FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 10, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] ALAN GILBERT AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC RUDOLF BUCHBINDER TO PERFORM BRAHMS’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 Continuing This Season’s Survey of Brahms’s Complete Symphonies and Concertos PROGRAM TO CONCLUDE WITH TCHAIKOVSKY’S SYMPHONY NO. 6, PATHÉTIQUE February 14–16 Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, on Thursday, February 14, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 15 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 16 at 8:00 p.m. The New York Philharmonic performed the U.S. Premieres of both works featured on the program: Theodore Thomas led the U.S. Premiere of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1882, featuring Rafael Joseffy on piano, and in 1894 Walter Damrosch led the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s New York Philharmonic) in the U.S. Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique. “Tchaikovsky’s Sixth is probably his most intimate, profound personal statement,” Alan Gilbert said. “The pathos is so clear; it paints a picture of this man who was tortured by his own inner demons. It ends on one of the most despairing notes you’ll find in music. It’s a struggle and a real journey, but I have to see a ray of hope in this piece because it’s not entirely bleak — there’s some kind of comfort and repose achieved by the end.” Speaking about the program’s soloist, the Music Director said: “Rudolf Buchbinder is a deep artist steeped in the old-world European tradition, which is just the sensibility Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto requires.” The Philharmonic’s season-long survey of Brahms’s complete symphonies and concertos features four conductors and five soloists. In November Kurt Masur conducted Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 4. On January 16–19 Lorin Maazel conducts Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman, and on February 6–9 Andris Nelsons leads the Violin Concerto with Christian Tetzlaff. Following Alan Gilbert’s appearances (more) Alan Gilbert / Rudolf Buchbinder / 2 conducting the Piano Concerto No. 2, the Music Director will lead the Symphony No. 1 February 21–22, 2013. Brahms’s chamber music is appearing on all four Saturday Matinee Concerts, featuring Philharmonic musicians as well as violinist Lisa Batiashvili and Alan Gilbert, both of whom will play violin in the String Quintet in G major on June 8, 2013. Related Events Pre-Concert Talks Mark Travis, New York Philharmonic Audio Producer, 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 The program will be broadcast the week of March 6, 2013,* 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 8:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information. Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert 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 Doug Fitch and New York City 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 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.” (more) Alan Gilbert / Rudolf Buchbinder / 3 Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. 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 Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’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.” Rudolf Buchbinder is a regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic, National Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. He also appears regularly at the Salzburg Festival and other major festivals around the world. He is the founding artistic director of the Grafenegg Music Festival, an international music festival near Vienna that launched in August 2007. Rudolf Buchbinder has more than 100 recordings to his credit, including the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas, the complete Beethoven concertos, the complete Mozart piano concertos, all of Haydn’s works for piano, both Brahms concertos, and all of the rarely performed Diabelli Variations collection, written by 50 Austrian composers. The 18-disc set of Haydn’s works earned him the Grand Prix du Disque. His cycle of all of Mozart’s piano concertos with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was chosen by Joachim Kaiser as CD of the Year in 1998. In November 2010 a live recording of the Brahms piano concertos with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta was released. In May 2011 Mr. Buchbinder’s performances of Beethoven’s five piano concertos as the soloist and conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic were recorded live at Vienna’s Musikverein for a DVD. Throughout the 2010–11 season Mr. Buchbinder had a particularly close cooperation with the Dresden Staatskapelle as its “Capell-Virtuoso,” an artist-in-residence post set up for the first time. A recording of his cycle of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at the Dresden Semperoper was released in May 2011 as a CD box for Sony/RCA Red Seal. Rudolf Buchbinder attaches considerable importance to the meticulous study of musical sources. He owns more than 18 complete editions of Beethoven’s sonatas and has an extensive collection of autograph scores, first editions, and original documents. He was admitted to the Vienna Musik Hochschule at age five, the youngest student accepted in the school’s history. Repertoire Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2, begun in the spring of 1878 and finished in 1881, is considered one of the greatest works of its genre. Its composition was likely influenced by the composer’s vacations to sunny Italy, but the concerto offers an array of ever-changing moods. The work presents many technical challenges for the soloist, requiring a powerful technique and the highest level of musicianship. Brahms dedicated the concerto to one of his most influential (more) Alan Gilbert / Rudolf Buchbinder / 4 teachers, Eduard Marxsen, also a pianist, and the work was premiered in 1881 in Budapest, with the composer at the keyboard. The New York Philharmonic gave the concerto’s U.S. premiere in 1882 with pianist Rafael Joseffy as soloist and Theodore Thomas conducting the New York Philharmonic. Christoph von Dohnányi led the Orchestra’s most recent performances in January 2011, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, during February and March of 1893. “I certainly regard it as easily the best — and especially the most ‘sincere’ — of all my works, and I love it as I have never before loved one of my musical offspring,” the composer wrote to a friend. To the Grand Duke Constantine he wrote, “Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into this work.” Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of the symphony on October 28, 1893; five days later he fell ill, and on the morning of November 6, 1893, he died. The work received its U.S. Premiere in November 1894, with Walter Damrosch leading the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s New York Philharmonic).