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Home , Emmanuel Pahud, Giya Kancheli, Lisa Batiashvili

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2015 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected]

ALAN GILBERT AND THE

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence and Oboist FRANÇOIS LELEUX To Perform U.S. PREMIERE of ’s for and and J.S. BACH’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe

Program Also To Include SHOSTAKOVICH’s No. 10

April 8–11, 2015

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili will conclude her tenure performing the U.S. Premiere of Thierry Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, a Philharmonic co-commission with Hamburg’s NDR Symphony , coupled with J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, alongside her husband, oboist François Leleux, in his Philharmonic debut. Conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, the program also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The concerts take place Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 10 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, April 11 at 8:00 p.m.

The program will mark the Philharmonic’s first performance of music by Thierry Escaich. Like Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, also featured on the program, Mr. Escaich’s work, which highlights dialogue between the two instruments, comprises three movements that intertwine and are structured around a central, slow movement, which pays homage to the passacaglia, a form dear to Bach.

“The fact that the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert have commissioned this piece has given an incredible opportunity for a new piece to enter the repertoire and continue celebrating this rare combination of instruments,” Thierry Escaich said. “Throughout my career, I have often found myself reworking certain forms of the past in order to make them express something new. I wanted to use J.S. Bach’s thematic material for this , shaping it until it entered my own sound world. I was thinking of the warmth and breadth of François’s sound while writing, and, too, of the spirit and energy of Lisa’s violin, which guides the persistent rhythm running throughout the piece.”

“I really admire Thierry Escaich: his music is quite approachable but also very original and personal. He has his own language, and I love his colors. François and I need more repertoire for violin and oboe, and we are always open to the ideas of great composers,” Lisa Batiashvili said. “François is one of my musical idols: I have probably learned more (more) Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 2 from him than from any violinist. He has changed my whole approach to Bach; there is something I understand in Bach’s music now that I hadn’t known about before.”

Ms. Batiashvili and Mr. Leleux joined Mr. Gilbert in the World Premiere of Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe with the NDR Symphony Orchestra, led by Alan Gilbert, in December 2014. The two soloists are longtime collaborators, performing both specially commissioned new works and standard repertoire.

These performances mark the conclusion of violinist Lisa Batiashvili’s Philharmonic residency, which will have included three orchestral appearances and a recital with , presented by Lincoln Center’s Great Performers in association with the New York Philharmonic. A friend of the Philharmonic, she made her debut in 2005 and has returned annually since Alan Gilbert became Music Director.

Related Events  Philharmonic Free Fridays The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13–26 to the concert Friday, April 10 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13–26-year-olds to each of the 2014–15 season’s 18 Friday evening subscription concerts; it is part of Share the Music!, a new initiative to support expanded access to the New York Philharmonic.

 Pre-Concert Insights Composer Victoria Bond will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts available for multiple talks, students, and groups. They take place one hour before these performances in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656.

Artists Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence, and the Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers inaugurated in spring 2014. As New York magazine wrote, “The Philharmonic and its music director Alan Gilbert have turned themselves into a force of permanent revolution.”

In the 2014–15 season Alan Gilbert conducts the U.S. Premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Clarinet Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission, alongside Mahler’s First Symphony; La Dolce Vita: The Music of Italian Cinema; Verdi’s Requiem; a staging of Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake, featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard; World Premieres; a CONTACT! program; and Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He concludes The Nielsen Project — the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s and , the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Recordings of 2012 — and presides over the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour. His Philharmonic- (more) Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 3 tenure highlights include acclaimed productions of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring and Emma Thompson, and Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory; World Premieres by , John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and others; Bach’s B-minor Mass and Ives’s Fourth Symphony; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film; Mahler’s Second Symphony, Resurrection, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; and eight international tours.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading around the world. His 2014–15 appearances include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, and The . He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting ’s Doctor Atomic 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. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. 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.” In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

As the 2014–15 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, Lisa Batiashvili is making three orchestral appearances — featuring concertos by Brahms, Barber, and Bach as well as a U.S. Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission of a work written for her by Thierry Escaich; and a recital with pianist Paul Lewis, presented by Lincoln Center’s Great Performers in association with the New York Philharmonic. This season the Georgian violinist also serves as artist-in-residence for Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, where she and her husband, François Leleux, gave the World Premiere of Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, led by Alan Gilbert, before giving the work’s U.S. Premiere with the New York Philharmonic in these performances. Other 2014–15 season engagements include Filarmonica della Scala and Berlin Staatskapelle, both led by ; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, led by ; The Philadelphia Orchestra’s European tour, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Rotterdam Philharmonic’s Gergiev Festival; and concerts with Mr. Leleux at the Salzburg Festival and in Amsterdam’s televised annual Prinsengracht concert. Ms. Batiashvili frequently works with the , Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and other major orchestras worldwide. Her appearances this season include recitals with Mr. Lewis in Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto, as well as New York, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet alongside Mr. Lewis and Lawrence Power at Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Lisa Batiasvhili records exclusively for , and her most recent release is dedicated to works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, featuring François Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud, and the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. Her past recordings include Brahms’s (more) Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 4 with the Dresden Staatskapelle, led by (also available on DVD) and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Esa- Pekka Salonen. A student of Ana Chumachenko and Mark Lubotski, Lisa Batiashvili gained international recognition at age 16 as the youngest-ever competitor in the Sibelius Competition. She lives in and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” violin from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector in Germany. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in March 2005 performing Chausson’s Poème and Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, conducted by then Music Director ; she most recently appeared with the Orchestra in February 2015, performing Barber’s Violin Concerto, led by David Zinman.

Oboist François Leleux enjoys an international career performing repertoire from the to newly commissioned works. In December 2014 Mr. Leleux and his wife, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, gave the World Premiere of Thierry Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe (which receives its U.S. Premiere in these Philharmonic programs), with the NDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert. For the 2014–15 season, Mr. Leleux serves as guest leader of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and returns to Lammermuir Festival as artist-in-residence. Also this season, he makes return appearances as conductor-soloist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Gavle Symphony Orchestra, and Camerata Salzburg, including a tour to China. He also makes his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra debut under Nicholas Collon performing Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto. Mr. Leleux has worked with conductors including , , , Myung-whun Chung, Daniel Harding, Thomas Dausgaard, and Wolfgang Sawallisch. Committed to expanding the oboe’s repertoire, he has had many new works commissioned for him by composers including Escaich, Nicolas Bacri, Thierry Pécou, Gilles Silvestrini, Eric Tanguy, , and . Mr. Leleux has recorded for labels including Harmonia Mundi, EMI/Warner, Sony, and Deutsche Grammophon. Upcoming releases include works by Bach performed, alongside Lisa Batiashvili and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and a recording of Haydn and Hummel with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. François Leleux is a professor at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater.

Repertoire Scholars aren’t sure when (1685–1750) composed the Concerto for Violin and Oboe because the only surviving version of the work is the composer’s own arrangement of it for two harpsichords, produced for concerts of the Leipzig Collegium musicum, a student organization that he directed beginning in 1729. Because most of Bach’s keyboard concertos are actually transcriptions and reworkings of earlier compositions, it is believed that Bach’s Concerto for Two Harpsichords, BWV 1060, was based on the Concerto for Violin and Oboe, which has been reconstructed from the harpsichord version. The combination of two very dissimilar solo instruments presents the kind of sonic and compositional challenge Bach loved, and the work’s three movements are filled with energy, intertwining melodies, and lyricism. The Philharmonic first performed the concerto in December 1961, with Werner Torkanowsky conducting and violinist Joseph Silverstein and oboist Harold Gomberg as the soloists; most recently it was performed in November 2011, led by Jeffrey Kahane with Acting Concertmaster Sheryl Staples and Principal Oboe Liang Wang as soloists. (more)

Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 5

Having succeeded Maurice Duruflé as organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in 1997, French composer Thierry Escaich (b. 1965) is inspired by the centuries-old tradition of composers/organists who have served in Paris’s great churches (such as François Couperin, César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, Charles-Marie Widor, and ). But while Escaich’s works embrace this legacy, they also look to the future with an open mind. Composed for violinist Lisa Batiashvili, the Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and oboist François Leleux, Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe not only reflects the abilities and interests of these two musicians, but also pays homage to another great church musician/composer: J.S. Bach, specifically using Bach’s own Concerto for Violin and Oboe (also on this program) as a model. In this new concerto — which was premiered in December 2014 by Ms. Batiashvili and Mr. Leleux with the NDR Symphony Orchestra, led by Alan Gilbert — Escaich turns Bach’s traditional style on its head (for example, he begins the work with music to be played molto vivace, a tempo that Bach used in his finale). It is a brilliantly fast, rhythmic work filled with quotes, variations, metric experimentation, and complex melodic and instrumental interplay.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–75) had a troubled relationship with the repressive Soviet regime, specifically with Stalin and his cultural henchmen. Upon hearing of Stalin’s death in 1953, the composer began his Symphony No. 10, his first work in the genre in eight years; many see it as the release of his pent-up anger — “concentrated fury,” as music commentator Phillip Huscher described it — that had lain buried for so long. Shostakovich himself said he was painting a portrait of the tyrant with demonic, loud, and violent music. It is tragic in nature, opening with dark, foreboding harmonies that slowly give way to a clarinet’s plaintive song emerging from the depths. The powerful finale employs pitches equivalent to Shostakovich’s initials in German notation — D-S-C-H — as an embedded code, and, in the struggle between the motif symbolizing Stalin and the composer’s musical signature, the latter crushes the former. Dmitri Mitropoulos conducted the Philharmonic in the work’s U.S. Premiere at in October 1954; Pablo Heras-Casado led the Orchestra’s most recent performance in April 2014.

* * * Lisa Batiashvili is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.

* * * These concerts are made possible with generous support by The Francis Goelet Fund.

* * * Additional support comes from The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE with major support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, SACEM, Institut Français, the Florence Gould Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

* * * Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. * * * (more) Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 6

Tickets Tickets for these performances start at $33. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). 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. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. 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 $16 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].

(more) Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / François Leleux / 7

New York Philharmonic

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center

Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 7:30 p.m. Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m. Thursday, April 9, 2015, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 10, 2015, 8:00 p.m. Saturday, April 11, 2015, 8:00 p.m.

Pre-Concert Insights (one hour before each concert) with composer Victoria Bond

Alan Gilbert, conductor Lisa Batiashvili, violin François Leleux*, oboe

J.S. BACH Concerto for Violin and Oboe Thierry ESCAICH Concerto for Violin and Oboe (U.S. Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra) SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 10

* denotes New York Philharmonic debut

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