Sir Colin Davis Conducts New York Philharmonic, 12/2, 12/4 & 12/7

Sir Colin Davis will lead the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, featuring Dorothea Röschmann in her Philharmonic debut, and tenor Ian Bostridge, Thursday, December 2, 2010, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 4, at 8:00 p.m., and Tuesday, December 7, at 7:30 p.m.

This program is part of a season-long focus honoring the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth and the 100th anniversary of his death and last season as music director of the Philharmonic. For more information, go to nyphil.org/mahler.

Ian Bostridge, who has worked frequently with Sir Colin Davis, notes that he has sung Des Knaben Wunderhorn - composed to a set of poems published in the early 19th century - with piano, but has never with orchestra. "Once you put the orchestra in, it's more like a symphony with voices, because Mahler was such a brilliant orchestrator," he says. "Some of the poems are a dialogue between a man and a woman. Some of them are quite funny - all about the battle of the sexes - and some are very sad. I think it's a very nice tradition that has grown up over the years between the male and female voices. That's what we'll be doing in these performances."

Related Events:
• Pre-Concert Talk
Composer Victoria Bond will introduce the program one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Pre-Concert Talks are $7.00; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656

• On the Music: The New York Philharmonic Podcast
Elliott Forrest, Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, producer, and weekend host on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, is the host of this podcast. These award-winning previews of upcoming programs - through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, conductors, and Orchestra musicians - are available at nyphil.org/podcast or from iTunes.

•National Radio Broadcast
This concert will be broadcast the week of December 13, 2010,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated nationally to more than 300 stations by the WFMT Radio Network. The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, 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 Classical 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
*Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic. Sir Colin Davis's appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors Endowment Fund.

Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Single tickets for these performances start at $32. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $18.
Pre-Concert Talks are $7.00; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). All other tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or the Alice Tully Hall Box Office at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. 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 $12.50 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.]

Artists:

Sir Colin Davis is president of the London Symphony Orchestra and honorary conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle. He began this season in Dresden, conducting the Dresden Staatskapelle, followed by performances in London with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). Other highlights of this season include appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Mozart's The Magic Flute; with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven's Mass in C major with the Orchestre National de France; a series of concerts with pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the LSO performing all the Beethoven Piano Concertos; LSO in Aix-en-Provence for Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito; and two concerts at the BBC Proms - one with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the other with the LSO and Beethoven's Missa solemnis.

During his career Sir Colin has conducted the BBC Scottish Orchestra and Sadler's Wells Opera House, and he was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1967-71). He became music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1971, and principal guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1972. He spent 1983-92 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, was principal guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003, and has been honorary conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle since 1990. He was principal conductor of the LSO from 1995 to 2006.

Sir Colin has recorded widely for the Phillips, BMG, and Erato labels. His recording of Verdi's Otello with the LSO has been released, and will be followed by Nielsen's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Beethoven's Mass in C major, Haydn's The Creation, and a boxed set of Sibelius Symphonies Nos. 1-7 and Kullervo Symphony - which received a BBC Music Magazine Award in April 2007 - were released last season. Sir Colin was named a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2001, and received the Yehudi Menuhin Prize by the Queen of Spain in 2003 for his work with young people. He received The Queen's Medal for Music in December 2009. Sir Colin last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in April 2008.

Born in Flensburg, Germany, soprano Dorothea Röschmann made a critically acclaimed debut at the 1995 Salzburg Festival as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and has since returned to the festival many times. At The Metropolitan Opera she has sung Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Ilia in Mozart's Idomeno, with James Levine. Her roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, have included Pamina, and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte conducted by Sir Colin Davis, and Countess Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Antonio Pappano. Other roles include Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni; Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz; Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio; Anne Trulove in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress; and the title role in Handel's Rodelinda. She is closely associated with the Berlin Deutsche Staatsoper, where her roles include Ännchen with Zubin Mehta; Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff with Claudio Abbado; Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin; Pamina, Fiordiligi, Susanna, Zerlina, and Donna Elvira, and Micäela in Bizet's Carmen with Daniel Barenboim.

Ms. Röschmann's future engagements include Countess Almaviva at the Paris Opera and Vienna Staatsoper and returns to the Salzburg Festival and the Berlin Deutsche Staatsoper. Her recent concert appearances have included the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle and Bernard Haitink; Vienna Philharmonic with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Daniel Barenboim; Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Barenboim; Munich Philharmonic with Levine; Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst; Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Georges Prêtre; Rotterdam Philharmonic with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding. She has appeared in recital in Antwerp, Lisbon, Madrid, Cologne, Brussels, New York, London, Vienna, Oslo, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and the Edinburgh, Munich and Schwarzenberg Festivals. This is her New York Philharmonic debut.

Tenor Ian Bostridge was a post-doctoral fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, before he embarked on a full-time career as a singer. His international recital career includes appearances at the world's major concert halls and at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh, and Schubertiade festivals. In 1999 he premiered a song-cycle written for him by Hans Werner Henze. In 2003-04 he held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, and in 2004-05 he shared a Carte-Blanche series with bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. In 2005-06 he had his own Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, with subsequent appearances in 2008 at the Barbican in London, and in 2010-11 at the Luxembourg Philharmonie.

Mr. Bostridge made his operatic debut in 1994 as Lysander in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Opera Australia at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1996 he made his debut at the English National Opera as Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute, returning as Jupiter in Handel's Semele. In 1997 he sang Quint in Deborah Warner's award-winning production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw for the Royal Opera, and he has since returned as Caliban in Thomas Adès's The Tempest; Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni, led by Antonio Pappano; and as Vasek in Rossini's The Bartered Bride, conducted by Bernard Haitink. In 1998 he made his debut at the Munich Festival singing Nerone in David Alden's production of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, returning as Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, and the Male Chorus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Most recently he sang Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, and his first Aschenbach in a new production of Britten's Death in Venice for English National Opera and at Brussels's opera La Monnaie and in Luxembourg. He will sing Aschenbach in his debut at la Téatro alla La Scala in Milan, in addition to numerous engagements with orchestras around the world. Mr. Bostridge last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in April 2006, performing Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.

Repertoire:

Ludwig van Beethoven began his Symphony No. 2 in 1801, but did most of the work on the piece in the summer and early fall of 1802. He led the first performance at a concert in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on April 5, 1803. "In this symphony," Hector Berlioz later wrote, "everything is noble, energetic, proud." The year 1802 marked a turning point in Beethoven's career; after a time of great personal struggle, it was the beginning of an enormously productive period. "For a while now I have been gaining more than ever in physical strength and in mental strength, too," he wrote. "Every day I come closer to my goal, which I can sense but don't know how to describe." The New York Philharmonic first performed the work in April 1843, with Alfred Boucher conducting, and most recently, in October 2003 led by Lorin Maazel.

Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn) is the culmination of a century of fascination with a renowned collection of traditional Germanic verse. First published between 1805 and 1808, the collection had been a vital source of folkloristic inspiration to the nation's poets from Goethe onward and, through them, to the composers of the Romantic era. Collected by Achim von Arnim and Clements Brentano, the texts reached beyond social, economic, and educational boundaries and inspired a keen sense of the German national identity. Mahler discovered the collection in his late twenties, and for the next 15 years it was his principal source of inspiration. More than half of his songs are based on Wunderhorn texts, several of which supplied themes and even vocal movements for his Second, Third, and Fourth Symphonies. The New York Philharmonic first performed selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in November 1910, conducted by the composer, with Alma Gluck as vocalist. The most recent complete performance took place in November 1998, with soprano Inger Dam-Jansen and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.