Featured Artist
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
In the midst of writing his Fifth Symphony, Gustav Mahler’s life changed: He met Alma Schindler, the beautiful daughter of a renowned landscape painter, herself a composer and the woman who would inspire him for the rest of his life. The Fifth contains what might be called Mahler’s “greatest hit”: The Adagietto, often performed as a stand-alone piece, is a hymn to his love for Alma, rapturously slow and caressed by lustrous strings and harp.
The program will also feature Julia Wolfe’s Liberty Bell, an Orchestra co-commission, and Webern’s Im Sommerwind, a work that was given its world premiere by the Orchestra in 1962.
Yannick continues his Mahler cycle with this extraordinary work, which documents its composer’s journey from mourning to exaltation, from dark to light, as he meets and marries the love of his life.
A pair of evocative pieces sketching mountain views and magical evenings complement this lovely program. Anton Webern’s Im Sommerwind is filled with whistle-worthy melodies, an accompaniment to a mountain walk, recalling burbling brooks and breezes. Lili Boulanger wrote her Of a Sad Evening shortly before her death at age 24; her sister, Nadia, the famed teacher and composer who mentored such giants as Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Philip Glass, preserved the piece as a reminder of her beloved sister’s gifts, and the work received new recognition in 1979 when Marin Alsop and her famed Women’s Philharmonic gave it its premiere.
Love and light transfuse this program with radiance, a magical musical experience.
Program
Webern
Im Sommerwind
Wolfe
Liberty Bell (Philadelphia Orchestra co-commission)
Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Approximate Duration
includes intermission
