2021–2022 | 122nd Season

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Friday, April 22, at 8:00
Saturday, April 23, at 8:00
Sunday, April 24, at 2:00

Stéphane Denève Conductor

Jean-Yves Thibaudet Piano

Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major

Adagio sostenuto assai—Allegro agitato assai—Un poco più mosso—
Allegro moderato—Allegro deciso—Marziale, un poco meno allegro—
Allegro animato

Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

I. The Hero—
II. The Hero’s Adversaries—
III. The Hero’s Helpmate—
IV. The Hero’s Battlefield—
V. The Hero’s Deeds of Peace—
VI. The Hero’s Flight from the World and Fulfillment
David Kim, solo violin

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes, and will be performed

without an intermission.

The April 22 concert is sponsored by Judith Broudy.

The April 23 concert is sponsored by the Zisman Family Foundation.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday

afternoons at 1 PM, and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2.
Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.
19
 Jessica Griffin

The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the HearTOGETHER, a series on racial and
world’s preeminent orchestras. It strives to social justice; educational activities; and
share the transformative power of music Our City, Your Orchestra, small ensemble
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to create joy, connection, and excitement Philadelphia region.
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Through innovative programming, robust
engage over 50,000 students, families, and
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to further the place of the arts in an open
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and democratic society.
Program, and All City Orchestra Fellowships.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his 10th
Through concerts, tours, residencies, and
season as the eighth music director of The
recordings, the Orchestra is a global
Philadelphia Orchestra. His connection to
ambassador. It performs annually at
the ensemble’s musicians has been praised
Carnegie Hall, the Saratoga Performing Arts
by both concertgoers and critics, and
Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival.
he is embraced by the musicians of the
The Orchestra also has a rich touring
Orchestra, audiences, and the community.
history, having first performed outside
Your Philadelphia Orchestra takes great Philadelphia in its earliest days. In 1973 it
pride in its hometown, performing for the was the first American orchestra to perform
people of Philadelphia year-round, from in the People’s Republic of China, launching
Verizon Hall to community centers, the Mann a five-decade commitment of people-to-
Center to Penn’s Landing, classrooms to people exchange.
hospitals, and over the airwaves and online.
The Orchestra also makes live recordings
In March 2020, in response to the available on popular digital music
cancellation of concerts due to the services. Under Yannick’s leadership, the
COVID-19 pandemic, the Orchestra launched Orchestra returned to recording, with 10
the Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra, a portal celebrated releases on the prestigious
hosting video and audio of performances, Deutsche Grammophon label, including
free, on its website and social media the GRAMMY Award–winning Florence
platforms. In September 2020 the Orchestra Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. The Orchestra
announced Our World NOW, its reimagined also reaches thousands of radio listeners
season of concerts filmed without audiences with weekly broadcasts on WRTI-FM and
and presented on its Digital Stage. The SiriusXM. For more information, please visit
Orchestra also inaugurated free offerings: www.philorch.org.
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 Conductor
Stéphane Denève is music director of the St. Louis
Symphony and the Brussels Philharmonic. He recently
concluded his six-year tenure as principal guest
Jessica Griffin

conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also

director of the Brussels Philharmonic’s Centre for Future
Orchestral Repertoire. He was previously chief conductor
of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony and music director
of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recognized
internationally for the exceptional quality of his
performances and programming, he regularly appears at major concert venues with
the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists. He has a special affinity for the music of
his native France and is a passionate advocate for music of the 21st century.

In addition to these current performances, Mr. Denève’s recent and upcoming

engagements include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra;
the Bavarian Radio, Vienna, and NHK symphonies; the Deutsches Symphonie-
Orchester Berlin; and the Czech, Rotterdam, and Netherlands Radio
philharmonics. In 2020 he conducted the Nobel Prize Concert with the Stockholm
Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston
Symphony, with which he has appeared several times both in Boston and at
Tanglewood. He regularly conducts the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras;
the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; and the San Francisco and Toronto
symphonies. On the opera stage, he led a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas
and Mélisande with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Netherlands Opera
at the 2019 Holland Festival.

Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc,
Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the
Diapason d’Or, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and
won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards.
His most recent releases include a live recording of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au
bûcher with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and two discs of the works of
Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic. A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the
Paris Conservatory, he worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges
Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. Mr. Denève is committed to inspiring the next generation
of musicians and listeners and has worked regularly with young people in the
programs of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, the Colburn
School, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Music Academy of the West.
For further information please visit www.stephanedeneve.com.

22
 Soloist
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed around
the world for more than 30 years and recorded more
than 50 albums. He plays a range of solo, chamber,
Andrew Eccles

and orchestral works and from the very start of his

career has delighted in performing music beyond
the standard repertoire. His profound professional
friendships crisscross the globe and have led to
spontaneous and fruitful collaborations in film, fashion,
and visual art. His long history with The Philadelphia
Orchestra began in 1990 when he made his debut at the Mann Center; he has
appeared with the Philadelphians as a guest soloist almost every year since.

This season Mr. Thibaudet begins a two-season focus on Debussy’s Preludes,

which he will play in solo recitals around the world. He joins cellist Gautier
Capuçon and violinist Lisa Batiashvili for a tour across Europe performing trios
by Haydn, Arensky, and Brahms. In May he rejoins Mr. Capuçon for a series of
duo recitals throughout the United States and Colombia. He appears as soloist
in seven different pieces with 13 orchestras, beginning with one of his signature
pieces, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, which he performs at the George Enescu
Festival, with the Detroit Symphony, and with the Dresden Philharmonic, where
he is artist-in-residence. A lifelong advocate for education and fostering young
musical talent, he is also the first-ever artist-in-residence at the Colburn School in
Los Angeles, where he makes his home.

Mr. Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca. His extensive catalog has received
numerous awards, including two GRAMMY nominations, the German Record
Critics’s Award, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison
Prize, and Gramophone awards. His most recent album, Carte Blanche, features
a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the
pianist. Other highlights from his catalog include a 2017 recording of Bernstein’s
Age of Anxiety with the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop. He was the soloist
on the Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film Atonement in 2007 and for the films
Pride and Prejudice, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Wakefield, and The French
Dispatch. He also had a cameo in Bruce Beresford’s film on Alma Mahler, Bride
of the Wind, and his playing is showcased throughout. Among his numerous
commendations is the Victoire d’Honneur, a lifetime career achievement award
and the highest honor given by France’s Victoires de la Musique. In 2010 the
Hollywood Bowl honored him for his musical achievements by inducting him into
its Hall of Fame. His concert wardrobe is designed by Vivienne Westwood.

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 Framing the Program
Parallel Events Franz Liszt, an astonishing piano virtuoso since his
childhood, came to Vienna from his native Hungary
1857 Music
Liszt
at age 10 to study with Antonio Salieri and Carl
Brahms
Piano Serenade No. 1 Czerny. During his time in the city, he was taken
Concerto Literature to meet Beethoven, a memory he cherished for
No. 2 Thackeray
the rest of his life. In the decades that followed,
The Virginians
Art Liszt’s keyboard music came to define instrumental
Millet virtuosity, readily apparent in his dazzling Second
The Gleaners Piano Concerto.
History
Indian mutiny Liszt’s music exerted an important influence on the
against British
young Richard Strauss who, after a fairly conservative
rule
start, began to compose tone poems as Liszt had
1898 Music done decades earlier. Strauss made little secret of
Strauss Elgar the autobiographical nature of his exuberant Ein
Ein “Enigma”
Heldenleben Variations Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). But rather than egotistical
Literature self-aggrandizement, the witty and playful Strauss
James offered an ironic hero, assisted by his “helpmate,” a
The Turn of the
lush, demanding, and impulsive violin part meant to
Screw
Art represent his wife, Pauline.
Rousseau
The Eiffel Tower
History
Curies discover
radium

The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world with three
weekly broadcasts on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall, Channel 76, on Mondays at
7 PM, Thursdays at 12 AM, and Saturdays at 4 PM.
26
The Music
Piano Concerto No. 2
Franz Liszt
Born in Raiding (Doborján), Hungary, October 22, 1811
Died in Bayreuth, July 31, 1886

The almost supernatural power of the musical virtuoso

evokes images of a pact with the devil. More than one
19th-century critic thought Niccolò Paganini possessed
by demonic powers, and around the time Franz Liszt
turned 20 he witnessed the great Italian violinist dazzle
audiences in Paris with his technical prowess. What
the young Liszt heard—and saw—inspired not only his
own new piano compositions, which broke ground in
“transcendental” technique, but also provided a concrete
model of what a solo virtuoso could do with his career. It did not take long before
critic after critic dubbed Liszt the “Paganini of the Piano” and likewise invoked
allusions to demonic powers. (The connections made to Paganini were perhaps to
be expected, as the violin had traditionally been the devil’s instrument, but Liszt
seems to have expanded the instrumental possibilities for satanic possession.)

For 10 years, beginning in 1838, Liszt led what was essentially the 19th-century
version of the life of a touring rock star. (Ken Russell’s 1975 movie Lisztomania
shrewdly cast the Who’s Roger Daltrey in the title role.) He published mainly solo
piano works and enjoyed a brilliant social life hobnobbing with Europe’s artistic,
cultural, and political elite. But by the late 1840s, Liszt decided to settle down
and prove himself as a composer by writing more substantial pieces. He took the
leading musical position in Weimar, which, although something of a backwater,
had historically been the city of Goethe and Schiller. Liszt turned primarily to
writing orchestral, and later still, religious music. Abandoning the devilish life of
the performer, he took minor religious vows in 1865 and became the Abbé Liszt.

Piano with Orchestra Liszt’s responsibilities in Weimar as conductor of the

orchestra made continual demands for fresh orchestral music and this may
have prompted him to look back to sketches for various earlier works featuring
piano and orchestra. Having chiefly composed virtuosic solo piano music up to
this time, Liszt initially lacked confidence in writing for orchestra and therefore
employed the assistance of more skilled orchestrators, although the degree of
their involvement has often been exaggerated. He began composing a series of
symphonic poems in which he quickly mastered a delicate but rich orchestral
palette and eventually became a skilled and imaginative orchestrator himself.

27
 Although various compositions are lost or were never finished, Liszt wrote some
17 works for piano and orchestra. Some are original compositions, such as two
numbered concertos, while others are based on pre-existing music, including a
fantasy on themes from Berlioz’s Lélio, another one drawn from Beethoven’s Ruins
of Athens, a Polonaise brillante based on a theme by Carl Maria von Weber, and
the best known: Totentanz, a set of variations on the medieval chant “Dies irae”
(Day of Wrath).

Some of these works date back to the mid-1830s, although most assumed
their final form only in the later Weimar years. Liszt completed a version of his
First Piano Concerto in E-flat in 1849, which he revised in 1853 and 1855 before
publication. The successful premiere took place in Weimar in February 1855, with
the composer at the piano and no less a musician than his friend Berlioz on the
podium. Sketches for the A-major Concerto we hear today also date back to the
1830s, and this Concerto likewise went through many revisions before its publication
in the early 1860s. Liszt conducted the premiere in Weimar in January 1857 with the
dedicatee—the composer’s young pupil Hans von Bronsart—as soloist.

A Closer Look Central to Liszt’s revolutionary concept of “cyclic” music is the

transformation or metamorphosis of a single theme, so that throughout a
piece it gradually evolves into something completely new, shedding layers of
“musical skin” each time it emerges in a fresh form. Elements of this technique
are found throughout Western music—from the motto Mass of the Renaissance
to symphonies of Haydn that bring thematic elements of the first movement into
later movements. But Liszt’s immediate models are to be found in the music of
Beethoven and Schubert. The latter’s “Wanderer” Fantasy for piano—a long piece
based on a single theme—made such a deep impression that Liszt fashioned his
own arrangement of it for piano and orchestra (thus producing the closest thing
to the Schubert Piano Concerto that Schubert himself never wrote). In many
of his works for piano and orchestra Liszt was clearly experimenting with form,
trying to write something more substantial than just a virtuoso showpiece. The
title “Concerto symphonique” on a manuscript of the A-major Concerto gives an
indication of his ambition.

The Second Piano Concerto is cast in several fluidly interwoven sections of

contrasting character that are played in a continuous gesture. The work’s two
main themes, which are obliquely related, are both heard early on. The principal
theme appears at the outset, in the first clarinet, accompanied by clarinet, flutes,
and bassoons (Adagio sostenuto assai); a pianistic elaboration and cadenza
follow. The second theme emerges from the latter cadenza (L’istesso tempo).
Tension then builds to a scherzo-like Un poco più mosso, with strings in unison
sounding a resolute transformation of the second theme; in the subsequent
Allegro moderato, the strings present a new version of the latter, and usher in a
florid piano elaboration. The potency of the following march (Marziale, un poco
meno allegro), which borders on bombast, is necessary in order to re-establish,
28
with unmitigated assertiveness, the pre-eminence of the first theme. The work
concludes with a dashing and gloriously pianistic transfiguration of the main
theme in all of its guises.

—Paul J. Horsley/Christopher H. Gibbs

Liszt composed his Second Piano Concerto from 1839 to 1861.
Richard Buhlig was the pianist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Concerto,
in January 1908 with Carl Pohlig conducting. The work’s most recent appearance on subscription
concerts was in October 2013, with Lise de la Salle as pianist and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the
podium.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has recorded Liszt’s Second Concerto twice: in 1959 for CBS with
Philippe Entremont and Eugene Ormandy, and in 1970 for RCA with Van Cliburn and Ormandy.
The work is scored for an orchestra of three flutes (III doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets,
two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (cymbals), and
strings, in addition to the solo piano.
Performance time is approximately 22 minutes.

29
 The Music
Ein Heldenleben
Richard Strauss
Born in Munich, June 11, 1864
Died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, September 8, 1949

Like most young composers learning their craft and

honing their art, Richard Strauss began by writing
relatively conventional music. Raised in a musical
household—his father played French horn in the
Munich Court Orchestra—his early compositions were
anchored in Classical forms. The two symphonies he
wrote in his teens were allied, according to his father’s
arch-conservative tastes, with the tradition of such
“Classical Romantics” as Robert Schumann, Felix
Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms.

But soon Strauss cautiously began moving in new orchestral directions and
eventually started his distinguished career as an opera composer, heavily
influenced by Richard Wagner. In 1886 he composed a four-movement
descriptive work called Aus Italien (Out of Italy). The 23-year-old composer next
turned to Macbeth (1888), a play that had profoundly moved him when he saw
a production in Meiningen, but whose musical realization did not prove entirely
successful. He hit his stride with Don Juan (1888), Death and Transfiguration
(1889), and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (1895), and by the time he wrote Also
sprach Zarathustra in 1896 his works were attracting enormous attention and
provoking passionate critical debate. At this point he was the epitome of the
modern in music.

An Autobiographical Musical Hero? The composition of his next two tone

poems—Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life)—overlapped and Strauss
came to believe, as he wrote to a colleague, that they were “so directly related
that Don Q. in particular is only fully and completely comprehensible when
put side by side with Ein Heldenleben.” There are similarities in the situations
depicted, Don Quixote drawing from Cervantes’s fictional tale of the marvelous
knight-errant and his sidekick Sancho Panza, and Ein Heldenleben offering a
more autobiographical story with Strauss confronting critics who were hostile
to his innovations. The idea of the “artist as hero” had long provided fodder for
composers, notably in pieces by Beethoven and in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
Strauss’s irony was lost, however, on some listeners who were not sympathetic to
this supremely witty, assured, and musically self-aware composer.

30
Strauss initially considered various titles, including Hero and World, Heroic Symphony,
and even Eroica before settling at the last minute on the final one. With his customary
dry sense of humor, he explained that since “Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ is so little loved
by our conductors, and consequently seldom performed nowadays, I am satisfying
an urgent need of mine by composing a largish tone poem entitled Ein Heldenleben,
admittedly without a funeral march, but at least in E-flat major and with lots of
horns—which is always a measure of heroism.” (Beethoven’s Third is in that key and
famously beefs up the horn section.) Strauss conducted the premiere in March 1899 in
Frankfurt with Don Quixote rounding out the program. There was a guidebook to the
piece, for which Strauss enlisted two colleagues, Wilhelm Klatte and Friedrich Rösch,
but he commented to the French writer Romain Rolland, “You don’t have to read my
program. All you need to know is that it portrays a hero in combat with his enemies.”

A Closer Look The six continuous sections are of contrasting character: The Hero
begins with a sweeping, energetic theme spanning a large range. “With or without
a program,” Rolland remarked of the opening, “the starting point is a feeling
of fervor and heroic joy.” The Hero’s Adversaries is said to depict hostile music
critics and uses a distorted flute melody that Strauss indicates should be played
“sharply and pointedly.” In a letter to his father soon after the premiere he noted
that the piece had received two positive reviews but that “the rest spew gall and
venom, principally because they have read the analysis (by Rösch) as meaning
that the hideously portrayed ‘fault-finders and adversaries’ are supposed to be
themselves, and the Hero me, which is only partly true.”

The Hero’s Helpmate introduces Pauline Strauss, the composer’s wife, into the
work (and the corollary to Sancho Panza in the companion piece). She was a
well-known singer and is represented by the solo violin. “It’s my wife I wanted to
portray,” Strauss remarked. “She is very complex, very feminine, a little perverse,
something of a flirt, never the same twice, every minute different from how she
had been a minute before. At the beginning, the hero follows her, goes into the
key in which she has just sung; but she always flies further away. Then at last he
says: ‘No, I’m staying here.’ … And she comes to him.”

The Hero’s Battlefield provides Strauss a chance to join the long list of composers
who attempted to represent battle in music and his solution proved shockingly
modern for some listeners at the time. He certainly creates a din, using eight horns,
three offstage trumpets, and prominent percussion parts. The Hero’s Deeds of
Peace is the most obviously autobiographical section of the work, as Strauss liberally
quotes from his earlier tone poems, as well as from various songs and Guntram, his
first opera. Decades later he told his publisher: “Of course I haven’t taken part in any
battles, but the only way I could express works of peace was through themes of my
own.” The Hero’s Flight from the World and Fulfillment brings the work to its close,
as the “helpmate” returns to join her hero for a peaceful conclusion.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

31
 Strauss composed Ein Heldenleben in 1898.
The first performances of Heldenleben by The Philadelphia Orchestra were in November 1913 with
Leopold Stokowski conducting. Other early performances of the work by the Orchestra include
those by the dedicatee, Willem Mengelberg, in March 1921 and Strauss’s own appearance with the
Orchestra in December of that year, in an extraordinary series of concerts that included many of his
major tone poems. The most recent subscription performances were in November 2013 with Yannick
Nézet-Séguin.
The Philadelphians have recorded Ein Heldenleben five times: in 1939 with Eugene Ormandy for
RCA; in 1954 and 1960 with Ormandy for CBS; in 1978 with Ormandy for RCA; and in 1995 with
Wolfgang Sawallisch for EMI.
The composer scored the work for piccolo, three flutes, four oboes (IV doubling English horn), two
clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, eight horns, five trumpets,
three trombones, tenor and bass tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, small military
drum, tam-tam, tenor drum, triangle), two harps, and strings.
Ein Heldenleben runs approximately 45 minutes in performance.

Program notes © 2022. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without
written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

32
Musical Terms
Cadenza: A passage or section in a Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually
style of brilliant improvisation, usually the third movement of symphonies
inserted near the end of a movement and quartets that was introduced by
or composition Beethoven to replace the minuet. The
Chord: The simultaneous sounding of scherzo is followed by a gentler section
three or more tones called a trio, after which the scherzo is
Fantasy: A composition free in form repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid
and more or less fantastic in character tempo, vigorous rhythm, and humorous
Harmony: The combination of contrasts. Also an instrumental piece
simultaneously sounded musical of a light, piquant, humorous character.
notes to produce chords and chord Symphonic poem: A type of 19th-
progressions century symphonic piece in one
Legato: Smooth, even, without any movement, which is based upon an
break between notes extramusical idea, either poetic or
Meter: The symmetrical grouping of descriptive
musical rhythms Timbre: Tone color or tone quality
Minuet: A dance in triple time Tone poem: See symphonic poem
commonly used up to the beginning
of the 19th century as the lightest THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)
movement of a symphony Adagio: Leisurely, slow
Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term Agitato: Excited
used to indicate the chronological Allegro: Bright, fast
position of a composition within a Animato: Lively, animated
composer’s output. Opus numbers Deciso: Bold, forceful
are not always reliable because they Marziale: Martial, military
are often applied in the order of Moderato: A moderate tempo, neither
publication rather than composition. fast nor slow
Polonaise: A Polish national dance in Più mosso: Faster
moderate triple meter Sostenuto: Sustained
Polyphony: A term used to designate
music in more than one part and the TEMPO MODIFIERS
style in which all or several of the Assai: Much
musical parts move to some extent Meno: Less
independently Un poco: A little, a bit

33
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