Annex 1

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

PROGRAMME

11 June 2003 100 mins (with intermission)

Felix Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 21

Robert Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, op. 129 (Soloist: Pieter Wispelwey)

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastorale”

12 June 2003 90 mins (with intermission)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”

Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben Tone Poem for Symphony Orchestra, op. 40 Annex 2

LEIPZIG GEWANDHAUS ORCHESTRA

The Gewandhaus Orchestra can look back today with pride on a history of over 250 years. The orchestra was founded in 1781 by Leipzig merchants as a concert society which took up residence in a 500-seat hall with superb acoustics. Housed in the gathering place of the cloth traders, known as the “Gewandhaus” (“Garment House”), it was from hence the orchestra and its Leipzig headquarters got their name.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra has since become one of the world’s best-known and most renowned orchestras. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Franz Konwitschny and Kurt Masur were all Gewandhauskapellmeisters. They left their imprint on a unique musical culture, which today’s Gewandhauskapellmeister Herbert Blomstedt is now carrying forward into the new millennium.

Today, over 600 events take place every year at the Gewandhaus. Of these, the 70 “Grand Concerts” by the Gewandhaus Orchestra form the heart of activities. For over 200 years, the orchestra also serves as the regular orchestra at the Leipzig Opera, in addition to its weekly performances of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach at St. Thomas’s Church; it also gives some 35 guest appearances per season throughout the world and makes numerous recordings. Leipzig’s reputation as a “city of music” is largely attributable to the varied activities of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The Gewandhaus Orchestra has given many world premieres in its history, including major works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Brahms and Bruckner. In recent years, they have premiered Giya Kancheli’s Symphony No. 6 (1981), Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3 (1981) and the “Seconda Sonata per Archi” (1996) dedicated by composer Hans Werner Henze to the string players of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The Gewandhaus Orchestra has always attracted composers and artists of international standing. In 1789, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted a concert of his own works here, Carl Maria von Weber made a guest appearance in 1813 with his E-flat major Piano Concerto, and the nine-year old Clara Wieck, later the wife of Robert Schumann, gave the first concert of her career in the Gewandhaus. The list of famous names extends through virtually every musical epoch right down to the present day: Liszt, Berlioz, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Casals, Stravinsky, Toscanini, Menuhin, David and Igor Oistrakh, Bernstein, von Karajan, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Barenboim – these and countless others presented and continue to present their artistry to the Leipzigers and their guests in the Gewandhaus.

The title of Gewandhauskapellmeister has been inseparable from the history of the Gewandhaus since 1781. Mendelssohn, arguably the most illustrious holder of that title, shaped the Gewandhaus for twelve years starting in 1843; many of the Gewandhaus Orchestra members since his time have received their education at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Music Academy in Leipzig. Mendelssohn also introduced the so-called “Historical Concerts” at the Gewandhaus, through which he increased awareness of music history and developed the present form of the symphony concert. Inspired by a tradition that had been launched with world’s first performance of the full cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies at the Gewandhaus during the 1825/26 season, Arthur Nikisch, Mendelssohn’s successor for the next 27 years from 1895, conducted all of Johannes Brahms’s symphonies – another world premiere – as well as the symphonies of Anton Bruckner in a full cycle. In addition he firmly established Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Max Reger and many other composers in the orchestra’s repertoire. Kurt Masur extended the concert cycles to include composers ranging from Mozart to Prokofiev and dedicated himself particularly to the symphonic works of Dmitry Shostakovich, which he presented from 1976 to 1978 – once again for the first time world-wide – in a continuous cycle.

The Gewandhaus Orchestra’s first foreign tour, to Switzerland in 1916, took place during the Nikisch leadership. His successors Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Hermann Abendroth, and, following World War II, Franz Konwitschny and Václav Neumann, continued to walk the path between the musical past and present. The Gewandhauskapellmeisters of more recent times, Kurt Masur (19701996) and Herbert Blomstedt (since 1998) have regained a consciousness of their obligation to this heritage. Annex 3

HERBERT BLOMSTEDT Gewandhauskapellmeister

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1927, Herbert Blomstedt moved with his family to Sweden in 1929. His mother, a pianist, gave him his first musical training. This led him eventually to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and to the University of Uppsala. He continued studying conducting with the legendary Igor Markevitch, with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School, and with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. Honours and accomplishments followed quickly: in 1953 the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize; in 1954 his conducting debut (with the Stockholm Philharmonic) and first appointment as a music director (with Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony); and in 1955 first prize at the Salzburg conducting competition.

Mr. Blomstedt has held positions as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, and the Swedish Radio Symphony; he was also Chief Conductor of Hamburg’s North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1975, the musicians of the Dresden Staatskapelle invited him to become their music director, and in his ten years with the ensemble he led it throughout Europe and in its first visits to the United States. Maestro Blomstedt made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in February 1984, in concerts that led immediately to his appointment as Music Director.

Mr. Blomstedt is in constant demand as a guest conductor and has directed many of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He has established an international reputation as a teacher of conducting, and his many distinctions include membership of the Royal Musical Academy of Stockholm, of which Beethoven was a member. In 1992 he received Columbia University’s Ditson Award for distinguished service to American music. He is a Knight of the North Star, Stockholm, and a Knight of the Dannebrogen, Copenhagen.

Herbert Blomstedt is Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and of the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and has also been appointed Chief Conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg. He left Hamburg to assume the position of Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus for a five-year post beginning in 1998.

He has already made several CD recordings for DECCA with the Gewandhausorchester: the Fourth Symphony by Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, and the “Sinfonia Serena” and “Die Harmonie der Welt” by Paul Hindemith. Annex 4

PIETER WISPELWEY

Wispelwey is one of the first of a generation of performers equally adept on either the ‘authentic’ or modern cello. His expert stylistic knowledge, original and profound musical thinking, augmented by a phenomenal technique enable him to render individual, yet remarkable interpretations of the cello repertoire from J.S. Bach to Elliott Carter. For years now, he has won the hearts of critics and public alike with his unique performances of the Bach and Britten unaccompanied cello suites, and with his recitals of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas either on baroque or modern instruments.

Born in Haarlem, Netherlands, Wispelwey’s diverse musical personality is rooted in the training he received – from early years with Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam to studies with Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth in Great Britain. In 1992 he was the first cellist ever to receive the Netherlands Music Prize, which is endowed upon the most promising young musician in the Netherlands.

Wispelwey is in keen demand as soloist. A typical review in Melbourne’s The Age reported: “To say Pieter Wispelwey’s music-making is ravishing is to utter an understatement of huge proportions. Monday’s concert did everything to confirm him as one of the world's great cellists.” His career spans five continents with regular recital appearances in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon) and Boston. He has appeared as soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and has recorded with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Future highlights include concertos with the Orquesta Nacional de España, the Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Japan Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra and a tour of the Far East and Australia with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt as well as recitals in Paris, London, Amsterdam and Lisbon. Further engagements include return visits to the Edinburgh Festival and the Great Performers Series at the Lincoln Center, New York, following his successful debut at their Mostly Mozart Festival.

Pieter Wispelwey has made numerous recordings for the Channel Classics label, of which no less than six have won international awards. These include the Bach and Britten cello suites, the Dvorak and Elgar concertos, and much of the sonata repertoire. Of his disc of Shostakovich and Kodaly (with the Australian Chamber Orchestra), Gramophone Magazine wrote that Wispelwey is “a musician through and through, someone you can always trust to get the message right”. His most recent releases include a CD with cello repertoire by Franck, Schumann and Brahms and a recording of romantic cello repertoire with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.