Category: Philadelphia

Quasquicentennial

Eugene Ormandy with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, 1940s. Photo: Eugene Ormandy Collection of Photographs, 1880-1992, University of Pennsylvania.

Or, to be rather less threatening about it, the Philadelphia Orchestra is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The orchestra is very closely associated with the historic Academy of Music, which is where I saw them in my youth, and my first visit to the Kimmel Center last year suggested that the new hall is fully worthy of the orchestra, acoustically and architecturally.

Enthusiasts for the orchestra can tune into WRTI this Sunday at 1:00 pm Eastern for the start of a special two-week celebration, “examining the evolution of ‘the Philadelphia Sound’ through the performances and comments of the conductors who have nurtured it,” as WRTI host Melinda Whiting at this web page has it. Sunday’s program begins with the earliest years of the orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and carries through to the orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti; next week the celebration picks up with a look at the orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach,  and its current music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

You can livestream WRTI’s programming directly from its home page. For a little more context, look up Bruce Hodges’ insightful introduction to the Philadelphia Sound, which reveals that it’s about more than the string section.

In pursuit

Update, February 23: You can watch the first episode of In Pursuit here. I have also corrected the number of episodes of Philadelphia: The Great Experiment below.

Although I write a great deal about Vienna here, I was born in — and soon will be moving back to — Philadelphia. I don’t think it would do me any good to compare them with each other, but they must have more than my affection for them in common. In any case, I’ve written a great deal about Philadelphia in the past, and you can read that here.

I suppose that one of those traits is that each plays a unique role in history, roles which exhibit affinities: Vienna in Europe, Philadelphia in the United States. Sam Katz’s History Making Productions has followed up Philadelphia: The Great Experiment, its excellent 13-part series about Philadelphia, with In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America, an examination of Philadelphia’s place in history, from the establishment of the city in the seventeenth century to its genius loci today.

The first episode premiered last night at the National Constitution Center and begins streaming today; the others will follow shortly. Credit where credit is due: all ten episodes were directed by Andrew Ferrett and written by author and historian Nathaniel Popkin. You can read more about the series in this Philadelphia Inquirer article (gift link) by Mike Newall. The trailer for the first episode (and we still don’t have an answer to its final question) is below.

Morgen ist Spendentag

Radio klassik Stephansdom‘s November Spendentag will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18, and this time around the theme is “Land of Sounds — Youth Edition,” celebrating the role that young people are playing in keeping the legacy of European and American art music hale and healthy. Several guests will be live in the Vienna studio, including representatives from the Vienna Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs and the Vienna State Opera School, along with special musical presentations. So tomorrow (or today — why wait?) open up those wallets and toss a few Euros Radio klassik Stephansdom’s way. More information about tomorrow’s Spendentag can be found here, and you can donate online here.

Of course donation drives have been a feature of public radio here in the United States for years (even the defunct and privately-held Philadelphia WFLN station, with which I grew up, was for many years listener-supported; the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its 1997 closure here). With recent federal cuts to public broadcasting, though, every week has become pledge week, so along with Vienna’s fine classical music outlet I suggest you contribute as well to Philadelphia’s WRTI, maybe the closest thing Philadelphia has to radio klassik Stephansdom. WRTI has been looking to youth as well these days; I’m hoping to listen soon to a stream of Saturday’s broadcast of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, performed by students at Philly’s Academy of Vocal Arts. WRTI’s John T.K. Scherch has more on the production, and interviews with the cast, here. You can donate here, and I’ll add a link to the Così  stream when and if it’s available.

Both stations’ web sites provide live streams of their broadcasts, but if you’re looking for something with a little more clarity and bandwidth, I recommend signing up for TuneIn and running it through your music streamer. Sounds great.