Join us on Sunday, April 7 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, April 8 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 when our Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert series brings you an encore performance from the 2021-22 season. Guest conductor Kensho Watanabe is on the podium as Venezuelan-Argentine pianist Sergio Tiempo makes his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor.
The concert also features the Symphony No. 5 in D minor by Dmitri Shostakovich, a pivotal work in his output as a whole, produced while the composer endured a two-year period of public censure by Soviet authorities after a decade of sweeping successes.
The reason for this precipitous fall from grace was never clear, but it came to an end specifically because of the resounding success of the work’s premiere in 1937. The huge ovations that greeted every performance soon restored Shostakovich to official favor, though he never fully recovered from the trauma of those two years of gut-wrenching political pressure.
Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11 is one of two concertos written in a single year by the 20-year-old composer and pianist as he launched his career in his native Poland. His public performances of the two works helped him break through as a virtuoso performer and to be taken seriously as a composer. They became his calling card as he raised his profile first in Warsaw… and later, throughout Europe.
Indeed, he premiered the E minor Concerto in his last performance before leaving Poland, ultimately settling in Paris. Tiempo, who calls this work “an old friend,” makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut with this performance.
Listen during the broadcast for producer Susan Lewis' interview with Sergio Tiempo.
*Note: This concert was originally scheduled to be conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Because of illness, he was replaced by Kensho Watanabe.
PROGRAM:
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Kensho Watanabe, conductor
Sergio Tiempo, piano
Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 p.m. 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 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay.
