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Sunday Afternoon, August 16, 2015, at 5:00

International Contemporary Ensemble George Benjamin, Conductor M|M Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano Hila Plitmann, Soprano M|M Susan Bickley, Mezzo-soprano M|M

The The Program MESSIAEN Oiseaux exotiques (1955–56)

LIGETI Piano Concerto (1985–88) Vivace molto ritmico e preciso— Lento e deserto Vivace cantabile Allegro risoluto, molto ritmico— Presto luminoso: fluido, costante, sempre molto ritmico

Intermission

Into the Little Hill (2006) Music by George Benjamin Text by Martin Crimp A lyric tale in two parts for soprano, contralto, and ensemble of 15 players

M|M Mostly Mozart debut

Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.

This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

Steinway Piano Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater Adrienne Arsht Stage 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 2

Mostly Mozart Festival

The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Chris and Bruce Crawford, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation, and Friends of Mostly Mozart. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist Catering provide d by Zabar’s and zabars.com MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center “Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi Time Out New York is a Media Partner of Summer at Lincoln Center

Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, U.S. and Canadian agent for Faber Music Ltd., Lon don, publisher and copyright owner.

UPCOMING MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL EVENTS:

Monday Night, August 17, at 10:00 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse A Little Night Music Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano D’ANGLEBERT: Prélude non mesuré MOZART: Modulating Prelude BACH: Prelude No. 16 in G minor CHOPIN: Prelude in E minor DEBUSSY: Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon SCRIABIN: Prelude SCHUMANN: Etude No. 4 BRAHM S: Variation 6, from Variations and Fugue on a Theme by G.F. Handel BACH: Canon (Augmentationem in Contrario Motu) WEBERN: Sehr Schnell PIERRE BOULEZ: Notation 6 (Rapide) LIGETI: À bout de souffle GEORGE BENJAMIN: Shadowlines

Friday and Saturday Evenings, August 21–22, at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra Louis Langrée, Conductor Sarah Tynan, Soprano M|M; Andrew Staples, Tenor M|M; Brindley Sherratt, Bass M|M Concert Chorale of New York; James Bagwell, director HAYDN: The Creation Pre-concert lecture by Elaine Sisman on Friday, August 21 at 6:15 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

M|M Mostly Mozart debut

For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit MostlyMozart.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or request a Mostly Mozart brochure. Visit MostlyMozart.org for full festival listings. Join the conversation: #LCMozart

We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of pho- tographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 3

Mostly Mozart Festival

Welcome to Mostly Mozart

I am pleased to welcome you to the 49th Mostly Mozart Festival, our annual celebration of the innovative and inspiring spirit of our namesake composer. This summer, in addition to a stellar roster of guest conductors and soloists, we are joined by composer-in-residence George Benjamin, a leading contem- porary voice whose celebrated opera Written on Skin receives its U.S. stage premiere. This landmark event is the first in a series of staged opera works to be presented in a new partnership with the New York Philharmonic.

Written on Skin continues our tradition of hearing Mozart afresh in the context of the great music of our time. Under the inspired baton of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra delights this year with the Classical repertoire that is its specialty, in addition to Beethoven’s joyous Seventh Symphony and Haydn’s triumphant Creation.

Guest appearances include maestro Cornelius Meister making his New York debut; Edward Gardner, who also leads the Academy of Ancient Music in a Mendelssohn program on period instruments; and Andrew Manze with violin- ist Joshua Bell in an evening of Bach, Mozart, and Schumann. Other preemi- nent soloists include Emanuel Ax, Matthias Goerne, and festival newcomers Sol Gabetta and Alina Ibragimova, who also perform intimate recitals in our expanded Little Night Music series. And don’t miss returning favorite Emerson String Quartet and artists-in-residence the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as invigorating pre-concert recitals and lectures, a panel dis- cussion, and a film on Haydn.

With so much to choose from, we invite you to make the most of this rich and splendid season. I look forward to seeing you often.

Jane Moss Ehrenkranz Artistic Director 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 4

Mostly Mozart Festival

By Paul Schiavo

This performance celebrates George Benjamin, this summer’s composer- in-residence, and two of his musical influences, both of them among the most original composers active during the second half of the 20th century. Olivier Messiaen, a teacher of Benjamin’s, forged a highly individual musi- cal language out of unusual scales of his own invention, rhythms derived from an ancient Hindu treatise, bird calls, and a strongly felt affinity between sound and color. While many of his works incorporate birdsong, none makes so much of them as Oiseaux exotiques. Snapshot

Like Messiaen, the Hungarian composer György Ligeti created a highly idiosyncratic musical style. His work of the 1960s, which brought him con- siderable attention, concerned itself largely with aural texture and color. But in the 1970s, Ligeti began to explore what he referred to as “the for- bidden fruit of modern music.” This was melody, which Ligeti began to use in new ways. His unique approach to melodic line, as well as to rhythm, texture, and musical discourse generally, informs his Piano Concerto, arguably the most important work of its kind written during the last half-century.

Benjamin has conducted Ligeti’s music on numerous occasions, but what- ever he has learned from him and Messiaen has been subsumed into his own style. Benjamin’s inventiveness animates his chamber opera Into the Little Hill, a modern retelling of the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

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Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program

By Paul Schiavo

Oiseaux exotiques (1955–56) OLIVIER MESSIAEN Born December 10, 1908, in Avignon, France Died April 28, 1992, in Paris

Approximate length: 16 minutes

Messiaen drew inspiration from a number of unusual sources—among the most important was birdsong. Most of his compositions contain avian vocal- izations transcribed for instruments with a fascinating combination of care and imagination. Usually these brilliantly scored sounds are one of a number of musical elements, but on several occasions, Messiaen took the auda- cious step of constructing substantial compositions entirely from birdsong. Of these, the most fully developed is Oiseaux exotiques, composed in the winter of 1955–56. As its title indicates, the birds whose songs are repre- sented dwell far from Messiaen’s native France; most are indigenous to North America, and others hail from the Canary Islands, South America, India, China, and Malaysia.

Messiaen scored Oiseaux exotiques for wind instruments, percussion, and piano, the latter in a featured role. The rhapsodic bird melodies that are the Notes on Notes the Program substance of the piece appear in alternating orchestral passages and piano solos. The former sometimes sounds like a polyphony of different birds singing at once. In a long ensemble passage at the center of the piece, Messiaen adds a percussion background composed of ancient Greek and Hindu rhythms. Against these rhythms there sounds a whole chorus of birds in highly complex counterpoint. One might conclude that Messiaen’s com- positional virtuosity led him to revel in compl ications of his own imagining. But in the end, the composer shows himself loyal to nature, even when its sounds are simple. His final bird, the Indian white-crested laughing thrush, concludes the piece with the cry of a single sonority repeated in an unvary- ing rhythm, its regularity startling in the context of all the rhythmic intricacy that has gone before.

Piano Concerto (1985–88) GYÖRGY LIGETI Born M ay 28, 1923, in Târna˘veni, Romania Died June 12, 2006, in Vienna

Approximate length: 24 minutes

Ligeti began composing his Piano Concerto in 1985 and completed it three years later. Cast in five movements, this work reveals a confluence of unusual influences, including African rhythmic polyphony and the player-piano studies 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 6

Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program

of Conlon Nancarrow, with their exploration of complex poly-tempos. Yet the music unmistakably bears its author’s artistic signature, evident in the highly imaginative use of the orchestra and in musical invention that conveys at times an antic and at other times a melancholy character.

A sharply chiseled rhythmic figure runs insistently through most of the first movement. Against this, the orchestra throws all manner of accompaniment, counterpoint, and commentary. Just when the colloquy of piano and orchestra has grown all but impossibly tangled, Ligeti pulls a Houdini-like escape, with a rapid scale that practically runs off the high end of the keyboard. The music then resumes at the other end of the pitch spectrum, with a single deep tone sus- tained by a string bass. Against that bass drone, the piccolo, slide-whistle, and bassoon in its highest register start the second movement with plaintive ges- tures. By contrast, the third movement opens with trills, circling figures, and floating melodic lines, all combining to create an impressionistic sensuousness. As in the first movement, however, the music branches out to take in many other ideas, which grow increasingly complex in their interaction and effect.

In the fourth movement, Ligeti exploits the contrast between the piano’s fixed and tempered intonation and the variable tuning possibilities of strings, wood- winds, and brass. The movement unfolds as a dialogue, composed mostly of short phrases, between soloist and ensemble. Ligeti’s varied and ever- surprising sequence of statements and rejoinders would provide interest enough, but the composer makes matters even more intriguing by having the orchestra play in non-standard tunings. Once again, the music proceeds from relatively simple to highly complicated textures, the orchestra eventually tak- ing over the proceedings entirely. The fifth movement, which follows without pause, constitutes something of a virtuoso coda—not only to the preceding movement but to the entire composition.

Into the Little Hill (2006) GEORGE BENJAMIN Born January 31, 1960, in London

MARTIN CRIMP Born February 14, 1956, in Dartford, Kent

Approximate length: 40 minutes

Early in his adolescence, George Benjamin began writing an opera based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. This piece of juvenilia might have faded from memory without significance. But the tale of the mysterious musician who saves Hamelin from an infestation of rats, is ill-treated by the town’s burghers, and exacts revenge by luring their children away with his music, evidently continued to resonate in Mr. Benjamin’s imagination. Decades later, having established himself as a composer of international 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 7

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importance, Mr. Benjamin, in collaboration with the playwright Martin Crimp, returned to the story. The result is the chamber opera Into the Little Hill, com- pleted in 2006.

It is not difficult to understand why the Pied Piper story stayed with Mr. Benjamin for many years. Even in its familiar form (known through German folk legend and in renditions by Goethe, the Grimm Brothers, Robert Browning, and o thers), it touches on such compelling matters as the mysteri- ous power of music, the peril of dalliance with supernatural powers, and the destruction of innocents by unscrupulous adults. In the context of modern experience, other themes can be detected in, or brought to, the tale, and both composer and author have addressed some of them in Into the Little Hill. Among them are the danger of demagogy and mob psychology, and the cost of sacrificing principle for political power.

There also are tantalizing, and very modern, ambiguities in Mr. Crimp’s text. When and where the story takes place remains unspecified. It is unclear whether the creatures plaguing the town are actually rats or people. We also are left to wonder whether or not the children acquiesce to their removal from the world they have kn own, and whether the new realm they inhabit at the end of the opera may not be a better place than the one in which they grew up—may not be, in fact, a heaven presided over by an angel, where music “burns brighter” as one burrows deeper into the earth.

Both the dramaturgy and the music of Into the Little Hill are unconventional in several respects. The collaborators have pared the cast to just two singers who alternately narrate and play characters in the tale, moving frequently and fluidly between their various roles. This already precludes any possibility of theatrical realism (a deliberate choice on the part of the authors). Accordingly, the opera requires only the most minimal staging. Indeed, there is scant dif- ference between a theatrical production, such as that mounted by Paris National Opera for the work’s premiere, in 2006, and a concert performance like the one this afternoon.

Besides the two singers, Mr. Benjamin has scored Into the Little Hill for an ensemble that includes banjo, cimbalom, mandolin, bass flute, basset horns (an antique tenor clarinet), and contrabass clarinet. These instruments produce unusual sonorities while affording a clarity of texture that Mr. Benjamin says was o ne of his chief goals for the music.

Paul Schiavo serves as program annotator for the St. Louis and Seattle Symphonies, and writes frequently for concerts at Lincoln Center.

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Mostly Mozart Festival I Text

Into the Little Hill Text by Martin Crimp

(1) Soprano: The Crowd, Narrator, The Stranger, The Minister’s Child (2) Contralto: The Crowd, Narrator, The Minister, The Minister’s Wife

PART ONE I. The Crowd 1 + 2 Kill them they bite kill them they steal kill them they take bread take rice take—bite—steal—foul and infect— damage our property burrow under our property rattle and rattle the black sacks. Kill and you h ave our vote.

II. The Minister and the Crowd 1 The Minister greets the crowd selects a baby to kiss in the green April light for the black eye of the camera smiles, grips the baby, thinks: We have no enemies. We live peacefully in the shadow of the Little Hill. We accept all faiths because we believe—intelligently believe in nothing. And what’s wrong—thinks the Minister— with a rat? A rat knows its place —avoids light—clings as a rat should to the walls and only steals from the stacked-up plastic sacks what we have no appetite to eat. The Minister passes back the baby says to the electorate: please—think— the rat is our friend. My own child is in her element feeding her black rat and cutting its claws. Even this baby—who knows?—may owe its life to a rat in an experiment. But the people spit back over the metal fence:

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take—bite—steal—foul and infect— damage our property burrow under our property rattle and rattle the black sacks. We want the rats dead.

1 But no animal—not one animal—must suffer neither must our children brave and intelligent with bright clear eyes ever see blood.

IV. The Minister and the Stranger 1 Night comes but not sleep. What are those sparks? Rats feeding on electricity. What is that sound? Rats digesting concrete. And that? Pause. And that? In his daughter’s bedroom he finds a man— a man with no eyes, no nose, no ears— finds him stooped over his sleeping child while the black rat rattles its wheel. Who are you? says the Minister How did you get into my house?

2 I charmed my way in says the man with no eyes, no nose, no ears and with music I will charm my way out again—

With music I can open a heart as easily as you can open a door and reach right in

march slaves to the factory or patiently unravel the clouds

With music I can make death stop or rats stream and drop from the rim of the world: the choice is yours.

1 But the world—says the Minister—is round.

2 The world—says the man—is the shape my music makes it: the choice is yours.

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Mostly Mozart Festival I Text

1 What do you want, says the Minister.

2 What have you got, says the man, money?

1 Money?

2 Have you got money?

1 Have I got—what?—money?

2 Yes—money, says the man, have you got money?

1 What d’you want money for?

2 To live, says the man.

1 Ah.

2 Yes.

1 Ah.

2 Yes.

1 To live.

2 Yes—money to live.

1 And how much money does a man need to live?

Pause.

As much as that?

2 Yes.

1 As much money as that?

2 That’s what it takes to unravel the clouds, says the man.

1 Not clouds—rats—destroy the rats—see me re-elected, smiles the Minister, and I’ll double it—

2 The choice is yours.

1 I’ll double it—you have my word.

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1 I swear to you by god.

2 Your god can’t be trusted. Swear by your sleeping child.

1 What has this to do with my child?

2 Swear to me by your sleeping child because your sleeping child— unlike your god unlike your word unlike your smile —is innocent.

Pause.

1 Hmm—smiles the Minister—in a tiny voice—in a voice too soft to wake the Minister’s wife—I swear.

2 In that case—says the man—I will begin.

INTERLUDE V. Mothe r and Child 2 Why must the rats die, Mummy? Why do they have to die?

1 Because—says the Minister’s wife.

2 Because what, Mummy?

1 Because they steal the things we’ve locked away.

2 What have we locked away, Mummy?

1 All the bread—all the fruit—all the oil and electricity.

2 Why have we locked them away, Mummy?

1 Because of how hard we’ve worked for them.

2 Haven’t the rats worked?

1 A rat only steals—a rat’s not human.

2 But those ones are wearing clothes.

1 How can a rat wear clothes?

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2 That one’s holding a suitcase.

1 No.

2 That one’s holding a baby.

1 No—only rats in storybooks wear hats and coats and carry babies.

2 She’s dropped it.

1 No.

2 She’s dropped the baby.

1 No.

2 And the others—look—are running over it—running over the baby’s face.

1 Come away from the window.

2 She’s screaming, Mummy, she’s screaming—the other rats won’t stop!

Pause.

Will there be blood?

1 Says the Minister’s wife: Of cou rse not.

2 Then how will they die?

1 With dignity, sweetheart. The rats will stream like hot metal to the rim of the world

2 How can they stream like metal?

1 grip and cling then over the gold-ringed rim

2 How long will they grip and cling?

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PART TWO VI. Inside the Minister’s Head (1) 2 Under a clear sky the Minister steps from the limousine —re-elected— reaches over the metal fence to shake hands with the crowd. What’s that sound? The grateful shriek of the people. And that?

Pause.

And that?

1 There is no other sound.

2 There is another sound.

1 There is no other sound.

2 There is another sound: the sound of his heart. The sound of the Minister’s heart humming in the Minister’s head under the clear May sky. Listen.

VII. The Minister and the Stranger 1 His head lies on his desk between the family photograph and the file marked “extermination” eyes level with the last rat left alive caged on his desk rattling its wheel. How much he loves it! How much he loves the last rat left alive! How much it resembles him! Same eyes!

2 Same bright clear eyes—says the man with none— same brave intelligence—same appetite.

1 How—says the Minister—did you find me here?

2 I followed the sound, says the man with no ears.

1 What sound?

2 The sound of the crowd. The sound of the crowd humming inside your head like a refrigerator in summer. And with no nose I could smell blood.

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1 What do you want, says the Minister.

2 What do I want, says the man—money.

1 Money?

2 I’d like my money.

1 You’d like your—what?—money?

2 Yes—money, says the man—as I was promised.

1 Promised money by who?

2 By you, says the man.

1 Ah.

2 Yes.

1 Ah.

2 Yes.

1 By me.

2 Yes—for the extermination.

1 There was no extermination, says the Minister—placing his hand gently over the word—there was no extermination: they left—they chose to leave—of their own free will.

2 You swore by your sleeping child.

1 They left of their own free will—what money?—the money has been spent on barbed wire and on education—on planting our Little Hill with trees—

2 And music?

1 —on cleaning the sea—

2 And music?

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2 And music?

1 All music—smiles the Minister—is incidental.

2 You swore by your sleeping child because your sleeping child—

1 I don’t like demands

2 unlike your god

1 I don’t like threats

2 unlike your word

1 I don’t like your tone of voice:

2 unlike your tone of voice

1 You will now leave!

2 —is innocent.

Pause.

1 So the man left.

2 Whereupon he began another tune.

INTERLUDE VIII. Mother(s) and Child(ren) 1 Each cradle rocks empty— each cage-like cot— each narrow bed empty but still warm. Each hot dent in a child’s pillow still smells of a child’s hair— each sheet’s still—feel it— wet with spit.

The Minister’s wife says—says to the Minister— Minister’s wife—says—ah—ah—says to the Minister— Minister’s wife—ah—ah—says to the says to the says to the Minister—ah—says—ah—says— Where is my child?—my child—says to the Minister WHERE IS MY CHILD?

MY CHILD.

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2 Here—look—in the light—look—ha!—can’t you see?

1 Where? What light?

2 Inside the Little Hill—under the earth—we’re burrowing under the earth—ha!—can’t you see?

1 There is no light under the earth: don’t—says the Minister’s wife—tell lies. Come home to us.

2 Oh yes there is light under the earth streams of hot metal ribbons of magnesium particles particles of light

1 Don’t lie to us: come home.

2 And the deeper we burrow the brighter it burns—ha!— can’t you see? 1 Don’t lie to us. A child can’t burrow under the earth.

2 streams of hot metal ribbons of magnesium particles particles of light.

1 Don’t lie to us: come home.

2 This is our home. Our home is under the earth. With the angel under the earth. And the deeper we burrow the brighter his music burns. Can’t you see? Can’t you see? Can’t you see? 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 17

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists MAURICE FOXALL

George Benjamin

Meet the Artists the Meet George Benjamin studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and piano with Yvonne Loriod. His first orchestral work, Ringed by the Flat Horizon, was performed at the BBC Proms when he was only 20. Antara was com- missioned by IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) for the tenth anniversary of the Centre Pompidou in 1987. Mr. Benjamin conducted the first performanc es of Sudden Time at the Meltdown festival at Southbank Centre in 1993 and Three Inventions for chamber orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in 1995. The London Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez gave the world premiere of Palimpsests in 2002 to mark the opening of the LSO’s season-long retro- spective of his work, “By George,” a project that also included the pre- miere by Pierre-Laurent Aimard of Shadowlines.

Mr. Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill premiered in Paris in 2006 as part of a retrospective of his work at the Festival d’Automne. Written on Skin, his second collaboration with Martin Crimp, was commissioned and pre- miered by the Aix-en-Provence Festival and has subsequently been sched- uled in over 20 cities worldwide. The opera has been recorded and broad- cast, and is the recipient of prizes in the UK and abroad. Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Crimp are now working on their third operatic creation, a full-scale opera for the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, to be premiered in 2018. His latest work, Dream of the Song, for countertenor, female voices, and orchestra, will be premiered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2015.

Mr. Benjamin is a CBE, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He lives in London, and since 2001 he has been the Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College, London. Mr. Benjamin is this summer’s Mostly Mozart Festival composer-in-residence. 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 18

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Pierre-Laurent Aimard

A significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every era, Pierre- Laurent Aimard performs around the world with major orchestras under such conductors as Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Jurowski, Peter Eötvös, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He also has been invited to create, direct, and perform in a number of residencies, with projects at Carnegie Hall,

MARCO BORGGREVE + DG Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Tanglewood Music Festival, and London’s Southbank Centre. Mr. Aimard is also the artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Current and future highlights include solo recitals in London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, Beijing, and Amsterdam, and concerto perfor- mances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He also regularly directs concerts from the keyboard with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. This past spring he undertook a recital tour with Tamara Stefanovich, perform- ing all of Pierre Boulez’s completed works for piano in celebration of the com- poser’s 90th birthday.

Mr. Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers, includ- ing György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Elliott Carter, and George Benjamin. He has had a long association with György Ligeti, recording his complete works for piano. Most recently Mr. Aimard performed the world pre- miere of Tristan Murail’s piano concerto, as well as Carter’s last piece, Epigrams, for piano, cello, and violin, which was written for Mr. Aimard. In 2014 he gave the wo rld premiere of a piano concerto by Harrison Birtwistle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich.

Born in Lyon in 1957, Mr. Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatory with Yvonne Loriod and in London with Maria Curcio. He was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award in 2005. In 2015, in collab- oration with Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Vincent Meyer, Mr. Aimard will launch a major online resource centered on the performance and teaching of Ligeti’s piano music, with filmed master classes and performances. Mr. Aimard records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 19

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Hila Plitmann

Grammy Award–winning soprano Hila Plitmann is known worldwide for her musicianship, light and beau- tiful voice, and ability to perform challenging new works. She has worked with many leading conduc- tors, including Leonard Slatkin, Esa- Pekka Salonen, Thomas Adès, Carl St. Clair, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Kurt Masur. Ms. Plitmann has per- formed with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics and the London Sy mphony Orchestra.

Her catalogue of recordings includes performances in Hans Zimmer’s Grammy-nominated soundtrack for The Da Vinci Code and Oscar winner John Corigliano’s song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, for which she won a Grammy. Some of her recent recordings include Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace and John Corigliano’s Vocalis e, both released to critical acclaim on Naxos.

In constant demand as a singer of new and contemporary music, Ms. Plitmann has appeared as a soloist in numerous world premieres, such as Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici’s Dum Dee Tweedle with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Slatkin, Frank Zappa’s orchestral staged version of 200 Motels with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen, Danielpour’s Darkness in the Ancient Valley with the Nashville Symphony, and Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby, a song cycle written for her by Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis. Future engagements include the world premieres of Mark Adamo’s opera Becoming Santa Claus with the Dallas Opera and Paola Prestini’s opera The Ouroboros Trilogy: Gilgamesh in Boston. 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 20

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Susan Bickley

Mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley’s wide repertory encompasses roles from the Baroque era and the 19th through 21st centuries. In 2011 she received the prestigious Singer Award at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, the highest recognition for live classical music in the UK.

Ms. Bickley is a regular at major

JULIE KIM opera houses, including Paris National Opera, Glyndebou rne, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Vlaamse Opera, Opéra national du Rhin, Frankfurt Opera, English National Opera, and Welsh National Opera. She has created roles in new works, includ- ing Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole for Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Nico Muhly’s Two Boys for English National Opera, Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant for English National Opera, and Louis Andriessen’s Writing to Vermeer for the Netherlands Opera. Ms. Bickley also has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, festivals, and venues, appearing at the Edinburgh International and Salzburg Festivals, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall.

Recent highlights include the role of Auntie in Peter Grimes with Antonio Pappano and the National Academy of St. Cecil ia in Rome, Virgie in Anna Nicole with New York City Opera, Jocasta in the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s Thebans for English National Opera, Waltraute in Götter - dämmerung for Opera North, Ortrud in Lohengrin with Welsh National Opera, Florence Pike in Albert Herring for Opéra de Toulouse, and an appearance in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.

This season, Ms. Bickley sings Virgie in the revival of Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Silvia in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with the Royal Opera at the Roundhouse, and Mother in the world premiere of Tansy Davies’s Between Worlds at English National Opera. Next season she will return to Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, and the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden.

International Contemporary Ensemble

The International Contemporary Ensemble is dedicated to reshaping the way music is created and experienced. With a modular makeup of 35 leading instrumentalists, ICE functions as performer, presenter, and educator, advancing 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 21

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

the music of our time by developing innovative new works and new strategies for audience engagement. ICE redefines concert music as it brings together new work and new listeners in the 21st century.

Since its founding in 2001, ICE has premiered over 500 compositions in venues from alternative spaces to concert halls around the world. In 2011, with lead support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the ensemble cre- ated the ICElab program to place teams of ICE musicians in close collaboration with composers to develop works that push the boundaries of musical explo- ration. The ensemble has received the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award for its contributions to the field, the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, and Musical America Worldwide’s Ensemble of the Year Award in 2013.

ICE has released acclaimed albums on the Nonesuch, Kairos, Bridge, Naxos, Tzadik, New Focus, New Amsterdam, and Mode labels. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances at Aspekte Festival (Austria), Acht Brücken: Music for Cologne (Germany), Festival de Música de Morelia (Mexico), Teatro Amazonas (Brazil), and appearances with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Seattle Symphony. ICE has worked closely with conductors Ludovic Morlot, Matthias Pintscher, John Adams, and Susanna Mälkki. Conductor and percussion soloist Steven Schick has served as ICE’s artist-in-residence since 2012.

ICE’s commitment to building a diverse, engaged audience for the music of our time inspired the Listening Room, an educational initiative for public schools without in-house arts curricula.

Mostly Mozart Festival

Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—America’s first indoor summer music festival—was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival, its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. Now a New York institution, Mostly Mozart continues to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart’s predecessors, contemporaries, and related successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world’s outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, late-night perfor- mances, and visual art installations. Contemporary music has become an essen- tial part of the festival, embodied in annual artists-in-residence, including Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the festival are Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 22

Mostly Mozart Festival

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educa- tional activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals, including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln C enter complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed in October 2012.

Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Produ cer, Contemporary Programming Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Julia Lin, Associate Producer Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor Claire Raphaelson, House Seat Coordinator Stepan Atamian, Theatrical Prod uctions Intern; Annie Guo, Production Intern; Grace Hertz, House Program Intern

Program Annotators: Don Anderson, Peter A. Hoyt, Kathryn L. Libin, Paul Schiavo, David Wright 08-16 ICE_GP2 copy 8/5/15 12:41 PM Page 23

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists ARMEN ELLIOTT

International Contemporary Ensemble

Violin Bass Bassoon Percussion David Bowlin Randall Zigler Rebekah Heller Ross Karre Ethan Wood Nathan Davis Flute Horn Eric Derr Viola Claire Chase David Byrd-Marrow Ian Antonio Kyle Armbrust Alice Teyssier Alana Vegter Rus sell Greenberg Wendy Richman Oboe Trumpet Cimbalom Cello Julia DeRosa Peter Evans Nicholas Tolle Michael Nicolas Gareth Flowers Kivie Cahn-Lipman Clarinet Campbell MacDonald Trombone Joshua Rubin David Nelson Jonathan Cohen Richard Hawkins

ICE Administration Claire Chase, Flutist and Artistic Director (CEO) Joshua Rubin, Clarinetist and Co-Artistic Director Jonathan Harris, Business Manager Ross Karre, Percussionist and Production/digitICE.org Rebekah Heller, Bassoonist and Individual Giving Ryan Muncy, Saxophonist and Grants Jacob Greenberg, Pianist and Education Maciej Lewandowski, Production and Operations Associate Alice Teyssier, Production and Communications Associate Maro Elliott, Executive Assistant