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Original Bruckner and New Sorey Work Philadelphia
Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center
05/15/2026 - & May 16, 2026
Tyshawn Sorey: For Marilyn Crispell (World Premiere)
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103 (1873 version)
Aaron Diehl (piano)
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet‑Séguin (conductor)
A. Diehl, Y. Nézet‑Séguin, T. Sorey (© Allie Ippolito)
There is nothing like a Bruckner symphony played at full throttle by a dazzling orchestra and impassioned conductor. And that is exactly what audience members heard this weekend from Nézet‑Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Performing in Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the orchestra shared a program with a piano and orchestral tone poem by Newark‑born Tyshawn Sorey, an unexpected partnership in which each work complemented and seemed to comment on the other.
I admit to being a crazed Bruckner fanatic, so this was a particularly welcome and rare opportunity to hear the Symphony No. 3 in its original form, warts and all. As Nézet‑Séguin explained before the concert, this version represented Bruckner’s own personal vision, untouched by the revisions (notably 1873 and 1889) subsequently imposed on the pliable, easy‑going composer.
The orchestra was so large, especially in comparison with the intimate 30‑some musicians in the opening Sorey work, I thought the stage might give way at any moment. But the architecture, as well as the structure of the performance itself, was made of sturdier stuff. Bruckner is usually credited with composing nine symphonies (the last unfinished, see “curse of the Ninth”). But for me, and probably for other Bruckner votaries, there exists one grand Bruckner symphonic experience: as many as 18 original works and revisions, tumbling after each other and rising above like the Jungfrau, Matterhorn, and Zugspitze stacked end to end. This concert gave us a taste of one part of that rarefied sequence of symphonic experiences.
I loved Nézet-Séguin’s unleashed power in the first and fourth movements, with the almost childlike secondary theme in the third movement. Principal trumpet James Vaughen and the orchestra’s stellar brass section set a thrilling pace for expression of Bruckner’s spine‑tingling musical ideas, undulating through Marian Anderson Hall for over an hour. Sometimes the larger-than-life symphonic forces bore down on and almost eliminated the string section, but they rallied, with the tender whispers of the strings sandwiched between layers of sonority and revelation.
How does this compare with Sorey’s For Marilyn Crispell, the world premiere (commissioned by Nézet‑Séguin and this orchestra) which opened the program? They fit like two halves of a jigsaw, Sorey’s vision for piano and orchestra providing a spare, almost Buddhist reflection while Bruckner’s response pulled out the stops in the spirit of Beethoven and Wagner. The Sorey work featured individual notes and chords on the keyboard with vast expanses of silence played with precision and concentrated energy by Aaron Diehl. Silence played a major role in the architecture of this work, much as it did in the late works of Beethoven and Schubert. At one point, the sound became softer and softer, then harshly interrupted by a crashing chord that made just about everyone in the theater jump: a “Surprise” Symphony for our time! There is a mysterious quality to Sorey’s writing that I think would make a lovely backdrop for a solo dancer graced with the gift of improvisation. Sorey is a man of many accomplishments. This score bodes well for his future on the concert stage.
Linda Holt
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