Jakub Hr?ša To Make New York Philharmonic Debut, 5/25

Czech conductor Jakub Hr?ša will make his New York Philharmonic debut leading an all-Czech program featuring Dvo?ák's Violin Concerto, with Augustin Hadelich as soloist; three of Dvo?ák's Slavonic Dances (Op. 46, No. 1; Op. 72, No. 2; and Op. 72, No. 7); and Janá?ek's Taras Bulba, Rhapsody for Orchestra, Thursday, May 25, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 26 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 27 at 8:00 p.m.

Of his October 2016 performance of Janá?ek's Taras Bulba with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Classical Review wrote: "Hr?ša is an energetic presence on the podium. He conducted with swift, athletic movements and the occasional leaping downbeat. The resulting performance was not only notable for its drama but for its rhythmic drive and precision."

Augustin Hadelich made his acclaimed Philharmonic debut at Bravo! Vail in July 2010, when on short notice he replaced a soloist who fell ill. Praising that performance, The Denver Post said that Hadelich "easily confirmed his place on the shortlist of today's top violin virtuosos." After performing with Mr. Hadelich again in Vail in July 2011 and at the Caramoor Fall Festival in September 2011, the New York Philharmonic nominated him for Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, which he received in 2012. The New York Times wrote of his most recent appearance with the Philharmonic, in May 2015, led by Manfred Honeck: "That searching quality matched the eloquence of the violinist Augustin Hadelich, whose slight toughness of attack suggested unease under the jollity and poise of Mozart's surfaces. His encore, Paganini's Caprice No. 5, was finger-flying fast."

Both Czech composers who incorporated folk traditions in their music, Janá?ek and Dvo?ák were close friends and colleagues. Janá?ek once said of Dvo?ák, one of his major influences: "Do you know what it is like when someone takes the words out of your mouth as you are about to speak them? For me it was always like that in Dvo?ák's company. ... he also took his melodies from my heart. Nothing in the world can destroy such ties."

Artists
Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hr?ša is chief conductor of Bamberg Symphony, permanent guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, and principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. His recent guest appearances include two series especially devised for London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Bohemian Legends and The Mighty Five, and his debut with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In the 2016-17 season he makes debuts with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, in addition to the New York Philharmonic. As an opera conductor, Mr. Hr?ša is a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival - where he has conducted Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Turn of the Screw, Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Puccini's La bohème - and he has served as music director of Glyndebourne on Tour for three years. Elsewhere he has led productions for Vienna Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, Frankfurt Opera, Finnish National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, and Prague National Theatre. As a recording artist, Mr. Hr?ša has released six discs for Supraphon, which include a live recording of Smetana's Má vlast from the Prague Spring Festival. He has also made live recordings of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, R. Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie, and Suk's Asrael Symphony with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for Octavia Records. Other recordings include Tchaikovsky's and Bruch's Violin Concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the Czech Philharmonic (Universal) and a series of three discs with PKF-Prague Philharmonia for Pentatone, including orchestral works by Dvo?ák, and cello concertos with Johannes Moser. He will also embark on a new partnership in the coming seasons with the Bamberg Symphony and the Tudor label. His latest disc, Smetana's Má vlast with the Bamberg Symphony, was released in the fall of 2016, coinciding with the start of his tenure as chief conductor. Jakub Hr?ša studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and is currently president of the International Martin? Circle. In 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize. These concerts mark his New York Philharmonic debut.

Augustin Hadelich has performed with every major orchestra in the U.S., many on numerous occasions, as well as a growing number of major orchestras in the U.K. and in Europe and Asia. Highlights of his 2016-17 season include return performances with the New York and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras and the Baltimore, Colorado, Dallas, San Antonio, San Diego, and St. Louis symphony orchestras, as well as debuts with the Dresden, Hamburg, Munich, and Rotterdam philharmonic orchestras and the Frankfurt Radio and WDR Symphony Orchestras. In February he made his debut with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, led by Alan Gilbert. This fall he will perform the U.S. Premiere of Thomas Adès's new cadenza for Ligeti's Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Mr. Adès. In July he opens the Grand Teton Music Festival, followed by returns to Aspen, Blossom, and Chautauqua. Recent festival appearances include debuts at the BBC Proms and Sun Valley Summer Symphony, in addition to return engagements at Aspen, Bravo! Vail, and Tanglewood. Mr. Hadelich was Gold Medalist at the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Since then he has earned an Avery Fisher Career Grant; a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the U.K.; Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award (for which he was nominated by the New York Philharmonic); the inaugural Warner Music Prize; and a 2016 Grammy Award for his recording of Dutilleux's Violin Concerto, L'Arbre des songes, with the Seattle Symphony. A prolific recording artist, his next release will be a disc of the complete Paganini Caprices for Warner Classics. Born in Italy to German parents, Augustin Hadelich is now an American citizen. He plays the 1723 "Ex-Kiesewetter" Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago. Mr. Hadelich first appeared with the Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert in July 2010 as part of its annual Bravo! Vail residency. He most recently appeared with the Orchestra in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish, led by Manfred Honeck, in May 2015.

Repertoire
Antonín Dvo?ák (1841-1904) composed his Violin Concerto in the summer of 1879 at the request of famed German violinist Joseph Joachim, who had recently performed Brahms's Violin Concerto. Dvo?ák sent the completed concerto to Joachim for comment, and received suggested revisions for the solo part and alterations in the musical structure and orchestration. Dvo?ák took some of the violinist's advice, but not all - notably his construction of the opening movement. The composer would revise the score twice (in 1880 and 1882), and it was not until 1883 that it was first performed, and then not by Joachim - who never did play it - but by Czech violinist František Ond?í?ek. Violinist Henri Marteau performed the work in January 1894 with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today's New York Philharmonic); the New York Philharmonic most recently performed it in December 2013, with Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist and conducted by Manfred Honeck.

In 1877 the young Antonín Dvo?ák was reapplying for an Austrian state grant. The music he wrote during the first two years of that grant had so impressed Johannes Brahms that the elder composer encouraged his own publisher, Simrock, to work with Dvo?ák. Simrock invited Dvo?ák to write something similar to Brahms's popular Hungarian Dances, and Dvo?ák answered with his first set of Slavonic Dances in 1878, created originally for piano four hands, but orchestrated soon after. The Slavonic Dances are colorful pieces filled with the nationalistic musical style that would ultimately serve as Dvo?ák's hallmark - in this case employing the rhythms and patterns of Czech folk dances. They were hugely successful, officially launching the young composer's career. Because of their popularity, he was asked to write another set, the orchestrated version of which he delivered in 1887. The three Slavonic Dances on this program comprise one from the first set, the lively Op. 46, No. 1 (Furiant), and two from the second, the melancholic Op. 72, No. 2 (Starodávný), and the festive Op. 72, No. 7 (Kolo). The Philharmonic's first performances of any of the Slavonic Dances were in December 1899, conducted by Walter Damrosch, who led the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today's New York Philharmonic); most recently Daniel Boico led the Orchestra in the Slavonic Dance No. 8 as part of a March 2011 Young People's Concert.

Leoš Janá?ek (1854-1928) wrote his colorful orchestral rhapsody Taras Bulba in 1915, but revised it substantially in March 1918. As part of an outburst of pan-Slavic enthusiasm during World War I, Janá?ek was very active in the investigation of popular musical traditions of Czechoslovakia and, like many of his contemporaries, felt that a powerful Russia was the best guarantee for the development of a strong Slavic culture. This feeling was reflected in his enthusiasm for Nikolai Gogol's famous 1835 historical novella, Taras Bulba, which is in part a glorification of the indomitable vitality of Mother Russia. The title character was a chieftain of the semi-independent Cossacks, who led marauding expeditions into Poland, and was ultimately captured and executed by Polish forces. Janá?ek thought of the work as a rhapsody and chose three moments from the novella for the work's three movements: The Death of Andrei, The Death of Ostap, and The Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba. Dedicated to "our army, the armed protector of our nation," Taras Bulba was premiered at the National Theatre in Brno in October 1921. The Philharmonic first performed Taras Bulba in October 1933, led by Bruno Walter; the Orchestra most recently performed it in December 2004, led by Colin Davis.

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Jakub Hr?ša's debut with the New York Philharmonic is made possible by the Kurt Masur Fund for the Philharmonic, an endowment fund created to honor the accomplishments of the Philharmonic's Music Director Emeritus, Kurt Masur.

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Major support for these concerts is provided by the Jaye Penny Gould Foundation.

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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 $31. 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.)

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