Category: Daily Dispatch

Happy birthday, The Philadelphia Orchestra! Looking pretty good for 125.

The Fabulous Philadelphians gave their first public concert under Fritz Scheel on this date in 1900. The event took place at the orchestra’s former home of the Academy of Music, located on the southwest corner of Broad and Locust Streets. On the program were works by Carl Goldmark (“In Spring” Overture), Beethoven (Symphony No. 5), Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1), Weber-Berlioz (“Invitation to the Dance”), and Wagner (“Entry of the Gods into Valhalla”).

The soloist on that occasion was Ossip Gabrilowitsch. Gabrilowitsch’s teachers at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory included Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Medtner. He then studied for two years in Vienna under the legendary pedagogue Theodor Leschitizky. Not only was Gabrilowitsch a prominent pianist, he was also offered the music directorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he politely declined. Later, he became founding director of the Detroit Symphony in 1918. He was also Mark Twain’s son-in-law. In my possession is a biography I picked up for $3 at a public library sale, “My Husband, Gabrilowitsch,” that I noticed had been inscribed by Twain’s daughter, Clara Clemens!

Fritz Scheel was succeeded as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra by Carl Pohlig in 1908. Leopold Stokowski (pictured) followed in 1912; Stoky would lead the group for the next 24 years. Then came Eugene Ormandy, who held the podium until 1980 – 44 years. Ormandy passed the baton to Riccardo Muti, who directed from 1980 to 1992. Muti was followed Wolfgang Sawallisch, who remained with the orchestra for the next decade. Sawallisch was succeeded by Christoph Eschenbach in 2003. Eschenbach was followed by Charles Dutoit, appointed “Chief Conductor” in 2008. And, bringing us up to the present, Yannick Nézet-Séguin arrived, with vitality to burn, in 2012. What a history!

Since I lived in Philadelphia for over three decades, this was my resident orchestra. I saw many of the greats there, with some particularly unforgettable nights at the Academy of Music, especially when I was in my 20s. Also in the summers, at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park, when the orchestra played three or four different programs a week. A lot of those artists aren’t around anymore. I have some cherished memories of the orchestra at its current home at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, too, but perhaps inevitably I view those earlier concerts through rose-tinted glasses, halcyon experiences preserved in the amber of my youth. It’s astonishing to realize that I have been attending concerts with this ensemble over a span of 41 years! It’s been an indispensable part of my life.

Thank you, and a happy 125th, Philadelphia Orchestra!

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A great read about Clara Clemens and Ossip Gabrilowitsch in the Star-Gazette of Elmira, NY

https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2024/03/08/mark-twain-daughter-clara-clemens-studied-music-performed-in-elmira/72775353007/

The Twain plaque was stolen from a joint monument dedicated to the author and Gabrilowitsch at Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery, but returned, in 2015

https://www.syracuse.com/state/2015/09/mark_twain_stolen_plaque_returned_to_tomb.html

An account of Gabrilowitsch, guest conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, addressing the audience on the subject of applause. (He was in favor of it; apparently Stokowski was not.)

https://www.nytimes.com/1930/02/01/archives/gabrilowitsch-urges-audience-to-applaud-takes-issue-with-stokowskis.html

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PHOTO: Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in 1916, ready to go for the American premiere of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand”