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The Philadelphia Orchestra on WRTI: Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Diva Joyce DiDonato Shine In This Concert From 2018

Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Orchestra
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato on stage with The Philadelphians in Verizon Hall

Join us on Sunday, October 3rd at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, October 4th at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2 as one of the biggest stars in the opera world today joins Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphians for a performance of Ernest Chausson’s Poéme de l’Amour et de la Mer. Joyce DiDonato is a multiple Grammy winner, and winner of the 2018 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

Ms. DiDonato made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2015 at Carnegie Hall, but this performance from 2018 marked her subscription debut with the Orchestra. It's a program that moves from medieval German legend, to the magical world of Jorge Luis Borges, to the monuments of Rome.

Ethereal, shimmering strings, playing in the highest register, evoke the Holy Grail in Richard Wagner’s Prelude to the opera Lohengrin, one of the most mysterious and luminescent works of the 19th century. The celebrated strings of The Philadelphia Orchestra shine in this work!

American composer Mason Bates returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra for this concert with the Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, based on the Jorge Luis Borges book of the same name. Eleven movements performed without a break evoke both mythological and newly imagined creatures in what Bates calls a “psychedelic bestiary.”

After intermission, French composer Ernest Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la Mer (Poem of Love and the Sea), for voice and orchestra, sets poems by Chausson’s friend Maurice Bouchor about love, death, and the sea. The piece owes a considerable debt to Wagner’s music, and includes an orchestral interlude between Ms. DiDonato's two vocal sections, “Water Flower” and “The Death of Love.”

The concert concludes with Ottorino Respighi’s colorful Fountains of Rome, the first in a trilogy of works he composed honoring the Eternal City, and the piece that won him international fame.

POIC181230YNS.mp3
WRTI's Susan Lewis talks backstage with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

During intermission, WRTI’s Debra Lew Harder has a conversation backstage with Joyce DiDonato, and Susan Lewis chats with Yannick.

PROGRAM:

Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin

Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology

INTERMISSION

Chausson: Poéme de l’Amour et de la Mer, Op. 19                                                         

  • Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Respighi: Fountains of Rome

The Philadelphia Orchestra                                                                                                                               
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Gregg Whiteside is 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.