Season 20102010----20112011 The Philadelphia Orchestra Thursday, February 33,, at 8:00 SaturSaturday,day, February 55,, at 888:008:00:00:00 Fabio Luisi Conductor Hélène Grimaud Piano Weber Overture to Der Freischütz Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante con moto— III. Rondo: Vivace Intermission SchSchmidmidmidtttt Symphony No. 4 in C major Allegro molto moderato—Adagio—Molto vivace—Tempo I—Ritard. e poco a poco sempre più lento This program runs approximately 1 hour, 55 minutes. Fabio Luisi began his appointment as chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony in 2005 and recently extended his contract until 2013. He is also music director of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Mr. Luisi was general music director of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper (2007-10), artistic director of the MDR in Leipzig (1999-2007), music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997-2002), chief conductor of the Tonkünstlerorchester in Vienna (1995-2000), and artistic director of the Graz Symphony (1990-96). He was recently appointed principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera beginning in fall 2010, and he begins his position as music director of the Zurich Opera with the 2012-13 season. During the 2010-11 season, Mr. Luisi debuts with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Opera Liceu in Barcelona with Verdi’s Falstaff, the Royal Opera Covent Garden with Verdi’s Aida , and the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico Cagliari. He also returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Verdi’s Rigoletto and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, appears with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and tours with the Vienna Symphony. Last season Mr. Luisi’s guest engagements included Puccini’s Tosca at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and Tosca, Strauss’s Elektra, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Berg’s Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera. He also made his debuts with the Boston Symphony, the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Mr. Luisi’s recordings include rare Verdi operas, Salieri's La locandiera, Bellini's I puritani, and symphonic repertoire of Honegger, Respighi, and Liszt. He also recorded all the symphonies and the oratorio The Book with the Seven Seals by the neglected Austrian composer Franz Schmidt. Mr. Luisi has recorded several works by Strauss for Sony Classical and Bruckner's Ninth Symphony with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Born in Genoa in 1959, Mr. Luisi began his piano studies at the age of four and received his diploma in 1978 from the Conservatorio Nicolò Paganini. He later studied conducting with Milan Horvat at the Conservatory in Graz. Pianist Hélène GrimaudGrimaud’s 2010-11 season is highlighted by an international recital tour encompassing Europe, the U.S., and Japan; performances in Moscow with Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; a return to St. Petersburg for a performance with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra; and an appearance with David Zinman in New Year Gala Concerts in Beijing. In June 2011 she will perform and record Mozart piano concertos with Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart in Bologna. Other highlights include return appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, and a European tour with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko. This year she also appears as Artiste Étoile in five concerts at the Lucerne Festival. The 2011-12 season will include concerts with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Vienna Philharmonic. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist since 2002, Ms. Grimaud’s most recent release features Bach's solo and concerto works in which she directed the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen from the keyboard. Previous recordings include a Beethoven disc with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Vladimir Jurowski, Reflection, Credo, and a disc of Chopin and Rachmaninoff sonatas. Ms. Grimaud also appears on two recent DVD releases, the 2010 ECHO Klassik award-winning DVD of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with Mr. Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and Ravel's Piano Concerto with Mr. Jurowski and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Recipient of numerous awards worldwide, Ms. Grimaud received the Musikfest Bremen Award in 2009. She was appointed Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2002 and Chevalier dans l'Ordre National du Mérite in 2008. In 2004 she received a Victoire d'honneur at the Victoires de la Musique and in 2005 she won the ECHO Instrumentalist of the Year Award. Author of two books, Variations sauvages and Leçons particulières, Ms. Grimaud champions many charitable causes, including the Wolf Conservation Center, which she founded in New York State in 1999; the International Children's Camp Villa San Souci; the Worldwide Fund for Nature; and Amnesty International. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2000. For more information, please visit www.helenegrimaud.com. FRAMING THE PROGRAM The all-German program tonight suggests ways in which instrumental music can evoke associations in a listener’s mind. The atmosphere of Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz is closely connected to the story of the opera, a variety of whose melodies are quoted. Horns evoke hunting and forests, ominous chords suggest a demonic and magical world, and the celebratory conclusion reflects the happy end of the story. Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto is unusual among his works in the genre not only due to its marvelous opening for solo piano, but also for the dramatic qualities of the brief middle movement. The tension between the soloist and orchestra, in which the pianist eventually triumphs, has been likened to the mythic struggle of Orpheus as he tries to tame the furies and enter the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice. Franz Schmidt was a colleague of Mahler’s whose magnificent music is becoming more familiar to audiences today. The Fourth Symphony, his last, dates from 1932 and was composed soon after the death of his daughter at age 30. The funereal mood of the Adagio section of the Symphony offers a touching memorial. Parallel Events 1805 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Music Spontini La vestale Literature Chateaubriand René Art Turner Shipwreck History Victory at Trafalgar 1821 WebeWeberrrr Overture to Der Freischütz Music Mendelssohn Sinfonia No. 7 LLLiteratureLiterature Scott Kenilworth Art Constable Hay Wain History Bolivár defeats Spanish 1932 Schmidt Symphony No. 4 Music Ravel Piano Concerto in G major Literature Hammett The Thin Man Art Liebermann Professor Sauerbruch History Lindbergh baby kidnapped Overture tttoto Der Freischütz Carl Maria vvvonvon Weber Born iiinin Eutin, nnnearnear Lübeck, November 18, 1786 Died iiinin London, June 5, 1826 Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was written (perhaps created is the better word) in 1818 and is just one famous manifestation of the burgeoning Romantic interest in the Gothic, the grotesque and supernatural so often evident in the literature, art, and music of the time. Opera, with its combination of story, staging, and sound, provided the perfect medium to explore these themes in the performing arts. This is no doubt one reason Weber’s Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter) immediately captured the imagination of audiences in Europe and beyond, beginning with its premiere in June 1821 at the newly built Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Weber did not score a comparable success in the remaining five years of his life, although the overtures to his later Euryanthe and Oberon became repertory standards. In these operas, and in less familiar compositions, his masterful orchestration and compelling evocation of mood helped usher in a new Romantic sensibility in music. Romantic Gothic Weber was born after, but died before, Beethoven (like Mozart, he died in his 30s), and his music looks both backward and forward. Der Freischütz profoundly influenced Berlioz, Wagner, and other later Romantics; indeed, Berlioz made a performing version of it in the late 1830s, with newly composed recitatives replacing the original dialogue. Weber, of course, was himself subject to influences. The supernatural had been a part of opera ever since its invention in the early 17th century, where a deus ex machina saved many an ending. Zauberopern (magic operas) were all the rage in Mozart’s time, with his about the enchanted flute being the only one that remains regularly performed today. The early Romantics added darker, more sinister elements in their Gothic stories, which had musical consequences for what audiences heard at the opera. Louis Spohr’s Faust (1813) and E.T.A Hoffmann’s Undine (1816) provided operatic models for Weber, who had his librettist Friedrich Kind adapt a ghost story from a recent collection by Johann Apel and Friedrich Laun for Freischütz. His opera effectively evoked the weirdly supernatural, especially in the famous Wolf’s Glen Scene that ends the second act. At the urging of the evil Kaspar, Max, the opera’s protagonist, goes to a scary woods at midnight to forge magic bullets that make the “freeshooter” hit any mark. Max hopes they will allow him to win a shooting contest the next day and with it the hand of his beloved, Agathe. He invokes the demon Samiel to appear and makes a pact with the devil. A Closer Look The Overture is a study in contrasts, between the natural and supernatural, light and dark, slow and fast, major and minor. It begins with a slow introduction that is initially mysterious