Philadelphia Orchestra First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang is soloist in a performance of Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, as WRTI’s Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcast airs a 2018 concert from the Orchestra’s British Isles Festival. Listen on Sunday, June 27th at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, June 28th at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2.
It’s a Scottish-themed program, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, that includes a Philadelphia Orchestra premiere: Peter Maxwell Davies’s An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise, complete with a bagpiper from the Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes & Drums.
Davies loved this wild, ancient outpost in the archipelago off the north coast of Scotland, and chose to live in a nearly deserted village there. The only previous inhabitant was a farmer and fisherman, whose wedding in 1979 was to become the jumping off point for this composition.
Max Bruch’s attraction to things Scottish was something he shared with quite a few other composers, and he makes liberal use of Scottish folk materials in his Scottish Fantasy, a violin concerto in all but name. Soloist Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2005, a remarkable soloist, who has performed solo engagements with many major orchestras, here and abroad, is also a distinguished chamber musician. She brings her gorgeous lyricism and keen intelligence to the Scottish Fantasy, and you don’t want to miss hearing her play it.
After intermission, the Philadelphia Orchestra performs the symphony that was inspired by Mendelssohn’s early travels to Scotland, the Symphony No. 3 “Scottish,” actually the last of the five symphonies he composed.
During intermission, WRTI’s Debra Lew Harder will have a conversation with violinist Juliette Kang, and Susan Lewis will speak with the three bagpipers, each of whom performed in this three-concert series at Verizon Hall, Timothy Linahan, Gary Hughes, and Mark O’Donnell.
PROGRAM
Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise
Timothy Linahan, bagpipes
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
Juliette Kang, violin
INTERMISSION
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”)
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Gregg Whiteside is producer and host of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 pm on WRTI 90.1, streaming online at WRTI.org, and on our mobile app. Listen again on Mondays at 7 pm on WRTI HD-2.
