Download Report

For Immediate Release:
January 28, 2015
Press Contacts:
Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090
Celeste Wroblewski, 312-294-3091
Photos Available By Request
[email protected]
JAAP VAN ZWEDEN LEADS CSO IN BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY NO. 5
AND SONGS BY SCHUBERT AND STRAUSS WITH
BARITONE MATTHIAS GOERNE
February 5, 7 and 8
CHICAGO — Guest Conductor Jaap van Zweden returns to Symphony Center to lead the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5, as well as
selected songs by Franz Schubert and Richard Strauss with internationally-acclaimed German
baritone Matthias Goerne as soloist. Performances take place Thursday and Saturday,
February 5 and 7 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, February 8 at 3 p.m. The CSO, van Zweden and
Goerne also perform this program Friday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Lincoln, Nebraska at the
Lied Center for the Performing Arts. The performance marks the CSO’s debut in Lincoln.
Jaap van Zweden returns to the podium to lead the CSO for the first time since his May 2014
appearances with the Orchestra during the critically-acclaimed Truth to Power Festival
programs, which featured works of Britten, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Goerne last appeared
with the CSO in 2013 in performances of Britten’s War Requiem led by Charles Dutoit. These
performances are the first time that van Zweden and Goerne will appear together with the CSO.
The first half of the program features Goerne and the CSO in a selection of art songs by
Schubert and Strauss. Notably, the first CSO performances of two songs on the program–
Schubert’s Das Rosenband and Strauss’s Morgen!–were given in 1904 at the Auditorium
Theatre conducted by Richard Strauss and sung by his wife, soprano Pauline Strauss de Ahna.
Completing the program is Beethoven’s majestic and powerful Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.
From its highly recognizable four-note theme to its lyrical second movement, it remains today
one of classical music’s most well-known works.
One hour prior to the February 5, 7 and 8 concerts there will be a 30-minute introduction to the
program with the CSO’s artistic programming advisor and creative director of Beyond the
Score®, Gerard McBurney. On Saturday, February 7, Matthias Goerne will sign CDs in Grainger
Ballroom immediately following the concert.
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, Jaap van Zweden has appeared as a guest
conductor with leading orchestras around the world. In 2012, van Zweden took the position of
Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, adding to his position at the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra where he has been the music director since 2008. The Chicago Tribune
heralds van Zweden as one of “today’s foremost interpreters of German art song.”
Since his operatic debut in 1997, internationally renowned baritone Matthias Goerne has gone
on to perform on the world’s most famous opera stages and with many of today’s leading
conductors and pianists. He also served as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the
Robert Schumann Academy of Music between 2001 and 2005. Goerne is featured in the 2014
Harmonia Mundi release Schubert: Wanderers Nachtlied.
Program and Ticket Details
Tickets for all CSO concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at
cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.
Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance
or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294-3040.
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, February 5, 2015, 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 7, 2015, 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 8, 2015, 3 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, Conductor
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
SCHUBERT An Silvia
STRAUSS Traum durch die Dämmerung
STRAUSS Das Rosenband
STRAUSS Freundliche Vision
SCHUBERT Greisengesang
STRAUSS Heimliche Aufforderung
STRAUSS Ruhe
SCHUBERT Im Abendrot
STRAUSS Allerseelen
SCHUBERT Tränenregen from Die schöne Müllerin
STRAUSS Morgen!
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
Jaap van Zweden
Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden has risen rapidly in little more than a decade to become one of
today’s most sought-after conductors. He has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
since 2008, and in September 2012 he took up the position of Music Director of the Hong Kong
Philharmonic Orchestra. Appointed at nineteen as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, he began his conducting career in 1995 and held the positions of Chief
Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (1996-2000), Chief Conductor of the Residentie
Orchestra of The Hague (2000-2005), and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra
(2008-2011) and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
and Radio Chamber Orchestras from 2005-2011(he remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Netherlands Radio Chamber
Orchestra). In November 2011 van Zweden was named as the recipient of Musical America's Conductor
of the Year Award 2012 in recognition of his critically acclaimed work as Music Director of the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra and as a guest conductor with the most prestigious US orchestras.
He has appeared as guest conductor with many leading orchestras across the globe, including the
Chicago Symphony, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Munich Philharmonic, WDR Symphony
Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Aside from an extensive symphonic
repertoire, opera also plays an important part in Maestro van Zweden’s career, and he has conducted La
Traviata and Fidelio with the National Reisopera, Madama Butterfly at the Netherlands Opera, and
concert performances of Verdi’s Otello, Barber’s Vanessa and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and
Lohengrin at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.
Recent highlights have included highly acclaimed debuts with the Berlin and New York Philharmonic, the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and the Boston Symphony,
and his BBC Proms debut conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Bruckner’s Eighth
symphony. Highlights of the 2013/14 season and beyond include subscription debuts with the London
Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Deutsches
Sinfonieorchester Berlin, performances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and return visits to the
Orchestre de Paris and the Rotterdam and London Philharmonic Orchestras. He will curate with the
Chicago Symphony a three-week festival entitled "Truth to Power" that will focus on music of Britten,
Prokofiev and Shostakovich, tour China with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and return to the Verbier
Festival.
He has made numerous acclaimed recordings which include Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka,
Britten’s War Requiem, and the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. Maestro van Zweden has
recently completed a cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, to great
critical acclaim. He has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the London Philharmonic (LPO Live),
and Mozart Piano Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray (Virgin) and his highly
acclaimed performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal are also available on CD/DVD, the
latter of which earned Maestro van Zweden the prestigious Edison award for Best Opera Recording in
2012. For the Dallas Symphony’s own record label he has released the symphonies of Tchaikovsky (Nos.
4 and 5) and Beethoven (5 and 7), and the world premiere recording of Steven Stucky’s cantata ‘August
4, 1964’.
In 1997, van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation, the objective being to
support families with one or more children with autism. Over the years, that support has taken shape in a
number of projects, such as Music Therapy and Music Makers, where professional music therapists and
musicians, who receive additional training from Papageno, use music and make music with autistic
children.
Matthias Goerne
Matthias Goerne is one of the most internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at
renowned festivals and concert halls. He has collaborated with leading orchestras all over the world.
Conductors of the first rank as well as eminent pianists are among his musical partners.
Goerne has appeared on the world’s principal opera stages, including the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden; Teatro Real in Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera in
New York. His carefully chosen roles range from Wolfram, Amfortas, Kurwenal, Wotan and Orest to the
title roles in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, and Paul Hindemithʼs Mathis
der Maler.
His artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, many of which have received prestigious
awards, including four Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, and only recently the Diapason d’or arte.
For harmonia mundi, he has recorded a series of selected Schubert on 11 CDs (The Goerne/Schubert
Edition).
From 2001 through 2005, Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the
Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Düsseldorf. In 2001, he was appointed an Honorary Member of
the Royal Academy of Music in London.
A native of Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig, and later with Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Highlights in the 2014/15 season include a tour with the
Vienna Philharmonic, concerts with the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Czech
Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, as well as
song recitals with Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes and Christoph Eschenbach in London, Vienna,
Berlin and at La Scala di Milan.
In January 2015, Matthias Goerne makes his debut as Wotan in a concert version of Richard Wagner’s
Rheingold with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. For August 2015, he has been invited to the prestigious
summer festivals in Lucerne, Salzburg, Verbier, Edinburgh, Tanglewood, New York (Mostly Mozart), and
Japan (Saito Kinen Festival).
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org
Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest
orchestras in the world. Its music director since 2010 is Riccardo Muti, one of the preeminent conductors
of our day. Pierre Boulez is the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus; Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO’s
Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant. Mason Bates and Anna Clyne are the CSO’s Mead
Composers-in-Residence.
From the baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast classical repertoire. The
renowned musicians of the CSO annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in
Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and
Internationally; since 1892, the CSO has made 57 international tours, performing in 28 countries on five
continents.
Listeners around the globe enjoy weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT
network and online at cso.org/Radio. Recordings by the CSO have earned a total of 62 Grammy Awards,
including two in 2011 for the first recording Muti released with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus, Verdi's Messa da Requiem.
The parent organization for the CSO is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. It includes the
Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training ensemble. Through its
Symphony Center Presents series, the CSOA presents guest artists from a variety of genres—classical,
jazz, pop, world, and contemporary.
The Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO offers a variety of community and education programs that
engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Through the Institute and other
activities, the CSO promotes the concept of Citizen Musicianship: using the power of music to create
connections and build community.
The CSO is supported by tens of thousands of volunteers; patrons; and corporate, foundation,
government, and individual donors. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. Internationally;
since 1892, the CSO has made 57 international tours, performing in 28 countries on five continents.