Bach and Mendelssohn - Season 2021-2022 SEASON 2021-2022 - Philadelphia Orchestra
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SEASON 2021-2022
Season 2021–2022
Bach and
Mendelssohn
November 10, 2021
Jessica Griffin
SEASON 2021–2022
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Wednesday, November 10, at 8:00
On the Digital Stage
Nathalie Stutzmann Conductor
David Kim Violin
Juliette Kang Violin
Bach Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and String Orchestra,
BWV 1043
I. Vivace
II. Largo ma non tanto
III. Allegro
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11
I. Allegro di molto
II. Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegro molto
IV. Allegro con fuoco
First Philadelphia Orchestra performance
This program runs approximately 1 hour and will be performed
without an intermission.
Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on
Sunday afternoons at 1 PM, and are repeated on Monday evenings at
7 PM on WRTI HD 2. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.
Lead support for the Digital Stage is provided by: Claudia and Richard Balderston Elaine W. Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr. The CHG Charitable Trust Edith R. Dixon Innisfree Foundation Gretchen and M. Roy Jackson Neal W. Krouse John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leslie A. Miller and Richard B. Worley Ralph W. Muller and Beth B. Johnston Neubauer Family Foundation William Penn Foundation The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Peter and Mari Shaw Dr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Townsend Waterman Trust Constance and Sankey Williams Wyncote Foundation
SEASON 2021–2022
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Music Director
Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair
Nathalie Stutzmann
Principal Guest Conductor
Gabriela Lena Frank
Composer-in-Residence
Erina Yashima
Assistant Conductor
Lina Gonzalez-Granados
Conducting Fellow
Charlotte Blake Alston
Storyteller, Narrator, and Host
Frederick R. Haas
Artistic Advisor
Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Experience
First Violins Dmitri Levin
David Kim, Concertmaster Boris Balter
Juliette Kang, First Associate Amy Oshiro-Morales
Concertmaster Yu-Ting Chen
Joseph and Marie Field Chair
Jeoung-Yin Kim
Marc Rovetti, Assistant Concertmaster
Christine Lim
Barbara Govatos
Robert E. Mortensen Chair
Jonathan Beiler Violas
Hirono Oka Choong-Jin Chang, Principal
Ruth and A. Morris Williams Chair
Richard Amoroso
Robert and Lynne Pollack Chair
Kirsten Johnson, Associate Principal
Yayoi Numazawa Kerri Ryan, Assistant Principal
Jason DePue Judy Geist
Larry A. Grika Chair Renard Edwards
Jennifer Haas Anna Marie Ahn Petersen
Piasecki Family Chair
Miyo Curnow
Elina Kalendarova David Nicastro
Daniel Han Burchard Tang
Julia Li Che-Hung Chen
William Polk Rachel Ku
Mei Ching Huang Marvin Moon
Meng Wang
Second Violins
Kimberly Fisher, Principal Cellos
Peter A. Benoliel Chair Hai-Ye Ni, Principal
Paul Roby, Associate Principal Priscilla Lee, Associate Principal
Sandra and David Marshall Chair
Yumi Kendall, Assistant Principal
Dara Morales, Assistant Principal Richard Harlow
Anne M. Buxton Chair
Gloria dePasquale
Philip Kates Orton P. and Noël S. Jackson Chair
Davyd Booth Kathryn Picht Read
Paul Arnold Robert Cafaro
Joseph Brodo Chair, given by Peter A. Benoliel
Volunteer Committees Chair
SEASON 2021–2022
Ohad Bar-David Christopher Dwyer
John Koen Ernesto Tovar Torres
Derek Barnes Shelley Showers
Alex Veltman
Trumpets
Basses David Bilger, Principal
Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest Chair
Harold Robinson, Principal
Carole and Emilio Gravagno Chair Jeffrey Curnow, Associate Principal
Gary and Ruthanne Schlarbaum Chair
Joseph Conyers, Acting Associate
Principal Anthony Prisk
Tobey and Mark Dichter Chair
Nathaniel West, Acting Assistant Principal Trombones
David Fay Nitzan Haroz, Principal
Duane Rosengard Neubauer Family Foundation Chair
Some members of the string sections voluntarily Matthew Vaughn, Co-Principal
rotate seating on a periodic basis.
Blair Bollinger, Bass Trombone
Drs. Bong and Mi Wha Lee Chair
Flutes
Jeffrey Khaner, Principal Tuba
Paul and Barbara Henkels Chair
Carol Jantsch, Principal
Patrick Williams, Associate Principal Lyn and George M. Ross Chair
Rachelle and Ronald Kaiserman Chair
Olivia Staton Timpani
Erica Peel, Piccolo Don S. Liuzzi, Principal
Dwight V. Dowley Chair
Oboes Angela Zator Nelson, Associate Principal
Philippe Tondre, Principal
Samuel S. Fels Chair
Percussion
Peter Smith, Associate Principal Christopher Deviney, Principal
Jonathan Blumenfeld* Angela Zator Nelson
Edwin Tuttle Chair
Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia,
English Horn Piano and Celesta
Joanne T. Greenspun Chair Kiyoko Takeuti
Clarinets Keyboards
Ricardo Morales, Principal Davyd Booth
Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair
Samuel Caviezel, Associate Principal
Sarah and Frank Coulson Chair Harp
Socrates Villegas Elizabeth Hainen, Principal
Paul R. Demers, Bass Clarinet
Peter M. Joseph and Susan Rittenhouse Librarians
Joseph Chair
Nicole Jordan, Principal
Steven K. Glanzmann
Bassoons
Daniel Matsukawa, Principal
Richard M. Klein Chair
Stage Personnel
Mark Gigliotti, Co-Principal James J. Sweeney, Jr., Manager
Angela Anderson Smith Dennis Moore, Jr.
Holly Blake, Contrabassoon Francis “Chip” O’Shea
Horns *On leave
Jennifer Montone, Principal
Gray Charitable Trust Chair
Jeffrey Lang, Associate Principal
Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson Chair
SEASON 2021–2022 THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Jessica Griffin
The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the world’s preeminent
orchestras. It strives to share the transformative power of music
with the widest possible audience, and to create joy, connection,
and excitement through music in the Philadelphia region, across the
country, and around the world. Through innovative programming,
robust educational initiatives, and an ongoing commitment to the
communities that it serves, the ensemble is on a path to create an
expansive future for classical music, and to further the place of
the arts in an open and democratic society.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his 10th season as the eighth
music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His connection to
the ensemble’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers
and critics, and he is embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra,
audiences, and the community.
Your Philadelphia Orchestra takes great pride in its hometown,
performing for the people of Philadelphia year-round, from
Verizon Hall to community centers, the Mann Center to Penn’s
Landing, classrooms to hospitals, and over the airwaves and
online.
In March 2020, in response to the cancellation of concerts due
SEASON 2021–2022 THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orchestra launched the Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra, a portal hosting video and audio of performances, free, on its website and social media platforms. In September 2020 the Orchestra announced Our World NOW, its reimagined season of concerts filmed without audiences and presented on its Digital Stage. The Orchestra also inaugurated free offerings: HearTOGETHER, a series on racial and social justice; educational activities; and Our City, Your Orchestra, small ensemble performances from locations throughout the Philadelphia region. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s award-winning educational and community initiatives engage over 50,000 students, families, and community members of all ages through programs such as PlayINs, side-by-sides, PopUP concerts, Free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, the School Partnership Program and School Ensemble Program, and All City Orchestra Fellowships. Through concerts, tours, residencies, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. The Orchestra also has a rich touring history, having first performed outside Philadelphia in its earliest days. In 1973 it was the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, launching a five-decade commitment of people-to- people exchange. The Orchestra also makes live recordings available on popular digital music services and as part of the Listen On Demand section of its website. Under Yannick’s leadership, the Orchestra returned to recording, with 10 celebrated releases on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of radio listeners with weekly broadcasts on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit philorch.org.
SEASON 2021–2022 PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR
Jeff Fusco Luke Ratray
Nathalie Stutzmann began her role as The Philadelphia Orchestra’s
principal guest conductor with the 2021–22 season. The three-
year contract will involve a regular presence in the Orchestra’s
subscription series in Philadelphia and at its summer festivals in
Vail, Colorado, and Saratoga Springs, New York. She made her
Philadelphia Orchestra conducting debut in 2016. She is also in her
fourth season as chief conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony,
which has recently been extended through the 2022–23 season,
and was principal guest conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony
Orchestra of Ireland from 2017 to 2020. In October she was named
the next music director of the Atlanta Symphony, beginning in
the 2022–23 season, becoming only the second woman to lead a
major American orchestra.
As a guest conductor, Ms. Stutzmann began the 2020–21 season
with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and returned to them
twice more. Other guest conducting highlights over the next two
seasons include performances with the Minnesota Orchestra;
the Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and London
symphonies; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; the Orchestre
Métropolitain in Montreal; the NDR Elbphilharmonie; theSEASON 2021–2022 PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR Orchestre de Paris; and the Orchestre National de Lyon. Ms. Stutzmann has also established a strong reputation as an opera conductor. She was due to conduct Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at La Monnaie in Brussels (cancelled due to COVID-19), which has been rescheduled to the 2022–23 season. In recent years she conducted critically acclaimed performances of Wagner’s Tannhäuser (2017, Monte Carlo Opera) and Boito’s Mefistofele (2018, Chorégies d’Orange festival). Ms. Stutzmann started her studies at a very young age in piano, bassoon, and cello, and she studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula. She was also mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle. She continues to keep a few projects as a singer each season, primarily recitals and performances with her own ensemble. In January 2019 she was elected a Chevalier in the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor. Ms. Stutzmann is an exclusive recording artist of Warner Classics/ Erato. Her newest album, Contralto, was released in January 2021.
SEASON 2021–2022 SOLOIST
Allie Skylar Photography
Violinist David Kim was named concertmaster of The Philadelphia
Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1963, he started
playing the violin at the age of three, began studies with the famed
pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the age of eight, and later received
his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.
Highlights of Mr. Kim’s 2021–22 season include appearing as soloist
with The Philadelphia Orchestra at home in Philadelphia and also
on tour; teaching/performance residencies and master classes at
Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, the Manhattan
School of Music, Bob Jones University, and the Prague Summer
Nights Festival; continued appearances as concertmaster of the
All-Star Orchestra on PBS stations across the United States
and online at the Kahn Academy; as well as recitals, speaking
engagements, and appearances with orchestras across the
United States.
Each season Mr. Kim appears as a guest in concert with the famed
modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty at such venues as
the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, the Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall in
New York. In September he returned to Nashville to perform atSEASON 2021–2022 SOLOIST the Getty Music Worship Conference—Sing! 2021. Mr. Kim serves as distinguished artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He frequently serves as an adjudicator at international violin competitions such as the Menuhin and Sarasate. Mr. Kim has been awarded honorary doctorates from Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia, the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His instruments are a J.B. Guadagnini from Milan, ca. 1757, on loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Francesco Gofriller, ca. 1735. Mr. Kim exclusively performs on and endorses Larsen Strings from Denmark. He resides in a Philadelphia suburb with his wife, Jane, and daughters, Natalie and Maggie. He is an avid golfer and outdoorsman.
SEASON 2021–2022 SOLOIST
Jessica Griffin
Appointed first associate concertmaster of The Philadelphia
Orchestra in 2005, Canadian violinist Juliette Kang, who holds
the Joseph and Marie Field Chair, enjoys an active and varied
career. Previously assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony
and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, she has
performed solo engagements with the San Francisco, Baltimore,
Omaha, and Syracuse symphonies; l’Orchestre National de France;
the Boston Pops; and every major orchestra in Canada, among
others. Internationally she has appeared with the Czech and Hong
Kong philharmonics, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the
Singapore and KBS (Seoul) symphonies. She has given recitals in
Philadelphia, Paris, Tokyo, and Boston. In 1994 she won first prize
at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and was
presented at Carnegie Hall in a recital that was recorded live
and released on CD. She has also recorded the Schumann and
Wieniawski violin concertos with the Vancouver Symphony for
CBC Records. In 2012 Ms. Kang was again a featured soloist at
Carnegie Hall for the visit of her hometown orchestra, the Edmonton
Symphony, and that season she made her Philadelphia Orchestra
subscription solo debut with Gianandrea Noseda.SEASON 2021–2022 SOLOIST Ms. Kang has been involved with chamber music since studying at the Curtis Institute of Music. Festivals she has participated in include Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Kingston, Marlboro, Moab, Skaneateles, and Spoleto USA. In New York she has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; at the Mostly Mozart Festival with her husband, cellist Thomas Kraines; and at the Bard Music Festival. With Philadelphia Orchestra violist Che Hung Chen, pianist Natalie Zhu, and cellist Clancy Newman she is a member of the Clarosa Quartet. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree at age 15 from Curtis as a student of Jascha Brodsky, Ms. Kang earned a master’s degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann. She was a winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists Auditions and subsequently received first prize at the Menuhin Violin Competition of Paris in 1992. She serves on the Central Board of Trustees at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School, one of the oldest and largest community schools of the arts in the country.
SEASON 2021–2022 FRAMING THE PROGRAM Bach composed numerous concertos for a wide variety of string, wind, and keyboard instruments. One of the most famous is his Concerto for Two Violins in which lively outer movements frame a deeply touching slow one. As the 19th century’s greatest musical prodigy, Mendelssohn’s early compositions dazzled audiences with wonders not encountered since Mozart some 50 years earlier. He wrote his Octet at age 16 and the next year the miraculous A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture. On this concert we hear an even earlier work, his Symphony No. 1, composed at 15. Yet even this fact needs to be qualified: At the head of the score Mendelssohn wrote Sinfonia XIII, because he had already written 12 impressive string symphonies. The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world with three weekly broadcasts on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall, Channel 76, on Mondays at 7 PM, Thursdays at 12 AM, and Saturdays at 4 PM.
SEASON 2021–2022 PARALLEL EVENTS
1730
Bach
Concerto for Two Violins
Music
Vivaldi
Magnificat
Literature
Banks
The Weaver’s Miscellany
Art
Hogarth
Before and After
History
Lorenzo Corsini becomes Pope Clement XII
1824
Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 1
Music
Schubert
“Death and the Maiden” String Quartet
Literature
Scott
Redgauntlet
Art
Delacroix
The Massacre at Chios
History
British take RangoonSEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC Concerto for Two Violins Johann Sebastian Bach Born in Eisenach, March 21, 1685 Died in Leipzig, July 28, 1750 Bach’s preeminence as a composer of sacred music has long invited mystified accounts of his musical career. He has often been cast as a “Fifth Evangelist,” taking divine dictation from God. Notwithstanding his deep faith, Bach was a practical, practicing musician, who hailed from a long line of musicians. He had to please both secular and religious employers at different phases of his life. Most of his organ music, for example, came early in his career, when he was employed as a church organist in Weimar. Beginning in 1717, when he was appointed Kapellmeister (music director) in Cöthen, he created a large quantity of instrumental music, including his famous Brandenburg Concertos. Instrumental Offerings Bach moved in 1723 to Leipzig, where his principal duties shifted once again to producing religious music, although he continued composing a great amount of secular works. Many instrumental pieces were written for the Collegium Musicum, a group Georg Philipp Telemann had founded in 1702 and which Bach took over in 1729. Throughout his maturity he wrote keyboard pieces for his many children and also explored more purely compositional issues in large-scale projects such as the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier, A Musical Offering, and The Art of the Fugue. Despite his commanding position in music history since the 19th century, Bach was relatively unrecognized in his own time and for more than a half century after his death. It is not surprising therefore that many of his works were lost, and that little background information is known about many of his surviving pieces. Dating his output has proved a formidable problem that has occupied generations of scholars. Although the Concerto performed on today’s concert is traditionally viewed as dating from Bach’s Cöthen
SEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC years, musicologist Christoph Wolff has recently made a compelling case, based both on manuscript evidence and stylistic considerations, that the work was in fact written in Leipzig, perhaps around 1730. One of the ways that Bach arrived at the forms and styles for his concertos was by looking to earlier models, mainly Italian and specifically those by the celebrated Venetian Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). Indeed, some of Bach’s concertos were arrangements of pieces by Vivaldi that he adapted for different instruments. Likewise, Bach on occasion transformed his own violin concertos into ones for keyboard. He arranged the Concerto we hear today for two harpsichords, transposing the piece down a whole-step (Concerto in C minor, BWV 1062). The work is popularly known as the “Double Violin Concerto,” although Bach’s own title page reads “Concerto à 6, 2 Violini Concertini, 2 Violini e 1 Viola Ripieni, Violoncello e Continuo.” This is, in fact, chamber music, most likely originally performed by just eight musicians, with two of the four violins featured with and against the rest of the ensemble. A Closer Look Baroque concertos are typically based on so-called ritornello form. As the name suggests—“a little thing that returns”—relatively short passages of music played by the entire ensemble alternate with sections dominated by the soloists. Bach particularly admired Vivaldi’s handling of this form and learned from the older Italian composer. The Double Concerto is in three movements, with a lyrical slow movement framed by two fast ones. As befits a double concerto pairing the same instrument, the opening movement Vivace begins fugally and sustains its relentless energy throughout. The heart-rending Largo ma non tanto is in a contrasting major key and 12/8 meter, featuring the two violin soloists in continuing dialog. The Concerto concludes with an intense Allegro, somewhat different from Bach’s usual approach in that it does not have a dance-like character. —Christopher H. Gibbs The Concerto in D minor for Two Violins was probably composed around 1730. Fritz Scheel led the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the
SEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC Concerto, on March 21, 1902, with Elkan Kosman and Cornelius Franke. The last subscription performances were in April 2013, with violinists Juliette Kang and Kimberly Fisher, and Nicholas McGegan on the podium. The score calls for harpsichord, strings, and two solo violins. The Concerto runs approximately 15 minutes in performance
SEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC Symphony No. 1 Felix Mendelssohn Born in Hamburg, February 3, 1809 Died in Leipzig, November 4, 1847 When it comes to compositional miracles Felix Mendelssohn may be the greatest prodigy in the history of music. Mozart’s early gifts are more famous—not just because of the movie Amadeus— and reflect his all-round musicianship, performance skills, and phenomenal memory. Yet, truth be told, we hear relatively little of the music that Mozart composed before the age of 20. While in his teens Mendelssohn not only composed an astounding quantity of works of astonishing quality, but a few are among the supreme compositions of the 19th century and remain repertory favorites, such as his Octet, written at age 16, and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dating from the next year. On this concert we hear an even earlier composition: the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, a product of his 15th year. Yet even this needs to be qualified: At the head of the score Mendelssohn wrote Sinfonia XIII, because by age 14 he had already written 12 string symphonies. They remained unpublished during his lifetime but now sometimes appear on concerts since their release some 50 years ago. No. 8 in D major, which he wrote at age 13, seems to have been particularly valued because he crafted a slightly different version of it for full orchestra. The Mature Symphonies Mendelssohn composed five mature symphonies. (The posthumous publication of two of them means their numbering does not reflect the compositional chronology.) The First (1824) is the most “absolute,” unconnected to extra-musical or programmatic ideas. His Second Symphony, the “Lobgesang” (Hymn of Praise, 1840), descends from Beethoven’s Ninth by using a chorus. The next three are the most often performed: the Third Symphony (1842),
SEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC “Scottish,” is connected with early travels to Scotland, just as the Fourth (1833) relates to time he spent in Italy. The Fifth Symphony (1830) is known as the “Reformation,” written to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession—the principal statement of faith for the Lutheran Church. Stories of how Mendelssohn achieved all this often begin with the multi-year “Grand Tour” of Europe that he undertook at the age of 20. But by this point he was already a fully formed artist who had composed abundant dramatic and orchestral pieces, as well as vocal, keyboard, and chamber music. He hailed from a prosperous German-Jewish family—his grandfather was the eminent Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn—and he enjoyed an elite education. One admirer was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the preeminent writer and intellectual of the time. Mendelssohn’s principal teacher was Carl Friedrich Zelter, a friend and musical advisor to Goethe, from whom he received a rigorous training. Decades earlier Goethe had heard the young Mozart perform and found that Mendelssohn’s gifts “bordered on the miraculous”; he thought that his compositions showed perhaps even greater promise due to the “many more independent thoughts.” Zelter harbored a special passion for J.S. Bach and introduced his student to the music of the Baroque masters, as well as to that of Bach’s formidable son Carl Philipp Emanuel. Mendelssohn’s performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829 proved a landmark event in the Romantic rediscovery of Bach. Unlike later symphonies that Mendelssohn held back from publishing, he retained an affection for the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, composed in March 1824. There may have been a private performance in Mendelssohn’s Berlin home in November for his sister’s birthday, with the public premiere following the next year in Berlin. In one of his earliest appearances as a conductor, Mendelssohn led the Philharmonic Society in May 1829 during his first trip to England. On that occasion he substituted his orchestration of the scherzo from the Octet for the third-movement minuet from the Symphony. A Closer Look The four-movement piece follows a Classical format although elements of Mendelssohn’s distinctive musical voice are already evident. The fast opening movement (Allegro molto) is in sonata form with a vigorous first theme and a lyrical second one. The
SEASON 2021–2022 THE MUSIC following Andante is an early instance of a lovely Mendelssohn “song without words.” The intense Menuetto (Allegro molto) begins not as a polite dance but more like a scherzo, which contrasts with a relaxed middle section. The principal theme of the lively finale (Allegro con fuoco) is similar to that of the last movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor. Mendelssohn’s enthusiasm for Baroque music is most evident in this movement, which sports an impressive double fugue before a joyous coda. —Christopher H. Gibbs Mendelssohn composed his First Symphony in 1824. This performance on the Digital Stage is the first time The Philadelphia Orchestra has played the piece. The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Performance time is approximately 28 minutes. Program notes © 2021. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.
SEASON 2021–2022 MUSICAL TERMS GENERAL TERMS BWV: The thematic catalogue of all the works of J.S. Bach. The initials stand for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach-Works-Catalogue). Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality Fugue: A piece of music in which a short melody is stated by one voice and then imitated by the other voices in succession, reappearing throughout the entire piece in all the voices at different places Minuet: A dance in triple time commonly used up to the beginning of the 19th century as the lightest movement of a symphony Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output. Opus numbers are not always reliable because they are often applied in the order of publication rather than composition. Ritornello: Literally “a little thing that returns.” Relatively short passages of music played by the entire ensemble alternating with sections dominated by the soloist(s). Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Also an instrumental piece of a light, piquant, humorous character. Sonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications.
SEASON 2021–2022 MUSICAL TERMS THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo) Allegro: Bright, fast Andante: Walking speed Con fuoco: With fire, passionately, excited Largo: Broad Vivace: Lively TEMPO MODIFIERS Di molto: Very, extremely Ma non tanto: But not too much so Molto: Very
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