JANUARY 16 19, Thursday, January 17, 2013, 7:30 p.m. 15,485th Concert. Friday, January 18, 2013, 2:00 p.m. 15,486th Concert

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1 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 19 JANUARY 16 19, 2013 Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 7:30 p.m. 15,484th Concert Open Rehearsal at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, January 17, 2013, 7:30 p.m. 15,485th Concert Friday, January 18, 2013, 2:00 p.m. 15,486th Concert Saturday, January 19, 2013, 8:00 p.m. 15,487th Concert Lorin Maazel, Conductor Yefim Bronfman, Piano Global Sponsor Lorin Maazel s appearance with the is made possible through the Daisy and Paul Soros Endowment Fund. This concert will last approximately two hours, which includes one intermission. Guest artist appearances are made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists Endowment Fund. Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Home of the Exclusive Timepiece of the January

2 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 20 Lorin Maazel, Conductor Yefim Bronfman, Piano BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 (1858) ( ) Maestoso Adagio Rondo Allegro non troppo YEFIM BRONFMAN Intermission SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 ( ) ( ) Allegretto Poco allegro Tranquillo, ma poco a poco ravvivando il tempo al allegro Tempo andante, ma rubato Andante sostenuto Vivacissimo Lento e suave Largamente Finale. Allegro moderato Harvey Sachs, Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the, gives a talk one hour prior to these performances. Classical FM WQXR is the Radio Station of the. The This Week, nationally syndicated on the WFMT Radio Network, is broadcast 52 weeks per year; visit nyphil.org for information. The s concert-recording series, Alan Gilbert and the : Season, is now available for download at all major online music stores. Visit nyphil.org/recordings for more information. Follow us on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. PLEASE SILENCE YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES. 20

3 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 21 Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator The Leni and Peter May Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 Johannes Brahms As a young composer Johannes Brahms sought out Robert Schumann, one of the first generation of musical Romantics, appearing unannounced on his doorstep in Düsseldorf in Schumann was hugely impressed by the young man s talent, and on October 28 of that year he published in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik an effusive article titled Neue Bahnen ( New Paths ), which acclaimed Brahms as a sort of musical Messiah, destined to give ideal presentation to the highest expression of the time, springing forth like Minerva fully armed from the head of Jove. The euphoria would not last long. At the end of February 1854, Schumann pushed his way through carnival celebrators and leapt off a bridge into the Rhine in a suicide attempt. At his own request, he was admitted to an asylum near Bonn, where he would die two and a half years later. Brahms fulfilled Schumann s prophecy and became the chief acolyte of the conservative stream of musical Romanticism, the figure who most fully In Short Born: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany Died: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria adapted the models of Beethoven (via Mendelssohn and Schumann) to the evolving aesthetics of the mid- to late-19th century. He did not achieve this without considerable struggle, and, aware of the burden that fell on his shoulders, he was reluctant to sign off on works in the genres that invited direct comparison to Beethoven, such as string quartets and symphonies. He did, however, manage to bring his First Piano Concerto to completion in 1858, and published it four years later. He would not follow up with his considerably more serene Piano Concerto No. 2 until two further decades had passed. The Piano Concerto No. 1, in contrast, is a stormy work of essentially pure, tumultuous Romanticism, closely related in its expression Work composed: completed in early 1858, with some material written as early as 1854 World premiere: January 22, 1859, the composer as soloist, with Joseph Joachim conducting the Hannover Court Orchestra; the same forces had played the work in a reading rehearsal ten months earlier premiere: November 13, 1875, Carl Bergmann, conductor, Nannetta Falk-Auerbach, soloist Most recent performance: January 22, 2011, Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor, Radu Lupu, soloist Estimated duration: ca. 49 minutes January

4 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 22 to Schumann s ideals. This is not surprising in light of the fact that it germinated during the period of Schumann s decline and completed a year and a half after his death. Lacking Schumann to provide counsel, Brahms instead sought a musical confidante in Schumann s wife (then widow) Clara, an eminent pianist and Brahms closest friend. Important support and advice also came from their mutual friend Joseph Joachim, the violinist who would serve as the first conductor of this concerto. In 1854 Brahms had written at least three movements of a Sonata in D minor for Two Pianos, one of many of his works that would not be brought to completion but instead would be recycled into a piece for strikingly different forces. By April 1856 some of the sonata s music had morphed into a preliminary version of this piano concerto (without changing key), and Brahms began sending bits of it to Joachim for his comments. Joachim proved to be a patient and insightful editor and coach, and Brahms took many of the proffered ideas to heart. He was characteristically loath to let go of his piece, however, leading the frustrated Joachim to write, I beg of you, please, for God s sake let the copyist get at the concerto which Brahms finally did a couple of months later. Joachim, who was serving as concertmaster at the Hannover Court Orchestra, mustered his ensemble for a read-through of the new work on March 30, 1858, and then oversaw the premiere 10 months later. The premiere was at least politely received, but that was not the case when the concerto was aired in Leipzig five days later, with Julius Rietz conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Brahms wrote to Joachim: No reaction at all to the first and second movement. At the end, three pairs of hands tried slowly to clap, whereupon a clear hissing from all sides quickly put an end to any such demonstration. For The Brahms Clara Schumann Connection Clara Wieck ( ), a prodigious pianist and composer, married Robert Schumann (against her father s strong wishes) the day before her 21st birthday, in Together the Schumanns experienced the highs of Robert s prolific compositional career, and the lows of his struggles with mental and physical illness. Johannes Brahms befriended the couple in 1853, when they were living in Düsseldorf, and remained an intimate, lifelong companion to Clara. The relationship between Brahms and Clara Schumann has long been the subject of speculation, fueled by sentiments such as, I can do nothing but think of you, written by Brahms in 1855, and, Who knows better than yourself how enthusiastically and deeply I absorb everything that comes from you, written by Clara in It is clear that both parties benefited from their friendship: Brahms saw Clara through her husband s illness and death, and Clara remained one of Brahms s trusted musical confidants until her death in Clara Wieck Schumann The Editors 22

5 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 23 all that, one day, when I ve improved its physical structure, this concerto will please, and a second one will sound very different. Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano. Birth Pangs In April 1856 Johannes Brahms began sending portions of the score of the D-minor Piano Concerto to Joseph Joachim, whose comments, along with Brahms s responses, provide many details about the work s composition. For example: Joachim to Brahms, December 4, 1856 I become more fond of the piece all the time, though certain things don t altogether convince me compositionally; from page 21 to 24 it s too fragmentary, not flowing enough restless rather than impassioned just as in general, after the significant opening, that wonderfully beautiful song in minor, I miss an appropriately magnificent second theme I do realize that something commensurately elevated and beautiful in major, something that competes in breadth with the opening idea, must be hard to find but even these reservations don t blind me to the glories of the movement. Brahms to Joachim, December 12, 1856 So here is the finale, just to be finally rid of it. A thousand thanks for having looked over the first movement so benevolently and precisely. I have already learned a lot from your beautiful commentary. Brahms to Joachim, early January 1857 You re not embarrassed to make heavy and heavier cuts in the Rondo, are you? I know very well that they re needed. An Adagio is going along at the same time. If I could only rejoice over a successful Adagio! Write to me about it, and firmly. I like the little alteration on page 19, line 2, but doesn t it remind me of Wagner? Joachim to Brahms, January 12, 1857 Your finale all in all I find it really significant: the pithy, bold spirit of the first theme; the intimate and soft B-flatmajor passage; and particularly the solemn reawakening toward a majestic close after the cadenza. In fact, I even believe that after the impassioned spaciousness of the first movement and the elevating reverence of the second it would make a satisfying close to the whole concerto were it not for some uncertainties in the middle of the movement, which disturb the beauty and total effect through a certain instability and stiffness. A conversation with Frau Schumann led me to think it would be well if you wrote another finale, revision often being more trouble than invention. But that would be a waste of so much that is meaningful in the Rondo, and perhaps you can bring yourself back to the point of working with your original impetuosity so as to make these few places over I d like that. Brahms (seated) and Joachim in 1867 January

6 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 24 Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 Jean Sibelius Thanks to benefactions arranged by Baron Axel Carpelan, a Finnish man-about-the-arts and the eventual dedicatee of this work, Jean Sibelius and his family were able to undertake a trip to Italy between February and April So it was that much of the Second Symphony was sketched in the Italian cities of Florence and, especially, Rapallo, where the composer rented a studio apart from the home in which his family was lodging. Aspects of the piece had already begun to form in his mind almost two years earlier, although at that point Sibelius seems to have assumed that his sketches would end up in various separate compositions rather than in a single unified symphony. Even in Rapallo he was focused on writing a tone poem. He reported that on February 11, 1901, he entertained a fantasy that the villa in which his studio was located was the fanciful palace of Don Juan and that he himself was the amorous, amoral protagonist of that legend. (The topic was fresh in his mind as he had recently attended a performance of Mozart s Don Giovanni in Berlin, on the way to Italy.) He jotted these thoughts in his diary: In Short him laugh but he remained silent. At last the stranger began to sing then Don Juan knew who it was. It was death. Then follow the notes that today stand as the principal theme of the second movement of the Second Symphony. As his work evolved, Sibelius seems to have sacrificed the Don Juan idea in favor of another, very different concept: a series of four tone poems based on characters from Dante s Divine Comedy. But once Sibelius returned to Finland that June, he began to recognize that what was forming out of his sketches was instead a full-fledged symphony one that would end up exhibiting an extraordinary degree of unity among its sections. With his goal now clarified, Sibelius worked assiduously through the summer and fall and reached a provisional completion of the symphony in November Then he had second thoughts, revised the piece profoundly, and definitively concluded the Second Symphony in January The work s premiere, two months later, was a success, as were the three sold-out Born: December 8, 1865, in Tavestehus (Hämeenlinna), Finland Died: September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää, Finland Work composed: , though relevant sketches date back to as early as 1899; dedicated to Baron Axel Carpelan World premiere: March 8, 1902, in Helsinki, Finland, the composer conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Don Juan. I was sitting in the dark in my castle when a stranger entered. I asked who he could be again and again but there was no answer. I tried to make premiere: January 30, 1914, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today s ) Most recent performance: July 23, 2010, at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Colorado, Alan Gilbert, conductor Estimated duration: ca. 47 minutes 24

7 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 25 performances that occurred during the ensuing week. The conductor Robert Kajanus, who would become a distinguished interpreter of Sibelius s works, was in attendance, and he insisted that the Helsinki audiences had understood the new symphony to be an overt expression of the political conflict then reigning over Finland. He wrote: The Andante strikes one as the most broken-hearted protest against all the injustice that threatens at the present time to deprive the sun of its light and our flowers of their scent. The Finale develops toward a triumphant conclusion intended to rouse in the listener a picture of lighter and confident prospects for the future. Sibelius objected to this interpretation, preferring that no programmatic implications be attached to this work. Nonetheless, even if one stops short of considering it a sort of symphonie à clef, this symphony does seem to express something specific to the Finnish imagination. The composer Sulho Ranta ( ) spoke on behalf of his fellow Finns when he declared, There is something about this music at least for us that leads us to ecstasy; almost like a shaman with his magic drum. Sibelian Fingerprints When Rimsky-Korsakov remarked of Sibelius s Second Symphony, Well, I suppose that s possible, too, he may have been referring to the restless sense of duality that seems to govern this score. The pastoral sunshine that bathes the beginning of the first movement is soon swept away by icy winds; rather the opposite happens in the third movement, where what one might take as a snow flurry yields to a shepherd s call on the oboe. Bucolic sections are interrupted by passages that evoke grave concern or by terrible outbursts; these, in turn, are confronted by suggestions of proud defiance and resolute confidence. Or perhaps Rimsky-Korsakov was thinking of Sibelius s distinctive orchestration. Some listeners find it thick and claustrophobic, but Sibelius was very particular about its details and they combine to create his own musical fingerprint. Consider his very typical use of the massed brass section, which often erupts in snarling crescendos (as it does prominently in the second movement). A report survives of a rehearsal of the Second Symphony conducted by Robert Kajanus, at which only two of the three trumpets were in attendance, the third having come down with the flu. Sibelius stayed only briefly and then interrupted the rehearsal to take his leave, explaining to Kajanus, I can only hear the trumpet which isn t there and I can t stand it any longer. Sibelius, in an 1894 portrait by Akseli Gallen-Kallela January

8 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 26 Some commentators have underscored the piece s affinity with the symphonies of Brahms (particularly his Second, also in D major) while others find that the finale evokes something of Tchaikovsky. There s truth in all of this, but in the end, Sibelius marches to a different drummer. Stravinsky once heard the composer s Second Symphony in the company of his teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and reported that the latter offered a solitary comment after the performance: Well, I suppose that s possible, too. Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. The Finland of Sibelius s Second Symphony Top: Lemminkäinen (1899) as depicted by Akseli Gallen- Kallela ( ), often identified as the national artist of Finland Bottom: Gallen-Kallela s By the River of Tuonela (1903) Of Jean Sibelius s seven symphonies, the Second is the most frequently performed. Since Sibelius is unquestionably primus inter pares in the pantheon of Finnish composers, that makes his Second the most popular symphony ever to emanate from that famously musical nation. Finland was undergoing its share of turmoil at the turn of the 20th century, beginning to bristle with nationalistic fervor under the yoke of its Russian occupiers. In the closing years of the 19th century the Finns seemed ready to burst with pent-up excitement over their native culture: they collected traditional music and dance, became fascinated with ancient Finnish legends, and ushered in a resurgence of the Finnish language itself. Sibelius was greatly caught up with the artists, writers, and musicians who were plying their trades in support of an independent Finland, and he turned out a hearty diet of pro-finnish patriotic and propagandistic compositions. A few of his successes from this nationalistic period the tone poems The Swan of Tuonela, Lemminkäinen s Return, and Finlandia among them began to earn Sibelius a reputation beyond Finnish borders, making him the first Finnish composer to gain truly international acclaim. 26

9 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page SEASON ALAN GILBERT, Music Director, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Case Scaglione, Assistant Conductor Joshua Weilerstein, Assistant Conductor Leonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus VIOLINS Glenn Dicterow Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Sheryl Staples Associate Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Enrico Di Cecco Carol Webb Yoko Takebe Quan Ge The Gary W. Parr Hae-Young Ham The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Lisa GiHae Kim Kuan Cheng Lu Newton Mansfield The Edward and Priscilla Pilcher Kerry McDermott Anna Rabinova Charles Rex The Shirley Bacot Shamel Fiona Simon Sharon Yamada Elizabeth Zeltser The William and Elfriede Ulrich Yulia Ziskel Marc Ginsberg Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Duoming Ba Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Martin Eshelman Judith Ginsberg Hyunju Lee Joo Young Oh Daniel Reed Mark Schmoockler Na Sun Vladimir Tsypin VIOLAS Cynthia Phelps The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Rebecca Young* The Joan and Joel Smilow Irene Breslaw** The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Dorian Rence Katherine Greene The Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Dawn Hannay Vivek Kamath Peter Kenote Kenneth Mirkin Judith Nelson Robert Rinehart The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen CELLOS Carter Brey The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Eileen Moon* The Paul and Diane Guenther Eric Bartlett+ The Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Maria Kitsopoulos Sumire Kudo Elizabeth Dyson The Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Alexei Yupanqui Gonzales Qiang Tu Ru-Pei Yeh The Credit Suisse in honor of Paul Calello Wei Yu Susannah Chapman++ Alberto Parrini++ BASSES Fora Baltacigil The Redfield D. Beckwith David J. Grossman* The Herbert M. Citrin Orin O Brien William Blossom The Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Randall Butler Blake Hinson Satoshi Okamoto Max Zeugner Rex Surany++ FLUTES Robert Langevin The Lila Acheson Wallace Sandra Church* Yoobin Son Mindy Kaufman PICCOLO Mindy Kaufman OBOES Liang Wang The Alice Tully Sherry Sylar* Robert Botti The Lizabeth and Frank Newman Keisuke Ikuma++ ENGLISH HORN Keisuke Ikuma++ CLARINETS Mark Nuccio Acting The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Pascual Martínez Forteza* Acting Associate The Honey M. Kurtz Family Alucia Scalzo++ Amy Zoloto++ E-FLAT CLARINET Pascual Martínez Forteza (continued) Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund. January

10 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 28 BASS CLARINET Amy Zoloto++ BASSOONS Judith LeClair The Pels Family Kim Laskowski* Roger Nye Arlen Fast CONTRABASSOON Arlen Fast HORNS Philip Myers The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder R. Allen Spanjer Howard Wall Richard Deane++ Leelanee Sterrett++ TRUMPETS Philip Smith The Paula Levin Matthew Muckey* Ethan Bensdorf Thomas V. Smith TROMBONES Joseph Alessi The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen BASS TROMBONE The Daria L. and William C. Foster George Curran++ TUBA Alan Baer TIMPANI Markus Rhoten The Carlos Moseley Kyle Zerna** PERCUSSION Christopher S. Lamb The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Kyle Zerna HARP Nancy Allen The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III KEYBOARD In Memory of Paul Jacobs HARPSICHORD Paolo Bordignon PIANO Eric Huebner ORGAN Kent Tritle LIBRARIANS Lawrence Tarlow Sandra Pearson** Sara Griffin** ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER Carl R. Schiebler STAGE REPRESENTATIVE Joseph Faretta AUDIO DIRECTOR Lawrence Rock * Associate ** Assistant + On Leave ++ Replacement/Extra The uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster. HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY Emanuel Ax Pierre Boulez Stanley Drucker Lorin Maazel Zubin Mehta the late Carlos Moseley Steinway is the Official Piano of the and Avery Fisher Hall. Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 28

11 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 29 The Artists Lorin Maazel served as Music Director of the from 2002 to At the start of the season he became music director of the Munich Philharmonic, after completing his fifth and final season in as the inaugural music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opera house in Valencia, Spain. Mr. Maazel is also the founder and artistic director of the Castleton Festival, based on his farm property in Virginia, which was launched to great acclaim in The festival began to expand its activities nationally and internationally in Mr. Maazel is also a composer, with a wide-ranging catalogue of works written primarily over the last dozen years. His first opera, 1984, based on George Orwell s literary masterpiece, had its world premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in May 2005, and was revived at Milan s Teatro alla Scala in May A Decca DVD of the original London production was released that same month. A second-generation American born in Paris, France, Lorin Maazel began violin lessons at age five, and conducting lessons at age seven. He studied with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff, and appeared publicly for the first time at age eight. Between ages nine and fifteen he conducted most of the major American orchestras, including the NBC Symphony at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini. Over the course of his career Mr. Maazel has conducted more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances. He has made more than 300 recordings, including symphonic cycles of complete orchestral works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Richard Strauss, winning 10 Grands Prix du Disques. Lorin Maazel has been music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra ( ); music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony ( ); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper ( , the first American to hold that position); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra ( ); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin ( ). His close association with the Vienna Philharmonic has included 11 internationally televised New Year s Concerts from Vienna. January

12 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 30 Yefim Bronfman s season includes concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic (conducted by Sir Simon Rattle) in Berlin, Salzburg, and at the London Proms, followed by appearances with the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich (with David Zinman) and London s Philharmonia Orchestra. He also undertakes a yearlong residency with the Bavarian Symphony Radio Orchestra; returns to Salzburg s Easter Festival with the Dresden Staatskapelle; appears with the Vienna Philharmonic in Vienna and London; performs subscription concerts in Spain and Germany; and travels on a spring tour with Ensemble Wien-Berlin. His North American appearances include the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and returns to the orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Montreal. Mr. Bronfman collaborates with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená in a short winter tour of venues including Carnegie Hall, and he gives solo recitals in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Paris, Berlin, and Lisbon. Widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen s Piano Concerto, with Mr. Salonen conducting (released on Deutsche Grammophon); he received a Grammy in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with Mr. Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Born in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, in 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in There he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. He later studied in the United States, at The Juilliard School, Marlboro, and the Curtis Institute; and with Rudolf Firkušny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He became an American citizen in July

13 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 31 The, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by Americanborn Ureli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It plays some 180 concerts a year, and on May 5, 2010, gave its 15,000th concert a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world. Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel ( ); Kurt Masur (Music Director , Music Director Emeritus since 2002); Zubin Mehta ( ); Pierre Boulez ( ); and Leonard Bernstein (appointed Music Director in 1958; given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969). Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning and/or premiering many important works, such as Dvořák s Symphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmaninoff s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin s Piano Concerto in F; and Copland s Connotations. The Philharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of such works as Beethoven s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Brahms s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering tradition has continued to the present day, with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled each season, including John Adams s Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winning On the Transmigration of Souls; Melinda Wagner s Trombone Concerto; Esa-Pekka Salonen s Piano Concerto; Magnus Lindberg s EXPO and Al largo; Wynton Marsalis s Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3); Christopher Rouse s Odna Zhizn; and, by the end of the season, 11 works in CONTACT!, the new-music series. The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler (Music Director ), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director ), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director ), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor ), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director ), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor ), and Erich Leinsdorf. Long a leader in American musical life, the Philharmonic has become renowned around the globe, appearing in 431 cities in 63 countries on 5 continents. Under Alan Gilbert s leadership, the Orchestra made its Vietnam debut at the Hanoi Opera House in October In February 2008 the Philharmonic, conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, D.P.R.K., earning the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. In 2012 the Philharmonic became an International Associate of London s Barbican. The Philharmonic has long been a media pioneer, having begun radio broadcasts in 1922, and is currently represented by The This Week syndicated nationally and internationally 52 weeks per year, and available at nyphil.org. It continues its television presence on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 made history as the first symphony orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Awards. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, and in 2004 became the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Since June 2009 more than 50 concerts have been released as downloads, and the Philharmonic s selfproduced recordings will continue with Alan Gilbert and the : Season, comprising 12 releases. Famous for its long-running Young People s Concerts, the Philharmonic has developed a wide range of educational programs, among them the School Partnership Program that enriches music education in New York City, and Learning Overtures, which fosters international exchange among educators. Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic. January

14 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 32 The Music Director Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure in September The New York Times has said: Those who think classical music needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did. The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city and country. Mr. Gilbert combines works in fresh and innovative ways; has forged important artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence; and introduced an annual multiweek festival and CONTACT!, the new-music series. In , he conducts world premieres; presides over a cycle of Brahms s complete symphonies and concertos; continues The Nielsen Project, the multiyear initiative to perform and record the Danish composer s symphonies and concertos; conducts Bach s Mass in B minor and an all-american program, including Ives s Fourth Symphony; and leads the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. The season concludes with June Journey: Gilbert s Playlist, four programs showcasing themes and ideas that Alan Gilbert has introduced, including the season finale: a theatrical reimagining of Stravinsky ballets, directed and designed by Doug Fitch and featuring New York City Ballet Dancer Sara Mearns. Last season s highlights included performances of three Mahler symphonies, with the Second, Resurrection, on A Concert for New York; tours to Europe (including the Orchestra s first International Associates residency at London s Barbican Centre) and California; and Philharmonic 360, the Philharmonic s and Park Avenue Armory s acclaimed spatial-music program featuring Stockhausen s Gruppen, building on the success of previous seasons productions of Ligeti s Le Grand Macabre and Janáček s The Cunning Little Vixen, each acclaimed in 2010 and 2011, respectively, as New York magazine s number one classical music event of the year. In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he is the first to hold the William Schuman in Musical Studies. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Guest Conductor of Hamburg s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading ensembles such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic. Alan Gilbert s acclaimed 2008 Metropolitan Opera debut, leading John Adams s Doctor Atomic, received a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Earlier releases garnered Grammy Award nominations and top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Juilliard and was assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra ( ). In May 2010 he received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Curtis, and in December 2011 he received Columbia University s Ditson Conductor s Award for his commitment to performing American and contemporary music. 32

15 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 33 LGOs January

16 01-16 Bronfman:Layout 1 1/7/13 10:21 AM Page 34 LGOs 34