The Philadelphia Orchestra

Marin Alsop ConductorJon Kimura Parker Piano

Debussy/orch. Sachs Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun(orchestrated for the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna under the auspices of Arnold Schoenberg)

Gershwin/orch. Grofé Rhapsody in Blue (original jazz band version)

Intermission

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 I. Moderato—Allegro non troppo II. Allegretto III. Largo IV. Allegro non troppo

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit WRTI.org to listen live or for more details.

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Season 2015-2016Thursday, October 29, at 8:00Friday, October 30, at 2:00Saturday, October 31, at 8:00

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The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging—and exceeding—that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording, with two celebrated CDs on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The

Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, The Philadelphia Orchestra today boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at

Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia’s many communities, as it builds an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. The Orchestra’s award-winning Collaborative Learning initiatives engage over 50,000 students, families, and community members through programs such as PlayINs, side-by-sides, PopUp concerts, free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, and residency work in Philadelphia and abroad. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorMusic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and he has renewed his commitment to the ensemble through the 2021-22 season. His highly collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” Highlights of his fourth season include a year-long exploration of works that exemplify the famous Philadelphia Sound, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and other pieces premiered by the Orchestra; a Music of Vienna Festival; and the continuation of a commissioning project for principal players.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with two CDs on that label; the second, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Daniil Trifonov, was released in August 2015. He continues fruitful recording relationships with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are appointments as Companion of the Order of Canada and Officer of the National Order of Quebec, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, Canada’s National Arts Centre Award, the Prix Denise-Pelletier, and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Westminster Choir College.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Chris Lee

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ConductorConductor Marin Alsop is recognized for her innovative approach to programming and for her deep commitment to education and audience development. Her outstanding success as music director of the Baltimore Symphony since 2007 has resulted in two extensions of her tenure, now confirmed until 2021. As part of her artistic leadership in Baltimore she has created bold initiatives such as “OrchKids,” which provides music education, instruments, meals, and mentorship to the city’s neediest young people. Ms. Alsop is also music director of the São Paulo Symphony and California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; conductor emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony; music director laureate of the Colorado Symphony; and artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London. She guest conducts the great orchestras of the world and made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1990 at the Academy of Music.

In addition to these current performances, highlights of Ms. Alsop’s 2015-16 season include her subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony and a return to the Eugene Symphony for its 50th anniversary season. In March 2016 she celebrates Carnegie Hall’s 125th anniversary conducting Bernstein’s West Side Story at the Knockdown Center, a restored factory in Queens, New York. She also begins her position as director of the Graduate Conducting Program at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute.

Ms. Alsop is the recipient of numerous awards and is the only conductor to receive the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Her extensive discography on Naxos includes a notable set of Brahms symphonies with the London Philharmonic, Brahms’s A German Requiem with the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir and Symphony, and a highly praised Dvořák series with the Baltimore Symphony. Born in New York City, Ms. Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Her conducting career launched in 1989 when she was a prize-winner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition. In the same year she also became the first woman to be awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein.

Adriane White

SoloistPianist Jon Kimura Parker made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1997 at the Academy of Music and most recently performed with the ensemble in 2008 at the Mann Center. He has appeared as guest soloist with the Philadelphians and Wolfgang Sawallisch at Carnegie Hall, toured Europe with the Royal Philharmonic and André Previn, and shared the stage with Jessye Norman at Berlin’s Philharmonie. Conductors he has recently worked with include Teddy Abrams, Pablo Heras-Casado, Claus Peter Flor, Hans Graf, Matthew Halls, Jeffrey Kahane, Peter Oundjian, Larry Rachleff, Bramwell Tovey, Xu Zhong, and Pinchas Zukerman. A true Canadian ambassador of music, Mr. Parker has given command performances for Queen Elizabeth II, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the prime ministers of Canada and Japan. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian honor. 

Mr. Parker performs regularly with the Miró Quartet and is a founding member of the Montrose Trio, with violinist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith. He also recently debuted—in a quintet with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland—his new project, Off the Score, featuring both original compositions and fresh takes on the music of Ravel, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2015-16 season include a tour of Off the Score and 20 concerts with the Montrose Trio as well as appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

An unusually versatile artist, Mr. Parker has jammed with Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, and Doc Severinsen, and also performed tangos on two pianos with Pablo Ziegler. As a member of the outreach project Piano Plus, he has toured remote areas including the Canadian Arctic, performing classical music and rock-and-roll on everything from upright pianos to electronic keyboards. In commemoration of his special performances in war-torn Sarajevo in 1995, he was a featured speaker alongside humanitarians Elie Wiesel and Paul Rusesabagina at the 50th anniversary of the relief organization AmeriCares. His new CD, Fantasy, features fantasies of Schubert and Schumann, as well as the Wizard of Oz Fantasy arranged by William Hirtz.

Tara McM

ullen

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Framing the ProgramIn the first half of the program today two familiar pieces are presented in unfamiliar ways. We hear Claude Debussy’s revolutionary Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun in an intimate chamber orchestration for 11 instruments that was made in the early 1920s for Arnold Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances. This innovative concert series in Vienna offered meticulously rehearsed performances of “all modern music—from that of Mahler and Strauss to the newest.” The imaginative reduction reveals new sides of the work, as if seeing an X-ray of the original masterpiece.

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue caused a sensation at its 1924 premiere in New York’s Aeolian Hall at a concert presented by the legendary bandleader Paul Whiteman. On that occasion Gershwin was the piano soloist and Whiteman conducted a jazz ensemble of some two dozen musicians. The instrumentation was created by Ferde Grofé, Whiteman’s favorite arranger, based on suggestions from Gershwin. Since then the Rhapsody in Blue is most often performed in a version for full symphony orchestra, also by Grofé. The performance today provides a rare opportunity to hear the original instrumentation and to discover, as with the Debussy impressionistic Prelude, details that often pass by unnoticed.

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was a key work in the composer’s career. During his 20s Shostakovich had rapidly emerged as the great genius of Soviet music, but in 1936 he was brutally attacked in the official Communist press. Both his professional and private life were in peril. He withheld the premiere of his Fourth Symphony for more than a quarter century and then wrote the magnificent Fifth Symphony, which helped restore his reputation at home while also achieving classic status internationally.

Parallel Events1894DebussyPrelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

1924GershwinRhapsody in Blue

1937ShostakovichSymphony No. 5

MusicDvořákCello ConcertoLiteratureKiplingThe Jungle BookArtMunchVampireHistoryBureau of Immigration created

MusicBergChamber ConcertoLiteratureForsterA Passage to IndiaArtBraqueSugar BowlHistoryLenin dies

MusicOrffCarmina buranaLiteratureSteinbeckOf Mice and MenArtPicassoGuernicaHistoryJapan invades China

The MusicPrelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (orchestrated by Benno Sachs)

Claude DebussyBorn in St. Germain-en-Laye, August 22, 1862Died in Paris, March 25, 1918

Claude Debussy composed his revolutionary Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun between 1892 and 1894, basing it on an important Symbolist poem by Stéphane Mallarmé. “The music of this prelude,” Debussy wrote, “is a very free illustration of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature.”

A New Musical Style The Symbolists were artists and poets of the late 19th century who tried to convey meanings through suggestion—symbols, fragments, evocations—rather than specific narrative expression. These concerns proved ideal for the musical style that Debussy was developing at the time. When he composed Faun he had just broken out of the narrow confines of the Paris Conservatory and a compulsory stay in Italy at the Villa Medici after winning the Prix de Rome. He had been overwhelmed by his exposure to Wagner’s operas and yearned for a way to respond to the challenge of Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal. The Prelude was conceived as the initial part of a larger work on Mallarmé’s poem (Prelude, Interludes, and Final Summary), but he realized upon completing it that the piece had to stand alone, a self-contained miniature masterpiece. In a single stroke the composer set the scene for all manner of 20th-century musical exploration. The celebrated conductor and composer Pierre Boulez has declared that “Modern music was awakened by The Afternoon of a Faun.”

At the work’s first performance in Paris in December 1894 even the press, which had not always been sympathetic to the composer’s early works, realized that something startlingly new had come to pass. Mallarmé, who was present, was delighted with Debussy’s gloss on his poem. “I was not expecting anything like this!” he said. “The music creates no dissonance with my text, except that it even extends the emotion of the poem, exploring more deeply

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The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was composed from 1892 to 1894. Benno Sachs orchestrated the piece in 1920 or 1921 for the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna under the auspices of Arnold Schoenberg.

Fritz Scheel conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Prelude, in January 1907. Most recently on subscription concerts, it appeared in March 2011, with Stéphane Denève. These are the first Orchestra performances of the Sachs orchestration.

The Orchestra has recorded the piece six times: in 1924, 1927, and 1940 with Leopold Stokowski for RCA; in 1947 and 1959 with Eugene Ormandy for CBS; and in 1971 with Ormandy for RCA. The work can also be found in The Philadelphia Orchestra: The Centennial Collection (Historic Broadcasts and Recordings from 1917-1998), in a performance led by Bruno Walter from March 1947.

The scoring for this orchestration calls for flute, oboe, clarinet, harmonium, piano, percussion (antique cymbals), and string quintet.

The Prelude runs approximately 10 minutes in performance.

the nostalgia and the atmosphere of light and color.” Faun was choreographed in 1912 for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with Vaslav Nijinsky as the oversexed faun frolicking among the nymphs, and it has remained a favorite of dancers and choreographers ever since.

A Closer Look Igor Stravinsky was deeply influenced by the piece as was another modernist titan, Arnold Schoenberg, which led to the unusual instrumental version we hear on this concert. In late 1918, Schoenberg founded the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen (Society for Private Musical Performances), an innovative concert series that presented meticulously rehearsed performances of “all modern music—from that of Mahler and Strauss to the newest,” as its charter stated. There were various rules: members only (no critics were allowed), the programs were not announced in advance, pieces were often repeated (sometimes on the same concert), applause and booing were prohibited, and so forth. Schoenberg was the president, but most of the organization fell to former students Alban Berg and Anton Webern, working alongside others. The repertory the Society presented was remarkably international. Debussy, who had recently died, was the second most performed composer in the 117 concerts of the group’s three-year existence.

Although most of the pieces performed at the Society were keyboard, chamber, or vocal works, on occasion orchestral compositions were arranged for drastically reduced ensembles or for piano. These arrangements were made at Schoenberg’s suggestion, but he rarely did the reductions himself. The circumstances surrounding the orchestration of Debussy’s Prelude are not entirely clear, but the parts were readied by late 1921, just before the Society was disbanded, and the work was never performed. The effective and faithful reduction was apparently the work of Benno Sachs, a doctor, who cast the piece for 11 instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, harmonium (an organ-like instrument that fills in much of the harmony), piano, antique cymbals, and string quintet. As in Debussy’s original, the piece begins with an extraordinary flute solo that evokes the faun’s pipes and that occurs nine times, including at the end along with antique cymbals.

—Paul J. Horsley/ Christopher H. Gibbs

The MusicRhapsody in Blue (original jazz band orchestration by Ferde Grofé)

George GershwinBorn in Brooklyn, September 26, 1898Died in Hollywood, July 11, 1937

George Gershwin’s career is a great American success story, tempered (as with Mozart and Schubert) by early death in his 30s that cut it short. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, he grew up in a poor household. As Aaron Copland, his slightly younger Brooklyn contemporary, also discovered, music offered opportunities. But while Copland went to study abroad as an American in Paris, Gershwin dropped out of school and started working his way up as a “song-plugger,” playing Tin Pan Alley songs for perspective customers at a music store. Soon he was writing his own songs (his first big hit was “Swanee” in 1919) and enjoying success on Broadway.

An Experiment in Modern Music The signal event of his early career came at age 25, on Tuesday afternoon, February 12, 1924, at a concert in New York’s Aeolian Hall given by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra. Billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music,” it featured a variety of familiar pieces, including popular fare and comedy, as well as works by Edward MacDowell, Victor Herbert, and concluding with one of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches. It was not so much that the music was unusual but rather the idea of presenting performances by a jazz band in a concert hall. On the program today we have the rare opportunity to hear the original instrumentation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with which Whiteman’s group accompanied the composer at the piano.

Gershwin had written the piece in the space of just a few weeks in a two-piano version that was quickly orchestrated by Whiteman’s favored arranger, Ferde Grofé (1892-1972), best remembered today for his own composition The Grand Canyon Suite. Grofé was intimately familiar with the marvelous instrumental colors Whiteman’s band could produce; he followed suggestions outlined in Gershwin’s piano score, which were supplemented by almost daily meetings with the composer. The famous opening clarinet glissando was contributed by Ross Gorman, who asked permission to change a written-out scale to something more enticing.

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The Rhapsody proved to be the highlight of the concert, an enormous success before a capacity audience (including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Jascha Heifetz, and Fritz Kreisler), as well as with most of the critics. Deems Taylor said the piece “hinted at something new, something that had not hitherto been said in music.” Gershwin, he believed, provided “a link between the jazz camp and the intellectuals.” Even a grumpy voice from Theatre Magazine acknowledged that the wildly popular concert “was often vulgar, but it was never dull.” Whiteman repeated the program a month later and then again at Carnegie Hall in April, as well as in Philadelphia and Boston. In June he and Gershwin made their first recording of the Rhapsody, which sold over a million copies. Over roughly the next decade performances, recordings, and sheet music earned the composer some $250,000, an almost unimaginable sum at the time.

A Closer Look Gershwin originally entitled the work American Rhapsody, perhaps to capitalize on the popularity of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, but his brother Ira suggested using something inspired by paintings of James McNeill Whistler, such as Nocturne in Blue and Silver.

The Rhapsody basically unfolds as a sequence of five Tin Pan Alley-like songs with virtuoso connecting passagework. The piece has been criticized by some as a loose patchwork of relatively interchangeable parts (Gershwin’s own early recordings made cuts so as to fit on one 78 disc), but Howard Pollack has observed that the work might be viewed as a “compressed four-movement symphony or sonata,” along the lines of Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy. For his part, Gershwin said that he “wanted to show that jazz is an idiom not to be limited to a mere song and chorus that consumed three minutes in presentation,” which meant putting the blues “in a larger and more serious form.” Twelve years after its successful premiere he commented that the piece was “still very much alive,” while if he had “taken the same themes and put them in songs they would have been gone years ago.”

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Rhapsody in Blue was composed in 1924.

Roy Bargy was the soloist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Rhapsody, in November 1936; Paul Whiteman conducted. The last time the piece appeared on subscription was in March 2012, with pianist Stewart Goodyear and James Gaffigan conducting. The only previous Orchestra performances of the original jazz band instrumentation were in July 1984 at the Mann Center, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting from the keyboard, and in April 2002 on an Access Concert, with William Eddins conducting from the keyboard.

The Orchestra has recorded the Rhapsody twice, both for CBS and both with Eugene Ormandy: in 1945 with Oscar Levant and in 1967 with Philippe Entremont.

Grofé’s original instrumentation calls for three woodwind players doubling on a total of 17 different instruments (Reed 1: B-flat clarinet, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe; Reed 2; alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone; Reed 3: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, one tuba (doubling string bass), timpani, percussion (drum set, glockenspiel, gong, triangle), banjo, celesta, piano (in addition to the soloist), and eight violins.

Rhapsody in Blue runs approximately 16 minutes in performance.

The MusicSymphony No. 5

Dmitri ShostakovichBorn in St. Petersburg, September 25, 1906Died in Moscow, August 9, 1975

The life and career of Dmitri Shostakovich were in a perilous state when he began writing his Fifth Symphony in April 1937. The 30-year-old composer had recently experienced a precipitous fall from the acclaim he had enjoyed throughout his 20s, ever since he burst on the musical scene at age 19 with his brash and brilliant First Symphony. That work won him overnight fame and extended his renown far beyond the Soviet Union. Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, and other leading conductors championed the Symphony and Leopold Stokowski gave its American premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1928. Shostakovich’s Second Symphony followed the next year and was entitled “To October—A Symphonic Dedication.” It included a chorus praising Lenin and the Revolution, and the Third Symphony, entitled “The First of May,” also employed a chorus to make a political statement. Despite their ideological baggage, his musical innovations continued, especially the opening of the Second Symphony.

A Fall from Grace Shostakovich had also received considerable attention for his contributions to the screen and stage, including film scores, ballets, incidental music, and two full-scale operas: The Nose and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The latter enjoyed particular popular and critical success in the Soviet Union and abroad after its premiere in January 1934, so much so that a new production was presented at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow two years later.

And that is when the serious troubles began that changed the course of Shostakovich’s life. Stalin attended Lady Macbeth on January 26, 1936, and left before the end of the performance. A few days later an article entitled “Muddle Instead of Music” appeared in Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party. The anonymous critic wrote that the opera “is a leftist bedlam instead of human music. The inspiring quality of good music is sacrificed in favor of petty-bourgeois formalist celebration, with pretense at originality by cheap clowning. This game may end badly.”

Those terrifying final words were life-threatening; this was not just a bad review that could hamper a thriving career. The article was soon followed by another in Pravda attacking

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Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream, and then by yet another. The musical establishment, with a few brave exceptions, lined up in opposition to the composer, who was working at the time on a massive Fourth Symphony, which went into rehearsals in December 1936. At the last moment, just before the premiere, the work was withdrawn, most likely at the insistence of the authorities. The impressive Symphony would have to wait 25 years for unveiling in 1961. (The Philadelphians gave the American premiere in 1963.)

Shostakovich’s Return Shostakovich, whose first child had just been born, was well aware of the show trials and mounting purges, as friends, family, and colleagues disappeared or were killed. He faced terrifying challenges in how to proceed after the sustained attacks on his music. He composed the first three movements of the Fifth Symphony with incredible speed—he later recounted that he wrote the Largo in just three days—although the finale slowed him down. The completion of his new symphony is usually dated July 29, 1937, but the most recent investigation for a new critical edition indicates that composition continued well into the fall.

The notable premiere took place on November 21 with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Evgeny Mravinsky, at that time a relatively unknown young conductor. In the words of Shostakovich biographer Laurel Fay: “The significance of the occasion was apparent to everyone. Shostakovich’s fate was at stake. The Fifth Symphony, a non-programmatic, four-movement work in a traditional, accessible symphonic style, its essence extrapolated in the brief program note as ‘a lengthy spiritual battle, crowned by victory,’ scored an absolute, unforgettable triumph with the listeners.”

The funereal third movement, the Largo, moved many listeners to tears. According to one account, members of the audience, one by one, began to stand during the extravagant finale. Composer Maximilian Steinberg, a former teacher of Shostakovich, wrote in his diary: “The ovation was stupendous, I don’t remember anything like it in about the last 10 years.” Yet the enormous enthusiasm from musicians and non-musicians alike—the ovations reportedly lasted nearly a half hour—could well have been viewed as a statement against the Soviet authorities’ rebukes of the composer—artistic triumphs could spell political doom. Two officials were sent to monitor subsequent performances and concluded that the audience had been selected to support the composer—a false charge made even less tenable by the fact that every performance elicited tremendous ovations.

The Importance of Art It may be difficult for contemporary American audiences to appreciate how seriously art was taken in the Soviet Union. The attention and passions, the criticism and debates it evoked—dozens of articles, hours of official panels at congresses, and abundant commentary—raised the stakes for art and for artists. For his part Shostakovich remained silent at the time about the Fifth Symphony. He eventually stated that the quasi-autobiographical work was about the “suffering of man, and all-conquering optimism. I wanted to convey in the Symphony how, through a series of tragic conflicts of great inner spiritual turmoil, optimism asserts itself as a world view.”

The best-known remark about the work is often misunderstood. In connection with the Moscow premiere of the Symphony, Shostakovich noted that among all the attention it had received, one interpretation gave him “special pleasure, where it was said that the Fifth Symphony is the practical creative response of a Soviet artist to just criticism.” This last phrase was subsequently attributed to the composer as a general subtitle for the Symphony. Yet as Fay has observed, Shostakovich never agreed with what he considered the unjust criticism of his earlier work, nor did he write the Fifth along the lines he had been told to do. Most importantly, he gave no program or title to it at any time. The work, which reportedly was one the composer thought particularly highly of in later years, went on to be one of his most popular and successful compositions and a staple of the symphonic repertory.

A Closer Look The first movement (Moderato) opens with the lower strings intoning a striking, jagged theme, somewhat reminiscent of the one Beethoven used in his “Great Fugue,” Op. 133. It is immediately imitated by the violins and gradually winds down to become an accompaniment to an eerie theme that floats high above in the upper reaches of the violins. The tempo eventually speeds up (Allegro non troppo), presenting a theme that will appear in different guises elsewhere in the Symphony, most notably transformed in the triumphant conclusion.

The brief scherzo-like Allegretto shows Shostakovich’s increasing interest at the time in the music of Mahler, in this case the Fourth Symphony, which also includes a grotesque violin solo. The Largo, the movement that so moved audiences at the first performances, projects a tragic mood of enormous intensity. The brass instruments do not play at all in the movement, but return in full force to dominate the finale (Allegro non troppo). The “over the top”

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exuberance of this last movement has long been debated, beginning just after the first performances. Especially following the effect of the preceding lament, some have found the optimistic triumphalism of the ending forced and ultimately false. Perhaps it is the ambiguity still surrounding the work that partly accounts for its continued appeal and prominence.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Program notes © 2015. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 5 in 1937.

Leopold Stokowski led the first Philadelphia performances of the Fifth Symphony, in March 1939. Since then the Orchestra has performed the work many times at home, as well as on domestic and international tours, including performances in Russia under Eugene Ormandy in 1958. Among the other conductors to lead the piece here are István Kertész, André Previn, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Temirkanov, Maxim Shostakovich, Leonard Slatkin, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, and Charles Dutoit. The most recent subscription performances were in January 2013, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Philadelphians have recorded the Symphony five times: in 1939 for RCA with Stokowski; in 1965 for CBS with Ormandy; in 1975 for RCA with Ormandy; in 1992 for EMI with Muti; and in 2006 with Eschenbach for Ondine.

Shostakovich scored the work for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone), harp, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.

The Symphony runs approximately 45 minutes in performance.

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Musical TermsGENERAL TERMSCadence: The conclusion to a phrase, movement, or piece based on a recognizable melodic formula, harmonic progression, or dissonance resolutionChord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tonesChromatic: Relating to tones foreign to a given key (scale) or chordDissonance: A combination of two or more tones requiring resolutionFantasia: A composition free in form and more or less fantastic in characterFugue: 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 placesGlissando: A glide from one note to the nextHarmonic: Pertaining to chords and to the theory and practice of harmonyHarmony: The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressionsLegato: Smooth, even, without any break between notesMeter: The symmetrical grouping of musical rhythms

Nocturne: A piece of a dreamily romantic or sentimental character, without fixed formOp.: 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.Rhapsody: Generally an instrumental fantasia on folksongs or on motifs taken from primitive national musicScale: The series of tones which form (a) any major or minor key or (b) the chromatic scale of successive semi-tonic stepsScherzo: 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 in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Also an instrumental piece of a light, piquant, humorous character.Sonata: An instrumental composition in three or four extended movements

contrasted in theme, tempo, and mood, usually for a solo instrumentSonata 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.Timbre: Tone color or tone qualityTonality: The orientation of melodies and harmonies towards a specific pitch or pitches Tonic: The keynote of a scale

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)Allegretto: A tempo between walking speed and fastAllegro: Bright, fastLargo: BroadModerato: A moderate tempo, neither fast nor slow

TEMPO MODIFIERSNon troppo: Not too much

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November The Philadelphia Orchestra

Copland’s Appalachian SpringNovember 13 & 14 8 PM November 15 2 PMYannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Laquita Mitchell Soprano Rodrick Dixon Tenor Combined Choirs including Delaware State University Choir Lincoln University Choir Morgan State University Choir Donald Dumpson Choral Director

Sibelius Finlandia Copland Appalachian Spring Hannibal One Land, One River, One People (world premiere)

These performances are made possible in part by the generous support of the Presser Foundation.

Hurry, before tickets disappear for this exciting season.Call 215.893.1999 or log on to www.philorch.org

PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning 1 hour before curtain.

Photo: Jessica Griffin

Enjoy the ultimate in flexibility with a Create-Your-Own 4-Concert Series today! Choose 4 or more concerts that fit your schedule and your tastes and receive exclusive subscriber benefits.

Choose from over 80 performances including:

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Curtis Grad Plays MozartNovember 5 & 7 8 PM November 6 2 PMRobin Ticciati Conductor Jonathan Biss Piano

Schumann Overture to Manfred Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27, K. 595 Schumann Symphony No. 4

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Tickets & Patron ServicesWe want you to enjoy each and every concert experience you share with us. We would love to hear about your experience at the Orchestra and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via phone at 215.893.1999, in person in the lobby, or at patronserverices@philorch.org.Subscriber Services: 215.893.1955Patron Services: 215.893.1999Web Site: For information about The Philadelphia Orchestra and its upcoming concerts or events, please visit www.philorch.org.Individual Tickets: Don’t assume that your favorite concert is sold out. Subscriber turn-ins and other special promotions can make last-minute tickets available. Call us at 215.893.1999 and ask for assistance.Subscriptions: The Philadelphia Orchestra offers a variety of subscription options each season. These multi-concert packages feature the best available seats, ticket exchange privileges, discounts on individual tickets, and many other benefits. Learn more at www.philorch.org.Ticket Turn-In: Subscribers who cannot use their tickets are invited to donate them and receive a tax-deductible credit by calling 215.893.1999. Twenty-four-hour notice is appreciated, allowing other patrons the opportunity to purchase these tickets and guarantee tax-deductible credit. PreConcert Conversations: PreConcert Conversations are held prior to every Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concert, beginning one hour before the performance. Conversations are

free to ticket-holders, feature discussions of the season’s music and music-makers, and are supported in part by the Hirschberg-Goodfriend Fund established by Juliet J. Goodfriend Lost and Found: Please call 215.670.2321.Late Seating: Late seating breaks usually occur after the first piece on the program or at intermission in order to minimize disturbances to other audience members who have already begun listening to the music. If you arrive after the concert begins, you will be seated as quickly as possible by the usher staff.Accessible Seating: Accessible seating is available for every performance. Please call Patron Services at 215.893.1999 or visit www.philorch.org for more information.Assistive Listening: With the deposit of a current ID, hearing enhancement devices are available at no cost from the House Management Office. Headsets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.Large-Print Programs: Large-print programs for every subscription concert are available in the House Management Office in Commonwealth Plaza. Please ask an usher for assistance.Fire Notice: The exit indicated by a red light nearest your seat is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency, please do not run. Walk to that exit.No Smoking: All public space in the Kimmel Center is smoke-free.Cameras and Recorders: The taking of photographs or the recording of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts is strictly prohibited.

Phones and Paging Devices: All electronic devices—including cellular telephones, pagers, and wristwatch alarms—should be turned off while in the concert hall. Ticket Philadelphia StaffLinda Forlini, Vice PresidentCarrie Farina, Director, Patron

ServicesMichelle Harris, Director, Client

RelationsDan Ahearn, Jr., Box Office

ManagerGregory McCormick, Training

ManagerCatherine Pappas, Project

ManagerJayson Bucy, Patron Services

ManagerElysse Madonna, Program and

Web CoordinatorMichelle Messa, Assistant Box

Office ManagerTad Dynakowski, Assistant

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Murray, Priority Services Representative

Stacey Ferraro, Lead Patron Services Representative

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