FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 23, 2015 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

ALAN GILBERT AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence ERIC OWENS To Perform Richard STRAUSS Songs and Final Scene from Act III of WAGNER’s Die Walküre With Soprano HEIDI MELTON in Her Philharmonic Debut

Program Also To Include WAGNER’s Ride of the Valkyries and SIBELIUS’s En saga

Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Grieg’s String Quartet Performed by Philharmonic Musicians

January 7–9 and 12, 2016

Bass-baritone Eric Owens will continue his tenure as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence with performances, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, of Richard Strauss songs — “Ruhe, meine Seele,” Op. 27, No. 1; “Cäcilie,” Op. 27, No. 2; “Pilgers Morgenlied,” Op. 33, No. 4 — and the Final Scene from Act III of Die Walküre, alongside soprano Heidi Melton in her Philharmonic debut. The program also includes Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and Sibelius’s En saga, one of several programs this season honoring the 150th anniversary of Sibelius’s birth. The performances take place Thursday, January 7, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 8 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, January 9 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m.

These performances mark Mr. Owens’s first time singing Wotan in New York. He has been widely acclaimed for his mastery of the German Romantic repertoire, including his celebrated performance as Alberich in The Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. These Philharmonic performances precede Mr. Owens’s appearances as Wotan in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s upcoming Ring Cycle, beginning in the 2016–17 season.

“Eric is the quintessential Wotan,” Alan Gilbert said. “His voice is perfect for the role, and he can bring out its complexity — its heroism, but also its vulnerability. Performing it without staging can be a challenge, but Eric’s singing is so expressive that he will bring the character to life through his voice alone. In this he will be helped by the Philharmonic musicians, who can play Wagner’s technically difficult passages not only with flair but also with amazing tonal depth. Conducting Wagner with this Orchestra is more than a dream-come-true; they have a quintessential way with his music.”

(more)

Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 2

The Saturday Matinee Concert on January 9 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Grieg’s String Quartet, 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 Sibelius’s Symphony No. 4, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

Related Events  Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13–26 to the concert Friday, January 8 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 2015–16 season’s 15 Friday evening subscription concerts.

 Pre-Concert Insights Writer, music historian, and former Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic Harvey Sachs will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7, and discounts are available for three (3) or more talks and for students. They take place one hour before these performances in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656.

Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie- Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music; and New York Philharmonic Global Academy, collaborations with partners worldwide offering training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. As The New Yorker wrote, “Gilbert has made an indelible mark on the orchestra’s history and that of the city itself.”

Alan Gilbert’s 2015–16 Philharmonic highlights include R. Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben to welcome Concertmaster Frank Huang; Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala; and five World Premieres. He co-curates and conducts in the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL and performs violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. He leads the Orchestra as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy Residency and Partnership and appears at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Philharmonic-tenure highlights include acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (for which Mr. Gilbert was nominated for a 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction), and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 24 World Premieres; The Nielsen Project, a performance and recording cycle; Verdi Requiem and Bach’s B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and nine tours around the world. In August 2015 he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. Stage Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, co-presented as part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative. (more) Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 3

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season Mr. Gilbert makes debuts with four great European orchestras — Filarmonica della Scala, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Symphony, and Academy of St Martin in the Fields — and returns to The Cleveland Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming’s recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010), Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music” (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), and a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015).

As the 2015–16 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, bass-baritone Eric Owens appears as soloist throughout the season, and is expanding the role of the Philharmonic’s Artist-in-Residence by curating programs and participating in educational activities. Mr. Owens’s 2015–16 season features orchestral engagements including performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the St. Louis Symphony, led by Markus Stenz, and with the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä; Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; Brahms’s A German Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, led by Mr. Stenz; and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Franz Welser-Möst. He will also join Music of the Baroque as Simon in concert performances of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus conducted by Jane Glover. Operatic highlights of Mr. Owens’s season include his return to The Metropolitan Opera as Orest in a new production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, directed by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which will be broadcast on the Emmy and Peabody Award–winning Live in HD series to movie theaters around the world, and he will host The Met’s Live in HD broadcast of Verdi’s Otello. He returns to Santa Fe Opera for his role debut as La Roche in a new production of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio directed by Tim Albery, and to Washington National Opera as Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he will perform an evening of jazz standards featuring the music of Billy Eckstine and Johnny Hartman, and he will also appear in recital under the auspices of the McCarter Theatre, Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Troy Chromatic Concerts, and Curtis Institute of Music. Eric Owens made his New York Philharmonic debut in June 2003 singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, led by then Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel, during the Orchestra’s residency at Sardinia’s Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. He will have most recently appeared with the Philharmonic in December 2015 in Oh, What Fun! A Philharmonic Holiday, performing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

(more)

Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 4

In the 2015–16 season dramatic soprano Heidi Melton makes her Vienna Philharmonic debut singing Brünnhilde’s “Immolation Scene” from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, conducted by Valery Gergiev, at Vienna’s Musikverein and Carnegie Hall. She will sing Sieglinde in concert performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Hong Kong Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden, to be recorded by Naxos, and returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin as Venus/Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, with Donald Runnicles, and to Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe for her first performances as Isolde in a new Christopher Alden production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Justin Brown. Ms. Melton then makes her English National Opera debut in a new production of Tristan and Isolde conducted by Edward Gardner. Notable symphonic engagements include her Italian debut conducted by Kirill Petrenko with Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Torino as Gutrune/Third Norn in a concert performance of Götterdämmerung; BBC Proms as Elisabeth in a concert performance of Tannhäuser with Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Dallas Symphony led by Jaap van Zweden, BBC Scottish Symphony with Donald Runnicles, and Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano in Act One of Die Walküre; the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Act I of Die Walküre and Isolde’s “Liebestod” under Marin Alsop and Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Markus Stenz; the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Jan van Gilse’s Eine Lebensmesse; the Festival de Lanaudière as Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin under Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Orchestre Métropolitain; the Aspen Music Festival and Robert Spano in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand; Real Filharmonía de Galicia in Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder conducted by Paul Daniel; and the Verdi Requiem for Donald Runnicles’s farewell concert as music director of San Francisco Opera. These performances mark Heidi Melton’s New York Philharmonic debut.

Repertoire The great Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, became a consuming passion and source of inspiration to Jean Sibelius (1865–1967) throughout his life, and the tone poem En saga was the first Kalevala-based piece Sibelius would compose. He said later of the work, “En saga is the expression of a state of mind. I had undergone a number of painful experiences at the time and in no other work have I revealed myself so completely. It is for this reason that I find all literary explanations quite alien.” Composed at the behest of conductor Robert Kajanus, En saga (Swedish for “a legend”) was written during the summer and fall of 1892, and Sibelius conducted the first performance early the following year. The version performed today is a revision created for a performance at Ferruccio Busoni’s concert of new music in Berlin in 1902. This work was first performed the Philharmonic on January 1, 1931, led by Arturo Toscanini. The Philharmonic’s most recent performance of this work was in December 2004, led by Colin Davis.

Two of the three selected Richard Strauss (1864–1949) songs presented in this program are from a set of four that he composed in 1894, all presented as a wedding gift to his wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna, when they married that September. Strauss originally composed the quartet of songs for voice and piano, and finally orchestrated them in 1948. The title of first, “Ruhe, meine Seele!,” Op. 27, No. 1, means “Rest, my soul!” and is based on a poem by Karl Henckell. “Cäcilie,” Op. 27, No. 2, is the second in the set, and takes its text from a poem by Heinreich Hart that was written for his wife, the Cäcilie of the title. The third song, “Pilgers Morgenlied,” (more) Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 5

Op. 33, No. 4 (or “Pilgrim’s Morning Song”), composed in 1896–97, is one of the composer’s few settings of Goethe. The writer had dedicated this poem to Luise Henriette von Ziegler, whom he met in Darmstadt in 1772 and was a lady-in-waiting at court and one of the “sensitive souls” Goethe met in the city. The Philharmonic first performed “Ruhe, meine Seele” in September 1995, featuring Jessye Norman and conducted by Kurt Masur; most recently, Christoph Eschenbach led Barbara Bonney in the song in March 2001. The New York Symphony (a forebear of the New York Philharmonic) presented “Cäcille” for the first time in November 1904 by Etta De Montjau, conducted by Walter Damrosch; Renée Fleming was the Philharmonic’s most recent soloist for the piece, led by Kurt Masur in September 1997. Richard Strauss himself led David Scull Bispham in the Philharmonic’s first presentation of “Pilgers Mogenlied” in March 1904; Mr. Bispham was also soloist for the only other Philharmonic performances of the work, in February 1911, led by Gustav Mahler.

Die Walküre is the second opera in Richard Wagner’s (1813–83) Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner wrote the libretto himself and based the work on the Norse mythology, the Volsunga Saga and Poetic Edda. Act III of Die Walküre begins with what is possibly the best known excerpt from this opera: Ride of the Valkyries, the instrumental prelude that builds until four of the eight Valkyries gather to pay tribute to Valhalla’s fallen. As the act progresses, Valkyrie Brünnhilde arrives with the human Sieglinde (pregnant with Siegmund’s child, Siegfried), and asks her sisters to help protect the woman, but they refuse; Sieglinde flees before the arrival of a wrathful Wotan (king of the gods and father of Brünnhilde). In the final scene from Act III, Wotan punishes Brünnhilde by making her mortal, placing her on a mountain in magical sleep surrounded by a circle of flame. Theodore Thomas conducted the Philharmonic’s first presentation of Ride of the Valkyries in November 1879; the most recent performance was in May 2015 as part of Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, conducted by George Daugherty. The Orchestra first performed the final scene from Act III in April 1879, led by Adolph Neuendorff; it was most recently performed in April 1982, led by Zubin Mehta with soloist Peter Wimberger.

* * * Eric Owens is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.

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

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

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from 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.

(more)

Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 6

Tickets Single tickets for this performance start at $29. Pre-Concert Insights are $7 (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 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 $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 at the New York Philharmonic at (212) 875-5714, or email her at [email protected].

(more)

Alan Gilbert / Eric Owens / Heidi Melton / 7

New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Thursday, January 7, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Friday, January 8, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, January 9, 2016, 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Pre-Concert Insights (one hour before each concert) with writer, music historian, and former Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic Harvey Sachs

Alan Gilbert, conductor Heidi Melton*, soprano Eric Owens, bass-baritone

SIBELIUS En saga R. STRAUSS “Ruhe, meine Seele,” Op. 27, No. 1 “Cäcilie,” Op. 27, No. 2 “Pilgers Morgenlied,” Op. 33, No. 4 WAGNER Ride of the Valkyries and Final Scene from Act III of Die Walküre

SATURDAY MATINEE CONCERT

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Saturday, January 9, 2016, 2:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Frank Huang, Sheryl Staples, violin Cynthia Phelps, viola Carter Brey, cello

GRIEG String Quartet SIBELIUS 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 or by contacting (212) 875-5700 or [email protected].