FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 26, 2016 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] FORMER MUSIC DIRECTOR ZUBIN MEHTA TO RETURN TO NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC RAVI SHANKAR’s Rāgā-Mālā Concerto No. 2, for Sitar and Orchestra With ANOUSHKA SHANKAR as Soloist SCHUBERT’s Symphony in C major, Great November 3–5, 2016 Former Music Director Zubin Mehta will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Schubert’s Symphony in C major, Great, and Ravi Shankar’s Rāgā-Mālā Concerto No. 2, for Sitar and Orchestra, with soloist Anoushka Shankar, the composer’s daughter, in her Philharmonic debut. The program will take place Thursday, November 3, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 4 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 5 at 8:00 p.m. The Philharmonic commissioned and premiered Shankar’s Rāgā-Mālā Concerto No. 2, for Sitar and Orchestra, in April 1981, with the composer as soloist in his Philharmonic debut and led by then Music Director Zubin Mehta, to whom the work is dedicated. Rāgā-Mālā translates to “Garland of Ragas”; in Indian classical music, a raga is a mode, of which there are more than 300. Zubin Mehta and Ravi Shankar discussed the work in 1981 in Ovation magazine. Mr. Mehta said that although he had not previously believed that Western orchestras could play Indian music, “Ravi worked individually with our solo players in every section, to help him not only to know each musician but the characteristic of his instrument. … I feel at the moment that it will work.” Shankar said: “For many years I have been dreaming of playing with the Maestro from Bombay. … My roots are in India, so this work will naturally be more Indian than Western. There will be elements of harmony and counterpoint, but the harmonic and contrapuntal structure will not be … so dense and heavy as to blur or kill the beauty of the ragas.” In its review of the 1981 premiere, The New York Times said: “Mr. Shankar’s ability to echo and extend the coloration of the sitar by the orchestra was often ingenious. … Mr. Shankar is one of the great virtuosos. … he has also been driven throughout his life to bridge the gaps he perceives between the classical Indian tradition and the music of the West, and his ‘Raga-Mala’ represents his most ambitious ecumenical attempt so far.” (more) Zubin Mehta / Anoushka Shankar / 2 Related Events Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets to young people ages 13–for the concert Friday, November 4 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 Former New York Philharmonic Music Director Zubin Mehta was born in Bombay in 1936, and received his first musical education under his father, Mehli Mehta, a concert violinist and founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. He left for Vienna in 1954, where he studied with Hans Swarowsky at the Akademie für Musik, then won the 1958 Liverpool International Conducting Competition and was a prize winner of the summer academy at Tanglewood. By 1961 he had already conducted the Vienna, Berlin, and Israel philharmonic orchestras — he recently celebrated 50 years of musical collaboration with all three ensembles. Zubin Mehta was music director of both the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1961–67) and Los Angeles Philharmonic (1962–78). He was appointed music adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, became music director in 1977, and was awarded the title of music director for life in 1981. In 1978 he became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, beginning a tenure that would last 13 years, the longest in the Orchestra’s history. Since 1985 he has been chief conductor of the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, a collaboration that will conclude in 2017. Among Zubin Mehta’s honors is the Nikisch-Ring, given to him by Karl Böhm. He is an honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv and was made an honorary member of the Vienna Staatsoper in 1997, Bavarian Staatsoper in 2006, and Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien in 2007. He has received honorary conductor titles from the Vienna Philharmonic (2001), Munich Philharmonic (2004), Los Angeles Philharmonic (2006), Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (2006), Staatskapelle Berlin (2014), and Bavarian State Orchestra (2006). The Japanese Imperial Family honored him with the Praemium Imperiale in 2008, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012, and the Tagore Award for cultural harmony from the Indian government in 2013. Together with his brother, Zarin, he is a co-chairman of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Bombay, where more than 200 children are educated in Western classical music. The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv develops young talent in Israel and is closely tied to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as is a new project in which local teachers and members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra teach young Arab Israelis in the cities of Shwaram and Nazareth. Zubin Mehta made his New York Philharmonic debut conducting a July 1960 Stadium Concert at Lewisohn Stadium; he most recently conducted the Philharmonic in January 2012, leading Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. Sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar is a singular figure in the Indian classical and progressive world music scenes. Her dynamic and spiritual musicality has garnered several accolades, including five Grammy Award nominations, recognition as the youngest — and first female — recipient of a British House of Commons Shield, credit as an Asian Hero by TIME (more) Zubin Mehta / Anoushka Shankar / 3 magazine, and a Songlines Best Artist Award. Deeply rooted in the Indian classical music tradition, Ms. Shankar studied exclusively from the age of nine under her father and guru, the late Ravi Shankar, and made her professional debut as a classical sitarist at 13. By age 20 she had made three classical recordings and received her first Grammy nomination, becoming the first Indian female and youngest-ever nominee in the World Music category. In 2005 she released her self-produced breakthrough album, Rise, which earned her a second Grammy nomination, and she became the first Indian artist to perform at the Grammy Awards. In 2011 Ms. Shankar signed with Deutsche Grammophon and received three further consecutive Grammy nominations for Traveller, Traces of You, and Home. As a composer, Ms. Shankar has encouraged cross-cultural dialogue while demonstrating the versatility of the sitar across musical genres. She has created a body of work with artists including Sting, M.I.A, Herbie Hancock, Pepe Habichuela, Karsh Kale, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Joshua Bell. Her new album, Land of Gold, is her response to the humanitarian trauma of displaced people fleeing conflict and poverty; it was released on Deutsche Grammophon in March 2016, followed by tours of North America (April 2016), Europe (summer and fall 2016), and India (winter 2016). Her 2016–17 season includes tours performing music from Land of Gold in India, Europe, and Dubai, as well as appearances in North America with her classical ensemble in support of Home. Forthcoming concerto performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and Orchestra Philharmonie Luxembourg. These performances mark Anoushka Shankar’s New York Philharmonic debut. Repertoire The New York Philharmonic commissioned Ravi Shankar’s (1920–2012) Rāgā-Mālā Concerto No. 2, for Sitar and Orchestra, and premiered the work in April 1981, during Zubin Mehta’s tenure as Music Director, with Shankar as soloist; the concerto is dedicated to Zubin Mehta. Shankar began the work in the summer of 1979 and completed it in the summer of 1980. In Indian classical music, a raga is a mode (of which there are more than 300), often associated with a time of day or year; Rāgā-Mālā translates to “Garland of Ragas.” The work fuses Indian classical forms with Western classical traditions to create a musical bridge between two very different cultures. The composer said of the work: “As the title Rāgā-Mālā suggests, I have used many different ragas in this four-movement composition — thirty, in fact. The first movement is completely devoted to the early morning raga Lalit, with a traditional, classical approach that closely retains the spirit of the raga. The second movement consists of five ragas, mostly morning ones. The third movement has three evening ragas, Yaman Kalyan, Marwa, and Desh, which are treated in detail and with rhythmic complexity. The fourth movement has the most ragas — twenty-one. Some come in flashes as short as eight bars, while others are longer. … Trumpet, clarinet, flute, and violin solos are some of the highlights, along with the improvised sitar solos.” The Symphony in C major, Great, is indeed considered by many to be Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) greatest work, but it actually earned the moniker “Great” to differentiate it from the earlier Symphony No. 6 in the same key. Schubert most likely began the work in 1825, completing it the following year. It was written for Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, but the group rejected it on the grounds that it was too long and too difficult. Years passed before the (more) Zubin Mehta / Anoushka Shankar / 4 symphony was performed; it was ultimately premiered in 1839 in Leipzig by Felix Mendelssohn and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Robert Schumann attended the first performance, commenting, “Here we have, besides masterly power over the musical technicalities of composition, life in all its phases, color in exquisite gradations, the minutest accuracy and fitness of expression, and, permeating the whole work, a spirit of romance such as we recognize in other works of Franz Schubert.” The work was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in January 1851, led by Theodore Eisfeld; the Philharmonic most recently performed it in March 2012, led by Christoph von Dohnányi.