WRTI continues a special mini-series on The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert, “From the Vault,” on Sunday, Feb 23 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, Feb 24 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. This week’s archival performances, conducted by music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, include Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, Haydn’s Symphony No. 92, a witty tone poem by Peter Maxwell Davies, and the premiere performance of a Flute Concerto by Iranian-American composer Behzad Ranjbaran, featuring principal flute Jeffrey Khaner.
This week’s program opens with Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Oxford” Symphony. One might wonder how a symphony written in Vienna came to be named for a British university? The answer is tied up with Haydn’s huge successes in England, which began in 1790 as he traveled there to compose new symphonies specifically for concerts in London. The Symphony No. 92 in G Major is not one of the twelve famous “London” symphonies that resulted. Rather, it was the last symphony Haydn wrote before embarking on his new British adventure, and he packed a copy to take with him… just in case it might be needed. And so it was. A few months after arriving in England, Haydn was offered an honorary doctorate by Britain’s prestigious university. On such occasions it was customary to present a performance demonstrating why the recipient merited such an honor. Haydn pulled out the Symphony No. 92, and conducted it in Oxford to great acclaim. We will hear it this week in a 2015 performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 2013 the Orchestra presented the world premiere of a concerto by the Iranian-born composer Behzad Ranjbaran, who has written many concertos that combine Iranian and Western traditions. This Flute Concerto, written expressly for principal flute Jeffrey Khaner, was inspired by the delicate timbre of a bamboo flute that has been a key instrument in Persian music for nearly 5,000 years. Called the ney, this flute is characteristically heard playing plaintive melodies, with rich embellishments.
The remainder of the program comes from a 2018 concert that had a Scottish theme. The celebrated English composer Peter Maxwell Davies settled in Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands in the mid-1970s, attracted by their wild and almost deserted landscape. A few years later, a neighbor there got married, prompting Maxwell Davies to compose An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise to commemorate this fun and festive occasion. The music depicts an all-night celebration, with wild dancing fueled by generous helpings of whiskey, and sunrise along the shore, accompanied by ceremonial bagpipes.
This week’s program closes with music from the same concert in 2018: the Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, by Felix Mendelssohn. It’s known as his “Scottish” symphony (though its character shows a very different side of Scotland than Maxwell Davies’ inspiration). The symphony gets its name from when Mendelssohn undertook a kind of Grand Tour of Europe in 1829. Only 20 years old, he was already a celebrated composer and a brilliant pianist. He presented concerts and mixed with the leading musicians in every city he visited. One of his first stops was London, where he was received with open arms and was kept very busy performing. After a while, though, Mendelssohn needed a break. He took a vacation in Scotland, which impressed him profoundly. Its wild and brooding landscapes, its complicated history, its romantic legends… all these began to coalesce in Mendelssohn’s musical mind. After visiting Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, where Mary, Queen of Scots, had lived, he wrote to his parents: “Today I believe I found the beginning of my ‘Scottish’ Symphony.” The unformed Scottish-inspired themes had to wait more than a decade, though, before they developed into the work we know today as his “Scottish” Symphony.
“From the Vault” features a broad variety of music, including several solo turns by celebrated orchestra principals and a couple of world-premieres commissioned by the orchestra. The final broadcast in this mini-series of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert will feature another celebrated ballet score – Stravinsky’s complete Firebird – as well as a symphony by Franz Berwald, a tone poem by Ravel, and the world-premiere performance of a bassoon concerto by David Ludwig, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra principal Daniel Matsukawa.
PROGRAM:
Haydn: Symphony No. 92 in G Major (“Oxford”)
Ranjbaran: Flute Concerto
Maxwell Davies: Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in G Minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish”)
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Jeffrey Khaner, flute
WRTI PRODUCTION TEAM:
Melinda Whiting: Host
Alex Ariff: Senior Producer
Joseph Patti: Broadcast Engineer
Mel Spiegel and Kayla John: Production Assistants
Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your favorite smart speaker. Listen again on Mondays at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay.
