FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 2018 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5700; [email protected] MANFRED HONECK To Conduct SIBELIUS’s Violin Concerto with NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER as Soloist Mr. Honeck’s Arrangement of DVOŘÁK’s Rusalka Fantasy Selections from TCHAIKOVSKY’s Sleeping Beauty May 3–5 and 8, 2018 NIKOLAJ ZNAIDER To Make New York Philharmonic Conducting Debut TCHAIKOVSKY’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams ELGAR’s Cello Concerto with JIAN WANG in Philharmonic Subscription Debut May 10–12, 2018 Manfred Honeck will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist; Mr. Honeck’s own arrangement of Dvořák’s Rusalka Fantasy, orchestrated by Tomáš Ille; and selections from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, Thursday, May 3, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 4 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, May 5 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. The following week, Nikolaj Znaider will make his New York Philharmonic conducting debut leading Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with Jian Wang in his subscription debut, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 11 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 12 at 8:00 p.m. Manfred Honeck and Nikolaj Znaider previously collaborated on Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO), in Pittsburgh and on tour in 2012. Mr. Znaider also conducted the PSO that year in music by Elgar, Wagner, and Mozart. Manfred Honeck completed his arrangement of Dvořák’s Rusalka Fantasy in 2015 and led its first performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra shortly after. Gramophone magazine praised the arrangement, heard in a 2016 recording, as “artfully stitched together.... It’s an entertaining collage featuring many of the familiar characters, from the splashing water nymphs to Ježibaba’s cackles.” As a violinist, Nikolaj Znaider won the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and can be heard on the Philharmonic’s recording of Nielsen’s Violin Concerto. He is principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra and formerly held that post with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In its review of Jian Wang’s 2011 Decca recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Gramophone magazine wrote: “This has to be one of the most communicative accounts of Elgar’s masterpiece to have come my way in recent years.” Related Event Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering an allotment of free tickets to young people ages 13–26 for the concerts Friday, May 4 and Friday, May 11 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers a limited number of free tickets to 13–26-year-olds to many of the 2017–18 season’s Friday subscription concerts. Information on the 2017–18 season of Free Fridays is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Artists 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 Tanglewood festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Juanjo Mena, Mr. Znaider’s 2017–18 season includes the continuation of his Mozart recording project with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), on which he leads Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 from the violin. Their recording of Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 was released on the LSO Live label in March 2018. He has a particularly strong relationship with the LSO, conducting and performing as soloist with the orchestra every season. He also appears regularly as violinist and conductor with orchestras including the Dresden Staatskapelle, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the New York Philharmonic, with which he is making his conducting debut in these performances. Mr. Znaider’s extensive discography includes Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Dresden Staatskapelle and the late Colin Davis, award-winning recordings of the Brahms and Korngold Violin Concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev, the Beethoven and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on DVD with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. Mr. Znaider has also recorded Brahms’s complete works for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman. Passionate about supporting the next generation of musical talent, he spent ten years as founder and artistic director of the annual Nordic Music Academy summer school, and is now president of the Nielsen Competition, which takes place every three years in Odense, Denmark. Nikolaj Znaider plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius “del Gesu” 1741, on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the VELUX Foundations, the Villum Fonden, and the Knud Højgaard Foundation. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in October 2000 performing Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3, led by Marcello Viotti; his most recent appearance was in November 2016 performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, conducted by Iván Fischer. Manfred Honeck has served as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008–09 season. He and the orchestra are consistently recognized for their performances and are celebrated both in Pittsburgh and abroad, performing regularly at major music capitals and festivals, among them the BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Grafenegg Festival, Carnegie Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. This successful collaboration has been extensively documented by Reference Recordings: their recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 won the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance, and they earned Grammy nominations for recordings of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and the Symphonic Suite from Janáček’s opera Jenůfa, conceptualized by Mr. Honeck himself, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Many years of experience as a violist in the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Staatsoper Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. He began his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado and was subsequently engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor’s Award. Following early posts as one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and as principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, he was appointed music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. For several years, he also served as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2007 to 2011, Manfred Honeck was music director of Stuttgart Staatsoper. His operatic guest appearances include Dresden Semperoper, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and the Salzburg Festival. As a guest conductor, Mr. Honeck has worked with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the United States he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia, and Boston Symphony orchestras. He has been artistic director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for more than 20 years. Manfred Honeck received honorary doctorates from several North American universities, and he was awarded the honorary title of professor by the Austrian Federal President. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in January 2013 conducting works by Braunfels, Grieg, and Beethoven; in his most recent appearance with the Orchestra, in February 2017, he led works by Beethoven and Mahler. While a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, cellist Jian Wang was featured in the celebrated documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Stern’s encouragement and support paved the way for Mr. Wang to travel to the United States, and in 1985 he entered the Yale School of Music under a special program in which he studied with renowned cellist Aldo Parisot. Mr. Wang’s first professional engagement was at Carnegie Hall in 1986. Since then he has embarked on an international career. Early highlights include concerts with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra with Claudio Abbado, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly. He has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de Paris, and Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. He has performed under conductors including Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Neeme Järvi, Louis Langrée, Ludovic Morlot, Mark Wigglesworth, and Nikolaj Znaider. Recent and future highlights include concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Toronto and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, and Orchestre de chambre de Paris. In China he has played for the President and opened the season for the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai and Macau Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the China National Orchestra and Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and performed J.S. Bach’s complete Cello Suites at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. Mr. Wang’s extensive discography with Deutsche Grammophon includes the Bach Cello Suites; Brahms’s Double Concerto with Gil Shaham and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado; and chamber music with Maria João Pires and Augustin Dumay. His instrument is graciously loaned to him by the family of the late Mr.