Join us Sunday, March 27 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, March 28 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 when our Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert series brings you a performance from the Orchestra’s 2021/2022 season, recorded in live on New Weekend of the Year in 2021 gave way to 2022.

This festive concert, perfect for welcoming new beginnings, is hosted by Xian Zhang, music director of the New Jersey Symphony. It associates the sparkling of Rossini Guillaume Tell Opens with Beethoven’s expansive and uplifting Seventh Symphony, with all its brilliance and energy. Festive encores by Johann Strauss Sr. and Jr. close the event with a bang.

Rossini wrote his last opera, Guillaume Tell, in 1829, based on Friedrich Schiller’s play about medieval Swiss patriots fighting for independence from Austria. Unlike his early operatic overtures, which often had little or no thematic connection to the works they introduced, the Guillaume Tell Overture includes melodies from the opera and resembles a symphonic poem. Its subdued opening draws a serene image of dawn in the Swiss countryside. This gives way to a turbulent storm before the pastoral scene reappears. Finally comes the galloping return of the victorious Swiss troops, in a music firmly anchored in popular culture for several generations. Famous theme of old western TV series The Lone Rangerit has also been used in countless cartoons, commercials, and movies.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major dates from 1813, when the composer was enjoying the height of his popular fame and success. It came at a time of public celebration across much of Europe, as the tide turned in the Napoleonic Wars, and brilliantly captured the triumphant spirit of the times. At the premiere, conducted by the composer, the symphony met with an ecstatic reception and the second movement Allegretto was encored. The dance energy of the symphony flows from compact, recurring rhythmic figures, creating compelling dynamics even as Beethoven deploys a seemingly limitless variety of melodies and countermelodies, harmonic and dynamic surprises, and masterful touches of orchestration.

The tradition of New Year’s concerts calls for the music of the Viennese Strauss family, and Xian Zhang and the orchestra delight the audience with fitting encores to close the program: the Mars Radetzki by Johann Strauss senior and the Thunder and Lightning Polka by Johann Strauss Jr.

PROGRAM:

Rossini: Guillaume Tell Opening
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
J. Strauss, father: Mars Radetzki
J. Strauss, Jr.: Thunder and Lightning Polka

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Xian Zhang, driver

Melinda Merlanhost
Susan Lewis, producer and main contact

Listen to the Philadelphia Orchestra in concert, every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming on WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your favorite smart speaker. Listen again Mondays at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen up to two weeks after the broadcast on WRTI proofreading.