The Philadelphia Orchestra will depart on April 19 for a three-week tour of Asia that will include performances in Korea, Japan, and in China at the Shanghai World Expo. The trip will be Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit’s first international tour with the orchestra, which begins with a concert in Changwon (Korea). Among the works scheduled for the tour are Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Ravel’s La Valse; Stravinsky’s Firebird and Rite of Spring; Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto featuring Arabella Steinbacher; Ravel’s Piano Concerto featuring Martha Argerich; and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with concertmaster David Kim as soloist. The orchestra’s May 7 performance at Shanghai’s new 18,000-seat World Expo Performance Center will focus on American composers, including works of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin, and will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. In 1973, the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first U.S. orchestra to perform in China, following a request by President Nixon to serve as cultural ambassador in re-establishing ties with China.
Posted April 1, 2010
