Press

The Philadelphia Orchestra is without exception the region’s dominant classical music ensemble. With Yannick Nezet-Seguin at its helm as both music and artistic director, the “Fabulous Philadelphians” are celebrating their 125th anniversary season, anointing their entire year as a “highlight of the season.”

For the first dozen years of its existence, the Philadelphia Orchestra was one of America’s “minor classical music ensembles.” Both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Symphony were not merely older and more established on the national and international scenes – they were far better musically.

Then for the 1912-13 season an English-born musician of Polish heritage became the Orchestra’s music director. That glamorous personality was Leopold Stokowski and he promised the ensemble’s board of directors as well as the city’s leaders that he would transform a minor band into the world’s greatest symphony orchestra.

And, lo and behold, by the time he relinquished his leadership at the conclusion of the 1935-36 season, the Philadelphia Orchestra was, indeed, the greatest orchestra in the world. Fortunately for Stoki’s legacy, he was succeeded by Eugene Ormandy, who not only maintained the ensemble’s legendary excellence but along the way made it the most profitably recorded classical music ensemble in the world during his 44-year tenure.

Since Ormandy’s departure in 1980, his successors have included Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit (principal conductor), and now, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who is also the music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

One doesn’t have to look far back into the current season to pick one or two programs that Nezet-Seguin conducted fabulously well. His two most recent performances on the podium at the Kimmel Center’s Marian Anderson Hall stand as a testament to his ever-developing talents as a musical interpreter and symphonic conductor.

The music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius has long been a mainstay of the Philadelphians’ repertoire, a favorite of Ormandy and blessed by the composer, himself, when the Orchestra serenaded him during a European tour during the 1950s. In programming the Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony, Nezet-Seguin accepted the challenge of the Ormandy legacy – captured on a 1954 album – and met and even surpassed it. The playing was magnificent, but more important, Nezet-Seguin’s interpretation rang true with every note – sincere, straightforward, and distinctively his own.

A mere two weeks later, Nezet-Seguin led the Orchestra’s annual Christmastime performances of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” capturing the composer’s peerless lyrical beauty, inventive scoring, and impeccable word-painting. Along with the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and four magnificent vocal soloists – soprano Lucy Crowe, countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski, tenor Frederic Antoun and baritone Quinn Kelsey – Nezet-Seguin revived the spirit of a baroque masterpiece while employing the uniquely glistening luster of the Philadelphians’ spell-binding string section.

Mendelssohn Chorus

The Philadelphia Orchestra isn’t the only local ensemble to be performing at the top of its game. Dominick DiOrio led the Mendelssohn Chorus in its annual “Feast of Carols” concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, on Dec. 13. Both performances were sold out at 500 tickets apiece, and both audiences heard selections of holiday music that was beautifully chosen and even more beautifully presented.

Accompanying the choir was Andrew Kotylo, the organist and music director of the St. Paul’s. It’s been his great luck this season to be playing the newly restored Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ that has graced the church for well over half a century.

Several other local Episcopal churches now have the opportunity to boast of new or newly restored/expanded pipe organs. The Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, has taken on the historic Moller organ from the former First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, while the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Savior, West Philadelphia, now boasts a newly expanded instrument of several sources. The organist at the Cathedral is none other than Erik Meyer, former organist and music director of the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields – you guessed it – Chestnut Hill.

68 seasons

Finally, the Philadelphia Ballet continues through Dec. 31 its annual production of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” in the Academy of Music. The company is one of only a handful of ballet troupes in the world that is permitted to dance the late George Balanchine’s choreography of Tchaikovsky’s immortal score. It’s a treat for the eyes and the ears – and living witness to the company’s continued good health.

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at [email protected].