Both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss had long and fruitful relationships with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Rachmaninoff’s began in 1909 with his first appearance in this country at the Academy of Music. He would go on to write pieces specifically for the Orchestra, and collaborated in landmark recordings, including his Piano Concerto No. 3 that opens this Sunday's broadcast, from a concert in November, 2013. The remarkable talents of Curtis-trained Yuja Wang wowed the audience at Verizon Hall with her exciting, fast-paced performance of the work.
http://youtu.be/EWgYg5Iicqk
The Philadelphians continue their celebration of the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss’s birth on this program with a youthful serenade and a mighty tone poem. The Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments, Op. 7, greatly helped make the teenage composer’s name when it was championed by the famous conductor Hans von Bülo.
Within a decade, Strauss had undergone a “conversion,” as he called it, and was being hailed as the leading progressive composer of his day, with extravagant symphonic tone poems, like Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), which concludes Sunday’s program, and which Strauss himself conducted here in Philadelphia in 1921. It's a work tailor-made for the lush sonorities of the Fabulous Philadelphians! Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts.
WRTI's Susan Lewis speaks with Yuja at intermission. Detailed program notes here
That's this Sunday, August 10th from 1 until 3:10 pm on WRTI. Don't miss it! Gregg Whiteside is producer and host.
PROGRAM:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Strauss: Serenade for Winds
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Upcoming Philadelphia Orchestra concerts at the Kimmel Center - check it out!
Where can you listen? Here's a list of WRTI's broadcast frequencies. And you can always listen online at wrti.org.