Jeffrey Kahane Returns to NY Philharmonic to Conduct, Perform All-Mozart Program This Week

Jeffrey Kahane will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct and perform an all-Mozart program featuring Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21 and Symphony No. 38, Prague, tonight, June 3, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 5 at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, June 6 at 8:00 p.m.

Jeffrey Kahane most recently led and performed with the Philharmonic in March 2014 in a program of Ravel, Weill, and Gershwin.

Conductor-pianists who have led the Philharmonic from the piano in performances of Mozart piano concertos include: Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Bruno Walter, Daniel Barenboim, Lukas Foss, and Boris Goldovsky, in addition to Jeffrey Kahane.

Pre-Concert Insights - Composer Joelle Wallach will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts available for multiple talks, students, and groups. 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.

About the Artist:

Equally at home at the keyboard and on the podium, Jeffrey Kahane performs a diverse repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to John Adams. Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, he has given recitals across the country and appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Atlanta symphony orchestras. He has collaborated with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell, Thomas Quasthoff, and the Emerson and Taka?cs Quartets. Currently in his 18th season as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he was previously music director of the Colorado and Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestras. Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Ravinia, Blossom, and Oregon Bach festivals; concerto performances with the Toronto, Houston, Milwaukee, Oregon, Nashville, and Colorado symphony orchestras and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; conducting/playing with the San Francisco, National, Detroit, Vancouver, Indianapolis, and New Jersey symphony orchestras; and conducting the New England Conservatory, Juilliard, and National Repertory orchestras. Mr. Kahane's recordings include works by Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma for Sony, Paul Schoenfield's Four Parables for Decca/Argo, the complete Brandenburg Concertos (on harpsichord) on the Haenssler label, and Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, Age of Anxiety, for Virgin Records, which was nominated for a Gramophone Record of the Year award. Rrecordings on which Mr. Kahane conducted include the Bach violin concertos with Hilary Hahn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. A native of Los Angeles and graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory, he undertook his early piano studies were with Howard Weisel and Jakob Gimpel. First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, he was also the recipient of a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987. An avid linguist, he received a master's degree in Classics from the University of Colorado in 2011. Jeffrey Kahane made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1984 performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, conducted by Neal Stulberg; he most recently led a program of works by Ravel, Weill, and Gershwin (the Concerto in F, for which Kahane was also soloist) in March 2014.

Repertoire:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) composed the Piano Concerto No. 21 early in 1785, on the heels of his completion of the dramatic Piano Concerto No. 20. Created during a busy time, when Mozart was trying to promote himself as both composer and performer, the Concerto No. 21 is filled with musical ideas that are reminiscent of comic opera, and the opening and closing movements are replete with little fanfares, melodic interjections, marches, timid themes, and drama. The second movement is more dramatically evocative, and became popular in the 20th century after Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg used it in the score to his 1967 drama Elvira Madigan. Carl Bergmann conducted S.B. Mills in the Philharmonic's first presentation of this concerto in November 1865; Alicia de Larrocha was the soloist for the most recent performance, led by Andre? Previn in December 1999.

Mozart's three-movement Symphony No. 38, Prague, while actually written in Vienna, was premiered in Prague in January 1787, only a month after its completion. Mozart had arrived in the Czech city less than one month after the first Prague performance of his latest opera, The Marriage of Figaro; touched by the universal delight for that opera expressed by the people of Prague, he offered the city his newest symphony, which he conducted at its premiere. The New York Philharmonic first performed the appropriately nicknamed Prague Symphony in January 1866, led by Carl Bergmann; the most recent performance was in October 2011, led by Lorin Maazel.

Mozart barely finished his Piano Concerto No. 20 before performing the premiere in Vienna in February 1785; when his father arrived the day before the concert, the copyists were still at work. It turned out to be his most popular concerto throughout the 19th century, performed regularly and loved by Beethoven, who played it at the behest of Mozart's widow, Constanze, during a memorial concert in March 1795. Mozart's first concerto in a minor key, it is one of his stormier, more romantic works, and foreshadows some of the richly dramatic writing in Don Giovanni and the Requiem. Richard Hoffman was the soloist for the Philharmonic's fist performance of the concerto in March 1861, led by Carl Bergmann; Mr. Kahane performed and conducted its most recent presentation in February 2006.

Tickets for these performances start at $30. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (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 Avery Fisher 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.]

Photo Credit: Chris Lee