27 Season 2012-2013 Thursday, November 1, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, November 2, at 2:00 Saturday, November 3, at 8:00 Giancarlo Guerrero Conductor Kirill Gerstein Piano Barber Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a Gershwin Piano Concerto in F I. Allegro II. Adagio—Andante con moto III. Allegro agitato Intermission Copland Appalachian Spring Suite (1945 version) Sierra Sinfonía No. 4 I. Moderadamente rápido II. Rápido III. Tiempo de bolero IV. Muy rápido y rítmico First Philadelphia Orchestra performances— Commissioned by the inaugural Sphinx Commissioning Consortium, whose founding members were The Philadelphia Orchestra; the Cincinnati, Baltimore, Detroit, Grand Rapids, New Jersey, Richmond, Virginia, Nashville, and New World symphonies; the Chicago Sinfonietta; the Rochester Philharmonic; and the Sphinx Organization This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes. 228 Story Title 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 29 Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero is music director of the Nashville Symphony (NSO) and concurrently holds the position of principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Miami Residency. Last year he led the Nashville Symphony to a Grammy win for a second consecutive year with their recording of American composer Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra. His previous recording with the orchestra of Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony and Deus Ex Machina won three 2011 Grammy awards. A fervent advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Guerrero has collaborated with and championed the works of several composers, including John Adams, John Corigliano, Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Mr. Daugherty, Roberto Sierra, and Richard Danielpour. Mr. Guerrero has conducted The Philadelphia Orchestra numerous times since making his debut with the ensemble in 2003 (these current performances mark his Orchestra subscription debut). This season he debuts with the BBC Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. An advocate for young musicians and music education, Mr. Guerrero now returns annually to Caracas, Venezuela, to conduct the Simón Bolívar Symphony and to work with young musicians in the country’s lauded El Sistema music program. This season he will also work with the student orchestras of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Colburn School. Early in his career Mr. Guerrero worked regularly with the Costa Rican Lyric Opera and in recent seasons has conducted new productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s La bohème, and Verdi’s Rigoletto. Future plans include productions at the Houston Grand Opera and Marseille Opera. In February 2008 he gave the Australian premiere of Mr. Golijov’s one-act opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival. From 1999 to 2004 Mr. Guerrero served as associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he made his subscription debut in March 2000, leading the world premiere of John Corigliano’s Phantasmagoria (on themes from The Ghosts of Versailles). In June 2004 Mr. Guerrero was honored by the American Symphony Orchestra League with the Helen M. Thompson Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement among young conductors nationwide. 30 Soloist Marco Borggreve Pianist Kirill Gerstein made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2007, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Since then he has appeared with the Orchestra five times, most recently this past summer at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin (these current performances mark his Orchestra subscription debut). This season Mr. Gerstein also makes subscription debuts with the Boston Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. Return engagements include performances with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, and the San Antonio Symphony. He will perform in recital for the La Jolla Music Society and at the Eastman School of Music, and tour with long-time chamber music partner cellist Steven Isserlis. Internationally he will make debuts with the Czech Philharmonic, the NDR Symphony in Hamburg, the Berlin Radio Symphony, and the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna. Mr. Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who can sustain a career as a major international concert artist. Since receiving the Award in 2010 Mr. Gerstein has shared his prize through the commissioning of boundary crossing new works by Oliver Knussen, Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea, and Timothy Andres. His other awards include First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and a 2010 Avery Fisher Grant. Born in 1979 in Voronezh, in southwestern Russia, Mr. Gerstein first learned piano at a school for gifted children. While studying classical music he taught himself to play jazz by listening to his parents’ extensive record collection. After coming to the attention of vibraphonist Gary Burton, who was performing at a music festival in the Soviet Union, Mr. Gerstein came to the United States at age 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. An American citizen since 2003, Mr. Gerstein now divides his time between the United States and Germany, where he has been a professor of piano at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart since 2006. 31 Framing the Program As America elects its president next week, The Parallel Events Philadelphia Orchestra celebrates our democracy with 1925 Music composers whose music is as varied as the country’s Gershwin Berg landscape. Samuel Barber, George Gershwin, and Piano Concerto Wozzeck Aaron Copland helped forge the “American Sound” of in F Literature classical music in the first half of the 20th century while Dos Passos contemporary composer Roberto Sierra has expanded Manhattan that vision with new sounds and compelling references to Transfer his Latino heritage. Art Kokoschka The impetus for both Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Tower Bridge Vengeance and Copland’s Appalachian Spring came History from dance, specifically ballets composed in the mid- Scopes Trial 1940s for the great American choreographer Martha Graham. Between these works we hear Gershwin’s Piano 1943 Music Concerto, originally called New York Concerto. Gershwin Copland Shostakovich built on the fantastic success of his Rhapsody in Blue, Appalachian Symphony written the previous year, by fusing a jazz inspiration with Spring No. 8 Literature a more classical approach to form. Hersey Puerto Rican-born composer Roberto Sierra is esteemed A Bell for Adano for the rhythmic propulsion, danceable melodies, and vivid Art colors of his orchestral music. His new four-movement Rivera Sinfonía No. 4 was commissioned by a consortium of The Rug orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, in Weaver History collaboration with the Sphinx Organization, which supports D-Day landings minority composers. in Normandy 1955 Music Barber Piston Medea’s Dance Symphony of Vengeance No. 5 Literature Nabokov Lolita Art De Chirico Italian Square History