27 Season 2012-2013 Thursday, November 29, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, November 30, at 2:00 Saturday, December 1, Donald Runnicles Conductor at 8:00 Lars Vogt Piano Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 I. Allegro con brio II. Largo III. Rondo: Allegro Intermission Wagner Orchestral Highlights from The Ring of the Nibelung I. “The Ride of the Valkyries,” from Die Walküre II. “Forest Murmurs,” from Siegfried III. “Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey,” from Götterdämmerung IV. “Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music,” from Götterdämmerung V. Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene, from Götterdämmerung This program runs approximately 2 hours. 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 Johannes Ifkovits One of today’s leading Wagnerian specialists, Donald Runnicles is general music director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, and principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2005 and has led the ensemble on numerous occasions. He also maintains regular relationships with the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony. A Scot by birth, Mr. Runnicles has literally returned home as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, leading subscription concerts in various cities in Scotland and northern England, and anchoring the Symphony’s substantial presence at the U.K.’s two largest festivals: the Edinburgh International Festival and the London Proms. From 1992 to 2008 Mr. Runnicles was music director of the San Francisco Opera, having unexpectedly won the job after stepping in for a colleague and conducting two Wagner Ring cycles in 1990. During his many years with the company, he led more than 60 productions, including the world premieres of John Adams’s Dr. Atomic and Conrad Susa’s Dangerous Liaisons, and the U.S. premieres of Olivier Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise and Aribert Reimann’s Lear. At the close of his tenure he was given the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor, previously given to such luminaries as Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, and Plácido Domingo. Other awards include the Order of the British Empire and honorary degrees from Edinburgh University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and an honorary doctorate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Mr. Runnicles’s recordings with the Atlanta Symphony include a critically acclaimed concert disc of works by Strauss and Wagner with soprano Christine Brewer, Mozart’s Requiem, and Orff’s Carmina burana. Also in his discography are a live recording of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde with Ms. Brewer and John Treleaven; a Grammy- nominated recital of German romantic opera arias with tenor Ben Heppner; and Wagner’s Ring excerpts with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Mr. Runnicles returns to Verizon Hall to conduct the Orchestra in April. 31 Soloist Felix Broede Felix Pianist Lars Vogt returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra for the first time since making his debut in 2007. Highlights of his 2012-13 season also include performing the Lutosławski Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst at the Edinburgh Festival; concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Riccardo Chailly; two appearances in Paris, with the Orchestre de Paris and Herbert Blomstedt and with the Orchestre National de Paris under Kurt Masur; performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and the Cincinnati and Atlanta symphonies; and the conclusion of his residency with the Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, Mr. Vogt first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has since gone on to give concerto and recital performances around the world. In 2003 he was appointed the first- ever pianist in residence with the Berlin Philharmonic; his special relationship with that ensemble continues with regular collaborations. In 2011 Mr. Vogt toured in Germany and the U.K. with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the London Philharmonic. Other highlights of recent seasons include a residency at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic and Christoph Eschenbach; appearances with the New York, New Japan, and Rotterdam philharmonics and the Chicago, NHK, and London symphonies; performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Dresden Staatskapelle; and a tour with violinist Christian Tetzlaff, which included a recital in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. In June 1998 Mr. Vogt founded his own festival, Spannungen, in Heimbach, and in 2005 he founded Rhapsody in School, a high-profile education project across Germany. An avid chamber musician, he is also increasingly working with orchestras both as conductor and directing from the keyboard. His recent recordings include works by Schubert for CAvi-music, Mozart concertos with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms, Liszt and Schumann pieces on the Berlin Classics label, and Mozart sonatas with Mr. Tetzlaff for Ondine. 32 Framing the Program Following the inspiring model of Mozart, the young Parallel Events Beethoven made his initial career in Vienna with his 1795 Music youthful piano concertos, pieces that offered a showcase Beethoven Haydn for his gifts both as a virtuoso pianist and brilliant Piano Symphony composer. At first Beethoven withheld his early concertos Concerto No. 1 No. 103 from publication so that only he could play them in Literature public. This meant that their eventual numbering is not Goethe chronological—the Piano Concerto No. 1 we hear today Wilhelm was actually his second mature essay in the genre. Meisters Lehrjahre Beethoven in turn served as the principal musical model Art for Richard Wagner in his determined quest to forge Blake a new path for German music. It is no surprise that Nebuchad- Wagner’s mature operas, especially the monumental nezzar four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of History the Nibelung), contain so many spectacular orchestral 11th moments. Large sections can effectively be extracted Amendment to the Constitution from the staged drama and presented at symphony concerts. Wagner frequently did just this to help generate 1874 Music interest in his operas—along the lines of movie “trailers” Wagner Verdi today. This tradition continued with conductors such Götterdäm- Requiem as Leopold Stokowski, who regularly presented entire merung Literature evenings of Wagner’s music with The Philadelphia Hardy Orchestra, which this season celebrates the centennial Far from the of Stokowski’s arrival as the ensemble’s music director, in Madding Crowd October 1912, and the bicentennial of Wagner’s birth, in Art May 1813. Renoir La Loge History First American zoo founded in Philadelphia 33 The Music Piano Concerto No. 1 While Mozart did not literally invent the piano concerto, he was the first great composer to bring it to prominence and create enduring musical monuments. He served as an inspiring model for the young Beethoven, who was already being compared to him when he was just 12 years old. An important German music journal announced that the prodigy “would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart if he were to continue as he has begun.” At 16 Beethoven went to Vienna in the hopes of studying with his idol. He is said to have played Ludwig van Beethoven for Mozart and to have earned his approving remark, Born in Bonn, probably “Keep your eyes on him; someday he will give the world December 16, 1770 something to talk about.” Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827 The Young Virtuoso Not long after his arrival, however, Beethoven was called home to tend to his gravely ill mother and he remained in Bonn for the next five years.