25 Season 2016-2017 Thursday, April 27 The Philadelphia Orchestra Rachmaninoff Festival 6:30 PM The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, Part 1, written and directed by Didi Balle “The Breakthrough” John Hutton Sergei Rachmaninoff Todd Cerveris Eugene Ormandy Judith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female Reporter David Beach Alfred Swan/Narrator Peter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti 8:00 PM Stéphane Denève Conductor Haochen Zhang Piano Nikolai Lugansky Piano Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 I. Allegro vivace II. Largo III. Allegro vivace Intermission Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 I. Moderato II. Adagio sostenuto III. Allegro scherzando This program runs approximately 1 hour, 35 minutes. Program continued 26 10:00 PM “Russian Salon” Postlude Rachmaninoff Romance, from Two Pieces, for piano six-hands Nikolai Lugansky, Stéphane Denève, Haochen Zhang Piano Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau in C minor, Op. 33, No. 3 Nikolai Lugansky Piano Rachmaninoff from Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19: I. Lento. Allegro moderato Hai-Ye Ni Cello Marcantonio Barone Piano Support for the Rachmaninoff Festival is provided by Tatiana Copeland. Mrs. Copeland’s mother was the niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Tatiana Copeland was named after the composer’s daughter, Tatiana Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff. Special thanks to Jacobs Music for providing the Steinway Spirio Reperformance pianos used during the Rachmaninoff Festival. Archival exhibit in Commonwealth Plaza curated by Jack McCarthy. Casting by Stephanie Klapper C.S.A. Phonograph generously loaned to The Philadelphia Orchestra by Don Wilson. 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. 27 Season 2016-2017 Friday, April 28 The Philadelphia Orchestra Rachmaninoff Festival 6:30 PM The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, Part 2, written and directed by Didi Balle “Musician in Exile” John Hutton Sergei Rachmaninoff Todd Cerveris Eugene Ormandy Judith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female Reporter David Beach Alfred Swan/Narrator Peter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti 8:00 PM Stéphane Denève Conductor Nikolai Lugansky Piano Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, for piano and orchestra Intermission Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 I. Allegro ma non tanto II. Intermezzo: Adagio— III. Finale: Alla breve This program runs approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes. Program continued 28 10:00 PM “Russian Salon” Postlude Szymanowski Caprice No. 24 in A minor, from Three Paganini Caprices, Op. 40 Juliette Kang Violin Parker Kitterman Piano Rachmaninoff Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5 Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12 Nikolai Lugansky Piano Support for the Rachmaninoff Festival is provided by Tatiana Copeland. Mrs. Copeland’s mother was the niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Tatiana Copeland was named after the composer’s daughter, Tatiana Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff. Special thanks to Jacobs Music for providing the Steinway Spirio Reperformance pianos used during the Rachmaninoff Festival. Archival exhibit in Commonwealth Plaza curated by Jack McCarthy. Casting by Stephanie Klapper C.S.A. Phonograph generously loaned to The Philadelphia Orchestra by Don Wilson. 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. 29 Season 2016-2017 Saturday, April 29 The Philadelphia Orchestra Rachmaninoff Festival 6:30 PM The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, Part 3, written and directed by Didi Balle “A Musical Marriage in Philadelphia” John Hutton Sergei Rachmaninoff Todd Cerveris Eugene Ormandy Judith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female Reporter David Beach Alfred Swan/Narrator Peter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti 8:00 PM Stéphane Denève Conductor Haochen Zhang Piano Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 I. Vivace II. Andante III. Allegro vivace Intermission Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 I. Non allegro II. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) III. Lento assai—Allegro vivace—Lento assai, come prima—L’istesso tempo, ma agitato—Poco meno mosso— “Alliluya” This program runs approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes. Program continued 30 10:00 PM “Russian Salon” Postlude Rachmaninoff String Quartet No. 1 I. Romance: Andante espressivo II. Scherzo: Allegro Marc Rovetti Violin William Polk Violin Kerri Ryan Viola Priscilla Lee Cello Rachmaninoff “C’était en avril” Sarah Shafer Soprano Stéphane Denève Piano Rachmaninoff Romance in A minor, Op. Posth. Ying Fu Violin Natalie Zhu Piano Rachmaninoff Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky’s “Lullaby,” Op. 16, No. 1 Haochen Zhang Piano Support for the Rachmaninoff Festival is provided by Tatiana Copeland. Mrs. Copeland’s mother was the niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Tatiana Copeland was named after the composer’s daughter, Tatiana Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff. Special thanks to Jacobs Music for providing the Steinway Spirio Reperformance pianos used during the Rachmaninoff Festival. Archival exhibit in Commonwealth Plaza curated by Jack McCarthy. Casting by Stephanie Klapper C.S.A. Phonograph generously loaned to The Philadelphia Orchestra by Don Wilson. 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. 31 32 From the Writer/Director The Rachmaninoff Trilogy brings to life through music and theater the compelling story of self-exiled Sergei Rachmaninoff who, despite genius and fame, wandered the globe haunted by the loss of his beloved country and family estate (burned to the ground during the 1917 Russian Revolution) until finding an artistic home with the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra and its visionary music directors Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. The musical and dramatic story are set in Philadelphia using the Orchestra’s real Rachmaninoff Cycle in 1939 as the anchor story and jumping-off point for flashbacks dramatizing the stories behind seminal compositions featured in the Cycle and in the Rachmaninoff Festival. We discover the arc of Rachmaninoff’s life through the making of his music and the profound and prolific relationship between the composer and the Orchestra over three decades. The 1939 scenes take place in present time at the Academy of Music and dramatize events around the Cycle. Scenes from the past are set in Russia, Scandinavia, Philadelphia, New York, Switzerland, and on a transatlantic ship. —Didi Balle Didi Balle created Symphonic Plays™, a new genre for actors and orchestras. She’s received nine commissions by American orchestras to create, write, and direct. In addition to The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, for The Philadelphia Orchestra she created Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin and Elements of the Earth. Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony named her the first-ever Playwright-in- Residence with a symphony orchestra. Her symphonic plays with them include CSI: Beethoven, CSI: Mozart, Analyze this: Mahler & Freud, A Composer Fit for a King: Wagner and King Ludwig II, and Tchaikovsky: Mad but for Music. Alsop, Lincoln Center, the Barbican Center, and the Colorado and St. Louis symphonies commissioned Radio Rhapsody: A Musical Tribute to Paul Whiteman. Ms. Balle’s work as a playwright, lyricist, and librettist spans song cycles, opera, musical theater, and radio musicals, and live broadcasts of her work have appeared on stations from the BBC to NPR. Her awards include a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship and the Oscar Hammerstein scholarship at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Program. She is at work on her first historical musical novel:Beethoven Betrayed. 32A 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,