Every week, Sunday Classical brings you an inspired mix of rejuvenating sounds. This week, the show leads into the Super Bowl, where the Philadelphia Eagles are facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans. So our classical program director, Zev Kane, in combination with host Dave Tarantino, have curated a Super Sunday Classical for the occasion, replete with Philly legacy and lore, and no doubt a surprise or two.
“Philadelphia is a city of excellence: inner, outer, and musical,” Kane attests. “It may not be a place where you can go skiing and to the beach in the same day, but find me another American city where can you experience the passion of the Linc and dozens of world-renowned classical music ensembles — from Piffaro to The Philadelphia Orchestra to The Crossing — in a single Sunday afternoon. We could think of no better way to celebrate Super Bowl LIX and the greatest on the gridiron than with some of the greatest classical musicians to take the stage in the City of Brotherly Love. Go Birds!”
The festivities begin with a piece by Jacques Offenbach, who made his first visit to the City of Brotherly Love in 1876. He came bearing gifts — notably, the “American Eagle Waltz,” composed as a centennial tribute to the United States. We’ll hear a classic version recorded by the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, led by Michel Swierczewski.
The Philadelphia Orchestra naturally makes a prominent appearance — performing J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. There’s a further Philly connection baked into the pick, because the Toccata and Fugue, which Bach wrote for organ, was orchestrated by the Philadelphians’ longtime music director Leopold Stokowski, who’d made it a calling card during his early tenure as organist at St. James’ Church Piccadilly in London. Stokowski’s arrangement, recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra, famously scored the opening set piece of the landmark Disney film Fantasia. The version we’ll hear was recorded in 2013, with current music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium.
Another, much more recent piece of relevant repertoire is The Philadelphia Overture, which Dirk Brossé first unveiled at his inaugural concert as music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on Sept. 26, 2010. “This work is dedicated to the city — America’s first capital — and to its people,” Brossé writes. “In it we hear the energy, the power, the freedom and the vitality of multi-ethnic Philadelphia: the City of Brotherly Love.”
Another contemporary American composer with ties to Philadelphia — Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon — is represented with her 12-minute piece “blue cathedral,” which was commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music to commemorate its 75th anniversary. (The version in our program was recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, led by Robert Spano.)
Among the other highlights in our Super Sunday Classical special are pieces by artists with special resonance in our city — like contralto Marian Anderson, the new namesake of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s main hall, who sings the spiritual “Trampin’” in a recording with her longtime piano accompanist Franz Rupp. In a similar category is composer Florence Price, whose Piano Concerto in One Movement will be heard in a version recorded by the New York Youth Symphony, with piano soloist Michelle Cann, who won a Grammy this week for her work with Price’s music.
There are other delights awaiting in Sunday’s program — but just as you wouldn’t expect Vic Fangio to reveal his defensive scheme, you’ll have to listen to the program for the full picture. We’ll leave you with just one more thing to look forward to: a piece that the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi wrote in 1928, though he was looking farther back to the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Known by its Italian title, Gli Uccelli, we’ll refer to it here by another name: The Birds.
