The Philadelphia Orchestra

Pablo Heras-Casado ConductorDavid Kim Violin

Ravel Rapsodie espagnole I. Prelude to the Night— II. Malagueña III. Habanera IV. Feria

Tchaikovsky Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, for violin and orchestra

Tchaikovsky Valse-scherzo, Op. 34, for violin and orchestra First Philadelphia Orchestra performances

Intermission

Stravinsky Petrushka (original version, 1911) I. The Shrovetide Fair (First Tableau): The Magic Trick—Russian Dance II. Petrushka’s Room (Second Tableau) III. The Moor’s Room (Third Tableau): Dance of the Ballerina—Waltz IV. The Shrovetide Fair, Toward Evening (Fourth Tableau): Dance of the Nursemaids— Dance of the Coachmen and the Stable Boys—The Mummers

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM.Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.

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Season 2013-2014Thursday, December 12, at 8:00Friday, December 13, at 2:00Saturday, December 14, at 8:00

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The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of innovation in music-making. The Orchestra is inspiring the future and transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging and exceeding that level, by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth artistic leader of the Orchestra in fall 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. Yannick has been embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the

community itself. His concerts of diverse repertoire attract sold-out houses, and he has established a regular forum for connecting with concert-goers through Post-Concert Conversations.

Under Yannick’s leadership the Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on the Deutsche Grammophon label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. In Yannick’s inaugural season the Orchestra has also returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

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 Orchestra is also 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 while also enjoying annual residencies in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at the Bravo! Vail festival.

Musician-led initiatives, including highly-successful Cello and Violin Play-Ins, shine a spotlight on the Orchestra’s musicians, as they spread out from the stage into the community. The Orchestra’s commitment to its education and community partnership initiatives manifests itself in numerous other ways, including concerts for families and students, and eZseatU, a program that allows full-time college students to attend an unlimited number of Orchestra concerts for a $25 annual membership fee. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorYannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall of 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Yannick “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton “the ensemble … has never sounded better.” In his first season he took the Orchestra to new musical heights. His second builds on that momentum with highlights that include a Philadelphia Commissions Micro-Festival, for which three leading composers have been commissioned to write solo works for three of the Orchestra’s principal players; the next installment in his multi-season focus on requiems with Fauré’s Requiem; and a unique, theatrically-staged presentation of Strauss’s revolutionary opera Salome, a first-ever co-production with Opera Philadelphia.

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. In addition he becomes the first ever mentor conductor of the Curtis Institute of Music’s conducting fellows program in the fall of 2013. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership the Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on that label of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. Yannick continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for DG, BIS, and EMI/Virgin; the London Philharmonic for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec, awarded by the Quebec government; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal.

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

Nigel P

arry/CP

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ConductorThirty-six-year-old Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut one month after being named Musical America’s 2014 Conductor of the Year. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut with Verdi’s Rigoletto in November and this season also debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the Philharmonia and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. As principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, he leads an annual concert season at Carnegie Hall and at the Caramoor Festival in New York. Other highlights of his 2013-14 season include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the New Year’s concerts of the Staatskapelle Berlin and return performances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Rotterdam and Munich philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Ensemble InterContemporain. He also tours with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and guest conducts a series of concert and opera performances at the Mariinsky Theatre.

In September 2013 Harmonia Mundi released Mr. Heras-Casado’s recording of Schubert’s Third and Fourth symphonies with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra; a second album, of Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, follows next year. Other recent recordings include a disc for Sony featuring Plácido Domingo singing baritone arias by Verdi with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana. Mr. Heras-Casado has also been named an “Archiv Ambassador” for Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv Produktion and in 2014 leads a project celebrating legendary castrato singer Farinelli.

Recognized also for his work in contemporary music, Mr. Heras-Casado is a laureate of the 2007 Lucerne Festival conductors’ forum. In summer 2013 he returned for the third time to co-direct the festival’s Academy at the personal invitation of Pierre Boulez. Mr. Heras-Casado is the holder of the Medalla de Honor of the Rodriguez Acosta Foundation, and in February 2012 he was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit by the Council of Granada, his hometown, of which he is also an Honorary Ambassador. His 2011 DVD recording of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny from Madrid’s Teatro Real received the Diapason d’Or.

Felix Broede

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SoloistViolinist David Kim was named concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1963, he started playing the violin at age three, began studies with the famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at age eight, and later received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. In 1986 he was the only American violinist to win a prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and in 1990 he was a prizewinner at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

Mr. Kim appears as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra each season as well as with numerous ensembles around the world. Highlights of his 2013-14 season include a new position as visiting lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music; appearances as concertmaster of the All-Star Orchestra in New York City on PBS stations across the U.S.; an October residency at the San Francisco Conservatory; a return to L’Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne in France for a continuation of his Eight Seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla project; return visits to the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan, where he is artist in residence; recitals and solo appearances across the U.S. and Korea; and serving on the jury panel for the Menuhin Competition.

As a highly sought-after pedagogue, Mr. Kim presents master classes at schools and institutions such as Juilliard, the New World Symphony in Miami, Princeton, Yale, the Korean National University of Arts, and universities and colleges across the U.S. He continues his long association as artist in residence at Eastern University. Mr. Kim also continues to devote a portion of his schedule each year to bringing classical music to children, visiting numerous schools in the Philadelphia area.

The latest additions to Mr. Kim’s discography are The Lord Is My Shepherd, a collection of sacred works for violin and piano with pianist and composer Paul S. Jones, and Encore, a collection of recital favorites with pianist Gail Niwa. Mr. Kim’s instrument is a J.B. Guadagnini from Milan, Italy, ca. 1757 on loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra. He resides in a Philadelphia suburb with his wife, Jane, and daughters, Natalie and Maggie. For more information please visit www.davidkimviolin.com and follow him on Twitter at @Dkviolin.

Ryan D

onnel

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Framing the ProgramMaurice Ravel shared with many other late-19th- and early-20th-century composers a deep attraction to Spain, to its culture, landscape, and rich musical heritage. Unlike venerable French compatriots such as Édouard Lalo, Georges Bizet, or Claude Debussy, Ravel’s interest in Spanish folk-tunes and idioms can be traced back to his own origins: His mother was Basque, and he himself was born and raised in Basque country. His colorful Rapsodie espagnole offers a four-part musical travelogue capturing a nocturnal mood, dances, and a lively festival.

Tchaikovsky’s beloved Violin Concerto—which, truth be told, experienced a somewhat rocky road to widespread belovedness—has overshadowed two more modest single movement pieces for violin and orchestra. We hear the Sérénade mélancolique, reflective of a self-confessed period of depression in Tchaikovsky’s life, as well as his Valse-scherzo, a more carefree work that demonstrates the composer’s remarkable affinity for dance.

This year has marked the centennial of the scandalous premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, a work that changed music history. It was the third ballet he composed for the brilliant impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The Firebird paved the way in 1910 and today we hear their bolder second collaboration: Petrushka, about a puppet character who comes to life with complicated consequences.

Parallel Events1875TchaikovskySérénade mélancolique

1907RavelRapsodie espagnole

1911StravinskyPetrushka

MusicDvorákSymphony No. 5LiteratureAlcottEight CousinsArtMonetBoating at ArgenteuilHistoryRebellion in Cuba

MusicBartókViolin Concerto No. 1LiteratureGorkiMotherArtPicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonHistorySecond Hague Peace Conference

MusicStraussDer RosenkavalierLiteratureWhartonEthan FromeArtBraqueMan with a GuitarHistoryChinese Republic proclaimed

The MusicRapsodie espagnole

Maurice RavelBorn in Ciboure, France, March 7, 1875Died in Paris, December 28, 1937

It was not until the first decade of the 20th century that Ravel’s career as a composer took flight. He had failed at several attempts to win the coveted Prix de Rome at the Paris Conservatory, partly because his daring experiments with color and harmony did not fit easily into an academic mentality. He eventually abandoned his studies altogether, becoming involved instead with Les Apaches, a vaguely disreputable collection of Parisian aesthetes who met in private homes to discuss art, literature, painting, and music. It was in this context that he “tried out” new works, and was emboldened by the positive reactions of his colleagues (among them, at times, Manuel de Falla and pianist Ricardo Viñes).

Despite critical aspersions, his reputation grew steadily. Around 1900 the Parisian publisher Demets began to print several of the composer’s remarkable early works: the Pavane pour une infante défunte, the String Quartet, and the piano piece Jeux d’eau. The public received them with astonished enthusiasm. Buoyed by these successes, Ravel produced a string of brilliant works that secured his position as more than just Debussy’s also-ran. None of these early works has taken on a more solid position in the repertory than the Rapsodie espagnole, which he completed in 1908.

An Enthusiasm for All Things Spanish Of all the composers who responded to the craze for things Spanish during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, none did so with Ravel’s eloquence and panache. Neither Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole nor Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, both strong works in their own right, contain the fire and passion—not to mention the sheer fun—of Ravel’s music. This is perhaps partly because Ravel’s interest in Spanish folk-tunes and idioms can be traced back to his own origins: His mother was Basque, and he himself was born and raised in Basque country. This sense of identity found expression in a number of Ravel’s works throughout his career, including the splashy “Alborada del gracioso” from Miroirs, the little-known song cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, and, of course, the indefatigable Bolero.

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A Closer Look But the most playful and exotic work in this vein is the Rapsodie espagnole, now a staple of the orchestral repertoire. It consists of four lively tone-pictures of Spain, each employing an expansive orchestral palette. In the first, Prelude to the Night, an eerie nocturnal scene is created through a descending four-note ostinato figure, initially heard in the strings—which cuts across the barline and obscures the triple meter altogether. The rich, redolent magic of the night, observed as if through a veil, is slowly revealed. The second piece is a Malagueña, a spirited dance in triple meter, allegedly from Málaga in Andalusia (southern Spain). This is followed by a Habanera, the duple-meter dance style known for the halting prolongation of the second beat of each measure; it is probably of Cuban origin, and is now recognized as the direct ancestor of the tango. The Rapsodie closes with the extended Feria, in which Ravel uses the orchestra’s full coloristic resources to recreate the verve and excitement of a holiday fair.

—Paul J. Horsley

Ravel composed the Rapsodie espagnole from 1907 to 1908.

Leopold Stokowski conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the piece, in December 1917. The most recent subscription performances were in November 2007, with Miguel Harth-Bedoya on the podium.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has recorded the Rapsodie four times: in 1934 for RCA with Stokowski; in 1950 and 1963 for CBS with Eugene Ormandy; and in 1979 for EMI with Riccardo Muti.

The score calls for two piccolos, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, castanets, cymbals, military drum, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone), two harps, celesta, and strings.

The work runs approximately 16 minutes in performance

The MusicSérénade mélancolique and Valse-scherzo

Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyBorn in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840Died in St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893

Some composers seem to invite autobiographical interpretations of their works more than others do. In this regard, for example, Mozart surpasses Haydn due to his revealing correspondence, his loving but sometimes tense relationship with his father, his romances, and the somewhat mysterious circumstances surrounding his early death. A couple of decades later Beethoven ratcheted up the stakes several notches with personal struggles that seem to find expression in so much of his music. Later 19th-century composers, from Schubert and Schumann to Wagner and Brahms, furthered the cult of Romantic subjectivity.

Tchaikovsky has proved a natural for such interpretative speculations. His music is so emotional, his diaries and letters so candid, that it is hardly surprising listeners look for and often find connections between his life and art. The titles he bestowed sometimes point the way: His final “Pathétique” Symphony premiered just nine days before he unexpectedly died at age 53. (Speculations that he committed suicide, though groundless, continue to be presented as fact in some sources.)

Musical Autobiography We have very little information about either of the two short pieces for violin and orchestra that we hear today, but the title of the first, the Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, is suggestive enough and becomes even more so when juxtaposed with a letter Tchaikovsky wrote soon after its composition in early 1875: “Now, with the approach of spring, these attacks of melancholia have stopped completely, but because I know that each year—or rather, each winter—they will return more strongly, I have decided to quit Moscow for the whole of next year.”

This was indeed a turbulent period for Tchaikovsky. In another letter he confessed to his brother: “I am now living through a very critical moment in my life. When an opportunity occurs I’ll write to you about it in rather more detail, but meanwhile I will just say: I have decided to marry. I cannot avoid this. I have to do it, and not just for my own sake, but also for you, [for others in the family], for all those I love.” This determination led to a disastrous

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marriage to one of his students in July 1877, undertaken to quiet gossip about his homosexuality. They lasted just a few weeks together.

Tchaikovsky composed the Valse-scherzo, Op. 34, for violinist Iosif Kotek, a witness at the wedding. He was Tchaikovsky’s favorite pupil, the closest person outside his family to him at the time, and eventually his lover. Kotek was very involved with the genesis of the piece and it is likely that he orchestrated the original version, which Tchaikovsky had composed for violin and piano. After Kotek gave what he felt was an unsuccessful performance he wrote to the composer: “Could my instrumentation be the reason that the Waltz did not please?” and he later wrote “I think that I badly orchestrated the Waltz—what extraordinarily empty sounds!” The next year he greatly helped Tchaikovsky compose his Violin Concerto, which biographer Alexander Poznansky argues might have been dedicated to him had not the composer worried about the gossip this could have aroused.

There is a strange pattern in Tchaikovsky’s concertos and shorter works for solo instrument and orchestra: He often had initial bad luck that eventually turned to good fortune. He seemed fated to write such pieces for a particular virtuoso that ended up being premiered by someone else. He composed the First Piano Concerto for his colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, who at first hated and rejected it. (Hans von Bülow gave the world premiere in Boston.) He wrote the Violin Concerto and Sérénade mélancolique for Leopold Auer, but both works were first performed by Adolf Brodsky. While the Valse-scherzo was written for Kotek, to whom it is dedicated, Stanislaw Barcewicz gave its debut at the Paris World’s Fair of 1878.

A Closer Look The Sérénade mélancolique begins with music related to Tchaikovsky’s recent opera Vakula the Smith. An introduction for woodwinds is answered by horns and cellos before leading to the entrance of the violin, singing a melancholy melody, deep and dark on the G-string of the instrument, which helps give a full, lush sound. The long-breathed theme has minimal accompaniment beyond chords in the French horns. The piece begins to open up as the tempo accelerates and shorter note values move the melody forward, now in a higher register for the soloist and more in dialogue with the orchestra—no longer just a lonely lament. A faster middle section, in which the French horn continues to play a leading accompanying role, climaxes in a soaring

passage. After a brief cadenza, we are transported back to the opening melody, but now more fully orchestrated. To conclude, fragments of the brooding main theme softly die away.

The Valse-scherzo also unfolds in an ABA form, beginning with an immediately appealing and lilting dance for the orchestra. The violin dominates once it enters. The slower middle section ends with a brief cadenza and the initial theme returns, more ornamented, active, and virtuosic.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

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The Sérénade mélancolique was composed in 1875 and the Valse-scherzo was composed in 1877.

Helen Ware was the soloist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the Sérénade, on January 14, 1914, with Leopold Stokowski. Since then it has been performed only once, on July 10, 1979, at the Mann Center, with violinist Leonid Kogan and James Conlon. These current performances are the first for the Orchestra of the Valse-scherzo.

Itzhak Perlman recorded the Sérénade mélancolique with the Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy in 1978 for EMI.

The Sérénade mélancolique is scored for solo violin, two flutes, oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, and strings. The Valse-scherzo is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, strings, and solo violin.

Performance time for the Sérénade is approximately seven minutes and for the Valse-scherzo approximately 10 minutes.

The MusicPetrushka

Igor StravinskyBorn in Lomonosov, Russia, June 17, 1882Died in New York City, April 6, 1971

After the success in 1910 of his first ballet, Zhar-ptitsa (known in French as L’Oiseau de feu and in English as The Firebird), Stravinsky began to plan his next work, which was to be a ballet taking as its subject the fertility rites of pagan Russia. But he realized that composing such a score would be a “long and difficult task” and so he decided “to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important part—a sort of Konzertstück.” (Of course, Stravinsky was right: His sketches for Vesna svyashchennaya—better known as The Rite of Spring—testify to the almost superhuman concentration that the composer had to summon within himself in order to complete this transcendent score in 1913.) Searching for a title for his concert piece, whose subject the composer described as a “droll, ugly, sentimental, shifting personage who was always in an explosion of revolt,” Stravinsky suddenly hit upon a solution: “One day I leapt for joy. I had indeed found my title—Petrushka, the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries.”

From Orchestra Piece to Ballet Score Who, or what, exactly, is this Petrushka? A venerable comic figure who is called Pulcinella in Italy, and Punch in England, a figure of indignation and violence, a trickster whose tricks all too often turn back upon himself. In Stravinsky’s native city of St. Petersburg, the petrushka shows in their colorful booths were played during the fairs put on during Shrovetide, that midwinter period of uninhibited carnival that occurred a week before the austerities of the penitential season of Lent. As music historian Richard Taruskin writes, “The earliest account of what is arguably a petrushka play is found in a book published in 1636 by Adam Olearius, the Dutch Ambassador to the Russian court, who gives both a written description and a drawing of a puppet performance.” By 1830, the period in which the ballet is set, the influence of Italian commedia dell’arte had considerably modified the ancient petrushka plays.

Once Stravinsky sharpened the focus of his invention by embracing the figure of Petrushka, he quickly completed two sections of the score, including the scintillating Russian Dance. Sergei Diaghilev, the great

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impresario who founded the Ballets Russes and who had commissioned The Firebird, visited Stravinsky in Switzerland to inquire after the progress of what would become The Rite of Spring. Instead of sketches for that score, however, Stravinsky played to an entranced Diaghilev the completed sections of his Konzertstück about Petrushka. Diaghilev grasped instantly the potential of this music for ballet, forcefully persuading the composer to transform it into a dramatic work.

Diaghilev then brought Stravinsky together with Alexander Benois, the artist and set designer, and the choreographer of The Firebird, Mikhail Fokine. The eldest of this group, Benois remembered well the Shrovetide fairs of his childhood in St. Petersburg and sketched colorful sets and costumes as well as helped to devise its scenario. Fokine’s innovative choreography violated the traditional suavity of ballet by creating jerky, marionette-like movements for the incandescent Vaslav Nijinsky, the star dancer of the Ballets Russes, who created the title role. The coruscating brilliance of Stravinsky’s orchestration is unparalleled.

Given the strong and conflicting aesthetic opinions of these three collaborators, it is hardly surprising that the scenario they wrote for Petrushka contains a healthy dollop of ambiguity: how, for example, can a puppet have a ghost which, like Till Eulenspiegel in Richard Strauss’s eponymous tone poem, returns after death to have the last word? Far from detracting from the dramatic impact of the ballet, however, this ambiguity allows the audience to enter imaginatively into the action themselves.

The first tableau seems to be a realistic recreation of a Shrovetide fair in St. Petersburg, but this expectation is transmogrified once the sinister Magician enters and commands three puppets to dance. At this point the audience is ushered into the fantastic realm of Russian symbolism; as Andrew Wachtel writes, “by combining the realistic and fantastic worlds in the finale, the authors called the very distinction between the stage world and the real world into question.” Audiences were enchanted rather than disconcerted: Petrushka was an immense success at its Parisian premiere by the Ballets Russes on June 13, 1911, in the Théâtre du Châtelet. Since its premiere Petrushka has never left the ballet repertory.

A Closer Look The action of Petrushka unfolds over four tableaux. The curtain rises upon a set that evokes Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg, replete with a puppet

Petrushka was composed from 1910 to 1911 and was revised in 1947.

Stravinsky himself conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the work, in January 1925. The 1911 original version was most recently performed on subscription concerts in April 2010, under the baton of Charles Dutoit.

The Philadelphians have recorded Petrushka four times: in 1937 for RCA with Leopold Stokowski; in 1954 and 1964 for CBS with Eugene Ormandy; and in 1981 for EMI with Riccardo Muti.

Stravinsky scored the piece for four flutes (III doubling piccolo I, IV doubling piccolo II), four oboes (IV doubling English horn), four clarinets (IV doubling bass clarinet), four bassoons (IV doubling contrabassoon), four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone), two harps, piano, celesta (four-hands), and strings.

Petrushka runs approximately 35 minutes in performance.

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

theater with closed curtain, a carousel, and a boisterous crowd, more than a few of whom are inebriated. The revelry grows wilder until the Magician appears, playing the flute by which he animates his three puppets: a resplendent Moor, a pretty Ballerina, and the awkward Petrushka, who is clearly in love with the indifferent Ballerina, who prefers the virile Moor. In the Second Tableau, set in Petrushka’s room, Stravinsky illustrates the duality of his protagonist’s frustrated nature by a piercing harmonic amalgam that combines two unrelated chords—(F-sharp major and C major)— the famous “Petrushka Chord.” The Ballerina enters, but Petrushka’s anguished gyrations frighten her and she flees.

The Third Tableau takes place in the Moor’s voluptuously Oriental room. The Magician places the Ballerina close to the Moor, who commences to seduce her: A distraught Petrushka discovers them and makes a fuss. Furious at this intrusion, the Moor draws a scimitar and chases Petrushka out of the room. The Fourth and final tableau returns to Admiralty Square, where the celebration continues with a series of dances interrupted by a trained bear. To the dismay of the crowd, the two puppets suddenly enter into their midst: The Moor kills Petrushka with a single stroke of his blade. Night falls, the revelers are dispersed, and the Magician, carrying the limp body of his puppet, is terrified to see the angry ghost of Petrushka, who thumbs his nose at his erstwhile tormentor to the mocking sound of “his” chord—and at the audience as well.

—Byron Adams

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January The Philadelphia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky Week 1: Symphony No. 4January 10 & 11 8 PM January 12 2 PMRobin Ticciati Conductor Stephen Hough Piano

Liadov The Enchanted Lake Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

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Borodin Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, for cello and orchestra Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings Balakirev Islamey

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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

ManagerMichelle Parkhill, Client Relations

ManagerMariangela Saavedra, Manager,

Patron ServicesGregory McCormack, Training

SpecialistSamantha Apgar, Business

Operations CoordinatorElysse Madonna, Program and

Web 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 OfficeTara Bankard, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeJayson Bucy, Lead Patron Services

RepresentativeMeg Hackney, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeJulia Schranck, Lead Patron

Services RepresentativeAlicia DiMeglio, Priority Services

RepresentativeMegan Brown, Patron Services

RepresentativeMaureen Esty, Patron Services

RepresentativeBrand-I Curtis McCloud, Patron

Services RepresentativeScott Leitch, Quality Assurance

Analyst

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