NY Philharmonic Concludes 2013-14 Season with Beethoven Concerto Farewell to Glenn Dicterow, Now thru 6/21

The New York Philharmonic will conclude its 2013-14 subscription season with the final program in The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, when Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Beethoven's Triple Concerto, with Mr. Bronfman, Principal Cello Carter Brey, and Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in his final appearances before concluding his 34-year tenure, tonight, June 18, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, June 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 20 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 21 at 8:00 p.m.

For his final performances with the Philharmonic, Glenn Dicterow requested Beethoven's Triple Concerto, which he has never before performed with the Philharmonic. Yefim Bronfman made his Philharmonic debut in 1977 performing the Triple Concerto with Shlomo Mintz and Yo-Yo Ma, conducted by Alexander Schneider.

"Beethoven's music is so profound and spiritual; he just gets right into your soul, grabs you, and doesn't let you go," Glenn Dicterow said. "He transports you to a different place, not with an outburst of emotions but with something more inside and reflective. I can't imagine being moved more spiritually than performing Beethoven."

"It has been an amazing 34 years," Glenn Dicterow said of his departure as Concertmaster. "Every single one has been challenging and inspiring. I feel very much part of the Philharmonic family. It is not going to be easy for me to leave this great Orchestra, which has been part of my life for so long."

"Glenn is one of the great concertmasters, and he's part of the reason the New York Philharmonic is as great as it is," Alan Gilbert said. "I think everybody agrees that Glenn's generosity and the warmth of his sound has become part of what makes the New York Philharmonic the New York Philharmonic."

The New York Philharmonic will mark Glenn Dicterow's farewell - following 34 years as Concertmaster, the longest tenure of any concertmaster in Philharmonic history - with the release of New York Philharmonic Presents: The Glenn Dicterow Collection, three albums on the New York Philharmonic label featuring Mr. Dicterow's favorite concerto performances from 1982 to 2012. The first album will be available on CD, which comes with a 90-page commemorative booklet that includes program notes with Mr. Dicterow's comments, essays about Mr. Dicterow by Alan Gilbert and Archivist/Historian Barbara Haws, photographs, and a complete list of Mr. Dicterow's solo performances. It will also be available as a download on iTunes and Amazon.com. The second and third albums will be available as downloads only. The collection, distributed by Naxos, will be available for purchase and download on nyphil.org/DicterowCollection beginning June 3, and available for pre-order May 20.

Mr. Dicterow will also be the subject of a New York Philharmonic Archives exhibition, Glenn Dicterow, a Most Masterful Musician: 34 Years as the New York Philharmonic's Concertmaster, which will focus on his legacy as the Philharmonic's longest-serving concertmaster by highlighting his solo performances, his relationships with music directors and composers, his role as an orchestral leader, and the history of the role of concertmaster. It will also include video excerpts of Mr. Dicterow's solo performances with the New York Philharmonic broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center. The exhibit will be on display June 5-August 29 on the east side of the Grand Promenade of Avery Fisher Hall as well as online.

The Beethoven Piano Concertos is the first confluence of the Philharmonic's multi-week festival and Artist-in-Residence position, two initiatives Alan Gilbert launched at the beginning of his tenure in the 2009-10 season. In past seasons, Philharmonic festivals have included The Russian Stravinsky (conducted by Valery Gergiev), Hungarian Echoes (conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen), The Modern Beethoven (conducted by David Zinman), and The Bach Variations (conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, Alan Gilbert, Andra?s Schiff, and Bernard Labadie).

Related Events

- Pre-Concert Talks
Composer Joelle Wallach will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Talks 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.

- Insights Series Event - "The Pinnacle of Cycles: Pianist Yefim Bronfman Speaks on Beethoven's Piano Concertos"
The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman, speaker
New York Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence Carol J. Oja, moderator Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman discusses The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, his first-ever cycle of this august oeuvre with the New York Philharmonic, which includes the Triple Concerto, the work with which he made his Philharmonic debut 35 years ago.

Tickets for Insights Series events are free; subscribers, Friends at the Affiliate level and above, and Patrons may request reserved seating by e-mailing AdultEd@nyphil.org. Space is limited.

- Exhibition: Glenn Dicterow, a Most Masterful Musician: 34 Years as the New York Philharmonic's Concertmaster
Mr. Dicterow will be the subject of a New York Philharmonic Archives exhibition that will focus on his legacy as the Philharmonic's longest-serving concertmaster by highlighting his solo performances, his relationships with music directors and composers, his role as an orchestral leader, and the history of the role of concertmaster. The exhibit will also include video excerpts of Mr. Dicterow's solo performances with the New York Philharmonic broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center.
June 5-August 29
East Side of Avery Fisher Hall's Grand Promenade and Online

- New York Philharmonic Presents: The Glenn Dicterow Collection
The New York Philharmonic will releases three albums featuring Glenn Dicterow's favorite concerto performances from 1982 to 2012. The first album will be available on CD, which comes with a 90-page commemorative booklet that includes program notes with Mr. Dicterow's comments, essays about Mr. Dicterow by Alan Gilbert and Archivist/Historian Barbara Haws, photographs, and a complete list of Mr. Dicterow's solo performances. It will also be available as a download on iTunes and Amazon.com. The second and third albums are available as downloads only. The collection will be available for purchase and download on nyphil.org/DicterowCollection beginning June 3.

- National and International Radio Broadcast
The program will be broadcast the week of July 20, 2014,* 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. Information subject to change. *Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Artists

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and, beginning in the spring of 2014, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.

In addition to inaugurating the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, in the 2013-14 season Alan Gilbert conducts Mozart's three final symphonies; the U.S. Premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze coupled with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; world premieres; an all-Britten program celebrating the composer's centennial; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey as the film was screened; and a staged production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. He continues The Nielsen Project - the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer's symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 - and presides over the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Last season's highlights included Bach's B-minor Mass; Ives's Fourth Symphony; the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and the season-concluding A Dancer's Dream, a multidisciplinary reimagining of Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, created by Giants Are Small and starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns.

Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Rene?e Fleming's recent Decca recording Poe?mes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music."

As the 2013-14 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, Yefim Bronfman plays concertos by composers ranging from Tchaikovsky to Magnus Lindberg; appears in chamber concerts featuring works by Marc-Andre? Dalbavie, Marc Neikrug, Schubert, Barto?k, and others; traveled on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour, performing Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2; and concludes the season with The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival. Other highlights of Mr. Bronfman's 2013-14 season include a tour with Pinchas Zukerman to Ottawa, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, and Vancouver; performing Beethoven with conductor Zubin Mehta at the Berlin Philharmonic's new spring residency in Baden-Baden; returns to the orchestras of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston, as well as Paris, Munich, Berlin, and Amsterdam; and a tour of Australia with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as part of its worldwide centenary celebrations. Mr. Bronfman was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen's Piano Concerto, with Mr. Salonen conducting (released on Deutsche Grammophon), having received a Grammy in 1997 for his recording of the three Barto?k piano concertos with Mr. Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His performance of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto with Andris Nelsons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the 2011 Lucerne Festival is now available on DVD. His most recent CD release is Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2, commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, on the Dacapo label. Born in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, in 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973. There he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. He later studied in the United States, at The Juilliard School, Marlboro, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He became an American citizen in July 1989. He last appeared with the Philharmonic in January 2014 and on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour performing Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2, led by Alan Gilbert. On May 23, 2014, Mr. Bronfman will perform a chamber music concert, co-presented with 92nd Street Y, alongside Philharmonic musicians in works by Schubert, Barto?k, and Brahms.

New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow has established himself worldwide as one of the most prominent American concert artists of his generation. His extraordinary musical gifts became apparent when, at age 11, he made his solo debut in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (in which his father, Harold Dicterow, served as principal of the second violin section for 52 years). In the following years, Glenn Dicterow became one of the most sought-after young artists, appearing as soloist from coast to coast. The violinist, 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 made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto under Andre Kostelanetz. In 1980 Mr. Dicterow joined the Orchestra as Concertmaster, and has since performed as soloist every year, most recently in Brahms's Double Concerto in November 2012, with cellist Alisa Weilerstein, conducted by Assistant Conductor Case Scaglione. Prior to joining the New York Philharmonic, he served as Associate Concertmaster and Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Dicterow, who frequently appears as a guest soloist with other orchestras, has made numerous recordings. Highlights of his recorded Philharmonic appearances include Bruch's Violin Concerto, Barto?k's Violin Concerto No. 1, Korngold's Violin Concerto, Bernstein's Serenade, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, and Waxman's Carmen Fantasie. His most recent CD is a solo recital for Cala Records entitled New York Legends, featuring works by John Corigliano (the son of one of his predecessors as the New York Philharmonic's Concertmaster), Korngold, Bernstein, and Martinu?. 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. Glenn Dicterow is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, as well as a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West, following three years of participation in Music Academy Summer Festivals. Beginning in the fall of 2013, he became the first to hold the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair, of the New York Philharmonic in 1996. He made his Philharmonic solo debut in May 1997 performing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations under the direction of then Music Director Kurt Masur, and has since performed as soloist almost every season. In the 2013-14 season he was featured in Penderecki's Concerto Grosso alongside cellists Alisa Weilerstein and Daniel Mu?ller-Schott, led by Charles Dutoit. He rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, Young Concert Artists' Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America's Performing Arts Prize. Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, and performed under the batons of prominent conductors including Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, and Christoph von Dohna?nyi. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the United States and Italy), and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O'Riley; together they recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico released on Helicon Records. On another CD he collaborated with violinist Pamela Frank and violist Paul Neubauer in Aaron Jay Kernis's Still Movement with Hymn (on Decca's Argo label). He also recorded all of Chopin's works for cello and piano with pianist Garrick Ohlssen (currently available on Hyperion). Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. His violoncello is a rare J. B. Guadagnini made in Milan in 1754.

Repertoire
Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) Triple Concerto (composed in 1804) is an unusual concept in its presentation of violin, piano, and cello together as concerto soloists, though it is reminiscent of the Baroque concerto grosso (in which a small group of instruments are set off against a larger ensemble). Beethoven, despite the challenges, essentially invented a new genre with the work: he pits the three solo instruments against an orchestra, a daunting task because all three would need to have their place in the spotlight, while ensuring their personalities would remain distinct as they interacted, and taking into account their pitch range so that each instrument could be heard. Beethoven also had to consider the technical abilities of the musicians who would perform its premiere, primarily his 16-year-old piano student Archduke Rudolf (1788-1831), the music-loving Habsburg who commissioned the piece, and premiered it at what was likely to have been a private performance. Rudolf and Beethoven would remain lifelong friends, with the former generously helping to ensure Beethoven's financial security. Josef Stransky conducted pianist Germaine Schnitzer, violinist Maximillian Pilzer, and cellist Leo Schulz for the Philharmonic's first performance of the work at Carnegie Hall in 1915; the most recent presentation, in 2011, was also at Carnegie Hall, with Alan Gilbert leading Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, and Yo-Yo Ma. This was the work with which pianist Yefim Bronfman, currently the Philharmonic's Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, made his debut with the Orchestra in 1977.

Composed in 1809 while Vienna was under siege by Napoleon's armies, the nickname for Beethoven's final piano concerto - Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, appended after his death - refers not to Napoleon, but rather to the work's regal temperament. Beethoven did, however, write the work under war's duress: "What a destructive, unruly life around me! Nothing but drums, cannons, human misery of all sorts!" he penned, yet his despair is never manifested in the defiant, rebellious, and triumphant score. Even though this is the only one of his five piano concertos that he could not premiere himself, due to his near-total deafness, it concluded one of Beethoven's most vibrantly productive periods, in which he created an astonishing number of masterpieces. He also introduced something new in this concerto: where soloists would normally expect to improvise and show off their technical abilities in a cadenza, he wrote in the score: "do not play a cadenza, but immediately begin the following," and notated an enhanced cadenza-like passage that continues to work the thematic materials and then proceeds to the end of the first movement. After the work's Leipzig premiere in 1811, a journalist proclaimed: "It is without doubt one of the most original, imaginative, most effective but also one of the most difficult of all existing concertos." Conductor Henry C. Timm led pianist Gustave Satter for the Philharmonic's first performance of the Emperor Concerto in 1855 at Niblo's Garden; Emanuel Ax joined conductor David Robertson for the concerto's most recent presentation in 2008.

Tickets for these performances start at $31. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). Tickets for Insights Series events are free; subscribers, Friends at the Affiliate level and above, and Patrons may request reserved seating by e-mailing AdultEd@nyphil.org. Space is limited. All other 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. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

Pictured: New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow. Photo by Chris Lee.