Mattila Debuts
Mattila Debuts
Thursday January 14, 2010
8:00  PM
Verizon Hall

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Juanjo Mena - Conductor

Karita Mattila - Soprano

Program:

MAHLER - Adagio, from Symphony No. 10

STRAUSS - Four Last Songs

BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral")

Description:

With her history-making portrayal of Strauss's Salome lingering in our ears, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila has chosen the wistful, reflective Four Last Songs that Strauss completed months before his death for her Philadelphia Orchestra debut. "The most electrifying singing actress of our day," wrote Musical America when it gave Mattila its Musician of the Year Award in 2005. Spanish maestro and Bergen Philharmonic Principal Guest Conductor Juanjo Mena has also included Mahler's searing Adagio--also written in the composer's last months, and the only movement of his Tenth Symphony he completed--and Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, the "Pastoral." The composer found inspiration for many of his works in nature, writing, "No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear."