Join us for a Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast that recaptures a performance that took place in November, 2011, when Yannick Nezet-Seguin was music director designate of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the chemistry between the musicians and Yannick was already much in evidence.
All of the works on the program have an Italian theme, and represent a kind of celebration of Italian literature, culture, and landscape.
The first part of the concert offers a work by a composer who loved Italy, Tchaikovsky, whose Francesca da Rimini is a symphonic interpretation of the tragic beauty, consigned with her lover Paolo to the Second Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
Also on the program is the twenty-four year old Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 4, “The Italian,” inspired by the young composer’s time spent in Italy.
Following intermission, we’ll be treated to an electrifying performance of one of Verdi’s greatest operatic overtures, to La Forza del Destino, and we’ll conclude with one of a series of Ottorino Respighi’s love letters to Rome, The Pines of Rome.
During intermission, WRTI’s Meridee Duddleston will pay tribute to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s first female player, Edna Phillips, who passed away in 2003. And Susan Lewis speaks with the current principal harpist of the Orchestra, Elizabeth Hainen and organist Michael Stairs - both of whom were very busy during this concert nearly four years ago!
That’s Sunday, June 14th, from 1 until 3 pm, on WRTI-FM, and the all-classical web stream at wrti.org. Gregg Whiteside is producer and host.
PROGRAM:
Tchaikovsky – Francesca da Rimini, Symphonic Poem
Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4, “The Italian”
INTERMISSION
Verdi – La Forza del Destino Overture
Respighi – The Pines of Rome
Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor
