Season 2015-2016 The Philadelphia Orchestra

Thursday, April 14, at 8:00 Friday, April 15, at 2:00 Saturday, April 16, at 8:00 Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Ricardo Morales Clarinet Leshnoff Clarinet Concerto (“Nekudim”)

I. Slow

II. : Chesed, Fast III. Slow World premiere—Commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Santa Barbara Symphony

These performances are made possible in part by the Presser Foundation. The April 14 concert is sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. John Glick.

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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 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 highly 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 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 nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at 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.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, The Philadelphia Orchestra today boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at

Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia’s many communities, as it builds an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. The Orchestra’s award-winning Collaborative Learning initiatives 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. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. 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, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and he has renewed his commitment to the ensemble through the 2021-22 season. His highly 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.” Highlights of his fourth season include a year-long exploration of works that exemplify the famous Philadelphia Sound, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and other pieces premiered by the Orchestra; a Music of Vienna Festival; and the continuation of a commissioning project for principal players.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with two CDs on that label; the second, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Daniil Trifonov, was released in August 2015. He continues fruitful recording relationships with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are appointments as Companion of the Order of Canada and Officer of the National Order of Quebec, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, Canada’s National Arts Centre Award, the Prix Denise-Pelletier, Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year, and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Westminster Choir College.To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Chris Lee

SoloistRicardo Morales is one of the most sought after clarinetists of today. He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2003 and holds the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair. Prior to his Philadelphia appointment he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21. He has performed as guest principal clarinet several times with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, and at the invitation of Simon Rattle performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also performs as principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began lessons at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Diploma. He has been a featured soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Flemish Radio symphonies; and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004 and has since performed as soloist on numerous occasions. An active chamber musician, he has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Chamber Music Summer Festival, and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival; on NBC’s The Today Show; and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In addition he currently serves on the faculty of Temple University.

Mr. Morales’s debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on Boston Records. His recent recordings include performances with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and with the Pacifica Quartet, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. He has joined forces with master acoustician and instrument maker Morrie Backun to create MoBa, a company of top-of-the line clarinets and clarinet accessories, including mouthpieces, bells, and barrels. 

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The MusicClarinet Concerto (“Nekudim”)

Jonathan LeshnoffBorn in New Brunswick, New Jersey, September 8, 1973Now living in Baltimore

Jonathan Leshnoff’s music combines arching lyricism with transparent textures, rhythmic dynamism, and sophisticated structural design. In recent years he has consistently been listed among the most frequently performed living composers in America: His works have been performed by more than 50 orchestras worldwide. The Washington Post has called Leshnoff, who is professor of music at Towson University in Baltimore, one of the “gifted young composers” of our time.

An Affinity for Concertos Leshnoff’s catalog includes more than 50 works, including three symphonies, 10 concertos, four string quartets, and three oratorios. He has composed on commission from Carnegie Hall and from the orchestras of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Nashville, and Kansas City. Among the soloists he has written for are violinist Gil Shaham, guitarist Manuel Barrueco, pianist Orly Shaham, and Philadelphia Principal Flute Jeffrey Khaner. Naxos has released three discs of his works on its American Classics label, including recordings of his Violin Concerto (with Charles Wetherbee and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra), the Symphony No. 1 (with Michael Stern and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra), and several chamber works.

In his many concertos Leshnoff has shown a special affinity for the medium of solo instrument with orchestra. “When I write a concerto,” he says, “I have to become the instrument. It’s a double refraction: It has to go through me and then through the solo instrument.” He was thrilled to be able to write for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Principal Clarinet Ricardo Morales, whose lyricism he has long admired.

A Closer Look The Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra and co-commissioned by the Santa Barbara Symphony (Nir Kabaretti, music director). It is cast in three movements, with lush, pensive outer ones (both marked Slow) flanking a large central statement (Chesed, Fast) that is the heart and soul of the piece. At the outset of the opening movement, the soloist presents a yearning lyrical central theme that is to form a building-block for the piece, and which is reprised in the brief final

Erica Abbey Photography

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movement. The second movement features passages of great rhythmic vitality juxtaposed with witty, jazz-like interpolations; it concludes with a free cadenza of virtuosic roulades that leads directly into the brief third movement. The finale (Slow) reprises the beginning of the opening movement, complete with a gentle series of restatements of the arching central theme. The composer has written the following about the Concerto:

This Concerto is subtitled “Nekudim” (literally “points”), a term that refers to the vowels in the Hebrew language, notated by lines and dots underneath the letter. The majority of the Hebrew letters are consonants, such as the letter “b.” It is only the vowels that give the “b” vocal direction, such as “bee” or “bah,” etc. In a metaphysical context, the letters are lifeless “bodies” that are animated with the “soul” of a vowel.

To me, a woodwind instrument—and the clarinet in particular—is a musical example of this concept. A string instrument is held outside the body of the player and the violinist uses his exterior limbs (hands) to make the instrument sound. But the clarinet is attached to the player’s mouth—Ricardo is literally breathing life into the notes that I wrote. This is the concept of Nekudim illustrated in music. Knowing what a phenomenally sensitive musician Ricardo is, I trusted the long legato lines of the first and last movement, that require so much shaping and phrasing of each note, to his innate musicality. I am confident of him breathing in the “living soul” to the music.

Movement 2 is associated with the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, , “vav,” which refers to the attribute of Chesed in Jewish mystical thought. Chesed is associated with uninhibited giving, without regard to the merits of the recipient. The second movement is approximately 10 minutes of unrelenting motion. As I was writing, each time I contemplated a complete cadence, I found another way to continue. To me, this “continual continuation” represents the uninhibited giving of Chesed. The movement is fun and spirited, with a rhythmic dance of sorts in which woodblock and clarinet punctuate the end of each subsection.

—Paul J. Horsley

Leshnoff’s Clarinet Concerto was composed in 2015.

These are the world premiere performances of the work.

The piece is scored for solo clarinet, three flutes (III doubling piccolo), three oboes (III doubling English horn), three clarinets (III doubing) bass clarinet, three bassoons (III doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (wood block), harp, piano, and strings.

The Concerto runs approximately 20 minutes in performance.

Season 2013-2014 The Philadelphia Orchestra

Thursday, April 3, at 8:00 Friday, April 4, at 2:00 Saturday, April 5, at 8:00 Christoph von Dohnányi Conductor Ricardo Morales Clarinet Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73

I. Allegro II. Adagio ma non troppo III. Rondo: Allegretto

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The Philadelphia Orchestra

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 innovation in music-making. 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 triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth artistic leader of the Orchestra in fall 2012. His highly 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. Yannick has been embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the

community itself. His concerts of diverse repertoire attract sold-out houses, and he has established a regular forum for connecting with concert-goers through Post-Concert Conversations.

Under Yannick’s leadership the Orchestra returns to recording with a newly-released CD on the Deutsche Grammophon label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. In Yannick’s inaugural season the Orchestra has also returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship not only with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center but also those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other venues. The Orchestra is also a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the U.S. Having been the first American orchestra

to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The Orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying annual residencies in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at the Bravo! Vail festival.

Musician-led initiatives, including highly-successful PlayINs, shine a spotlight on the Orchestra’s musicians, as they spread out from the stage into the community. The Orchestra’s commitment to its education and community partnership initiatives manifests itself in numerous other ways, including concerts for families and students, and eZseatU, a program that allows full-time college students to attend an unlimited number of Orchestra concerts for a $25 annual membership fee. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

Jessica Griffin

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ConductorChristoph von Dohnányi is recognized as one of the world’s pre-eminent orchestral and opera conductors. His appointments have included opera directorships in Frankfurt and Hamburg, and principal orchestral conducting posts in England, Germany, and Paris. He enjoys a longstanding partnership with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, where he served as principal conductor and artistic adviser for a decade and is honorary conductor for life. He is renowned for his legendary 20-year tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1988.

Recent highlights include performances at Ravinia and Tanglewood, followed by season-opening concerts with the Boston Symphony, where he returned for a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle with Yefim Bronfman last month; concerts with the Zurich Tonhalle and the Philharmonia in London; subscription weeks with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony; and a pair of gala concerts in San Diego. Additionally he has led concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic; undertaken residencies with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Musikverein in Vienna and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and appeared with that ensemble on a U.S. tour; and conducted landmark series of all-Beethoven and all-Brahms concerts with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and the complete Brahms symphonies with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Mr. von Dohnányi frequently leads productions at the world’s great opera houses, including Covent Garden, La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, and in Paris and Berlin. He has led the Vienna Philharmonic in many Salzburg Festival appearances, including the world premieres of Hans Werner Henze’s Die Bassariden and Friedrich Cerha’s Baal. Mr. Dohnányi also regularly appears with the Zurich Opera and with the Théâtre du Châtelet. He has made a number of critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. His discography with Cleveland includes concert performances and recordings of Wagner’s Die Walküre and Das Rheingold; the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; and works by Bruckner, Mahler, Mozart, Ives, Bartók, and Webern, among others.

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SoloistRicardo Morales is one of the most sought after clarinetists of today. He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2003. Prior to this he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21, under the direction of James Levine. He has performed as guest principal clarinetist several times with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, and at the invitation of Simon Rattle performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also performs as principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Diploma. He has been a featured soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Flemish Radio symphonies; and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004 and has since performed as soloist on numerous occasions. An active chamber musician, he has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival; on NBC’s The Today Show; and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In addition, he currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Temple University, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mr. Morales’s debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on the Boston Records label. His recent recordings include performances with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and with the Pacifica Quartet, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. Mr. Morales has joined forces with internationally recognized master acoustician and instrument maker Morrie Backun to create MoBa, a company of top-of-the line clarinets and clarinet accessories, including mouthpieces, bells, and barrels.

Victor Dezso Foto

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The MusicClarinet Concerto No. 1

Carl Maria von WeberBorn in Eutin, near Lübeck, November 18, 1786Died in London, June 5, 1826

Carl Maria von Weber’s arrest in February 1810 on charges of embezzlement and other crimes marked a low point in a short life further hampered by frequent illnesses. Expelled from Stuttgart within the month, the 23-year-old composer resolved to turn things around as he documented in a diary he kept for the rest of his life. Weber was prodigiously talented as a composer, pianist, conductor, and writer, which in many respects brings to mind Mozart, to whose widow, Constanze Weber, he was related. Like Mozart, Weber had an ambitious father eager to promote his career (indeed, as a second Mozart) and he emerged as a composer who marvelously mingled his gifts writing both instrumental music and operas.

A Fruitful Friendship And as with Mozart, a warm personal friendship with a great clarinetist led to the creation of a series of wonderful orchestral and chamber works showcasing the instrument. Mozart had enthused about what the clarinet could do as early as 1778 when he heard it in the Mannheim Orchestra and this later bore fruit in the pieces he composed for Anton Stadler, including the still unsurpassed Clarinet Concerto, the final major composition he completed before his death in 1791. Nearly a century later, Johannes Brahms also formed a close partnership with a clarinetist, Richard Muhlfeld, that led to a series of final chamber music masterpieces at the end of his life.

The mechanics of the clarinet developed a good deal in the quarter century between Mozart’s time and 1811, when Weber first met Heinrich Joseph Baermann (1784-1847), who was principal clarinetist in the Court Orchestra in Munich. Weber immediately wrote the Clarinet Concertino, Op. 26, premiered by Baermann on April 5. An enthusiastic King Maximilian I of Bavaria commissioned two full concertos, which Weber wrote over the coming months. As the composer explained in a letter:

Since I composed the Clarinet Concertino for Baermann the whole orchestra has been the very devil about demanding concertos from me. … I have orders for two Clarinet Concertos (of which one in F minor is almost ready), two large arias, a Cello

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Concerto for Legrand, a Bassoon Concerto. You see I’m not doing at all badly, and very probably I will spend the summer here, where I am earning so much that I’ve something left over after all expenses.

The proposed cello concerto never materialized, but clearly Weber had gotten his life and career back on track. Baermann premiered the Clarinet Concerto No. 1, Op. 73, which we hear today, on June 13 and the Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 74, on November 25. (The high opus numbers of these pieces reflect their publication more than a decade later.) According to the composer’s diary concerning the latter event, Baermann “played in a heavenly manner” and the work was greeted with “frantic applause.” The two musicians made further plans. As Weber explained in a letter, after speaking with “Baermann, the clarinetist, a truly great artist and splendid man,” they decided to embark on a concert tour to Prague, Dresden, and Berlin. The two remained close friends for the rest of Weber’s life—the composer would stay with him whenever he visited Munich and they met up in Vienna and elsewhere as well.

A Closer Look Weber is best known today for the overtures to his operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon. In these and less familiar compositions, his masterful use of orchestral colors helped to usher in a new Romantic sensibility and proved enormously influential. Weber was born after, but died before, Beethoven, and his music looks both backward and forward. Although he composed a great variety of music, most of it, including symphonies and piano concertos, has not entered the repertory. The music he wrote for clarinet has done much better, not only because of a more limited repertoire for the instrument (there are a lot of competing symphonies and piano concertos), but also because he used the clarinet in such evocative and compelling ways.

Given his greatness as an opera composer it is hardly surprising that Weber’s instrumental music is filled with moments of high drama and lyrical effusions. The first movement (Allegro) opens with a soft and mysterious theme in the lower strings that erupts into a bold orchestral statement in F minor. The soloist enters with a soft, plaintive melody (marked “sorrowfully”), but in time the movement temporarily becomes more lighthearted.

The gem of the Concerto is the amazing Adagio ma non troppo that opens as if it were an operatic aria—against a softly undulating accompaniment the clarinetist

as dramatic singer enters with a beautiful long-breathed melody that is repeated and developed. A central section in two parts provides variety, first a more agitated passage with faster moving 16th notes and virtuoso runs, followed by a calm chorale for three horns (another instrument Weber composed for brilliantly), to which the clarinet responds. The opening melody then returns in abbreviated form to round off the movement, together with a brief reminiscence of the horn chorale. After Weber’s death Baermann made an arrangement of this chorale for a memorial concert, casting it for clarinet and three male voices singing a poem honoring the composer.

The final movement is a Rondo (Allegretto) that opens with a buoyant theme and projects the spirit of a comic opera finale. After a climatic passage for the soloist, reaching to the heights of the instrument, there is an extended minor-mode section that briefly returns us to the realm of tragedy before the playful and joyous conclusion.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto was composed in 1811.

Benny Goodman was the soloist in the Orchestra’s first performance of the work, in January 1952 on a Special Pops Concert; Alexander Hilsberg conducted. The only previous subscription performances prior to these current ones were in October 1970, with Anthony Gigliotti as soloist and Lorin Maazel on the podium. More recently, the piece was performed at the Mann Center in July 1992, with Gigliotti and Libor Pešek.

The Concerto is scored for solo clarinet, two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

The piece runs approximately 18 minutes in performance.

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Season 2018-2019 The Philadelphia Orchestra

Thursday, February 21, at 8:00 Friday, February 22, at 2:00 Saturday, February 23, at 8:00 Joshua Weilerstein Conductor Ricardo Morales Clarinet Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 74

I. Allegro II. Romanza: Andante III. Alla polacca

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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 four 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 broadcasts on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM.

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 Orchestra is a global cultural ambassador for Philadelphia and for the US. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, the ensemble today boasts five-year partnerships with Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Shanghai Media Group. In 2018 the Orchestra traveled to Europe and Israel. The Orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs and Vail. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Jessica Griffin

Conductor Joshua Weilerstein, who is making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, is the artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne; he recently extended his term until the end of the 2020-21 season. He enjoys a flourishing guest conducting career and has established a number of close relationships both in Europe and the US, including with the Oslo, Royal Stockholm, Royal Liverpool and New York philharmonics; the NDR Radiophilharmonie; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; and the Danish National, BBC, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Baltimore symphonies. This season Mr. Weilerstein makes his operatic debut conducting Mozart’s Così fan Tutte at the Opéra de Lausanne with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He returns to the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg; the Netherlands, Oslo, BBC, Royal, and Royal Liverpool philharmonics; the NDR Radiophilharmonie; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie; and the Orchestre National de Lyon. Mr. Weilerstein's career was launched after winning both the First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. He then completed a three-year appointment as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Weilerstein hosts a successful classical music podcast, Sticky Notes, for music lovers and newcomers alike. In his capacity as artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, he encourages and is committed to participating in the educational and Découvertes series of concerts for children and families. During his time as assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic, he was actively involved in the ensemble’s Young People’s Concerts. In August 2018, he conducted a specially devised program, “The Sound of an Orchestra,” for the BBC Proms, which was inspired by, and re-worked, Leonard Bernstein’s televised presentations in New York.

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SoloistRicardo Morales is one of the most sought after clarinetists today. He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2003 and holds the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair. Prior to this he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21. He has performed as principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, and at the invitation of Simon Rattle, performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also performs as principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra and the Mito Chamber Orchestra, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Diploma. He has been a featured soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Flemish Radio symphonies; and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004 and has since performed as soloist on numerous occasions. An active chamber musician, he has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Chamber Music Summer Festival, and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival; on NBC’s The Today Show; and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, he currently serves on the faculty of Temple University.

Mr. Morales’s debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on Boston Records. His recent recordings include performances with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio; the Pacifica Quartet, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award; and of the Mozart Concerto with the Mito Chamber Orchestra for Decca. He is a sought-after consultant and designer of musical instruments and accessories, and enjoys a musical partnership with F. Arthur Uebel, a world-renowned manufacturer of artist-level clarinets.

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The MusicClarinet Concerto No. 2

Carl Maria Von WeberBorn in Eutin, near Lübeck, November 18, 1786Died in London, June 5, 1826

Carl Maria von Weber’s arrest in February 1810 on embezzlement and other charges marked a low point in a short life further hampered by frequent illnesses. Expelled from Stuttgart within the month, the 23-year-old composer resolved to turn his life around, as he documented in a diary he kept for the rest of his life. He was prodigiously gifted as a composer, pianist, conductor, and writer, which in many respects brings to mind Mozart, to whose widow, Constanze Weber, he was related. Like Mozart, Weber had an ambitious father eager to promote his career (indeed, to be a second Mozart) and he emerged as a composer who marvelously mingled his gifts writing both instrumental music and operas.

A Fruitful Friendship And as with Mozart some decades earlier, a warm personal friendship with a great clarinetist led to the creation of a series of wonderful orchestral and chamber works showcasing the instrument. Mozart had enthused about what the clarinet could do as early as 1778 when he heard it in the Mannheim Orchestra and this later bore fruit in the pieces he composed for Anton Stadler, including the still unsurpassed Clarinet Concerto, the final major composition he completed before his death in 1791. Nearly a century later, Johannes Brahms also formed a close partnership with a clarinetist, Richard Muhlfeld, that led to a series of final chamber music masterpieces at the end of his life.

The mechanics of the clarinet developed a good deal further in the quarter century between Mozart’s time and 1811, when Weber first met Heinrich Joseph Baermann (1784-1847), who was principal clarinetist in the Court Orchestra in Munich. Weber immediately wrote the Clarinet Concertino, Op. 26, which Baermann premiered in April. An enthusiastic King Maximilian I of Bavaria commissioned two full concertos, which Weber wrote over the coming months. As the composer explained in a letter:

Since I composed the Clarinet Concertino for Baermann the whole orchestra has been the very devil about demanding concertos from me. … I have orders for two Clarinet Concertos (of which one in F minor is almost ready), two large arias, a Cello Concerto for Legrand, a Bassoon Concerto. You

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Weber composed his Second Clarinet Concerto in 1811.

Ricardo Morales was the soloist in the first, and only other, Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the Concerto, in August 2004 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center; Charles Dutoit conducted.

The score calls for solo clarinet; pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets; timpani; and strings.

Performance time is approximately 23 minutes.

see I’m not doing at all badly, and very probably I will spend the summer here, where I am earning so much that I’ve something left over after all expenses.

The proposed cello concerto never materialized, but by this point Weber had clearly gotten his life and career back on track. Baermann premiered the Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73, on June 13 and the Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 74, on November 25. (The high opus numbers of these pieces reflect their publication more than a decade later.) According to the composer’s diary concerning the latter event, Baermann “played in a heavenly manner” and the work was greeted with “frantic applause.” The two musicians made further plans, as Weber explained in a letter, that after speaking with “Baermann, the clarinetist, a truly great artist and splendid man” they had decided to embark on a concert tour to Prague, Dresden, and Berlin. The two remained close friends for the rest of Weber’s life—Weber would stay with him whenever he visited Munich and they met up in Vienna and elsewhere as well.

A Closer Look Weber is best known today for the overtures to his operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon. In these and less familiar compositions, his masterful use of orchestral colors helped to usher in a new Romantic sensibility and proved enormously influential. Weber was born after, but died before, Beethoven (like Mozart, he died in his 30s), and his music looks both backward and forward. Although he composed a great variety of music, most of it, including symphonies and piano concertos, has not entered the repertory. The pieces he wrote for clarinet have done much better, not only because of a more limited repertory for the instrument but also because he used it in such evocative and compelling ways.

The first movement of the E-flat Concerto (Allegro) is in a traditional sonata form. After an extended and majestic orchestral introduction the clarinet makes a dramatic entrance with a three-octave leap from high to low; exploring the full range of the instrument is among the challenges of this piece. The mysterious string opening of the second movement (Andante con moto) is more characteristic of Weber’s distinctive Romantic style and of his greatness as an opera composer; here one imagines an aria sung by the clarinet soloist. The bubbling rondo finale (Alla polacca) makes use of a polonaise rhythm, much as Beethoven had done a few years earlier in his Triple Concerto, and becomes ever more virtuosic for the soloist as it unfolds with an especially brilliant conclusion.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Season 2014-2015 The Philadelphia Orchestra

Friday, November 28, at 8:00 Saturday, November 29, at 8:00 Sunday, November 30, at 2:00 Juanjo Mena Conductor Ricardo Morales Clarinet Debussy Rhapsody No. 1, for clarinet and orchestra Rossini Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet and

Orchestra First Philadelphia Orchestra performances

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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 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 highly 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 since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions on the 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 nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other 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.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra’s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop-Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Jessica Griffin

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ConductorChief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena is one of Spain’s most distinguished conductors. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2009 at the Mann Center and his subscription debut the following year. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2014-15 season include return visits to the Boston and Pittsburgh symphonies, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He also debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Montreal Symphony. European highlights this season include debuts with the London Philharmonic and the Nash Ensemble of London, as well as concerts with the Danish National Symphony, the French and Spanish national orchestras, and the Bergen and Oslo philharmonics.

A guest at numerous international festivals, Mr. Mena has appeared at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Hollywood Bowl; Grant Park in Chicago; Tanglewood; and La Folle Journée in Nantes, among others. He recently led the BBC Philharmonic on two European tours, including performances in Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, and Madrid; he performs with the ensemble every year at the BBC Proms in London. Mr. Mena has also appeared with the Dresden, La Scala, Netherlands Radio, and Royal Stockholm philharmonics; the Munich Radio Orchestra; and all the major orchestras in Spain.

Mr. Mena’s operatic work includes Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman; Strauss’s Salome, Elektra, and Ariadne auf Naxos; Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle; and Schoenberg’s Erwartung. Recent productions include Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Genoa, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in Lausanne, and Britten’s Billy Budd in Bilbao.

Mr. Mena has made several recordings with the BBC Philharmonic, including, on the Chandos label, a disc of works by Manuel de Falla, which was a BBC Music magazine Recording of the Month; works by Gabriel Pierné, which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice; and recent releases of music by Montsalvatge, Weber, and Turina. Other recordings include a collection of Basque symphonic music with the Bilbao Symphony for Naxos, and a critically acclaimed rendering of Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony for Hyperion with the Bergen Philharmonic.

Sussie A

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SoloistRicardo Morales is one of the most sought after clarinetists today. He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2003. Prior to this he was principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21, under the direction of James Levine. He has been asked to perform as principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, and at the invitation of Simon Rattle, performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also performs as principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa.

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Morales began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Musica along with his five siblings, who are all distinguished musicians. He continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Indiana University, where he received his Artist Diploma. He has been a featured soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Flemish Radio symphonies; and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004 and has since performed as soloist on numerous occasions. An active chamber musician, he has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Chamber Music Summer Festival, and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival; on NBC’s The Today Show; and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Morales is highly sought after for his recitals and master classes, which have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In addition, he currently serves on the faculties of Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mr. Morales’s debut solo recording, French Portraits, is available on the Boston Records label. His recent recordings include performances with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and with the Pacifica Quartet, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. Mr. Morales has joined forces with internationally recognized master acoustician and instrument maker Morrie Backun to create MoBa, a company of top-of-the line clarinets and clarinet accessories, including mouthpieces, bells, and barrels.

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The MusicRhapsody No. 1

Claude DebussyBorn in St. Germain-en-Laye, August 22, 1862Died in Paris, March 25, 1918

For those young French composers who were lucky enough to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, the rest of their lives were inevitably enmeshed in a web of official obligations, especially those that related to their alma mater, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. Founded by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1793, the Paris Conservatory was the most important musical institution in France throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th. As an extension of the French government, the Conservatory administered a number of prizes, including the Prix de Rome; prominent alumni were often invited to adjudicate at vocal and instrumental juries. Such invitations were considered a signal honor. The level of competition at these juries was fierce indeed, as those who won a Premier Prix were virtually assured of professional success.

When Gabriel Fauré was appointed as director of the Conservatory in 1905, he instituted reforms in both the curriculum and the jury system. In a sharp departure from tradition, for example, he required that instrumentalists and vocalists attend classes in music history. Furthermore, he regularized and modernized the Conseil Supérieur, the governing counsel of the Conservatory, by appointing a number of leading composers to its ranks, including the winner of the 1884 Prix de Rome, Claude Debussy.

An Influential Appointment After Fauré’s appointment of Debussy in 1909, there were protests from the scandalized old guard who saw Debussy as a dangerous radical. (Given that Fauré had been enamored enough of Emma Bardac, a gifted singer who became the second Madame Debussy, to write his passionate song cycle La Bonne Chanson for her, it is a testament to his objectivity and probity that Fauré nevertheless appointed Debussy, the man who had supplanted him in her affections, to an influential post within the organization of which he was director.) Often strapped for ready cash, Debussy was glad to accept the stipend that came with this position, and, although he coyly declared himself “dumbfounded” by the appointment, he performed his duties with an admirable punctiliousness. Early in his tenure, Debussy made it absolutely clear that he preferred hearing instrumental juries to those for vocalists. In July 1909 he wrote to his

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publisher Jacques Durand, “I have just been sitting on the jury for the woodwind competitions … and I can give you the good news of the high standards of the flutes, oboes, and clarinets.”

As a new member of the Conseil Supérieur, Debussy was commissioned to compose two pieces for the 1910 clarinet juries: the first was a brief “morceau” designed to test the student clarinetists’ sight-reading ability, while the second was an extended “solo de concours” that would be studied and performed by all of the players. Debussy seems to have left the composition of the sight-reading test, entitled Petite Pièce for clarinet and piano, perilously to the end, but the “solo de concours,” which was published as his Rhapsody No. 1 for clarinet and piano—there is no Rhapsody No. 2—was written from December 1909 to January 1910. Often self-critical, Debussy was uncharacteristically ebullient in expressing his pleasure with this score, writing happily to Durand the day after the jury that “to judge by the expressions on the faces of my colleagues, the Rhapsody was a success. … One of the candidates, Vandercruyssen, played it by heart and very musically.” Even more astonishingly, this most reticent of composers exclaimed that his Rhapsody, which he orchestrated in 1911, was “one of the most charming that I have ever written.”

A Closer Look For the form of the Rhapsody, Debussy adopted the customary binary structure of such concours pieces in which a lyrical opening section was succeeded by overtly virtuosic music. But while he may have called this “solo de concours” a “rhapsodie,” there is nothing loosely rhapsodic about this cunningly wrought score. The languid opening contains all of the musical motifs from which Debussy will construct his piece. This first section consists of two distinct themes, the first marked Reveusement lent (Slowly dreaming) while the second is a voluptuously swaying melody that the clarinetist is directed to play doux et penetrant (sweet and penetrating). The cheerfully brusque scherzando section that follows is marked Modérément animé (Moderately fast). This lively music then proceeds to chase the sensuous opening themes about like a playfully amorous feline. The music becomes progressively more animated as it hurtles towards a joyous and extroverted conclusion.

—Byron Adams

Debussy composed his Rhapsody No. 1 from 1909 to 1910 and orchestrated it in 1911.

The first Orchestra performance was on December 28, 1933, on a Youth Concert with Robert McGinnis as soloist and Leopold Stokowski on the podium. Most recently it was heard at the Mann Center in July 1996, with clarinetist Anthony Gigliotti and Charles Dutoit. The piece has never been heard on subscription concerts until these current performances.

Debussy scored the work for solo clarinet, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, percussion (cymbals, triangle), two harps, and strings.

The Rhapsody runs approximately seven minutes in performance.

The MusicIntroduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra

Gioachino RossiniBorn in Pesaro, February 29, 1792Died in Paris, November 13, 1868

In the heart of Italy sits Bologna, a gritty, orange-hued city, famous for meat sauce and attracting musical prodigies. Ancient porticos ring its streets; giant wooden doors hide its riches, trapping, mollifying, and amplifying diverse street sounds. Stendhal dubbed it “the headquarters of music in Italy,” and Charles Dickens wrote that it had a “grave and learned air” and a “pleasant gloom.” Mozart visited Bologna to study counterpoint with the renowned Padre Martini, who owned the largest collection of musical manuscripts in Europe.

A Child Prodigy Gioachino Rossini moved to Bologna in 1804 when he was 12—like Mozart, a genius by all early accounts. His friends at Bologna’s Liceo Musicale (conservatory) called him il tedeschino (the little German) because he embraced the style of Viennese Classicism. Born into a musical family in Pesaro in 1792, to a horn-playing father and opera-singing mother, Rossini showed prowess on many instruments, and while his father, Giuseppe, spent several stints in prison for espousing liberal-leaning views, he and his mother, Anna, performed for their supper. Gioachino tagged along with her in and out of local theatrical companies. Already in the town of Ravenna, he was hired for the carnival season. In 1804 he composed a duet to sing with his mother and his most famous juvenile work, the six Sonate a Quattro for two violins, viola, and bass.

In Bologna Rossini studied music with Father Stanislao Matteo, a kind and demanding figure, who instilled in him the basics of harmony and part-writing without harpooning his enthusiasm. Between Martini’s library that contained over 17,000 manuscripts and the many brilliant opera singers who visited the city, Rossini was exposed to a variety of music. Like Mozart, legend has it that he heard music once and to everyone’s astonishment wrote it down from memory. He accompanied opera companies on the keyboard, and his cantata for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, Il pianto d’Armonia sulla morte d’Orfeo, was performed at his school’s convocation in 1808. Perhaps because of his ribald nature and unrivaled sense of humor, Rossini quickly became a school darling, composing and conducting opera

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overtures, one whose second theme began with a solo cello in a distant key.

Rossini composed the Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet during his heady student years, probably in 1809. It was customary for the best conservatory students to have their pieces performed during the school year, and he most likely conducted this work. During the last year of his studies in 1810, he met Giovanni Morandi, a travelling composer and impresario with Venetian connections. Soon after, Rossini moved to Venice where he found great success with his opera La cambiale di matrimonio. Unlike Mozart, Rossini quickly achieved financial security in Italy and then in Paris, eventually completing nearly 40 operas. He abandoned composing opera after William Tell in 1829 and died in 1868.

A Closer Look A staple for virtuoso clarinetists, Rossini’s Introduction, Theme, and Variations requires operatic chops. The solo part vaunts a succession of haphazard acrobat notes, sewn together by the player’s brazen musicality. Clarinet pieces with orchestral accompaniment were popular in the early Romantic period—Mozart setting the bar with his late Clarinet Concerto. Other opera composers wrote for clarinet, including Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer. The instrument’s versatile registers, known as chalumeau, clarion, and altissimo, suggest different vocal timbres.

A slow introduction marks the beginning of the piece, consisting of a loud orchestral call to attention followed by the clarinet’s sweet response. The clarinet part is challenging from the start, with eager quick notes spanning the instrument’s range. Except for the opening notes, occasional cadences, and cheerful rejoinders, the orchestra remains in the background, like a straight man to a talk show host. Rossini places a brief cadenza, a difficult solo passage, at the end of the theme, leaving the listeners no doubt about the soloist’s moxie. Five variations follow: the first with punchy staccatos and Rossini’s characteristic orchestral rejoinders. The clarinetist bounces from low to high notes. The second is a rollercoaster of fast pitches—the third flaunts speedy ascending arpeggios and breathless descending scales. Contrast marks the fourth variation: a slow, pensive minor mode pervades, showing the clarinetist’s sensitive side. A Mozartian chord progression sets up the last variation, which is punctured by a second cadenza. The orchestra’s final cadence puts a lid on this rip-roaring affair.

—Eleonora M. Beck

The Introduction, Theme, and Variations was probably composed in 1809.

These are the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the piece.

The score calls for solo clarinet, flute, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, and strings.

The running time is approximately 14 minutes.