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Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and The Philadelphia Orchestra on WRTI: Feb. 8 at 1 PM

Jaap van Zweden, Photo credit: Marco Borggreve

On Sunday, February 8th, The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast features Amsterdam-born conductor Jaap van Zweden, music director of both the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (since 2008) and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2012).

In a concert first broadcast on WRTI in May of 2013, Maestro van Zweden conducts two works composed by the Russian masters Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Prokofiev that could hardly be more different in their purpose and effect.

Tchaikovsky originally wrote this for only six string players, but Sunday's performance will be for full string orchestra; the first by The Philadelphia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence is a loving look at a country and a city he adored, where he spent some of the happiest times of his life. It is his last chamber music composition—indeed, his final multi-movement instrumental work except for the Sixth Symphony. Tchaikovsky originally wrote this for only six string players, but Sunday's performance will be for full string orchestra—the first by The Philadelphia Orchestra—in an arrangement by Drew Lucas.

At intermission, WRTI’s Jim Cotter speaks with Maestro van Zweden, and Susan Lewis talks to Juliette Kang about her role as first associate concertmaster of the orchestra. 

In the second half, we’ll hear a performance of Prokofiev’s epic Fifth Symphony, composed during the summer of 1944, as the military fortunes of the Soviet Union were finally beginning to improve, after what had been a devastating period during the World War II.

We hope you can be with us for what is certain to be a special treat! That's Sunday, February 8th from 1 to 3 pm. Gregg Whiteside is producer and host.

PROGRAM:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence
Intermission interviews
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

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.