Join us on Sunday, March 23 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, March 24 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you Saint-Saёns’ “Organ” Symphony, the Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin by Bartók, and the Rhapsody-Concerto by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, featuring principal viola Choong-Jin Chang as soloist. Guest conductor Roderick Cox is on the podium.
The concert features Camille Saint-Saёns’ Third Symphony, known as the “Organ” Symphony because of the prominent role played by the organ at key moments in the score. Saint-Saёns was himself a very gifted organist. This symphony is a product of the 1880s, when the composer was at the forefront of contemporary trends. In it he masterfully applied the thematic transformation technique pioneered by Franz Liszt, in which a single musical idea reappears in different guises throughout a work. This work has remained enduringly popular, and a major reason is the subtle but substantial role of the organ — not as a soloist, but offering a solid underpinning to the orchestra, as well as a choice entrance near the end that has an electrifying effect. Also important is Saint-Saёns’ innovation of adding piano to the orchestral texture, with two pianists playing four hands at one instrument.
The Rhapsody-Concerto by Czech-born 20th-century composer Bohuslav Martinů forms the centerpiece of the program, with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal viola, Choong-Jin Chang, taking the solo role. Martinů spent the first three decades of his life in Bohemia, but moved to Paris in 1923 for advanced studies. Once there, he married a Frenchwoman, and never again lived in his native country. His musical style developed in an ever more cosmopolitan direction, as he spent periods in Switzerland and Italy as well as France. In 1941, Martinů settled in the United States, where he immediately received prestigious commissions from major orchestras. He ultimately became an American citizen in 1952. That was also the year he penned this concerto, a work in two mostly meditative movements, punctuated by exciting interludes.
Martinů’s Hungarian contemporary, Béla Bartók, provides the program’s opening work: a colorful and exciting suite from the 1926 pantomime, The Miraculous Mandarin. The scenario, set among thieves in a brothel, shocked audiences at the time, and still seems risqué to us today. But conductor Roderick Cox calls the work “a fantastic piece, one of my favorite pieces by Bartók because [of] his creative sense of orchestration and compositional techniques.”
PROGRAM:
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Martinů: Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra
Saint-Saёns: Symphony No. 3 in c minor, Op. 78 (“Organ”)
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Roderick Cox, conductor
Choong-Jin Chang, viola
WRTI PRODUCTION TEAM:
Melinda Whiting: Host
Alex Ariff: Senior Producer
Joseph Patti: Broadcast Engineer
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 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, accessible from the WRTI homepage (look for Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert On Demand).
