Christoph von Dohnányi will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola, performed by Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and PrincipAl Viola Cynthia Phelps; and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, Thursday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, December 11, at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 12, 2009, at 8:00 p.m.
• Pre-Concert Talk
New York Philharmonic Principal Librarian Lawrence Tarlow will introduce the program one hour before each performance. Tickets are $5 in addition to the concert ticket. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656
• New York Philharmonic Podcast
Elliott Forrest, Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, producer, and afternoon host of 109.5 FM WQXR, will host this podcast. These award-winning previews of upcoming programs — through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, conductors, and Orchestra musicians — are available at nyphil.org/podcast or from iTunes.
• National Radio Broadcast
This concert will be broadcast the week of December 28, 2009,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated nationally to more than 295 stations by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by the Emmy Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information.
Christoph von Dohnányi is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent orchestral and opera conductors. In addition to guest-conducting engagements with the major opera houses and orchestras of Europe and North America, his appointments have included opera directorships in Frankfurt and Hamburg; principal orchestral conducting posts in Germany, London, and Paris; and his 20-year tenure as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, where he led 1,000 concerts and 15 international tours. Mr. Dohnányi has also held the position of chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg since September 2004.
In North America this season Mr. Dohnányi leads subscription concerts with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras as well as the New York Philharmonic. Last season he became honorary conductor for life of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, which he conducts this season in Madrid, Cardiff, and Paris, as well as at London’s Royal FestivAl Hall.
Highlights of recent seasons include concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he led the four Brahms symphonies over a two-week period; and a residency at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition to annual performances with the orchestras in Boston, Chicago, and New York, Mr. Dohnányi recently made his first appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra since he assumed the title of music director laureate of that orchestra in 2002. He also returned to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and led performances of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Mr. Dohnányi conducts frequently at the world’s great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Vienna Staatsoper, and in Berlin and Paris. He has been a frequent guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, leading the world premieres of Hans Werner Henze’s Die Bassariden and Friedrich Cerha’s Baal.
Christoph von Dohnányi has made many critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. With Vienna, he recorded a variety of symphonic works and a number of operas, including Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu, Schoenberg’s Erwartung, R. Strauss’s Salome, and Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer. His large and varied discography with The Cleveland Orchestra of more than 100 works includes concert performances and recordings of Wagner’s Die Walküre and Das Rheingold; the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; symphonies by Bruckner, Dvo?ák, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky; and works by Bartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse, and Webern. Mr. Dohnányi last conducted the New York Philharmonic in October 2007. New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow has established himself worldwide as one of the most prominent American concert artists of his generation. His musical gifts became apparent when, at age 11, he made his solo debut in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (where his father, Harold Dicterow, served as principal of the second violin section for 52 years). In the following years, Mr. Dicterow became one of the most sought-after young artists, appearing as soloist from coast to coast.
Mr. Dicterow, who has won numerous awards and competitions, is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Ivan Galamian. In 1967, at the age of 18, he performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostelanetz in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. In 1980 he joined the Orchestra as Concertmaster, and has since performed as soloist every year, both on tour and in New York. Prior to joining the New York Philharmonic, he served as Associate Concertmaster and Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among his appearances on tour with the Philharmonic was his performance of the Barber Violin Concerto during the Orchestra’s 1998 Asian Tour, in Manila, Korea, and in Beijing, China, where he performed in The Great Hall of the People to an audience of more than 10,000 people. Most recently, he performed Bernstein’s Serenade with the Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, at Avery Fisher Hall, both in November 2008.
Mr. Dicterow, who frequently appears as a guest soloist with other orchestras, has made numerous recordings. His most recent CD is a solo recital for Cala Records entitled New York Legends, featuring John Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing, the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Martin?’s Three Madrigals for violin and viola, in collaboration with violist Karen Dreyfus and pianist Gerald Robbins. His recording of Bernstein’s Serenade, on Volume 2 of the American Celebration set, is available on the New York Philharmonic’s Website, nyphil.org. Mr. Dicterow can also be heard in the violin solos of the film scores for The Turning Point, The Untouchables, Altered States, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Interview with the Vampire, among others.
Cynthia Phelps enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic, a position to which she was appointed in 1992. Her concerto appearances with the Philharmonic have taken her to the major concert halls of North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Royal FestivAl Hall, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has also been engaged as soloist with orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Bilbao, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Sought after by many chamber music organizations, Ms. Phelps regularly appears in New York with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, in Boston with the Boston Chamber Music Society, and as guest artist at the 92nd Street Y. She has performed with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, St. Lawrence, and Prague string quartets, as well as The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has appeared in the summer festivals of Marlboro, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Seattle, Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Music at Menlo, as well was in Europe in Schleswig-Holstein, Naples, and Cremona. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group recently formed with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen, and flutist Carol Wincenc.
Ms. Phelps is a first-prize winner of both the Lionel Tertis InternationAl Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition, and is the recipient of the Pro Musicis International award. Under the auspices of this philanthropic organization, she has appeared as soloist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Rome, and Paris, as well as in jails, hospitals and drug rehab centers worldwide. Her most recent recording is a solo CD on Cala Records, and her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln Center on PBS; St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR; Radio France; Italy’s RAI; and WGBH in Boston. A native of Southern California and the fourth of five girls, all of whom are musicians, Ms. Phelps has served on the faculties at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. She last performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic in November–December 2008 in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.
The late 18th century, a time when public concerts were becoming more and more prevalent, gave rise to the rather short-lived genre of the Sinfonia concertante, a combination of concerto and symphony that supported the public’s desire to see and hear instrumental soloists in combination. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed five works in this genre in 1778–79. The last of these, the Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K.364, was probably completed in the summer and autumn of 1779 after Mozart’s return to Salzburg from his travels to Mannheim and Paris. The Philharmonic first performed the work in February 1917, when Walter Damrosch led the New York Symphony (which later merged with the New York Philharmonic to form today’s Philharmonic) with violinist Alexander Saslavsky and violist Samuel Lifschey. The most recent Philharmonic performances took place in February 2006, led by Jeffrey Kahane, with Philharmonic Assistant Concertmaster Michelle Kim and Associate PrincipAl Viola Rebecca Young as soloists.
Anton Bruckner added the subtitle “Romantic” as an afterthought to his Symphony No. 4, and the symphony lives up to its nickname, capturing the grand passion and expansiveness of legendary scenes, country life, and a spirited folk festival. Bruckner completed the symphony in 1874 but, as with many of his works, layer upon layer of revisions (by Bruckner himself and by others) gradually obscured his original intentions.
The first published version of the symphony emerged after the 1881 world premiere, a well-received performance led by Hans Richter in Vienna. Seven years later the work reached American audiences in New York, conducted by Anton Seidl. The New York Philharmonic played it for the first time in March 1910, conducted by Gustav Mahler. The most recent performances were in May 2004 led by Daniel Barenboim.
Single tickets for these performances are $31 to $112. Tickets for Pre-Concert Talks are $5. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $16. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or the AlIce Tully Hall Box Office at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. 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 $12 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 Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at carrl@nyphil.org.
