Semyon Bychkov Conducts NY Philharmonic with Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier Capuçon, Now thru 10/24

Semyon Bychkov will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct works composed or inspired by Brahms: Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuc?on; Detlev Glanert's Brahms-Fantasie; and Brahms's Symphony No. 1. The performances take place tonight, October 21, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, October 22, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 23, 2015, at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, October 24, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.

"The music of Brahms is always intimate, no matter how loudly it's talking. For me, this is the great paradox: the monumentality of Brahms is in its intimacy," said Semyon Bychkov. "He was able to integrate everything that there is to life -- action and reaction, objective and subjective -- juxtaposing conflict and struggle with harmony and resolution."

In its review of Semyon Bychkov's 2004 recording of Brahms's complete symphonies, The Observer said: "Brahms is here accorded due respect and affection by the brilliant Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov. ... Bychkov [is] at his most magisterial in the stately first. Brahmsians will find it hard to find a more resonant collection in the catalogue."

Semyon Bychkov will again conduct the Philharmonic this season, leading Mahler's Symphony No. 6, February 11-13 and 16, 2016. Lisa Batiashvili returns to the New York Philharmonic following her acclaimed tenure as the 2014-15 season Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.

This performance marks Gautier Capuc?on's first return to the Philharmonic since his debut in 2014, when his performance of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 was praised by The New York Times, which wrote: "Mr. Capucon played the work beautifully, negotiating its difficulties with seeming ease," and that the cellist's "elegance paid dividends of its own." This Philharmonic appearance follows a series of performances of the Brahms Double Concerto in which Ms. Batiashvili and Mr. Capuçon will collaborate on the work with Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, on September 16-17 in Zurich and on September 19 in Prague, conducted by Lionel Bringuier.

Detlev Glanert's 2012 Brahms-Fantasie was written as a companion piece to Brahms's Symphony No. 1. The composer said: "We hear Brahms, yet don't hear him; we hear my music, yet it isn't entirely my music. A picture puzzle, music about music, a mind game, and a fantasy along alien, yet familiar paths."

Related Events:

- Pre-Concert Insights
Composer Paul Moravec will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7, and discounts are available for three or more talks and for students. 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.

ARTISTS

Semyon Bychkov won the Rachmaninov Conducting Competition at age 20, but after being denied the prize of conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic, he left the former Soviet Union two years later. By the time he returned in 1989 to be principal guest conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic he had been recognized for his concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and had enjoyed success as music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He has since served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris (1989-1998) and chief conductor of Cologne's WDR Symphony Orchestra (1997-2010) and Dresden Semperoper (1998). In addition to regular appearances at the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Orchestre National de France, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mr. Bychkov's symphonic engagements include annual tours with the Munich and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His repertoire spans the music of four centuries. In the opera house Mr. Bychkov is recognized for his interpretations of Richard Strauss, Wagner, and Verdi. While principal guest conductor of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, his productions of Jana?c?ek's Jenu?fa, Schubert's Fierrabras, Puccini's La bohe?me, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Musorgsky's Boris Godunov were awarded the prestigious Premio Abbiati. Most recently he conducted Musorgsky's Khovanshchina at the Vienna Staatsoper, and over next season he will conduct Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Wagner's Parsifal at Madrid's Teatro Real. Mr. Bychkov's recordings with Philips include discs with the Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestras, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris, which were followed by a series of benchmark recordings with Cologne's WDR Symphony Orchestra, including a cycle of Brahms's complete symphonies; works by Richard Strauss, Mahler, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Verdi, Detlev Glanert, and York Ho?ller; and a recording of Wagner's Lohengrin, which was voted BBC Music Magazine's Record of the Year. Semyon Bychkov currently holds the Klemperer Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Gu?nter Wand Conducting Chair with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with which he appears annually at the BBC Proms. The International Opera Awards named him 2015's Conductor of the Year. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in March 1984 leading a program of Beethoven, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff; he most recently led the Orchestra in works by Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich in October 2013.

Lisa Batiashvili, Musical America's 2015 Instrumentalist of the Year, was the New York Philharmonic's 2014-15 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence. This season she holds the position of artist-in-residence at Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, and highlights include performances with the Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestras (both under Yannick Ne?zet- Se?guin), Orchestre de Paris (Paavo Ja?rvi), Vienna Philharmonic (Esa-Pekka Salonen), and London Symphony Orchestra (Daniel Harding), as well as a European tour with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (Sakari Oramo). She also performs a series of recitals with Gautier Capuc?on, Frank Braley, Valery Sokolov, and Ge?rard Causse celebrating Henri Dutilleux's centennial at London's Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna's Musikverein, Paris's Philharmonie 2, and Zurich's Tonhalle. Recent and forthcoming concerts include the Dresden Staatskapelle, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Philadelphia, and Boston Symphony orchestras. Last season she performed with and Berlin Staatskapelle, both led by Daniel Barenboim, and
Antonio Pappano. She and her husband, Franc?ois Leleux, performed the World Premiere of Thierry Escaich's Concerto for Violin and Oboe with Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra and the U.S. Premiere with the New York Philharmonic, led by Alan Gilbert, as part of her residencies with both orchestras. Lisa Batiasvhili records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, and her most recent release is dedicated to works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, featuring Mr. Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud, and the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. Her past recordings include Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Dresden Staatskapelle, led by Christian Thielemann (also available on DVD) and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Mr. Salonen. She has also recorded the Beethoven, Sibelius, and Lindberg concertos for Sony. A student of Ana Chumachenko and Mark Lubotski, Lisa Batiashvili gained international recognition at age 16 as the youngest-ever competitor in the Sibelius Competition. She has also been awarded two ECHO Klassik awards, the Beethoven Ring Prize, MIDEM Classical Award, Choc de l'anne?e, and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival's Leonard Bernstein Award, and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in March 2005 performing Chausson's Poe?me and Saint-Sae?ns's Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel; she most recently appeared with the Orchestra in April 2015, performing the Escaich concerto and J.S. Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe with oboist Franc?ois Leleux, led by Alan Gilbert.

Gautier Capuc?on was born in Chambe?ry in 1981 and began playing the cello at age five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supe?rieur in Paris, with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet- Zakine, and later in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. He has won first prize in leading international competitions, including the International Andre? Navarra Prize. Mr. Capuc?on was named New Talent of the Year by Victoires de la Musique (the French equivalent of a Grammy) in 2001, and he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2004 as well as several ECHO Klassik awards. Mr. Capuc?on has performed regularly with Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Bernard Haitink, Christoph Eschenbach, and Yannick Ne?zet-Seguin. In recent seasons he has appeared with the Berlin, Munich and Seoul philharmonic orchestras; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, Dresden Staatskapelle, Mariinsky, and Zurich's Tonhalle orchestras; NHK, Sydney, and Chicago symphony orchestras; and all of the major orchestras across France. Mr. Capuc?on's 2014-15 season highlights included European tours with the London Symphony Orchestra (conducted by John Eliot Gardiner) and Oslo Philharmonic (Vasily Petrenko), and concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Emmanuel Krivine), Vienna Philharmonic (Andre?s Orozco-Estrada), Los Angeles Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel), Cleveland Orchestra (Lionel Bringuier), San Francisco Symphony (Charles Dutoit), and Boston Symphony Orchestra (Andris Nelsons). A regular recital and chamber musician, Mr. Capuc?on appears in halls and festivals across Europe, and annually at the Verbier Festival and at Project Martha Argerich, Lugano; in the 2014-15 season, he performed in London, both in his debut recital at the Barbican Centre with Nicholas Angelich and at Wigmore Hall with Frank Braley, and in Paris and Tokyo with Yuja Wang. Gautier Capuc?on plays a 1701 Matteo Goffriller. He made his Philharmonic debut in January 2014 performing Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, led by Andrey Boreyko.

REPERTOIRE

Detlev Glanert (b. 1960) says about his 2012 Brahms-Fantasie: "We hear Brahms, yet don't hear him; we hear my music, yet it isn't entirely my music. A picture puzzle, music about music, a mind game, and a fantasy along alien, yet familiar paths." His composition, subtitled "Heliogravure for Orchestra," is a companion piece to Brahms's Symphony No. 1 (also performed on this concert). A heliogravure is a chemical process whereby a photograph is "painted over" so that the original material appears as something transformed: the original form remains, but becomes new through the hand of the artist. Glanert starts with the dramatic opening of Brahms's First Symphony and develops his own work from there. Reviewing the Brahms-Fantasie's World Premiere in 2012, The Scotsman wrote: "Remarkably, Glanert managed to work some truly unusual harmonic effects -- muted organ-like strings, overlaid brass sounding like tam tams -- into an unmistakably Brahmsian mould. It was a beguiling result."

Johannes Brahms (1833-97) composed his final orchestral work, the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, in part as a gesture of reconciliation to the eminent Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom he had had a falling-out. "I should like to send you some news of an artistic nature which I heartily hope might more or less interest you," wrote the composer to Joachim in 1887. The overture of friendship was eagerly accepted, and later that year Brahms led the work's premiere in Cologne, with soloists Joachim and the cellist Robert Hausman. The New York Philharmonic first performed the concerto in January 1913, with violinist Henry Schmitt and cellist Leo Schulz, conducted by Josef Stransky. The Orchestra's most recent performances were in November 2012, conducted by Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur with then Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

After a gestation of 15 years, Brahms's Symphony No. 1 premiered in 1876. The delay was due in part to Brahms's concern about being compared to Beethoven, whose specter both frightened and inspired him. In 1872 he said: "I shall never write a symphony! You cannot imagine what it's like to hear such a giant marching behind you!" Nevertheless, as former New York Philharmonic program annotator Michael Steinberg has written, "When [Brahms] at last brought himself to move, he moved surely." By 1885 Brahms had composed his three other symphonies. The Symphony No. 1 entered the New York Philharmonic's repertoire in December 1877, under the direction of Theodore Thomas. The Orchestra most recently performed it in February 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

Single tickets for this performance start at $30. Pre-Concert Insights are $7 (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 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 $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: Semyon Bychkov conducting the New York Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee.