Mendelssohn's "Italian"
Mendelssohn's "Italian"
Thursday October 22, 2009
8:00  PM
Verizon Hall

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Daniele Gatti - Conductor

Program:

ROSSINI - Overture to The Barber of Seville

MENDELSSOHN - Symphony No. 4 ("Italian")

BRAHMS - Symphony No. 1

Description:

Riveting Italian-born conductor Daniele Gatti returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra podium for the first time since 1993 for an evening of high-drama favorites. Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony, inspired by the composer's own European travels around 1830, is an ebullient portrait of the color and atmosphere, the people and landscapes of Italy. In contrast is the light-and-shadow drama of Brahms's First Symphony, the most important work in the form since Beethoven, which some have gone so far as to call "Beethoven's Tenth." Opening the concert is a gem of Italian opera, Rossini's witty, infectious Barber of Seville Overture.