Yannick Leads Bruckner and Sorey

Tyshawn Sorey is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a former Opera Philadelphia composer-in-residence. He’s also the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, a distinction he shares with such legends as Wynton Marsalis, Aaron Copland, Jennifer Higdon, and others who have defined excellence from the mid-20th century forward. The Philadelphia Orchestra will perform the world premiere of his newest work, composed for pianist Aaron Diehl, who so thrilled Philadelphia Orchestra audiences with his brilliant performance of Mary Lou Williams’s Zodiac Suite in his most recent Philadelphia appearance.

From the soaring opening theme to the dramatic finale, Bruckner’s Third Symphony is a brilliant study in contrasts, leading the listener through heroic anthems, majestic brass chorales, and hymnlike chords, juxtaposing glorious bursts of fire with moments of hushed peace. Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has a special affinity for Bruckner, and elicits extraordinary performances of this masterful 19th-century composer’s work, drawing rave reviews like this one from Bachtrack: “Has this composer’s lyricism been so plainly evident? Surprising richness, enveloping abundance … stately one moment, impassioned the next. By the finale, it was clear Nézet-Séguin had taken the listeners on a journey that wouldn’t soon be forgotten.”