The Philadelphia Orchestra

Yannick Nézet-Séguin ConductorKirill Gerstein Piano

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante con moto III. Allegro— IV. Allegro

Intermission

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro

Shostakovich/from Suite from The Gadfly, Op. 97a: arr. Atovmyan I. Overture: Moderato con moto III. People’s Holiday: [Allegro vivace] VII. Prelude: Andantino XI. Scene: Moderato

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes.

The January 28 concert is sponsored byMEDCOMP.

designates a work that is part of the 40/40 Project, which features pieces not performed on subscription concerts in at least 40 years.

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 2014-2015Wednesday, January 28, at 8:00Friday, January 30, at 2:00Saturday, January 31, at 8:00

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Please join us immediately following the January 30 concert for a Chamber Postlude, featuring members of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 I. Allegro non troppo II. Scherzo: Allegro III. Andante IV. Finale: Allegro lomodo Mark Livshits Piano Kimberly Fisher Violin Kirsten Johnson Viola John Koen Cello

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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 imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is 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’s 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 since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions on the Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home, and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. 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 ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra’s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop-Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorMusic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues his inspired leadership of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which began 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 Nézet-Séguin “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” He has taken the Orchestra to new musical heights. Highlights of his third season as music director include an Art of the Pipe Organ festival; the 40/40 Project, in which 40 great compositions that haven’t been heard on subscription concerts in at least 40 years will be performed; and Bernstein’s MASS, the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s five-season requiem cycle.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he 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 Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with a CD on that label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. He continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir 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; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

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

Chris Lee

Soloist“It’s really a special treat, even among great orchestras, to play with The Philadelphia Orchestra,” says Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein, who made his debut with the Philadelphians in 2007 and likens playing with the ensemble to performing chamber music: “All the members are making chamber music with each other and with whoever is partnering with them,” he says. The jazz-trained Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist. Since receiving the Award in 2010, he has shared his prize through the commissioning of boundary-crossing new works by Oliver Knussen, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Timo Andres, and Alexander Goehr, with additional commissions scheduled for future seasons.

Mr. Gerstein’s orchestral highlights this season include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Boston Symphony and Charles Dutoit; Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety with the Nashville, New Jersey, and St. Louis symphonies; Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for his Minnesota Orchestra debut with Courtney Lewis; and Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days under the baton of the composer himself with the San Francisco Symphony. In recital he appears on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuosos series, performing works by Bartók, Bach, and Liszt.

Mr. Gerstein’s second solo recording featuring Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition and Schumann’s Carnaval was released by Myrios Classics in June 2014. His first solo recording with works by Schumann, Liszt, and Knussen, also on Myrios, was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2010. He also collaborated with Tabea Zimmermann on two recordings of sonatas for viola and piano by Rebecca Clarke, Vieuxtemps, Brahms, Schubert, and Franck. In summer 2014 Mr. Gerstein recorded the Tchaikovsky First Concerto and the Prokofiev Second Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He is now artist-in-residence in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music and a member of the piano and chamber music faculty at the Boston Conservatory.

Sasha G

usov

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Framing the ProgramThe final week of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s St. Petersburg Festival this month, which began with celebrations of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, concludes with the great master of the third generation: Dmitri Shostakovich. Like Tchaikovsky before him, he visited Philadelphia just once. His connections to the Orchestra, however, were unmatched by any other American ensemble. Of his 15 symphonies, seven received their first U.S. performance by the Philadelphians. During his visit here in 1959 Shostakovich oversaw the U.S. premiere and the world premiere recording of his First Cello Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist.

The concert today features a selection of music Shostakovich composed for the film The Gadfly. During his struggling student days he earned money accompanying silent movies and went on to write many film scores. Shostakovich was a formidable pianist and he composed various pieces to display his talents. He wrote his witty Second Piano Concerto to showcase those of his son, Maxim.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is engaged in a multi-season project of pairing symphonies and concertos by Beethoven and Shostakovich. The concert today features Beethoven’s Fifth, a musical monument that needs no introduction. The Symphony has been at the core of the ensembles’ repertory ever since its very first concert in November 1900.

Parallel Events1807BeethovenSymphony No. 5

1955ShostakovichThe Gadfly

1957ShostakovichPiano Concerto No. 2

MusicSpontiniLa vestale LiteratureByronHours of IdlenessArtTurnerSun Rising in a MistHistoryBritain abolishes slave trade

MusicPistonSymphony No. 6LiteratureNabokovLolitaArtDalíThe Lord’s SupperHistoryChurchill resigns

MusicWaltonCello ConcertoLiteratureDr. SeussThe Cat in the HatArtChagallSelf-PortraitHistorySputnik I and II launched

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The MusicSymphony No. 5

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

Beethoven’s Fifth did not immediately become the world’s (or even the composer’s) most famous symphony. During his lifetime the Third, the mighty “Eroica,” was performed more often and the second movement of the Seventh (movements were often heard separately) deemed “the crown of instrumental music.” But over the course of the 19th century the Fifth gradually came to epitomize both Beethoven’s life and musical style. It often appeared on the inaugural concerts of new orchestras, such as when The Philadelphia Orchestra first performed in November 1900. The Fifth Symphony picked up further associations in the 20th century, be they of Allied victory during the Second World War or through its frequent appearances in popular culture.

It is easy to account for both the popularity and the representative status of the Fifth. The celebrated music critic Donald Francis Tovey called it “among the least misunderstood of musical classics.” With the rise of instrumental music in the 18th century, audiences sought ways to understand individual works, to figure out their meaning. One strategy was to make connections between a piece of music and the composer’s life. In this regard, no life and body of work has proved more accommodating than Beethoven’s, whose genius, independence, eccentricities, and struggles with deafness were already well known in his own time.

Music and Meaning In the fall of 1801, at age 30, Beethoven revealed for the first time the secret of his increasing hearing loss and stated in a letter that he would “seize Fate by the throat; it shall not bend or crush me completely.” It has not been difficult to relate such statements directly to his music. The struggle with “Fate” when it “knocks at the door,” as he allegedly told his assistant Anton Schindler happens at the beginning of the Fifth, helped endorse the favored label for the entire middle period of his career: Heroic. The Fifth Symphony seems to present a large-scale narrative. According to this view, a heroic life struggle is represented in the progression of emotions, from the famous opening in C minor to the triumphant C-major coda of the last movement. For Hector Berlioz, the Fifth, more than the

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previous four symphonies, “emanates directly and solely from the genius of Beethoven. It is his own intimate thought that is developed; and his secret sorrows, his pent-up rage, his dreams so full of melancholy oppression, his nocturnal visions and his bursts of enthusiasm furnish its entire subject, while the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and orchestral forms are there delineated with essential novelty and individuality, endowing them also with considerable power and nobility.”

In Beethoven’s Time Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony over the course of some four years, beginning in the spring of 1804, during the most productive period of his career. Among the contemporaneous works were the Fourth and Sixth symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, Mass in C, three “Razumovsky” string quartets, and the first two versions of his lone opera Fidelio. Large-scale pieces like the opera, or commissions like the Mass, interrupted his progress on the Fifth, most of which was written in 1807 and early 1808.

The Symphony was premiered later that year together with the Sixth (their numbers in fact reversed) at Beethoven’s famous marathon concert at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on December 22. This legendary event also included the first public performance of the Fourth Piano Concerto (the composer was soloist), two movements from the Mass, the concert aria Ah! Perfido, and the “Choral” Fantasy, Op. 80. Reports indicate that all did not go well. Second-rate musicians playing in third-rate conditions after limited rehearsal had to struggle their way through this demanding new music, and things fell apart during the “Choral” Fantasy. But inadequate performance conditions did not dampen enthusiasm for the Fifth Symphony, which was soon recognized as a masterpiece. The novelist, critic, and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote a long and influential review in which he hailed “Beethoven’s Romanticism … that tears the listener irresistibly away into the wonderful spiritual realm of the infinite.”

A Closer Look Another reason for the great fame and popularity of the Symphony is that it exemplifies the fingerprints of Beethoven’s heroic style. One of these identifying features is its “organicism,” the notion that all four movements seem to grow from seeds sown in the opening measures. While Beethoven used the distinctive rhythmic figure of three shorts and a long in other works from this time (Tovey remarked that if this indeed represents fate knocking at the door it was also knocking

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at many other doors), here it unifies the entire Symphony. After the most familiar of all symphonic openings (Allegro con brio), the piece modulates to the relative major key and the horns announce the second theme with a fanfare using the “fate rhythm.” The softer, lyrical second theme, first presented by the violins, is inconspicuously accompanied in the lower strings by the rhythm. The movement features Beethoven’s characteristic building of intensity, suspense, a thrilling coda, and also mysteries. Why, for example, does the oboe have a brief unaccompanied solo cadenza near the beginning of the recapitulation? Beethoven’s innovation is not simply that this brief passage may “mean” something, but that listeners are prompted in the first place to ask themselves what it may mean.

The second movement (Andante con moto) is a rather unusual variation form in which two themes alternate, the first sweet and lyrical, the second more forceful. Beethoven combines the third and fourth movements, which are played without pause. In earlier symphonies he had already replaced the polite minuet and trio with a more vigorous scherzo and trio. In the Fifth the Allegro scherzo begins with a soft ascending arpeggiated string theme that contrasts with a loud assertive horn motif (again using the fate rhythm). The trio section features extraordinarily difficult string writing, in fugal style, that defeated musicians in early performances. Instead of an exact return of the opening scherzo section, Beethoven recasts the thematic material in a completely new orchestration and pianississimo dynamic. The tension builds with a long pedal point—the insistent repetition of the same note C in the timpani—that swells in an enormous crescendo directly into the fourth movement Allegro, where three trombones, contrabassoon, and a piccolo join in for the first time in the piece. This finale, like the first movement, is in sonata form and uses the fate rhythm in the second theme. The coda to the Symphony may strike listeners today as almost too triumphantly affirmative as the music gets faster, louder, and ever more insistent. Indeed, it is difficult to divest this best known of symphonies from all the baggage it has accumulated through two centuries and to listen with fresh ears to the shocking power of the work and to the marvels that Beethoven introduced into the world of orchestral music.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 5 from 1807 to 1808.

Fritz Scheel conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Fifth, in November 1900, as part of the Orchestra’s first concert. A series of eminent conductors have led the piece here over the years: Artur Rodzinski, Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer, José Iturbi, Erich Leinsdorf, Klaus Tennstedt, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, and, of course, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, and Charles Dutoit. Most recently on subscription concerts, David Zinman led the work in January 2012.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has recorded the Symphony four times: in 1931 with Stokowski for RCA; in 1955 and 1966 with Ormandy for CBS; and in 1985 with Muti for EMI.

The piece is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.

The Fifth Symphony runs approximately 35 minutes in performance.

The MusicPiano Concerto No. 2

Dmitri ShostakovichBorn in St. Petersburg, September 25, 1906Died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

The composer we perhaps too often associate with somber portrayals of the emotional turmoil of an artist under Stalinism was also one of the wittiest musicians since Joseph Haydn. “When listeners laugh at a concert of my symphonic music, I am not in the least bit shocked,” wrote Dmitri Shostakovich in a Soviet magazine in 1934. “In fact, I am pleased.” This composer’s early scores are characterized by a sardonic and effervescent humor that is as profound as it is satirical. There was frequently a weird tinge as well—the word often applied in early criticism was “grotesque.”

“I want to defend the right of laughter to appear in what is called ‘serious’ music,” Shostakovich wrote, touching on a truth known to great composers through the ages: that humor in art exists not just to elicit laughter, but to reveal truth. In Shostakovich, comedy and despair coexist as comfortably and intricately as they do in any music; humor is a means of coping with the unbearable. That there is a sharp edge to this humor should come as no surprise from one who embodied so completely the contradictions of living under the schizoid and unpredictable Soviet regime.

Witty Piano Concertos Shostakovich’s early stage works (The Nose, The Golden Age, The Bolt) had dealt up ample servings of this sardonic wit, and the First Symphony of 1925 had its moments of youthful zest and joie de vivre as well. But it was with the First Piano Concerto, written in the summer of 1933, that the composer brought the full force of his droll humor into the concert hall and which served him as an effective vehicle for his own performances as a brilliant pianist.

We must fast forward nearly a quarter of a century, to 1957, for Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, written this time not to display his own keyboard artistry, but rather that of his son, Maxim, a gifted pianist who went on to become a noted conductor. Much had happened in the meantime, both in the turbulent history of the Soviet Union and the rollercoaster ride that was Shostakovich’s career. After official condemnation for his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1936, his rehabilitation with the Fifth Symphony the following year, and yet another official rebuke in 1948, Shostakovich slowly worked his way back

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into the government’s good graces. With Stalin’s death in 1953 a general thaw in political oppression and the gradual rehabilitation of some intellectuals meant a less stressful and more comfortable life for the composer, now clearly the leading musician in the Soviet Union.

Shostakovich had done little in the realm of the concerto during these years. He withheld his First Violin Concerto, written for David Oistrakh, until after Stalin’s death, and composed a Concertino for Two Pianos, which Maxim first presented with a classmate in 1954. The Second Concerto was premiered on Maxim’s 19th birthday on May 10, 1957, as part of his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory. It was the last of the works Shostakovich wrote for pedagogical use by his children. Like J.S. Bach and other composers before him, he produced a variety of keyboard pieces for his two children, beginning with the Children’s Notebook, Op. 69, for his daughter, Galina (who eventually became a biologist), and various pieces for Maxim.

A Closer Look The youthful exuberance and Haydnesque wit found in the First Concerto, but largely absent from his orchestral compositions in the intervening years, returns in full force. Shostakovich wrote to composer Edison Denisov that the Second Concerto had “no artistic merit,” a remark that minimizes the joyous and beautiful qualities of a piece that in the end may be more cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic than various substantial works where those qualities seemed forced or inauthentic. In any case, Shostakovich performed the Concerto many times himself and made a recording of it. (As evidence of the continuing family tradition, Maxim later conducted a recording featuring as soloist his own son, Dmitri, who bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather. The two also gave the Philadelphia Orchestra premiere of the Second Concerto.)

David Rabinovich, one of Shostakovich’s early Soviet biographers, wrote about the work in 1959: “The Concerto shows the composer as though his own youth had returned to him.” He goes on to state: “The tremendous evolution that has taken place in Shostakovich in the past two decades has made its imprint on this concerto. The musical idiom is incomparably simpler and clearer than in the early pianoforte works. There can be no doubt that the composer made every effort to create a concerto to which the youth will be receptive. [Compared with his earlier keyboard works, including the First Piano Concerto], the only difference is that now all these things have a more tender sound, and the former sarcasm and unkind grotesqueries have been turned into sweet and gentle playfulness.”

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A solo bassoon initiates a witty neo-Classical style that soon accelerates with a military sounding theme for piano and orchestra, complete with snare drum (Allegro). (The military mood was picked up in the movie Fantasia 2000 for a segment called the “Steadfast Tin Soldier.”) The haunting second movement (Andante) seems a throwback not to earlier Shostakovich, but to the previous century. It provides a searching meditation for strings and keyboard soloist before the playful mood returns in the irrepressible perpetual motion finale (Allegro). Much of the piano passagework has the character of a mechanical piano student exercise, such as the notorious Carl Czerny studies fledgling piano students are subjected to. It was perhaps a sly way Shostakovich could make sure his son practiced!

—Paul J. Horsley/Christopher H. Gibbs

Shostakovich composed his Second Piano Concerto in 1957.

Pianist Linda Child presented one movement of the Concerto to a Philadelphia Orchestra audience for the first time on a Junior Student Concert on March 5, 1963, with William Smith conducting. The entire work was first heard at the Mann Center on June 28, 1982, with conductor Maxim Shostakovich, the composer’s son, and Dmitri M. Shostakovich, his grandson, as soloist. The most recent subscription performances were in October 2006, with pianist Stewart Goodyear and Christoph Eschenbach conducting.

The Second Concerto is scored for solo piano, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, side drum, and strings.

Performance time is approximately 20 minutes.

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The MusicSelections from Suite from The Gadfly (arranged by Levon Atovmyan)

Dmitri Shostakovich

Nobody, not even the composer himself, would claim that Shostakovich’s best music is found in his movie soundtracks. While they were frequently written in the service of official Soviet agendas, and therefore required to be “accessible,” the limitations of the genre itself also resulted in a somewhat mollified version of Shostakovich’s musical genius.

Using Film to Stimulate Other Works And yet the sheer number of his film scores—nearly 40, dating from 1928 to 1970—denotes them as a significant group within Shostakovich’s oeuvre. Even the diluted, short-breathed musical cues he produced for film show evidence of a master’s hand. And at times he acknowledged their influence on his other concert works. Shostakovich noted that writing film scores kept his musical reflexes alert and stimulated his narrative gifts, so that after producing a film soundtrack he often felt immediately inspired to write a longer, more serious work such as a symphony or string quartet. Rather than simply illustrating the film in music, Shostakovich hoped to use music as a narrative counterpoint to the visuals.

Shostakovich’s experience producing film music goes back to his student days at the Petrograd Conservatory, when he used to provide piano accompaniments to silent films at the local cinema. One day in 1923, the 17-year-old composer brought along two friends, a violinist and a cellist, and the three of them spent the entire film rehearsing one of his recent compositions, the Piano Trio, Op. 8. The film’s audience was decidedly unenthused by the sounds they heard that day, but the experience symbolizes Shostakovich’s willingness to let his classical training deeply inform the music he would later produce for cinema.

An Unknown Side of the Composer’s Oeuvre Many of Shostakovich’s film scores remain largely unknown, though recent editions and professional recordings continue to bring more of them to light. The better-known soundtracks date mostly from the latter part of his career, including adaptations of Shakespearean tragedies including King Lear (1970) and Hamlet (1964). His 1960 adaptation

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for Khovanshchina, a movie based on Musorgsky’s opera, was nominated for an Academy Award. And Shostakovich’s attractive music for The Gadfly (1955) includes one of his best-known excerpts, the “Romance.”

Shostakovich occasionally created concert suites from his soundtracks, but most suites were assembled and arranged by his friend, the arts administrator Levon Atovmyan (1901-73). He arranged the musical “fragments” from The Gadfly into a 12-movement suite in 1956.

The Gadfly, a swashbuckling costume drama set in Risorgimento Italy in the 1830s, was based on the 1897 novel by Irish author Ethel Voynich. The novel’s ideology and its exploration of the culture of revolution appealed strongly to official Soviet philosophies and aesthetics in the mid-20th century, and the book sold more than two million copies in the Soviet Union alone. The novel’s Italian setting also allowed Shostakovich to indulge in some light pastiche of Bellini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Neapolitan songs, and folk tunes—a far cry from the politically-charged grotesqueries and pointed sarcasm of some of his concert works.

A Closer Look The four excerpts from The Gadfly selected for this program form a kind of miniature four-movement symphonic form of their own, complete with a scherzo and a slow movement. The dramatic Overture that opens the Suite is given added gravitas by the snare drum. This opening theme returns regularly in a kind of rondo format, with the faster episodes capturing the excitement of a revolutionary hero’s exploits. A transformation to the major mode at the end signals a victory. People’s Holiday plays the role of a lighthearted Italian scherzo, rife with Mendelssohnian spirit. Swirling colors, laughter, dancing, and snippets of faux-Neapolitan songs arise from the celebratory jubilee of this folk festival.

The Prelude is a poignant, elegiac variation movement. The romantic theme, brimming with the pathos of a bel canto aria, soars into an arching chorale in the middle before falling back into the same sobbing bleakness that opened the movement. The concluding Scene opens ominously with string tremolos and threatening drum rolls. A pastiche of Tchaikovskian anguish, the theme threatens to mutate into Swan Lake at any moment before it switches suddenly (like the finale of Swan Lake) into the major mode for an unrelentingly exultant conclusion.

—Luke Howard

Shostakovich composed the score to The Gadfly in 1955.

Luis Biava was on the podium for the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of music from The Gadfly Suite, on a Family Concert in September 1999. These are the first subscription performances of any part of the Suite.

The Suite is scored for piccolo, two flutes, three oboes, three clarinets (III doubling alto saxophone), three bassoons (III doubling contrabassoon), four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone), harp, celesta (doubling piano), and strings.

Today’s excerpts run approximately 14 minutes in performance.

Program notes © 2015. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and/or Luke Howard.

Musical TermsGENERAL TERMSArpeggio: 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 compositionChorale: A hymn tune of the German Protestant Church, or one similar in style. Chorale settings are vocal, instrumental, or both.Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tonesCoda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finalityFugue: 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 placesMinuet: A dance in triple time commonly used up to the beginning of the 19th century as the lightest movement of a symphonyModulate: To pass from

one key or mode into anotherOp.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output. Opus numbers are not always reliable because they are often applied in the order of publication rather than composition.Pedal point: A long-held note, usually in the bass, sounding with changing harmonies in the other partsPerpetual motion: A musical device in which rapid figuration is persistently maintainedRecapitulation: See sonata form Rondo: 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. Also

an instrumental piece of a light, piquant, humorous character.Sonata 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.Tremolo: In bowing, repeating the note very fast with the point of the bowTrio: See scherzo

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)Allegro: Bright, fastAndante: Walking speedAndantino: Slightly quicker than walking speedCon brio: Vigorously, with fireCon moto: With motionModerato: A moderate tempo, neither fast nor slowVivace: Lively

DYNAMIC MARKSCrescendo: Increasing volumePianississimo (ppp): Very, very soft

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February The Philadelphia Orchestra

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2Thursday, February 5 8 PM Friday, February 6 2 PM Saturday, February 7 8 PMDavid Kim Leader Imogen Cooper Piano and Leader

Grieg “Holberg” Suite Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 Mozart Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”)

Gergiev ConductsThursday, February 12 8 PM Friday, February 13 8 PMValery Gergiev Conductor

Stravinsky Symphony in C Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 Prokofiev Symphony No. 5

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Jessica Griffin

Tickets & Patron ServicesThank you for joining us in Verizon Hall. We want you to enjoy each and every concert experience you share with us. We would love to hear about your experience at the Orchestra and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via phone at 215.893.1999, in person in the lobby, or by e-mail at patronserverices@philorch.org.Subscriber Services: 215.893.1955 Patron Services: 215.893.1999Fire 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: Late seating breaks usually occur after the first piece on the program or at intermission in order to minimize disturbances to other audience members who have already begun listening to the music. If you arrive after the concert begins, you will be seated as quickly as possible by the usher staff.Accessible Seating: Accessible seating is available for every performance. Please call Patron Services at 215.893.1999 for more information. You may also purchase accessible seating online at www.philorch.org.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 in the House Management Office in Commonwealth Plaza. 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 PresidentCarrie Farina,

Director, Patron ServicesDan Ahearn, Jr.,

Box Office ManagerGregory McCormick,

Service and Training ManagerCatherine Pappas,

Project ManagerMichelle Parkhill,

Client Relations ManagerJayson Bucy,

Patron Services SupervisorSamantha Apgar,

Business Operations Coordinator

Elysse Madonna, Program and Web Coordinator

Tad Dynakowski, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office

Michelle Messa, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office

Patricia O’Connor, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office

Thomas Sharkey, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office

James Shelley, Assistant Treasurer, Box Office

Tara Bankard, Lead Patron Services Representative

Meg Hackney, Lead Patron Services Representative

Hannah McIntosh, Lead Patron Services Representative

Julia Schranck, Lead Patron Services Representative

Elizabeth Jackson-Murray, Priority Services Representative

Megan Brown, Patron Services Representative

Maureen Esty, Patron Services Representative

Isaiah Harris, Patron Services Representative

Brand-I Curtis McCloud, Patron Services Representative

Scott Leitch, Quality Assurance Analyst

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