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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on WRTI: Bruch, Mendelssohn Favorites, and Bagpipes

Amanda Hall
Violinist Juliette Kang

Philadelphia Orchestra First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang is soloist in a performance of Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, as WRTI’s Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast airs a 2018 concert from the Orchestra’s British Isles Festival. Listen on Sunday, June 27th at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, June 28th at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2.

It’s a Scottish-themed program, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, that includes a Philadelphia Orchestra premiere: Peter Maxwell Davies’s An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise, complete with a bagpiper from the Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes & Drums.

Davies loved this wild, ancient outpost in the archipelago off the north coast of Scotland, and chose to live in a nearly deserted village there. The only previous inhabitant was a farmer and fisherman, whose wedding in 1979 was to become the jumping off point for this composition. 

WRTI Classical Host Debra Lew Harder backstage with First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang.

Max Bruch’s attraction to things Scottish was something he shared with quite a few other composers, and he makes liberal use of Scottish folk materials in his Scottish Fantasy, a violin concerto in all but name. Soloist Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2005, a remarkable soloist, who has performed solo engagements with many major orchestras, here and abroad, is also a distinguished chamber musician. She brings her gorgeous lyricism and keen intelligence to the Scottish Fantasy, and you don’t want to miss hearing her play it.

After intermission, the Philadelphia Orchestra performs the symphony that was inspired by Mendelssohn’s early travels to Scotland, the Symphony No. 3 “Scottish,” actually the last of the five symphonies he composed.

WRTI Arts Reporter Susan Lewis at WRTI with bagpiper Mark ODonnell.

SL_PO_180304_BagpipersInterview.mp3
Listen to WRTI's Susan Lewis interview the bagpipers from the concert broadcast.

During intermission, WRTI’s Debra Lew Harder will have a conversation with violinist Juliette Kang, and Susan Lewis will speak with the three bagpipers, each of whom performed in this three-concert series at Verizon Hall, Timothy Linahan, Gary Hughes, and Mark O’Donnell.

PROGRAM

Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise

     Timothy Linahan, bagpipes

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy

     Juliette Kang, violin

INTERMISSION

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”)

The Philadelphia Orchestra

     Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Gregg Whiteside is producer and host of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 pm on WRTI 90.1, streaming online at WRTI.org, and on our mobile app.Listen again on Mondays at 7 pm on WRTI HD-2.

Gregg was the host of WRTI's morning drive show from 2012 until his retirement from WRTI in January, 2021. He began producing and hosting The Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert broadcasts in 2013, joining the Orchestra in Hong Kong for the first-ever live international radio broadcasts from that island in 2016, and in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for two historic broadcasts in 2018. You can still hear Gregg as host of the Orchestra broadcasts every Sunday and Monday on WRTI.