David Zinman and Richard Goode Return to the NY Phil Tonight

David Zinman will return to the New York Philharmonic to lead Thomas Adès's Three Studies from Couperin, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 with Richard Goode as soloist, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, Scottish, tonight, December 5, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, December 7 at 8:00 p.m. Richard Goode's Grammy-nominated recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 was selected as Stereo Review's Record of the Year and Gramophone magazine's Record of the Month, and The New York Times praised it as "eloquently phrased, elegantly articulated."

The New York Philharmonic commissioned and premierEd Thomas Adès's America (A Prophecy) in November 1999 as one of the "Messages for the Millennium," led by Kurt Masur. In January 2011 Mr. Adès made his Philharmonic debut as soloist in his work In Seven Days (Concerto for Piano with Moving Image), led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, which The New York Times praised as "riveting, restless and kaleidoscopically colorful." In 2012 Alan Gilbert conducted Mr. Adès's Polaris, a Philharmonic co-commission, in its New York Premiere and U.K. Premiere during the Philharmonic's Barbican Centre residency as part of the EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour.

Thomas Adès's Three Studies from Couperin is inspired by three keyboard pieces by Couperin, King Louis XIV's organist, harpsichordist, and court composer. It is believed that Mozart may have composed his Piano Concerto No. 18 for Maria Theresia von Paradis - the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa's Court Councilor and Imperial Secretary of Commerce - and Mozart's father reported in a letter that after he performed it "the emperor tipped his hat and called out 'Bravo Mozart!'" Mendelssohn dedicated his Scottish Symphony to Queen Victoria, and it evokes Mendelssohn's reaction upon seeing the ruins of Mary Queen of Scots' residence at Holyrood Castle.

Related Events:

- Pre-Concert Talks
Composer Paul Moravec will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple talks, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. The December 5 Pre-Concert Talk takes place at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: www.nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875-5656.

- National and International Radio Broadcast
The program will be broadcast a later date* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network.

The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Brothers Fund, 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 8:00 p.m. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Artists:

Conductor David Zinman's 2013-14 season is his final as music director of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra. A highlight of his final season with the Tonhalle Orchestra is a tour to Japan in the spring of 2014, following his return to Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra last season. Also this season Mr. Zinman returns to the Vienna, Bavarian Radio, and Hamburg's NDR symphony orchestras; the Royal Stockholm and London Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Paris. He returns to the Mostly Mozart Festival with Joshua Bell and appears with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Mr. Zinman has conducted all the leading North American orchestras, including the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras and The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. His European engagements have included the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras; Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig's Gewandhaus, and Philharmonia orchestras; and the London, Frankfurt Radio, and Cologne's WDR symphony orchestras. Mr. Zinman's discography of more than 100 recordings has won international honors, including five Grammy awards, two Grand Prix du Disque, two Edison Prizes, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and a Gramophone Award. Mr. Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra have most recently released a recording titled Wagner in Switzerland, and have collaborated with violinist Julia Fisher and Decca Classics for Bruch and Dvo?ák's violin concertos. Recently completed cycles with the Tonhalle Orchestra include Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler (the recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 received a 2011 ECHO Klassik Award), as well as a Beethoven cycle that has sold more than one million copies. David Zinman, who studied conducting with Pierre Monteux, has served as music director of the Rotterdam and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras and principal conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. He was also music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and American Academy of Conducting for 13 years. In 2000 Mr. Zinman was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2002 he was first conductor and non-Swiss recipient of the City of Zurich Art Prize. He received the Thomas Theodore award in recognition of outstanding achievement and extraordinary service to one's colleagues in advancing the art and science of conducting. In 2008 he won the Midem Classical Artist of the Year award for his work with the Tonhalle Orchestra. Mr. Zinman's first appearance with the New York Philharmonic was leading the 1973 Neighborhood Concerts Orchestra during its citywide festival; most recently, he presided over The Modern Beethoven: A Philharmonic Festival in March 2012, and conducted a program of Sibelius and Schumann in December 2012.

In the 2013-14 season Richard Goode will appear as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin's German Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and tours Canada with the Toronto Symphony led by Peter Oundjian. He will give recitals at Carnegie Hall, in London and Paris, at the Aldeburgh Festival, and on leading concert and university series around the world. Additionally he will perform a chamber music concert with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and hold master classes at major conservatories and music schools on both sides of the ocean. An exclusive Nonesuch artist, Mr. Goode has made more than two-dozen recordings, including the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the complete Partitas by J.S. Bach, and solo and chamber works by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Busoni, and George Perle. His four recordings of Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra were received with wide critical acclaim, (including many Best of the Year nominations and awards), and his recording of the Brahms sonatas with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman won a Grammy Award. He has won numerous prizes, including the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, and the Avery Fisher Prize. Mr. Goode is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, with whom he often tours. Mr. Goode's first appearance with the Philharmonic was in 1974, when he played Ruth Crawford Seeger's Piano Study in Mixed Accents: Four Preludes, in a program led by Pierre Boulez co-presented with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; most recently he performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Colin Davis in 2008.

Repertoire:

Composer Thomas Adès has said about his Three Studies from Couperin, "My ideal day would be staying at home and playing the harpsichord works of Couperin - new inspiration on every page." He would certainly have plenty of material to choose from. Organist, harpsichordist, and court composer for Louis XIV, François Couperin (1668-1733) was already dubbed "Couperin le Grand" in his own day. He is admired for Pièces de clavecin, a vast compendium of harpsichord studies (published in 1713, 1717, 1722, and 1730) that includes more than 230 ornate works with unusual and imaginative titles, like the ones Mr. Adès draws upon in his Studies. He has transformed these chosen pieces for chamber orchestra (two string groups, winds, brass, and percussion), and retains Couperin's original titles and basic outlines of the material: "Les Amusemens" ("The Amusements"), "Les Tours de passe-passe" ("The Sleight of Hand"), and "L'Âme-en-peine" ("The soul in torment"). This is the Philharmonic's first performance of this work.

Although the autograph copy of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 bears no date, Mozart entered it into his thematic catalogue with the date of September 30, 1784 (he wrote five piano concertos during that year, the height of his popularity when he was in demand as a pianist and composer). For a time it was believed that he wrote this particular concerto for the blind virtuoso pianist Maria Theresia Paradies, but scholarship is divided on this point. What is certain, however, is that this concerto is one of Mozart's finest, with its elegant restraint, a melancholy theme-and-variations second movement, and a brisk, lively finale. The Philharmonic has only presented this work twice before: in 1970 with pianist Claude Frank and conducted by George Szell, and in 2005, performed and conducted by Christian Zacharias.

Completed in 1842, Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, Scottish, was inspired by a walking tour of Scotland in 1829. The composer led his Gewandhaus Orchestra, over which he presided, in the Leipzig premiere, and later, when he conducted it in London, Queen Victoria graciously allowed him to dedicate it to her (following extended informal gathering at which Her Royal Highness, Prince Albert, and Mendelssohn sang and played piano together). The work's nickname was not officially part of its title, but Mendelssohn always referred to it as his Scottish Symphony; his stated antipathy to music drawn directly from folk sources led him to reveal that it was based, instead, on visual cues, like the country's ruins and moors, and especially Holyrood Castle, Mary Queen of Scots' residence, and the chapel where she was crowned and which lay "in ruins, decayed, and open to the skies. I believe I found there today the beginning of my 'Scottish.'" (His protestations notwithstanding, many commentators do hear strains of Scottish folk music). The New York Philharmonic has presented this symphony on numerous occasions: the first was in November 1845, in a concert at the Apollo Rooms led by George Loder; the most recent was in January 2004, conducted by Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur.

Credit: Priska Ketterer