FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATED November 15, 2017 October 12, 2017 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5700; [email protected] GIANANDREA NOSEDA TO RETURN TO NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC CONCERTMASTER FRANK HUANG To Perform SAINT-SAËNS’s Violin Concerto No. 3 Program Also To Include RACHMANINOFF’s Symphony No. 3 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh Suite Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature NIELSEN’s Wind Quintet Performed by Philharmonic Musicians November 22 and 24–25, 2017 Gianandrea Noseda will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with Concertmaster Frank Huang as soloist as well as two Russian works, Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh Suite. The performances take place Wednesday, November 22, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 24 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 25 at 8:00 p.m. Gianandrea Noseda — Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 2015 and International Opera Awards Conductor of the Year in 2016 — is acclaimed for his performances of Russian works, having served as principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theater for ten years, the first non-Russian to serve in that role. In its review of Mr. Noseda’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s complete symphonies, American Record Guide wrote that “Noseda’s Third is the best recording of the work I’ve heard.” The Guardian praised his “superb account,” calling it “wonderfully restrained, almost haunted in its opening movement; quietly nostalgic in its central Adagio; and almost neurotically hyperactive in its finale.” In its review of Mr. Noseda’s most recent appearance with the Philharmonic, in October 2005, The New York Times said that “you had to appreciate the darkness of the tone he coaxed from the Philharmonic’s lower strings — a nice Russian touch.” Frank Huang joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster in September 2015 and made his Philharmonic solo debut later that season, as leader and soloist in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. In its review of Mr. Huang’s January 2017 performance of another showpiece for violin by Saint-Saëns, the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, New York Classical Review wrote that “Huang was a brilliant showman, playfully brooding in the prologue and then keeping up that goofy flair for the duration.” (more) Gianandrea Noseda / Frank Huang / 2 The Saturday Matinee Concert on November 25 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Nielsen’s Wind Quintet performed by Philharmonic flutist Mindy Kaufman, oboist Robert Botti, Acting Associate Principal Clarinet Pascual Martínez Forteza, Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair, and Acting Principal Horn Richard Deane. The rest of the program features Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The Philharmonic completed The Nielsen Project — the Orchestra’s acclaimed multi-season survey of Nielsen’s complete symphonies and concertos led by then Music Director Alan Gilbert — in the 2014–15 season; Laureate Conductor Leonard Bernstein — who is being saluted in Bernstein’s Philharmonic: A Centennial Festival, October 25–November 14 — famously championed Nielsen’s music during his Philharmonic tenure as well. Artists Gianandrea Noseda was named the National Symphony Orchestra’s seventh music director in January 2016, and he began his four-year tenure this fall. He has served as music director of the Teatro Regio Torino since 2007, ushering in a transformative era for the company and garnering international acclaim for its productions, tours, recordings, and film projects. His visionary leadership and ambitious global touring initiatives over the last decade have made the opera house one of the world’s leading opera companies and one of Italy’s most important cultural ambassadors. He also serves as principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, principal conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, and artistic director of Italy’s Stresa Festival. Highlights of Mr. Noseda’s 2017–18 season include appearances with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and London Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic; The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras; NHK and Vienna Symphony Orchestras; Edinburgh International and Salzburg Festivals; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Zurich Opera House. He also continues to work with the BBC Philharmonic, which he led from 2002 to 2011; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he was principal guest conductor; and the Mariinsky Theatre, where he was the first- ever foreign principal guest conductor. Mr. Noseda’s relationship with The Metropolitan Opera dates back to 2002; in the 2016–17 season he conducted a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, which received its premiere at the New Year’s Eve Gala. In May 2018 he leads the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the first time. His acclaimed recording activity includes more than 50 CDs. His Musica Italiana project, which he initiated more than ten years ago, chronicles underappreciated 20th- century Italian repertoire. A native of Milan, Gianandrea Noseda is Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for his contribution to the artistic life of Italy. He was Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 2015 and International Opera Awards Conductor of the Year in 2016. Gianandrea Noseda made his New York Philharmonic debut in November 2003 leading music by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev; he returned in October 2005 to conduct works by Bartók, Britten, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff with pianist Simon Trpčeski as soloist. Frank Huang joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair, in September 2015. The First Prize Winner of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition, he has established a major career as a violin virtuoso. Since performing with the Houston Symphony in a nationally broadcast concert at the age of 11 he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, NDR (more) Gianandrea Noseda / Frank Huang / 3 Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, and the Genoa Orchestra. He has also performed on NPR’s Performance Today, ABC’s Good Morning America, and CNN’s American Morning with Paula Zahn. He has performed at Wigmore Hall (in London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), and the Herbst Theatre (San Francisco), as well as a second recital in Alice Tully Hall (New York), which featured the World Premiere of Donald Martino’s Sonata for Solo Violin. Mr. Huang’s first commercial recording — featuring fantasies by Schubert, Ernst, Schoenberg, and Waxman — was released on Naxos in 2003. He has had great success in competitions since the age of 15 and received top prize awards in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. Other honors include Gold Medal Awards in the Kingsville International Competition, Irving M. Klein International Competition, and D’Angelo International Competition. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Huang is deeply committed to chamber music. He has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Caramoor. He frequently participates in Musicians from Marlboro’s tours, and was selected by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious CMS Two program. Before joining the Houston Symphony as concertmaster in 2010, Frank Huang held the position of first violinist of the Grammy Award–winning Ying Quartet and was a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music. He is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, a partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, and serves on the faculties of The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, also a New York Philharmonic Global Academy partner, and the University of Houston. Mr. Huang made his New York Philharmonic solo debut leading and performing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, as well as leading Grieg’s The Last Spring in June 2016; most recently, in July 2017, he performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish, led by then Music Director Alan Gilbert at the Orchestra’s Bravo! Vail residency. Repertoire Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) composed The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia, his penultimate opera, between 1903 and 1905, in the lead-up to the Russian Revolution of 1905. With a libretto by V.I. Belsky, the opera, which premiered in 1907, takes its inspiration from two Russian legends: that of the lakeside city of Kitezh being saved from destruction by the Tartars by becoming invisible, and the story of St. Fevronia, who, in the opera, saves the city by enveloping it in a fog. Although Rimsky-Korsakov usually created orchestral suites from his operas, he didn’t have the opportunity to do so before his death, in 1908. It fell to his student and son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg (who was also later Shostakovich’s teacher), to create The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh Suite from four orchestral set pieces in the opera: the mystical forest prelude, Fevronia and Prince Vsevolod’s wedding preparations, the battle in which the Prince is killed, and the death of Fevronia and her heavenly reunion with the Prince in their invisible city. Valery Gergiev conducted the Philharmonic in its only previous presentation of this suite, in February 1994. Camille Saint-Saëns’s (1835–1921) Violin Concerto No. 3 has proven to be among the composer’s most popular works, and it ranks as the finest of his three violin concertos.