“The Philadelphia Orchestra has wrapped up a triumphant three-week tour of Europe, playing 14 concerts in 10 cities, ending in London on Saturday,” reports Peter Crimmins in a story that aired on Monday (6/8) on Philadelphia radio station WHYY-FM, and appears on the station’s web site, NewsWorks.org. “There was a lot riding on this tour, the first led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. His appointment as music director three years ago was not only meant to trigger the organization’s financial restoration, but lift the ensemble to higher levels of artistry.… Cities including Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Amsterdam—the capitals of the Western classical canon—watched the budding relationship between the legendary Fabulous Philadelphians and its young star director. ‘It’s at a time with the orchestra where we’re still so much in love…,’ said Nézet-Séguin.… Said Davyd Booth, who has been a violinist with the orchestra for 42 years, ‘I’ve never seen the almost hysterical ovations. The end of a concert is almost like a rock concert.’ … The orchestra did not just play concert halls. Some musicians—a string quartet—performed an outdoor pop-up concert in a depressed East London neighborhood that is seeing dramatic improvements through an experimental community effort.”
Posted June 11, 2015
