Gregg Whiteside

Simon Rattle will be back on the podium this Sunday at 2 pm for a Philadelphia Orchestra performance from late May of Beethoven’s "Pastoral" Symphony, with its vivid scenes of gathering thunderstorms, wandering brooks, and breezy countrysides. We’ll also hear Webern's Passacaglia, and Three fragments from Alban Berg's shattering opera Wozzeck, both of which received their U.S. premieres in Philadelphia as part of Leopold Stokowski's vision for 20th-century music. 

This Sunday from 2 to 4 pm, The Philadelphia Orchestra renews its historic connection with the great Finnish master Jean Sibelius (Stokowski led the U.S. premieres of his last three symphonies) as Simon Rattle will conduct the final two symphonies, Nos. 6 and 7, together without interruption, from a May, 2013 concert.

As the Philadelphia Orchestra continues its residency in China, we listen back this Sunday to one of Wolfgang Sawallisch's last performances with the Orchestra from late April, 2003.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's 113th season may be over this weekend, but our broadcast year isn’t done!  We’ll be back with you Sunday, May 26th, at our usual 2 PM time, for more Brahms - as we’ll hear his radiant Second Symphony, written in a burst of creativity over a few short months.

Also on the program is Elgar's spirited Cockaigne Overture, ("In London Town"), drawing its character from the sometimes bawdy urban sounds of marching bands, church bells, and merry revelers.

Bach specialist Nicholas McGegan conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra this Sunday, May 19th, 2 to 4 pm, in an all-Bach concert - bringing a special touch to the Orchestra, and throwing the spotlight on several Philadelphia Orchestra soloists.

Concertmaster David Kim, Principal Oboist Richard Woodhams, Principal Horn Jennifer Montone, and Principal Flute Jeffrey Khaner are just some of the stellar players of the Orchestra who will play major roles in a program including:

This Sunday from 2 to 4 pm, Guest Conductor Jaap van Zweden takes the podium to conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra in an all-Russian program from mid-April, which offers two major works. Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, inspired by the sights and sounds of Italy, was originally scored for string sextet. We’ll hear it performed in an expanded version for the full strings of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Join us Sunday at 1 pm (one hour earlier than usual) as Garrick Ohlsson plays Brahms, and Yannick returns to the podium to conduct a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and two lush orchestral works by Richard Strauss - Death and Transfiguration, and a suite from his opera, Der Rosenkavalier!

You're in a for a treat this Sunday, April 28th at 2 pm! That's when our Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert Broadcast will feature a first for the ensemble:  It's the first time in the Orchestra's distinguished history that they performed the complete, uncut St. Matthew Passion, in two parts, with five soloists, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and American Boychoir, all under the direction of Yannick Nezet-Seguin.  

This exciting, historical first was performed at the end of March, during the Easter period.

"Fate" is the unifying thread as guest conductor Andrey Boreyko conducts The Philadelphians in an exciting program beginning with the Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla ​from Wagner's Das Reingold, and culminating in the brilliant and brassy apotheosis of the "fate" motif that Tchaikovsky used in all four movements of his Symphony No. 5. 

In between, a spectacular display of drumming by soloist Colin Currie in Alberich Saved, a percussion concerto by the American composer Christopher Rouse.

Listen on Sunday, April 14, 2 to 4 pm to two works, composed 52 years apart, that are tailor-made for the dense, glorious string sound of The Fabulous Philadelphians: Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, also known as the "Unfinished Symphony," and Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, "Romantic."