Fabio Luisi, Conductor
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Tuesday Evening, March 26, 2019, at 7:30 Fabio Luisi , Conductor Performance #116: Season 4, Concert 22 EDVARD GRIEG (1843–1907) Piano Concerto, Op. 16 (1868–69, rev. 1906–07) Allegro molto moderato Adagio Allegro moderato molto e marcato—Quasi Presto—Andante maestoso ALESSANDRO TAVERNA, Piano Intermission JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–97) Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 (1877) Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino)—Presto ma non assai Allegro con spirito Tonight’s concert will run approximately one hour and 50 minutes including one 20-minute intermission. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Please make certain your cellular phone, Rose Theater pager, or watch alarm is switched off. Frederick P. Rose Hall jazz.org Jazz at Lincoln Center Notes on the Music – TON’s Lucas work’s earliest proponents was Franz Liszt, Goodman on Grieg’s whom Grieg was able to meet in Rome in Piano Concerto, 1870. The older Liszt sight-read the con - Op. 16 certo and offered several suggestions that E N I Grieg would take under strong considera - D T T A A National Style tion. Liszt offered Grieg strong words of M Over the course of his - encouragement, telling him to “keep on, I tory, few composers have come to be rec - tell you, you have what is needed, and ognized as inventors of the national musi - don’t let them frighten you.” Grieg revised cal style of their homeland. A list of such the concerto many times during his life, composers would have to include Jean with the final version, which will be per - Sibelius of Finland, Aaron Copland of the formed today, being completed shortly United States, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov before the composer’s death in 1907. and the Mighty Five of Russia, and Bed ˇrich Smetana of Czechoslovakia. Edvard Grieg An Early Impression played a similar role in the creation and While I don’t remember exactly how old I popularization of a Norwegian style of was, I remember seeing the great André music. Through his imitation of Norwegian Watts perform Grieg’s Piano Concerto at folk songs, and use of the hallingdans—a home in Florida when I was in middle lively and acrobatic Norwegian folk dance school or early high school. This was my in 2/4 time—during the theme of the final introduction to the Piano Concerto, and it movement, the Piano Concerto in A minor definitely left a lasting impression on my is one of the works that helped Grieg to young self. To this day it is one of my construct his national Norwegian style, absolute favorite pieces of music. I have along with his later arrangements of never had the pleasure of performing in Norwegian dances and songs, and inciden - this piece until today, so I am very excited tal music to Norwegian plays, such as the to share this experience with you, and popular Peer Gynt suite. hope you enjoy Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor as much as I do! An Immediate Success The Piano Concerto was composed in – 1868, while a 24-year-old Grieg was spend - TON’s Dillon Robb ing time in Denmark with his wife and on Brahms’ newborn daughter. It received its premiere Symphony No. 2, in Copenhagen on April 3, 1869, by pianist Op. 73 E N Edmund Neupert. It was an immediate I D T success and its popularity has continued to T In the Shadow of A the present day, with the concerto even M Beethoven making its way into the realm of popular After Beethoven, how could any composer culture with its use in film scores and pop - write a symphony that contributed any ular music. Wilhelm Backhaus recorded meaning to the German music world? Grieg’s Piano Concerto in 1909, making it Everything is encapsulated in Beethoven’s the first piano concerto to ever be recorded. symphonies; this genre had been exhausted. It is instantly recognizable through its Many Romantic composers did expand the opening A-minor chord and descending tradition by including programmatic ele - half-step, falling-third motif. Among the ments, for example Liszt’s Les préludes , Jazz at Lincoln Center Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique , and nation may be proud, an inexhaustible foun - Wagner even began to completely absorb tai n of sincere pleasure and fruitful study.” the symphony as an art form into opera. The second symphony certainly answered However, Brahms is a Classical composer Hanslick’s request for warmth a nd sun - with Romantic sensibilities, and especially shine, but it is still deeply engrained with after Robert Schumann proclaimed him compositional rigor with its thematic and the messiah of modern music, he remained rhythmic ingenuity. The second symphony steadfast in writing music that stands on was another wild success, and remains to its own and speaks for itself. this day extremely popular, modestly pro - claiming itself a German masterwork. Warmth and Sunshine With a ridiculous amount of pressure An Invigorating Maestro weighing on him, Brahms took two decades What an honor it is for us to perform this to write his first symphony, and after its piece today with Fabio Luisi, who is espe - wildly successful premiere in November cially known for his ability to balance the 1876, he managed to formulate this sec - joyful and melancholic changing moods of ond symphony during only the summer of this symphony. I performed this piece with 1877. Music critic Eduard Hanslick said of him in the summer of 2015 at the Castleton Brahms’ First Symphony: “We would often Festival in Virginia, and I still recall how give the finest contrapuntal device (and invigorating the experience was—Luisi’s they lie bedded away in the symphony by enthusiasm and sensitivity was conta - the dozen) for a moment of warm, heart- gious! He will be opening the Danish quickening sunshine…. The new symphony National Symphony Orchestra’s next sea - of Brahms is a possession of which the son with this work as well. Meet the Artists as chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Saxon I S I U State Opera, music director and principal L A R conductor of the MDR Symphony Orchestra A B Fabio Luisi , R Leipzig, and music director of the A B Conductor Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Fabio Luisi is general music director of the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna. Zurich Opera, chief conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Mr. Luisi is also music director of the music director designate of Maggio Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca Musicale Fiorentino. He was recently (Apulia, Italy), and he is guest conductor of named the new music director of the several major ensembles, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and begins Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, his tenure as music director designate in San Francisco Symphony, NHK Tokyo, the 2019–20 season, becoming the Munich Philharmonic, Filarmonica della orchestra’s full-time music director in the Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, Con - 2020–21 season. He was principal conduc - cert gebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Saito tor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York Kinen Orchestra, and in all major opera from 2011 to 2017. Prior to this he served houses worldwide. Jazz at Lincoln Center Mr. Luisi’s CD recordings to date include Michael Guttman, Claus Peter Flor, Roland operas such as Verdi’s Aroldo , Alzira , and Böer, and Joshua Weilerstein Jérusalem , Bellini’s I Puritani and I Capuleti e i Montecchi , all of Robert Schumann’s Recordings: for BBC Radio 3, Rai Radio 3, and Arthur Honegger’s symphonies, and Slovenian National Radio and Television, the symphonies and the oratorio Das Buch and RSI Swiss Radiotelevision; Medtner’s mit sieben Siegeln by the largely forgotten Sonatas and an all-French recital disc for Austrian composer Franz Schmidt. He has SOMM Recordings also recorded various symphonic poems by Richard Strauss and an acclaimed per - Awards: major prizes at Minnesota Piano- formance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony e-Competition, London International Piano together with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Competition, Leeds International Piano His recordings of Wagner’s Siegfried and Competition, and Busoni Piano Competition Götterdämmerung with the Met Orchestra in Bolzano earned him a Grammy; in 2013 he won Italy’s coveted “Premio Franco Abbiati” Positions: teaches at the Conservatory of critics’ award; and in 2014 he was awarded Music “Jacopo Tomadini” in Udine, and at the “Grifo d’Oro” by the City of Genoa. Santa Cecilia Music Academy in Portogruaro, both in Italy Y H P A R G O Education: Santa Cecilia Music Foundation T O H in Portogruaro; Imola International Piano Aca - P I R demy with Franco Scala, Leonid Margarius, O G O I Boris Petrushansky, and Louis Lortie; G Alessandro R O Santa Cecilia National Music Academy in I G Taverna , Piano Rome; the Hochschule für Musik in Appearances: Teatro alla Scala Milan, Hannover; Lake Como Piano Academy Teatro San Carlo Naples, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Musikverein Vienna, Konzerthaus The Orchestra Now – Berlin, Gasteig Munich, Wigmore Hall and The Orchestra Now (T ON) is a group of Royal Festival Hall in London, Bridgewater vibrant young musicians from across the Hall Manchester, Salle Cortot in Paris, globe who are making orchestral music rele - Philharmonic Hall Liverpool, Musashino vant to 21st-century audiences. They are lift - Hall in Tokyo, Auditorium Parco della ing the curtain on the musicians’ experience Musica Rome and sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand -picked from Performances: with orchestras including the world’s leading conservatories—including Filarmonica della Scala, Munich Philharmonic , The Juilliard School,