23 Season 2017-2018 Wednesday, January 24, The Philadelphia Orchestra at 7:30 Thursday, January 25, at 7:30 British Isles Festival: Week 3 Friday, January 26, at 2:00 Fabio Luisi Conductor Yefim BronfmanPiano Haydn Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”) I. Adagio—Allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto (Allegro)—Trio—Menuetto da capo IV. Finale: Spiritoso Intermission Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 I. Allegro con brio II. Largo III. Rondo: Allegro—Presto Wagner Prelude and “Liebestod,” from Tristan and Isolde This program runs approximately 1 hour, 55 minutes. The January 25 concert is sponsored by Neal Krouse. 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 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 by creating powerful musical and national level, all of which a global ambassador for experiences for audiences at create greater access and Philadelphia and for the home and around the world. engagement with classical US. Having been the first Music Director Yannick music as an art form. American orchestra to Nézet-Séguin’s connection The Philadelphia Orchestra perform in China, in 1973 to the Orchestra’s musicians serves as a catalyst for at the request of President has been praised by cultural activity across Nixon, the ensemble today both concertgoers and Philadelphia’s many boasts a new partnership with critics since his inaugural communities, building an Beijing’s National Centre for season in 2012. Under his offstage presence as strong the Performing Arts and the leadership the Orchestra as its onstage one. With Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, returned to recording, with Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated and in 2017 will be the first- two celebrated CDs on body of musicians, and one ever Western orchestra to the prestigious Deutsche of the nation’s richest arts appear in Mongolia. The Grammophon label, ecosystems, the Orchestra Orchestra annually performs continuing its history of has launched its HEAR at Carnegie Hall while also recording success. The initiative, a portfolio of enjoying summer residencies Orchestra also reaches integrated initiatives that in Saratoga Springs, NY, and thousands of listeners on the promotes Health, champions Vail, CO. For more information radio with weekly Sunday music Education, eliminates on The Philadelphia afternoon broadcasts on barriers to Accessing the Orchestra, please visit WRTI-FM. orchestra, and maximizes www.philorch.org. 26 Conductor Barbara Luisis Fabio Luisi is general music director of the Zurich Opera, chief conductor of the Danish National Symphony, music director of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca (Apulia, Italy), and music director-designate of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He was principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera from 2011 to 2017. He has also served as chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony (2005-13), general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Saxon State Opera (2007-10), music director and principal conductor of the MDR Symphony Leipzig (1999-2007), music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997-2002), and music director of the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna (1995-2000). He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2011. In addition to these current performances, Mr. Luisi’s guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw, Cleveland, and Saito Kinen orchestras; the London, San Francisco, and Tokyo’s NHK symphonies; the Munich Philharmonic; and the Filarmonica della Scala. He has also conducted in all the major opera houses worldwide. Recent operatic performance highlights include Richard Strauss’s The Love of Danae and The Egyptian Helen for the Salzburg Festival and, at Zurich Opera, new productions of three Bellini operas as well as Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck, and Verdi’s Rigoletto and Requiem. Mr. Luisi’s recordings include Verdi’s Aroldo, Alzira, and Jerusalem; Bellini’s I Puritani and The Capulets and the Montagues; all of Schumann’s and Honegger’s symphonies; the symphonies and the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by the largely forgotten Austrian composer Franz Schmidt; and various symphonic poems by Richard Strauss. His acclaimed performance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony together with the Staatskapelle Dresden was awarded the 2009 ECHO Klassik Award. His recordings of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with the Met Orchestra earned him a Grammy. In 2013 he won Italy’s coveted Premio Franco Abbiati critics’ award, and in 2014 he was awarded the Grifo d’Oro by the City of Genoa. Mr. Luisi is also a Cavaliere of the Italian Republic and a Commedatore of the Ordine della Stella d’Italia. 27 Soloist Dario Acosta Pianist Yefim Bronfmanmade his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1977 and has performed regularly with the ensemble ever since. Widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today, he has won consistent critical acclaim for his solo recitals and orchestral engagements. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2017-18 season include concerts with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta during that orchestra’s U.S. tour; performances in Munich, London, and Vienna with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mariss Jansons; return visits to the orchestras of New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Washington, Indianapolis, and Toronto; and a tour with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada in a program celebrating his 60th birthday this spring. Mr. Bronfman has been nominated for six Grammy awards, winning in 1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartók piano concertos. His prolific catalogue of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concertos with the Israel Philharmonic and Mr. Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players, and the soundtrack to Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Recent releases include the 2014 Grammy-nominated recording of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2, commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mr. Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” artist for the 2007-08 season; and all the Beethoven concertos. Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union in 1958, Mr. Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973 and became an American citizen in 1989. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking his first public performances there since leaving the country at age 15. That same year he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. He is also a 2015 recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. 28 29 Framing the Program The final week of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s British Parallel Events Isles Festival begins with the last symphony of Franz 1795 Music Joseph Haydn, sometimes called the “Father of the Haydn Beethoven Symphony.” He composed more than 100 during his long Symphony Op. 1 Piano and distinguished career and brought the genre to new No. 104 Trios heights. He wrote most of them for private performances Literature at the palaces of his employer, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, Goethe but he produced his late ones for public concerts in Wilhelm Meisters France and England. The last 12 are known generally as Lehrjahre Art the “London” symphonies and No. 104 in D major goes Goya specifically by that name. It shows the old master at the The Duchess of summit of his imaginative powers. Alba History When Haydn went on his second trip to England, he left Bread riots behind a promising young pupil, 23-year-old Ludwig and White van Beethoven, who was making a name for himself Terror in Paris as a pianist and composer. Piano concertos were his natural calling card and his Piano Concerto No. 3 proved 1802 Music a transitional piece, one that bridges his early Classical Beethoven Cimarosa style and youthful performing ambitions to his fully mature Piano Concerto I due baroni middle period and “heroic” struggles. No. 3 Literature Chateaubriand Richard Wagner’s path-breaking opera Tristan and René Art Isolde tells the story of an Irish princess who falls in love Canova with Tristan as he brings her to Cornwall to marry his Napoleon uncle. The course of their tragic love is prefigured in the Bonaparte haunting Prelude, which in this performance blends into History the “Liebestod” (Love-Death) that concludes the opera as Herschel Isolde collapses over the body of her dead lover.