The Philadelphia Orchestra

Christoph von Dohnányi ConductorRudolf Buchbinder Piano

Lutosławski Funeral Music I. Prologue— II. Metamorphoses— III. Apogeum— IV. Epilogue

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 I. Allegro II. Romance III. Rondo: Allegro assai

Intermission

Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (“Eroica”) I. Allegro con brio II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) and Trio IV. Finale: Allegro molto—Andante—Presto

This program runs approximately 2 hours, 5 minutes.

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Season 2012-2013Friday, March 8, at 8:00Saturday, March 9, at 8:00Sunday, March 10, at 2:00

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The Philadelphia Orchestra

Renowned for its distinctive sound, beloved for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for an unrivaled legacy of “firsts” in music-making, The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world.

The Orchestra has cultivated an extraordinary history of artistic leaders in its 112 seasons, including music directors Fritz Scheel, Carl Pohlig, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Christoph Eschenbach, and Charles Dutoit, who served as chief conductor from 2008 to 2012. With the 2012-13 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin becomes the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Named music director designate in 2010, Nézet-Séguin brings a vision that extends beyond symphonic music into the vivid world of opera and choral music.

Philadelphia is home and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship not only with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center but also those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other venues. The Philadelphia Orchestra Association also continues to own the Academy of Music, a National Historic Landmark.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the U.S. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The Orchestra annually performs at

Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying a three-week residency in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and a strong partnership with the Bravo! Vail festival.

The ensemble maintains an important Philadelphia tradition of presenting educational programs for students of all ages. Today the Orchestra executes a myriad of education and community partnership programs serving nearly 50,000 annually, including its Neighborhood Concert Series, Sound All Around and Family Concerts, and eZseatU.

In February 2013 the Orchestra announced a recording project with Deutsche Grammophon, in which Yannick and the ensemble will record Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorYannick Nézet-Séguin became the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra with the start of the 2012-13 season. Named music director designate in June 2010, he made his Orchestra debut in December 2008. Over the past decade, Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. Since 2008 he has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, and since 2000 artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. He has appeared with such revered ensembles as the Vienna and Berlin philharmonics; the Boston Symphony; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; and the major Canadian orchestras. His talents extend beyond symphonic music into opera and choral music, leading acclaimed performances at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, London’s Royal Opera House, and the Salzburg Festival.

Highlights of Yannick’s inaugural season include his Carnegie Hall debut with the Verdi Requiem, one world premiere, and performances of The Rite of Spring in collaboration with New York-based Ridge Theater, complete with dancers, video projection, and theatrical lighting.

In July 2012 Yannick and Deutsche Grammophon announced a major long-term collaboration. His discography with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for BIS Records and EMI/Virgin includes an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works. He has also recorded several award-winning albums with the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. In addition, his first recording with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, is available for download.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. In 2012 Yannick was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors. His other honors include Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Jessica Griffin

03 Bio.indd 4 1/29/13 5:35 PM

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ConductorRecognized as one of the world’s preeminent orchestral and opera conductors, Christoph von Dohnányi made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1988. Renowned for his 20-year tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, his appointments have also included opera directorships in Frankfurt and Hamburg, and principal orchestral conducting posts in Germany and Paris. The 83-year-old maestro enjoys a longstanding partnership with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, where he served as principal conductor and artistic adviser for 10 years and has since been named honorary conductor for life.

Last summer Mr. Dohnányi conducted the opening concert of the Boston Symphony’s 75th anniversary season at Tanglewood as well as three additional concerts. In the 2012-13 season he has led opening concerts at the Teatro alla Scala and for the Orchestre de Paris, and he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. Other highlights of the season include subscription weeks with the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony, and a return to the Cleveland Orchestra. Recent engagements include concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; the complete Brahms symphonies with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a residency in Vienna’s Musikverein and a U.S. tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra; and dates with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, where he conducted two all-Brahms programs in the summer of 2011. Mr. Dohnányi frequently leads productions at the world’s great opera houses, including Covent Garden, La Scala, and the Vienna State Opera, and he regularly appears with Zurich Opera and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Mr. Dohnányi has made many critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. With Vienna he recorded a variety of symphonic works and operas, including Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu, Strauss’s Salome, and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. His discography with Cleveland includes Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre; the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; symphonies by Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky; and works by Bartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse, and Webern.

Terry O’N

eill/ Decca

SoloistPianist Rudolf Buchbinder made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1999 and most recently performed with the ensemble in 2008. A frequent soloist with major orchestras and festivals around the world, he is known for his meticulous study of musical sources. Mr. Buchbinder owns 35 complete editions of Beethoven’s sonatas; an extensive collection of autograph scores, first editions, and original documents; and copies of the autograph scores and piano parts of both Brahms concertos.

Mr. Buchbinder has made more than 100 recordings, including Haydn’s complete works for piano, which earned him France’s Grand Prix du Disque, and Waltzing Strauss, featuring piano transcriptions. Notable live recordings include CDs of the Brahms piano concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta; and two DVDs featuring six Mozart concertos with Buchbinder as pianist and conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic at the 2006 Vienna Festival. In 2011 his performances as pianist and conductor in Beethoven’s five piano concertos at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic were released on DVD and Blu-ray. His most recent CD, released in November 2012, features a live recording of Mozart concertos with Concentus Musicus Wien and Mr. Harnoncourt.

The interpretation of Beethoven’s sonatas—the so-called “New Testament” of the piano repertoire—is a core interest for Mr. Buchbinder. He has performed the complete 32 sonatas in more than 40 cities, including Vienna, Munich, Zurich, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Beijing, and Milan. In the 2012-13 season he performs his entire Beethoven cycle in the chamber music hall of the Philharmonie in Berlin. In the 2010-11 season he was the first artist in residence with the Dresden Staatskapelle. His cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas at the Semperoper in Dresden was recorded live and released in May 2011 by Sony/RCA Red Seal; in 2012 it won the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award for piano instrumentalist of the year. Mr. Buchbinder is also the founding artistic director of the Grafenegg Music Festival near Vienna. His autobiography, Da Capo, was published in 2008.

Marco B

orggreve

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Framing the ProgramIn 1787 the 16-year-old Beethoven travelled to Vienna from his native Bonn in order to study with Mozart. Little is known about their encounter. Beethoven, according to legend, impressed the master, but stayed in Vienna only a short time before being called home to tend to his dying mother. Although he never saw Mozart again, who had died by the time he returned to Vienna to study with Haydn, Beethoven greatly esteemed him as a model. Piano concertos, of which today we hear one of Mozart’s most dramatic ones in the passionate key of D minor, were vehicles in which both composers displayed their compositional and performance gifts. Beethoven particularly admired the D-minor Concerto and in fact wrote the cadenzas that Mr. Buchbinder performs today for its first and last movements.

By 1803, a dozen years after Mozart’s death, Beethoven had emerged as the most brilliant composer in Europe and the most daring. His Third Symphony, the mighty “Eroica,” proved a turning point not only in his career, but also in the history of orchestral music. The length, difficulty, and sublimity of the work shocked as well as thrilled his contemporaries. Although originally inspired by the figure of Napoleon, the heroic nature of this Symphony is deeply connected to Beethoven’s own personal struggles at the time as, only in his early 30s, he realized that he was losing his hearing.

Witold Lutosławski emerged as Poland’s leading composer after the Second World War. He deftly negotiated between the callings of his creative imagination and the political realities imposed by the Communist authorities in his country. Funeral Music shows his success in creating a distinctive musical voice. The continuous work in four parts is scored for string orchestra and is dedicated to the memory of Béla Bartók.

Parallel Events1785MozartPiano Concerto No. 20

1803BeethovenSymphony No. 3

1954LutosławskiFuneral Music

MusicHaydnSymphony No. 87LiteratureCowperJohn GilpinArtReynoldsThe Infant HerculesHistoryFranklin invents bifocals

MusicSpohrViolin Concerto No. 1LiteratureSchillerDer Braut von MessinaArtWestChrist Healing the SickHistoryLouisiana Purchase

MusicCarterVariationsLiteratureGoldingLord of the FliesArtDubuffetLes VagabondsHistoryMcCarthy Hearings

The MusicFuneral Music

Witold LutosławskiBorn in Warsaw, January 25, 1913Died there, February 7, 1994

Witold Lutosławski was one of the 20th century’s most complex and fascinating figures. “An innovative Polish composer whose orchestral and chamber works had an immediate appeal that made them centerpieces of the modern repertory,” was how Allan Kozinn described him in the New York Times obituary. True, but perhaps only part of the story. Underground café pianist during the Nazi occupation of Poland, unwitting cold-war political figure after the war, co-founder of the vital Warsaw Autumn Festival, pioneer in techniques of aleatory or chance procedures, Lutosławski will doubtless be remembered well into the 21st century as one of a half-dozen key figures in the music of the second half of the 20th century—as well as one who remained true to his own conscience while writing tough, vigorous pieces that nearly everyone liked.

The Funeral Music (the Polish Muzyka zalobna means literally “Music of Mourning”) belongs to the composer’s series of accessible and highly expressive works from the 1940s and ’50s—a series that also includes the First Symphony (1947) and the perennial Concerto for Orchestra (1954). It was a breakthrough for the composer in that it permitted him to employ 12-tone methods in a personal way. “For me this is the beginning of a new period,” he wrote at the time of the Funeral Music’s first performance in 1958. But he was careful to disassociate himself from traditional 12-tone composers. “Schoenberg’s principles were, among other things, intended to replace functional harmony,” he said. “I have never been interested in that goal. The use of a row had to serve a difficult purpose: to create a special kind of harmony. … In reality, then, Funeral Music has very little to do with 12-tone music.”

Lutosławski began the work in 1954, when the conductor Jan Krenz asked him to write a piece for the 10-year commemoration the following year of the death of Béla Bartók. But Lutosławski became so caught up in the composition of the work that it was not until four years later that it was ready for performance, long after the commemoration. The piece’s premiere in Katowice in March 1958, and the performance on the Warsaw

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Autumn Festival the following September, were both extraordinary successes. Indeed the sensation made by the Funeral Music in performances throughout Europe was crucial in the progress of the composer’s advancing worldwide reputation. “Not since the days of Szymanowski,” wrote a Polish critic, “has there been in Poland a composer who could so deeply understand his own strivings, who could with such courage and determination attack the most difficult musical problems of his age.”

A Closer Look The work is divided into four sections that are played without pause. The Prologue is an ingenious and complex canon built on a 12-note melody that juxtaposes semitones (half-steps) with tritones in a fashion that reminds us of Bartók’s own music—although Steven Stucky correctly points out (in his excellent 1981 study Lutosławski and His Music) that such melodic figures were already a part of the composer’s own style by this time. The mournful polyphony of the Prologue is brightened by the second section, Metamorphoses, which builds to a climax through a gradual acceleration of note-values and motivic cells; the emotional peak is reached in the Apogée, a sort of apotheosis built from huge cluster-chords and culminating in a return to the material of the Prologue. A transition leads into the pianissimo strains of the Epilogue, in which the piece fades into the oblivion from which it arose.

—Paul J. Horsley

The Funeral Music was composed from 1954 to 1958.

Riccardo Muti was on the podium for the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the piece, in April 1980. Most recently on subscription he again led the work in April 1992.

Lutosławski scored Funeral Music for strings only.

Running time is approximately 14 minutes.

The MusicPiano Concerto No. 20, K. 466

Wolfgang Amadè MozartBorn in Salzburg, January 27, 1756Died in Vienna, December 5, 1791

The 12 concertos that Mozart completed from 1782 to 1786 constitute his most important instrumental music, “symphonic in the highest sense,” in the words of the musicologist Alfred Einstein (cousin of the great scientist). No fewer than six of these were written in 1785-86, and they are among Mozart’s best-known works: Köchel Nos. 466, 467, 482, 488, 491, and 503. Each of the concertos is unique; each creates its own individual ethic.

The brooding Concerto in D minor, K. 466, was finished on February 10, 1785, and received its premiere at one of Mozart’s Viennese subscription concerts. “We got in at one o’clock,” wrote the composer’s father, Leopold, to Wolfgang’s sister, upon arriving in Vienna on the very day of the work’s completion. “The copyist was still copying [the Concerto] when we arrived, and your brother did not even have time to play through the Rondo, as he had to supervise the copying.” Despite limited rehearsal time, the concert was a success. “It was magnificent,” wrote Leopold, “and the orchestra played splendidly.”

Mozart’s Pre-Romanticism It is easy to see why the 19th century favored “minor-key” Mozart. Works such as the G-minor Symphony, K. 550, the Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491, or the Don Giovanni Overture possessed the drama and pathos that the Romantic period craved, and these compositions helped engender the view of Mozart as “precursor” to the histrionics of Beethoven and Wagner. Today we see Mozart from broader perspectives, not just as proto-Romantic but also as heavily Italianate melodist and as slightly out-of-step Classicist. Investigations into late-Baroque opera have uncovered sources for his incomparable bel canto; studies of J.C. Bach have revealed the extent to which he drew upon the music of this youngest Bach son toward developing a mature concerto style.

Yet the fascination with such works as the D-minor Piano Concerto, K. 466, remains, for there is, quite simply, nothing else like them. The opening of its first movement, for example, with its almost-imperceptible string syncopation, seems at first as if it could be a “rage” aria from an extravagant Baroque opera, until the soloist

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Mozart composed his D-minor Concerto in 1785.

Ossip Gabrilowitsch was soloist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the work, in January 1915; Leopold Stokowski conducted. The most recent subscription performances featured pianist Angela Hewitt and conductor Yakov Kreizberg, and took place in April 2001.

The Orchestra recorded this Concerto in 1951 for CBS, with pianist Rudolf Serkin and Eugene Ormandy.

The score calls for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and solo piano.

Performance time is approximately 28 minutes.

enters, with a denuded, almost naïve tune that reveals a world wholly different from that of the opening. Where the orchestra has sown torment and barely suppressed despair, the pianist reaps introspection and resignation.

A Closer Look Among the early admirers of the Concerto was Ludwig van Beethoven. He not only knew it intimately and performed the work, he also composed fine cadenzas for the first and last movements. (For these performances Mr. Buchbinder plays those cadenzas by Beethoven.) Among the things he doubtless admired in the piece were the pregnant melodies and taut thematic development of the initial Allegro, as well as the unusual slow movement (Romance), in which a guilelessly lyrical tune alternates with a tempestuous central section. One might even venture to say that the spirit of the finale (Rondo: Allegro assai), with its breathless arpeggiated solo theme and turbulent development section, finds echo in Beethoven’s own early piano sonatas in minor keys.

—Paul J. Horsley

The MusicSymphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)

Ludwig van Beethoven Born in Bonn, probably December 16, 1770Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

The “Eroica” Symphony represents a turning point not only in Beethoven’s career, but also in the history of music, a stature shared by few other compositions. The work raises fascinating biographical issues: the personal circumstances of its genesis at a crucial juncture in Beethoven’s life; its relationship to the political events of the day, specifically to Napoleon; and the ways in which audiences at the time first received what many found to be a “horribly long” and “most difficult” piece of music.

It is striking that early listeners and critics, those writing during the initial 10 years or so of the work’s existence, did not talk about the issues most often discussed today: the Symphony’s relation to Beethoven’s life or to Napoleon. They viewed the “Eroica” as a bizarre but original composition, more sublime than beautiful. Its unprecedented length, technical challenges, and uncompromising aesthetic stance seemed to aim beyond entertainment, forcing Beethoven’s contemporaries to rethink what a symphony should be and do.

A Personal Turning Point During the summer of 1802 Beethoven’s doctor suggested that he move to the Vienna suburb of Heiligenstadt so as to escape the heat and hassles of the big city. It was there, in the early fall, that Beethoven poured out his heart in an unsent letter to his brothers:

O you men who think or say that I am hostile, peevish, or misanthropic, how greatly you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause that makes me seem so to you. From childhood on, my heart and soul were full of tender feeling of goodwill, and I was always inclined to accomplish great deeds. But just think, for six years now I have had an incurable condition, made worse by incompetent doctors, from year to year deceived with hopes of getting better, finally forced to face the prospect of a lasting infirmity (whose cure will perhaps take years or even be impossible).

This so-called Heiligenstadt Testament has exerted a tremendous influence on posterity’s view of Beethoven. The anguished words also had a powerful effect on the understanding of his music, especially a work like the

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“Eroica,” which seems to express in music the struggles that the composer, never a fluent writer, had tried to put in prose.

A New Path The “Eroica” launched the middle period of Beethoven’s career, which lasted for roughly a dozen years. These were years of astounding—one could say heroic—productivity: “I live only in my notes, and with one work barely finished, the other is already started; the way I write now I often find myself working on three, four things at the same time.” His problems were initially hidden, denied, and fought, but by 1806 Beethoven wrote in a sketch: “Let your deafness no longer be a secret—even in art.”

Beethoven began the Symphony around the time he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, and did the most concentrated work beginning in May 1803, some seven months later. It was the first of his symphonies for which he gave public indications of an extra-musical program. Originally he planned to dedicate it to Napoleon and call it Bonaparte. Disillusioned when the French military leader crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven so vigorously scratched out the title that his pen tore the manuscript paper. In the end, the work was published as “Sinfonia Eroica … composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.” It was initially heard in private and semi-private performances, the first of which took place in August 1804 at the Viennese palace of his patron, Prince Lobkowitz, to whom the work is dedicated. The public premiere was on April 7, 1805, at the Theater an der Wien.

First Hearings The early reviews show that critics wanted to praise the composer and work, but were often confused by what he was trying to do. A critic commented that general opinion was sharply divided:

One group, Beethoven’s very special friends, maintains that precisely this symphony is a masterpiece, that it is in exactly the true style for more elevated music, and that if it does not please at present, it is because the public is not sufficiently educated in art to be able to grasp all of these elevated beauties. After a few thousand years, however, they will not fail to have their effect. The other group utterly denies this work any artistic value and feels that it manifests a completely unbounded striving for distinction and oddity, which, however, has produced neither beauty nor true sublimity and power.

The critic goes on to discuss a “middle” group of commentators, who admire its many excellent qualities, but are dismayed at the disjointed surroundings and at the

“endless duration of this longest and perhaps most difficult of all symphonies, which exhausts even connoisseurs and becomes unbearable for the mere amateur.”

Within a couple of years, however, the tone began to change. It often takes time before musicians and the public feel comfortable with the demands of difficult new music. In the case of the “Eroica,” as a Leipzig critic remarked, “One must not always wish only to be entertained,” a sentiment echoed by another: “But the connoisseur will only enjoy it as a complete work (and a repeated hearing doubles his spiritual enjoyment) the deeper he penetrates into the technical and aesthetic content of the original work.” Musicians in particular seem to have gone out of their way to embrace “this most difficult of all symphonies.” Regarding a Leipzig performance in 1807, we are informed that “the orchestra had voluntarily gathered for extra rehearsals without recompense, except for the honor and special enjoyment of the work itself.” A few years later a critic commented that the Symphony “was performed by the orchestra with unmistakable enjoyment and love.”

A Closer Look The innovations of the “Eroica” begin with the two striking tonic chords of the first movement (Allegro con brio), ushering in a sweet cello melody that is soon derailed by an unexpected note—C sharp—which does not belong to the “home key.” The motivic, metric, and harmonic surprises continue throughout this lengthy movement. A “new theme” (in fact related to the opening) appears during the development that has elicited comment for two centuries now. There are other unexpected details: The French horn seems to enter prematurely in the recapitulation, an effect that Beethoven’s contemporaries initially thought to be a mistake.

The second movement (Adagio assai) is a funeral march and one of the most influential pieces of music Beethoven ever composed. Schubert alluded to it in two late works (his song “Auf dem Strom” and in the second movement of his Piano Trio in E-flat) to honor Beethoven’s death, just 20 months before his own. Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Mahler, and others would also write marches, often funereal in character, within their symphonies that can in many ways be traced back to Beethoven. The C-minor opening presents the somber theme in the violins, over a drum-like bass, that is taken up by the oboe. The tone brightens at moments in the movement, notably in sections in major keys, but also becomes more austere with a fugal passage of extraordinary intensity. The opening theme returns at the

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end, deconstructed so that only fragments remain.

An energetic scherzo (Allegro vivace) changes the tone (confusing some commentators—why the mirth after a funeral?), but not the intensity. Beethoven plays with metric ambiguities—is the movement in duple or triple time?—and also gives the French horns a chance to shine in the middle trio section.

Beethoven employs another formal innovation for the finale (Allegro molto), which he casts as an unusual set of variations. The theme takes some time to emerge, with initially only its harmonic skeleton given in the bass. For the theme proper Beethoven returned to a melody he had already used in three previous pieces: in one of his contredanses, in his ballet music for The Creatures of Prometheus, and as the theme for the Piano Variations in E-flat, Op. 35. Beethoven referred to these as the “Prometheus” Variations and the work is closely related to the last movement of the Symphony. Indeed, as Lewis Lockwood has observed, the finale was conceived of first and became the “springboard” for the entire work. It seems natural that Beethoven was attracted to—dare we say identified with?—Prometheus, the rebellious Greek Titan who incurred the wrath of the gods of Mount Olympus by stealing their sacred fire. Prometheus resisted, took risks, and suffered in order to help humanity. That mythic hero’s music provides a fitting conclusion for this heroic symphony.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Program notes © 2013. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

Beethoven composed his “Eroica” Symphony in 1803.

Fritz Scheel conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the work, in January 1903. Its most recent appearance on a subscription series was in January 2012, with Herbert Blomstedt conducting. The “Eroica” has become one of the most frequently performed works by the Orchestra, appearing almost every season, and the work was chosen to be performed in memory of both Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. Among the distinguished conductors who have led the Symphony with the Philadelphians are Leopold Stokowski, Willem Mengelberg, Clemens Krauss, Eugene Ormandy, Otto Klemperer, Fritz Reiner, Bruno Walter, Georg Solti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, Klaus Tennstedt, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, and Simon Rattle.

The Orchestra has recorded the “Eroica” three times: in 1961 with Ormandy for CBS; in 1980 with Ormandy for RCA; and in 1987 with Muti for EMI, the first complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies on compact disc.

The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

The Third Symphony runs approximately 50 minutes in performance.

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Musical TermsGENERAL TERMSAleatory: A term applied to music whose composition and/or performance is, to a greater or lesser extent, undetermined by the composerArpeggio: A broken chord (with notes played in succession instead of together)Bel canto: Literally, “beautiful singing.” A term that refers to the Italian vocal style of the 18th and early 19th centuries that emphasized beauty of tone in the delivery of highly florid music.Cadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or compositionCanon: A device whereby an extended melody, stated in one part, is imitated strictly and in its entirety in one or more other partsChord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tonesDevelopment: See sonata formFugue: A piece of music in which a short melody is stated by one voice and then imitated by the other voices in succession, reappearing throughout the entire piece in all the voices at different placesK.: Abbreviation for Köchel, the chronological list of all

the works of Mozart made by Ludwig von KöchelMarcia funebre: Funeral marchOp.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s outputPolyphony: A term used to designate music in more than one part and the style in which all or several of the musical parts move to some extent independentlyRecapitulation: See sonata formRondo: A form frequently used in symphonies and concertos for the final movement. It consists of a main section that alternates with a variety of contrasting sections (A-B-A-C-A etc.).Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts.Serialism: Music constructed according to the principle pioneered by Schoenberg in the early 1920s, whereby the 12 notes of the scale are

arranged in a particular order, forming a series of pitches that serves as the basis of the composition and a source from which the musical material is derivedSonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications.Syncopation: A shift of rhythmic emphasis off the beatTonic: The keynote of a scaleTrio: See scherzoTritone: The interval of three whole tones12-tone: See serialism

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)Adagio: Leisurely, slowAllegro: Bright, fastAndante: Walking speedCon brio: Vigorously, with firePresto: Very fastVivace: Lively

TEMPO MODIFIERSAssai: MuchMolto: Very

DYNAMIC MARKSPianissimo (pp): Very soft

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Tchaikovsky’s FifthMarch 21 & 23 8 PM March 22 2 PMAndrey Boreyko Conductor Colin Currie Percussion

Wagner “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla,” from Das RheingoldRouse Der gerettete Alberich (Alberich Saved), fantasy for solo percussion and orchestra Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

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Viennese MastersMarch 14 & 16 8 PM March 15 2 PMChristoph von Dohnányi Conductor

Schubert Symphony in B minor (“Unfinished”) Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”)

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Tickets & Patron ServicesSubscriber Services:215.893.1955Call Center: 215.893.1999

Fire Notice: The exit indicated by a red light nearest your seat is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency, please do not run. Walk to that exit.

No Smoking: All public space in the Kimmel Center is smoke-free.

Cameras and Recorders: The taking of photographs or the recording of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts is strictly prohibited.

Phones and Paging Devices: All electronic devices—including cellular telephones, pagers, and wristwatch alarms—should be turned off while in the concert hall.

Late Seating: Latecomers will not be seated until an appropriate time in the concert.

Wheelchair Seating: Wheelchair seating is available for every performance. Please call Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1999 for more information.

Assistive Listening: With the deposit of a current ID, hearing enhancement devices are available at no cost from the House Management Office. Headsets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Large-Print Programs: Large-print programs for every subscription concert are available on each level of the Kimmel Center. Please ask an usher for assistance.

PreConcert Conversations: PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning one hour before curtain. Conversations are free to ticket-holders, feature discussions of the season’s music and music-makers, and are supported in part by the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Lost and Found: Please call 215.670.2321.

Web Site: For information about The Philadelphia Orchestra and its upcoming concerts or events, please visit www.philorch.org.

Subscriptions: The Philadelphia Orchestra offers a variety of subscription options each season. These multi-concert packages feature the best available seats, ticket exchange privileges, guaranteed seat renewal for the following season, discounts on individual tickets, and many other benefits. For more information, please call 215.893.1955 or visit www.philorch.org.

Ticket Turn-In: Subscribers who cannot use their tickets are invited to donate them and receive a tax-deductible credit by calling 215.893.1999. Tickets may be turned in any time up to the start of the concert. Twenty-four-hour notice is appreciated, allowing other patrons the opportunity to purchase these tickets.

Individual Tickets: Don’t assume that your favorite concert is sold out. Subscriber turn-ins and other special promotions can make last-minute tickets available. Call Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1999 or stop by the Kimmel Center Box Office.

Ticket Philadelphia StaffGary Lustig, Vice PresidentJena Smith, Director, Patron

ServicesDan Ahearn, Jr., Box Office

ManagerCatherine Pappas, Project

ManagerMariangela Saavedra, Manager,

Patron ServicesJoshua Becker, Training SpecialistKristin Allard, Business Operations

CoordinatorJackie Kampf, Client Relations

CoordinatorPatrick Curran, Assistant Treasurer,

Box OfficeTad Dynakowski, Assistant

Treasurer, Box OfficeMichelle Messa, Assistant

Treasurer, Box OfficePatricia O’Connor, Assistant

Treasurer, Box OfficeThomas Sharkey, Assistant

Treasurer, Box OfficeJames Shelley, Assistant Treasurer,

Box OfficeJayson Bucy, Lead Patron Services

RepresentativeFairley Hopkins, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeMeg Hackney, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeTeresa Montano, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeAlicia DiMeglio, Priority Services

RepresentativeMegan Brown, Patron Services

RepresentativeJulia Schranck, Priority Services

RepresentativeBrand-I Curtis McCloud, Patron

Services RepresentativeScott Leitch, Quality Assurance

Analyst

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