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FOR RELEASE: February 22, 2012

SUPPLEMENT

EMANUEL AX THE 2012–13 MARY AND JAMES G. WALLACH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Pianist To Perform J.S. BACH’s Keyboard Concerto in D minor, SCHOENBERG’s Piano Concerto, MOZART’s Piano Concerto No. 25, Christopher ROUSE’s Seeing, Written for Ax

Mahler/Schoenberg — a Co-Presentation with Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival — and Brahms’s Piano Quintet in CHAMBER CONCERTS with Philharmonic Musicians

Emanuel Ax To Be Soloist on EUROPE / SPRING 2013 Tour ______

“It’s a great, great honor to work with the New York Philharmonic. I’ve been a resident of New York since I was 12 years old, and I’ve performed more than 100 concerts now with the Orchestra. Being the Artist-in-Residence in 2012–13 is going to be very special for me. Alan Gilbert is one of the most important people in music today. He’s a fabulous conductor, but in a way, for a music director, that’s not the only thing you need — it’s all the other things he does: he’s incredibly inventive with programming, and has a powerful ability to connect with people on every level.” — Emanuel Ax ______

Emanuel Ax has been named The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the Philharmonic for the 2012–13 season. He is the fourth musician to hold this title, following Frank Peter Zimmermann (2011–12), Anne-Sophie Mutter (2010–11), and Thomas Hampson (2009–10). The pianist, who became an Honorary Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York in April 2011 on the occasion of his 100th performance with the Orchestra, will make three concerto appearances with the Philharmonic in addition to performing chamber music and traveling with the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour.

Alan Gilbert said: “Emanuel Ax is a beloved artist on the New York concert scene and, of course, one of the most important pianists around the world, so the choice to have him as our Artist-in-Residence was obvious. I’m thrilled that he has agreed to do this: he has a very strong concert presence, of course, but more important, he himself has told me that his relationship with New York Philharmonic is incredibly important to him. He’s very excited at the possibility of showing the various aspects of his musical personality as a

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concert soloist and chamber music collaborator, and as a performer of music ranging from the Baroque and Classical eras to the present day.”

EMANUEL AX TO MAKE THREE CONCERTO APPEARANCES Bach Keyboard and Schoenberg Piano Concertos

Mr. Ax will make three concerto appearances with the Philharmonic: In his first program as Artist-in-Residence, October 4–6, 2012, Mr. Ax will join the Orchestra for his first-ever performance of a Bach concerto, the Keyboard Concerto in D minor.

Emanuel Ax said: “I’m incredibly nervous and excited about doing the Bach because I’ve never performed a Bach concerto. There’s so much music for piano that I’ve just never touched in this area, which is fabulous and wonderful. I’m absolutely ecstatic about getting a chance to do it.”

Mr. Ax will follow the Bach with Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, which the composer wrote utilizing his 12-tone technique. The original manuscript includes commentaries for each of the four movements: “Life was so easy,” “Suddenly hatred broke out,” “A grace situation was created,” and “But life goes on.” The designations were removed for the published version so as to remove any programmatic connotations for the listener.

Emanuel Ax said: “The Schoenberg concerto is a favorite of mine. It is a wonderful, brilliant, and, in some ways, maybe slightly disturbing piece; it is a very exciting concert piece, and I hope that audiences will take to it. It’s certainly not a piece that has not been played, but I am thrilled anytime I get a chance to do it.”

Alan Gilbert said: “I think Schoenberg is a tricky composer for audiences to deal with because, on the surface, there are a lot of his pieces that are hard to get to. But I’ve always enjoyed the fact that the first syllable of his name is ‘Schoen,’ which means beautiful in German, and his music really is beautiful.”

Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Ax will precede the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with an on-stage discussion as a guide to the 1942 piece, which is considered a 20th-century masterpiece. To illuminate the work, Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Ax plan to discuss the works from the stage before each of these performances, which conclude with Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, Linz.

Mr. Gilbert said: “We’re hoping to provide an elucidation of the piece itself, how it unfolds, where its structural points are. Since this work is in a language that is less familiar to certain people, I think that showing how it’s constructed, where the themes are, can make a huge difference in how the audience listens to it, and will enhance their enjoyment of it.”

Mr. Ax said: “I hope that people who know me from other performances will be willing to trust the fact that Alan and I are really excited about this, and will come and listen with open ears. The more we share our own excitement about Schoenberg with them, the easier it will be for them to like it. I don’t think the music itself is as problematic as it is reputed to be, so we’ll try to change his reputation — we’ll popularize him a bit.”

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Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25

In his second orchestral appearance, Mr. Ax will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, conducted by Alan Gilbert, April 24–25 and 27, 2013, as well as on the Philharmonic’s EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. Completed in 1786, the work is the last of Mozart’s four C-major concertos, as well as the last of the 12 he wrote in Vienna between 1784 and 1786. Completed at the same time as the Prague symphony, this concerto was composed during the height of Mozart’s career, while he was also reveling in the success of The Marriage of Figaro. But after Mozart’s untimely death the concerto ultimately fell into an extended period of neglect, and wasn’t reintroduced into the standard repertoire until the years following World War II. Since then, it has become acclaimed for being one of the greatest works in the repertoire. The April performances in Avery Fisher Hall will pair the concerto with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3; the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour programs will be announced at a later date.

Mr. Ax said: “Mozart 25 — nothing is really better, so why not? The last time I toured with the Philharmonic we performed Beethoven, and the tour before that, we played Brahms, so it is nice now to play Mozart.”

Mr. Gilbert said: “Playing Mozart with Manny is a real joy and a real privilege. He has a lightness and an elegance of touch that are supported by an incredible warmth that he brings to the music. The word that comes to mind so often when I think about Manny and his musicianship is ‘natural:’ it unfolds in an absolutely compelling, inevitable way — and that’s not as easy as it sounds with Mozart, or with any composer, for that matter – and he inspires the musicians he works with to join his natural ‘breathing’ of the music.”

Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, Commissioned for Ax in 1990s

For his third orchestral program, June 20–22, 2013, Emanuel Ax will perform Seeing for Piano and Orchestra by The Marie Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse, a Philharmonic commission that Mr. Ax premiered in 1999 under the baton of Leonard Slatkin and reprised in 2003 with David Zinman. A non-traditional piano concerto, Seeing’s genesis lies in ’s piano concerto and the song “Seeing” by Moby Grape’s guitarist, the late Skip Spence. Upon Christopher Rouse’s discovery that both Schumann and Spence suffered from psychosis, the conception for Seeing took shape. These programs, led by Alan Gilbert, will also include A Ring Journey, Mr. Gilbert’s arrangement of ’s synthesis of orchestral music from Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Mr. Ax said: “I think Seeing is an incredibly wonderful piece of music and deserves to become part of the standard repertoire, so I’m doing what I can to help that along. This will be the third time I’ll have performed it with the Philharmonic, but I’ve also played it at the Proms in London, with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, and with The Cleveland Orchestra in Aspen.”

Alan Gilbert said: “I heard Manny play this piece years ago, in Aspen, and I love it. I’ve been begging him to play it ever since then. It’s a perfect end to his residency — Seeing

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nicely balances out the other works he’s performing, and I also think it’s really important and gives a very strong message to be able to bring back a work that was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for Manny by Christopher Rouse.”

CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCES Mahler/Schoenberg and Brahms

In addition to his three concerto appearances with the Orchestra during the 2012–13 season, Emanuel Ax will participate in two November chamber music programs alongside Philharmonic musicians. In the first, on November 4, 2012, the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival present a program that includes a performance by Mr. Ax, soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor Russell Thomas, and musicians from the Orchestra in Schoenberg’s chamber arrangement of Das Lied von der Erde, Gustav Mahler’s six-movement “Symphony for Tenor and Alto (or Baritone) Voices and Orchestra (after Hans Bethge’s The Chinese Flute),” at the Rose Theater. A great admirer of Mahler, Schoenberg orchestrated the work for string and wind quintets, piano, celesta, and harmonium, but never finished it (this version was completed by Rainer Riehn in 1980).

Mr. Ax said: “I think Mahler is as full of ecstasy and mystery as anything. The funny thing is that the name Schoenberg, somehow, is still kind of scary. Not the music — it’s the name; he somehow has developed a reputation for being forbidding, and I think a lot of the music is not that at all, so I am really pleased to be playing some of it during this residency.”

In Mr. Ax’s second chamber appearance, on the Saturday Matinee Concert, November 24, 2012, he will join Philharmonic musicians for Brahms’s Piano Quintet. Brahms first introduced the idea behind this piece as a string quartet in 1862, and then as a sonata for two pianos in 1863. Clara Schumann convinced him to restore the strings, and the composer finally wrote this ultimately successful, adventurous, and much-loved quintet, which was published in 1864 and is dedicated to Princess Anna of Hesse. In the second half of the concert Andrey Boreyko will conduct Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World.

Mr. Ax said: “The Brahms Quintet is a great masterpiece, and it’s just going to be a wonderful chance to get to play with my friends again. It’s a piece that should be heard all the time.”

EUROPE / SPRING 2013

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax will join the New York Philharmonic on its EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour in May 2013, on which he will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in selected cities. The tour will also include a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft at the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden, , the Philharmonic’s first appearance in Istanbul in 18 years, performances celebrating the 100th anniversary of Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and a concert in Zurich. The Philharmonic will take Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s new work on tour after giving its world premiere on concerts at Avery Fisher Hall on April 17–20, 2013. Additional details to be announced.

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Mr. Ax said: “There’s nothing more wonderful than going on tour with an orchestra, especially one in which you have a lot of friends. It’s like being part of a family. One of the few unfortunate things about being a pianist is that you do travel alone a lot, so it’s almost like a vacation to be able to wait for a plane with [Concertmaster] Glenn Dicterow, who was a classmate of mine — we go back 40 years; or [Principal Cello] Carter Brey, we’ve done so much together; or [Principal Viola] Cynthia Phelps; and even the young people in the Orchestra whom I’m getting to know.”

EMANUEL AX The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Canada with his family when he was a young boy. He studied at The and , capturing public attention in 1974 when he won the first International Piano Competition in . In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, four years later, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize.

Highlights of Mr. Ax’s 2011–12 season include returns to the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the Boston, Houston, Toronto, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cincinnati symphony orchestras; and the San Francisco Symphony, where he is collaborating in the “American Mavericks” festival, which is to be repeated in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. As curator and participant with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a two-week “Keys to the City” residency, he will perform in multiple roles in a festival that is celebrating the many varied facets of the piano and its repertoire.

Mr. Ax’s European appearances this season include returns to the , Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Orchestre National de France. Recent tours have included the New York Philharmonic’s Asian Horizons tour — the Orchestra’s first with Alan Gilbert as Music Director — and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Europe.

Emanuel Ax has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987. He received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn piano sonatas, and made a series of Grammy Award–winning recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano with Yo-Yo Ma. Mr. Ax resides in with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities. In April 2011 the New York Philharmonic named him an Honorary Member of the Society on the occasion of his 100th performance with the Orchestra.

EMANUEL AX AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

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Emanuel Ax made his debut with the New York Philharmonic on September 29, 1997, and was celebrated in April 2011 for his 100th performance with the Orchestra.

September/October 1977 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

May 1979 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 17 Neville Marriner, conductor

May 1980 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

March 1981 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

June 1981 CHOPIN Piano Concerto in E minor , conductor

June 1982 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

December 1982 LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

December 1982 LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

February 1983 BEETHOVEN Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra Zubin Mehta, conductor, and the New York Choral Artists

May 1984 Tristan Preludes for Piano, Tape, and Orchestra Hans Werner Henze, conductor

October 1984 CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 Myung Whun Chung, conductor

April 1987 TIPPETT Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

May 1987 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 9, Jeunehomme Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

November 1988 SCHUBERT Quintet in A major, D.667, Trout with Kenneth Gordon, violin; Dorian Rence, viola

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Gerald K. Appleman, cello; and John Schaeffer, bass

April 1990 William BOLCOM Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Mozart Piano Concerto No. 17 Leonard Slatkin, conductor

December 1991 SAINT-SAËNS The Carnival of the Animals Leonard Slatkin, conductor, with Jeffrey Siegel, piano, and Peter Schickele, narrator

November 1992 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor André Previn, conductor

November 1992 POULENC Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon with Sherry Sylar, oboe, and David Carroll, bassoon

May 1994 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 Kurt Masur, conductor

April 1997 CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 André Previn, conductor

April 1997 MOZART Rondeau (Allegro) from Piano Concerto No. 10 for Two Pianos and Orchestra, with André Previn, piano RAVEL Selections from Mother Goose Suite for Piano Four Hands, with André Previn, piano BRAHMS Selections from Variations on a Theme by Haydn for Piano, Four Hands, with André Previn, piano

November 1997 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 Zdenek Macal, conductor

May 1999 Christopher ROUSE Seeing for Piano and Orchestra R. STRAUSS Burleske in D minor for Piano and Orchestra Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Lincoln Center Festival BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos. 1–5 July 1999 Kurt Masur, conductor

November 2000 Red Silk Dance, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2 Ilan Volkov, conductor

March 2003 Christopher ROUSE Seeing for Piano and Orchestra Bright SHENG The Song and Dance of Tears David Zinman, conductor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello;

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Wu Man, pipa; Wu Tong, sheng

Young People’s Concert Chinese Traditional Blue Little Flower March 2003 Bright SHENG Selections from The Song and Dance of Tears David Zinman, conductor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; , Pipa; Wu Tong, Sheng

November 2004 CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 David Robertson, conductor

September 2006 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 10 for Two Pianos and Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor, with Yefim Bronfman, piano

February 2007 BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 Lorin Maazel, conductor

February 2007 BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 Lorin Maazel, conductor

Tour of Europe BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 May 2007 Lorin Maazel, conductor

March 2008 SCHUMANN Quartet for Piano and Strings in E-flat major with Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello

May 2008 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor David Robertson, conductor

January 2009 SZYMANOWSKI Symphonie concertante for Piano and Orchestra R. STRAUSS Burleske in D minor for Piano and Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor

September–October 2009 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 Alan Gilbert, conductor

Asian Horizons tour BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto Nos. 3 and 4 October 2009 Alan Gilbert, conductor

October 2009 SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E-flat major with Glenn Dicterow, violin; Alan Gilbert, violin Cynthia Phelps, viola; and Carter Brey, cello BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 Alan Gilbert, conductor April 2011 DEBUSSY Pagodes from Estampes for solo piano MESSIAEN Couleurs de la Cité Céleste

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Alan Gilbert, conductor

May 2011 BEETHOVEN Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Triple Alan Gilbert, conductor; , violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello

June 2012 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 Alan Gilbert, conductor

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CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF EMANUEL AX’S 2012–13 SEASON

MARY AND JAMES G. WALLACH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE EMANUEL AX PERFORMS BACH AND SCHOENBERG WITH ALAN GILBERT

Avery Fisher Hall

Thursday, October 4, 2012, 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 5, 2012, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, October 6, 2012, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano

J.S. BACH Keyboard Concerto in D minor SCHOENBERG Piano Concerto MOZART Symphony No. 36, Linz

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE EMANUEL AX CHAMBER CONCERT: DAS LIED VON DER ERDE — A CO-PRESENTATION WITH LINCOLN CENTER’S WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL

The Rose Theater

Sunday, November 4, 2012, 5:00 p.m.

Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano Russell Thomas, tenor Emanuel Ax, piano Musicians from the New York Philharmonic

Program to include:

MAHLER/Schoenberg Das Lied von der Erde (chamber orchestra version, completed by Rainer Riehn)

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SATURDAY MATINEE CONCERT WITH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE EMANUEL AX IN BRAHMS PIANO QUINTET

Saturday Matinee Concert

Avery Fisher Hall

Saturday, November 24, 2012, 2:00 p.m.

Andrey Boreyko, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano Musicians from the New York Philharmonic

BRAHMS Piano Quintet DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9, From the New World

ALAN GILBERT CONDUCTS: WITH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE EMANUEL AX IN MOZART

Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 BRUCKNER Symphony No. 3

EUROPE / SPRING 2013

Emanuel Ax will perform on the Philharmonic’s tour, which will also include concerts in Istanbul, Zurich, the 100th Anniversary of Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft at the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden, Germany; Joshua Bell to be the other soloist. Additional details tba.

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JUNE JOURNEY: GILBERT’S PLAYLIST A RING JOURNEY, COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE CHRISTOPHER ROUSE’S SEEING WITH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE EMANUEL AX

Avery Fisher Hall

Thursday, June 20, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 21, 2013, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 22, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano

Christopher ROUSE Seeing for Piano and Orchestra WAGNER/arr. Alan Gilbert, after Erich Leinsdorf A Ring Journey

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Additional contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

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