New York Philharmonic Presents World Premiere Of Lera Auerbach's NYx: FRACTURED DREAMS And More In February

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commission of Lera Auerbach's NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4), with The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos as soloist, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, with soprano Christina Landshamer, Wednesday, March 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, March 3 at 8:00 p.m. Alan Gilbert and the Orchestra will again perform Mahler's Symphony No. 4, with soprano Christina Landshamer, as well as Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta on Saturday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m.

The Philharmonic commissioned Lera Auerbach's NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4) at Leonidas Kavakos's suggestion; these performances mark the Philharmonic's first of a work by Ms. Auerbach. Mr. Kavakos's past collaborations with Ms. Auerbach, an acclaimed pianist, include a performance of her Preludes for Violin and Piano at the 2010 Verbier Festival.

"Lera is a very special personality. What she says is extremely profound and very essential," said Leonidas Kavakos. "It's a great opportunity to play something for the very first time, but I don't like to commission for the sake of commissioning. You don't know what kind of birth it will be: it could be beautiful, but it's a risk. Some composers one just trusts: Lera is one of them."

With these performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 4, during his tenure Alan Gilbert will have conducted seven out of nine complete works in the genre composed by the former Philharmonic Music Director (1909-11); he has led the Orchestra in Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9. In the 2010-11 season Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic commemorated the 100th anniversary of Mahler's final Philharmonic season and the 150th anniversary of his birth with performances of Kindertotenlieder, featuring baritone Thomas Hampson, in New York and on the EUROPE / SPRING 2011 tour. In September 2011, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Alan Gilbert led the Philharmonic in A Concert for New York, featuring a critically acclaimed performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. In April 2016 Mr. Gilbert led the Orchestra, Mr. Hampson, and tenor Stefan Vinke in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

The New York Times wrote that Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic's October 2016 performance of Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta was "excellent ... achingly sustained in the opening Andante, vibrantly taut and energetic in the Allegros, featuring virtuoso soloists from the orchestra." The New York Times called Christina Landshamer "honey-toned" in its review of her New York Philharmonic debut, singing Handel's Messiah in December 2016, led by Alan Gilbert.

Related Events

• Philharmonic Free Fridays

The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets to young people ages 13-26 for the concert Friday, March 3 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13-26-year-olds to each of the 2016-17 season's 16 Friday evening subscription concerts.

• Insights at the Atrium - "An Evening with Leonidas Kavakos and Lera Auerbach"

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos, speaker
Composer Lera Auerbach, speaker
Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud, moderator
Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Broadway at 62nd Street)

Artists
As Music Director of the New York Philharmonic since 2009, Alan Gilbert has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today's music; and the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. The Financial Times called him "the imaginative maestro-impresario in residence."

Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect themes, works, and musicians that hold particular meaning for him, including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony alongside Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, Wagner's complete Das Rheingold in concert, and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other highlights include three World Premieres, Mahler's Fourth Symphony, Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre, and Manhattan, performed live to film. He also leads the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour and in performance residencies in Shanghai and Santa Barbara. Past highlights include acclaimed stagings of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (2015 Emmy nomination), and Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 28 World Premieres; a tribute to Boulez and Stucky during the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL; The Nielsen Project; the Verdi Requiem and Bach's B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to film; Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; performing violin in Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time; and ten tours around the world.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season he returns to the foremost European orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He will record Beethoven's complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conduct Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged opera there. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award, and he conducted Messiaen's Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010) and Westminster Choir College (2016), Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015), Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2015), and New York University's Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City (2016).

The New York Philharmonic has named violinist and conductor Leonidas Kavakos The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2016-17 season. His residency features three solo appearances in repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, his Philharmonic conducting debut, a recital with pianist Yuja Wang (presented in association with Lincoln Center's Great Performers), and a Young People's Concert. Also in the season he appears with The Philadelphia Orchestra; plays and conducts the Houston Symphony; embarks on a recital tour with Ms. Wang in both Europe and the U.S.; and undertakes a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and a tour to Switzerland with the Mariinsky Orchestra. Mr. Kavakos had already won three major competitions by age 21: the Sibelius (1985), the Paganini (1988), and the Naumburg (1988). This success led to his making the first recording in history of the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903-04), which won the 1991 Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award. He has since appeared regularly as soloist with the Vienna, Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras; London, Boston, and Chicago symphony orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Philadelphia Orchestras. As a conductor Mr. Kavakos has worked with the Atlanta, Boston, London, and Vienna symphony orchestras; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; and Budapest Festival Orchestra. This season he makes conducting debuts with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Mr. Kavakos's first release on the label, of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with pianist Enrico Pace (2013), earned him an ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year award. Later recordings include Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly; Brahms's violin sonatas with Yuja Wang; and, his most recent recording, Virtuoso (released in April 2016). His earlier discography includes recordings for BIS, ECM, and Sony Classical. Mr. Kavakos was named Gramophone Artist of the Year 2014. Leonidas Kavakos plays the "Abergavenny" Stradivarius violin of 1724. He made his New York Philharmonic debut playing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy as part of a July 2002 Concerts in the Parks performance, led by Bramwell Tovey; most recently, in October 2016, he made his Philharmonic conducting debut leading and performing J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in D minor (reconstructed), BWV 1052, and conducting Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque and Schumann's Symphony No. 2.

German soprano Christina Landshamer graduated from Munich's Hochschule für Musik und Theater and the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart. She is a versatile and internationally in-demand concert, opera, and recital singer, and has worked with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Stéphane Denève, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington, and Christian Thielemann. Last season Ms. Landshamer made her U.S. debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and appeared in New York with the Ensemble MidtVest at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. This season she returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, led by Manfred Honeck, for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, and appears twice with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert, first in Handel's Messiah (in December, marking her debut with the Orchestra), and then in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (March 2017), in which she will also perform during the Orchestra's EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. She also appears with NDR Elbphilharmonie under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock in Haydn's The Creation as part of the Elbphilharmonie's opening festival, on tour with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt for Bach's Mass in B minor. Ms. Landshamer's discography includes Haydn's The Seasons and The Creation led by Philippe Herreweghe (PHI), Bizet's Carmen with Simon Rattle (CD and DVD on EMI Classics), and J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Chailly (Decca). Her musical versatility can also be enjoyed on various DVDs: Haydn's Il mondo della luna (Concentus musicus/Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Unitel Classica), St. Matthew Passion and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly, Accentus), and Mozart's The Magic Flute (Nederlandse Opera - Opus Arte). Last year she released her first CD of Lieder, featuring songs by Ullmann and Schumann, with pianist Gerold Huber. Christina Landshamer made her New York Philharmonic debut in December 2016 performing in Handel's Messiah, led by Alan Gilbert.

Insights at the Atrium Speakers
See Leonidas Kavakos's biography above

Lera Auerbach has published more than 120 works for orchestra, opera, ballet, and chamber ensemble. Her orchestral pieces have been brought to life by conductors including Boreyko, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Jurowski, and Vänskä, and she collaborates with distinguished soloists including violinists Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, Gidon Kremer, and Julian Rachlin. Recent productions have been staged by the Lincoln Center Festival, Hamburg State Theatre, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre, and the national ballets of China, Canada, Finland, and Denmark. Vienna's historic Theatre an der Wein has produced both of Auerbach's operas, GOGOL and The Blind. Ms. Auerbach has been composer-in-residence of the Dresden Staatskapelle, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Rheingau Musik Festival, Japan's Pacific Music Festival, Switzerland's Verbier Festival, Norway's Trondheim Festival, Canada's Banff Centre, and Marlboro Music Festival. Her work has been broadcast on ARTE, PBS's Great Performances, and BBC Radio 3, and she has been featured in Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and Opernwelt. Highlights have included the premiere of The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie for violin, choir, and orchestra at the BBC Proms; Violin Concerto No. 3 at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival; Requiem: Ode To Peace by the Dresden Staatskapelle; Symphony No. 2 by the São Paulo Symphony; and Tatiana, Little Mermaid Ballet, and Preludes CV, all choreographed by John Neumeier. Lera Auerbach's work incorporates literature and visual arts, simultaneously expressing ideas visually, in words, and through music. She contributes regularly to The Best American Poetry series, has published three books of poetry and prose in Russian, and her first book in English, a collection of aphorisms titled Excess of Being (Arch Street Press). Ms. Auerbach has received prizes including International Pushkin Society Poet of the Year, two Golden Masks, an Echo Klassik Award, and the Hindemith Prize. Since 2007 she has been a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where she often speaks about borderless creativity. Her music is available on ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, BIS, Cedille, AristLed, Bridge, Centaur, and other labels. Lera Auerbach's NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4) is being premiered by Leonidas Kavakos and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in March 2017.

Theodore Wiprud - New York Philharmonic Vice President, Education, The Sue B. Mercy Chair - has directed the Orchestra's Education Department since 2004. The Philharmonic's education programs include the famed Young People's Concerts (which Mr. Wiprud hosts), Philharmonic Schools (an immersive classroom program that reaches thousands of New York City students), Very Young Composers (which enables students to express themselves through original works, often performed by Philharmonic musicians), adult education programs, and many special projects. Mr. Wiprud has also created innovative programs as director of education and community engagement at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra; served as associate director of The Commission Project; and assisted the Orchestra of St. Luke's on its education programs. He has worked as a teaching artist and resident composer in a number of New York City schools. From 1990 to 1997 he directed national grant-making programs at Meet the Composer. Prior to that position, he taught at and directed the music department for Walnut Hill School, a pre-professional arts boarding school near Boston. Mr. Wiprud is also an active composer, whose Violin Concerto (Katrina) was released on Champs Hill Records. His music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice is published by Allemar Music. Theodore Wiprud holds degrees from Harvard and Boston Universities and studied at Cambridge University as a visiting scholar.

Repertoire
When the New York Philharmonic asked Russian-born composer Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) to use the night as inspiration for her new violin concerto - which would be a World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commission - she recalls that "this request made me very happy as night is the most important time of creativity for me." In response, she used her creative inspiration to ultimately develop what she considers to be an unusual concept in composing NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4). In contrast to her Violin Concerto No. 3, which she categorizes as "one gigantic monolith," Ms. Auerbach approached her new work as "an experiment in fragmentation, similar to how dreams and nightmares wave a tapestry of hidden truths in our sleep and reveal our deepest fears and hopes." The treatment of the word "NYx" in the title alludes to both New York and the Greek goddess of the night, Nyx.

Gustav Mahler's (1860-1911) Symphony No. 4 had its origins in 1892, when the composer turned to the folk-poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn and set the poem "Der Himmel hängt voll Geigen" ("Heaven Is Hung with Violins") as a song. Although he first imagined that the song would form the seventh movement of his Third Symphony, Mahler instead chose to make it the final movement of his Fourth. He began writing the three movements that precede it during his summer holiday in 1899, finishing the work the following summer. The composer avoided supplying an extra-musical program of any kind, and a 1910 program noted that, "in deference to Mr. Mahler's wishes, there shall be no attempt at an analysis or description here of the symphony." Mahler conducted the premiere in 1901 with the Kaim Orchestra of Munich, and led the New York Philharmonic in performances in January 1911. It was first performed by the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today's New York Philharmonic) in November 1904, led by Walter Damrosch, with Etta de Montjau as soloist; the Philharmonic most recently performed the complete work in March 2011, led by Daniel Harding, with Lisa Milne as soloist.

Belá Bartók (1881-1945) composed his Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta in celebration of the Basel Chamber Orchestra's 10th anniversary. Commissioned by Paul Sacher, the work received its premiere in Basel, Switzerland, in January 1937, and the New York Philharmonic presented its U.S. Premiere that October, under the direction of Sir John Barbirolli. The four-movement work of exuberant invention and passion explores Baroque concepts of antiphonal spacing, symmetry, and counterpoint, as well as modern timbres and orchestration techniques. Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is one of Bartók's most frequently played pieces, having appeared in array of films including Being John Malkovich and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and even in a few early episodes of Doctor Who. The Philharmonic first performed the work in October 1937, led by John Barbirolli, marking the work's U.S. Premiere. The New York Philharmonic most recently performed it in October 2016, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

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Alan Gilbert's appearance is made possible by the Daisy and Paul Soros Endowment Fund.

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Leonidas Kavakos is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.

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Lera Auerbach's commission is made possible with generous support from the Sorel Organization.

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Major support for Philharmonic Free Fridays is provided by The Pratt Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by Jack and Susan Rudin.

Philharmonic Free Fridays is made possible, in part, by a donation from an anonymous donor through the New York Philharmonic's 2014 Share the Music! campaign.

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Insights at the Atrium is presented in partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

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Citi. Preferred Card of the New York Philharmonic.

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Emirates is the Official Airline of the New York Philharmonic.

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Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Tickets
Single tickets for this performance start at $29. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. 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 $18 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.)

Insights at the Atrium events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Subscribers, Friends at the Fellow level and above, and Patrons may secure guaranteed admission by emailing AdultEd@nyphil.org. Space is limited.

For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or email her at carrl@nyphil.org.

New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Wednesday, March 1, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Open Rehearsal - 9:45 a.m.
Thursday, March 2, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 3, 2017, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Christina Landshamer, soprano

Lera AUERBACH NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4) (World Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commission)
MAHLER Symphony No. 4

New York Philharmonic

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center

Saturday, March 4, 2017, 8:00 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Christina Landshamer, soprano

BARTÓK Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
MAHLER Symphony No. 4

INSIGHTS AT THE ATRIUM: "AN EVENING WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS AND LERA AUERBACH"

David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Broadway at 62nd Street)

Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos, speaker
Composer Lera Auerbach, speaker
Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud, moderator

The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos is joined by composer Lera Auerbach to discuss the challenges and rewards of creating a new musical work. Discover the backstory of Ms. Auerbach's NYx: Fractured Dreams (Violin Concerto No. 4) - a New York Philharmonic commission - and step into the soloist's mind days before he gives the World Premiere.