2004-2005 SEASON PREVIEW
|
Impassioned performances, sonic grandeur, and unsurpassed music making - this is the Philadelphia Orchestra tradition. The tradition lives on today in the dynamic partnership of Christoph Eschenbach and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Their second season together reflects on treasured orchestral masterpieces through the prism of life experiences and emotions, a perspective inspired by Mr. Eschenbach's own deeply felt experiences with music. |
We experience life's reflection in music through the two main focuses of the 2004-2005 season. One focus considers music as a reflection of national identity exemplified in works by Dvorak and other Czech composers. The other examines the late works of great composers during a four-week festival entitled "Late Great Works." |
The season's focus on Czech composers, in Mr. Eschenbach's own words, "should send the audience home dancing." From the opening concerts featuring the flowing, pastoral melodies of Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, to the traditional dances of his homeland in the Op. 72 Slavonic Dances, the Orchestra pays tribute to the beloved Czech master. A leading conductor from the Czech Republic, Jirí Belohlávek conducts Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, along with his Violin Concerto and Martinu's Frescoes of Piero della Francesca. During the season, we also hear Dvorak's Seventh Symphony and his rarely heard symphonic poem The Water Sprite, in addition to Janácek's Sinfonietta and Smetana's Three Dances from The Bartered Bride. |
Many composers nearing the end of their careers have looked back, whether deliberately or intuitively, on their own lives. In a four-week Festival that groups late works by Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Strauss, Berio, and Beethoven, the Orchestra examines the moving creativity that inspired some of the most prominent symphonic compositions. In each piece we find reflections of the composer's life, his final years, or his period in history. The Festival opens in early January with Mahler's Ninth Symphony, perhaps his most intense and personal work. Also included is Act III of Parsifal, one of the most spiritual of Wagner's works, paired with the U.S. premiere of Stanze, thoughtful poetry settings by Luciano Berio, who died just last year. The final two weeks show us the warmth and delicacy of Mozart's late style, while in Strauss's Metamorphosen we hear his nostalgia for a dying era. Tchaikovsky's beloved "Pathétique" Symphony closes the Festival, revealing his deepest sorrow in the weeks just before his death. |
Christoph Eschenbach's 2004-2005 season includes many orchestral masterpieces beloved by generations of Philadelphia Orchestra audiences. He continues the Orchestra's first complete cycle of Mahler symphonies with performances of the monumental Ninth and the emotionally charged Fifth. And he conducts favorite concertos with some of today's leading artists, including the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with Vadim Repin, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with Lang Lang, and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27, K. 595, with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Eschenbach is also on the podium for solo appearances by Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe Richard Woodhams and Principal Clarinet Ricardo Morales. |
Conductor Laureate Wolfgang Sawallisch is joined by violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim, and collaborates with two outstanding pianists: the young Chinese sensation Yundi Li and the beloved André Watts. Conductor Charles Dutoit returns for another thrilling collaboration with pianist Martha Argerich; and violinist favorites Hilary Hahn and Sarah Chang are also welcomed back this season. |
Subscriptions are now on sale. To find out more about The Philadelphia Orchestra's 2004-2005 season, please call 215.893.1955 or visit www.philorch.org. |
web@philorch.org