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FOR RELEASE: May 29, 2013
Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s New-Music Series,
Expands to New Venues in 2013–14 Season
Partnership with 92ND STREET Y To Bring CONTACT! to
New Downtown Arts Venue SUBCULTURE for Three Programs
Works by ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, MARC NEIKRUG, and MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE
Featuring YEFIM BRONFMAN, The Mary and James G. Wallach ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE;
Premieres of Solo Works by YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS as Part of NY PHIL BIENNIAL
MATTHIAS PINTSCHER To Conduct Beyond Recall: 11 U.S. Premieres at
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART as Part of NY PHIL BIENNIAL
CHRISTOPHER ROUSE,
The Marie-Josée Kravis COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE,
To Advise on Series
Entering its fifth season in 2013–14, CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new-music
series, is extending its reach by presenting more concerts in new venues including
SubCulture — a new arts venue in downtown Manhattan — in partnership with 92nd Street
Y, and The Museum of Modern Art. The upcoming season of CONTACT! will feature four
concert programs, an expansion over previous seasons. Dedicated to the works of emerging
and iconic contemporary composers, CONTACT! in the 2013–14 season will feature works
for ensembles of New York Philharmonic musicians as well as programs of solo works
performed by Philharmonic musicians and distinguished guests.
The New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y will co-curate three programs at SubCulture,
a new, intimate space hosting eclectic music and creative arts performances in Manhattan’s
NoHo neighborhood. The concerts will feature a program focused on works by composerconductor Esa-Pekka Salonen; a performance by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-inResidence Yefim Bronfman and musicians from the Orchestra; and a concert that includes
World Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commissions of solo works by young American
composers. The fourth CONTACT! program, co-presented by the New York Philharmonic
and The Museum of Modern Art, is titled Beyond Recall and features 11 U.S. Premieres of
music inspired by art works selected for the Salzburg Art Project, conducted by Matthias
Pintscher and performed by New York Philharmonic musicians.
The program of solo works by young American composers and Beyond Recall are both part
of the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL (May 28–June 7, 2014), a kaleidoscopic exploration
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2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 2
of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers. [See separate
press release for more information about the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.]
Christopher Rouse, who in 2013–14 will be completing the second in his two-year term as
The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, advises the Philharmonic on the
CONTACT! series. One of America’s most prominent composers of orchestral music, Mr.
Rouse won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Trombone Concerto, commissioned and
premiered by the New York Philharmonic.
Alan Gilbert said: “CONTACT! is essentially about making contact with a
fresh, excited, exciting audience, with new music that is absolutely important
to play,” said Alan Gilbert. “We have always felt it important for the series to
reach across New York City, with performances in more intimate spaces not
necessarily associated with the formality of a New York Philharmonic
concert. This coming season brings CONTACT! as far south as NoHo, where
SubCulture offers a great energy that perfectly matches the atmosphere we
want for these concerts.”
Christopher Rouse said: “CONTACT! has been involved in commissioning
and giving premieres of works by emerging composers, so it’s a wonderful
opportunity for young composers. I think that’s an important part of the
mission.”
Hanna Arie-Gaifman, director of 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts,
said: “CONTACT! is more than a symbolic title for this series. It really points
to the relationship between today’s music, composers, musicians, audience,
and all of us who make music happen. It also hints at the creative nature of the
partnership between 92nd Street Y and the New York Philharmonic:
innovative, energetic, and, like the music we jointly present, quite intimate. I
am thrilled that 92nd Street Y’s participation in CONTACT! is part of the NY
PHIL BIENNIAL and its celebration of the life and creation of music today,
here and now.”
AN EVENING WITH ESA-PEKKA SALONEN
Mr. Salonen To Introduce His Works, Performed by Musicians from the Philharmonic
November 4, 2013, at SUBCULTURE
The 2013–14 season of CONTACT! opens with An Evening with Esa-Pekka Salonen. EsaPekka Salonen hosts this performance featuring musicians from the New York Philharmonic
in five of his compositions: knock, breathe, shine for solo cello (2010), Memoria for wind
quintet (2003), YTA III for solo cello (1986), Homunculus for string quartet (2007), and
Second Meeting for oboe and piano (1992). Mr. Salonen will introduce each piece. This
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program, November 4, 2013, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York
Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y.
Finnish-born Esa-Pekka Salonen is an eminent composer as well as the principal conductor
and artistic advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the conductor laureate for the
Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was music director from 1992 to 2009. His pieces Floof
and LA Variations are widely regarded as modern classics. In 2007 Mr. Salonen conducted
the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere of his Piano Concerto, with Yefim
Bronfman, its dedicatee, as soloist. Mr. Salonen’s recordings include a CD featuring the
Piano Concerto and his pieces Helix and Dichotomie with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and
Mr. Bronfman; it was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2012 Mr. Salonen released a disc
containing his Grawemeyer Award–winning Violin Concerto, featuring Leila Josefowicz as
soloist. Mr. Salonen, Ms. Josefowicz, and the New York Philharmonic will give the New
York concert premiere of the Violin Concerto on October 30–31 and November 1–2 and 5,
2013, in the days surrounding this CONTACT! concert.
The title of knock, breathe, shine comes from a sonnet by John Donne and suggests the
piece’s three movements. Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen, who has performed Mr. Salonen’s
work extensively, has described them thus: “knock … has a lot of pizzicatos of different
kinds, which eventually get very mixed up, the bow getting more and more in their way.
breathe is about breathing, about singing, about melodies.… shine shows us all the brilliance
of what one could do on the cello if one were able to play it while sitting on a roller coaster.”
Memoria is scored for flute (doubling alto flute), oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet,
bassoon (doubling contrabassoon), and horn. Using his unfinished Mimo, from 1982, as a
starting point, Mr. Salonen wrote a one-movement piece he described as “serious, sometimes
even sad.” The title refers partly to the death of Luciano Berio, “the great Italian composer,
whose music I greatly admire.”
YTA III for solo cello is the third in a series of works for solo instruments that Mr. Salonen
began in 1982, starting with a piece for solo alto flute. “The title, ‘Yta,’ is in Swedish, and
means ‘surface,’” the composer wrote. “I wanted to write very demanding virtuoso music,
where the surface is extremely busy, but the formal process, partly hidden behind the frenetic
stream of fast gestures, is considerably slower.” YTA III is a rare example of an instrumental
work by Mr. Salonen with programmatic content: “I tried to imagine what happens to the
famous moth that circles around a lamp in Scriabin’s Vers a flamme after the wings have
finally touched the flame. A series of gestures is introduced in the beginning. Each gesture
undergoes an individual development, culminating in spasms before dying away. YTA III is a
study of the death of an organism; the ugliest and most violent piece I’ve written.”
Homunculus for string quartet arose out of Mr. Salonen’s wish to compose, as he put it, “a
piece that would be very compact in form and duration, but still contain many different
characters and textures. In other words, a little piece that behaves like a big piece.” Hence,
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2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 4
the title, which in Latin means “little man.” “I have long been fascinated (and amused) by the
arcane spermists’ theory,” the composer wrote, “who held the belief that the sperm was in
fact a ‘little man’ (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child.… I
decided to call my piece Homunculus despite the obvious weaknesses of the spermists’
thinking, as I find the idea of a perfect little man strangely moving.”
Mr. Salonen composed Second Meeting for oboe and piano in January 1992, ten years after
writing its prequel, Meeting, which is for clarinet and harpsichord. The piece follows a theme
and variations form, albeit one in which the seven themes, or melodies, are closely related.
Mr. Salonen later composed a version of the piece for oboe and small orchestra that is titled
Mimo I.
YEFIM BRONFMAN AND FRIENDS
Pianist Yefim Bronfman, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, To Perform
World Premiere of Marc Neikrug’s Passions, Reflected and
Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 with Philharmonic Musicians
Marc Neikrug To Host
January 13, 2014, at SUBCULTURE
In the second CONTACT! program of the season, Yefim Bronfman and Friends, the
Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2013–14 season will
perform a contemporary chamber work with musicians from the New York Philharmonic as
well as a work for solo piano. The program includes Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 for
violin, cello, and piano (2008) and the World Premiere of Passions, Reflected for solo piano
(2008) by Marc Neikrug. Mr. Neikrug will host the concert, introducing each piece. This
program, January 13, 2014, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York
Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y.
Yefim Bronfman is a Grammy Award–winning pianist and longtime friend of the
Philharmonic. In May 2012 he and the Orchestra, led by Alan Gilbert, gave the World
Premiere of former Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg’s Piano
Concerto No. 2, which the Philharmonic commissioned; this performance is featured on a
recent release on Dacapo Records. Mr. Bronfman will join Alan Gilbert and the New York
Philharmonic in a reprise of the piece in New York on January 2–3 and 7, 2014, and on the
ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour in February 2014. The pianist was nominated for a Grammy
Award in 2009 for his recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, conducted by the
composer (Deutsche Grammophon). Beyond performing on CONTACT!, Mr. Bronfman’s
role as Artist-in-Residence includes appearing as the featured soloist in The Beethoven Piano
Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, which showcases Beethoven’s complete piano
concertos alongside World Premieres by composers commissioned by the Philharmonic as
part of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music.
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In a 2010 review of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1 featuring Mr. Bronfman at Chicago’s
Orchestra Hall, critic Bryant Manning of Chicago Classical Review wrote of the work:
“There is still abundant mystery and a sharp personal signature aided by hypnotically
creative sonorities. The lucidly etched narrative and crystal-clear three-part form are at the
service of an incisive musical vocabulary.… Fragments of themes disappear and reappear,
and some of the motoring accompaniment sounds like a page out of the American
Minimalists.” Mr. Dalbavie’s works have been referred to as “spatialized acoustic pieces,” as
they were composed specifically for the venues in which they are being premiered, with the
musicians placed in unorthodox locations so sound and timbre can be used to the greatest
possible effect. He studied conducting with former Philharmonic Music Director Pierre
Boulez, who has conducted Mr. Dalbavie’s works and described the younger composer’s
music as “always very French, with a seductive sense of harmony. He knows how to
distribute sounds among the instruments of the orchestra so that the interior of the chords is
easy to hear…. The complexity is in the combinations.” Mr. Dalbavie’s Melodia, a
Philharmonic commission, received its World Premiere on CONTACT!’s inaugural program
in December 2009, conducted by then Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg.
Marc Neikrug wrote that Passions, Reflected “takes its title from several aspects. I was
thinking of the reflections of composer to performer and performer to audience and back
again. I also was trying to base the piece on Schumann piano works, which I am passionate
about, particularly the juxtaposition of a series of small pieces with musical connections, into
a large structure. Hence also perhaps a reflection from Schumann’s passion.” Marc Neikrug
is equally renowned as a pianist, and is the longtime collaborative partner of violinist Pinchas
Zukerman. “The first word that comes to mind when describing Marc’s music is ‘human’”
said Music Director Alan Gilbert. “To me it is very emotional and true to what people feel
and experience.” The Philharmonic has performed Mr. Neikrug’s works since 1980, most
recently, in April 2012, when Alan Gilbert conducted the World Premiere of Mr. Neikrug’s
Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by the Philharmonic.
CONTACT! at the Biennial:
MATTHIAS PINTSCHER To Conduct Beyond Recall,
U.S. Premieres of Music Inspired by Sculptures Selected for the Salzburg Art Project
May 29 and 31, 2014, at THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
In the third CONTACT! program, the New York Philharmonic makes its debut at The
Museum of Modern Art, where conductor-composer Matthias Pintscher conducts and curates
Beyond Recall, a collection of 11 works each inspired by a work of art residing in Salzburg
created through the Kunstprojekt Salzburg (Salzburg Art Project), which brings
contemporary artwork to the Austrian city’s public spaces. The program of all U.S.
Premieres, performed by New York Philharmonic musicians, is part of the NY PHIL
BIENNIAL. [See separate press release for more information about the NY PHIL
BIENNIAL.] Taking place on May 29 and 31, 2014, at The Museum of Modern Art’s Agnes
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Gund Garden Lobby, these performances of Beyond Recall are a co-presentation by the New
York Philharmonic and The Museum of Modern Art.
Matthias Pintscher — appointed music director of Paris’s Ensemble InterContemporain
beginning with the 2013–14 season — selected the composers and determined which
composer should respond to which Salzburg Art Project art work. The program will include
Bruno Mantovani’s on “Spirit of Mozart” by Marina Abramovic; Johannes Maria Staud’s on
“Caldera” by Anthony Cragg; Dai Fujikura’s on “Sphaera” / “Frau im Fels” by Stephan
Balkenhol; Vykintas Baltakas’s on “Beyond Recall” by Brigitte Kowanz; David Fulmer’s on
“Awilda” by Jaume Plensa; Jay Schwartz’s on “Mozart – Eine Hommage” by Markus
Lüpertz; Mark André’s on “Sky-Space” by James Turrell; Vito Zuraj’s on “Connection” by
Manfred Wakolbinger; Michael Jarrell’s on “Vanitas” by Christian Boltanski; Olga
Neuwirth’s on “Ziffern im Wald” by Mario Merz; and Nina Šenk’s on “Gurken” by Erwin
Wurm.
The music-and-art-centered performances will be prefaced with introductory remarks by
Bernd Heinrich Dinter, who conceived of and directed Beyond Recall. The program will
receive its World Premiere at the Salzburg Festival in August 2013 with Mr. Pintscher
conducting the Scharoun Ensemble, comprising members of the Berlin Philharmonic.
CONTACT! at the Biennial:
Premieres of Solo Works by YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS
June 3, 2014, at SUBCULTURE
In the season’s fourth and final installment of CONTACT!, musicians from the New York
Philharmonic will perform solo works by young American composers Oscar Bettison, Ryan
Brown, Michael Hersch, Chris Kapica, Eric Nathan, and Paola Prestini, including four World
Premiere–New York Philharmonic Commissions and two New York Premieres. This
program is part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. [See separate press release for more
information about the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.] Taking place on June 3, 2014, at SubCulture,
this performance is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y.
Krank (2004) for solo percussion by Oscar Bettison will receive its New York Premiere in
this program. In a program note, Mr. Bettison wrote: “When I first started thinking about
writing Krank, I imagined a little music box made up of 18 ‘found objects’ arranged into
three keyboards. Like a music box, Krank needs to be wound up in order to [be played], but
Krank is a music box with a difference. Krank is a music box that tries to fight against its
mechanical constitution; it wants to sing and be free of its constraints like a kind of musical
Pinocchio. Three times it tries increasingly hard to break free. Three times it tries and …
well, that would be telling.” Known for his innovative approach to presenting concert music,
Mr. Bettison reimagines the instruments he composes for, finding new and unusual ways to
employ them and incorporating electro-acoustic elements and instruments commonly used in
rock music.
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Also receiving its New York Premiere in this performance is Four Pieces for Solo Piano
(2010) by Ryan Brown. Comprising Cellar Door, Buckle, Stage Whisper, and Shoestring, the
work uses the highest registers of the instrument to create percussive, playful, and strangely
beautiful and engrossing mini-works. Ryan Brown’s music reflects his diverse musical tastes
and background as an electric guitarist and bassist, and has been performed by pianist Lisa
Moore, guitarist Mark Stewart, Robin Cox Ensemble, BluePrint Project, Great Noise
Ensemble, and MATA Festival. His teachers have included Dan Becker, Martin Herman,
Steve Mackey, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang. As a celebrated electric guitarist and electric
bassist, Mr. Brown has been featured in works by John Adams, Steve Reich, and Steven
Mackey.
Michael Hersch is composing his Philharmonic commission, which will receive its World
Premiere on this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo violin. Mr.
Hersch has previously composed works for solo violin, including a commission from
violinist Midori (who will be featured in the June 5 and 7 NY PHIL BIENNIAL
performances). Celebrated composer George Rochberg said of Mr. Hersch’s works: “His
music sounds the dark places of the human heart and soul. The inherent drama of his work is
remarkable for being completely unself-conscious, unstudied and powerful in its projection,
convinced and convincing.”
Chris Kapica is composing his Philharmonic commission, to receive its World Premiere on
this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo clarinet. An in-demand bass
clarinetist, electric guitarist, and electric bassist as well as composer, Mr. Kapica draws on a
wide range of influences in his compositions, including R&B, rock, flamenco, jazz, and
world music. He is a former student of the New York Philharmonic’s Marie-Josée Kravis
Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse.
Eric Nathan is composing his Philharmonic commission, receiving its World Premiere on this
CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo trombone. Mr. Nathan — who has
composed solo works for trumpet, piano, clarinet, and soprano — has said: “My biggest
influences are from other art forms: painting, sculpture, dance, poetry. I analyze how each
artwork is constructed, and this usually informs the processes and structures I use in my
work. I’m also inspired by the physicality of performing music; when I compose I try to
imagine someone performing the piece visually in my mind. As a result I think gesture plays
a large role in my pieces, both musically and also with the physical reaction it produces.”
Paola Prestini is composing her Philharmonic commission, receiving its World Premiere on
this CONTACT! program at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, for solo cello. Named one of the top
100 composers in the world under 40 by NPR, Ms. Prestini has said her influences range
“from [John] Zorn (his music, his life) and [Philip] Glass to Beethoven, Palestrina, and folk
music.” She has composed numerous solo works, including Limpopo Songs for solo piano,
Sympathique for solo viola, and Phoenix for solo violin. In 1999 Ms. Prestini co-founded
VisionIntoArt, which has created more than 50 multimedia productions around the world;
she recently became creative director of the Brooklyn-based Original Music Workshop.
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CONTACT! at SubCulture is made possible with generous support from Linda and Stuart
Nelson.
***
Major support for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, The Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, and The Francis Goelet Fund.
Tickets
Tickets start at $20. Tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or 92y.org. To determine
ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 8755656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday,
and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. [Ticket prices subject to change.]
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2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 9
CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF CONTACT! 2013–14
CONTACT! AT SUBCULTURE: AN EVENING WITH ESA-PEKKA SALONEN
A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y
Monday, November 4, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
SubCulture
45 Bleecker Street
Esa-Pekka Salonen, host
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic
Esa-Pekka SALONEN
knock, breathe, shine for solo cello
Memoria for wind quintet
YTA III for solo cello
Homunculus for string quartet
Second Meeting for oboe and piano
CONTACT! AT SUBCULTURE: YEFIM BRONFMAN AND FRIENDS
A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y
Monday, January 13, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
SubCulture
45 Bleecker Street
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Marc Neikrug, host
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic
Marc-André DALBAVIE
Marc NEIKRUG
Trio No. 1 for violin, cello, and piano
Passions, Reflected for solo piano (World Premiere)
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2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 10
CONTACT! AT THE BIENNIAL: BEYOND RECALL
A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and The Museum of Modern Art
Agnes Gund Garden Lobby
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
Thursday, May 29, 2014, 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 31, 2014, 10:00 p.m.
Beyond Recall (11 U.S. Premieres)
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Mezzo-soprano tba
Baritone tba
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic
Bruno MANTOVANI
Johannes Maria STAUD
Dai FUJIKURA
Vykintas BALTAKAS
David FULMER
Jay SCHWARTZ
Mark ANDRÉ
Vito ZURAJ
Michael JARRELL
Olga NEUWIRTH
Nina ŠENK
on “Spirit of Mozart” by Marina Abramovic
on “Caldera” by Anthony Cragg
on “Sphaera” / “Frau im Fels” by Stephan Balkenhol
on “Beyond Recall” by Brigitte Kowanz
on “Awilda” by Jaume Plensa
on “Mozart – Eine Hommage” by Markus Lüpertz
on “Sky-Space” by James Turrell
on “Connection” by Manfred Wakolbinger
on “Vanitas” by Christian Boltanski
on “Ziffern im Wald” by Mario Merz
on “Gurken” by Erwin Wurm
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2013–14 Season of CONTACT! / 11
CONTACT! AT THE BIENNIAL: SOLO WORKS BY YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSERS
A Co-Presentation of the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y
SubCulture
45 Bleecker Street
Tuesday, June 3, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic
Oscar BETTISON
Ryan BROWN
Michael HERSCH
Chris KAPICA
Eric NATHAN
Paola PRESTINI
Krank (New York Premiere)
Four Pieces for Solo Piano (New York Premiere)
New work for solo violin (World Premiere–
New York Philharmonic Commission)
New work for solo clarinet (World Premiere–
New York Philharmonic Commission)
New work for solo trombone (World Premiere–
New York Philharmonic Commission)
New work for solo cello (World Premiere–
New York Philharmonic Commission)
###
Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Tumblr — Your Backstage Pass
Photography is available for the NY PHIL BIENNIAL at
nyphil.org/newsroom/1314/Biennial,
or by contacting the Communications Department at (212) 875-5700; [email protected].