This week, we're taking you back to 2017 to revisit The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Paris Festival. Join us on Sunday, January 6 at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, January 7 at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2 to hear a program featuring non-French composers who moved to Paris, and decided to stay.
French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie will be on stage at Verizon Hall for a performance of a work that Frédéric Chopin composed while still living in Poland, his Piano Concerto No. 1.
Chopin would, of course, move to Paris, at age 21, to make a home and build a career, and attract critical acclaim throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. The Concerto No. 1 in E minor became his musical calling card, first in his native land, then in Vienna, Germany, and finally in his new home, Paris.
It would be some 80 years later that Igor Stravinsky would likewise move to the French capital, from St. Petersburg, Russia. The folklore traditions of his native land, and the influence of French Impressionism would have a powerful influence on Stravinsky, who created the music for three great ballets for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, one of which we’ll hear on this week's concert broadcast—Petrushka, about a puppet character who comes to life, with some complicated consequences!
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts this concert of masterpieces composed by a Pole and a Russian, who settled and worked in 19th-century Paris, and performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra and pianist Louis Lortie.
During intermission, WRTI’s Debra Lew Harder speaks with the eminent pianist after his performance of the Chopin, and Susan Lewis has a talk with Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Trumpet David Bilger about the many challenges he faces in Stravinsky’s Petrushka.
That’s this Sunday, September 10th from 1 to 3 pm on WRTI 90.1 FM, and repeated on Monday, September 11th at 7 pm on WRTI HD-2 and the all-classical stream at wrti.org. Don’t miss it!
PROGRAM:
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1
Louis Lortie, piano
INTERMISSION
Stravinsky: Petrushka
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Gregg Whiteside is producer and host of the Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts on WRTI, every Sunday at 1 pm on WRTI 90.1 FM, online at WRTI.org, and on the WRTI mobile app! Listen again on Monday at 7 pm on WRTI HD-2.
