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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATED June 3, 2013 May 30, 2013 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

ALAN GILBERT AND THE PHILHARMONIC

MAY 30–JUNE 29, 2013

PROGRAM II OF IV

GERALD FINLEY and in DALLAPICCOLA’S IL PRIGIONIERO LISA BATIASHVILI Plays Prokofiev, June 6–11

Alan Gilbert To Join Philharmonic Musicians in Brahms’s String Quintet in G major on the Saturday Matinee Concert, June 8

Italian modernist composer Luigi Dallapiccola’s serialist Il Prigioniero, featuring - as The Prisoner and Patricia Racette (in her Philharmonic debut) as The Mother, highlight the next installment of Gilbert’s Playlist — four weeks of programs conducted by Alan Gilbert showcasing themes and ideas that have become a hallmark of the Music Director’s tenure — Thursday, June 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. The program will open with Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1, featuring Lisa Batiashvili, a frequent soloist with the . Additional cast for Il Prigioniero includes Peter Hoare (debut) as The Jailer and Grand Inquisitor; tenor William Ferguson (debut) as the First Priest; baritone Sidney Outlaw (debut) as the Second Priest; and The Collegiate Chorale, directed by James Bagwell.

A protest opera composed between 1944 and 1948, Il Prigioniero follows the story of a man imprisoned during the Inquisition who, when hopeful of his escape, finds that he’s been duped into believing he is on his way to freedom when he falls into the arms of the Grand Inquisitor himself. The work dramatizes 20th-century totalitarian oppression, a theme with which Dallapiccola was familiar having grown up under the Austrian Empire and later under Mussolini. “In a totalitarian regime the individual is powerless. Only by means of music would I be able to express my anger,” the composer wrote. Dallapiccola would go on to become Italy’s leading proponent of 12-tone music by the 1950s, and Il Prigioniero is written in a musical language that injects lyricism into 12-tone modernism.

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“Il Prigioniero represents a school of music that has been underserved, and it is a powerful work that I know the will play brilliantly,” Alan Gilbert said. “Gerald Finley is an amazing singer, but he is also one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, philosophically motivated artists performing today, which is exactly what this piece demands. Patricia Racette has a versatility that is so impressive — she sings cabaret and is also a major diva in Puccini; she is fiercely intelligent and committed in her performance, and is an amazing presence on the stage.”

The opening work on the program features violinist Lisa Batiashvili performing Prokofiev’s No. 1. Ms. Batiashvili — who has performed with the New York Philharmonic often since her debut in 2005, including on the EUROPE / AUTUMN 2010 tour — will also perform the work at Long Island University’s Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on June 7, 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert, who also leads Tchaikovsky’s No. 6, Pathétique, and Assistant Conductor Joshua Weilerstein, who leads Musorgsky’s Prelude to Khovanshchina.

“To me, Lisa Batiashvili is an ideal musician: she’s such an exquisite instrumentalist, but she also plays in such a natural, unaffected way, and that is not as easy as it sounds,” Alan Gilbert said. “I really love this kind of music-making, which never makes points for the sake of making points, but just tells the musical story in a very direct, unadorned way.”

For the fourth consecutive season, Alan Gilbert will join Philharmonic musicians in on a Saturday Matinee concert, June 8, 2013. The afternoon’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, conducted by the Music Director, will be preceded by Brahms’s String Quintet in G major, with Mr. Gilbert on violin alongside Philharmonic principal musicians. “All music is chamber music: everybody should be an equal participant,” Alan Gilbert said. “Playing chamber music with Philharmonic musicians is exciting and inspiring for me, and it’s a way for me to make a different kind of connection with them. Also, I simply enjoy it.” This performance concludes the season’s survey of Brahms, featuring his complete and concertos and four of his chamber works on all of the Saturday Matinee Concerts.

The programs in Gilbert’s Playlist, taking place during the final weeks of the 2012–13 subscription season, May 30–June 29, 2013, are united by the themes of collaboration, breaking boundaries, theatricality, and wide-ranging music. Gilbert’s Playlist continues June 20–22 with a program that will feature Haydn’s Concerto No. 11 in D major, performed by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence ; the New York Premiere of The Marie- Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 3; and A Ring Journey, Mr. Gilbert’s own synthesis of orchestral music from Wagner’s Ring Cycle, based on Erich Leinsdorf’s condensed version. Gilbert’s Playlist concludes June 27–29 with A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky, a genre-bending fusion of symphony orchestra, ballet, puppetry, filmmaking, and more in a theatrical reimagining of the ballets The Fairy’s Kiss and Petrushka, directed/designed by Doug Fitch, created by Giants Are Small, and starring Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns.

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Related Events  Pre-Concert Talks Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Ed Yim will introduce the program June 6– 11. 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.

 Insights Series Event — “Gazing into the Totalitarian Abyss: Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero” Harvey Sachs, The Scholar-in-Residence, speaker Eileen Moon, Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 6:30 p.m. Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 W. 65th St. Luigi Dallapiccola (1904–75), one of the most significant Italian composers of the 20th century, was 18 years old when Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party came to power, and he lived his next two decades under the regime. Harvey Sachs, the New York Philharmonic’s Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence and author of the ground-breaking study Music in Fascist Italy, will speak about music in Mussolini’s Italy in general and about Dallapiccola and fascism in particular. Associate Principal Cello Eileen Moon performs Dallapiccola’s Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio. Tickets: $20; $15 for Philharmonic Friends (Affiliate level and above) and current Subscribers; and $10 for Patrons. For more information, visit nyphil.org/insights.

 National and International Radio Broadcast The program will be broadcast the week of June 16, 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; leads the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and continues (more) Gilbert’s Playlist / Program II / 4

The Nielsen Project, the multiyear initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012. The season concludes with 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 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 classicalmusic needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did.”

Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman 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 in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming’s recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, ’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.”

During the 2012–13 season violinist Lisa Batiashvili holds the position of Capell-Virtuosin with the Dresden Staatskapelle, performing several times with the orchestra and its principal conductor, Christian Thielemann, including during a North American tour. She is artist-in- residence with the Cologne WDR Symphony Orchestra, and enjoys musical partnerships with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle, Gustavo Dudamel and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Hengelbrock and NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Mariss Jansons and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. This season she also returns to the Berlin Philharmonic for performances led by Iván Fischer, and the New York Philharmonic and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra for performances led by Alan Gilbert.

Ms. Batiashvili records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Her latest album — featuring Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Mr. Thielemann and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances with pianist Alice Sara Ott — was released in January 2013. In 2011 she received an ECHO Klassik award for her debut album on the label, Echoes of Time, which includes Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. A dedicated chamber musician, Ms. Batiashvili has appeared at the Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Heimbach, and Verbier festivals. In the 2012–13 season she also embarked on a recital tour with pianist Paul Lewis.

Her commitment to new music has seen her give several world premieres in recent seasons, including of Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto. (more) Gilbert’s Playlist / Program II / 5

Ms. Batiashvili gained international recognition at age 16 as the youngest-ever competitor in the Sibelius Competition, where she took second prize. In 2003 she received the Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award, and in 2008 she was honored with the MIDEM Classical Award and the Choc de L’année for her recording of Sibelius’s and Lindberg’s violin concertos. She plays the 1715 ex-Joachim Stradivarius, kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation. Lisa Batiashvili made her Philharmonic debut in March 2005 performing Chausson’s Poème and Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel. She most recently appeared with the Philharmonic in April 2012, performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert.

Canadian baritone Gerald Finley began singing in Ottawa, Ontario, before completing his musical studies in the U.K. at the Royal Conservatory of Music; King’s College, Cambridge; and the National Opera Studio. He has created the lead role in major premieres, including John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie, ’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and L’Amour de loin. Recent highlights include his debut as Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the 2011 Glyndebourne Festival; Iago in Verdi’s with Sir Colin Davis and the Symphony Orchestra; and Rossini’s Guillaume Tell with Antonio Pappano.

Highlights of Mr. Finley’s 2012–13 season include John Adams’s Nixon in China with the BBC Symphony at the BBC Proms; Brahms’s A German with the Concertgebouw, which he later performs with the Toronto and London Symphony Orchestras; Mozart’s at The Metropolitan Opera; Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Schoenberg’s A Survivor from with Andris Nelsons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Handel’s Alexander’s Feast with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at Vienna’s Musikverein; Lutosławski’s Les espaces du sommeil with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa- Pekka Salonen; Mozart’s at the Bavarian Staatsoper; and Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the .

In concert, Mr. Finley works regularly with leading conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Sir Simon Rattle, and Esa Pekka Salonen and with orchestras throughout Europe and the U.S. His appearances include premieres of works by composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Peter Lieberson, and Einojuhani Rautavaara. His extensive recordings with pianist on Hyperion have received numerous awards. Their latest CD, an album of Schumann’s Liederkreis cycles, Op. 24 and 39, was released in October 2012. In 2011 a CD they recorded of music by won a Gramophone Award. Mr. Finley first performed with the New York Philharmonic in December 2003, in a performance of Handel’s Messiah conducted by Nicholas McGegan. His most recent appearance was in November 2010, in a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah led by Alan Gilbert, two years after he starred in The Met’s production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, conducted by Alan Gilbert. Gerald Finley appears by arrangement with IMG Artists.

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Soprano Patricia Racette has appeared in all the great opera houses of the world, including The Metropolitan Opera, , , , Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Opéra, and the Bavarian Staatsoper. She has appeared in the title roles of Janáček’s Jenůfa and Káťa Kabanová, Puccini’s and , and Verdi’s , as well as all three lead soprano roles in Puccini’s Il Trittico, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s , Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Marguerite in Gounod’s , and Ellen Orford in Britten’s . Her performances in Madama Butterfly and Peter Grimes at The Met were seen in movie theaters across the world; the former was one of the most successful broadcasts in the history of The Met: Live in HD series and was subsequently released on DVD. A supporter of new works, Ms. Racette recently created the role of Leslie Crosbie in ’s at . Other world premieres have included Roberta Alden in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at The Met, the title role in Tobias Picker’s at Santa Fe Opera, and Love Simpson in ’s at . With the January 2013 release of Diva on Detour, her first cabaret album, Ms. Racette officially added the cabaret genre to her performance platform. Her show has been heard live in New York at 54 Below, the Michael Schimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Century Club, and Neue Galerie, as well as at Washington D.C.’s Birchmere Theater, San Francisco’s Venetian Room, Dallas’s Winspear Theater, and several venues in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Born and raised in New Hampshire, Patricia Racette studied jazz and music education at North Texas State University. In 1998 she was the winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award. These performances mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

Tenor Peter Hoare was born in Bradford, U.K., and studied percussion at the Huddersfield School of Music. In 1992, following several years as a freelance percussionist, he began his singing career. His operatic roles have included Bacchus in ’s , Captain in Berg’s , Herod in Strauss’s Salome, and Laca in Janáček’s Jenůfa (at ); Basilio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Monostatos in Mozart’s , and Larry King in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s (at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Shapkin in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead (at The Metropolitan Opera, Milan’s Teatro Alla Scala, Vienna’s Festwochen, Holland Festival, and Aix en Provence Festival); Sharikov in Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart (at ); Tikhon in Janáček’s Kat’á Kabanová (at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Welsh National Opera); Sellem in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Welsh National Opera); and Desportes in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten (at Ruhr Triennale, Tokyo’s New National Theatre, and ).

Mr. Hoare’s 2012–13 season includes appearances in Martinů’s Julietta at English National Opera, Berg’s Lulu at Welsh National Opera, A Dog’s Heart at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, and The Magic Flute at Covent Garden. Future plans include a revival of Anna Nicole at Covent Garden, Die Soldaten at Zurich Opera, Wozzeck at The Met, and Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Covent Garden.

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In concert Mr. Hoare has performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra); Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette (with the Berlin Philharmonic); Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings (with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra); and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (at the Edinburgh Festival). Peter Hoare’s recordings include Delius’s Song of the High Hills, Britten’s Gloriana (Decca), and Leonard Meryll’s Yeomen of the Guard (Telarc). These are Mr. Hoare’s first performances with the New York Philharmonic.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, tenor William Ferguson appeared with the Santa Fe Opera as Caliban in the North American premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, and in 2005 sang Truffaldino in a new production of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges with in Sydney — a CD of which was released on the Chandos label. In New York Mr. Ferguson has performed Beppe in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at The Metropolitan Opera and the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, Nanki-Poo in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, the Funeral Director in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, Hérisson de Porc-Épic in Chabrier’s L’Étoile, and, most recently, The Electrician in Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face at . Additional credits include Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera Memphis, Opera Omaha, Virginia Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. He holds bachelor and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School.

A passionate concert and recital performer, Mr. Ferguson has appeared with the American, Boston, BBC, City of Birmingham, Houston, Mostly Mozart Festival, New Jersey, and National symphony orchestras; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Musica Sacra New York; Opera Orchestra of New York; Oratorio Society of New York; Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Netherlands); as well as the local symphony orchestras of Bellingham, New Haven, Omaha, Richmond, Santa Barbara, Wheeling, and Winston-Salem. He has performed at 92nd Street Y, Bard Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Young Concert Artists, The Marilyn Horne Foundation, New York Festival of Song, and Five Borough Music Festival, and appears as Brian on the recording and DVD of Not the Messiah, an oratorio based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2003 William Ferguson was awarded the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award, granting him a New York recital debut in . This is his debut with the New York Philharmonic.

Baritone Sidney Outlaw was the Grand Prize winner of the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballe in 2010. He recently graduated from the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program and is a former member of the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He recently made his first opera recording, as Apollo in Milhaud’s Oresteia of Aeschylus (Naxos). Mr. Outlaw was a featured recitalist at in April 2013. Highlights of his 2012–13 season include traveling to Guinea as a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy to perform American music in honor of Black History Month and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and singing the role of Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème with the Ash Lawn Festival. Next season Mr. Outlaw makes his debuts with North Carolina (more) Gilbert’s Playlist / Program II / 8

Opera, as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, and Atlanta Opera, singing Figaro in Rossini’s . In the 2011–12 season Sidney Outlaw made his English National Opera debut, as Rambo in John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, and appeared as Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at Opera on the James. Other roles include Malcolm in Anthony Davis’s The Life and Times of Malcolm X at New York City Opera, Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Florida Grand Opera, Ariodante in Handel’s Xerxes, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the International Vocal Arts Institute, Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and an international debut as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte in Germany and Israel.

Mr. Outlaw’s concert and recital appearances include Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Avery Fisher Hall, and the role of John Stevens in the World Premiere concert of H. Leslie Adam’s opera Blake at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. A Brevard, North Carolina, native, Sidney Outlaw holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from The Juilliard School and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is his debut with the New York Philharmonic.

Among New York’s foremost vocal ensembles, The Collegiate Chorale has added to the richness of the city’s cultural fabric for more than 70 years. Conducted by James Bagwell, The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard -in-concert, as well as commissions and premieres of new works. The many guest artists with whom The Chorale has performed in recent years include Stephanie Blythe, Victoria Clark, , Thomas Hampson, Angela Meade, Kelli O’Hara, Eric Owens, Rene Papé, Bryn Terfel, and . Opera highlights include the New York Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and ’s The Grapes of Wrath (2010) with an all-star cast including Jane Fonda, Nathan Gunn, and Victoria Clark, and the U.S. Premieres of Dvořák’s Dmitri (1984) and Handel’s Jupiter in Argos (2008). His appearances in musical theater works have included Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday (2011) with Kelli O’Hara and Victor Garber, conducted by James Bagwell (commercially available on Sh-K-Boom Records), and Weill and Ira Gershwin’s The Firebrand of Florence (2009). The Collegiate Chorale’s most recent appearance with the New York Philharmonic was a pair of sold-out performances of Philip Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi in November 2011.

Repertoire began composing his Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1915, but interrupted his work to compose the opera The Gambler. He returned to the concerto in 1917, on the eve of the Russian Revolution, but it was not premiered until 1922 in Paris, conducted by . Unlike a traditional concerto, in which the movements are typically arranged fast-slow-fast, Prokofiev’s concerto inverts that arrangement: the outer movements are of moderate tempo — for example, the composer described the opening as “pensive” — while the central Scherzo is a non-stop motoric display of left-hand pizzicato passages and dizzying glissandos. The Moderato adds an ethereal culmination to this 20th-century classic. The New (more) Gilbert’s Playlist / Program II / 9

York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s New York Philharmonic) first performed the concerto on November 29, 1925, led by , with Paul Kochanski as soloist. The most recent Philharmonic performances took place in July 2006 during the Orchestra’s residency at Bravo! Vail, with Leila Josefewicz as soloist and Marin Alsop conducting.

Luigi Dallapiccola’s 1950 one-act opera Il Prigioniero (The Prisoner) vividly dramatizes the great 20th-century theme of the individual’s fight against totalitarian oppression in a musical language that injects lyricism into 12-tone modernism. Dallapiccola knew such oppression himself, as a child under the Austrian Empire and later under Mussolini. “In a totalitarian regime the individual is powerless. Only by means of music would I be able to express my anger,” Dallapiccola wrote. Il Prigioniero brought him international fame. The opera takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, in the late 1500s. The title character, never named, is a prisoner of the Inquisition who is given false hope that he can escape, only to be recaptured and executed. These are the New York Philharmonic’s first performances of the work.

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). The Philharmonic performed the symphony most recently in February 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

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

* * * These concerts are sponsored by Yoko Nagae Ceschina. This performance is made possible through the Helen Huntington Hull Fund. Major support is provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation.

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

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Tickets Tickets for these concerts start at $28. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $18. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). Tickets for Insights Series events are $20; $15 for Philharmonic Friends (Affiliate level and above) and current Subscribers; and $10 for Patrons. All 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 Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. 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 Marketing and Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].

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GILBERT’S PLAYLIST

New York Philharmonic

Avery Fisher Hall

Thursday, June 6, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, 2013, 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Pre-Concert Talk (one hour before each concert) with Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Ed Yim

Alan Gilbert, conductor Lisa Batiashvili, violin

Gerald Finley, bass-baritone (The Prisoner) Patricia Racette, soprano* (The Mother) Peter Hoare, tenor* (The Jailer and Grand Inquisitor) William Ferguson, tenor* (First Priest) Sidney Outlaw, baritone* (Second Priest) The Collegiate Chorale, chorus James Bagwell, director

PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1 DALLAPICCOLA Il Prigioniero ______

Tilles Center for the Performing Arts C.W. Post Campus Long Island University Brookville, New York

Friday, June 7, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor Joshua Weilerstein, conductor (Musorgsky) Lisa Batiashvili, violin

MUSORGSKY Prelude to Khovanshchina PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1 TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique *denotes New York Philharmonic debut (more) Gilbert’s Playlist / Program II / 12

Saturday Matinee Concert

Avery Fisher Hall

Saturday, June 8, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

Pre-Concert Talk (one hour before each concert) with Victoria Bond, composer and conductor

Alan Gilbert, conductor and violin Sheryl Staples, violin Cynthia Phelps, Rebecca Young, viola Carter Brey, cello

BRAHMS String Quintet in G major TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

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More information is available at nyphil.org/gilbertsplaylist.

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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].