Ignat Solzhenitsyn to Conduct Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, 4/3-4

April 3 & 4, Ignat Solzhenitsyn will conduct The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in two works: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste(1936) by Béla Bartók and Symphony No. 3 in A minor ("Scottish") (1842) by Felix Mendelssohn. Both works have been popular with audiences since their premieres even though both challenged the orchestral conventions of their time. The Bartók work features several antiphonal effects created by a range of instruments including celeste, piano, xylophone, snare drum, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum and timpani. Mendelssohn's "Scottish Symphony" was one of the very first symphonies conceived to be played without any pauses. The combination together is sure to be one of the most beautiful and evocative programs of the season.

The concerts on Sunday April 3 (2:30 pm) and Monday April 4 (7:30 pm) will be in the intimate Perelman Theater at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. After the Monday evening concert, the audience is invited to gather at the Kimmel Center's PECO bar, enjoy a cocktail, and mingle with maestro Solzhenitsyn and orchestra musicians. Tickets can be ordered at chamberorchestra.org.

Solzhenitsyn, the Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Orchestra, is delighted to be returning this season to conduct two of his favorite pieces. "I'm fascinated by the range of moods and qualities in this pair of works written almost a century apart by two brilliant composers. They are both full of subtle, sometimes surprising sounds and powerfully evocative rhythms and melodies. As a complete concert, this program will be a wonderful showcase of the very high quality and rare sensitivity of this excellent chamber orchestra!" The conductor added, "Even though we are performing the moodier work on the second half of the program, I can't think of a better way to celebrate the shift from winter to spring here in Philadelphia."

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, BB 114 (1936) - Béla Bartók:

You may have heard Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste in settings other than concert halls, since parts of this Bartók work have been featured in several films and TV programs (including "Dr. Who") and even a contemporary hip hop recording. The second movement accompanies "Craig's Dance of Despair and Disillusionment" in the film Being John Malkovich, while the Adagio movement was featured in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Anthony "Ant" Davis, from the underground hip hop group Atmosphere, also featured the Adagio on the album Lucy Ford. This Adagio, which features timpani glissandi and xylophone, is an example of Bartók's "night music". It is also commonly thought that the 1:2:3:5:8:5:3:2:1...rhythm of the xylophone solo that opens the third movement is based on the famous Fibonacci Sequence.

Symphony No. 3 in A minor ("Scottish") (1829-1842) - Felix Mendelssohn:

In 1829, Mendelssohn visited the medieval ruins of Holyrood Chapel at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. This is how he described the experience in a private letter: "In the deep twilight we went today to the palace were Queen Mary lived and loved...The chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my 'Scottish' Symphony."

Mendelssohn never publicly called attention to the symphony's Scottish "origins". Only after the composer's death did his biographer learn what first inspired the work. Since then, audiences everywhere have associated it with the wild romantic landscapes of Scotland. Although it was the fifth and final of Mendelssohn's symphonies to be completed, it was the third to be published. Unlike in his other symphonies, Mendelssohn marked the movements to be performed without any break, so that they emerge and evolve from the original musical idea he first wrote down after visiting the historic ruin outside Edinburgh.