- Welcome, everybody.

You're gonna hear a very special concert tonight by the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Your Philadelphia Orchestra, indeed.

We're playing in an empty Verizon Hall here at the Kimmel Center this evening because of the COVID-19 virus crisis.

It's our last concert until hopefully this really difficult moment passes.

Three pieces of music tonight, exquisite.

Iman Habibi's "Jeder Baum Spricht," Every Tree Speaks.

It's an introductory work inspired by Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Part of the orchestra's Beethoven Now celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday in 2020.

We asked Iman to write a piece of music that responded somehow to the mighty Fifth Symphony.

After the intermission, Beethoven's glorious pastoral symphony, number six.

Thank you so much for joining us and enjoy this special concert.

(bows and feet tapping) - This music that we cherish, that we love, that inspires us, well this music has survived hundreds of years of hardships and struggles.

And here we are, we're still inspired by this music, and we can still perform it.

I know that soon we're gonna be back, sharing this music with all of you in our homes, everywhere in the world, as a great community in a joyful event.

But as we now share this music with you virtually, I know that this will help us go through these very strange and difficult times for the entire world, and this music will help us, guide us, and channel all our emotions, and help us feel that we're together on this beautiful planet Earth.

This is Beethoven for his 250th anniversary.

This was meant to be the start of a full cycle of all the symphonies, but these two symphonies, number five and number six, not only are they very famous, but they were premiered at the same concert in 1808.

Tonight we're gonna perform them together, but also, as a reflection on what they mean in our world, we're gonna perform them preceded by one new piece, a world premiere, a piece called "Jeder Baum Spricht" by Iman Habibi.

We commissioned Iman to write this piece as part of a project headed by our composer in residence Gabriela Lena Frank, and this piece is clearly a reflection on Beethoven's effort, impact on social causes when he was alive, and what he would have done now, specifically about the climate change and all the struggles, environmentally speaking, that we face.

We didn't know when we commissioned this piece that actually it would be played as, you know, as a side effect of all this, we are in the situation we're in, that is threatening the health of our planet.

We want to thank you, all the musicians and the team of the Philadelphia Orchestra, to join us tonight, and we do hope that our hearts will reach yours.

("Jeder Baum Spricht" by Iman Habibi) ("Symphony No.

5 - I. Allegro con brio" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

5 - II.

Andante con moto" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

5 - III.

Allegro" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

5 - IV.

Allegro" by Beethoven) - Being a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the great Philadelphia Orchestra, is a thrill that you can't really put into words.

We've all trained at the world's best conservatories, with a goal in mind, and that is to reach the top of our profession, which we have.

And so just every day, being a member of this great institution is a thrill.

But then you have moments like this, when there's adversity, there's stress, there's chaos in the world, and here we are.

We are untouched, we are intact, and we're going to bring this incredible art, with our hearts exposed, to our audience, and so it makes an incredible experience of being a member of this orchestra even more so.

- As a professional musician, we have the great honor to play, you know, the world's masters, the masterpieces, you know, of classical music, and we all do speak the same language, we travel around the world, we cross boundaries.

Music has a way of crossing those kind of boundaries.

In a time like this, difficult situation for some people, music very often is a thing that can calm them, soothe them, simply put, make people feel better.

("Symphony No.

6 - I. Awakening of Cheerful" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

6 - II.

Scene by the Brook" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

6 - III.

Merry Gathering" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

6 - IV.

Tempest, Storm" by Beethoven) ("Symphony No.

6 - V. Shephard's Hymn" by Beethoven) - Tonight's was a profoundly moving performance for so many reasons, beginning by the extraordinary artistry of Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, your Philadelphia Orchestra.

Thank you so much for joining us.