Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Mitsuko Uchida Piano
Ravel Piano Concerto in G major
Coleman Concerto for Orchestra (world premiere—Philadelphia Orchestra commission)
Debussy La Mer
GRAMMY Award-winner Mitsuko Uchida is revered for her contributions to music (including being named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire). The pianist is transformed by performance; when she walks onto the stage, she says, “that’s the moment of truth. You have to risk your life on stage. All the rest is pretending.” Taking that dare sustains this virtuosic musician: “This, to me, is a gift. If heaven existed, it’s heaven.” To Ravel’s jazzy, irrepressibly joyous Piano Concerto in G major Uchida brings “lightness of touch and tonal sparkle … who knew fingers could move so fast?” (Bachtrack).
Creating music that audiences fell in love with, Claude Debussy insisted that music was not so much about theory or rules as pure pleasure, saying “You have merely to listen. Pleasure is the law.” In La Mer, Debussy paints vivid scenes of the sea at dawn, the waves at play, the rush of wind across the water, entrancing but dangerous. Yannick Nézet-Séguin has often spoken of his love for this classic; he has conducted La Mer with orchestras around the world including the London Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Immediate, accessible, and compelling, composer Valerie Coleman’s works draw audiences in. Named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year and the Washington Post’s Top 35 Woman Composers in Classical Music, Coleman has created four works for The Philadelphia Orchestra: the pandemic ode to front-line workers Seven O’Clock Shout the jubilant Umoja: Anthem of Unity in 2019, and two works for soprano and orchestra, This Is Not a Small Voice and Eternal Flame. She brings her newest work to these concerts.
Sponsors
The co-commission for Valerie Coleman’s Concerto for Orchestra is part of the Amplifying Voices program, a New Music USA initiative powered by the Sphinx Ventures Fund, with additional support from ASCAP and the Sorel Organization.