27 Season 2013-2014 Thursday, November 7, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, November 8, at 2:00 Saturday, November 9, at Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor 8:00 Yuja Wang Piano Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 I. Allegro ma non tanto II. Intermezzo: Adagio— III. Finale: Alla breve Intermission Strauss Serenade in E-flat major for Winds, Op. 7 Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 I. The Hero— II. The Hero’s Adversaries— III. The Hero’s Helpmate— IV. The Hero’s Battlefield— V. The Hero’s Deeds of Peace— VI. The Hero’s Flight from the World and Fulfillment David Kim, solo violin This program runs approximately 2 hours. 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. 3 Story Title 29 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra community itself. His concerts to perform in China, in 1973 is one of the preeminent of diverse repertoire attract at the request of President orchestras in the world, sold-out houses, and he has Nixon, today The Philadelphia renowned for its distinctive established a regular forum Orchestra boasts a new sound, desired for its for connecting with concert- partnership with the National keen ability to capture the goers through Post-Concert Centre for the Performing hearts and imaginations of Conversations. Arts in Beijing. The Orchestra audiences, and admired for annually performs at Under Yannick’s leadership a legacy of innovation in Carnegie Hall while also the Orchestra returns to music-making. The Orchestra enjoying annual residencies in recording with a newly- is inspiring the future and Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at released CD on the Deutsche transforming its rich tradition the Bravo! Vail festival. Grammophon label of of achievement, sustaining Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring Musician-led initiatives, the highest level of artistic and Leopold Stokowski including highly-successful quality, but also challenging transcriptions. In Yannick’s Cello and Violin Play-Ins, and exceeding that level, by inaugural season the shine a spotlight on the creating powerful musical Orchestra has also returned Orchestra’s musicians, as experiences for audiences at to the radio airwaves, with they spread out from the home and around the world. weekly Sunday afternoon stage into the community. Music Director Yannick broadcasts on WRTI-FM. The Orchestra’s commitment Nézet-Séguin triumphantly to its education and Philadelphia is home and opened his inaugural community partnership the Orchestra nurtures an season as the eighth artistic initiatives manifests itself important relationship not leader of the Orchestra in numerous other ways, only with patrons who support in fall 2012. His highly including concerts for families the main season at the collaborative style, deeply- and students, and eZseatU, Kimmel Center but also those rooted musical curiosity, a program that allows full- who enjoy the Orchestra’s and boundless enthusiasm, time college students to other area performances paired with a fresh approach attend an unlimited number at the Mann Center, Penn’s to orchestral programming, of Orchestra concerts for Landing, and other venues. have been heralded by a $25 annual membership The Orchestra is also a global critics and audiences alike. fee. For more information on ambassador for Philadelphia Yannick has been embraced The Philadelphia Orchestra, and for the U.S. Having been by the musicians of the please visit www.philorch.org. the first American orchestra Orchestra, audiences, and the 8 Music Director Nigel Parry/CPi Yannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra 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 Yannick “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton “the ensemble … has never sounded better.” In his first season he took the Orchestra to new musical heights. His second builds on that momentum with highlights that include a Philadelphia Commissions Micro-Festival, for which three leading composers have been commissioned to write solo works for three of the Orchestra’s principal players; the next installment in his multi-season focus on requiems with Fauré’s Requiem; and a unique, theatrically-staged presentation of Strauss’s revolutionary opera Salome, a first-ever co-production with Opera Philadelphia. Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. Since 2008 he has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, and since 2000 artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. In addition he becomes the first ever mentor conductor of the Curtis Institute of Music’s conducting fellows program in the fall of 2013. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and 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 Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on that label of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. Yannick continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for DG, BIS, and EMI/Virgin; the London Philharmonic 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, awarded by the Quebec government; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal. To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor. 30 Soloist Fadil Berisha Fadil Twenty-six-year-old pianist Yuja Wang made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2008, the same year she graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. Born in Beijing, she studied piano in China and Canada before moving to Philadelphia to study with Gary Graffman. In 2006 she received the Gilmore Young Artist Award and in 2010 was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since making her 2005 debut with the National Arts Center Orchestra led by Pinchas Zukerman, Ms. Wang has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Simón Bolívar, and NHK symphonies; the Cleveland and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras; the Los Angeles, New York, London, Israel, La Scala, and China philharmonics; the Berlin Staatskapelle; and the Orchestre de Paris. Ms. Wang is an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon. Following her debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes, Gramophone magazine named her the Classic FM 2009 Young Artist of the Year. For her second recording, Transformation, she received an Echo Klassik award. A collaboration with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, featuring Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Second Piano Concerto, was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Classical Instrumental Solo. This was followed by Fantasia, a collection of encores with works by Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, and others. Most recently Ms. Wang collaborated with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony in a live recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In 2014 Ms. Wang is the featured artist for the London Symphony’s Artist Portrait series, which includes performances in London and a tour of China with Daniel Harding conducting. Other highlights of the current season include tours of Europe with violinist Leonidas Kavakos; a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for subscription concerts and a U.S. tour with Mr. Dudamel; and return engagements with the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. Earlier this year she was presented by the Berlin Philharmonic in recital at the Philharmonie. Other recent performance highlights include a recital tour of Japan where she made her Suntory Hall debut and return appearances at Carnegie Hall. 31 Framing the Program Both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss Parallel Events performed many times with The Philadelphia Orchestra. 1881 Music Rachmaninoff’s long and fruitful relationship began in Strauss Borodin 1909 with his first appearance in this country at the Serenade for String Quartet Academy of Music. He went on to write pieces specifically Winds No. 2 for the Orchestra and collaborated in landmark recordings, Literature including of the popular Third Piano Concerto that opens Hardy the program today. The work eventually surpassed the A Laodicean success of his two earlier essays in the genre and has Art come to rival Tchaikovsky’s First as the supreme late Böcklin Die Toteninsel Romantic piano concerto. History The Philadelphians continue their celebration of the Vatican archives 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss’s birth with a opened to youthful serenade and a mighty tone poem. The Serenade scholars for 13 Wind Instruments, Op. 7, greatly helped make the teenage composer’s name when it was championed by 1898 Music Strauss Elgar the famous conductor Hans von Bülow. Within a decade Ein “Enigma” Strauss had undergone a “conversion,” as he called it, and Heldenleben Variations was being hailed as the leading progressive composer Literature of his day with extravagant symphonic tone poems, such James as Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), which concludes The Turn of the today’s program and which Strauss himself conducted Screw here in 1921.