Back in January, 2016, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra launched a three-week Music of Vienna series, and one of those concerts—both here in Philadelphia at Verizon Hall and at Carnegie Hall in New York—Yannick conducted two works composed nearly a century apart: Haydn’s 103rd symphony, and Bruckner’s 4th.
We’re turning the clock back to this 2016 performance for our Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast this week. You can hear it on Sunday, November 22nd at 1 PM on WRTI and Monday, November 23rd at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2.
FYI: Yannick will be back on The Philadelphia Orchestra’s digital stage on Wednesday, November 25th leading this concert featuring Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and Florence Price's Symphony No. 1.
Vienna was a hotbed of musical evolution, and the second concert in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s three-part series of the Music of Vienna showed us how far the symphony had traveled in that time.
His Fourth Symphony brought Bruckner his first significant public success.
The Haydn and Bruckner spotlighted two of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal players. That famous drumroll has evolved in performance practice over the years, and Don Liuzzi, Principal Timpanist, will give it a virtuosic interpretation to open this re-broadcast.
And just as all ears will be on Mr. Liuzzi at the beginning of the Haydn, they will be on Principal Horn Jennifer Montone at the beginning of Bruckner’s Symphony No 4, when she plays the famous exposed and extended opening horn call.
The relative brevity, humor, and modest instrumental scale associated with Haydn’s symphonies stand in stark contrast to the expansive orchestral vision of Anton Bruckner. His Fourth Symphony brought him his first significant public success. (Actually, this is his sixth, since he composed two earlier, unnumbered ones.) Its title, “Romantic,” is Bruckner’s own, signifying how far removed this work is from the classicism of Haydn.
During intermission, WRTI’s Susan Lewis speaks with Yannick Nézet-Séguin about these two important symphonies. She also sits down for a conversation with both Don Liuzzi and Jennifer Montone.
PROGRAM:
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll”
Intermission
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4, “Romantic”
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor
Gregg Whiteside is producer and host of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts on WRTI 90.1 FM in Philadelphia and streaming online at WRTI.org, every Sunday from 1 to 3 pm, and re-broadcast Monday nights at 7 pm on WRTI HD-2.
