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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on WRTI: Susanna Mälkki Conducts Mozart, Stravinsky, and Melinda Wagner

Susanna Mälkki leading The Philadelphia Orchestra in October, 2021
Margo Reed/The Philadelphia Orchestra
Susanna Mälkki leading The Philadelphia Orchestra in October, 2021

Join us on Sunday, June 5th at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, June 6th at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2 to hear a fabulous concert broadcast from the Orchestra’s 2021/2022 season, recorded live in October, and conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe Philippe Tondre talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis
Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe Philippe Tondre talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis

As its centerpiece, the concert features the orchestra’s newest principal player, oboist Philippe Tondre, in his public solo debut. He plays Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C major—long thought lost, but now believed to be the original version of the composer’s later Flute Concerto in D major.

Before and after the Mozart concerto, Susanna Mälkki leads music inspired by 18th-century models. The opening work of the program was written by Philadelphia native Melinda Wagner in 2008 in response to a commission from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for works connected to Bach’s Brandenburgs. Little Moonhead: Three Tributaries Inspired by the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 of Johann Sebastian Bach, features a solo violin, played in this performance by the Orchestra’s concertmaster, David Kim.

The closing work on the concert is the orchestra suite from Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella, consisting of 18th-century melodies that he adapted with piquant orchestration and reharmonizations. Pulcinella was a departure from the deliberately modernist works of Stravinsky’s early career, and set him on the neoclassical path that would define his work for decades …. looking to the past to shape the music of the future. Later, Stravinsky wrote, “Pulcinella was my discovery of the past.. the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course…but it was a look in the mirror, too.”

Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis
Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis

Listen for interviews interspersed throughout the broadcast. Producer Susan Lewis speaks with the fast-rising conductor Susanna Mälkki who has been making waves with orchestras and opera companies around the world, as well as soloists David Kim and Philippe Tondre.

And we’ll take a pause to enjoy chamber music by Mozart, played by orchestra musicians last year  at the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Association (PAWS).

PROGRAM:

M. Wagner: Little Moonhead: Three Tributaries Inspired by the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 of Johann Sebastian Bach

Mozart: Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314

Mozart: IV. Andante, from the Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite (1922)

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Susanna Malkki, conductor
David Kim, violin
Philippe Tondre, oboe

Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your favorite smart speaker. Listen again on Mondays at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast onWRTI Replay. 

Melinda has worked in radio for decades, hosting and producing classical music and arts news. An award-winning broadcaster, she has created and hosted classical music programs and reported for NPR, WQXR—New York, WHYY–Philadelphia, and American Public Media. WRTI listeners may remember her years hosting classical music for WFLN and WHYY.
Susan writes and produces stories about music and the arts. She’s host and producer of WRTI’s TIME IN online interview series, and contributes weekly intermission interviews for The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert series. She’s also been a regular host of WRTI’s Live from the Performance Studio sessions.