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The Philadelphia Orchestra

Opening Night Gala

Yannick Nézet-Séguin ConductorHarmony Zhu PianoEmanuel Ax Piano

Bernstein Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront

Beethoven from Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15: I. Allegro con brio

Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor and No. 5 in G minor, for piano four-hands

Bernstein/ Symphonic Dances from West Side Story arr. Ramin & Kostal

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes, and will be performed without an intermission.

We thank the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Emanuel Ax who are graciously donating their services in support of this event and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

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

Season 2017-2018Thursday, October 5, at 7:00

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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 inspiring the future and 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 connection to the Orchestra’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics 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 continues to discover new and inventive ways to nurture its relationship with its loyal patrons at its home in 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, all of which create greater access and engagement with classical music as an art form.The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia’s many communities, building an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. With Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated body of musicians, and one of the nation’s richest arts ecosystems, the Orchestra has launched its HEAR initiative, a portfolio of integrated initiatives that promotes Health, champions music Education, eliminates barriers to Accessing the orchestra, and maximizes

impact through Research. The Orchestra’s award-winning Collaborative Learning programs 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. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, The Philadelphia Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the US. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, the ensemble today boasts a new partnership with Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, and in 2017 will be the first-ever Western orchestra to appear in Mongolia. The Orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Vail, CO. 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 now confirmed to lead The Philadelphia Orchestra through the 2025-26 season, an extraordinary and significant long-term commitment. Additionally, he becomes the third music director of the Metropolitan Opera beginning with the 2021-22 season, and from 2017-18 is music director designate. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His intensely 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.”

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He is in his 10th and final season as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and he has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. In summer 2017 he became an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was also principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with two CDs on that label. He continues fruitful recording relationships with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. In Yannick’s inaugural season The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are a appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.

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

Chris Lee

09.17 Bio.indd 4 8/29/17 1:47 PM

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SoloistHarmony Zhu is a prodigy with multiple talents. She is making her Philadelphia Orchestra debut tonight as a winner of the Chidlren’s Division of the Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition. She has been featured on CBC News, NPR’s From the Top, as well as NBC’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show three times for her exceptional gifts in composing, piano, and chess. She has won numerous first prizes and scholarships in piano competitions and chess tournaments. She has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Harris Hall, and Koerner Hall. Recently she was invited by the Peoria Symphony to be the RAW (Resident Artist of the Week), where she performed Beethoven’s First Concerto. In 2015 Ms. Zhu won the Grand Prize at the VI Chopin International Competition in Connecticut. She was the youngest winner in its history and earned the highest mark ever, including four perfect scores. That same year she appeared in three concerts at the International Chopin Festival in Poland, the youngest pianist ever to perform there. She has been invited to play at Carnegie Hall three times, including to open the International Festival “Passion of Music 2015.” This season she performs with the Israel Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony.

At age eight Ms. Zhu began studying at the Juilliard Pre-College program under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky, chair of Juilliard’s Piano Department. She won the Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition during her first year of study there, the youngest winner in the history of the Competition, and gave her winning performance at Lincoln Center. Later in the same year, she also became the youngest-ever pianist to give a solo recital at Juilliard. She is also studying composition with Ira Taxin at Juilliard.

Ms. Zhu’s talents extend well beyond music. As a chess prodigy she has won numerous trophies and medals in national and international tournaments. She became the world champion of her age group after winning the World Youth Chess Championships held in the United Arab Emirates in 2013. She is also the North American Chess Champion of her age group and was awarded the title of Woman Candidate Master at the age of seven.

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SoloistBorn in Poland, pianist Emanuel Ax moved to Canada with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America; he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award and also attended Columbia University, where he majored in French. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. He won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists in 1975, the same year he made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut. Four years later he was awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

In addition to his performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, highlights of Mr. Ax’s 2017-18 season include returns to the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Boston, Houston, Ottawa, Toronto, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh symphonies. In partnership with frequent collaborator David Robertson, he performs six Mozart concertos over two weeks with the St. Louis Symphony, repeating the project with the Sydney Symphony in February. He concludes the season by returning to Carnegie Hall for a recital. In Europe he can be heard in Stockholm, Vienna, Paris, London, and on tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Mr. Ax will also tour across the U.S. with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma in support of the release of their new disc of Brahms trios for Sony Classical.

Mr. Ax is a Grammy-winning recording artist exclusive to Sony Classical since 1987. His recent releases include Mendelssohn Trios with Mr. Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman; Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart; and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. In 2015 Deutsche Grammophon released a duo recording of Mr. Ax and Mr. Perlman performing sonatas by Fauré and Strauss, which the two artists presented on tour during the 2015-16 season. Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates from Yale and Columbia universities. He resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children, Joseph and Sarah. For more information please visit www.emanuelax.com.

Lisa-Marie M

azzucco

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Framing the ProgramThe Philadelphia Orchestra’s 118th season takes flight with “Three Bs.” The term was coined in the late 19th century referring to Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, as the last of the three was welcomed to the ranks of the great. Tonight’s celebratory program updates the lineage with Leonard Bernstein, whose 100th birthday is internationally celebrated this season.Beginning with illustrious student days at the Curtis Institute of Music, Bernstein was connected in numerous ways to Philadelphia and to The Philadelphia Orchestra. The program opens with the symphonic suite from his only film score, Elia Kazan’s Academy Award-winning On the Waterfront. It concludes with the Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s beloved musical West Side Story, the famous story of star-crossed lovers, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet for the 20th century.Beethoven and Brahms come in between. Eleven-year-old Harmony Zhu, winner of the Children’s Division of the Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition in 2016, performs the sparkling first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. She is then joined by Philadelphia favorite Emanuel Ax to play two of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. During Brahms’s lifetime, these were pieces that won the composer his greatest popular success. Although best known today in their orchestral guise, he originally composed them for piano four-hands, as we hear this evening.

Parallel Events1795BeethovenPiano Concerto No. 1

1869BrahmsHungarian Dances (published)

1957BernsteinWest Side Story

Music HaydnSymphony No. 103LiteratureGoetheWilhelm Meisters LehrjahreArtBlakeNebuchadnezzarHistoryWhite Terror in Paris

MusicTchaikovskyRomeo and JulietLiteratureTwainInnocents AbroadArtManetThe BalconyHistoryOpening of Suez Canal

MusicShostakovichSymphony No. 11LiteratureFlemingFrom Russia, with LoveArtNoguchiEndless CouplingHistoryUSSR launches Sputnik 2

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The MusicSymphonic Suite from On the Waterfront

Leonard BernsteinBorn in Lawrence, Massachusetts, August 25, 1918Died in New York City, October 14, 1990

Leonard Bernstein’s score for Elia Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront shook up many of our contemporary notions of cinematic music. Critic Hans Keller, writing at the time of the film’s premiere, called Bernstein’s work “about the best film score that has come out of America.” More than a half century later, it still is. Bernstein’s biographer, Humphrey Burton, sees it as “a twentieth-century equivalent of Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, with the film’s principal characters, Terry and Edie, as the star-crossed lovers.”

Music for a Classic Film Based on Budd Schulberg’s harsh story of the labor unions among New York City’s dock workers, On the Waterfront has long been considered a classic American film. It now seems clear, too, that Bernstein’s music played no small role in the impact that the film had when it was released. Starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, and Lee J. Cobb, the film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor. Ironically, the score was passed over by the Academy in favor of Dmitri Tiomkin’s admittedly decent (but largely forgotten) music for The High and the Mighty.

Bernstein worked on the music for On the Waterfront during the late winter and spring of 1954, at first intimidated by this terra incognita. It was only when he began to see the rough footage that the whole project fell into place for him. “I heard music as I watched: that was enough,” the composer said. “And the atmosphere of talent that this film gave off was exactly the atmosphere in which I love to work and collaborate. … Day after day I sat at a movieola, running the print back and forth, measuring in feet the sequences I had chosen for the music, converting feet into seconds by mathematical formulas, making homemade cue sheets.”

Nevertheless he found film scoring a frustrating exercise, “a musically unsatisfactory experience for a composer to write a score whose chief musical merit ought to be its unobtrusiveness.” If this old-school type of scoring has sometimes been replaced in recent years by progressive approaches (in which some directors have tried to make music a conspicuous part of the action), it was still very

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much a part of “film culture” in 1950s Hollywood. But Bernstein produced a marvelous score anyway, rich in short, potently concentrated passages that together added up to about 35 minutes of music. In the summer of 1955 he turned this into a symphonic tone poem, taking these fragments and weaving them into a fabric with a coherence and logic all its own. The composer wrote of the musical materials going through “metamorphoses, following as much as possible the chronological flow of the film score.” Thus it is helpful but not necessary to be familiar with the film in order to enjoy the beauty and design of the Suite. The piece was premiered at Tanglewood on August 11, under the composer’s baton.

A Closer Look The thematic coherence is built partly from the gentle subject heard at the outset in the winds and brass, an ascending minor-third taunt that is quickly supplanted by a vigorous tutti but which returns at several points to re-inform the structure. One hears touches of the film’s drama, its romance, its fraternal love-hate, and its violence. Like his earlier Fancy Free, it is an unflinching and yet affectionate take on the city of dreams, the “wonderful town” in which Bernstein made his life and his career.

—Paul J. Horsley

The score to On the Waterfront was composed in 1954 and the Suite was compiled in 1955.

David Zinman was on the podium for the first performances of the Suite by The Philadelphia Orchestra, in November 1998. The only other appearances on Orchestra subscription concerts were in March 2012, with James Gaffigan conducting.

The Symphonic Suite is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam-tams, triangle, tuned drums, vibraphone, wood block, xylophone), piano, harp, and strings.

Performance time is approximately 22 minutes.

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The MusicFirst Movement from Piano Concerto No. 1

Ludwig van BeethovenBorn in Bonn, probably December 16, 1770Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

While Mozart did not literally invent the piano concerto, he was the genius to bring it to prominence and first create enduring musical monuments in the genre. He served as an inspiring model for the young Beethoven, who was already being compared to him when he was just 12 years old. An important German music journal announced that the prodigy “would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart if he were to continue as he has begun.” At 16 Beethoven went from his native Bonn to Vienna in the hopes of studying with his idol. He is said to have played for Mozart and to have earned his approving remark, “Keep your eyes on him; someday he will give the world something to talk about.”

The Young Virtuoso Not long after his arrival, however, Beethoven was called back home to tend to his gravely ill mother and he remained in Bonn for the next five years. In 1792, with assistance from the Elector Maximilian Franz and Count Waldstein, Beethoven won the chance to return to Vienna. With Mozart now dead, Haydn would be his teacher. Waldstein informed Beethoven, “With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.”

After studies with Haydn and others, Beethoven began to mold his public career. As Mozart had found some two decades earlier, piano concertos offered the ideal vehicle in which to display both performing and compositional gifts, including those of improvisation in the unaccompanied cadenza sections heard near the end of certain movements. Discussions of cadenzas today are usually restricted to what a given pianist chooses to play—one by the composer, by someone else, or his or her own. But the issue of cadenzas speaks to a much larger one: that Beethoven viewed his early piano concertos as showpieces for his own use. In fact, he sometimes withheld the publication of keyboard pieces, particularly concertos, for many years so that he could retain sole rights to perform them.

As Beethoven improvised cadenzas on the spot in performance, he had no reason at first to write them down, especially if there were no plans to publish the concerto

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anytime soon. Beethoven thus took many years before committing cadenzas to paper and, even then, he offered choices: For the First Concerto he wrote three possible ones for the first movement. These cadenzas, inserted years afterward, offer an interesting point of comparison with the earlier writing for the keyboard of the Concerto proper. The original solo parts were composed in the 1790s for smaller-sized pianos in use at a time when, at least to his eventual mythic extent, Beethoven was not yet fully BEETHOVEN. The early concerto cadenzas, dating from more than a decade later, utilize a wider keyboard range made possible by more advanced instruments, and were composed by Beethoven in his full maturity. The mixtures of styles can be somewhat disconcerting, but are also fascinating, as the older, wiser, and wilder Beethoven looks back on his younger self reinterpreting earlier musical ideas.

Really a Second Concerto As is always dutifully remarked, Beethoven’s “First” Piano Concerto is chronologically really the second one of his famous five. Yet the issue is even a bit more complicated because the composer in fact wrote what we might call a Piano Concerto “No. 0” in E-flat, his true first concerto, at age 13 while he was still living in Bonn. Although only the piano part survives with some instrumental cues, an orchestration has been reconstructed; a few available recordings of this curiosity give a good idea of how the young composer sought to emulate Mozart, his compositional and professional model.

The C-major Concerto seems to date from 1795, with further revisions up until its publication in 1801. Beethoven most likely gave its first public performance at a concert in December 1795 that celebrated Haydn’s triumphant return to Vienna from his second English excursion. Although we cannot otherwise always be sure on which occasions Beethoven played the piece, or for that matter the B-flat, he seems to have preferred the C major and performed it more often, both in Vienna and on tour in Germany and Bohemia.

A Closer Look The Concerto No. 1 exudes a youthful energy, beginning with the first movement Allegro con brio that opens with a polite, softly played octave leap and upward scale in the strings that becomes increasingly festive. A lyrical second theme in the strings leads to the piano’s entrance with new thematic material.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Beethoven composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1795 and revised it from 1800 to 1801.

The work was first performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra in December 1918, with Alfred Cortot and conductor Leopold Stokowski. The most recent subscription performances were in November 2014, with André Watts as soloist and Jakub Hrůša.

The First Concerto was recorded twice by the Orchestra: in 1954 and 1965, both for the CBS label, and both with Rudolf Serkin and Eugene Ormandy.

The score calls for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano.

The first movement of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto runs approximately 17 minutes in performance.

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The MusicHungarian Dance Nos. 1 and 5, for piano four-hands

Johannes BrahmsBorn in Hamburg, May 7, 1833Died in Vienna, April 3, 1897

The patterns of migration that are often brought about by war, famine, or social upheaval can play a vital role in the cultural cross-fertilization with which art continually renews itself. Thousands of Hungarians fled Europe after the Austrians quashed an uprising of 1848; a great many of them set sail from or stayed and lived in Brahms’s hometown, the port city of Hamburg. It was thus that the young Brahms had his first contact around 1850 with the alla zingarese (gypsy) style. The 19th-century craze for this dashing musical style of the czárdás, the lassu, and the friss pervaded all Europe.

Brahms was especially fascinated with the music’s extremes of rubato (rhythmic “give-and-take”) and its irregular, complex meters. Through his friendship with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Hoffmann (known as Reményi), with whom he toured Europe in the early 1850s as piano accompanist, the composer not only learned the zingarese style of playing but also became acquainted with a large number of the tunes—many of which were appearing in popular published collections.

Brahms began his Ungarische Tänze (Hungarian Dances) in 1852, while still in his teens and over the next 17 years he set 21 numbers for piano four-hands. Three of these were original compositions in the style of the romany music; the rest were settings of gypsy tunes in various combinations. These dances were enormously popular and not only enjoyed brisk sales but also inspired widespread imitation; even Dvořák acknowledged his debt to them when he prepared the publication of his own Slavonic Dances, also first conceived for piano duet. Brahms himself orchestrated only three of the dances, Nos. 1, 3, and 10, in 1873.

—Paul J. Horsley

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The MusicSymphonic Dances from West Side Story (orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal)

Leonard Bernstein

As early as 1949, Leonard Bernstein and two of his friends, choreographer Jerome Robbins and librettist Arthur Laurents, were toying with the idea of a Broadway musical that adapted Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a modern New York setting. But deciding exactly which social struggle to portray in this adaptation proved to be difficult, and the project languished for several years. When the brilliant young lyricist Steven Sondheim joined the team, the original creators hit on the idea that rival white and Hispanic street gangs on the Upper West Side of New York City would be the basis of the story’s conflict, and production moved ahead quickly. Excited by the project’s rapid development, the composer declared “I hear rhythms and pulses and, most of all, I can sort of feel the form.”

The “rhythms and pulses” Bernstein was hearing were the sounds of Latin music—mambo, Latin jazz, and conga, for example; sounds that were gaining popularity in the late 1950s. Bernstein’s senior thesis at Harvard University, which discussed the influence of Latin music on the emerging “American style” of composition, was in some ways a preparation for his work on this new Broadway musical. And once it was determined that one of the rival gangs would be Puerto Rican, the musical qualities of the score for West Side Story fell into place.

An Emphasis on Dance West Side Story opened on Broadway in the fall of 1957. It was a moderate popular success with audiences, but the critical response was mixed. Although in many ways it was a traditional Broadway musical, West Side Story included two important innovations that made it stand out: It was unusually violent and tragic (with onstage deaths at the end of both acts) and it incorporated dance into the musical to a degree never seen on the Broadway stage before. The composer himself said, “So much was conveyed in music, including an enormous reliance upon dance to tell plot—not just songs stuck in a book.”

Instead of handing off the dance numbers to an assistant, Bernstein composed the dances himself. He had already written two fully-fledged ballet scores as well as

Gordon Parks—

Life Pictures Collection

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two successful Broadway musicals (On the Town and Wonderful Town). Not only could he handle standard song forms and dance music, he knew how to orchestrate, how to conceive larger musical structures as part of a dramatic narrative, and how to write symphonically for the stage.

There are three orchestral versions of the music from West Side Story. For the original Broadway stage show, Bernstein closely supervised the orchestrations of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, scored for a lean, 30-piece pit ensemble. In 1961 Ramin and Kostal re-orchestrated the score for the film version, using a much larger orchestra. Though Bernstein wasn’t entirely pleased with this richer orchestration, Ramin and Kostal both won a Grammy Award and an Oscar for their work on the West Side Story movie soundtrack. As they were wrapping up the orchestrations for the film version, a benefit concert was planned to honor Bernstein, who had just extended his contract as music director of the New York Philharmonic. With the popularity of West Side Story reaching a peak, and a movie version about to be released, the music simply had to be included on the program. Ramin and Kostal chose selections from the orchestral film score, and Bernstein re-ordered them into a new sequence based not on their order in the show but according to their musical relationships. As the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, these selections were premiered on February 13, 1961, by the New York Philharmonic, with Lukas Foss conducting.

A Closer Look While audiences will recognize many of the popular songs from the show in the Symphonic Dances, there are a number of famous tunes that are conspicuous by their absence, including “America,” “I Feel Pretty,” “One Hand, One Heart,” and the ever-popular “Tonight.” But Bernstein may have thought too many familiar melodies would weaken the musical structure of this single-movement symphonic work.

The piece opens with a nervous and dramatic Prologue that depicts mounting tensions between the rival Jets and Sharks. This leads without a break into the fantasy dream sequence (“Somewhere”) in which the gangs peacefully co-exist in a friendly and serene world. This fantasy continues in the Coplandesque Scherzo, only to be interrupted by the music of the high school Mambo. It is at this dance that Tony and Maria meet, dancing together (Cha-Cha) and then speaking to each other for the first time (Meeting Scene). In the “Cool” fugue, the Jets try to alleviate some of the rising unease, but the agitation

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spills over into the Rumble, where the respective leaders of each gang are killed. The hymn-like Finale, which alludes to the “Somewhere” theme, characterizes the story’s central ideas of tragedy and love.

—Luke Howard

West Side Story was composed in 1957, and the Symphonic Dances were orchestrated in 1961.

The Philadelphia Orchestra first performed selections from West Side Story in November 1961, with Arthur Fiedler. The Symphonic Dances were first played in July 1976 at the Robin Hood Dell, led by Bernstein himself. The most recent appearance of the work on subscription concerts was in December 2014, conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

The Dances are scored for three flutes (III doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, bongos, chime, conga drums, cowbell, cymbals, drum set, finger cymbals, gong, güiro, maracas, orchestra bells, police whistle, tambourine, tenor drum, timbales, triangle, vibraphone, wood block, and xylophone), harp, celesta (doubling piano), and strings.

Performance time is approximately 20 minutes.

Program notes © 2017. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

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2017 Opening NightMovie Mogul

Caroline and Sidney Kimmel

ScreenwriterCentral Committee for The Philadelphia Orchestra

ProducersEdith R. Dixon David W. Haas

Mr. and Mrs. John Imbesi Mr. Joseph Neubauer and Mrs. Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer

Richard B. Worley and Leslie A. Miller

DirectorsMark and Tobey Dichter

Dilworth Paxson LLPCarole Haas Gravagno

Bob Green/Parx CasinoPECO

Vivian W. PiaseckiStradley, Ronan, Stevens & Young LLP

Arthur Wolk

Starring RolesBallard Spahr LLP

Jeffry Benoliel and Amy BranchPeter A. Benoliel and Willo Carey

Judith BroudyRichard S. Burns & Company

Sara A. CeratoChimcles and Tikellis

Alexandra Edsall and Robert VictorMarie and Joseph Field

Firstrust Bank Dr. Marcy Gringlas and Mr. Joel Greenberg

Kenneth HutchinsLCG, Ltd., and Gary Frank, CEO

Drs. Leon and Elsa MalmudLynn and Joe Manko

John McFadden and Lisa KabnickHilarie and Mitchell Morgan

Ralph Muller and Elizabeth JohnstonLouise and Alan Reed

Dr. and Mrs. Milton L. Rock

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Jeffrey and Dianne RotwittMark and Robin Rubenstein

Saul Ewing LLPJo Ann and Joseph Townsend

Wawa, Inc.Lisa and Paul Yakulis

Anonymous

Special ThanksEvantine Design

List complete as of print deadline

2017 Opening NightGala Committees

ChairmenSara Cerato, Volunteer Committees

Mark Dichter, Board of Directors William Polk, Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians

Vice ChairmanAlison Avery Lerman

President, Volunteer Committees

Lisa Yakulis

Honorary CommitteeStephanie Brandow

Sibby Brasler Sally Bullard

Sarah Miller Coulson Alice Cullen

Nancy Galloway Toni Garrison

Grete Greenacre Ronna Hall

Priscilla Holmes Elizabeth Mahoney

Lynn Manko Sandra Marshall Leslie Ann Miller Despina F. Page

Alexandra Pennington Diana Regan

Susie Robinson Caroline B. Rogers

Dianne Rotwitt Adele Schaeffer Mollie Slattery Ann Sorgenti

Sydney Stevens Roberta R. Tannenbaum

Opening Night CommitteeCentral Committee

Chestnut Hill CommitteeChestnut Hill Musical Cocktails Committee

Main Line CommitteeNew Jersey Committee

Rittenhouse Square CommitteeWest Philadelphia Committee

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2017 Opening NightThe Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra

Governing Board OfficersLisa Yakulis, President

Caroline B. Rogers, Immediate Past PresidentNancy M. Galloway, Vice President

Sheila Leith, Vice President for Standing and Ad Hoc CommitteesJudith F. Glick, Vice President for Special Functions

Sherrin Baky-Nessler, TreasurerLenora Hume, Secretary

Volunteer Governing Board Standing CommitteesLynn Manko, Annual Giving Chair

Ramona Vosbikian, EducationElizabeth A. Crowell, Volunteer Archives

Individual Committee ChairmenCentral: Marie Kenkelen

Chestnut Hill: Diana ReganMain Line: Deborah Ledley

Musical Cocktails: Ann D. Hozack New Jersey: Richelle Rabenou

Rittenhouse Square: Frances SchwartzWest Philadelphia: Alice Cullen

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2017 Opening NightAttendees

Hollywood AgentsSherrin Baky-Nessler and William Nessler Sandra BlumbergSibby BraslerElaine Woo CamardaRick and Flo CelenderIda ChenMichael and Constance ConeSarah Miller CoulsonToby and Bruce EisensteinMartin W. Field and Carole IsenMark and Rebecca FoleyJohn and Nancy GallowayJudy and John GlickPenelope HarrisOsagie and Losenge ImasogieRachelle and Ronald KaisermanNeal W. KrouseMarguerite and Gerry LenfestElizabeth and Edwin MahoneySandra and David MarshallRobert E. MortensenDr. and Mrs. Joel PorterCaroline B. RogersMari and Peter ShawLee F. ShliferDr. and Mrs. Stephen SpinelliRandy Swartz and Judith Sills SwartzLeonard and Barbara SylkJack and Ramona Vosbikian

BenefactorsCharlotte H. BiddleSandra BlumbergDr. Claire BoasiMr. and Mrs. James CrowellRichard L. DavidsonKenneth and Nancy DavisHenry and Kathy DonnerBarbara Eberline and Jerry WindKatharine and Bill EyreThe Franklin InstituteToni and Bob Garrison

Martin and Cynthia HeckscherLynn and Anthony HitschlerLenora and Eric HumeJoe Kluger and Susan LewisFlorence and Richard MaloumianMr. and Mrs. Charles E. Mather IIIMarji Rosenbluth PhilipsCarol C. ShermanPatricia and Thomas VernonThomas and Penelope WatkinsF. Gordon Yasinow

Supporting RoleSusan C. Aldridge, Ph.D.Ellen and Peter BodenheimerLois Boyce Stephen and Naomi BremanCarol Melman BrownKristine CasulloAlice CullenHenry C. Fader, Esq.Phyllis and Howard FischerMr. Joe Folger and Dr. Marilyn McDonaldNancy GellmanDr. Thelma GosfieldMartyn and Grete GreenacreRobert Half InternationalKatherine HallKay and Harry HalloranRussell Harris, M.D.Jeff and Breanna HarveyMarybeth HenryJeffrey and Marie KenkelenDrs. Toba and Lawrence KersonBernice J. KoplinKatherine KuznetsovGary and Deborah LedleyLaura and Mark LenetDr. Roy Lerman and Alison Avery LermanAnita LetoRobyn LetoHon. and Mrs. Stephen LevinConstance Madara

44

38C

Supporting Role cont.Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McCarthyJohn and Leigh MiddletonDavid and Maureen MillerMrs. Philippus Miller, Jr.Cathy MossNancy V. Ronning Stephen M. SaderNancy and Ned ScharffFaye Senneca and Richard WeisenbergBabette and Harvey SnyderCharles and Benita Staadecker Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey WarzelJulie Williams Richard and Diane Woosnam

Young FriendsDaniel BedrossianJames and Micaela BrandauJacob CohenChristina DeaverMr. J. Andrew GreenblattMichael Steven HigginsVidya PlainfieldMary Wagner

DonorsSara ForsterWilliam and Nancy GilesGary S. GlazerJanice Taylor GordonHannah HendersonEllis and Margot HorwitzLaura and Shaun LenetHerbert LiptonHarriet and Sheldon MargolisAnthony and Lynn SalvoAdele SchaefferThe Linda and Charles Schelke Charitable Trust Constance SmuklerHarold and Ann SorgentiBarclay Whitaker

List complete as of print deadline

2017 Opening NightAttendees

38D

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 it would be our pleasure 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: 215.893.1955, M-F, 9 AM-5 PMPatron Services: 215.893.1999, Daily, 9 AM-8 PMWeb Site: For information about The Philadelphia Orchestra and its upcoming concerts or events, please visit 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 philorch.org.Ticket Turn-In: Subscribers who cannot use their tickets are invited to donate them and receive a tax-deductible acknowledgement 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 most 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 only when appropriate breaks in the program allow.Accessible Seating: Accessible seating is available for every performance. Please call Patron Services at 215.893.1999 or visit 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 in Commonwealth Plaza. Hearing devices 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. By attending this Philadelphia Orchestra concert you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your entry constitutes

your consent to such and to any use, in any and all media throughout the universe in perpetuity, of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in connection with The Philadelphia Orchestra.Phones and Paging Devices: All electronic devices—including cellular telephones, pagers, and wristwatch alarms—should be turned off while in the concert hall. The exception would be our LiveNote™ performances. Please visit philorch.org/livenote for more information.Ticket Philadelphia StaffLinda Forlini, Vice PresidentRebecca Farnham,

Director, Patron ServicesBrandon Yaconis,

Director, Client RelationsDan Ahearn, Jr.,

Box Office ManagerJayson Bucy,

Program and Web ManagerMeg Hackney,

Patron Services ManagerGregory McCormick,

Training ManagerBridget Morgan, Accounting

ManagerCatherine Pappas,

Project ManagerMichelle Carter Messa,

Assistant Box Office ManagerRobin Lee, Staff AccountantAlex Heicher,

Program and Web CoordinatorLindsay Kreig,

Business Operations CoordinatorDani Rose, Patron Services

Supervisor and Access Services Specialist

Elizabeth Jackson-Murray, Philadelphia Orchestra Priority Services Representative

Treasurers, Box Office: Tad Dynakowski Thomas Sharkey James Shelley Mike Walsh