christophvondohnányi, conductor -...

19January 2013

JANUARY 31–FEBRUARY 2, 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 7:30 p.m.15,493rd ConcertOpen Rehearsal at 9:45 a.m.

Friday, February 1, 2013, 8:00 p.m.15,494th Concert

The February 1 concert is dedicated toArnold Chavkin and Laura Changfor their participation in theLeonard Bernstein Circle.

Saturday, February 2, 2013, 8:00 p.m.15,496th Concert

Christoph von Dohnányi, ConductorRadu Lupu, Piano

This concert will last approximately one andthree-quarter hours, which includes one intermission.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln CenterHome of the New York Philharmonic

Christoph von Dohnányi’sappearance is made possiblethrough the Daisy and PaulSoros Endowment Fund.

Guest artist appearances are madepossible through the Hedwig vanAmeringen Guest ArtistsEndowment Fund.

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New York Philharmonic

Christoph von Dohnányi, ConductorRadu Lupu, Piano

ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM(1770–1827)

Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus(The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43 (1800–01)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15(ca. 1795/1800)Allegro con brioLargoRondo: Allegro

RADU LUPU

Intermission

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1804–08)Allegro con brioAndante con motoAllegroAllegro(There is no pause between the third and fourth movements)

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New York Philharmonic20

Harvey Sachs, Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic,gives a talk one hour prior to these performances.

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21January 2013

Overture to Die Geschöpfedes Prometheus (TheCreatures of Prometheus),Op. 43

Piano Concerto No. 1in C major, Op. 15

Symphony No. 5in Cminor, Op. 67

Ludwig vanBeethoven

Whether Prometheus was agood guy or a bad guy de-pends on your point of view,and on who’s telling hisstory. The basic facts — if“facts” apply when dis-cussing Greek mythology —were enunciated by thepoet Hesiod: Prometheuswas a Titan trickster whostole the gift of fire fromZeus (king of the gods)and delivered it to Man.Zeus retaliated by sendingPandora and her notoriousbox to Earth, unleashingevil, drudgery, and diseaseamong mankind. Or else(Hesiod notes, alterna-tively) Zeus chained Pro-metheus to a rock andarranged for an eagle to

dine eternally on his liver. Either way,Prometheus’s prank was punished, and hisreputation was sorely stained.Aeschylus, on the other hand, viewed the

event from the side of the mortals. Instead ofdecrying Prometheus for upsetting the cos-mic order, he ennobled the fallen titan as thebringer of fire to humankind — and with it, the

Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program AnnotatorThe Leni and Peter May Chair

In Short

Born: December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the 17th),in Bonn, Germany

Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Works composed: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, 1800–01;dedicated to Princess Christiane von Lichnowsky (when the work was publishedin piano reduction). Piano Concerto No. 1, apparently in 1795, but revised to itsfinal form for a performance in 1800; dedicated to Princess Barbara Odescalchi.Symphony No. 5, sketches begun in early 1804, score completed in early 1808;dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz and Count AndreasKirillovich Rasumovsky

World premieres: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, March 28, 1801,at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Piano Concerto No. 1, December 18, 1795, inVienna, with the composer at the keyboard. Symphony No. 5, December 22,1808, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna

New York Philharmonic premieres: Overture to The Creatures ofPrometheus, January 23, 1913, Josef Stransky, conductor. Piano Concerto No. 1,December 15, 1918, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony(which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s NewYork Philharmonic), Alfred Cortot, soloist. Symphony No. 5, December 7, 1842,Ureli Corelli Hill, conductor, at the Orchestra’s inaugural concert

Most recent New York Philharmonic performances: Overture to TheCreatures of Prometheus, November 10, 2009, Neeme Järvi, conductor. PianoConcerto No. 1, November 8, 2008, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor, LangLang, soloist. Symphony No. 5, March 1, 2011, Paavo Järvi, conductor

Estimated durations: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, ca. 5 min-utes. Piano Concerto No. 1, ca. 37 minutes. Symphony No. 5, ca. 31 minutes

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possibility of civilization, with all its incumbentarts and sciences. Aeschylus, one mightargue, saw Prometheus as the fulcrum inhuman cultural history; if he was doomed tosuffer, he did so to benefit the future ac-complishments of mankind. His name, afterall, meant “forward thinker.”Ludwig van Beethoven would have re-

lated. He had an out-size ego himself, and,even as a fledgling composer, he assumedthat the musical world would revolve aroundhis achievements — even if Vienna had so farfailed to take note of the obvious. His 18th-century output included such substantialpieces as a symphony and two piano con-certos, not to mention a fair amount of cham-ber music, but a work for the stage wouldprobably be needed to propel him to a higherplateau of fame. He turned that corner, alongwith the century, in 1800, when he was com-missioned to compose a score for the newballet Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus(The Creatures of Prometheus).Ballet rode the wave of popularity in turn-

of-the-century Vienna. Among the city’s mostapplauded dancers was Salvatore Viganò, aNeapolitan by birth and a nephew of the

composer Luigi Boccherini. He choreo-graphed the new Prometheus ballet to spot-light his wife and himself, portraying twostatues brought to life by the fallen titan.When the work was premiered the programdescribed the title character in Aeschyleanterms, as “a lofty soul, who found the peopleof his time in ignorance, refined them bymeans of science and the arts, and gavethem manners, customs, and morals.” The ac-tion depicts how the two enlivened statues,“through the power of harmony, are made re-ceptive to all the passions of human exis-tence.” Prometheus entrusts their educationto the best of teachers — including Orpheusfor music, Terpsichore for dance, andMelpomene for tragedy — depicting eachepisode through the course of 16 choreo-graphed numbers. The muse Melpomeneslays Prometheus in this version, to punishhim for bringing mankind to life; but in theend he is re-deified when Apollo sees thathumanity is not such a bad thing after all.The new ballet scored a hit, running for 14

performances and returning for 13 the nextseason. Beethoven provided a worthy scorefor what proved to be a light entertainment,


Beethoven on Stage

Ludwig van Beethoven endured an unsteady relationship with the stage. His career was littered with ferventexpressions of desire, and even a few fragmentary attempts, to compose an opera worthy of his genius. In the

end he managed to complete only one full-fledged opera; which, as if tounderscore his unease with the genre, he actually “completed” twiceunder the title Leonore before it reached the final state in which it is usu-ally performed today, under the title Fidelio.

But there was more to the stage than opera, and in other theatricalgenres Beethoven scored better success. He wrote incidental music,ranging from a single number to complete multi-movement collections,for a half-dozen stage plays: Egmont, Coriolan, König Stephan, Die Ru-inen von Athen (and its adaptation as Die Weihe des Hauses), Tarpeja,and Leonore Prohaska. In addition, he composed music for two ballets:the Ritterballet (WoO 1) in 1790–91 for a production in his hometown ofBonn, and DDiiee GGeesscchhööppffee ddeess PPrroommeetthheeuuss ((TThhee CCrreeaattuurreess ooffPPrroommeetthheeuuss)) a decade later.Beethoven in 1803


though not without carping that Viganò hadfailed to depict Prometheus’s suffering ade-quately. The score offers momentary delightsthroughout, but its apogee is the high-spiritedOverture, which was published independentlyin 1804. Another highlight of Beethoven’s in-cidental music is the finale, where he unveilsa theme to which he would return in threelater works, most famously in the last move-ment of his Symphony No. 3, Eroica.The opening sonority of the Overture, an

unstable seventh chord in the third inversion,serves as a harmonic red herring. Apart fromdemonstrating the sort of musical audacityto which Beethoven was disposed, it will re-mind many concertgoers of the very similarfeint that opens Beethoven’s First Symphony,which had been premiered almost precisely ayear earlier. These two works stand at thehead of the path along which Beethovenwould travel as he developed his ownPromethean tendencies in orchestral music.

Beethoven was an adept keyboard playerfrom early on. In June 1782 he had filled in

as deputy court organist when his teacher,Christian Gottlob Neefe, left the loft at thecourt church in Bonn unoccupied during abrief trip out of town. Nine months laterNeefe contributed a glowing report of his11-year-old pupil to Cramer’s Magazine derMusik, noting that “he plays the piano veryskillfully and with power, reads at sight verywell, and … would surely become a secondWolfgang Amadeus Mozart if he were tocontinue as he has begun.” Soon, Beethovenwas serving as keyboard player and violist inthe court orchestra in Bonn, and in 1784 hebegan receiving a small salary for his efforts.In 1787 he took a trip to Vienna, where itseems that he met Mozart and may havetaken piano lessons from him. He also metFranz Joseph Haydn when that eminent fig-ure passed through Bonn, either on his wayto London in 1790 or on his way back hometo Austria two years later. In November of1792 Beethoven moved to Vienna, whichwould be his home for the rest of his life. Shortly after arriving in Vienna he signed

up for lessons with Haydn. The relationship

January 2013 23

Angels and Muses

During his first decade in Vienna, Beethoven set about cultivating a circle of potential patrons. He had reason-able success in gaining access to influential aristocrats, even serving as piano teacher to some of them, andquite a few sponsored him in piano recitals at their impressive homes. These strands come together in hisCC--mmaajjoorr PPiiaannoo CCoonncceerrttoo: it was writ-ten while Beethoven was living as ahouseguest of Prince Carl Lich-nowsky, who would serve as one ofthe composer’s most important pa-trons until a rupture in their relation-ship occurred in 1806. The workbears a dedication to Princess Bar-bara (“Babette”) Ode s calchi, anothernoble supporter who, at least in 1797,was also his piano pupil; and it waspremiered at a concert in Vienna or-ganized by Haydn for the principalpurpose of showing off some of hisnew London Symphonies. Prince Carl Lichnowsky (1756–1814) and Princess Odeschalchi (?–1813)



turned out to be cordial but not particularlyfruitful, and when Haydn left Vienna for hissecond English residency, in 1794, Beet -hoven seized the opportunity to sign on as apupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, theKapellmeister of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Amore thorough academician than Haydnwas, Albrechtsberger put Beethoven throughhis paces in contrapuntal writing at variouslevels of complexity, from simple note-against-note exercises through doublefugue, triple counterpoint, and strict canon.Thus did Beethoven’s native talent as a com-poser become refined in a way that enabledhim to master and, in his way, exceed themusical lingua franca of his time and place,which, thanks to Haydn and Mozart, had al-ready achieved the status of a Golden Age.Anyone writing a piano concerto in Vienna

in the last decade of the 18th century did soin the shadow of the late, lamented Mozart(Beethoven had several of the composer’sconcertos in his performance repertoire). In-deed, there is much that is Mozartean inBeethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, par-ticularly in sections that make prominent use

of the trumpets, horns, and timpani thatMozart was fond of using in C-major or-chestral pieces, including three of his fourpiano concertos in that key. But on the wholethis work by Beethoven exhibits assertiveoriginality. The first movement displays thesubtlety of a profound musical intelligence,and connoisseurs can profitably investigateits structural niceties, particularly in the mag-ical development section in the middle. TheLargo is moody and contemplative, prefigur-ing such famous slow movements as that ofthe Pathétique Sonata, which would followwithin a few years. But it is in the finale thatwe glimpse the most unmistakableBeethoven traits, including a boisteroussense of humor, an appetite for mixing highsophistication with less elevated references,and an abiding fondness for surprise.

One is truly tempted to heed Robert Schu-mann’s advice and say nothing aboutBeethoven’s Symphony No. 5, whicheveryone knows and of which seeminglyeverything has already been said:

Let us be silent about this work! No mat-ter how frequently heard, whether at homeor in the concert hall, this symphony in-variably wields its power over people ofevery age like those great phenomena ofnature that fill us with fear and admirationat all times, no matter how frequently wemay experience them.

Probably no work in the orchestral canon hasbeen analyzed and discussed as exhaustivelyas has the first movement of this symphony.In this music we may imagine that we have

caught a glimpse of Beethoven’s state ofmind during the period in which he wrote thispiece, or at least one facet of the complicatedprism of his being. He had tasted more than

By the Numbers

It is customary to point out that Beethoven’s PPiiaannooCCoonncceerrttoo NNoo.. 11 was actually his Piano Concerto No. 2and that his Piano Concerto No. 2 was his Piano Con-certo No. 1. The so-called Piano Concerto No. 1 in Cmajor appears to date from 1795 (it was premieredon December 18 of that year), while the so-calledPiano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major occupiedBeethoven sporadically through the decade of the1790s and may have been premiered as early asMarch 29, 1795. Both works were released to the pub-lic in 1801, by different publishing houses in differentcities, and both were probably revised shortly beforethey were engraved. But the C-major Concerto wasbrought out in print first, with the result that it wasidentified as the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1.


January 2013 25

Listen for … the Opening

Beethoven’s FFiifftthh SSyymmpphhoonnyy opens with whatmust be the most famous four notes in history.In fact, three of these notes are identical: eighthnotes on the pitch of G. Even if those threenotes were heard alone, out of context, 99 outof 100 listeners — no, probably all 100 ofthem — would chime in to punctuate them withthe half-note E-flat extended by a fermata, justas Beethoven did. Of course, music is madeup of more than just notes. It is also composed of silences, which, in their way, are every bit as important asthe sounds themselves. Beethoven’s Fifth actually opens with a silence, an eighth rest that is, in retrospect,as palpable as the eighth-note Gs that follow it. Anton Schindler, Beethoven’s sometime amanuensis, whosereminiscences, however welcome, were often highly embroidered, claimed that the composer once pointedto this motif in his score and proclaimed, “Thus Destiny knocks at the door!” Whether it happened that wayor not, the comment has become so thoroughly entrenched in Beethovenian lore that most people choose tohear these notes in just that way.

his fair share of disarray and anguish. He hadbegun losing his hearing as early as 1802 —an adversity for anyone, but a catastrophe fora musician — and his deafness had in-creased dramatically in the ensuing years.What’s more, in March 1808 a raging infec-tion threatened the loss of a finger, whichwould have spelled further disaster for acomposer who was greatly attached to thekeyboard. He was surrounded by a nervouspolitical climate; Vienna had been occupiedby Napoleon’s troops since November 1805,and the civic uneasiness would erupt into vi-olence within months of the Fifth Sym-phony’s premiere. On the home front, hisbrother Caspar Carl had gotten married onMay 25, 1806, leaving Beethoven a bit at

A Chilly Reception The all-Beethoven marathon concert in 1808 at whichthe composer’s FFiifftthh and Sixth Symphonies were pre-miered was a disaster. (Also on the program: his con-cert scena “Ah! perfido,” the Gloria and Sanctus fromthe C-major Mass, the Piano Concerto No. 4, a pianofantasy improvised by Beethoven, and the ChoralFantasy.) Vienna was experiencing a particularly un-pleasant cold spell at the time, and after expenses forthe hall and the musicians, there was not enoughmoney for such niceties as heat. Sitting through thefour-hour program was more than most concert-goers could endure. The composer Johann FriedrichReichardt, installed next to Beethoven’s patron PrinceLobkowitz in the aristocrat’s box, regretfully reported:

There we held out in the bitterest cold from half-past six until half-past ten, and experienced the factthat one can easily have too much of a good — andeven more of a strong — thing.



sea in his affairs without the sibling who hadessentially served as his secretary. At the endof 1807 he found himself rejected in love,and not for the first time. Whatever confusionthese circumstances engendered in Beet -hoven’s personal life could only have beenexacerbated by his habit of constantly mov-ing from one lodging to another. In thecourse of 1808 alone — the year when theFifth Symphony was completed and pre-miered — he hung his hat at no fewer thanfour addresses. This biographical turmoil did not, however,

represent the totality of Beethoven’s life at thetime, any more than the Fifth Symphony rep-resents the totality of his music. He frequentlyescaped the hustle and bustle of Vienna tospend time in suburban parks and the sur-rounding countryside (that’s where we imag-ine the composer when we hear his SixthSymphony, the Pastoral, which was roughlycoeval to the Fifth). For that matter, Beethovenwrote his entire Fourth Symphony while hewas engaged in his Fifth, and there is littlein that score to suggest a troubled soul.

We are not necessarily wrong to imaginethat biographical overtones reside inBeethoven’s Fifth Symphony, but we should-n’t get too carried away in seeking them, ei-ther. When all is said and done, this is aunique work, just as all of Beethoven’s mas-terpieces are, a vehicle in which the composerexplores and works out strictly aesthetic chal-lenges that he has set for himself.

Instrumentation: The Creatures ofPrometheus calls for two flutes, two oboes,two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, twotrumpets, timpani, and strings. Piano Con-certo No. 1 employs flute, two oboes, twoclarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trum-pets, timpani, and strings, in addition to thesolo piano. Symphony No. 5 calls for twoflutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets,two bassoons and contrabassoon, twohorns, two trumpets, three trombones, tim-pani, and strings.

Cadenzas: in the C-major Piano Concerto,by Beethoven.

The New York Philharmonic Connection

Beethoven’s FFiifftthh SSyymmpphhoonnyy has been a stapleof the New York Philharmonic’s repertoire formore than 170 years, since it opened theprogram of the ensemble’s very first concert,on December 7, 1842. On that occasion, it wasconducted by Ureli Corelli Hill, the Orchestra’sfounder. The New York Philharmonic has sinceperformed it nearly 500 times, not only in NewYork but on tour, from Beijing to Cologne.

— The Editors


27January 2013

2012–2013 SEASONALAN GILBERT, Music DirectorCase Scaglione, Assistant ConductorJoshua Weilerstein, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus

VIOLINSGlenn DicterowConcertmasterThe Charles E. CulpeperChairSheryl StaplesPrincipal AssociateConcertmasterThe Elizabeth G. BeineckeChairMichelle KimAssistant ConcertmasterThe William PetschekFamily ChairEnrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe

Quan GeThe Gary W. Parr ChairHae-Young HamThe Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M.George ChairLisa GiHae KimKuan Cheng LuNewton MansfieldThe Edward and PriscillaPilcher Chair Kerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles RexThe Shirley Bacot ShamelChairFiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserThe William and ElfriedeUlrich ChairYulia Ziskel

Marc GinsbergPrincipalLisa Kim*In Memory of Laura Mitchell

Soohyun KwonThe Joan and Joel I. PicketChairDuoming Ba

Marilyn DubowThe Sue and EugeneMercy, Jr. ChairMartin EshelmanJudith GinsbergHyunju LeeJoo Young OhDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin

VIOLASCynthia PhelpsPrincipalThe Mr. and Mrs. FrederickP. Rose ChairRebecca Young*The Joan and Joel SmilowChairIrene Breslaw**The Norma and LloydChazen ChairDorian Rence

Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J.McDonough ChairDawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert RinehartThe Mr. and Mrs. G. ChrisAndersen Chair

CELLOSCarter BreyPrincipalThe Fan Fox and Leslie R.Samuels ChairEileen Moon*The Paul and DianeGuenther ChairEric Bartlett+The Shirley and JonBrodsky Foundation ChairMaria KitsopoulosSumire Kudo

Elizabeth DysonThe Mr. and Mrs. James E.Buckman ChairAlexei Yupanqui GonzalesQiang TuRu-Pei YehThe Credit Suisse Chair in honor of Paul CalelloWei YuSusannah Chapman++Alberto Parrini++

BASSESFora BaltacigilPrincipalThe Redfield D. BeckwithChairDavid J. Grossman*The Herbert M. Citrin ChairOrin O’Brien

William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B.Hess ChairRandall ButlerBlake HinsonSatoshi OkamotoMax ZeugnerRex Surany++

FLUTESRobert LangevinPrincipalThe Lila Acheson WallaceChairSandra Church*Yoobin SonMindy Kaufman

PICCOLOMindy Kaufman

OBOESLiang WangPrincipalThe Alice Tully ChairSherry Sylar*Robert BottiThe Lizabeth and FrankNewman ChairKeisuke Ikuma++

ENGLISH HORNKeisuke Ikuma++

CLARINETSMark NuccioActing PrincipalThe Edna and W. Van AlanClark ChairPascual MartínezForteza*

Acting Associate PrincipalThe Honey M. Kurtz FamilyChairAlucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++

E-FLAT CLARINETPascual MartínezForteza

(continued)


Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.


BASS CLARINETAmy Zoloto++

BASSOONSJudith LeClairPrincipalThe Pels Family ChairKim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast

CONTRABASSOONArlen Fast

HORNSPhilip MyersPrincipalThe Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder ChairR. Allen SpanjerHoward WallRichard Deane++Leelanee Sterrett++

TRUMPETSPhilip SmithPrincipalThe Paula Levin ChairMatthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith

TROMBONESJoseph AlessiPrincipalThe Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. HartChairDavid FinlaysonThe Donna and Benjamin M. RosenChair

BASS TROMBONE

The Daria L. and William C. FosterChairGeorge Curran++

TUBAAlan BaerPrincipal

TIMPANIMarkus RhotenPrincipalThe Carlos Moseley ChairKyle Zerna**

PERCUSSIONChristopher S. LambPrincipalThe Constance R. Hoguet Friends ofthe Philharmonic ChairDaniel Druckman*The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. UlrichChairKyle Zerna

HARPNancy AllenPrincipalThe Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight IIIChair

KEYBOARDIn Memory of Paul Jacobs

HARPSICHORDPaolo Bordignon

PIANOEric Huebner

ORGANKent Tritle

LIBRARIANSLawrence TarlowPrincipalSandra Pearson**Sara Griffin**

ORCHESTRA PERSONNELMANAGERCarl R. Schiebler

STAGE REPRESENTATIVEJoseph Faretta

AUDIO DIRECTORLawrence Rock

* Associate Principal** Assistant Principal+ On Leave++ Replacement/Extra

The New York Philharmonic usesthe revolving seating method forsection string players who arelisted alpha betically in the roster.

HONORARY MEMBERS OF THESOCIETYEmanuel AxPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin Mehtathe late Carlos Moseley

Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.

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



The Artists

Christoph von Dohnányi’s appointmentshave included opera directorships in Frank-furt and Hamburg, and principal orchestralconducting posts in Germany and Paris. Heenjoys a long-standing partnership with thePhilharmonia Orchestra in London, where heis honorary conductor for life. He served asprincipal conductor and artistic adviser therefor 10 years and for 20 years as music di-rector of The Cleveland Orchestra.His 2012–13 season began at Tangle-

wood, leading the opening concert of theBoston Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniver-sary summer season. He led concerts toopen the seasons at Teatro alla Scala andfor l’Orchestre de Paris. In the spring of 2013,he leads the Israel Philharmonic in Schoen-berg’s opera Moses und Aron and returns tothe Philharmonia for Beethoven’s SymphonyNo. 3, Eroica. In the U.S., Mr. Dohnányi leads

the New York Philharmonic, and the NationalSymphony, Cleveland, Philadelphia, andBoston symphony orchestras.Recent highlights include concerts with the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; the com-plete Brahms symphonies with the Los An-geles Philharmonic; a Philharmonia Orchestraresidence at Vienna’s Musikverein, and a U.S.tour with the orchestra; guest appearanceswith The Cleveland Orchestra; and dates withthe Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia.Mr. Dohnányi frequently conducts produc-

tions at the world’s great opera houses. Hehas led the Vienna Philharmonic in manySalzburg Festival appearances, including theworld premieres of Henze’s Die Bassaridenand Cerha’s Baal. He also regularly appearswith the Zurich Opera, and at the Théâtre duChâtelet in Paris.Christoph von Dohnányi has made numer-

ous recordings for London/Decca with TheCleveland Orchestra and Vienna Philhar-monic. With the latter, he recorded Beet -hoven’s Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu,Strauss’s Salome, and Wagner’s The FlyingDutchman. With The Cleveland Orchestra, hisdiscography includes concert performancesand recordings of Wagner’s Die Walküre andDas Rheingold; the complete symphonies ofBeethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; sym-phonies by Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, Mozart,Schubert, and Tchaikovsky; and works byBartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse, and Webern.

January 2013 29


Radu Lupu is acknowledged as a leading in-terpreter of the works of Beethoven, Brahms,Mozart, and Schubert. After winning the VanCliburn (1966) and Leeds Piano (1969)Competitions, Mr. Lupu regularly performedas a soloist and recitalist in the musical cap-itals and major festivals of Europe and theUnited States. His 2012–13 season en-gagements include the London SymphonyOrchestra; Luxembourg Orchestra; Orches-tra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Ce-cilia (Rome); Chicago, St. Louis, and Bostonsymphony orchestras; Orchestre de Paris;and the Mozart Orchestra of Bologna. Healso continues a cycle of the Beethovenpiano concertos at the new concert hall inHelsinki with the Finnish Chamber Orchestraand performs recitals in Paris, Geneva,

Genoa, Turin, Aix-en-Provence, and Vicenza,at the Brescia and Bergamo Festival, and atNew York’s Carnegie Hall. He will undertakehis 10th tour of Japan, and will also performin Seoul, Korea.Mr. Lupu has made more than 20 record-

ings for London/Decca, including the com-plete Beethoven concertos with the IsraelPhilharmonic and Zubin Mehta, the completeMozart violin and piano sonatas with SzymonGoldberg, and numerous solo recordings ofworks by Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.His recording of Schubert’s Sonatas, D. 960and 664, won a Grammy Award in 1995, anda disc of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, “Kreis-leriana” and “Humoresque” won an EdisonAward in 1995. Born in Romania in 1945, Radu Lupu

began studying the piano at age six with LiaBusuio seanu. He made his public debut witha complete program of his own music at age12. In 1961 he won a scholarship to theMoscow State Conservatory, where he stud-ied with Heinrich Neuhaus, and his son,Stanislav Neuhaus and took first prize in the1967 Enescu International Competition. In1989 and again in 2006 he was awardedthe Abbiati Prize by the Italian Critics’s As-sociation. He is also the recipient of the2006 Premio Internazionale Arturo Bene -detti Michelangeli award.



The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842by a group of local musicians led by American-born Ureli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest sym-phony orchestra in the United States, and one ofthe oldest in the world. It plays some 180 con-certs a year, and on May 5, 2010, gave its15,000th concert — a milestone unmatched byany other symphony orchestra in the world.Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure in

September 2009, the latest in a distinguishedline of 20th-century musical giants that has in-cluded Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur(Music Director 1991–2002, Music DirectorEmeritus since 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91);Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein(appointed Music Director in 1958; given the life-time title of Laureate Conductor in 1969).Since its inception the Orchestra has champi-

oned the new music of its time, commissioningand/or premiering many important works, suchas Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the NewWorld; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3;Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; and Copland’sConnotations. The Philharmonic has also giventhe U.S. premieres of such works as Beethoven’sSymphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Brahms’s Sym-phony No. 4. This pioneering tradition has con-tinued to the present day, with works of majorcontemporary composers regularly scheduledeach season, including John Adams’s PulitzerPrize– and Grammy Award–winning On theTransmigration of Souls; Melinda Wagner’s Trom-bone Concerto; Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Con-certo; Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO and Al largo;Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony (SymphonyNo. 3); Christopher Rouse’s Odna Zhizn; and, bythe end of the 2010–11 season, 11 works inCONTACT!, the new-music series. The roster of composers and conductors who

have led the Philharmonic includes such historicfigures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák,Gustav Mahler (Music Director 1909–11), OttoKlemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg

(Music Director 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler,Arturo Toscanini (Music Director 1928–36), IgorStravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (MusicAdvisor 1947–49), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Di-rector 1949–58), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell(Music Advisor 1969–70), and Erich Leinsdorf.Long a leader in American musical life, the Phil-

harmonic has become renowned around theglobe, appearing in 431 cities in 63 countries on5 continents. Under Alan Gilbert’s leadership, theOrchestra made its Vietnam debut at the HanoiOpera House in October 2009. In February 2008the Philharmonic, conducted by then Music Di-rector Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performancein Pyongyang, D.P.R.K., earning the 2008 Com-mon Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. In2012 the Philharmonic became an InternationalAssociate of London’s Barbican.The Philharmonic has long been a media pioneer,

having begun radio broadcasts in 1922, and is cur-rently represented by The New York PhilharmonicThis Week — syndicated nationally and internation-ally 52 weeks per year, and available at nyphil.org.It continues its television presence on Live FromLincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 made historyas the first symphony orchestra ever to perform liveon the Grammy Awards. Since 1917 the Philhar-monic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, and in2004 became the first major American orchestra tooffer downloadable concerts, recorded live. SinceJune 2009 more than 50 concerts have been re-leased as downloads, and the Philharmonic’s self-produced recordings will continue with Alan Gilbertand the New York Philharmonic: 2012–13 Season,comprising 12 releases. Famous for its long-run-ning Young People’s Concerts, the Philharmonichas developed a wide range of educational pro-grams, among them the School Partnership Pro-gram that enriches music education in New YorkCity, and Learning Overtures, which fosters inter-national exchange among educators. Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New

York Philharmonic.


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New York Philharmonic Music Director AlanGilbert began his tenure in September 2009.The New York Times has said: “Those who thinkclassical music needs some shaking up routinelychallenge music directors at major orchestras tothink outside the box. That is precisely what AlanGilbert did.” The first native New Yorker to hold thepost, he has sought to make the Orchestra a pointof civic pride for the city and country.Mr. Gilbert combines works in fresh and inno-

vative ways; has forged important artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of TheMarie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residenceand The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence; and introduced an annual multi-week festival and CONTACT!, the new-musicseries. In 2012–13, he conducts world pre-mieres; presides over a cycle of Brahms’s com-plete symphonies and concertos; continues TheNielsen Project, the multiyear initiative to performand record the Danish composer’s symphoniesand concertos; conducts Bach’s Mass in B minorand an all-American program, including Ives’sFourth Symphony; and leads the Orchestra onthe EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. The seasonconcludes with June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist,four programs showcasing themes and ideasthat Alan Gilbert has introduced, including the

season finale: a theatrical reimagining ofStravinsky ballets, directed and designed byDoug Fitch and featuring New York City BalletPrincipal Dancer Sara Mearns. Last season’shighlights included performances of threeMahler symphonies, with the Second, Resurrec-tion, on A Concert for New York; tours to Europe(including the Orchestra’s first International Associates residency at London’s BarbicanCentre) and California; and Philharmonic 360,the Philharmonic’s and Park Avenue Armory’sacclaimed spatial-music program featuringStockhausen’s Gruppen, building on the successof previous seasons’ productions of Ligeti’s LeGrand Macabre and Janácek’s The Cunning Lit-tle Vixen, each acclaimed in 2010 and 2011, re-spectively, as New York magazine’s number oneclassical music event of the year.In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became Di-

rector of Conducting and Orchestral Studies atThe Juilliard School, where he is the first to holdthe William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies.Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Phil-harmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Con-ductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra,he regularly conducts leading ensembles such asthe Boston Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam’sRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra, LeipzigGewandhaus Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic.Alan Gilbert’s acclaimed 2008 Metropolitan

Opera debut, leading John Adams’s DoctorAtomic, received a 2011 Grammy Award forBest Opera Recording. Earlier releases garneredGrammy Award nominations and top honorsfrom the Chicago Tribune and Gramophonemagazine. Mr. Gilbert studied at Harvard Univer-sity, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Juilliardand was assistant conductor of The ClevelandOrchestra (1995–97). In May 2010 he receivedan Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Cur-tis, and in December 2011 he received Colum-bia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for hiscommitment to performing American and con-temporary music.

The Music Director



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The Facts: Born in Mansfield, Ohio. Studiedbass privately with David Perlman, principalbass of The Cleveland Orchestra. Attendedthe Tanglewood Music Festival; M.A., M.Phil.,and Ph.D. in Philosophy, Columbia University.At the Philharmonic: Hired by PierreBoulez in 1976.

When did you begin studying an instru-ment? I began the violin at 9 and the bass at12. By age 14, I was spending most of mytime practicing the bass or studying mathe-matics. At 18, I chose music.

Who have been your most important mu-sical influences? My Philharmonic colleagues.Their knowledge continually informs me; theirdevotion inspires me. Likewise, our variousMusic Directors, particularly Lorin Maazel.

Most memorable moments with the Orchestra: Maazel’s first appearance with usin 23 years, in November 2000. In both hisRing Without Words and Bruck ner’s EighthSymphony, he conveyed an effortless andflawless grasp of the music’s internal logic, its drama, its passion.

Why did you decide to get advanced degrees in philosophy? I’ve always lovedphilosophy — its methods as well as its materi-als. At 14, I read Spinoza’s Ethics; at 16, Kant’sCritique of Pure Reason. I got the degrees because it was fun. I’m thrilled to participate inand contribute to philosophy’s centuries-longdialogues.

What would you be if not a musician? Awriter. Though not a professional, I write philo-sophical essays, poetry, and fiction. I plan, however, to publish in philosophy.

How do you prepare for a concert? Usually, I practice with my bass. But for especially difficultconcerts, I often practice mentally, without mybass — something I learned in studying medita-tion with Thai, Burmese, and American masters.

How does your philosophical educationinfluence your music-making? I see musicin its philosophical context. Take Robert Schu-mann, for instance; philosophers of his timethought people were alienated from nature, so-ciety, and themselves. They thought art couldremedy this. Schumann’s music, surely, offersunity with nature, society, and one’s inmost self.

What are you listening to now? John Tav-erner’s Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas performed byThe Tallis Scholars.

Are there musicians in your family? Onlymy mother, who played some piano and trum-pet in high school, and sang for years in achurch choir. My wife, Deborah Martinsen, isan associate dean at Columbia University. Myson, Rory, 22, attends Columbia College and isstudying math and physics. His hobby is writ-ing and recording hip-hop tracks.

What do you like to do outside of work?Reading, particularly the latest Anglo-Americanphilosophy, contemporary poetry, and Ameri-can fiction. I also enjoy museums, films, playingchess with my son, physical exercise, andpracticing Buddhist meditation.

Q & A: Randall Butler, Bass

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The Facts: Born in White Plains, New York.Bachelor of music from Eastman School ofMusic. Prior to the Philharmonic: RochesterPhilharmonic Orchestra. At the Philhar-monic: Hired in 1979 for piccolo and flute.Solo debut with the Orchestra in 1981 performing Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in A minor, with Zubin Mehta conducting.Teaches privately.

What was the first piece of music youfell in love with? Growing up, we had an LPof Stravinsky conducting three of his ballets:Petrushka, Firebird, and The Rite of Spring. Iused to play it over and over. I loved the multi-tonalities and uneven meters. I still have therecording and still own a turntable.

What’s the most rewarding part of yourjob? Playing great music with the New YorkPhilharmonic. The year before I auditioned for

the Philharmonic, I saw A Chorus Line. There’sa song called “I Hope I Get It” with lyrics like “Ireally need this job” and “God, I hope I get it.” Itreally captured the pain and torment of takingan audition.

What’s the most challenging part of yourjob? The stress I put on myself to sound perfect.

What are you most looking forward tothis season? I really like playing CONTACT!concerts. It’s interesting to hear music andsound in a different way. We played a piecethat had a lot of quarter tones, and while prac-ticing I thought, “This isn’t going to be verygood.” I was surprised by the beautiful soundsand colors that were so different from the dia-tonic scale we’re used to. It was just puresound.

What are some of the films you’verecorded for? The Untouchables, Julie &Julia, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,Moonrise Kingdom, Hitch, Aladdin, The Alamo,Cape Fear, Grey’s Anatomy, Queen, Shaft,Hudsucker Proxy, and many more.

What would you be if not a musician?Something involving mathematics: maybe busi-ness, finance, or science

What book(s) are you currently reading?I just finished reading John Adams (the Presi-dent, not the composer) by David McCullough.Adams and Mozart were contemporaries, andduring his Paris years, Adams heard The Mar-riage of Figaro. Now I’m almost finished withLeon Uris’s Trinity.

What do you like to do outside of work?I love sports, keeping fit, movies, plays, knitting,and sewing.

Q & A: Mindy Kaufman, Flute and Piccolo

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