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Steinway Piano David Geffen Hall

Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.

Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3:00 pm

Symphonic Masters

Rotterdam Philharmonic OrchestraLahav Shani, Conductor (New York debut)Emanuel Ax, Piano

ALL-BRAHMS PROGRAM

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (1854–59) Maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro non troppo

Intermission

Symphony No. 4 in E minor (1884–85) Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Allegro giocoso Allegro energico e passionato

These programs are supported by the Leon Levy Fund for Symphonic Masters.

Symphonic Masters is made possible in part by endowment support from UBS.

This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

Great Performers

Lead Support for Great Performers provided by PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc.

Additional Support for Great Performers is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Shubert Foundation, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc., Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Lincoln Center Patrons and Lincoln Center Members

Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund

Endowment support is also provided by UBS

Public support is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature

NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra wishes to thank their tour partners the City of Rotterdam, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Rotterdam Partners and Hizkia van Kralingen

UPCOMING GREAT PERFORMERS EVENTS:

Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm in Alice Tully HallEmerson String QuartetBARTÓK: String Quartet No. 3BEETHOVEN: String Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1 (“Razumovsky”)BARTÓK: String Quartet No. 1

Tuesday, April 7 at 7:30 pm in Alice Tully HallSteven Osborne, pianoBEETHOVEN’S FINAL PIANO SONATASSonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111Pre-concert artist talk at 6:15 pm in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30 in Alice Tully HallMatthias Goerne, baritoneJan Lisiecki, pianoMatthias Goerne and Jan Lisiecki perform a program of songs by Beethoven, including the beloved song cycle An die ferne Geliebte

For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit LCGreatPerformers.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or to request a Great Performers brochure.

Visit LCGreatPerformers.org for more information relating to this season’s programs.

Join the conversation: @LincolnCenter

We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members.

In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.

By Christopher H. Gibbs

Johannes Brahms was just 20 years old in 1853 when he had the life-changing experi-ence of meeting Robert and Clara Schumann. Robert soon arranged the publication of some of Brahms’s pieces and penned an influential article hailing the young composer as a genius from whom great things could be expected.

Yet sadly Schumann soon lost his sanity, threw himself in the Rhine, and was institu-tionalized for the remaining two-and-a-half years of his life. Young Brahms stepped in to help Clara—who was 14 years his senior—raise her seven children, and he fell deeply in love with her. The intensity of his emotions at this tumultuous time is evident in his first large-scale orchestral work, the passionate Piano Concerto in D minor.

Brahms made several attempts at writing a symphony (some ideas got diverted to the D-minor Piano Concerto), but didn’t complete his first until he was 43, in 1876. His second symphony followed the next year, the third in 1883, and the final one, which we hear today, two years later. Among the great 19th-century composers, Brahms was no doubt one of the most historically aware. This is reflected in older pieces that he collected, edited, or transformed into new music. For the last movement of the Fourth Symphony, he used the Baroque procedure of the passacaglia, in which a musical idea is constantly repeated, in this instance transforming a brief passage drawn from a cantata by J. S. Bach.

—Copyright © 2020 by Christopher H. Gibbs

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1859Piano Concerto No. 1The National Gallery of Scotland opens in Edinburgh.

1885Symphony No. 4 Vincent Van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters

1859The largest geomagnetic solar storm in recorded history makes the aurora borealis visible as far south as Cuba.

1885S Andromedae, the first supernova found beyond the Milky Way, is discovered.

1859Central Park—the first land-scaped public park in the U.S.—opens.

1885Goldman Sachs & Company is established.

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Great Performers I Snapshot

Great Performers I Notes on the Program

By Christopher H. Gibbs

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 (1854–59)JOHANNES BRAHMSBorn May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, GermanyDied April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria

Approximate length: 44 minutes

In October 1853, the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms showed up at the home of Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf, initiating events that would resonate for the rest of his life. He played them many of his compositions, and they were most impressed by his gifts. Robert arranged for some of the pieces to be published and came out of retirement as a music critic to write one last article, “Neue Bahnen” (“New Paths”). In it he stated that the musical world had been waiting for a great composer since the death of Beethoven and now that person had appeared fully formed in Brahms. It was a dream review, but one that also created enormous expectations.

Brahms stayed with the Schumanns for a month before leaving in early November. Schumann’s mental health, long a source of concern, was declining and at the end of February 1854, he threw himself into the Rhine and spent the remaining two-and-a-half years of his life confined to an asylum.

A few weeks after Schumann’s suicide attempt, Brahms began composing a sonata for two pianos that he decided to turn into a symphony in D minor. He wrote three movements in piano score and started orchestrating the first one. From the relatively little we know of the project, it seems he had conceived it on a large scale. Not long before Schumann’s death in July 1856 the solution came to him, literally, in a dream, which he recounted to Clara: “I had used my unfortunate symphony for a piano concerto and was performing it—from the first movement to the scherzo and finale, terribly difficult and grand. I was completely delighted.” Brahms went on to transform the symphony into a piano concerto, thus being able to call upon his experiences as a pianist.

The D-minor Concerto had a long gestation from sonata to symphony to concerto. In Schumann’s article, he praised Brahms’s piano sonatas, calling them “veiled symphonies.” That is even more the case with the two piano concertos, the first of which has a symphonic conception and scope and the second, dating from 1881, that unusually is in four movements.

The beginning of the Maestoso first movement is one of the most remarkable openings in the concerto literature. The music is loud, dissonant, and almost terrifying with trills and pounding timpani. Despite later tender moments, such as the second theme, this very long and complex movement is incredibly passionate, more so than almost any other work by Brahms; he seems to be working through his anguish over Schumann’s suicide attempt and his intense feelings for Clara. Brahms told Clara that the second-movement Adagio was “a lovely portrait of you.” In the manuscript he wrote words from the Latin Mass: “Blessed is He

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who comes in the name of the Lord.” For the final Rondo (Allegro non troppo) Brahms calls upon the Hungarian style, as he did in many other compositions.

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–85)JOHANNES BRAHMS

Approximate length: 39 minutes

Brahms composed his Fourth Symphony over the course of two summers. From the outset he had the idea of ending the work with a passacaglia, a Baroque proce-dure in which a musical theme is constantly repeated. He composed the first two movements in 1884 and the fourth and third (apparently in that order) the following summer. He was acutely aware that the Fourth Symphony was different from his earlier efforts. With his typical self-deprecating humor, he compared the work to the sour cherries found in the Alpine region in which he was composing. He wrote to the celebrated conductor Hans von Bülow that “a few entr’actes are lying here—what [taken] together is usually called a symphony.” But Brahms worried “about whether it will reach a wider public! That is to say, I fear that it tastes of the native climate—the cherries here do not get sweet, you would not eat them!”

Some of Brahms’s closest colleagues were initially lukewarm about the piece and Bülow put his orchestra in Meiningen at the composer’s disposal to test out the piece. The premiere in October 1885 turned out to be a triumph and over the next month it was presented on tour in various cities in Germany and the Netherlands. The first performance in Brahms’s adopted hometown of Vienna took place in January 1886 with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. The pow-erful music critic Eduard Hanslick enthusiastically compared the work to a “dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.”

Although Brahms thought of beginning the first movement (Allegro non troppo) with a brief chordal introduction, he ultimately decided to cut these measures and launch directly into the opening theme: a series of two-note sighs consisting of descending thirds and ascending sixths that bind the movement together. The Andante moderato opens with a noble horn theme that yields to a magnificently adorned theme for the strings. The tempo picks up in the sparkling third move-ment (Allegro giocoso), a scherzo in sonata form that gives the triangle a workout.

As mentioned, Brahms initially had the idea of the final movement (Allegro energico e passionato) using the Baroque technique of a passacaglia. He slightly altered a ground bass progression from the final chorus of Bach’s Cantata No. 150, “Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (“For Thee, Lord, Do I Long”) over which he built a mighty set of 30 variations and coda. The variations, often presented in pairs, begin with a bold statement based on Bach’s theme. Despite a section in major, the movement gradually builds in its tragic force to a thrilling conclusion.

Christopher H. Gibbs is James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College.

—Copyright © 2020 by Christopher H. Gibbs

Great Performers I Notes on the Program

Great Performers I Meet the Artists

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Lahav Shani

Lahav Shani is chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he assumed in September 2018, succeeding Yannick Nézet-Séguin and becoming the youngest chief conductor in the orchestra’s history. This season—his second as chief conductor—comprises several major projects, including a U.S. tour.

In the 2020–21 season, Mr. Shani will succeed Zubin Mehta as music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 2017–18 season, Mr. Shani became principal guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He also works regularly with the Berlin Staatskapelle, both at the Berlin State Opera and also for symphonic concerts. Recent and upcoming highlights include engagements with the Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Mr. Shani was born in Tel Aviv and started his piano studies with Hannah Shalgi, continuing with Arie Vardi at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv. He went on to complete his studies in conducting with Christian Ehwald and piano with Fabio Bidini at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin. While a student he was mentored by Daniel Barenboim. In 2013, Mr. Shani won First Prize in the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg, and in June 2016 he made his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as conductor and pianist.

As a pianist, Mr. Shani has conducted and played piano concertos with many orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Recent concerto engagements include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Beethoven Triple Concerto with with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musicician, Mr. Shani has recently appeared at the Aix-en-Provence and Verbier festivals, and at the Cologne Philharmonie.

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Great Performers I Meet the Artists

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at The Juilliard School were supported by the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. He attended Columbia University, majoring in French. Mr. Ax won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974, and in 1979 he won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

This season, Mr. Ax joins the Vienna Philharmonic and longtime collaborator Bernard Haitink at the Salzburg, BBC Proms, and Lucerne festivals; the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle on a tour of China and Hong Kong; the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands and on a tour of the U.S; the Staatskapelle Dresden on a tour of the Mediterranean region; as well as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Tonhalle Zurich. In North America, Mr. Ax performs three concerts with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as a solo recital, at Carnegie Hall, in addition to recitals in Madison, Santa Barbara, Washington, Las Vegas, and Colorado Springs, and orchestral appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra, among others.

A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, Mr. Ax’s recent recordings include Brahms Trios with Ma and Kavakos, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and works for two pianos by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. Mr. Ax has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas and for recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano.

As a chamber musician, he has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Peter Serkin, Jaime Laredo, and the late Isaac Stern. Mr. Ax lives in New York with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki, and their two children, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities.

Emanuel Ax

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Great Performers I Meet the Artists

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra distinguishes itself with its intensely energetic performances, acclaimed recordings, and innovative audience ap-proach. Founded in 1918, it has claimed its own position among Europe’s fore-most orchestras.

After the first pioneering years, the Rotterdam Philharmonic developed into a leading orchestra in the Netherlands under Eduard Flipse, principal conductor from 1930. In the 1970s, under Jean Fournet and Edo de Waart, the orches-tra gained international recognition. Valery Gergiev’s appointment heralded a new period of bloom, which continued with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and with Lahav Shani, principal conductor beginning in 2018.

Since 2010, the Rotterdam Philharmonic has been a resident orchestra of the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. With performances from the local venues to concert halls worldwide, educational performances, and community projects, the orchestra reaches an annual audience of 150,000 to 200,000, including a considerable number of young people. In the 2019–20 season, the orchestra will give concerts at leading venues and festivals in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.

Since its groundbreaking Mahler recordings with Flipse in the 1950s, the phil-harmonic has made a large number of critically praised recordings. At present the orchestra has contracts with Deutsche Grammophon and BIS Records; in recent years it also recorded for EMI and Virgin Classics. For the re-releasing of historical recordings, the orchestra formed its own label Rotterdam Philharmonic Vintage Recordings. Livestreams of concerts can be seen regularly via the online platform medici.tv.

Lincoln Center’s Great Performers

Initiated in 1965, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series offers classical and contemporary music performances from the world’s outstanding symphony orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and recitalists. One of the most significant music presentation series in the world, Great Performers runs from October through June with offerings in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theater, and other performance spaces around New York City. From symphonic masterworks, lieder recitals, and Sunday morning coffee concerts to films and groundbreaking productions specially commissioned by Lincoln Center, Great Performers offers a rich spectrum of programming throughout the season.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: pre-senter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and com-munity engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter

Great Performers I Meet the Artists

of thousands of free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers a variety of festivals and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist Program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, LC Kids, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating more than four decades enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Great Performers I Meet the Artists

ROTTERDAM PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Lahav Shani, Chief Conductor Valery Gergiev, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Honorary Conductors Adam Hickox, Corinna Niemeyer, Assistant Conductors

First ViolinIgor Gruppman,

ConcertmasterMarieke Blankestijn,

ConcertmasterQuirine ScheffersHed Yaron MayersohnSaskia OttoArno BonsMireille van der WartShelly GreenbergCor van der LindenRachel BrowneMaria DingjanMarie-Jose SchrijnerNoemi BoddenPetra VisserSophia TorrengaHadewijch HoflandAnnerien StukerAlexandra van

BeverenKoen Stapert

Second ViolinCharlotte PotgieterCecilia ZianoFrank de GrootLaurens van VlietTomoko HaraElina Hirvilammi-

StaphorsiusJun Yi DouBob BruynLetizia SciaroneEefje HabrakenMaija ReinikainenSumire HaraWim Ruitenbeek

Babette van den BergMelanie Broers

ViolaAnne HuserRoman SpitzerMaartje van RheedenGalahad SamsonKerstin BonkLex PrummelJanine BallerFrancis SaundersVeronika LánártováPierre-Marc VernaudonRosalinde KluckLéon van den Berg

CelloVacancyVacancyJoanna PachuckaDaniel PetrovitschGenevieve LeCouffeMario RioGe van LeeuwenEelco BeinemaCarla SchrijnerPepijn MeeuwsYi-Ting Fang

BassMatthew MidgleyYing Lai GreenJonathan FocquaertPeter LuitHarke WiersmaRobert FranenbergArjen LeendertzRicardo Neto

FluteJuliette HurelJoséphine OlechDesiree Woudenberg

Flute/PiccoloJustine Caillé

OboeRemco de VriesKarel SchoofsHans CartignyAnja van der Maten

Oboe/Cor AnglaisRon Tijhuis

ClarinetJulien HervéBruno BonanseaJan Jansen

Clarinet/Bass Clarinet

Romke-Jan Wijmenga

BassoonPieter NuyttenDavid SprangerMarianne Prommel

Bassoon/Contrabassoon

Hans Wisse

HornDavid Fernández

AlonsoCristina Neves

Wendy LeliveldRichard SpeetjensLaurens OttoPierre Buizer

TrumpetGiuliano

SommerhalderAlex EliaArto HoornwegSimon WierengaJos Verspagen

TrombonePierre VoldersAlexander VerbeekRemko de Jager

Bass Trombone/Contrabass

TromboneBen van Dijk

TubaHendrik-Jan Renes

Timpani/PercussionRandy MaxDanny van de WalRonald EntAdriaan FeyaertsMartijn Boom

HarpCharlotte Sprenkels

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Great Performers

For the Rotterdam Philharmonic OrchestraGeorge Wiegel, Managing DirectorFloris Don, Artistic ProgrammerDaniël Rosenquist, Manager Productions & ToursMonique van Zelst, Jos van der Sijde, Production LeadersFrans van Gelder, Diederik Meijnckens, Stage Managers

Tour Direction: Columbia Artists Management LLC

Emanuel Ax’s exclusive management: Opus 3 Artists

Lincoln Center Programming DepartmentJane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic DirectorHanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music ProgrammingJon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary ProgrammingJill Sternheimer, Director, Public ProgrammingJordana Leigh, Director, David Rubenstein AtriumCharles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary ProgrammingMauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary ProgrammingWalker Beard, Production ManagerAndrew C. Elsesser, Associate Director, ProgrammingLuna Shyr, Senior EditorRegina Grande Rivera, Associate ProducerViviana Benitez, Associate Producer, David Rubenstein AtriumOlivia Fortunato, Associate Producer, Public ProgrammingJames Fry, Technical Manager, Contemporary ProgrammingAnnie Guo, Production CoordinatorShade Adeyemo, Programming Coordinator, David Rubenstein AtriumCharmaine Marshall, Assistant to the Artistic DirectorPaloma Estevez, Company Manager, Contemporary ProgrammingRoshni Lavelle, House Seat Coordinator