Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Paul Jacobs Organ
Program:
Foumai Concerto grosso, for chamber orchestra
Poulenc Organ Concerto
Farrenc Symphony No. 2
Perhaps the greatest overlooked composer of her day, Louise Farrenc was also the only female professor of music at the prestigious Paris Conservatory throughout the entire 19th century. Like much of her work, the Symphony No. 2 remains sadly underappreciated—Yannick calls it “unjustly underperformed”—but the beauty of the piece will surely turn any first-time listener into a fan.
Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto—his first-ever composition for the instrument—is a remarkable blending of musical styles: modal chants from the Middle Ages, Baroque fantasy, Stravinsky-esque neo-Classical elements, and a dash of grand Romanticism. Poulenc consistently mixed genres, moods, and effects to great success, as evidenced by this Concerto in particular.
Opening the program is the high-energy Concerto grosso—a Philadelphia Orchestra debut for contemporary composer Michael-Thomas Foumai. Foumai also worked with the Orchestra's Composer-in-Residence Gabriela Lena Frank as a 2017 composer fellow with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music.
Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Experience
The Philadelphia Orchestra received a $5 million gift from the Wyncote Foundation to increase and expand programming for the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall, the world’s largest mechanical action concert hall pipe organ. The partnership is supported by longtime friend of the Orchestra and former Board member Frederick R. Haas.
Learn More
This program runs approximately 1 hour and will be performed without an intermission.
Please note: All Digital Stage events begin with a performance premiere, streaming in real time. Following the performance premiere, the concert will be available for ticket holders to watch on demand for one week.
Digital Stage FAQ
Sponsors
Lead support for the Digital Stage is provided by:
Claudia and Richard Balderston
Elaine W. Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
The CHG Charitable Trust
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Innisfree Foundation
Gretchen and M. Roy Jackson
Neal W. Krouse
John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Leslie A. Miller and Richard B. Worley
Ralph W. Muller and Beth B. Johnston
William Penn Foundation
Peter and Mari Shaw
Dr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Townsend
Waterman Trust
Constance and Sankey Williams
Wyncote Foundation