FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 22, 2014
Contact: Katherine E. Johnson
(212) 875-5718; [email protected]
The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence LISA BATIASHVILI
To Perform BARBER’s Violin Concerto
The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence CHRISTOPHER ROUSE’s Iscariot,
Final Work To Be Performed During His Tenure
DAVID ZINMAN To Conduct Program That Also Includes
RACHMANINOFF’s Symphony No. 2
February 5–7, 2015
FREE INSIGHTS AT THE ATRIUM EVENT
“An Evening with Lisa Batiashvili”
February 3, 2015
Saturday Matinee Concert To Feature Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, Op. 81
Performed by Artist-in-Association Inon Barnatan and Philharmonic Musicians
February 7, 2015
The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili will continue her tenure
with performances of Barber’s Violin Concerto, and The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-inResidence Christopher Rouse’s tenure concludes with performances of Iscariot, the final work
by Mr. Rouse to performed during his three-year tenure. David Zinman will conduct the
program, which also includes Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, Thursday, February 5, 2015, at
7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 6 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 7 at 8:00 p.m.
The New York Philharmonic’s free Insights at the Atrium series will present “An Evening with
Lisa Batiashvili,” Tuesday, February 3, 2015, at 7:30 p.m., at which Ms. Batiashvili will speak
about her collaboration with the Philharmonic, the repertoire she’s bringing to New York, and
her musical upbringing. The event takes place at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
(Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street) and is co-presented with Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts.
“Barber’s Violin Concerto is the American concerto,” Lisa Batiashvili said. “Playing it as
Artist-in-Residence is my way of showing how much I love American music and how
much I appreciate being here. To play this wonderful concerto with the amazing
Philharmonic is going to be quite an experience for me.”
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David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 2
“Iscariot is at once both my most autobiographical score to date as well as my most ritualized,”
Christopher Rouse writes. “Though the music is continuous, the piece is nonetheless highly
sectionalized into a pattern of alternating strophes and antistrophes in the ancient Greek dramatic
tradition.”
By the conclusion of his tenure Christopher Rouse will have written three new pieces
commissioned by the Philharmonic, worked with Alan Gilbert and the Orchestra in performances
of ten of his works, and served as an advisor for six programs of CONTACT!, the new-music
series.
The Orchestra began its relationship with Mr. Rouse in 1984, when it performed The Infernal
Machine, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Since then, the Philharmonic has commissioned and
presented the World Premieres of his Pulitzer Prize–winning Concerto for Trombone and
Orchestra (1992, with Principal Trombone Joseph Alessi, led by Mr. Slatkin); Seeing, for Piano
and Orchestra (with Emanuel Ax, led by Mr. Slatkin in 1999 and David Zinman in 2003); Odna
Zhizn (2010, led by Alan Gilbert); Prospero’s Rooms (2013, led by Alan Gilbert); and
Symphony No. 4 (2014, led by Alan Gilbert during the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL). The
Orchestra has also performed the New York Premieres of his Symphony No. 3 (2013, led by
Alan Gilbert) and Oboe Concerto (2013, with Principal Oboe Liang Wang, led by Alan Gilbert),
as well as Phantasmata (2013, led by Alan Gilbert) and Rapture (2014, led by Alan Gilbert).
Mr. Rouse is the second Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, a post established by Alan
Gilbert at the beginning of his tenure as Music Director; Magnus Lindberg was the first to
occupy the position, from 2009 to 2012.
The Saturday Matinee Concert February 7 at 2:00 p.m. opens with Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, Op.
81, with Philharmonic Artist-in-Association Inon Barnatan and Acting Concertmaster Sheryl
Staples; Acting Principal, Second Violin Group, Lisa Kim; Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps; and
Principal Cello Carter Brey. The program also features Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, led by
David Zinman. Each of the concerts on this season’s Saturday Matinee series features chamber
music by Dvořák.
Related Events
 Philharmonic Free Fridays
The New York Philharmonic is offering 100 free tickets for young people ages 13–26 to the
concert Friday, January 9 as part of Philharmonic Free Fridays. Information is available at
nyphil.org/freefridays. Philharmonic Free Fridays offers 100 free tickets to 13–26-year-olds
to each of the 2014–15 season’s 18 Friday evening subscription concerts; it is part of Share
the Music!, a new initiative to support expanded access to the New York Philharmonic.
 Insights at the Atrium — “An Evening with Lisa Batiashvili”
The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiasvhili, speaker
New York Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Edward Yim, moderator
Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street)
(more)
David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 3
Anticipating her performances of Barber’s Violin Concerto, Artist-in-Residence Lisa
Batiashvili speaks about her collaboration with the Philharmonic, the repertoire she’s
bringing to New York, and her musical upbringing. Insights at the Atrium events are free and
open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Subscribers,
Friends at the Affiliate level and above, and Patrons may secure guaranteed admission by
emailing [email protected]. Space is limited. For more information, visit
nyphil.org/insights.
 Pre-Concert Insights
Composer Victoria Bond will introduce the program. Pre-Concert Insights are $7; discounts
available for multiple talks, students, and groups. 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
New York–born conductor David Zinman has held positions as music director of the Rotterdam
and Rochester Philharmonic orchestras and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; principal
conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra; and music director of the Aspen Music Festival
and School and American Academy of Conducting. He has just completed his 19-year tenure as
music director of Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, with his final performance at the 2014 BBC Proms.
A regular guest with the world’s leading orchestras, in recent engagements he has worked with the
Bavarian Radio and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, London and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, and Orchestre national de France. He regularly conducts the New
York Philharmonic and in the summer of 2014 he appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
at Tanglewood and with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Upcoming projects include
performances with the Toronto, NHK, Berlin’s German, and Washington’s National symphony
orchestras, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Czech Philharmonic orchestras. Mr. Zinman’s
discography of more than 100 recordings has received international honors, including five Grammy
Awards, two Grand Prix du Disque, two Edison Prizes, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and a
Gramophone Award. Recent releases include a 50-CD box set David Zinman: Great Symphonies
— The Zurich Years, which commemorates his recording legacy with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra.
In 2000 Mr. Zinman was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2002 he
was first conductor and non-Swiss recipient of the City of Zurich Art Prize. He received the
Thomas Theodore award in recognition of outstanding achievement and extraordinary service to
one’s colleagues in advancing the art and science of conducting. In 2008 he won the Midem
Classical Artist of the Year award for his work with the Tonhalle Orchestra. He was also the 1997
recipient of the Ditson Award from Columbia University in recognition of his exceptional
commitment to the performance of works by American composers. Mr. Zinman’s first appearance
with the New York Philharmonic was leading the 1973 Neighborhood Concerts Orchestra during
its citywide festival; most recently, he led the Orchestra in works by Thomas Adès, Mozart, and
Mendelssohn with Richard Goode as soloist in December 2013.
As the 2014–15 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic,
Lisa Batiashvili will make three orchestral appearances — featuring concertos by Brahms,
Barber, and Bach as well as a U.S. Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission written
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David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 4
for her by Thierry Escaich; and a recital, presented in association with Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, with pianist Paul Lewis. This season the Georgian violinist also serves as artistin-residence for Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, where she and her husband, François
Leleux, give the World Premiere of Escaich’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, led by Alan
Gilbert, before giving the work’s U.S. Premiere with the New York Philharmonic. Other 2014–
15 season engagements include Filarmonica della Scala and Berlin Staatskapelle, both led by
Daniel Barenboim; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, led by Antonio Pappano; The
Philadelphia Orchestra’s European tour, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Rotterdam
Philharmonic’s Gergiev Festival; and concerts with Mr. Leleux at the Salzburg Festival and in
Amsterdam’s televised annual Prinsengracht concert. Ms. Batiashvili frequently works with the
Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and
other major orchestras worldwide. Her chamber music appearances this season include recitals
with Mr. Lewis in Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto, as well as New York, and Schubert’s Trout
Quintet alongside Mr. Lewis and Lawrence Power at Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw and
London’s Wigmore Hall.
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 François Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud, and
Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. Past recordings include Brahms’s Violin Concerto with
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 Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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 lives in
Munich and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” violin from 1739, generously loaned by a
private collector in Germany. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in March 2005
performing Chausson’s Poème and Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso,
conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel; she most recently appeared with the Orchestra
in October 2014, performing Brahms’s Violin Concerto, led by Alan Gilbert.
Insights at the Atrium Moderator
Edward Yim is Vice President, Artistic Planning, at the New York Philharmonic. In this
capacity, he works closely with Music Director Alan Gilbert and Philharmonic President
Matthew VanBesien on programming, artistic planning, and engaging guest artists. Previously,
Mr. Yim was director of artistic planning for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Leading a team that
worked across a wide range of musical genres — including classical, jazz, world music, and
popular entertainment — he created artistic programming for more than 200 concerts per season
for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, both at Walt Disney Concert Hall (where he was involved in
planning the inaugural seasons) and at the Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Yim later served as director of
artistic planning for New York City Opera and senior vice president and director of the
conductors and instrumentalists division of IMG Artists North America. He is a graduate of the
League of American Orchestra’s Management Fellowship Program. Born and raised in Los
Angeles, Edward Yim holds an A.B. degree in government from Harvard College and an M.B.A.
from Case Western Reserve University. He serves on the board of New Music USA.
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David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 5
Repertoire
The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse (b. 1949) completed
Iscariot in 1989. The title refers to the New Testament’s betrayer of Jesus, Judas Iscariot,
although the work is not biblically programmatic. Mr. Rouse writes: “Iscariot is at once both my
most autobiographical score to date as well as my most ritualized. Though the music is
continuous, the piece is nonetheless highly sectionalized into a pattern of alternating strophes and
antistrophes in the ancient Greek dramatic tradition.... Somewhat hidden in the antistrophes are
references to the chorale Es ist genug — used so powerfully by Bach in his cantata O Ewigkeit,
du Donnerwort.... the general tone of the music is intense but dolorous — the heading con
passion at the beginning of the score might well be a watchword for the piece as a whole.” Mr.
Rouse dedicated Iscariot “in friendship and with admiration” to fellow composer John Adams.
Samuel Barber (1910–81) began writing his Violin Concerto in 1939, during a stay in a small
Swiss village before being warned to leave Europe as the Nazis invaded Poland. The work
begins with two nostalgic, deeply lyrical movements and ends with a fiery, perpetual-motion
finale of complex meters and dissonances. Although this last movement met with early
controversy — Barber’s intended soloist and dedicatee refused to perform the work because of it
— the concerto has become one of Barber’s most beloved pieces. Leonard Bernstein conducted
the first New York Philharmonic performance in October 1960, with soloist Aaron Rosand; Alan
Gilbert led the most recent performance, in November 2012, with Gil Shaham as soloist.
Pianist, conductor, and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) moved from Moscow to
Dresden in 1906 to find more time to write, feeling that his active professional life and many
social obligations in Russia took him away from composing. With his newly found solitude, he
began working on the Symphony No. 2, completed it the following year, and conducted its
premiere in St. Petersburg the next. More than a decade earlier, his First Symphony had met with
blistering criticism; his Second, however, was favorably reviewed and is still one of
Rachmaninoff’s most popular works. The symphony entered the Philharmonic’s repertoire in
1911, when it was performed by the New York Symphony Society (which would merge with the
New York Philharmonic in 1928), led by Walter Damrosch; Alan Gilbert led its most recent
presentations in January and February 2010 in New York and on the 2010 tour of Europe, and
during that summer’s Bravo! Vail residency.
***
These performances are sponsored by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc.
***
Christopher Rouse is The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence.
***
Lisa Batiashvili is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.
***
Insights at the Atrium is presented in partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
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David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 6
***
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from 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
Tickets for these performances start at $32. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $20. Pre-Concert
Insights are $7; discounts are available for multiple talks, students, and groups (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 Avery
Fisher 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.]
Insights at the Atrium events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come,
first-served basis. Subscribers, Friends at the Affiliate level and above, and Patrons may secure
guaranteed admission by emailing [email protected]. Space is limited.
For press tickets, call Lanore Carr in the New York Philharmonic Marketing and
Communications Department at (212) 875-5714, or e-mail her at [email protected].
(more)
Alan Gilbert / Lisa Batiashvili / 7
New York Philharmonic
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
Thursday, February 5, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Open Rehearsal — 9:45 a.m.
Friday, February 6, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 7, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Pre-Concert Insights (one hour before each concert) with composer Victoria Bond
David Zinman, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin
Christopher ROUSE
BARBER
RACHMANINOFF
Iscariot
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 2
“AN EVENING WITH LISA BATIASHVILI”
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street)
Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiasvhili, speaker
New York Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Edward Yim, moderator
Anticipating her performances of Barber’s Violin Concerto, Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili
speaks about her collaboration with the Philharmonic, the repertoire she’s bringing to New York,
and her musical upbringing.
(more)
David Zinman / Lisa Batiashvili / 8
Saturday Matinee Concert
Saturday, February 7, 2015, 2:00 p.m.
David Zinman, conductor
Sheryl Staples, Lisa Kim, violin
Cynthia Phelps, viola
Carter Brey, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano
DVOŘÁK
RACHMANINOFF
Piano Quintet, Op. 81
Symphony No. 2
###
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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