November/December 2014 André Watts Plays Beethoven PREMIUM
Thursday, November 13 8 PM Friday, November 14 2 PM Saturday, November 15 8 PM Jakub Hrůša Conductor André Watts Piano
Jakub Hrůša
Janáček Jealousy Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 Dvořák Symphony No. 8 Philadelphia favorite André Watts—who has been captivating Philadelphia Orchestra audiences since making his debut as a 10-year-old winner of the Orchestra’s Student Competition in 1957—performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut is the exciting young conductor Jakub Hrůša, music director of the Prague Philharmonia. He leads the Philadelphians in a program that also includes Dvořák’s ebullient Eighth Symphony and one of Janáček’s earliest works, Jealousy, a piece originally intended as an overture for his opera Jenůfa.
Josefowicz Plays Stravinsky Friday, November 21 2 PM Saturday November 22 8 PM Susanna Mälkki Conductor Leila Josefowicz Violin Respighi Botticelli Triptych Stravinsky Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 4
André Watts
Leila Josefowicz
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Two great interpreters of contemporary music bring their unique perspective to the familiar. The gifted Leila Josefowicz plays Stravinsky’s demanding neoclassical Violin Concerto. Brahms’s Romantic Symphony No. 4, a paragon of the repertoire, gets a new life with Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki, making her Philadelphia Orchestra debut. The program opens with Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych, a work most definitely inspired by three paintings of the Italian Renaissance master: The Allegory of Spring, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus, all of which hang in Florence’s venerable Uffizi Gallery.