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Home , Anne Akiko Meyers, Eleanor Aller, Felix Slatkin, Flute Concerto (Kernis), Flute Concerto (Rouse), Marius Constant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATED October 16, 2014 September 22, 2014 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

LEONARD SLATKIN To Conduct NEW YORK PREMIERE of The Marie-Josée Kravis -in-Residence CHRISTOPHER ROUSE’s with PRINCIPAL FLUTE ROBERT LANGEVIN

Program Also To Include COPLAND’s El Salón México and RAVEL’s Gaspard de la nuit and Boléro

October 30–November 1, 2014

Leonard Slatkin will return to the to conduct the New York Premiere of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s , with Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist; Copland’s El Salón México; Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit (orchestrated by Marius Constant), marking the Philharmonic’s first time performing the complete work; and Ravel’s Boléro, Thursday, October 30, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, November 1 at 8:00 p.m.

Leonard Slatkin has championed Christopher Rouse’s works since the 1980s, when Mr. Slatkin led the St. Louis Symphony in the World Premieres of Mr. Rouse’s and The Infernal Machine, commissioned by that . At the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Slatkin conducted Christopher Rouse’s The Infernal Machine, the Philharmonic’s first time performing a work by Mr. Rouse (June 1984 and May 1999); the World Premiere of his Pulitzer Prize– winning Concerto for and Orchestra, a Philharmonic commission, with Principal Trombone Joseph Alessi as soloist (December 1992); the World Premiere of , for and Orchestra, a Philharmonic commission, with Emanuel Ax (May 1999); and Ogoun Badagris (May 2000). Mr. Slatkin is currently surveying Ravel’s works as music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon.

Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto “began as an homage to the musical traditions of my ancestral home and connects back to my own roots in the British Isles.” While he was composing the work, he learned of the tragic murder of two-year-old James Bulger by ten-year-old boys in England in 1993. Mr. Rouse writes: “The central movement of this work is an elegy dedicated to James Bulger’s memory, a small token of remembrance for a life senselessly and cruelly snuffed out.” Alan Gilbert conducted a recording of the concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and flutist Sharon Bezaly in 2009.

Robert Langevin, Principal Flute since 2000, made his Philharmonic solo debut at the end of his first season with the Orchestra, when he performed the North American Premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp, with Principal Harp Nancy Allen, conducted by then (more) Leonard Slatkin / Robert Langevin / 2

Music Director Kurt Masur in May 2001. Mr. Langevin has premiered numerous works, including the Canadian Premiere of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître as a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and l’Ensemble de la Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec. In June 2012 he performed MIDI flute for Pierre Boulez’s … explosante-fixe … on CONTACT!, the Philharmonic’s new-music series.

Christopher Rouse began his tenure as Composer-in-Residence in 2012, and his term has been extended for a third season, through 2014–15. This season, the Philharmonic also performs the World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commission of his Thunderstuck, led by Alan Gilbert October 9–11 and 14, 2014, and Iscariot, led by David Zinman February 5–7, 2015. By the conclusion of his tenure he will have written three new pieces commissioned by the Philharmonic, worked with Alan Gilbert and the Orchestra in performances of ten of his works, and served as an advisor for 12 programs of CONTACT!, the new-music series.

Related Events  Pre-Concert Insights Composer Daniel Felsenfeld will introduce the program. Admission/Tickets to Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups. These events take place one hour before performances, and are held in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656.

 National and International Radio Broadcast The program will be broadcast the week of November 23, 2014,* 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 program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m., and will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org.

The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information, which is subject to change.

Artists Leonard Slatkin is music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de Lyon. During the 2013–14 season, he conducted at Krzysztof Penderecki’s 80th birthday celebration in Warsaw; recorded with Anne Akiko Meyers and the London Symphony Orchestra; appeared with the Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis symphony ; toured China and Japan with the Orchestre National de Lyon; and led the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in concerts across southern Florida. Highlights of the 2014–15 season include a collaborative celebration of his own 70th birthday on both sides of the Atlantic, a three-week Tchaikovsky festival in Detroit, a Brahms symphony cycle in Lyon, and engagements with the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, and German Symphony Orchestra Berlin. Mr. Slatkin’s more than 100 recordings have received 7 Grammy awards and 64 nominations. With the Orchestre (more) Leonard Slatkin / Robert Langevin / 3

National de Lyon, he has embarked on recording cycles of the Rachmaninoff piano with Olga Kern, and the symphonic works of Ravel and Berlioz. With the Detroit Symphony Orchestra he has released a digital box set of the Beethoven symphonies, and plans to offer Tchaikovsky’s concertos and symphonies in the future. Mr. Slatkin’s honors include the National Medal of Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League’s Gold Baton Award, and several ASCAP awards, as well as France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Austria’s Declaration of Honor in Silver, and honorary doctorates from The Julliard School, Indiana University, Michigan State University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He received a 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his book Conducting Business. Leonard Slatkin has served as music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. He has held principal guest conductor positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic, of London, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Founder and director of the National Conducting Institute and the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Mr. Slatkin continues his conducting and teaching activities at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and The . Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical family, he is the son of conductor- violinist and cellist , founding members of the famed . He began his musical studies on the and studied conducting with his father, followed by Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at Juilliard. Mr. Slatikin made his Philharmonic debut in January 1974 leading works by Berlioz, Beethoven, and Prokofiev; his most recent appearance was leading an April 2008 Hear & Now performance featuring works by Tan Dun and Stravinsky.

Robert Langevin joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Flute, The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair, at the start of the 2000–01 season. He made his solo debut with the Orchestra in May 2001 in the North American Premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen, conducted by then Music Director Kurt Masur. His October 2012 solo performance of Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, was recorded for inclusion in The Nielsen Project, the Orchestra’s multi-season traversal of all of the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, to be released by Dacapo Records. He performed Pierre Boulez’s … explosante-fixe … on CONTACT!, the Philharmonic’s new-music series, in June 2012. Mr. Langevin previously held the Jackman Pfouts Principal Flute Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and was an adjunct professor at Duquesne University. He served as associate principal of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for 13 years, playing on more than 30 recordings. 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. Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Robert Langevin began flute studies at age 12 and joined the local orchestra three years later. While studying with Jean-Paul Major at the Montreal Conservatory of Music, he started working in recording studios, where he accompanied a variety of artists of different styles. He 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, and second prize at the Budapest International Competition in 1980. He is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and the Orford International Summer Festival. (more) Leonard Slatkin / Robert Langevin / 4

Repertoire Aaron Copland first visited Mexico in 1932, and he immediately began composing the work that would become El Salón México. Named for a steamy nightclub called El Salón México, the piece incorporates popular Mexican songs, which the composer twisted and varied for his own purposes. Rhythmic, accessible, and vivid, the work was immediately successful and earned Copland wide acclaim. El Salón México was given its World Premiere on August 27, 1937, by the Orquesta Sinfonica de México, conducted by Copland’s friend Carlos Chávez. The New York Philharmonic first performed it in August of 1943 at a Sunday Summer Broadcast conducted by Fritz Reiner; its most recent performance was led by Bramwell Tovey in December 2006.

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) composed Gaspard de la nuit as a suite of three pieces for solo piano in 1908. The work is based on poems by Aloysius Bertrand, and its title “Gaspard” refers to the Persian “guardian of treasures” and, in this case, also alludes to someone or something mysterious and dark. The three poems of Gaspard de la nuit are indeed sinister: “Ondine” is the tale of a seductive water fairy; “Le Gibet” is set in a desert in which one witnesses the corpse of a hanged man against the setting sun; and “Scarbo” follows the actions of a mischievous goblin. Ravel wrote: “Gaspard has been a devil in coming, but that is only logical since it was he who is the author of the poems. My ambition is to say with notes what a poet expresses with words.” The technically challenging work was premiered by Ricardo Viñes in in January 1909; the version to be performed by the Philharmonic was orchestrated by Marius Constant in 1988. This is the Orchestra’s first performance of the complete work; it previously performed an of the movement “Ondine” in August 1959, conducted by Seymour Lipkin in Moscow at Tchaikovsky Conservatory Hall.

The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse completed his Flute Concerto in August 1993 as a joint commission from Richard and Jody Nordlof (for flutist Carol Wincenc) and Borders Inc. (for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra). Inspired by the composer’s ancestry, the five-movement work is partly evocative of folk music of the British Isles, especially Ireland, and is reminiscent of the Celtic songs and dances of the region. Additionally, Rouse writes: “In a world of daily horrors too numerous and enormous to comprehend en masse, it seems that only isolated, individual tragedies serve to sensitize us to the potential harm man can do to his fellow. For me, one such instance was the abduction and brutal murder of the two-year- old English lad James Bulger at the hands of a pair of ten-year old boys. I followed this case closely during the time I was composing my concerto and was unable to shake the horror of these events from my mind. The central movement of this work is an elegy dedicated to James Bulger’s memory, a small token of remembrance for a life senselessly and cruelly snuffed out.” The New York Philharmonic presents the concerto’s New York Premiere in these performances.

In 1928 withdrew to the seaside home he kept in his native Basque country of southwestern France, following an exhausting 14-month North American tour. During his tour he had made the rounds of major musical capitals, marveled at the Grand Canyon, and hobnobbed in Hollywood with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Charlie Chaplin, among others. The dancer Ida Rubinstein commissioned a new piece from Ravel, who used his vacation to produce what is essentially an experiment in . Boléro, he wrote, “is a rather slow dance, uniform (more) Leonard Slatkin / Robert Langevin / 5 throughout in its melody, harmony, and rhythm, the latter being tapped out continuously on the drum. The only element of variety is supplied by the orchestral crescendo.” Ironically, although Boléro is one of the composer’s most arcane experiments, it became one of his most popular successes. The first Philharmonic performance of the work was in November 1929, led by Arturo Toscanini; the Orchestra’s most recent performance took place in September 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

* * * Leonard Slatkin’s appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors Endowment Fund.

* * *

Christopher Rouse is The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence.

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from 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 Tickets for these performances start at $33. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). 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 Avery Fisher 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 $16 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 Marketing and Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].

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New York Philharmonic

Avery Fisher Hall at

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Friday, October 31, 2014, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 1, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

Pre-Concert Insights (one hour before each concert) with composer Daniel Felsenfeld

Leonard Slatkin, conductor Robert Langevin, flute

COPLAND El Salón México Christopher ROUSE Flute Concerto (New York Premiere) RAVEL/orch. Constant Gaspard de la nuit RAVEL Boléro

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