Stéphane Denève Conductor
Kirill Gerstein Piano
Garrop Penelope Waits—FIRST PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE
Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3
This is an enthralling, voluptuous dream of a program, a musical marriage made in heaven for the famous “Philadelphia Sound.” The gentle longing of Penelope Waits sets the scene for the “serious, intelligent, and virtuosic music-making” (The Observer) of Kirill Gerstein in a dazzling concerto by Liszt. Finally, the program concludes with Rachmaninoff’s magnificent Third Symphony, which intertwines a modern melancholy with lustrous, life-affirming Romanticism.