Mark Stone Replaces Simon Keenlyside in TOTENTANZ with the NY Phil This Weekend

Baritone Mark Stone, in his New York Philharmonic debut, will replace Simon Keenlyside, who has withdrawn due to illness, in the performances of the U.S. Premiere of Thomas Adès's Totentanz, led by the composer in his Philharmonic conducting debut, and also featuring mezzo- soprano Christianne Stotijn in her Philharmonic debut. The performances will also feature Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and Berlioz's Les Francs-juges Overture, tonight, March 12, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, March 14 at 8:00 p.m.

Mark Stone will again perform Mr. Adès's Totentanz alongside Christianne Stotijn and led by the composer in October 2015 with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Stone performed Mr. Adès's The Tempest, in the role of Sebastian, with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in May 2009.

Thomas Adès and his works have appeared frequently at the Philharmonic in recent seasons. The Philharmonic commissioned and premiered his America (A Prophecy) in November 1999 as one of the "Messages for the Millennium," led by then Music Director 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. In 2012 Alan Gilbert conducted Mr. Ade?s's Polaris, a Philharmonic co-commission, in its New York Premiere and later in its U.K. Premiere during the Philharmonic's Barbican Centre International Associate residency as part of the EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour. Most recently, in December 2013, the Philharmonic performed his Three Studies from Couperin, led by David Zinman.

Speaking about the composer, Alan Gilbert has said: "Tom Adès has absolute control over what he puts on the page and how it translates into actual sound in the concert hall. For me, the measure of a real composer is someone who is able to manipulate sounds in a very controlled way. Tom has an incredible ear and sense of rhythm, so the complexity in his score is always there for a reason, and he knows how to express feelings through his craft."

Related Events:

- Philharmonic Free Fridays
The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13-26 to the concert Friday, March 13 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13- to 26-year-olds to each of the 2014-15 season's 18 Friday evening subscription concerts; it is part of Share the Music!, a new initiative to support expanded access to the New York Philharmonic.

- Pre-Concert Insights
Author Fred Plotkin will introduce the program. Admission/Tickets to Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups. These events take place one hour before performances, and are held in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org/preconcert or (212) 875- 5656.

ARTISTS:

Composer, conductor, and pianist Thomas Adès studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and read music at King's College, Cambridge. His first opera, Powder Her Face (1995), was televised by London Weekend Television for Channel 4 and has been performed worldwide. The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, commissioned his second opera, The Tempest, which the composer led in the 2004 World Premiere; it was revived in 2007, again to a sold-out house, and has since been seen in several major opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera (where it was recorded for a Deutsche Grammophon DVD, which subsequently won a Grammy Award). He is currently working on his third opera, based on Luis Bun?uel's The Exterminating Angel. He has a close association with Simon Rattle, who led Mr. Ade?s's work Asyla (1997) at his final concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and his first as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as Tevot (2007) with the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2011 Thomas Ade?s's orchestral work Polaris (co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic) was premiered by the New World Symphony, led by Michael Tilson Thomas. Mr. Ade?s's most recent work, Totentanz, was premiered at the 2013 BBC Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His numerous honors have included the Grawemeyer Award, of which he is the youngest-ever recipient. From 1999 to 2008 Mr. Ade?s was artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival, and he coaches piano and chamber music annually at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.

Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn studied violin and voice at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam; after obtaining her solo violin diploma she continued her vocal studies with Udo Reinemann, Jard van Nes, and Dame Janet Baker. Her numerous awards include the ECHO Rising Stars Award 2005-06, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005, the Nederlands Muziekprijs in 2008, and being selected as a BBC New Generation Artist in 2007. Bernard Haitink has had a profound influence on her career; Ms. Stotijn has performed under his direction with orchestras including Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw and the Boston, Chicago, and London symphony orchestras. She has also worked with Claudio Abbado, Ivan Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Ne?zet-Se?guin, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Mark Elder, and Jaap van Zweden, performing repertoire including Berlioz's La Mort de Cle?opa?tre and Les Nuits d'e?te?, Elgar's Sea Pictures, Britten's Phaedra, Musorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, Mahler's Ru?ckert Lieder and Kindertotenlieder, Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs, Henze's Fu?nf neapolitanische Lieder, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, and Berg's Seven Early Songs. Ms. Stotijn also performs art song in recital and appears regularly on the operatic stage. She has participated in numerous World Premieres, including Michel van der Aa's Spaces of Blank, jointly dedicated to Ms. Stotijn and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2009. In 2013 she sang the World Premiere of Thomas Ade?s's Totentanz at the BBC Proms. Ms. Stotijn has released several recordings on Onyx, including the 2010 recording of Tchaikovsky songs (BBC Music Magazine Award); for MDG, she recorded Frank Martin's Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (2008 ECHO Klassik Award). Ms. Stotijn recently signed with Warner Classics and released her first album for them, If the Owl Calls Again, in November 2014. These performances mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

Baritone Mark Stone studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, and singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In concert he has sung Britten's War Requiem at Milan's Teatro alla Scala with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi led by Xian Zhang, and at Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw with Jaap van Zweden; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Lorin Maazel; Rossini's William Tell at the BBC Proms with the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia led by Antonio Pappano; the title role in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony with the Du?sseldorf Symphony Orchestra led by Roger Norrington; and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at Vienna's Konzerthaus with James Judd. Recent operatic engagements include the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni (Hamburg Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin), as well as roles in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (Hamburg and Cologne); J. Strauss II's Die Fledermaus and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (Welsh National Opera); Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Opera North); Puccini's Manon Lescaut (Leipzig); Handel's Serse (Royal Swedish Opera); Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Leha?r's The Merry Widow, Weber's Der Freischu?tz (Ope?ra de Montpellier); and Britten's Gloriana (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden). His numerous appearances at English National Opera include the title role in Don Giovanni and roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Puccini's La bohe?me, Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, John Adams's Nixon in China, and Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In the U.S. he has appeared in productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute, Verdi's Falstaff and La traviata, and the title role in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (Philadelphia Opera), as well as Mozart's Cosi? fan tutte (Santa Fe). In November he toured in the U.S. as the Ferryman in Netia Jones's production of Britten's Curlew River. These performances mark his New York Philharmonic debut.

REPERTOIRE:

Although Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 (1799-1800, labeled by the composer as "Grande Simphonie") may not strike the modern listener as being as iconoclastic as the Eroica, this symphony was certainly viewed that way by the Viennese audience who heard it in April 1800, with the composer himself on the podium. Having chafed under the influence of his teacher Joseph (aka "Papa") Haydn, the "son" wanted to break free. Beethoven broke a number of taboos, including starting the work on a dissonant chord, atypical key changes, unusual dynamics, and a third movement menuetto taken at an exuberant tempo (thereby inventing the symphonic scherzo). Despite some critical outrage, he was well on his way to becoming the Beethoven whom we continue to admire today. The Philharmonic's first performance of the work was in March 1854 at the Broadway Tabernacle, conducted by Theodore Elsfeld; Alan Gilbert led the most recent performances in January-February 2014 in New York and on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour.

Hector Berlioz (1803-69) composed the Les Francs-juges Overture in 1826, when he was only 23. The work is from his unfinished opera (the translation of the title means "The Judges of the Secret Court") utilizing a libretto by his friend Humbert Ferrand that follows a political prisoner whose faithful fiance?e saves him from a secret court, whose sentence is always death. Berlioz ultimately abandoned the opera, but retained the now-popular overture, and used some of the other material in later works. In Les Francs-juges Berlioz was already exploring the colors of orchestral instruments and the feelings they can evoke; he added two piccolos, contrabassoon, and two tubas to the upper and lower registers of the orchestra for extra layers of sound, and such textures perfectly portray, for example, the chilling menace of the courts and the lurking dangers of their forest location. Alfred Boucher led the first New York Philharmonic performance of the work in March 1846; Andrew Davis conducted the most recent performances in June 2010.

Thomas Ade?s (b. 1971) dedicated his 2013 Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra to the memory of Polish composer Witold Lutos?awski (1913-94) and his wife, Danuta. The work utilizes the anonymous text that appeared under a 15th-century frieze at the Marienkirche in Lu?beck, Germany, which was destroyed by bombing in World War II. The imagery on the cloth showed Death linking hands with various representations of humanity. The baritone plays the role of Death, who addresses human beings in turn, working his way through the Medieval hierarchy from Pope to Emperor, from maiden to child. The mezzo-soprano expresses humanity's attempts to escape, and the orchestra illustrates the futility of their situation. The composer says that it is not an "optional" dance - it is "terrifying, leveling ... no one can escape it; it's also funny ... because of the total powerlessness of everyone." The work was premiered at the 2013 BBC Proms by Simon Keenleyside, Christianne Stotijn, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Tickets for these performances start at $33. 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.]

Pictured: Mark Stone. Photo by Hayley Madden.