TO RETURN TO THE PHILHARMONIC

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1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 8, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) ; ANDRIS NELSONS and CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF TO RETURN TO THE PHILHARMONIC Dvořák s The Noon Witch Bartók s Concerto for Orchestra Brahms s Violin Concerto, Continuing This Season s Survey of Brahms s Complete Symphonies and Concertos February 6 9 Andris Nelsons will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Dvořák s The Noon Witch; Brahms s Violin Concerto, featuring Christian Tetzlaff; and Bartók s Concerto for Orchestra on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, February 7 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 9 at 8:00 p.m. Andris Nelsons made his acclaimed New York Philharmonic debut in February 2011 leading Shostakovich s Symphony No. 5. Of the performance The New York Times wrote: The charismatic Mr. Nelsons drew brilliant, richly textured playing from the Philharmonic. Mr. Nelsons and Mr. Tetzlaff performed Brahms s Violin Concerto together with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in September 2010, a performance which the Birmingham Post called an example of letting us hear a staple of the repertoire as if for the first time. Christian Tetzlaff was a soloist of real distinction with a beautiful sound, subtle rubato and a spontaneity which had one on the edge of one s seat. Dvořák s The Noon Witch is based on a folk tale by Czech nationalist poet Karel Jaromír Erben, while Brahms s Violin Concerto contains Hungarian-inspired rhythms a nod to the work s dedicatee, Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim and Bartók s Concerto for Orchestra employs some of the Hungarian composer s favorite folk styles. The Concerto for Orchestra, featuring an unusual title for a symphonic work, was thus named because each section of the orchestra takes its turn being spotlighted virtuosically. Similarly, the symphonic proportions of Brahms s Violin Concerto led conductor Hans von Bülow to quip that it is a concerto against the violin. The Philharmonic s season-long survey of Brahms s complete symphonies and concertos features four conductors and five soloists. In November Kurt Masur conducted Brahms s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 4. January Lorin

2 Andris Nelsons / Christian Tetzlaff / 2 Maazel will conduct Brahms s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman. Following Mr. Nelsons appearances conducting the Violin Concerto with Christian Tetzlaff, Alan Gilbert will conduct the Piano Concerto No. 2, with Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist, February 14 16, 2013, and the Symphony No. 1 February 21 22, Brahms s chamber music is appearing on all four Saturday Matinee Concerts, featuring Philharmonic musicians as well as violinist Lisa Batiashvili and Alan Gilbert, both of whom will play violin in the String Quintet in G major on June 8, Related Events Pre-Concert Talks Larry Tarlow, New York Philharmonic Principal Librarian, will introduce the program. Pre- Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) National and International Radio Broadcast The program will be broadcast the week of February 27, 2013,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on FM WQXR on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information. Artists Andris Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors on the international scene, earning himself a distinguished name both on the opera and concert podiums. Over the next few seasons he will continue collaborations with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Amsterdam s Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig s Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Staatskapelle, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Zürich Tonhalle. He recently made his debut in Japan, on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic. Andris Nelsons is a regular guest at The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, and Deutsche Staatsoper. In summer 2012 he returned to the Bayreuth Festival as musical director for Lohengrin, in a production directed by Hans Neuenfels that Mr. Nelsons premiered in Bayreuth in He has been music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) since 2008, enjoying a critically acclaimed first few seasons. With CBSO he is undertaking major tours worldwide, including regular appearances at summer festivals including Lucerne Festival, BBC Proms, and Berliner Festspiele.

3 Andris Nelsons / Christian Tetzlaff / 3 Mr. Nelsons and the CBSO have an exciting recording collaboration with Orfeo International, including projects to release all the orchestral works by Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss. Further releases include works by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Mahler. Over half of Mr. Nelsons s recordings have been recognized with a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In October 2011 he received the prestigious ECHO Klassik of the German Phono Academy in the category Conductor of the Year for his recording with CBSO of Stravinsky s Firebird and Symphony of Psalms, which was released in For audio-visual recordings, he has an exclusive agreement with Unitel GmbH. Born in Riga, Latvia, in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. In he was principal conductor of Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, and in he was music director of Latvian National Opera. This is Mr. Nelsons s second appearance with the Philharmonic, following his debut in February Christian Tetzlaff has performed with the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Toronto, as well as with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Amsterdam s Royal Concertgebouw. He has performed and recorded Bach s unaccompanied sonatas and partitas; 19th century masterworks by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Brahms; 20th century concertos by Bartók, Berg, and Shostakovich; and world premieres of contemporary works. A dedicated chamber musician, he has collaborated with Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, and Alexander Lonquich. In 1994 he founded the Tetzlaff Quartet, which includes his sister, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff. Mr. Tetzlaff s season includes appearances with the Pittsburgh, New World, and Montreal symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a three-concert chamber music project at the 92nd Street Y in New York. European highlights include return visits to the Berlin and London Philharmonics, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig s Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Christian Tetzlaff was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist, an initiative in which musicians are invited to curate a personal concert series in Carnegie and Zankel Halls through collaborations with other musicians and ensembles. Mr. Tetzlaff s recordings include Szymanowski s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Vienna Philharmonic led by Pierre Boulez for Deutsche Grammophon; Tchaikovsky s Violin Concerto with the Russian National Orchestra and Kent Nagano for PentaTone Classics; Beethoven s Violin Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra and David Zinman for Arte Nova; and Schumann s three Piano Trios with Leif Ove Andsnes and Tanja Tetzlaff for EMI/Virgin. Born in Hamburg in 1966, Mr. Tetzlaff began playing violin and piano at age six. He made his concert debut playing Beethoven s Violin Concerto at age 14. He performs on a violin modeled after a Guarneri del Gesù made by Peter Greiner.

4 Andris Nelsons / Christian Tetzlaff / 4 Repertoire After his return from three years in America, Antonín Dvořák became increasingly drawn to extra-musical sources for his orchestral compositions, and in 1896 composed four symphonic poems, including The Noon Witch. These works were based on the grotesque and supernatural folk tales by the fervent Czech nationalist poet Karel Jaromír Erben ( ). The action of the poem is brief: a child is at play while his mother prepares the midday meal. As the child amuses himself with a toy cockerel, she becomes impatient and calls for the Noon Witch: Come and get him! A witch enters and says, Give me the child! The mother is terrified and cries for God s help. She clutches the child and faints. The bells strike noon. The father returns home and revives his unconscious wife. In horror he discovers the dead child suffocated in her arms. Dvořák himself wrote detailed descriptions of his symphonic poems that indicate what parts of the story are being depicted from the clarinet portraying the child at play, and the witch represented by the clarinets and bassoons, to the tolling of the bell that marks noon. This is the second New York Philharmonic performance of this work. The first was led by Alan Gilbert, then a guest conductor, in June Johannes Brahms wrote his only Violin Concerto in 1878 for Joseph Joachim, a close friend and the most celebrated virtuoso of the day. The composer repeatedly asked for Joachim s advice on the technical aspects of violin writing and then ignored almost all of his suggestions. Nevertheless, the concerto shows Joachim s influence throughout: in the first-movement cadenza written by Joachim, in the Hungarian-inspired rhythms of the finale, and in the concerto s technical difficulty. The work s innovative metrical effects and the striking thematic unity are hallmarks of Brahms. The New York Philharmonic first performed the work in 1891, led by Walter Damrosch, with the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today s New York Philharmonic) joined by Adolph Brodsky as soloist. The most recent performance took place in October 2010, led by Alan Gilbert, with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist. Béla Bartók, forced to flee Hungary as National Socialism overtook Central Europe in the fall of 1940, arrived with his family in New York, where he spent his five remaining years. At the instigation of conductor Fritz Reiner and violinist Joseph Szigeti both similarly displaced Hungarians conductor Serge Koussevitzky offered Bartók a commission for a new symphonic work, under the auspices of his newly established Koussevitzky Music Foundation. Bartók wrote the Concerto for Orchestra at a rural mountain getaway at Saranac Lake, in upstate New York; it was the Koussevitzky Foundation s first major orchestral commission. The Philharmonic first performed the Concerto for Orchestra on January 31, 1946, conducted by George Szell, and most recently, in March 2011, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen. * * * Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic. * * * Christian Tetzlaff s appearance with the New York Philharmonic is made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists Endowment Fund.

5 Andris Nelsons / Christian Tetzlaff / 5 * * * Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets Tickets for these concerts start at $41. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $18. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). All other tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) , 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $13.50 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic s Customer Relations Department at (212) [Ticket prices subject to change.] For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Communications Department at (212) , or her at carrl@nyphil.org.

6 Andris Nelsons / Christian Tetzlaff / 6 New York Philharmonic Avery Fisher Hall Wednesday, February 6, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal 9:45 a.m Thursday, February 7, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 8, 2013, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, February 9, 2013, 8:00 p.m. Pre-Concert Talk (one hour before each concert) with Larry Tarlow, New York Philharmonic Principal Librarian Andris Nelsons, conductor Christian Tetzlaff, violin DVOŘÁK BRAHMS BARTÓK The Noon Witch Violin Concerto Concerto for Orchestra # # # Tumblr Your Backstage Pass Photography is available by contacting the Communications Department at (212) ; PR@nyphil.org.