FOR RELEASE: January 23, 2013 SUPPLEMENT CHRISTOPHER ROUSE, The Marie-Josée Kravis COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE WORLD PREMIERE of SYMPHONY NO. 4 at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL New York Premiere of REQUIEM To Open Spring For Music Festival at Carnegie Hall New York Premiere of OBOE CONCERTO with Principal Oboe Liang Wang RAPTURE at Home and on ASIA / WINTER 2014 Tour Rouse To Advise on CONTACT!, the New-Music Series, Including New Partnership with 92nd Street Y ____________________________________ “What I’ve always loved most about the Philharmonic is that they play as though it’s a matter of life or death. The energy, excitement, commitment, and intensity are so exciting and wonderful for a composer. Some of the very best performances I’ve ever had have been by the Philharmonic.” — Christopher Rouse _______________________________________ American composer Christopher Rouse will return in the 2013–14 season to continue his two- year tenure as the Philharmonic’s Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence. The second person to hold the Composer-in-Residence title since Alan Gilbert’s inaugural season, following Magnus Lindberg, Mr. Rouse’s compositions and musical insights will be highlighted on subscription programs; in the Philharmonic’s appearance at the Spring For Music festival; in the NY PHIL BIENNIAL; on CONTACT! events; and in the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Mr. Rouse said: “Part of the experience of music should be an exposure to the pulsation of life as we know it, rather than as people in the 18th or 19th century might have known it. It is wonderful that Alan is so supportive of contemporary music and so involved in performing and programming it.” 2 Alan Gilbert said: “I’ve always said and long felt that Chris Rouse is one of the really important composers working today. As we enter our second year with him as Composer- in-Residence, it’s fun for me to see how the relationship gets stronger.” Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead four of Mr. Rouse’s orchestral works during the 2013–14 season: the Oboe Concerto, featuring Philharmonic Principal Oboe Liang Wang, on November 14–16 and 19, 2013; Requiem on May 5, 2014, to open the Spring For Music festival at Carnegie Hall; the World Premiere of the New York Philharmonic–commissioned Symphony No. 4 on June 5–7, 2014, one of the highlights of the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL; and Rapture on January 2–3 and 7, 2014. The Orchestra will also perform Rapture at Long Island’s Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on January 4, 2014, and on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Mr. Rouse will continue his advisory role for CONTACT!, the new-music series. In addition to continuing its presence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 2013–14 CONTACT! expands its reach through a new partnership with the 92nd Street Y. A co-curated series of new music performed by chamber ensembles will be presented at 92nd Street Y’s intimate, informal space in Tribeca. CONTACT! at 92YTribeca will include performances by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman, a program focused on works by composer- conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and a performance featuring contemporary works for solo instruments. Further details will be announced at a later date. WORLD PREMIERE of SYMPHONY NO. 4 at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL In the spring of 2014, the New York Philharmonic presents the first-ever NY PHIL BIENNIAL, a 10-day, immersive exhibition showcasing the best of today’s new music through orchestral events, guest ensembles, and CONTACT! concerts with small ensembles in venues outside of the Lincoln Center campus. As part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, the Philharmonic will perform the World Premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 4, a New York Philharmonic Commission, June 5–7, 2014, conducted by Alan Gilbert. Mr. Rouse currently envisions his Symphony No. 4 to be a two- movement, 20-minute orchestral work with a slow first movement similar to his blissful Rapture, which the Philharmonic will perform on January 2–3 and 7, 2014, as well as at Long Island University’s Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on January 4, 2014, and on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Mr. Rouse’s previous symphony, the Third, was commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. It was lauded by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after its 2011 premiere: “Combining the classical clarity of Paul Hindemith, at some points echoing the gentle minimalism of John Adams, as well as the primal energy of, yes, Prokofiev and Beethoven … this could easily become a programming staple of orchestras worldwide.” Alan Gilbert said: “I’m really excited and curious to see what happens with the Fourth Symphony. I’ve done two of Chris’s symphonies in the past, and they are really profound, powerful works.” 3 New York Premiere of REQUIEM To Open Spring For Music Festival at Carnegie Hall On May 5, 2014, the Philharmonic will present the New York Premiere of Composer-in- Residence Christopher Rouse’s Requiem in a concert that opens the Spring For Music festival at Carnegie Hall, for which American orchestras are invited to present one-night-only performances of unusual programming. Alan Gilbert will conduct the work, featuring baritone Jacques Imbrailo, the Westminster Symphonic Choir directed by Joe Miller, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun. Commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria, this large-scale, 90- minute piece was composed in 2002 in honor of the 2003 bicentennial of Hector Berlioz’s birth and was premiered in 2007 by the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall. On using Berlioz as inspiration for the Requiem, Mr. Rouse states: “I just feel so attuned to him, to his music. It speaks to me almost as though I had composed it myself. I love the combination of the wild revolutionary with the much more traditional classicist — he’s not just the ‘crazy man.’ Depending on the piece you’re listening to, he also has this very refined understated style. I love his harmony, his rhythm, his orchestration — and his melodic sense is unlike anyone else’s.” Mr. Rouse’s Requiem utilizes traditional Latin liturgical texts as well as poetry by Seamus Heaney, Siegfried Sassoon, Michelangelo, Ben Jonson, and John Milton. The work restricts the chorus to Latin liturgical text, while the bass-baritone soloist portrays the Everyman figure, who makes the experience of death more personal. In his program notes, Mr. Rouse writes: “The work begins with the soloist singing alone the lines of Seamus Heaney’s Mid-Term Break, in which a boy leaves school to attend the funeral of his younger brother, struck by a car. Before the Tuba mirum come lines from Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide in the Trenches, in which the poet describes the self-destruction of a shell- shocked comrade. The Rex tremendae is succeeded by excerpts from Michelangelo’s ode on the death of his father, and the Sanctus is preceded by Ben Jonson’s On My First Son, a heartbreaking contemplation of the death of his child. Before the Agnus Dei comes John Milton’s Sonnet 23, in which he dreams that his dead wife has returned to him. Finally, Michelangelo’s On Immortality (set, like the earlier Michelangelo poem, in the original Italian), sung near the very end of the score, speaks of the Everyman figure’s own death.” Of the Requiem, Mr. Rouse said: “It is the best thing that I can lay claim to. It’s the work by which I would want to stand or fall, so I’m delighted that it’s going to be done again next year.” Alan Gilbert said: “Everything Chris writes is intensely personal. One can feel the anguish, pain, and struggle in his music. I can see why Chris says Requiem is his best work. It’s an honest outpouring of who he is.” 4 New York Premiere of OBOE CONCERTO with Principal Oboe Liang Wang On November 14–16 and 19, 2013, Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Premiere of Mr. Rouse’s Oboe Concerto, featuring Philharmonic Principal Oboe Liang Wang. Commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, completed in 2004, and premiered in 2009, it was written in what Mr. Rouse calls his “genial” style. Rather than writing a programmatic work, Mr. Rouse set out to explore the oboe’s capabilities, composing a score that asks the soloist to tackle highly virtuosic passages, while highlighting the oboe’s lyrical side as well. Mr. Rouse said: “It’s a real workout for the oboist. It’s not that I set out to write against the instrument, but I decided to ask for some things that oboists aren’t called upon to do as often as some other players. It is one of my more genial works. There aren’t too many clouds in the sky. It’s meant to have a kind of amorous, romantic quality.” The program will also include Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan. The Philharmonic had previously scheduled the concerto in December 2010, but the program was adjusted due to a blizzard. RAPTURE at Home and on ASIA / WINTER 2014 Tour On January 2–3 and 7, 2014, Alan Gilbert will lead the Orchestra in a performance of Christopher Rouse’s Rapture. The program will also include Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman’s reprise of former Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. The Philharmonic has performed Rapture once before, in October–November 2008, conducted by David Robertson.