Join us on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you a rare performance of the original version of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3, as well as a newly commissioned work from Tyshawn Sorey. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts, and pianist Aaron Diehl is featured in the Sorey premiere, For Marilyn Crispell.
The Philadelphia-based composer Tyshawn Sorey won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024. His output spans opera, oratorio, and traditional music of varied cultures. But his first musical experiences were grounded in jazz, and he has performed with many of today’s finest jazz artists. For Marilyn Crispell celebrates one of them: a pianist also based in Philadelphia whom Sorey calls a “continued inspiration in my journey as a composer and performer.” Sorey’s new single-movement work for piano and orchestra was written in 2026 to honor Crispell’s 79th birthday, and was tailored specifically for the soloist in this performance, Aaron Diehl.
In this music, the composer aims to evoke a sound world that both pianists share. The piece is quiet and highly chromatic, maintaining a single tempo in one long extended movement. This is not a concerto in the traditional sense — with the soloist competing against the orchestra. Instead, the composer encourages listeners to remain in the moment and to avoid imagining what comes next. As he says, “Deal with the mystery of it all. Sometimes it's best not to know. Go with how the music makes you feel.” (Hear more from Tyshawn Sorey in WRTI’s extended video interview.)
After intermission, the concert concludes with the Symphony No. 3 in D minor by Anton Bruckner, sometimes called his “Wagner Symphony” because of its many allusions to the operas of Richard Wagner, whom Bruckner idolized. This is especially true of the original version of the symphony, which includes direct quotations from Wagner that disappeared in subsequent revisions, of which there were several.
Today Bruckner is remembered chiefly for his magnificent symphonies. But he was well into his forties before he first attempted one. In fact, for decades he was leading a contented life as a church organist in the somewhat provincial city of Linz, writing beautifully crafted music — primarily sacred works. Then he stumbled upon a performance of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser — and his life would never be the same. Bruckner immediately became an ardent disciple. Soon he was attempting works of a scale he had never tried before — massive symphonies that seemed to translate Wagner’s style into orchestral form.
In 1873, Bruckner decided to ask permission to dedicate a symphony to his idol. He met a cool reception at first. But once Wagner saw the score, he was impressed. It probably helped that Bruckner had sprinkled musical quotations from Wagner’s operas into the symphony. The two bonded, and Bruckner left Bayreuth with his new friend’s endorsement of the Third as a “masterpiece.”
Despite Wagner’s assessment, Bruckner allowed well-meaning friends to suggest changes and cuts to the work. As a result, the Third exists today in three quite different published versions. Of these, the original is rarely performed, but in this concert we hear it as Bruckner conceived it, and as Wagner endorsed it. “The insight we get by hearing what really the composer, this genius, imagined,” says Yannick Nézet-Séguin, “maybe it’s helping us understand where he was coming from and what he imagined. And I really have, personally, a soft spot for it.”
PROGRAM
Sorey: For Marilyn Crispell
Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 in d minor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Aaron Diehl, piano
The Philadelphia Orchestra
WRTI PRODUCTION TEAM:
Melinda Whiting: Host
Alex Ariff: Senior Producer
Tyler McClure: 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).
