Christoph Eschenbach Conducts NY Philharmonic with Baibe Skride Tonight

Christoph Eschenbach returns to the New York Philharmonic to conduct a program of works by Eastern European composers with folk influences: Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring violinist Baiba Skride in her Philharmonic debut and first New York City orchestral appearance, and Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Symphony No. 8, tonight, February 25, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 26 at 2:00 p.m.; Saturday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Christoph Eschenbach and Baiba Skride last collaborated together in an acclaimed November 2012 performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

"It's amazing that, out of the single tiniest movement, he can change the whole atmosphere in the whole piece," Baiba Skride says of Barto?k's Violin Concerto No. 2. "Especially with Barto?k you have to be so exact, and a conductor has really hard work to do in this piece. The New York Philharmonic is one of the world's best orchestras. All your life you've listened to thousands of their recordings and now you're about to go on stage in front of them. It's very nerve-racking and very exciting."

Related Events:

- Pre-Concert Insights
Principal Librarian Lawrence Tarlow will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7, and discounts are available for three (3) or more talks and for students. 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:

Christoph Eschenbach is music director of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Now in his sixth season, he has taken the NSO on two acclaimed international tours, the Americas Tour 2012 and the Europe / Oman Tour 2013; a third tour is scheduled for February. His season with the NSO also includes two World Premieres, of commissions by Tobias Picker and Sean Shepherd. Mr. Eschenbach appears as pianist on the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts and on other Kennedy Center series. Additional season highlights include appearances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic in Austria and Asia, and with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Filarmonica della Scala. A prolific recording artist over five decades, Christoph Eschenbach has an impressive discography as both a conductor and a pianist. With the NSO he recorded Remembering JFK (Ondine), and he has made CDs with The Philadelphia Orchestra (Ondine), Orchestre de Paris (Ondine and Deutsche Grammophon), London Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI/LPO Live), London Symphony Orchestra (DG/BMG), Vienna Philharmonic (Decca), and NDR Symphony Orchestra (BMG/Sony and Warner), among others. His recordings have received the 2014 Best Classical Compendium Grammy, BBC Music Magazine's Disc of the Month, Gramophone's Editors' Choice, and German Record Critics' Award. His Ondine recording music by Kaija Saariaho with the Orchestre de Paris and soprano Karita Mattila won the 2009 MIDEM Classical Award in Contemporary Music, and his recording and video of Mahler's complete symphonies with the Orchestre de Paris is available to stream for free on his website. Mentored by George Szell and Herbert von Karajan, Mr. Eschenbach's career has included music directorships of the Orchestre de Paris (2000-10), Philadelphia Orchestra (2003- 08), Ravinia Festival (1994-2003), NDR Symphony Orchestra (1998-2004), and Houston Symphony (1988-99). He has also served as artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (1999-2002) and chief conductor and artistic director of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra (1982-86). His many honors include the 2015 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, Le?gion d'Honneur, Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Officer's Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit, Commander's Cross of the German Order of Merit for outstanding achievements, and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival, where he was co-artistic director (1992-98). Christoph Eschenbach mentors young performers, working regularly with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and students of the NSO's Youth Fellowship Program. He made his Philharmonic debut in February 1974 as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 conducted by Pierre Boulez, and his conducting debut in February 1980 leading works by Zimmermann, Haydn, and Tchaikovsky; he most recently led a January 2013 program of Bruch and Bruckner.

Baiba Skride has worked with orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris and the Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, and NHK Symphony orchestras, and collaborates with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Ja?rvi, Neeme Ja?rvi, Andris Nelsons, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick Ne?zet-Se?guin, Jukka Pekka Saraste, and John Storga?rds. This season Ms. Skride returns to the Berlin Philharmonic with Andris Nelsons and makes her debut with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She appears as artist-in-residence with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki philharmonic orchestras, Zurich Opera Orchestra, and Hamburg Philharmonic. She also performs with the New Zealand Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfo?nica do Estado de Sa?o Paulo. In the U.S., she makes debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the National and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. A regular with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this summer she marked her Tanglewood Festival debut. She also returns to the orchestras of Seattle, Detroit, and Naples. Chamber music highlights include duo recital performances at Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw and London's Wigmore Hall with pianist Lauma Skride. Other partnerships this season include Sol Gabetta, Daniel Mu?ller-Schott, and Bertrand Chamayou. Ms. Skride's discography on the Orfeo label includes her Nielsen and Sibelius recording with the Tampere Philharmonic, Szymanowski Concertos with Oslo Philharmonic, Schumann with the Danish National Symphony, Stravinsky and Frank Martin with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brahms with the Stockholm Philharmonic, and Tchaikovsky with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Baiba Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the Queen Elisabeth Competition's First Prize. Since November 2010 Baiba Skride has played on the Stradivarius "Ex Baron Feilitzsch" violin (1734), on generous loan to her from Gidon Kremer. These performances mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

Repertoire:

Antonin Dvor?a?k (1841-1904) composed his Carnival Overture in 1892 as part of his "Nature, Life, and Love" triptych (the other two are In Nature's Realm and Othello), which offered impressions of the positive and negative experiences of the human soul. Ultimately the second of the three pieces was transformed into Carnival, depicting a high-spirited gathering of barkers, crowds, vendors, lovers, and other people who might comprise the crowd at a carnival. Dvor?a?k himself describes the programmatic work: "The lonely, contemplative wanderer reaches the city at nightfall, where a carnival is in full swing. On every side is heard the clangor of instruments, mingled with shouts of joy and the unrestrained hilarity of people giving vent to their feelings in their songs and dance tunes." The work was premiered in Prague just before Dvor?a?k left for New York City, where he was to begin his post as director of the National Conservatory of Music; he conducted the New York Philharmonic's first performance of the work not long after his arrival, in October 1892, on his first American program at Carnegie Hall. The Orchestra's most recent performance of the Carnival Overture was in December 2013, led by Manfred Honeck.

When violinist Zolta?n Sze?kely came to Be?la Barto?k (1881-1945) with a commission for the Violin Concerto No. 2, the composer first suggested making the work one vast set of variations. Sze?kely, preferring a more traditional concerto, expressed his displeasure with Barto?k's first version, which did not include the solo violin in the last 22 measures. Barto?k acquiesced by providing a virtuoso finish, although he included both versions in the published score. Sze?kely performed the premiere on April 23, 1939, with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The work was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in October 1943, led by Artur Rodzin?ski, with Tossy Spivakovsky as soloist. The most recent performance was by Lisa Batiashvili led by Alan Gilbert, in May 2011 in New York and on the EUROPE / SPRING 2011 tour.

Antoni?n Dvor?a?k's Symphony No. 8 (1899) is something of a landmark in the creator's compositional life. His career had been fostered and his works championed by Johannes Brahms, whose Germanic influence was powerful. However, with this next-to-last symphony, Dvor?a?k struck out in a new direction, loosening the formal Germanic structures he had previously used, and expressing his identity as a Bohemian composer. Dvor?a?k's peaceful summer retreat at Vysoka? no doubt served as the inspiration for the dazzling passages that seem to cascade one after another in the opening movement, and for the Bohemian flavors in the Adagio. A waltz-like rhythm can be heard in the third movement, and a trumpet introduces the theme-and-variations finale. Conductor Anton Seidl led the Orchestra's first performance of this work at the old Metropolitan Opera House (on 39th Street) in 1892; the Philharmonic's most recent performance was in October 2013, led by then Assistant Conductor Joshua Weilerstein.

Single tickets for this performance start at $29. Pre-Concert Insights are $7 (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 David Geffen 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.)

Pictured: Christoph Eschenbach conducting the NY Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee.