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Home , Alan Gilbert (conductor)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 21, 2012 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

ALAN GILBERT AND THE

DANIIL TRIFONOV, 2011 TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO COMPETITION WINNER, TO MAKE PHILHARMONIC DEBUT PERFORMING PROKOFIEV

ALAN GILBERT CONDUCTS MUSORGSKY’S NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN AND RIMSKY-KORSAKOV’S SCHEHERAZADE SPOTLIGHTING CONCERTMASTER GLENN DICTEROW

SEPTEMBER 28–29 and OCTOBER 2, 2012

Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet Performed by Philharmonic Musicians

Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, will conduct the New York Philharmonic in an all-Russian program featuring Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Russian pianist , 2011 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition Winner, in his Philharmonic debut; Musorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain; and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, spotlighting Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, Friday, September 28, 2012, at 2:00 p.m.; Saturday, September 29 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.

The program marks two collaborative milestones: Alan Gilbert’s first time Daniil Trifonov and Mr. Gilbert’s first performance of Scheherazade with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow. “Daniil Trifonov is a true sensation,” Alan Gilbert said. “Orchestras have the opportunity and responsibility to introduce new talent to the public. Shaping the future of music is something that we take very seriously at the Philharmonic. People whom I trust have told me of Trifonov’s brilliant technique and that his musical thoughts are so refined, electric, and imaginative for the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto.”

Remarking on his long-awaited performance of Scheherazade with long-time collaborator Glenn Dicterow, Alan Gilbert said: “Glenn has said that of all the orchestral solos he gets to play, this is his favorite. It has always been a dream of mine to be able to do this piece with him, and finally it’s going to happen.” The Music Director added: “Scheherazade will always be, in my mind, a piece for Glenn Dicterow. His silken, gorgeous, rich violin sound — truly one of the world’s greatest — is perfect for it. The way he spins out a line, his sinuous storytelling, is just amazing.”

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The Saturday Matinee Concert September 29 at 2:00 p.m. features Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet with Philharmonic principal players: Acting Associate Principal Clarinet Pascual Martínez Forteza, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Assistant Concertmaster Michelle Kim, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey. This is the first performance of the season’s survey of Brahms, featuring his complete symphonies and concertos and four of his chamber works on all of the Saturday Matinee Concerts.

Related Events  Pre-Concert Talks Harvey Sachs, The Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656.

 National and International Radio Broadcast This program will be broadcast the week of October 17, 2012* 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 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, launching what New York magazine called “a fresh future for the Philharmonic.” The first native New Yorker in the post, he has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual multi-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series, and he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city and country.

In 2012–13, Alan Gilbert conducts world premieres; presides over a cycle of Brahms’s complete symphonies and concertos; continues The Nielsen Project, the multi-year initiative to perform and record Nielsen’s symphonies and concertos; and leads the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. The season concludes with June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist, four programs showcasing themes he has introduced, including the season finale: a theatrical reimagining of Stravinsky ballets with director/designer and Ballet Principal Dancer Sara Mearns. Last season’s highlights included tours of Europe and California, several world premieres, Mahler symphonies, and Philharmonic 360, the Philharmonic and Park Avenue Armory’s acclaimed (more) Alan Gilbert / Daniil Trifonov / 3 spatial-music program featuring Stockhausen’s Gruppen, about which The New York Times said: “Those who think classical music needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did.”

Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the Chair in Musical Studies at The . Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed debut conducting ’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.”

Daniil Trifonov is emerging as one of the brightest names of the next generation of pianists. During the 2010–11 season, he won medals at three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions: the Chopin Competition (Bronze Medal), the Rubinstein Competition (First Prize), and the Tchaikovsky Competition (Gold Medal). Valery Gergiev personally awarded Mr. Trifonov the Grand Prix in Moscow, an additional award given to the best overall competitor in any of that competition’s categories.

Born in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, in 1991, Daniil Trifonov began his musical studies at the age of five. He studied at Moscow Gnesin School of Music with Tatiana Zelikman (2000–09). From 2006 to 2009 he studied composition and has written piano, chamber, and orchestral music and has since studied piano at The Cleveland Institute of Music with Sergei Babayan.

Highlights of Mr. Trifonov’s 2010–11 season included debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra with Mr. Gergiev, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with , and the Warsaw Philharmonic with Antoni Wit. Recent concerts included his Japanese debut in Tokyo, a Chopin birthday concert in Warsaw conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, and recitals at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Concert Hall, the Moscow Easter Festival, Teatro la Fenice in Venice, and the Brighton Festival in the United Kingdom. Mr. Trifonov has performed at international music festivals including Rheingau (Germany), Crescendo (Russia), New Names (Russia), Arpeggione (Austria), Musica in Villa (Italy), Dame Myra Hess Series (United States), the International Festival Institute at Round Top (U.S.), Santo Stefano (Italy), and Festival Pianistico di Trieste (Italy). Mr. Trifonov’s first CD, featuring a selection of Chopin solo piano works, was released on Decca in 2011. He has also made a number of television recordings in Russia, the U.S., and Italy.

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Repertoire Modest Musorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain was originally titled St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain, referring to a traditional belief that a Witches’ Sabbath was held annually on St. John’s Night (June 24) on Mount Triglav, near Kiev. The work was incomplete when the composer died, in 1881, and was subsequently edited and revised by his friend Rimsky- Korsakov. Describing the piece, Musorgsky referred to a “subterranean din of supernatural voices” and a Black Mass glorifying the god Chernobog, who appears as a black goat. Finally, the peal of a village church bell “disperses the Spirits of Darkness.” The New York Philharmonic first performed the work on February 26, 1920, conducted by Josef Stransky; the most recent performances were in May 2009, conducted by David Zinman.

The year 1921 was particularly successful for Sergei Prokofiev: while he was traveling on an extended trip to the United States, three of his large works received acclaimed premieres, including the Piano Concerto No. 3. The composer himself was the soloist on that occasion, in Chicago, and as he wrote to a friend shortly before the first performance, the work proved an unexpected technical challenge. “My Third Concerto has turned out to be devilishly difficult,” he reported. “I’m nervous and I’m practicing hard three hours a day.” The work was first performed by the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to become today’s New York Philharmonic) on January 26, 1922, led by Alfred Coates, featuring the composer as the soloist. The Philharmonic most recently performed it in April 2012, led by with Yuja Wang as soloist.

The allure of the colorful and mysterious realm of The Arabian Nights has endured for more than a millennium. During the 18th and 19th centuries, these ancient tales attracted new attention in Western Europe, an example of an idealization of the East that resonated with many artists. Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was one of them, and in 1888 he composed Scheherazade, a symphonic suite that remains one of his most popular works. The composer said that the plush musical dreamscape he created was not intended as purely programmatic. Instead, he wanted listeners to experience “separate, unconnected episodes and pictures from The Arabian Nights, scattered through all four movements.” The work had its world premiere in St. Petersburg in 1888. The New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to become today’s New York Philharmonic) first performed this work on November 12, 1905, conducted by . Scheherazade was most recently performed by the Orchestra during its 2005 summer residency in Vail, Colorado. The conductor was Xian Zhang and Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow was the featured violinist.

Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, Trio, and two Sonatas stand at the peak of that instrument’s repertoire. All four works were inspired by Richard Mühlfeld, principal clarinetist with the ducal orchestra at Meiningen, Germany, whom Brahms first heard in 1891. At the time the composer, then in his late 50s, was worn out creatively, but he was electrified by Mühlfeld’s artistry and began spending hours with him, discovering the clarinet’s technical possibilities with an eye toward exploring them in chamber music. The Quintet, one of Brahms’s last works, evinces his rich maturity. It employs the clarinet’s full range and timbral spectrum, and its overall effect is of (more) Alan Gilbert / Daniil Trifonov / 5 nostalgic melancholy — although even the ultra-Romantic Adagio is seasoned with flavors of the Gypsy music Brahms was fond of. When Clara Schumann heard Mühlfeld perform it in 1893, she wrote Brahms: “What a magnificent thing it is, and how moving! Words are inadequate to express my feelings.”

* * * Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

* * * Tickets Tickets for these concerts start at $25. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). All other 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 Saturday, and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or the Alice Tully Hall Box Office at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. 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 $13.50 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 Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].

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New York Philharmonic

Avery Fisher Hall

Friday, September 28, 2012, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, September 29, 2012, 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

Pre-Concert Talk (one hour before each concert) with Harvey Sachs, The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, conductor Daniil Trifonov, piano*

MUSORGSKY Night on Bald Mountain PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade ______

Saturday Matinee Concert

Avery Fisher Hall

Saturday, September 29, 2012, 2:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Pascual Martínez Forteza, clarinet Sheryl Staples and Michelle Kim, violins Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello

BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

*denotes New York Philharmonic debut

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Photography is available in the New York Philharmonic’s online newsroom, nyphil.org/newsroom, or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; [email protected].