Happy New Year!

1.   Welcome back to The Philadelphia Orchestra! I hope all of you had great holidays and are still enjoying your winter breaks. If you have already returned to school, good luck with the beginning of classes!

If you missed attending concerts over the past few weeks, or did not get a chance to attend as many concerts in the Fall as you would have liked, do not worry because upcoming Orchestra concerts contain terrific and exciting programs.

·         Mozart’s Requiem: January 6-9, 2011

 The Philadelphia Orchestra begins the New Year with one of the most exciting concerts of the season. Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Yannick) returns to conduct Debussy’s Nocturnes and Mozart’s Requiem, further showing his versatility to Philadelphia audiences.

The Requiem is not only a magnificent piece of music for orchestra, chorus, and soloists, but also a piece full of mystery. The work remained unfinished upon Mozart’s death, leading to suspicions about Mozart’s commissioner. The fictitious play-turned film Amadeus dwells on this issue significantly. The task of completing the work fell on Mozart’s young student, Franz Xavier Sussmayr, as well as other students and composers that his wife Costanze enlisted. This musical setting of the Mass for the Dead was performed in memorial services of many famous figures throughout the 19^th-century. 

This is a concert not to be missed, as the sold-out status of each performance would indicate: there are few opportunities to hear the Requiem live, especially with a terrific conductor like Yannick. Furthermore, concert-goers will be treated to a Meet and Mingle event with Yannick after the concert in Commonwealth Plaza. 


Although these performances are all sold out, if you’d like to go and did not get tickets, you can check with Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1999 throughout the week for any last-minute openings. Also, if you have a ticket but can’t make it, make sure you return your ticket for other eager patrons to be able to attend!

  

·       Kim and Kang Play Bach: January 13 and 15, 2011

Next up is an interesting program mixing Baroque, late-Romantic, and 20^th-century styles.

The program opens with Arvo Pärt’s Collage über B-A-C-H, a modern piece that pays tribute to J.S. Bach, both by playing on the letters in Bach’s name and using material from Bach’s English Suite No. 6 for the piece.

Following the Pärt, Concertmaster David Kim and First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang pair up to perform Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, a piece with which many student violinists are familiar. Not only will it be a treat to listen to a piece many of us have played, and to listen to the orchestral musicians perform as soloists, but also to listen to a Baroque piece in a symphony concert hall.

The program ends with Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, a masterpiece often called a eulogy to Wagner. 

·       Gilbert Conducts: January 20-22

Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic and an avid promoter of contemporary music, will conduct quite a fascinating program.

This program mixes contemporary music with a favorite chestnut.

The program opens with Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s flamboyant EXPO. The Philadelphia Orchestra premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Oboe Concerto follows. This premiere will be all the more poignant because the Orchestra’s own principal oboist, Richard Woodhams, will be the soloist.

After these modern works comes Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, otherwise known as the “Pastoral” Symphony. Unlike his other symphonies, this work is cast in five movements rather than four, to express the programmatic content of the “Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country,” “Scene by the brook,” “Merry gathering of peasants,” “Tempest, storm,” and the “Shepherds’ hymn—happy and thankful feelings after the storm.” You might remember this symphony from Disney’s Fantasia, which depicts Greek mythological creatures in these pastoral scenes.

   ·      Schubert’s “Great” Symphony: January 27-28, 2011

January ends with another interesting concert.

The program begins with Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor—another example of Mozart’s mature compositional style.

The pianist Andreas Haefliger’s account of Bartók’s lyrical and tranquil Piano Concerto No. 3 follows.

The program ends with Schubert’s Symphony in C major, aptly nicknamed the “Great” Symphony for its extent and intensity.

--Amalya Lehmann

College Night on October 21: Pictures from an Exhibition

Join us for an  exclusive party for college students, while receiving the chance to meet and mingle with fellow classical music-loving students and with the Orchestra’s musicians, right after the Pictures from an Exhibition concert on October 21.  If you would like to bring your non-eZseatU members friends, you can bring 4 guests to the concerts for a special price of $8 a person!


Program: 
Ravel--Le Tombeau de Couperin
Bruch--Violin Concerto No. 1
Mussorgsky--Pictures from an Exhibition


Lionel Bringuier--Conductor
Renaud Capucon--Violin

 

--Amalya Lehmann

Upcoming Concerts in October

Time is really flying by! It seems like the FREE Concert took place only days ago, but the 2010-2011 season is well underway.

Fantastic programs for the rest of this month are still available.  Even if you have tons of midterms to study for and papers to write, try to take a break to catch these weekly concerts.

n Brahms Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4:

On Friday, October 15, at 8:00 PM, Saturday, October 16, at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, October 17, at 2:00 PM, The Philadelphia Orchestra will be performing Brahms’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 4, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi.

Initially, the reaction to Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, which premiered in October1885, was borderline negative; audiences declared it “un-Brahmsian.” Music critic Max Kalbeck even suggested that Brahms should omit the fourth movement.

However, the fourth movement is the most interesting of the movements. While composing the Symphony, Brahms, the intellectual, became occupied with Renaissance and Baroque music. Essentially, the last movement is a set of variations over an ostinato bass from a Bach cantata. By quoting Bach, recalling Beethoven, and adding a Romantic twist of his own, Brahms concluded his symphonic output with a synthesis of the compositional styles of the great German composers.

Because Brahms’s Fourth Symphony has been characterized as “tragic”, it makes more sense for the Orchestra to play it first, before the sunnier, and cheerful Second Symphony.

n  YNS—Haydn and Mahler:

October ends with an exciting concert, led by newly-appointed Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin in his first official Philadelphia Orchestra concert under his new title. Yannick will have a chance to show off his conducting skills by conducting two works by the composers that essentially book-ended the era of the symphony—Haydn and Mahler.

By listening to Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 (“Military”) from the 18^th century and the Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 from the 20^th century, one will hear how the symphony evolved.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 is one of his London Symphonies—the conclusion and climax of his symphonic output. The nickname “Military” is derived from the second movement’s domination of “Turkish”-sounding instruments—bass drum, cymbals, and triangle—that give the military-coloring to the march-like movements and the bugle call for solo trumpet in the conclusion of the movement. Ever since its premiere in London, this Symphony has been one of Haydn’s most popular works. Why? Because the “Turkish”-music was all the rage in Europe at the time.

If 1790s London audiences found Haydn’s military, cacophonous, music exciting, they would throw a fit if they were to hear Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 over a hundred years later. If you would like to know why they would respond in this way, go to the Orchestra concert on either Friday, October 29, 2010, at 8:00 PM, Saturday, October 30, 2010, at 8:00 PM, or Sunday October 31, 2010, at 2:00 PM. 

--Amalya Lehmann

FREE Concert!

Close to 2,500 Philadelphia-area and even out-of-state college students took a break from studying, writing, and practicing to attend The Philadelphia Orchestra’s third annual FREE Concert for College Students on Tuesday, September 28! 

We listened to an exhilarating account of Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture, Joshua Bell’s heartfelt rendition of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and an awesome performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.1.

During the post-concert activities, we were treated to snacks, performances by Nicky Egan and the Majority, and a chance to win a fun prize at the prize-wheel. Additionally, students met and mingled with each other and with musicians from the Orchestra.

Most exciting was the fact that Joshua Bell was kind enough to stay until after the performance to sign autographs and to have pictures taken with him.

 Last but not least, we all received free eZseatU water bottles!

--Amalya Lehmann

Welcome to the 2010-2011 season at the Philadelphia Orchestra!  

My name is Amalya Lehmann and I am the new editor of the eZseatU blog. I am a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, studying musicology, cognitive science, and violin. As one of the eZseatU campus representatives, you will see me attending Philadelphia Orchestra concerts almost weekly!

As Philadelphia-area students, we are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to attend concerts by one of the leading orchestras in the world, for only $25 a year. Whether you are just getting into classical music, or you have listened to classical music and attended concerts for years, there will be a concert for you!

For students on both ends of the spectrum, you don’t want to miss your first opportunity to attend a concert this year—the Orchestra's FREE College Concert, on Tuesday, September 28, at 8 pm!

The program begins with chief conductor Charles Dutoit leading the Le Corsaire Overture by one of his favorite composers, Hector Berlioz, composer of the famous Symphonie Fantastique.

The program follows with Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire and one of the most beloved to violinists: all advanced violinists feel like they reach a significant milestone when they finish working on ‘THE Mendelssohn’! The Concerto’s first movement begins with a beautiful, soaring melody, and features a thrilling end to the cadenza, full of butterfly-like string crossings, with the orchestra playing the opening theme. The second movement is slow and warm by contrast, featuring elegant and bittersweet melodies in the solo violin part, accompanied by a murmuring and rousing orchestra. The work ends with the brilliant, bubbly, and fast last movement.

You may have heard him play the soundtrack to the Academy-award winning film The Red Violin, or have seen him featured as one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. You may have also read about his experiment with the Washington Post, in which he entered a Washington D.C. Metro Station, wore a baseball cap, and started playing violin to passersby. World-renowned American violinist Joshua Bell is sure to play a beautiful account of the Concerto at this concert. Bell made his professional debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 14, and in the years since, has performed all over the world, and released numerous CD’s, including collaborations with Regina Spektor, Sting, and Bela Fleck.

In the second half of the program, the Orchestra begins its celebration of Gustav Mahler’s 150th Birthday with a performance of his appropriately named Symphony No. 1 (“The Titan”), one of his most ambitious works that reshaped what could be included in a symphony. Full of Mahler’s own songs, klezmer, street dances, and a funeral march based on the popular tune “Frère Jacques”, this piece inspired wild reactions at its first performances due to its unconventional structure, material, and emotional character. Be sure to stick around for this epic masterpiece!

Besides this fantastic program, there will be a number of festivities marking this special annual event, ranging from live band performances to meeting the Orchestra’s musicians to receiving an autograph from Joshua Bell. Best of all, you will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with other music lovers your age, studying in Philadelphia-area colleges.

So mark your calendars, reserve your ticket, and invite your friends—this is a night not to be missed! See you then!

--Amalya Lehmann