Principal Soloists Play Bach, Bartók, Mozart &...

Principal Soloists Play Bach, Bartók, Mozart & Strauss

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic

2011–12 Season

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Alan Gilbert, ConductorLorin Maazel, ConductorBernard Haitink, ConductorJeffrey Kahane, Conductor/Harpsichord

Robert Langevin, Flute, The Lila Acheson Wallace ChairNancy Allen, Harp, The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III ChairPhilip Myers, Horn, The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder ChairCynthia Phelps, Viola, The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose ChairCarter Brey, Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels ChairSheryl Staples, Violin, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke ChairLiang Wang, Oboe, The Alice Tully ChairGlenn Dicterow, Violin, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair

Recorded live October 13–15 & 18, 2011; October 20–22, 2011; November 10–12 & 15, 2011; November 25–26 & 29, 2011; and May 19, 22, & 26, 2012Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

MOZART (1756–91)

Concerto in C major for Flute and Harp, K.299/297c (1778) 29:13Allegro 10:39

Andantino 9:25

Rondeau: Allegro 9:09

LORIN MAAZELROBERT LANGEVIN, NANCY ALLEN

New York PhilharmonicAlan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic 2011–12 Season

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2011–12 Season — twelve live recordings of performances conducted by the Music Director, two of which feature guest con-ductors — reflects the passion and curiosity that mark the Orchestra today. Alan Gil-bert’s third season with the New York Phil-harmonic continues a voyage of exploration of the new and unfamiliar while reveling in the greatness of the past, in works that the Music Director has combined to form telling and intriguing programs.

Every performance reveals the chemistry that has developed between Alan Gilbert and the musicians, whom he has praised for having “a unique ethic, a spirit of want-ing to play at the highest level no matter what the music is, and that trans lates into an ability to treat an incredible variety of styles brilliantly.” He feels that audi-ences are aware of this, adding, “I have noticed that at the end of performances the ovations are often the loud est when

the Philharmonic musicians stand for their bow: this is both an acknowledgment of the power and beauty with which they per-form, and of their dedication and commit-ment — and their inspiration — throughout the season.”

These high-quality recordings of almost 30 works, available internationally, reflect Alan Gilbert’s approach to programming, which combines works as diverse as One Sweet Morning — a song cycle by Ameri-can master composer John Corigliano exploring the nature of war on the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11 — with cornerstones of the repertoire, such as Dvorák’s lyrical yet brooding Seventh Symphony. The bonus content includes audio recordings of Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, program notes published in each concert’s Playbill, and encores given by today’s leading soloists.

For more information about the series, visit nyphil.org/recordings.

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BARTÓK (1881–1945)

Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. posth., BB 48a (1907–08) 21:41Andante sostenuto [attacca] 9:47

Allegro giocoso 11:54

ALAN GILBERT GLENN DICTEROW

R. STRAUSS (1864–1949)

Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11 (1882–83) 17:33Allegro [attacca] — Andante [attacca] 11:35

Allegro — Rondo: Allegro 5:58

LORIN MAAZELPHILIP MYERS

R. STRAUSS

Don Quixote (Introduction, Theme with Variations, and Finale), Fantastic Variations for Large Orchestra on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op. 35 (1897) 43:47BERNARD HAITINKCYNTHIA PHELPS, CARTER BREY

J.S. BACH (1685–1750)

Concerto in D minor for Oboe, Violin, and Strings, BWV 1060 (ca. 1717–23) 13:28Allegro 4:51

Adagio 5:10

Allegro 3:27

JEFFREY KAHANESHERYL STAPLES, LIANG WANG

New York Philharmonic

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plause and get a decent sum of money, let the devil take the rest.”

Leopold was responding to a letter that his wife had sent him two weeks earlier that had reported that Wolfgang was already busy with several projects, among them “two concertos, one for the flute and the other for the harp.” She had it not quite right: it was one concerto for both instru-ments together, and in writing it Mozart was indeed taking his father’s advice about being guided by French taste, since the particular passion of French audiences just then was the symphonie concertante, effec-tively a concerto with multiple soloists.

Mozart wrote the piece for a friend of Baron Grimm’s: the Duc de Guînes, an accomplished flutist whose daughter was receiving daily two-hour composition les-sons from Mozart. As in much of Mozart’s music “in the French taste,” this concerto treads lightly in matters of harmonic bravery, but it makes up for that in its abundance of melodic invention and the sheer sonic beauty of the instrumental combination. The concerto’s success was more aesthetic than pecuniary: by the end of July Mozart had still not been paid for the work; in addition, the duke tried to stiff him out of half the money for his daughter’s lessons.

Instrumentation: two oboes, two horns, and strings, in addition to the solo flute and harp.

Cadenzas: As Mozart provided none, though he calls for them in all three move-ments, the soloists in this performance play those crafted by Karl Hermann Pillney.

Angels and Muses

Much has been made of the fact that Mo-zart Mozart composed his Flute and Harp Concerto on commission from Adrien-Louis de Bonnières de Souastre, Duc de Guînes (1735–1806). This music-loving aristocrat (who played the flute) had started life as a mere count, distinguished himself as a soldier in the Seven Years War, and served as French Ambassador to Berlin (where he had played flute duets with Frederick the Great) and to London (from whence he was recalled for financial improprieties). On returning to France, in 1776, he was elevated to the status of duke, and in 1788 was named Governor of Artois. On May 14, 1778, Mozart wrote to his father about the Duc de Guînes, “whose daughter is my pupil in composition, plays the flute extremely well, and ... plays the harp magnifique.” He continued:

She has a great deal of talent and even genius, and in particular a marvelous memory, so that she can play all her pieces, actually about 200, by heart. She is, however, extremely doubtful as to whether she has any talent for composition, especially as regards invention or ideas. But her father who, between ourselves, is somewhat too infatuated with her, declares that she certainly has ideas and that it is only that she is too bashful and has too little self-confidence. Well, we shall see. If she gets no inspiration or ideas (for at present she really has none whatever), then it is to no purpose, for — God knows — I can’t give her any. Her father’s intention is not to make a great composer of her. “She is not,” he said, “to compose operas, arias, concertos, symphonies, but only grand sonatas for her instrument and mine.”

Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program AnnotatorThe Leni and Peter May Chair

Concerto in C major for Flute and Harp, K.299/297c

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

By the time Mozart turned 21, in January 1777, he had already experienced more of the world than most young adults of any era would approach in a lifetime. As a child prodigy, he had impressed musical connoisseurs and had enter-tained crowned heads in many European capitals. When he reached his majority, Mozart’s compositions at least equaled and often surpassed the best work of his contemporaries, and he had begun to make a mark in all the major genres. However, the young composer felt re-pressed in what he viewed as the artistic backwater of Salzburg, and he yearned to pursue his career elsewhere.

In September 1777 Mozart and his mother embarked on a journey, tracing a route from their home in Salzburg to distant Paris, with visits in Munich and Augsburg and a lengthy stay in Mannheim along the way. “The purpose of the journey,” Leopold, the composer's father, wrote Wolfgang in a letter on November 27, “the sole purpose, was, is, and must be to obtain a position or earn some money.” Mozart failed to accomplish the former, although he claimed to have turned down a well-paying post as an organist at Versailles. In any case, the money he acquired from composing, performing, and teach-ing during his months away wouldn’t have been impressive even if he had been paid as promised for his engagements, which on numerous occasions he was not. Tragedy

struck on July 3, 1778, when Mozart’s mother died as the result of a sudden illness. The 22-year-old composer (who had never before been without parental supervision) was left to make burial arrangements, break the news to his father and sister back home, and struggle on in a foreign country before making his way back to Salzburg, where he arrived in January 1779, dreading his return to the provincial routine he had hoped to escape.

During Mozart's six months in Paris he made serious efforts to stake a place in that metropolis’s musical life. Immediately after his arrival on March 23, 1778, he sought out an old family friend, Baron von Grimm, who had opened numerous Pari-sian doors when the Mozarts had visited Paris in 1763. The Baron again alerted his aristocratic circle, but the job-seeking adult Mozart was a harder sell than the seven-year-old prodigy had been, and he was received into Parisian salons with less excitement, if at all. Leopold, who in his barrage of correspondence proved to be a veritable Niagara of advice, reminded his son (on April 20) to “be guided by the French taste” while in Paris (italics his). “If you only win ap-

In ShortBorn: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria

Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna

Work composed: April 1778 in Paris

World premiere: We have no information about the early performance history of this work.

New York Philharmonic premiere: October 17, 1931, Erich Kleiber, conductor, John Amans, flute, and Theodore Cella, harp

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Notes on the Program(continued)

Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss was the first of two children (he had a younger sister, Johanna) born to Josephine Pschorr Strauss, daughter of a prosperous Munich brewer, and Franz Strauss, who by that time had served for 17 years as principal horn of the Bavarian Court Orchestra in Munich. Franz Strauss was the most respected horn player of his day — and a long day it was, since his tenure in the orchestra extended from 1847 until 1889, during the course of which he garnered lavish praise from the likes of Richard Wagner and the conductor Hans von Bülow (who, invoking one of the era’s leading violinists, called him “the Joachim of the French horn”). Richard would grow up enveloped by the sound of his father’s horn, and would eventually enrich the instrument’s repertoire with two concertos, not to men-tion numerous passages of breathtaking virtuosity in his orchestral scores.

When he was 14 years old Richard Strauss composed two pieces for his father: the Introduction, Theme, and Al-legro — for the predictable combination of horn and piano — and the song “Alphorn” for voice and piano with obbligato horn. It seemed inevitable that a full-blown horn concerto would spring from Richard’s pen eventually; Papa, after all, had himself writ-ten one back in 1865. The moment arrived in 1882–83, during the period in which the precocious Strauss was producing a

freshet of major-genre works, all of which enjoy at least occasional performances today: the Symphony in D minor and the A-major String Quartet (both in 1880); the Violin Concerto (1882); the Cello Sonata (1880–83); the Horn Concerto No. 1 (1882–83); and the Symphony in F minor and Piano Quartet (both in 1883–84).

Of these early pieces, the Horn Concerto No. 1 is the most thoroughly successful. It’s a tightly constructed work, lasting only some 16 minutes, and its three movements are fused into a single, elegantly flowing span, with eight measures of Allegro serv-ing to connect the slow movement to the Rondo finale proper. On the one hand, this is a conservative piece, its cheerful good humor somewhat evoking the Classical spirit of Mozart. Franz Strauss would have appreciated that aspect of it, since his musical tastes (about which he was very outspoken) veered toward the old school.

In ShortBorn: June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Died: September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Work composed: composed 1882–83; the piano reduction is dedicated to Strauss’s father, Franz, the orchestral score to Oscar Franz

World premiere: March 4, 1885, in Meiningen, Germany, Hans von Bülow conducting the Meiningen Orchestra, its principal hornist, Gustav Leinhos, as soloist; the work had previously been presented at the Munich Tonkünstlerverein by hornist Bruno Hoyer with the composer playing his piano reduction of the orchestral score

New York Philharmonic premiere: January 31, 1931, Ernest Schelling, conductor, Bruno Jaenicke, soloist

On the other hand, this concerto — like the symphonies and chamber works that are its contemporaries — already sounds unmis-takably like Richard Strauss, presaging the famous symphonic poems and operas that lay not far in his future.

In the event, the elder Strauss never per-formed this concerto in public, and the com-poser’s sister reported that when he played it at home, with Richard assisting at the piano, he complained about there being too many high notes in it, which seems a specious criti-cism. Papa Strauss received the dedication of his son’s concerto, in its horn-and-piano version, whether he wanted it or not.

The dedication of the full orchestral score, however, went to another noted horn player, the Dresden-based Oscar Franz, who, as it happened, also never performed it in public. (He didn’t have all that much time to do so since he died in 1886, at the age of only 43.) The premiere, which was of the piano reduction, was entrusted to a different horn-ist, Bruno Hoyer, reputedly Franz Strauss’s favorite pupil at the Munich Academy of Music. When the concerto was unveiled in its full orchestral glory, yet another soloist stood in the spotlight: Gustav Leinhos, the first horn of Hans von Bülow’s acclaimed orchestra at the Ducal Court of Meiningen. It was he who, several months after the premiere, would serve as that conductor’s emissary in inviting Strauss to become von Bülow’s musical apprentice — the step that decisively launched Strauss’s career.

Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two

trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo horn.

What Horn Did Strauss Have in Mind?

The title page of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 calls the piece “Concert für das Waldhorn” (“Concerto for the Waldhorn”). Waldhorn — literally “forest horn,” suggesting its connec-tion to the hunt — properly refers to a “natural horn,” an instrument of the pre-valve era limited to sounding notes of a single overtone series, with slight chromatic alterations pos-sible through placement of the player’s hand in the instrument’s bell. A critical advance in horn manufacture occurred in the first half of the 19th century: the introduction of valves that could alter the length of the instrument’s tubes — and, thereby, its chromatic pos-sibilities — with the flick of a finger. Despite the greater facility of the new valved horns, old-fashioned Waldhorns refused to go out of style, and some composers (Brahms among them) voiced an abiding preference for their atmospheric tones.

It is a matter of dispute whether Strauss’s Concerto can actually be played on a Wald-horn with any degree of success or accuracy. Some horn players say it can, though with immense effort, if one installs a crook that pitches the instrument in E-flat. Others pro-claim it impossible, insisting that it absolute-ly requires the chromatic facility of a valved horn. Even today, when expert performances on historical instruments are a quotidian reality, I am unaware of a single performance or recording of this piece using a natural horn. Until that changes, I’ll cast my lot with the anti-Waldhorn camp and assume that Strauss was using the older term generically, simply to mean a horn in general.

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Don Quixote (Introduction, Theme with Variations, and Finale), Fantastic Variations for Large Orchestra on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op. 35

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote stands as a classic example of the genre of the symphonic poem, a musical composition based on or derived from a pre-existing extramusical source, such as a liter-ary work or a painting. The origin of the symphonic poem may be traced to the depictive overtures of the early 19th century (for example, Mendelssohn’s Heb-rides Overture) but it was Franz Liszt who molded the concept into a clearly defined genre. This he did through a dozen single-movement orchestral pieces composed in the 1840s and 1850s, all of which were linked to literary sources. The idea proved popular in Germany and elsewhere, and the repertoire grew quickly thanks to im-pressive contributions by such composers as Smetana, Dvorák, Franck, and — most impressively of all — Richard Strauss.

Many lesser figures also jumped onto the symphonic poem bandwagon. One was Alexander Ritter, a violinist and composer who fell in with the Liszt and Wagner circle and eventually became associate concertmaster of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, which was conducted by

the eminent Hans von Bülow. In Meinin-gen he grew friendly with the young Richard Strauss, whom von Bülow had brought in as an assistant music director in 1885. Strauss would later say that Ritter revealed to him the greatness of the music of Wagner, Liszt, and Berlioz and, by exten-sion, opened his eyes to the possibilities of the symphonic poem.

In 1886 Strauss produced what might be considered his first work in the genre, Aus Italien (although it is more precisely a descriptive symphony), and he continued with hardly a break through the series that many feel represent the tone poem at its height: Don Juan (1888–89), Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration, also 1888–89), Macbeth (1888/91), Till Eulen-spiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, 1894–95), Also sprach Zara-thustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1896), Don Quixote (1897), Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life, 1897–98), and Symphonia do-mestica (Domestic Symphony, 1902–03).

In ShortBorn: June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Died: September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Work composed: 1897, completed on December 29 at 11:42 a.m. (as Strauss noted on the manuscript); dedicated to “my friend Joseph Dupont, conductor at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels”

World premiere: March 8, 1898, Franz Wüllner conducting the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, Friedrich Grützmacher, soloist

New York Philharmonic premiere: December 8, 1912, Walter Damrosch, conductor, Paul Kefer and Hans Weissmann, soloists

The Work at a Glance

Cervantes’s Don Quixote unrolls through an extended series of discrete episodes, nearly all of which, at least on the surface, turn out badly for the hero. Strauss selected 11 of these scenes for quite precise musical description, and although the composer never issued an official written program to serve as guide, early commentators did, apparently with the composer’s approbation. Here is the generally accepted scenario, following the six-minute introduction and the two-minute exposé of the “Theme of Knightly Character”:

Variation I (“Easy-going”): Don Quixote and Sancho Panza ride off to achieve heroic acts of virtue on behalf of Dulcinea de Toboso (the object of the Don’s affection). They battle with a field of windmills, which Quixote takes to be giant monsters.

Variation II (“Warlike”): In this “victorious fight against the army of the great Em-peror Alifanfarón” (as Strauss called it), Don Quixote’s adversaries turn out to be a flock of sheep.

Variation III (“In Moderate Tempo”): Don Quixote converses with Sancho Panza about chivalric ideals.

Variation IV (“Somewhat Broader”): Don Quixote attacks religious pilgrims carrying a statue of the Madonna, mistaking them for ruffians abducting a beautiful maiden.

Variation V (“Very Slow”): The dozing Don Quixote dreams about Dulcinea.

Variation VI (“Fast”): Sancho presents a homely peasant girl to his master, hoping to appease the Don’s fantasies of Dulcinea, but Don Quixote manages to offend her.

Variation VII (“A Bit More Calm than the Preceding”): Tricksters blindfold Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, mount them on horses, and turn a bellows on them to convince them that they are flying through the air.

Variation VIII (“Easy-going”): After a boating mishap (bereft of oars, our intrepid pair go over a waterfall), Don Quixote and Sancho drip and pray.

Variation IX (“Fast and Stormy”): Don Quixote sets upon two Benedictine monks, whom he mistakes for robed sorcerers.

Variation X (“Much Broader”): Hoping to save Don Quixote from his own madness, a well-intentioned neighbor from his hometown presents himself as a “white knight,” defeats Don Quixote in a jousting match, and, as a condition of his victory, demands that he return home and desist from adventuring for a year.

Finale (“Very Peaceful”): Don Quixote’s sanity is restored, which is to say that he forsakes his idealistic dreams and dies peacefully in his own bed.

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Eine Alpensymphonie (An Alpine Symphony, 1911–15) would follow as a late pendant to this catalogue.

Some of Strauss’s symphonic poems are more overtly derived from their sources than are others. Don Quixote is among the most detailed and faithful in its depictions, rivaled only by the Domestic Symphony (which has weathered criticism for its sometimes too-quaint portrayal of a day in the life of a happy family) and Eine Alpensymphonie (which details a day hiking up a mountain and back down again). Its source is the summit achievement of Spanish literature, the novel El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in two parts (1605, 1615), by Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes had penned his tale as a send-up of the chi-valric romances then in vogue, and readers appreciated his alternative approach from the outset. Unlike other knights of literature, the creaky Don Quixote is a most unlikely hero, obviously doomed in his enterprise. Adventures lurk in his imagination, but he is constantly foiled when he tries to play them out in the less romantic world of quotidian reality, to the perpetual frustration of Sancho Panza, his earthy sidekick.

Cervantes’s novel is more than fluff, to be sure, and ensuing centuries of enthralled readers have found that its hilarious misad-ventures reveal deep truths about human as-pirations. Strauss was certainly one of them, and he viewed his Don Quixote as a compan-ion to his next symphonic poem, the explicitly autobiographical Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). For a while he hoped that the two might be premiered together. Although this did not come to pass, he insisted until the end of his

life that “Don Quixote and Heldenleben are so much conceived as tied to one another that Don Quixote is fully and entirely comprehen-sible only at the side of Heldenleben.” Surely, Strauss must have recognized at least a bit of the Quixote in himself — as, indeed, all creative people must.

Instrumentation: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets (one doubling E-flat clarinet) and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon, six horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tenor and bass tubas, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, small bell, tambourine, wind ma-chine, harp, and strings. Several instruments are closely associated with characters in the tale, most prominently a solo cello with Don Quixote, and solo viola, aided by tenor tuba and bass clarinet, with Sancho Panza.

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Concerto in D minor for Oboe, Violin, and Strings, BWV 1060

Johann Sebastian Bach

Some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s concertos come down to us in multiple versions, and when they don’t it is widely assumed that the existing text may be all that survives of a lost original. All of his solo concertos with orchestra — there are only seven complete ones — exist as harpsichord concertos, but none is thought to have been first created to spotlight that instrument. Earlier violin versions of sev-eral are unquestionably authentic; indeed, it makes sense that Bach, who was an ad-ept violinist as well as a brilliant keyboard player, should have chosen to feature the violin in several of his concertos.

For the most part, Bach wrote his harpsichord concertos for courtly enter-tainment or for the members of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, a society of university students, interested amateurs, and a few professionals who met most Friday eve-nings to play music for their own pleasure and for the members of the public who dropped by. In cold months the group gathered at Zimmermann’s coffeehouse, in Leipzig’s Catherinestrasse; during the summer they moved out of doors, either to the café’s garden or to some site on the outskirts of town. Bach directed it from 1729 to 1741 (with a break from 1737 to 1739), and often dipped into his back catalogue of compositions when crafting “new” pieces for the Collegium to explore.

An analysis of the musical characteris-tics of Bach’s C-minor Concerto for Two Harpsichords and Strings (BWV 1060) has led to the generally accepted belief that it was initially a Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin, under which guise it is performed here. A 1764 catalogue from the publishing firm of Breitkopf lists a Bach concerto for oboe and violin, with-out mentioning its key, confirming that Bach penned a piece for this instrumental combination. Dissent ing opinions persist, however, and all reconstructions — or, more precisely, “retro-constructions” — involve consider able speculation. That explains why this piece can be found in modern versions for oboe and violin (or for two violins) in the keys of both C minor and D minor, the latter being the version heard here.

About the double harp sichord concer-tos BWV 1060 and BWV 1061, Johann Forkel wrote, in his 1802 biography of Bach: “The first is very old, but the second is as new as if it had been composed only

In ShortBorn: March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany

Died: July 28, 1750, in Leipzig

Work composed: This concerto is a reconstruction of a work which Bach is thought to have written between 1717 and 1723.

World premiere: There is no information available about the early performance history of this work.

New York Philharmonic premiere: December 30, 1961, Werner Torkanowsky, conductor, Joseph Silverstein, violin, and Principal Oboe Harold Gomberg, soloists

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yesterday.” Recent musicological opinion agrees that BWV 1060 was “very old” at that time. Bach almost surely wrote it — in its origi nal version — some time between 1717 and 1723, during his tenure as Kapell meister to Prince Leopold of Cöthen, and refashioned it for two harpsichords later in Leipzig. The 13-mem ber instrumental ensemble available at Cöthen fell short of what we would consider a modern orches-tra; this is why Bach’s orchestral pieces of that period still stand with one foot planted in the realm of chamber music. The manuscript for both the presumed original and the revision are lost, but at least the two-harpsichord arrangement has survived in reliable copies from the period.

This is an aggressive and intensely emotional work, the more so in the ver sion that employs the pungent tones of the oboe and the expres sive possibilities of the violin. It is cast in the standard Italianate pattern of three movements, the first of which is a fine example of the harmonic density that some of Bach’s followers would deplore as “turgid.” The texture does lighten for a lumi-nous, introspective slow move ment in which the soloists weave their lines in elegant counterpoint above simple chords in the orchestra. A brittle theme is strongly etched by the soloists and orchestra at the outset of the final movement, which in a central episode boosts the violinist into the spotlight to proclaim great sweeps of triplets.

Instrumentation: solo oboe and violin with an orchestra of strings and continuo (com-prising harpsichord, cello, and bass).

Angels and Muses

Johann Sebastian Bach was 32 years old when he assumed the position of Kapellmeister (music director) at the Court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, in December 1717. It was a big decision for the composer, who already had a perfectly good job as orchestra leader for the Duke of Weimar, where he had worked since 1708 (his second stint there, actually, following his brief first appointment in 1703). Accept-ing the new position was personally disruptive beyond the fact that it entailed moving Bach’s quickly growing family the distance of about 60 miles; the Duke refused to accept Bach’s resignation and had him held under arrest for a month before he finally relented and let his music director go.

The allures of Cöthen were substantial. Leopold’s realm may have been small (with just 5,000 subjects), but his passion for music was boundless. He was a reasonably accomplished performer on the viola da gamba, and he traveled to France, England, Italy, and the Netherlands to polish his skills not only as a gambist but also as a violinist and harpsichordist. As a teenager the Prince had convinced his mother to start hiring a musical staff with whom he could play chamber music, and by the time he assumed the throne himself the assemblage had grown into a full-fledged collegium musicum (essentially a chamber orchestra) of about 13 players. As it hap-pened, Friedrich Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, had just then decided to put more money into military spending, and as a result Leopold had his pick of the newly unemployed players who had belonged to the King’s orchestra. In addition to these musi-cal inducements there was Leopold’s practically unbeatable financial proposal: Bach would be the second-highest-paid employee of the entire court, and his wife would be paid half as much to serve as a singer. Unfortunately, the nearly six and a half years Bach spent in Cöthen would not be entirely happy. His wife died in 1720, leaving him a single father of seven children; but he remarried a year and a half later, and generally prospered, moving on only when offered the prestigious position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, in 1723.

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Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. posth., BB 48a

Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók received his most focused training at the Budapest Academy of Music, where his principal studies were in piano and composition. Following his grad-uation, in 1903, he embarked on a career as a touring pianist while continuing his activities as a composer. It soon became clear that he was likely to find greater suc-cess and fulfillment as a composer, and in 1908 he accepted a professorship at his alma mater, where he would remain until 1934. By then he had immersed himself in the folk music of the Balkans (and of regions as distant as North Africa) and had enriched his musical thinking through intensive study of the orchestration and harmonic practices of contemporary French composers, influences that would deeply inform his evolving style.

Although Bartók had acquired a basic understanding of string instruments in the course of his conservatory education, he was never trained specifically as a violinist. Nonetheless, his instincts for that instru-ment proved uncannily nuanced, and he enriched its repertoire with such essential works as his two Sonatas for Violin and Piano (of 1921 and 1922, respectively), two Rhapsodies for Violin and Orches-tra (1928–29), 44 Duos for Two Violins (1931), and the Sonata for Solo Violin (1944). He also composed two violin concertos; the Second (from 1937–38)

has become a classic, but the First (from 1907–08), played here, remains a rarity in concert programming.

The early Violin Concerto is connected with the composer’s infatuation for Stefi Geyer. Bartók met the Hungarian violinist in 1907, when he was 26 and she was 19. He was absolutely smitten, and he poured out his affection in a series of letters. By September 6 he revealed some very per-sonal thoughts in an immense missive — practically 5,000 words long — in which he spelled out his personal philosophy, largely framed in terms of his rebellion against ac-cepted Catholic teachings. He wrote:

It isn’t God who created man in his own im-

age, after his likeness: It is man who created

God after his own likeness. It is not the body

that’s mortal and the soul that’s immortal but

the other way ’round: The soul is transitory

and the body (that is, matter) is everlasting! ...

By the time I had completed my 22nd year, I

was a new man — an atheist.

In ShortBorn: March 25, 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania)

Died: September 26, 1945, in New York City

Work composed: from July 1, 1907 (in Jaszberény), to February 5, 1908 (in Budapest); it is dedicated to the violinist Stefi Geyer

Work composed: May 30, 1958, in Basel, Switzerland, with Paul Sacher conducting the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Hans-Heinz Schneeberger, soloist

New York Philharmonic premiere: January 31, 1931, Ernest Schelling, conductor, Bruno Jaenicke, soloist.

26

Stefi was apparently shocked, and some theological disputation ensued, but it didn’t seem to lessen Bartók’s infatuation. In mid-September he wrote: “One letter from you, a line, even a word — and I am in a transport of joy, the next brings me almost to tears, it hurts so. What is to be the end of it all? And when?” The answer came at the beginning of February, when Stefi informed him that this courtship would not be continuing.

Through it all Bartók had been composing a violin concerto, initially envisioned as three movements depicting different aspects of Stefi’s character. He then decided to limit the piece to two connected movements that shared some thematic content but achieved contrasting moods. The first, he wrote, would depict an “idealized Stefi Geyer, celestial and inward”; the second, a character that was “cheerful, witty, amusing.” Although he had not completed the piece when his hopes were dashed, he did go on to finish it promptly. He presented Stefi with a copy of the score. At the top of that manuscript he inscribed the words “My Confession,” followed by a dedication: “For Stefi, from the times that were happy ones. Although even that was only half-happiness.”

The concerto was not performed until 1958, a year and a half after Geyer died. Bartók did, however, recycle the Andante sostenuto movement as the first of his Two Portraits (Op. 5), presented there under the title “Ideal.”

Instrumentation: two flutes (one dou-bling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets (one doubling bass

clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, triangle, bass drum, two harps, and strings, in addi-tion to the solo violin.

A Request Rebuffed

The violinist Zoltán Székely (1903–2001) was the dedicatee of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and played that work’s premiere, in 1939. The virtuoso was introduced to the composer in 1921, and later recalled visiting Bartók’s home in Budapest in August 1922:

During those visits I asked him about the Violin Concerto which it was ru-mored he had written for Stefi Geyer. ... As he had no other violin works yet, except the First Violin Sonata and perhaps something from his youth, I was interested in the possibility that an unplayed concerto existed. ... He made no answer whatsoever. He simply turned away and went out of the room as though he hadn’t heard my question. At the moment I thought he was going to get the music, but when he returned he never mentioned it at all.

28 29


ALAN GILBERTMusic Director The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair

Case ScaglioneJoshua WeilersteinAssistant Conductors

Leonard BernsteinLaureate Conductor, 1943–1990

Kurt MasurMusic Director Emeritus

VIOLINS

Glenn Dicterow Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Chair

Sheryl Staples Principal Associate Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair

Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Chair

Enrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe

Hae-Young Ham The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George

Chair

Lisa GiHae KimKuan Cheng LuNewton Mansfield The Edward and Priscilla Pilcher

Chair

Kerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles Rex The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair

Fiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth Zeltser The William and Elfriede Ulrich Chair

Yulia Ziskel

Marc Ginsberg Principal

Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell

Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair

Duoming Ba

Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair

Martin EshelmanQuan Ge The Gary W. Parr Chair

Judith GinsbergStephanie Jeong+Hanna LachertHyunju Lee Joo Young OhDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin

VIOLAS

Cynthia Phelps Principal The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose

Chair

Rebecca Young* The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair

Irene Breslaw** The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair

Dorian Rence

Katherine Greene The Mr. and Mrs. William J.

McDonough Chair

Dawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen

Chair

CELLOS

Carter Brey Principal The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair

Eileen Moon* The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair

Eric Bartlett The Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Chair

Maria Kitsopoulos

Elizabeth Dyson The Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair

Sumire Kudo

Qiang TuRu-Pei Yeh The Credit Suisse Chair

in honor of Paul Calello

Wei Yu Wilhelmina Smith++

BASSES

Timothy Cobb++ Acting Principal The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair

Orin O’Brien* Acting Associate Principal The Herbert M. Citrin Chair

William Blossom The Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess

Chair

Randall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi Okamoto

FLUTES

Robert Langevin Principal The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair

Sandra Church*Mindy Kaufman

PICCOLO

Mindy Kaufman

OBOES

Liang Wang Principal The Alice Tully Chair

Sherry Sylar*Robert Botti The Lizabeth and Frank Newman Chair

ENGLISH HORN-

CLARINETS

Mark Nuccio Acting Principal The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark

Chair

Pascual Martínez Forteza* Acting Associate Principal The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair

Alucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++

E-FLAT CLARINET

Pascual Martínez Forteza

BASS CLARINET

Amy Zoloto++

BASSOONS

Judith LeClair Principal The Pels Family Chair

Kim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast

CONTRABASSOON

Arlen Fast

HORNS

Philip Myers Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair

Stewart Rose++* Acting Associate Principal

R. Allen Spanjer Howard WallDavid Smith++ TRUMPETS

Philip Smith Principal The Paula Levin Chair

Matthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith

TROMBONES

Joseph Alessi Principal The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart

Chair

Daniele Morandini++* Acting Associate Principal

David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen

Chair

BASS TROMBONE

James Markey The Daria L. and William C. Foster Chair

TUBA

Alan Baer Principal

TIMPANI

Markus Rhoten Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair

Kyle Zerna**

PERCUSSION

Christopher S. Lamb Principal The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair

Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair

Kyle Zerna

HARP

Nancy Allen Principal The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III

Chair

KEYBOARD In Memory of Paul Jacobs

HARPSICHORD

Paolo Bordignon

PIANO The Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Chair

Eric Huebner Jonathan Feldman

ORGAN

Kent Tritle

LIBRARIANS

Lawrence Tarlow Principal

Sandra Pearson** Sara Griffin**

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER

Carl R. Schiebler

STAGE REPRESENTATIVE

Joseph Faretta

AUDIO DIRECTOR

Lawrence Rock

* Associate Principal** Assistant Principal+ On Leave++ Replacement/Extra

The New York Philharmonic uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.

HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY

Emanuel Ax Pierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin Maazel Zubin MehtaCarlos Moseley

30 31

The Music Director

New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, creating what New York magazine called “a fresh future for the Philharmon-ic.” The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he has sought to make the Orches-tra a point of civic pride for both the city and the country.

Mr. Gilbert’s creative approach to pro-gramming combines works in fresh and innovative ways. He has forged artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual three-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series. In 2011–12 he con-ducts world premieres, Mahler sympho-

nies, a residency at London’s Barbican Centre, tours to Europe and California, and a season-concluding musical explora-tion of space at the Park Avenue Armory featuring Stockhausen’s theatrical immer-sion, Gruppen. He also made his Philhar-monic soloist debut performing J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins alongside Frank Peter Zimmermann in October 2011. The 2010–11 season’s highlights included two tours of European music capitals, Carn-egie Hall’s 120th Anniversary Concert, and Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, hailed by The Washington Post as “another victory,” building on 2010’s wildly success-ful staging of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, which The New York Times called “an instant Philharmonic milestone.”

In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became

Director of Conducting and Orchestral Stud-ies at The Juilliard School, where he is the first to hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Ham-burg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regu-larly conducts the world’s leading orchestras, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Or-chestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Alan Gilbert made his acclaimed Metro-politan Opera debut in 2008 leading John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, the DVD of which won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 2011. Other recordings have 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 (1995–97). 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 “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contem-porary music.”

32

The Artists

Lorin Maazel served as Music Direc-tor of the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2009. In the 2010–11 season he completed his fifth and final year as the inaugural music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opera house in Valencia, Spain, and at the start of the 2012–13 season he will become music director of the Munich Philharmonic. 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 2009. The festival is expanding its activities nationally and internationally in 2011 and beyond.

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 lit-erary 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 2008. A Decca DVD of the original London production was released in May 2008.

A second-generation American born in Paris, France, Lorin Maazel began violin lessons at age five, and conduct-ing lessons at age seven. He studied with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff, and appeared publicly for the first time at age eight. Be-tween ages nine and fifteen he conducted most of the major American orchestras, including the NBC Symphony at the invita-tion of Arturo Toscanini. In the course of his decades-long career Mr. Maazel has conducted more than 150 orchestras in no fewer 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 direc-tor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002); music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84, the first American to hold that position); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). His close association with the Vienna Philharmonic has included 11 internationally televised New Year’s Con-certs from Vienna.

33

Bernard Haitink, one of today’s most celebrated conductors, was music director of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for more than 25 years, and was principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010. He also held posts as music director of the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He is conductor laureate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and con-ductor emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has made frequent guest appearances with most of the world’s lead-ing orchestras.

In the 2010–11 season Mr. Haitink conducted the opening concerts of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, fol-lowed by performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Zurich Opera. He led a Brahms cycle with the Chamber Orches-tra of Europe (COE), beginning with the Lucerne Piano Festival in November 2010 and completing it at the Lucerne

Easter and Summer Festivals of 2011. Further concerts with the COE included Beethoven cycles at the Concertge-bouw and the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Other 2010–11 season highlights included concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the London, Boston, and Chicago symphony orchestras. Mr. Haitink has recorded for the Phillips, Decca, and EMI labels, leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His discography also includes many opera recordings with the Royal Opera, Glyndebourne, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Dresden Sta-atskapelle. He has recorded extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra for its LSO Live label, including the complete Brahms and Beethoven symphonies, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on its Resound label. Mr. Haitink’s recording of Janácek’s Jenu°fa with the Royal Opera received a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 2004, and his recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was awarded a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance of 2008.

Bernard Haitink has received many international awards in recognition of his services to music, including both an honorary Knighthood and the Companion of Honour in the United Kingdom, and the House Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. He was named Musical America’s 2007 Musician of the Year.

34

The Artists

Jeffrey Kahane is equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, performing a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven to Gershwin, Osvaldo Golijov, and John Adams. Since making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, Mr. Kahane has given recitals in many of the nation’s major music centers including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He appears as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, and he appears regularly at major U.S. summer festivals. He collabo-rates frequently with artists such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw, violinist Joshua Bell, and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, as well as with the Emerson and Takács Quartets.

Mr. Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988. He is currently in his 15th season as music

director of the Los Angeles Chamber Or-chestra, having served as music director of the Colorado Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony for ten seasons. Highlights of his 2011–12 season included performing and conducting programs with the Seattle, Vancouver, and New Jersey symphony orchestras; his conducting debut with the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center; play-ing and conducting a Beyond the Score program with The Philadelphia Orchestra; and a solo/chamber music program at Disney Hall presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in honor of his 15th anniver-sary as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

A native of Los Angeles and a gradu-ate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Jeffrey Kahane won first prize at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition, was a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, and received a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987. His recordings include works by Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma (SONY); Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables with the New World Symphony (Decca/Argo); R. Strauss’s Burleske with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Telarc); and the complete Bach Brandenburg Concer-tos (as harpsichordist) with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra (Haenssler). His recording of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, was nominated by Gramophone for Record of the Year.

Robert Langevin joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Flute, The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair, in the 2000–01 season. In May 2001 he made his solo de-but with the Orchestra in the U.S. premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur. Prior to the Philharmonic, Mr. Langevin held the Jackman Pfouts Princi-pal Flute Chair of the Pittsburgh Sympho-ny, was an adjunct professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and served as as-sociate principal of the Montreal Sympho-ny Orchestra for 13 years. As a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and l’Ensemble de la Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, he premiered many works, including the Canadian premiere of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître. In ad-dition, Mr. Langevin has performed as soloist with Quebec’s most distinguished ensembles and has recorded many recit-als and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He

also served on the faculty of the University of Montreal for nine years.

Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Rob-ert Langevin won the prestigious Prix d’Europe, a national competition open to all instruments with a first prize of a two-year scholarship to study in Europe. He subsequently worked with Aurèle Nicolet at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, from which he graduat-ed in 1979. He also studied with Maxence Larrieu in Geneva, winning second prize at the Budapest International Competition in 1980. Robert Langevin is a member of the Philharmonic Quintet of New York, and has given recitals and master classes throughout the United States and abroad.

Nancy Allen joined the New York Phil-harmonic in June 1999 as Principal Harp, The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Chair. She maintains a busy international concert schedule as well as heading the harp departments of The Juilliard School and

35

36

The Artists

the Aspen Music Festival and School. In addition, Ms. Allen appears regularly with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Orpheus Chamber Orches-tra. In May 2001 she was featured in the Philharmonic’s U.S. premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with then Music Director Kurt Masur and Principal Flute Robert Langevin.

Ms. Allen’s performing schedule includes solo appearances at major international festivals, and has featured collaborations with soprano Kathleen Battle, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and guitarist Manuel Barrueco; and with flutist Carol Wincenc and Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps in their trio, Les Amies. She has appeared on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as with Ms. Battle, and has performed as a recitalist on “Music at the Supreme Court” in Washington, D.C. Ms. Allen’s recording of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the Tokyo String Quartet, flutist Ransom Wilson, and clarinetist David Shifrin received a Grammy Award nomina-tion; she can also be heard on recordings on the Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammo-phon, and CRI labels.

Nancy Allen studied with Marcel Grand-jany at The Juilliard School. She won the Fifth International Harp Competition in Is-rael, and was awarded a National Endow-ment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Award.

Philip Myers joined the New York Phil-harmonic as Principal Horn, The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair, in January 1980. He made his solo debut during his first month with the Orchestra in the premiere of William Schuman’s Three Colloquies for French Horn and Orchestra. Since then he has appeared as a Philharmonic soloist frequently: in December 2008 he performed Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2, led by then Music Director Lorin Maazel. Other Philharmonic solo appearances have included Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns in New York with Mr. Maazel in 2007, and in New York and on tour with then Music Director Kurt Masur in 1996 and 2001; Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 with Mr. Maazel in January 2005; and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with André Previn in 2001. His most recent solo appearance with the Orchestra was in March 2010, when he performed Mozart’s Sinfonia con-certante with Principal Oboe Liang Wang, Acting Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio, and

37

Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair.Mr. Myers began his orchestral career

in 1971 with a three-year term as principal horn of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was third horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1974 to 1977. As princi-pal horn of the Minnesota Orchestra for a season and a half, he made a solo debut with that ensemble in 1979, performing Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1, Neville Marriner conducting.

A native of Elkhart, Indiana, Philip Myers holds two degrees from Carnegie–Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He plays Engel-bert Schmid French horns.

Cynthia Phelps enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and, since 1992, Principal Viola of the New York Philharmonic, The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair. Her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

Nos. 6 and 3 in the 2008–09 season; performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali; and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young. The two reprised the work with the Philharmonic on several tours and most recently in April 2011. Her other solo engagements have included the Min-nesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao.

Ms. Phelps regularly appears with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic. She has performed with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, St. Lawrence, and Prague string quartets, and The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has appeared in the summer music festivals of Marlboro, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Seattle, Bridgehampton, Steamboat Springs, Vail, Schleswig-Holstein, Naples, and Cremona, as well as at Mostly Mozart and Music at Menlo. She is a founding member of the chamber en-semble Les Amies, a flute, harp, and viola group formed together with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc.

Ms. Phelps’s honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington Interna-tional String Competition. Her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln

38

The Artists(continued)

Center on PBS, St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR, Radio France, Italy’s RAI, and WGBH in Boston. Her solo debut record-ing was released on Cala Records.Cynthia Phelps has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School and of the Manhat-tan School of Music.

Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair, of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He made his subscription debut with the Orchestra in May 1997 perform-ing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under the direction of then Music Director Kurt Masur, and has since performed frequently as soloist with the Orchestra. He rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich Interna-tional Cello Competition. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, Young Concert Art-ists’ Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts

Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize.Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, and performed under the batons of prominent conductors includ-ing Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, and Christoph von Dohnányi. His chamber music career is equally distinguished; he has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emer-son string quartets as well as with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at festivals such as Spoleto (in both the United States and Italy), and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O’Riley; together they recorded The Latin American Album, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico (released on Helicon Records). His most recent recording is of Chopin’s complete works for cello and piano, with pianist Garrick Ohlsson (Arabesque).

Carter Brey was educated at the Pea-body Institute, where he studied with Lau-rence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. His violoncello is a rare J.B. Guadagnini made in Milan in 1754.

39

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair, in 1998 and made her solo debut with the Orchestra in 1999. She has performed as soloist with more than 40 orchestras nationwide, including The Cleve-land Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the San Diego, Pacific, and Albany symphony orchestras.

An active chamber musician, Ms. Staples has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard, and Seattle chamber music festivals; she has been a faculty artist at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Sarasota music festivals. She performs with the New York Philharmonic Ensem-bles and the Lyric Chamber Music Society. She was associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio; and con-certmaster of the Pacific Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. She has taught at the Cleveland Institute

of Music, Encore School for Strings, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, University of Southern California, and Colburn School of Performing Arts. She is on the faculty of The Juilliard School, where she teaches orchestral excerpts.

Ms. Staples was a scholarship student at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, a Young Musicians Foundation Scholar, and a W.M. Keck Scholar at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, spend-ing summers at the Encore School for Strings. She earned an Artist Diploma from the University of Southern California.

Sheryl Staples performs on the “Kart-man” Guarnerius del Gesù, ca. 1728.

Liang Wang joined the New York Philhar-monic as Principal Oboe, The Alice Tully Chair, in September 2006; in February 2008 he performed Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with the Orchestra in Hong Kong. Born in Qing Dao, China, in 1980, he enrolled at the Beijing Central

40

The Artists(continued)

Conservatory in 1993; two years later he became a full scholarship student at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. He completed his bachelor’s degree at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with The Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal oboe, Richard Wood-hams, and he received fellowships to both the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Wang was a prizewinner at the 2003 Fernard Gillet International Oboe Competition and at the 2002 Tilden Prize Competition. He received the Jack Smith Award at the Pas-adena Instrumental Competition, twice won the Los Angeles Philharmonic Fellowship, and was a winner in the Spotlight Competi-tion of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Mr. Wang has served as principal oboe of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Ballet orchestra, and as associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony; he was also a guest principal oboist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.

He has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Ballet orchestra in Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, and in Santa Fe, perform-ing oboe concertos by Marcello and Vivaldi. As a chamber musician Mr. Wang has ap-peared with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Angel Fire Music Festival.

Liang Wang has given master classes at the Cincinnati Conservatory and was on the oboe faculty of the University of California–Berkeley; he is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and New York University.

New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair, made his solo debut at age 11 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has won numerous awards and competitions, including the Young Musicians Foundation Award and Coleman Award (Los Angeles), The Julia Klumpe Award (San Francisco), and the Bronze Medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1970). He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Ivan Galamian.

In 1967 Mr. Dicterow made his New York Philharmonic solo debut at age 18, and in 1980 he joined the Orchestra as Concertmaster. Highlights of his annual Philharmonic solo performances have in-cluded Bernstein’s Serenade, conducted by the composer, on a 1986 American tour; a 1990 Live From Lincoln Center telecast; a concerto at the White House in 1982; and playing for more than 10,000 people at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, in 1999. Mr. Dicterow has also been a soloist with orchestras in North America,

41

from Los Angeles to Montreal, and abroad, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras.

Glenn Dicterow’s discography includes solo and chamber works, as well as con-certos with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and London Sym-phony Orchestra. He can also be heard in the violin solos of film scores including The Turning Point, The Untouchables, Altered States, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Interview with the Vampire. Mr. Dicterow is on the faculty of both Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music. He and his wife, violist Karen Dreyfus, are founding members of The Lyric Piano Quartet, which is in residence at Queens College.

42 43


The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American-born Ureli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It currently plays some 180 concerts a year, and on May 5, 2010, gave its 15,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other sym-phony orchestra in the world.

Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, the latest in a dis-tinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director 1991–2002, Music Director Emeritus since 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre Boulez (1971–77); 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 Dvorák’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 contem-porary composers regularly scheduled each season, including John Adams’s Pu-litzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning

On the Transmigration of Souls; Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto; Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto; Magnus Lind-berg’s EXPO and Al largo; Wynton Marsa-lis’s Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3); Christopher Rouse’s Odna Zhizn; and, by the end of the 2010–11 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 Dvorák, Gustav Mahler (music di-rector 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Direc-tor 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director 1928–36), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor 1947–49), Dimitri Mitro-poulos (Music Director 1949–58), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor 1969–70), 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 Op-era House in October 2009. In February 2008 the Philharmonic, conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a his-toric performance in Pyongyang, D.P.R.K., earning the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. In 2012 the Philharmonic becomes an International Associate of London’s Barbican Centre.

The Philharmonic has long been a me-dia pioneer, having begun radio broadcasts in 1922, and is currently represented by

The New York Philharmonic 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 Phil-harmonic has made nearly 2,000 record-ings, and in 2004 became the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Since June 2009 more than 50 concerts have been re-leased as downloads, and the Philharmon-ic’s self-produced recordings will continue with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philhar-monic: 2012–13 Season. 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 interna-tional exchange among educators.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

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Executive Producer: Vince Ford

Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis

Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock

Assistant Producer: Nick Bremer

Photos of Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: Chris Lee, except for Strauss's Don

Quixote, which is by Stephanie Berger

Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. posth., BB 48a courtesy Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.

Alan Gilbert, Music Director, holds The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair.

Lorin Maazel’s appearance is made possible through the Daisy and Paul Soros Endowment Fund.

Bernard Haitink’s appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished

Conductors Endowment Fund.

Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is the Radio Station of the New York Philharmonic.

Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.

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.

Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.

Exclusive timepiece of the New York Philharmonic

Principal Soloists Play Bach, Bartók, Mozart &...

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