Event is Live
CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
8 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Now in his fifth season as music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is leading the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra into a new golden era. The Financial Times has called him “the most compelling, most accomplished conductor of his generation,” and The New York Times has said the orchestra “has never sounded better.” The dynamic partnership comes together for two symphonies: Bernstein’s riveting “Jeremiah,” with its unforgettable lament for Jerusalem, and Schumann’s nostalgic and joyous Symphony No. 2. There’s also a rare appearance by the great Radu Lupu in a performance of Mozart’s dramatic Piano Concerto No. 24.
Performers
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Sasha Cooke, Mezzo-Soprano
Radu Lupu, Piano
Program
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah"
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.
Sponsored by DeWitt Stern, a Risk Strategies Company
At a Glance
The
three works on this program—spanning the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries—are
among the most personal utterances of their composers, offering journeys of the
soul.
At age 23, Leonard Bernstein began writing the first of his three symphonies and soon afterward made his legendary conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic as a last-minute replacement in a nationally broadcast concert. His three-movement “Jeremiah” Symphony uses texts from the biblical Book of Lamentations. Decades later, Bernstein stated that many of his compositions are “about the struggle that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis of faith. Even way back, when I wrote ‘Jeremiah,’ I was wrestling with that problem.”
Among Mozart’s dozens of piano concertos and symphonies, only two in each genre are in minor keys. These particularly intense works, among them the Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, have long invited speculation about possible autobiographical connections.
Robert Schumann struggled throughout his life with depression—it ran in his family and led ultimately to a suicide attempt that landed him in a mental asylum for the last two years of his life. He composed his Second Symphony during a period of poor health and admitted that the deeply felt work “told a tale of many joys and sorrows.”
At age 23, Leonard Bernstein began writing the first of his three symphonies and soon afterward made his legendary conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic as a last-minute replacement in a nationally broadcast concert. His three-movement “Jeremiah” Symphony uses texts from the biblical Book of Lamentations. Decades later, Bernstein stated that many of his compositions are “about the struggle that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis of faith. Even way back, when I wrote ‘Jeremiah,’ I was wrestling with that problem.”
Among Mozart’s dozens of piano concertos and symphonies, only two in each genre are in minor keys. These particularly intense works, among them the Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, have long invited speculation about possible autobiographical connections.
Robert Schumann struggled throughout his life with depression—it ran in his family and led ultimately to a suicide attempt that landed him in a mental asylum for the last two years of his life. He composed his Second Symphony during a period of poor health and admitted that the deeply felt work “told a tale of many joys and sorrows.”