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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on WRTI: Helene Grimaud Plays Brahms, August 31 at 1 PM

This Sunday afternoon it's a concert from last December at Verizon Hall, with guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas  and pianist Hélène Grimaud in a performance with The Philadelphia Orchestra featuring the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Symphonie fantastique of Hector Berlioz. The concert had been performed only days earlier at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and the reviews were sensational.

Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 reflects the composer's effort to combine the piano with the orchestra as equal partners in a symphonic-scale structure, in emulation of the classical concertos of Mozart and Beethoven. Ms. Grimaud's performance was memorable.

Berlioz completed his revolutionary Symphonie fantastique just three years after the death of Beethoven, and used the orchestra in new and revolutionary ways to tell a semi-autobiographical story of obsessive love, hallucination, and death. More information about the symphony here...

TilsonThomasPOIC012614.mp3
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas talks about the "story behind the story" in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique with WRTI's Susan Lewis.

During intermission, WRTI's Susan Lewis speaks with Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jim Cotter chats with Ms. Grimaud. Not to be missed! That's this Sunday, August 31 from 1 until 3:30 pm. Gregg Whiteside is producer and host.

PROGRAM:
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Hélène Grimaud, piano
 

Gregg was the host of WRTI's morning drive show from 2012 until his retirement from WRTI in January, 2021. He began producing and hosting The Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert broadcasts in 2013, joining the Orchestra in Hong Kong for the first-ever live international radio broadcasts from that island in 2016, and in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for two historic broadcasts in 2018. You can still hear Gregg as host of the Orchestra broadcasts every Sunday and Monday on WRTI.