FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 11, 2016 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

JAAP VAN ZWEDEN, FUTURE MUSIC DIRECTOR, TO RETURN TO

NEW YORK PREMIERE–NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC CO-COMMISSION Julia ADOLPHE’s Unearth, Release (Concerto for and ) With Principal Viola

Program Also To Include WAGNER’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin TCHAIKOVSKY’s Symphony No. 4

November 17–19, 2016

Jaap van Zweden — who will become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic beginning in the 2018–19 season, after serving as Music Director Designate in 2017–18 — will make his first appearances with the Philharmonic since his appointment was announced, Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 18 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 19 at 8:00 p.m. He will lead the Orchestra in the New York Premiere of Julia Adolphe’s Unearth, Release (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) — a Philharmonic co-commission with the League of American — with Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, for whom the work was written, as soloist; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4; and Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin.

Jaap van Zweden said: “Returning to conduct the New York Philharmonic fills me with great joy. This is a program in which I feel the combination of pieces works well. It responds to listeners’ curiosity through a great new piece played by the Philharmonic’s outstanding Principal Viola, and it also offers the world of Wagner sound and the virtuosity of Tchaikovsky. I think these should combine into a very balanced ‘musical dinner’ for the listener.”

The commission stems from the relationship established between Julia Adolphe and the Orchestra in June 2014, when the Philharmonic — in collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra’s program EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discovery Network — selected Ms. Adolphe as one of three emerging composers to have works premiered by the Philharmonic in the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL. Alan Gilbert led the Orchestra in the World Premiere of Julia Adolphe’s critically acclaimed Dark Sand, Sifting Light. In its review, The New York Times called Dark Sand, Sifting Light “a colorful, mercurial, deftly orchestrated piece.” Ms. Adolphe received the commission for the in 2014 as part of the initiative engaging women composers supported by the League of American Orchestras and EarShot. (more)

Jaap van Zweden / Cynthia Phelps / 2

“Working with Cynthia Phelps is a dream come true, and her exquisite musicianship and generosity of spirit are truly inspiring,” Julia Adolphe said. “The concerto journeys through shifting relationships between the viola and the orchestra. The viola strives to find her voice, at first attempting (and failing) to take on the entire orchestra single-handedly, then hovering in a distant sonic landscape, and finally, nurturing a playful dialogue and loving relationship with her fellow instrumentalists. It is an honor to receive this commission.”

Cynthia Phelps said of Julia Adolphe: “I love how her imagination works, almost Zen-like and sparse, and the way she treats musical color seems always pertinent.”

Jaap van Zweden said of Unearth, Release: “To me, the piece is like a chameleon. It goes through an enormous spectrum of colors, sometimes changing colors fast, sometimes slow, very smoothly and comfortably. And there are some wide mood swings, too, almost as you might find in a Mahler symphony. It is a privilege for every conductor to get to work with a living composer.”

Artists Jaap van Zweden has risen rapidly in the past decade to become one of today’s most distinguished conductors. He will become the New York Philharmonic’s next Music Director beginning in the 2018–19 season, after serving as Music Director Designate in 2017–18. Mr. van Zweden has been music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, holding the Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Directorship, a role he will continue through 2017–18, after which he becomes conductor laureate. He also continues to serve as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. Highlights of his 2016–17 season include return visits to the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as his debut with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Jaap van Zweden has also appeared as guest conductor with The Orchestra; and London Symphony Orchestras; Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Rotterdam philharmonic orchestras; Orchestre National de France; and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 2015 he launched the annual SOLUNA International Music & Arts Festival with the Dallas Symphony, and embarked on a four-year project with the Hong Kong Philharmonic to conduct the first-ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which are being released on Naxos Records. Jaap van Zweden’s acclaimed recordings include Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Petrushka, Britten’s War Requiem, and complete cycles of the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. He completed a cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the London Philharmonic (LPO Live), and released Mozart concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray (Virgin). His celebrated performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal (the last of which earned him the Edison award for Best Opera Recording in 2012) are available on CD and DVD. On the Dallas Symphony’s own record label, he has released symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mahler, and Dvořák, as well as the World Premiere recording of Stucky’s August 4, 1964. Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was appointed at 19 as the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw (more)

Jaap van Zweden / Cynthia Phelps / 3

Orchestra and began his conducting career 20 years later in 1995. He remains honorary chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as chief conductor, 2005–13, and conductor emeritus of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. He also held the post of chief conductor of the Royal Flanders Orchestra, 2008–11. Mr. van Zweden was named Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year. In 1997 Jaap van Zweden and his wife, Aaltje, established the Papageno Foundation to support families of children with autism. Papageno has helped music therapists and musicians train to use music as a major tool for working with autistic children. Papageno House, a new home for autistic young adults and children, was opened in Laren, The Netherlands, in August 2015, attended by Her Majesty Queen Maxima. Mr. van Zweden made his New York Philharmonic debut in April 2012 conducting Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Yuja Wang as soloist, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1; his most recent appearances were in October 2015, when he led works by Britten, Mozart (featuring Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples and Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps), and Beethoven.

Cynthia Phelps is the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Viola, The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair. Highlights of her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in 2010 and 2014 (the latter conducted by Jaap van Zweden), and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young and which they premiered in 1999 and reprised both on tour and in New York, most recently in 2011. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Chamber Players, and the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Seattle, , and Bridgehampton festivals. She has appeared with the Guarneri, Tokyo, Orion, American, Brentano, and Prague Quartets, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has given recitals in the major music capitals of Europe and the U.S. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group recently formed with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc. Ms. Phelps is a first-prize winner of both the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition, and is the recipient of the Pro Musicis International award. Under the auspices of this philanthropic organization, she has appeared as soloist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Rome, and Paris, as well as in prisons, hospitals, and drug rehabilitation centers worldwide. Her recording Air, for flute, viola, and harp on Arabesque, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln Center on PBS; St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR; Radio France; Italy’s RAI; and WGBH in Boston. Ms. Phelps has served on the faculties at The and the Manhattan School of Music. She is married to cellist . Cynthia Phelps made her New York Philharmonic solo debut in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante alongside then Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in March 1993, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur; most recently she appeared as soloist in the same work, this time joined by Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, led by Jaap van Zweden in November 2014.

(more)

Jaap van Zweden / Cynthia Phelps / 4

Repertoire Richard Wagner (1813–83) first became acquainted with the legends of Lohengrin and of the Holy Grail in the early 1840s, and he composed the Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin in 1848. The opera tells the tale of the swan knight Lohengrin, son of Parsifal, who is sent from the castle of the Holy Grail to rescue the princess of Brabant, whom he marries on the condition that she does not seek to know his identity. The first performance took place in Weimar in 1850, conducted by Liszt while Wagner was in exile in Switzerland following his participation in the revolutions of 1848 in Germany; the composer himself would not hear it performed until 1861 in Vienna. The Act I Prelude was first performed by the Philharmonic in 1859, led by Theodore Thomas, and most recently in 2004, led by then Music Director Lorin Maazel.

Julia Adolphe (b. 1988) created her new concerto for viola and orchestra, Unearth, Release (2016) for the New York Philharmonic and Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps as part of a commission by the League of American Orchestras and the Philharmonic, with generous support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. The composer writes that “the viola’s voice emerges from dark, dense textures and rises toward light, misty atmospheres. The relationship between the viola and the orchestra transforms over the course of the work’s three movements. The entangled, combative Captive Voices of the first movement threaten to consume the viola while she strives to assert her musical identity and expressive power. In the second movement, Surface Tension, the viola and orchestra engage in a competitive dialogue that is at once playful yet taunting. In the work’s final movement, Embracing Mist, the viola hovers above the orchestra, gliding freely while echoes of her music pervade the orchestra’s thinning atmosphere. The work reveals a transformation from sinking to swimming to floating, from drowning in uncertainty toward embracing ambiguity.” The New York Philharmonic premiered Julia Adolphe’s Dark Sand, Sifting Light during the 2014 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, when the piece was selected as one of three works that the Orchestra performed resulting from EarShot, the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network. These performances mark the New York Premiere of Unearth, Release.

In 1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) entered into an unusual relationship with the wealthy patroness Nadezhda von Meck: enthralled with Tchaikovsky’s music, she provided him with 500 rubles each month, stipulating that they never meet. Thus began a 14-year friendship marked by voluminous and intimate correspondence. It was during this period that the Symphony No. 4 (1878) was created and dedicated to von Meck. “I am working hard on the orchestration of our symphony and am quite absorbed in the task,” he wrote her less than three weeks before its completion. “None of my earlier works for orchestra has given me so much trouble, but on none have I lavished such love and devotion.… I have fallen more and more under the spell of the work and now I can hardly tear myself away from it.” The New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s New York Philharmonic) gave the symphony’s U.S. Premiere in 1890, led by Walter Damrosch; Stéphane Denève conducted the Philharmonic’s most recent performances, in February 2015.

(more)

Jaap van Zweden / Cynthia Phelps / 5

* * * Jaap van Zweden’s appearance is made possible by the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors Endowment Fund.

* * * Julia Adolphe’s commission is made possible with generous support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and with additional composer assistance from the Sorel Organization.

* * * Citi. Preferred Card of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Emirates is the Official Airline of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Tickets Single tickets for this performance start at $31. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the David Geffen Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $18 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. (Ticket prices subject to change.)

For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or email her at [email protected].

(more)

Jaap van Zweden / Cynthia Phelps / 6

New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Thursday, November 17, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Friday, November 18, 2016, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, November 19, 2016, 8:00 p.m.

Jaap van Zweden, conductor Cynthia Phelps, viola

WAGNER Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin Julia ADOLPHE Unearth, Release (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) (New York Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the League of American Orchestras) TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

# # #

ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

What’s New — Get the Latest News, Video, Slideshows, and More

Photography is available in the New York Philharmonic’s online newsroom, nyphil.org/newsroom/1617 or by contacting (212) 875-5700 or [email protected]. s