The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert

You won't want to miss the optimism and sunshine of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, drawing much of its balance and influence from the Classical era, this Sunday, July 20th at 1 pm. It's the Philadelphians in a performance from October in Verizon Hall, a re-broadcast from November, 2013.

This Sunday’s re-broadcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert, on July 20th at 1 pm, features a celebrated oboe concerto by Richard Strauss. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the 1945 work has a Philadelphia connection.

The concert features Mahler's 4th Symphony, Britten's Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, and the Strauss Oboe Concerto with soloist Richard Woodhams.

On this Sunday’s Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast, Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts works by Britten and Strauss, along with Mahler's Symphony No. 4. As WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, the German soprano in the Mahler work is singing a piece that is revered in her homeland.

You never know where you'll encounter composer Uri Caine - born, raised, and educated in Philadelphia, but now equally well known in jazz and classical circles around the world. But the Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns found him rehearsing in yet another musical continent at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Olney.

This Sunday at 1 pm it's a re-broadcast of the 2013/204 season-opening concert from the end of September, featuring Beethoven's awe-inspiring Ninth Symphony. With its universal message of freedom and brotherhood, the Ninth is the crowning achievement of Beethoven’s revolutionary works, its famous “Ode to Joy” serving as a message of hope for all mankind. Showcasing the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and conducted by Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, this performance launched a two-year cycle of all nine Beethoven symphonies.

The Choir will also appear in Beethoven’s rarely heard setting of Goethe’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, as well as the world premiere of the young American composer Nico Muhly’s newly orchestrated Bright Mass with Canons for chorus, orchestra, and featuring the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ.

During intermission, WRTI's Susan Lewis speaks with Yannick about the program, and the new season, and WRTI's Jim Cotter sits down with both tenor Christian Elsner and bass-baritone Shenyang, both of whom play very important roles in this concert.

Not to be missed!  That's this Sunday, July 13 from 1 to 3 pm on WRTI.

Program notes

PROGRAM

BEETHOVEN:  Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, for chorus and orchestra

MUHLY: Bright Mass with Canons

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 ("Choral")
 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Twyla Robinson, soprano

Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo-soprano

Christian Elsner, tenor

Shenyang, bass-baritone

The Westminster Symphonic Choir -Mixed chorus

Joe Miller, director

The Philadelphia Orchestra is performing a two-year cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, although known to generations of music lovers, these great works continue to provide insights into Western musical heritage.

This Sunday at 1pm, it’s the fast-paced, one-act opera Salome, among the most important musical works of the 20th century, standing out for its revolutionary use of a large-scale orchestra and virtuosic singers, as much as for its graphic depiction of this deeply psychological tale, performed in a historic, joint production by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia. It was the Orchestra’s last concert in May, just before they departed on their China Tour.

It was a Bible story, and then a French play by Oscar Wilde. Then it was translated into German, before Strauss turned it into his opera, Salome. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, a production from May, 2014 continued the evolution of this complex and compelling work of art.

On Sunday, July 6, 2014 at 1 pm on WRTI, listen to a recorded broadcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia performing Richard Strauss' Salome.

Oscar Wilde’s late 19th-century play, retelling the biblical story of Salome, became the basis for Richard Strauss' one-act opera SALOME that premiered in Dresden in 1905. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the opera continues to shock and dazzle, nearly a century later.

On Sunday, July 6 at 1 pm, WRTI broadcasts The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia in a joint production of Salome, with Camilla Nylund in the title role.

This Sunday at 1 pm, from a Philadelphia Orchestra concert this past May at Verizon Hall, Yannick is on the podium to conduct Barber’s Adagio for Strings, an ethereal meditation that has emerged as an iconic piece of 20th-century American music; Bartok’s First Violin Concerto, played by Lisa Batiashvili, one of the world’s most sought-after violinists; and the concert will conclude with that imposing orchestral cathedral of sound known as Bruckner’s Symphony No.