Join us on Sunday, May 15th at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, May 16th at 7 PM on WRTI HD-2 to hear Yannick Nézet-Séguin conduct the Orchestra’s historic reunion with live audiences in the concert hall in Fall, 2021 after the pandemic shutdown.
The broadcast includes orchestral performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Ravel’s Boléro, works by Valerie Coleman and Iman Habibi, and recordings of chamber music from pop-up concerts around Philadelphia performed by Orchestra musicians in 2021 as part of the “Our City, Your Orchestra” initiative.
Early in the shutdown, the Orchestra commissioned Valerie Coleman to write Seven O’Clock Shout, which evokes the spontaneous tributes offered to frontline personnel as COVID-19 took hold. The Orchestra performed the work multiple times, first on its Digital Stage, then before live audiences at the Mann Center and Verizon Hall, and at its concert in New York, which marked the season opening and long-awaited return of music at Carnegie Hall.
You'll also hear Beethoven’s powerful Fifth Symphony and Jeder Baum spricht, or Every Tree Speaks, by Iranian-born Canadian composer Iman Habibi, written in response to the symphonies of Beethoven. In October, 2021, the orchestra played the work to audiences in person for the first time, immediately before Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
This celebratory program concludes with Ravel’s Boléro, as exuberantly performed at the October Opening Night Gala in 2021.
Listen for interviews interspersed throughout the broadcast. Producer Susan Lewis speaks with Yannick, composer Iman Habibi, and orchestra musicians Daniel Matsukawa and Jennifer Montone about the enduring power of music, and the creative ways that musical performance remained vibrant during the COVID-19 shutdown.
PROGRAM:
Coleman: Seven O’Clock Shout
Mouret: Suite de Symphonies (arr. Matsukawa): I. Rondeau
Bizet (arr. Kelly and Matsukawa): Habanera from Carmen
Beethoven: Septet in E-flat Major: I. Adagio-Allegro; IV. Tema con variazioni
Habibi: Jeder Baum spricht ( "Every Tree Speaks”)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Ravel: Boléro
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcastsevery Sunday at 1 PM on WRTI 90.1, and 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.
