FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 17, 2016 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

IVÁN FISCHER AND VIOLINIST NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER TO RETURN TO

BEETHOVEN’s DVOŘÁK’s Symphony No. 8

Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Dvořák’s String Quartet in F major, American Performed by Philharmonic Musicians

November 23–26, 2016

Iván Fischer will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, Wednesday, November 23, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 25 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 26 at 8:00 p.m.

These performances mark Mr. Znaider’s return to the Philharmonic following his October 2012 performances of Nielsen’s Violin Concerto, led by Music Director , as part of the Philharmonic’s multi-year The Nielsen Project, resulting in a recording and complete box set of Nielsen’s symphonies and concertos. The New York Times called the performance “the best concert I have heard from Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic since he became music director in 2009.” BBC Music Magazine wrote of the recording, released by Dacapo and distributed by Naxos: “In the Violin Concerto Nikolaj Znaider, sweet and slender in tone, is equal to all the work’s ferocious technical demands. He treats the first movement’s Bach-inspired cadenzas with convincing spontaneity, and dances his way delightfully through the Rondo finale.”

Nikolaj Znaider plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius “del Gesu” 1741, the violin once played by , who wrote the Beethoven Violin Concerto cadenzas that Mr. Znaider will perform. Gramophone magazine writes that “his accounts of the Kreisler cadenzas are a marvel of technique and musicality.”

Iván Fischer and Nikolaj Znaider collaborated on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in November 2007 with the National Symphony Orchestra. The Washington Post wrote that Mr. Fischer “led brisk, meticulous, supercharged renditions that made these pieces seem brand-new” and that Nikolaj Znaider “shaped the music in the manner of a storyteller, starting off nearly inaudibly and then building and climbing before taking off into an inspired and beautifully ornamented narrative. … He combines his near-superhuman technique with a very human sense of song.” (more)

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The Saturday Matinee Concert on November 26 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Dvořák’s String Quartet in F major, American, with Philharmonic Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey. The rest of the program features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, conducted by Iván Fischer. The chamber works featured on the Saturday Matinee Concerts this season, the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season, are all tied to the Philharmonic’s history. Dvořák is the focus of the Philharmonic’s The New World Initiative, a season-long, citywide project revolving around Dvořák’s New World Symphony and its theme of “home” through performances, community outreach, and education projects. The Philharmonic gave the World Premiere of the New World Symphony in December 1893, marking the Orchestra’s first World Premiere of a work written in New York City that would become part of the standard repertoire. Dvořák wrote his American Quartet on vacation from his position as director of the National Conservatory of Music, the role that brought Dvořák to New York City, where he would write the New World Symphony.

Related Events  Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concert Friday, November 25 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13–26-year- olds to each of the 2016–17 season’s 16 Friday evening subscription concerts.

Artists Iván Fischer is the founder and music director of the Festival Orchestra, as well as the music director of Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Konzerthaus Orchestra. Recently he has seen his reputation rising as a composer as well, with his works being performed in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, , Germany, and . He has also directed a number of successful opera productions. The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s frequent worldwide tours and a series of critically acclaimed and fast-selling records, released first by Philips Classics and later by Channel Classics, have contributed to his reputation as one of the world’s most successful orchestral directors. As a guest conductor, Mr. Fischer has led the Berlin Philharmonic more than ten times, and he spends two weeks annually with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has appeared with the leading U.S. orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra, and was principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., for several seasons. He has held music director posts with Kent Opera and Opéra National de Lyon. Many of his recordings have been awarded prestigious international prizes. Iván Fischer studied piano, violin, and later the cello and composition in Budapest, before continuing his education in Vienna, where he studied under Hans Swarowsky. He is a founder of the Hungarian Mahler Society and patron of the British Kodály Academy. He has received the Golden Medal Award from the President of the Republic of Hungary and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum for his services in promoting international cultural relations, and was made Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was honored with the Kossuth Prize, Hungary’s most prestigious arts award, in 2006; received the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, Hungary’s Prima Primissima Prize, and the Dutch Ovatie Prize in 2011; accorded honorary membership to (more)

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London’s Royal Academy of Music in 2013; and was presented with the Abu Dhabi Festival Award in 2015. Iván Fischer made his New York Philharmonic debut leading a program of Beethoven and Mahler in March 1999; he most recently conducted the Orchestra in works by Bartók, Dutilleux, and Rachmaninoff in December 2005.

Nikolaj Znaider performs as both conductor and violin soloist with the world’s most distinguished orchestras. He has been principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra since 2010, and was previously principal guest conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Following a triumphant return to the BBC Proms with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann, in the 2016–17 season Mr. Znaider embarks on a new project: recording Mozart’s complete violin concertos, conducted from the violin with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). He has a particularly strong relationship with the LSO, with whom he conducts and performs as soloist every season. As both conductor and soloist, Mr. Znaider is interested in deepening his connections with the key orchestras with which he feels a special bond, working regularly with orchestras such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, and National symphony orchestras. Mr. Znaider’s extensive discography includes Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic (available as part of The Nielsen Project on Dacapo Records), Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the late and the Dresden Staatskapelle, award-winning recordings of Brahms’s and Korngold’s Violin Concertos with and the , Beethoven’s and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concertos with and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto with and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on DVD. Mr. Znaider has also recorded Brahms’s complete works for violin and piano with . Nikolaj Znaider is passionate about supporting the next generation of musical talent and spent ten years as founder and artistic director of the annual Nordic Music Academy summer school. He plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius “del Gesu” 1741 on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the VELUX Foundation and the Knud Højgaard Foundation. Mr. Znaider made his New York Philharmonic debut in October 2000 performing Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3, conducted by Marcello Viotti. He made his most recent appearance in October 2012 playing Nielsen’s Violin Concerto, led by Alan Gilbert.

Repertoire (1770–1827) composed only one Violin Concerto, in 1806. Written for the virtuoso Franz Clement (principal violinist and conductor at the Theater an der Wien), Beethoven finished it just in time for the premiere at a Christmas-time concert during which, as the stories go, Clement stopped between movements to perform his own Fantasia with circus- like gimmicks, which included playing his violin upside-down. Beethoven’s concerto entered the standard repertoire only after 1844, when it was championed by Joseph Joachim (at the time a 12-year-old violin wunderkind), who performed it with the Philharmonic Society of London, conducted by Mendelssohn. The New York Philharmonic’s first performance of the concerto

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Iván Fischer / Nikolaj Znaider / 4 was in December 1861, with Edward Mollenhauer as soloist and conducted by Theodore Eisfeld. Its most recent presentation was in January 2016, with soloist James Ehnes and conducted by Juanjo Mena.

Antonín Dvořák’s (1841–1904) Symphony No. 8 (1889) is something of a landmark in the creator’s compositional life. His career had been fostered and his works championed by Brahms, whose Germanic influence was powerful. However, with this penultimate symphony, Dvořák struck out in a new direction, loosening the formal Germanic structures he had previously used and expressing his identity as a Bohemian composer. Dvořák’s peaceful summer retreat at Vysoká no doubt served as the inspiration for the cascading passages of the opening movement, and for the Bohemian flavors in the Adagio. A waltz-like rhythm can be heard in the third movement, and a trumpet introduces the theme-and-variations finale. Anton Seidl led the Orchestra’s first performance of the symphony at the old Metropolitan Opera House (on 39th Street) in 1892; the Orchestra most recently performed it in February 2016, led by Christoph Eschenbach.

* * * Iván Fischer’s appearance is made possible by the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors Endowment Fund.

* * * Major support for Philharmonic Free Fridays is provided by The Pratt Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by Jack and Susan Rudin.

Philharmonic Free Fridays is made possible, in part, by a donation from an anonymous donor through the New York Philharmonic’s 2014 Share the Music! campaign.

* * * 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 New York City 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 $33. 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 (more)

Iván Fischer / Nikolaj Znaider / 5 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].

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Iván Fischer / Nikolaj Znaider / 6

New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Friday, November 25, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, November 26, 2016, 8:00 p.m.

Iván Fischer, conductor Nikolaj Znaider, violin

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8 ______

Saturday, November 26, 2016, 2:00 p.m.

Iván Fischer, conductor Frank Huang, Sheryl Staples, violin Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello

DVOŘÁK String Quartet in F major, American DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

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