FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 10, 2012 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] FORMER MUSIC DIRECTOR LORIN MAAZEL TO CONDUCT TWO WEEKS OF CONCERTS Pianist YEFIM BRONFMAN To Perform BRAHMS’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Program To Conclude with SIBELIUS’s Symphony No. 2 January 16–19, 2013 Violinist JENNIFER KOH To Make Philharmonic Subscription Debut in LUTOSŁAWSKI’s Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin and Orchestra TCHAIKOVSKY’s Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy SHOSTAKOVICH’s Symphony No. 5 January 24–26, 2013 Former Music Director Lorin Maazel returns to the New York Philharmonic to conduct two programs in two weeks. In the first week, Mr. Maazel will lead Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 — with soloist Yefim Bronfman, continuing the Philharmonic’s survey this season of Brahms’s complete symphonies and concertos — and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 18 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, January 19 at 8:00 p.m. The following week, Mr. Maazel will lead the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy; Lutosławski’s Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin and Orchestra, with soloist Jennifer Koh in her Philharmonic subscription debut; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 on Thursday, January 24, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 25 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, January 26 at 8:00 p.m. The works on both programs reflect the composers’ reactions to nationalism. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 is considered to represent Finland’s push for independence, and Tchaikovsky composed Romeo and Juliet at the suggestion of Mily Balakirev, head of the “Mighty Five” Russian nationalist composers. Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 5 under immense pressure to satisfy Josef Stalin. The Soviet regime also targeted Polish composer Lutosławski, who incorporated folk-music into his public works but kept his radically experimental music private until after Stalin’s death. The Philharmonic’s season-long survey of Brahms’s complete symphonies and concertos features four conductors and five soloists. In November Kurt Masur conducted Brahms’s Double (more) Kurt Masur / Yefim Bronfman / Jennifer Koh / 2 Concerto for Violin and Cello and Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 4. Following Mr. Maazel’s appearances conducting Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman, Andris Nelsons will lead the Violin Concerto, with Christian Tetzlaff as soloist, February 6–9, 2013, and Alan Gilbert will conduct the Piano Concerto No. 2, with Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist, February 14– 16, 2013, and the Symphony No. 1 February 21–22, 2013. Brahms’s chamber music is appearing on all four Saturday Matinee Concerts, featuring Philharmonic musicians as well as violinist Lisa Batiashvili and Alan Gilbert, both of whom will play violin in the String Quintet in G major on June 8, 2013. Related Events Pre-Concert Talks Harvey Sachs, The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, will introduce the program January 16–19. Elizabeth Seitz, faculty member at The Boston Conservatory, will introduce the program January 24–26. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656. National and International Radio Broadcast The January 16–19 program will be broadcast the week of February 6, 2013,* and the January 24–26 program will be broadcast the week of February 13, 2013,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information. Artists For more than five decades, Lorin Maazel has been one of the world’s most esteemed and sought-after conductors. Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2009, he became music director of the Munich Philharmonic in the 2012–13 season. In 2010–11 he completed his fifth and final season as the inaugural music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opera house in Valencia, Spain. He is the founder and artistic director of the Castleton Festival, based on his farm property in Virginia, which was launched to exceptional acclaim in 2009. Since then, the Festival has expanded its activities nationally and internationally, with productions in Beijing, Bari, Italy, and the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. Mr. Maazel’s previous posts have included music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993– 2002); music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84, the first American to hold that position); (more) Kurt Masur / Yefim Bronfman / Jennifer Koh / 3 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 includes 11 internationally televised New Year’s Concerts from Vienna. Mr. Maazel is also a highly regarded composer, with a wide-ranging catalogue of works written primarily over the last dozen years. His first opera, 1984, based on George Orwell’s literary masterpiece, had its world premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in May 2005. A revival of 1984 took place at La Scala in May 2008, and a Decca DVD of the original London production was released that same month. Mr. Maazel has conducted more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances. He has made more than 300 recordings, including symphonic cycles/complete orchestral works of Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Richard Strauss, winning ten Grands Prix du Disques. A second-generation American born in Paris, Lorin Maazel began violin lessons at age five and conducting lessons at age seven. He studied with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff and appeared publicly for the first time at age eight. Between ages 9 and 15, he conducted most of the major American orchestras, including the NBC Symphony at the invitation of former Music Director Arturo Toscanini. Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the world’s most talented virtuoso pianists. His 2012–13 season includes concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic (with Simon Rattle) in Berlin, Salzburg, and at the London Proms; appearances with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (with David Zinman) and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra; a yearlong residency with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; a return to Salzburg’s Easter Festival with the Dresden Staatskapelle; appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic (with Michael Tilson Thomas) in Vienna and London; subscription concerts in Spain and Germany; and a spring tour with Ensemble Wien- Berlin. In North America he works with The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (with Fabio Luisi) in one of its Carnegie Hall visits and returns to the orchestras in Chicago, Dallas, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Montreal. With mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená he makes a short winter tour of venues including Carnegie Hall, and he gives solo recitals in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Paris, Berlin, and Lisbon. Mr. Bronfman has been widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, conducted by the composer (Deutsche Grammophon), and he won a Grammy in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with Mr. Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Born in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, in 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973. There he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music (more) Kurt Masur / Yefim Bronfman / Jennifer Koh / 4 at Tel Aviv University. He later studied in the United States at The Juilliard School, Marlboro Music Festival, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and his teachers included Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He became an American citizen in July 1989. Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. Since the 1994–95 season, when she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. Also a prolific recitalist, she appears frequently at major music centers and festivals. With an impassioned musical curiosity, Ms. Koh is forging an artistic path of her devising, choosing works that inspire and challenge. In 2009 she introduced Bach and Beyond, a six-year, three-recital series that explores the history of the solo violin repertoire from J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas to works by modern-day composers and new commissions. Highlights of her 2012– 13 season include Bach and Beyond recitals in New York, Toronto, and Berkeley; the solo violin role of the title character in a new production of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, also in New York and Berkeley; appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas performed in a single concert in Houston. Jennifer Koh regularly records for the Cedille label, which recently released Rhapsodic Musings and the Grammy-nominated album String Poetic.