlet (1964). His 1960 adaptation 35

Shostakovich composed the for Khovanshchina, a movie based on Musorgsky’s opera, score to The Gadfly in 1955. was nominated for an Academy Award. And Shostakovich’s Luis Biava was on the podium attractive music for The Gadfly (1955) includes one of his for the first Philadelphia best-known excerpts, the “Romance.” Orchestra performance of music Shostakovich occasionally created concert suites from his from , on a soundtracks, but most suites were assembled and arranged Family Concert in September by his friend, the arts administrator Levon Atovmyan (1901- 1999. These are the first subscription performances of 73). He arranged the musical “fragments” from The Gadfly any part of the Suite. into a 12-movement suite in 1956. The Suite is scored for piccolo, The Gadfly, a swashbuckling costume drama set in two flutes, three oboes, three Risorgimento Italy in the 1830s, was based on the 1897 clarinets (III doubling alto novel by Irish author . The novel’s ideology saxophone), three bassoons and its exploration of the culture of revolution appealed (III doubling contrabassoon), strongly to official Soviet philosophies and aesthetics in the four horns, four trumpets, three mid-20th century, and the book sold more than two million trombones, tuba, timpani, copies in the Soviet Union alone. The novel’s Italian setting percussion (bass drum, also allowed Shostakovich to indulge in some light pastiche cymbals, glockenspiel, snare of Bellini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Neapolitan songs, and folk drum, tam-tam, tambourine, tunes—a far cry from the politically-charged grotesqueries triangle, xylophone), harp, and pointed sarcasm of some of his concert works. celesta (doubling piano), and strings. A Closer Look The four excerpts from The Gadfly Today’s excerpts run selected for this program form a kind of miniature four- approximately 14 minutes in movement symphonic form of their own, complete with a performance. scherzo and a slow movement. The dramatic Overture that opens the Suite is given added gravitas by the snare drum. This opening theme returns regularly in a kind of rondo format, with the faster episodes capturing the excitement of a revolutionary hero’s exploits. A transformation to the major mode at the end signals a victory. People’s Holiday plays the role of a lighthearted Italian scherzo, rife with Mendelssohnian spirit. Swirling colors, laughter, dancing, and snippets of faux-Neapolitan songs arise from the celebratory jubilee of this folk festival. The Prelude is a poignant, elegiac variation movement. The romantic theme, brimming with the pathos of a bel canto aria, soars into an arching chorale in the middle before falling back into the same sobbing bleakness that opened the movement. The concluding Scene opens ominously with string tremolos and threatening drum rolls. A pastiche of Tchaikovskian anguish, the theme threatens to mutate into Swan Lake at any moment before it switches suddenly Program notes © 2015. All rights (like the finale of Swan Lake) into the major mode for an reserved. Program notes may unrelentingly exultant conclusion. not be reprinted without written —Luke Howard permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and/or Luke Howard. 36 Musical Terms

GENERAL TERMS one key or mode into an instrumental piece of Arpeggio: A broken another a light, piquant, humorous chord (with notes played Op.: Abbreviation for opus, character. in succession instead of a term used to indicate Sonata form: The form in together) the chronological position which the first movements Bel canto: Literally, of a composition within a (and sometimes others) “beautiful singing.” A term composer’s output. Opus of symphonies are usually that refers to the Italian numbers are not always cast. The sections are vocal style of the 18th and reliable because they are exposition, development, early 19th centuries that often applied in the order and recapitulation, the emphasized beauty of tone of publication rather than last sometimes followed in the delivery of highly composition. by a coda. The exposition florid music. Pedal point: A long-held is the introduction of Cadenza: A passage or note, usually in the bass, the musical ideas, which section in a style of brilliant sounding with changing are then “developed.” In improvisation, usually harmonies in the other the recapitulation, the inserted near the end of a parts exposition is repeated with movement or composition Perpetual motion: modifications. Chorale: A hymn tune A musical device in Tremolo: In bowing, of the German Protestant which rapid figuration is repeating the note very fast Church, or one similar in persistently maintained with the point of the bow style. Chorale settings are Recapitulation: See Trio: See scherzo vocal, instrumental, or both. sonata form Chord: The simultaneous Rondo: A form frequently THE SPEED OF MUSIC sounding of three or more used in symphonies and (Tempo) tones concertos for the final Allegro: Bright, fast Coda: A concluding movement. It consists Andante: Walking speed section or passage added of a main section that Andantino: Slightly in order to confirm the alternates with a variety of quicker than walking speed impression of finality contrasting sections (A-B- Con brio: Vigorously, with Fugue: A piece of music A-C-A etc.). fire in which a short melody Scherzo: Literally “a Con moto: With motion is stated by one voice joke.” Usually the third Moderato: A moderate and then imitated by the movement of symphonies tempo, neither fast nor other voices in succession, and quartets that was slow reappearing throughout introduced by Beethoven Vivace: Lively the entire piece in all the to replace the minuet. The voices at different places scherzo is followed by a DYNAMIC MARKS Minuet: A dance in triple gentler section called a trio, Crescendo: Increasing time commonly used up to after which the scherzo is volume the beginning of the 19th repeated. Its characteristics Pianississimo (ppp): century as the lightest are a rapid tempo in triple Very, very soft movement of a symphony time, vigorous rhythm, and Modulate: To pass from humorous contrasts. Also 37 February The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin Enjoy the ultimate in flexibility with a Create-Your-Own 3-Concert Series today! Choose 3 or more concerts that fit your schedule and your tastes. Hurry, before tickets disappear for this exciting season.

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Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 Thursday, February 5 8 PM Friday, February 6 2 PM Saturday, February 7 8 PM David Kim Leader Imogen Cooper Piano and Leader Grieg “Holberg” Suite Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 Mozart Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”) Gergiev Conducts Thursday, February 12 8 PM Friday, February 13 8 PM Valery Gergiev Conductor Stravinsky Symphony in C Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 ProkofievSymphony No. 5

TICKETS Call 215.893.1999 or log on to www.philorch.org PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning 1 hour before curtain. All artists, dates, programs, and prices subject to change. All tickets subject to availability. 38 Tickets & Patron Services

Thank you for joining us in Headsets are available on a first- Ticket Philadelphia Staff Verizon Hall. We want you to come, first-served basis. Gary Lustig, enjoy each and every concert Large-Print Programs: Vice President experience you share with us. Large-print programs for Carrie Farina, We would love to hear about every subscription concert Director, Patron Services your experience at the Orchestra are available in the House Dan Ahearn, Jr., and are happy to answer any Management Office in Box Office Manager questions you may have. Please Commonwealth Plaza. Please Gregory McCormick, don’t hesitate to contact us via ask an usher for assistance. Service and Training Manager phone at 215.893.1999, in Catherine Pappas, person in the lobby, or by e-mail PreConcert Conversations: Project Manager at [email protected]. PreConcert Conversations are Michelle Parkhill, held prior to every Philadelphia Subscriber Services: Client Relations Manager Orchestra subscription concert, Jayson Bucy, 215.893.1955 beginning one hour before Patron Services: 215.893.1999 Patron Services Supervisor curtain. Conversations are Samantha Apgar, Fire Notice: The exit indicated free to ticket-holders, feature Business Operations by a red light nearest your seat discussions of the season’s Coordinator is the shortest route to the music and music-makers, and Elysse Madonna, street. In the event of fire or are supported in part by the Program and Web Coordinator other emergency, please do not Wells Fargo Foundation. Tad Dynakowski, run. Walk to that exit. Lost and Found: Please call Assistant Treasurer, Box Office No Smoking: All public space in 215.670.2321. Michelle Messa, the Kimmel Center is smoke-free. Web Site: For information about Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Cameras and Recorders: The Philadelphia Orchestra and Patricia O’Connor, The taking of photographs or its upcoming concerts or events, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office the recording of Philadelphia please visit www.philorch.org. Thomas Sharkey, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office Orchestra concerts is strictly Subscriptions: The Philadelphia prohibited. James Shelley, Assistant Orchestra offers a variety of Treasurer, Box Office Phones and Paging Devices: subscription options each season. Tara Bankard, All electronic devices—including These multi-concert packages Lead Patron Services cellular telephones, pagers, and feature the best available seats, Representative wristwatch alarms—should be ticket exchange privileges, Meg Hackney, turned off while in the concert hall. guaranteed seat renewal for the Lead Patron Services Late Seating: Late seating following season, discounts on Representative breaks usually occur after the individual tickets, and many other Hannah McIntosh, first piece on the program or at benefits. For more information, Lead Patron Services intermission in order to minimize please call 215.893.1955 or visit Representative disturbances to other audience www.philorch.org. Julia Schranck, members who have already Ticket Turn-In: Subscribers who Lead Patron Services begun listening to the music. cannot use their tickets are invited Representative If you arrive after the concert to donate them and receive a Elizabeth Jackson-Murray, begins, you will be seated as tax-deductible credit by calling Priority Services quickly as possible by the usher 215.893.1999. Tickets may be Representative staff. turned in any time up to the start Megan Brown, Patron Services Accessible Seating: of the concert. Twenty-four-hour Representative Accessible seating is available notice is appreciated, allowing Maureen Esty, for every performance. other patrons the opportunity to Patron Services Please call Patron Services purchase these tickets. Representative at 215.893.1999 for more Individual Tickets: Don’t Isaiah Harris, information. You may also assume that your favorite Patron Services purchase accessible seating concert is sold out. Subscriber Representative online at www.philorch.org. turn-ins and other special Brand-I Curtis McCloud, promotions can make last- Assistive Listening: With Patron Services minute tickets available. the deposit of a current ID, Representative Call Ticket Philadelphia at hearing enhancement devices Scott Leitch, 215.893.1999 or stop by the are available at no cost from Quality Assurance Analyst the House Management Office. Kimmel Center Box Office.