Pianist Kirill Gerstein Replaces Jonathan Biss with the NY Philharmonic This Weekend

Pianist Kirill Gerstein will replace Jonathan Biss in the New York Philharmonic's performances of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Susanna Ma?lkki in her New York Philharmonic debut, tonight, May 21, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 22 at 11:00 a.m.; and Saturday, May 23 at 8:00 p.m. Due to an arm injury suffered in a recent accident, Mr. Biss is unable to perform with the New York Philharmonic on the advice of his doctor. The program will also include Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Harvey's Tranquil Abiding.

Kirill Gerstein made his Philharmonic debut in June 2011 performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, led by Bramwell Tovey, as part of Summertime Classics; he repeated the performance in July 2011 during the Philharmonic's Bravo! Vail residency. He made his Philharmonic subscription debut in October 2013 performing Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, led by Semyon Bychkov.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will join Philharmonic musicians in chamber music on the Saturday Matinee Concert, May 23 at 2:00 p.m. The afternoon's performance of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Susanna Ma?lkki and with Kirill Gerstein as soloist, will be preceded by Dvor?a?k's String Quintet in E-flat major with Alan Gilbert on viola alongside Philharmonic Acting Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Acting Principal Associate Concertmaster Michelle Kim, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey.

Related Events:

- Pre-Concert Insights
Writer, music historian, and former Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic Harvey Sachs 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:

Susanna Ma?lkki's versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony and chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles, and opera houses across the world. Recently appointed chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (beginning in the 2016-17 season), Ms. Ma?lkki is now in her second season as principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Highlights of her performances with that ensemble include a gala opera evening with soprano Karita Mattila, Sibelius's Tapiola, Mahler's Symphony No.9, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with Natalia Gutman, and Barto?k's Concerto for Orchestra. Ms. Ma?lkki has served as music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and artistic director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor in Europe and North America, her recent highlights include performances with the Chicago, Bavarian Radio, and Swedish symphony orchestras, as well as Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. Notable recent debuts include the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Orquestra Sinfo?nica do Estado de Sa?o Paulo. In addition to the New York Philharmonic, this season Ms. Ma?lkki makes debuts with The Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Teatro La Fenice. She also returns to the San Francisco Symphony and Helsinki and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestras. A renowned opera conductor, Ms. Ma?lkki led Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with Finnish National Opera in August 2014, followed by her debut with Hamburg Staatsoper, conducting a revival of Jana?c?ek's Jenu?fa with Ms. Mattila in the title role. In April 2011 Ms. Ma?lkki became the first woman to conduct at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, where she returned in January 2014. Future highlights include a return to the Ope?ra national de Paris, where she conducted the world premiere of a ballet by Bruno Mantovani in 2010 and Jana?c?ek's The Makropolous Case last season. Susanna Ma?lkki studied at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. Prior to conducting, she had a successful career as a cellist and, from 1995 to 1998, was one of the principals of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2010, is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, one of Finland's highest honors, in 2011. These performances mark her New York Philharmonic debut.

Pianist Kirill Gerstein - considered to be one of today's most intriguing and versatile musicians with his masterful technique, discerning intelligence, and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and numerous styles - tours extensively as a recitalist and concert soloist and often performs chamber music with his colleagues. Highlights of his season included performances with the Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Vancouver symphony orchestras and the Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras, as well as a recital at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Performances abroad include the Vienna Philharmonic, London's Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestras, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Scottish National, and Sa?o Paulo Symphony orchestras. His discography for Myrios Classics includes the world premiere recording of the 1879 version of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and two recital releases that were named Best Recording of the Year by The New York Times: Imaginary Pictures, pairing Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition with Schumann's Carnaval, and an album of works by Schumann, Liszt, and Oliver Knussen. Mr. Gerstein received the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award and First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Born in Russia, he studied classical piano at a special music school for gifted children while teaching himself to play jazz by listening to his parents' extensive record collection. After moving to the U.S. at the age of 14 he formally studied both genres - first jazz piano at Boston's Berklee College of Music, then classical piano at the Manhattan School of Music with Solomon Mikowsky. Mr. Gerstein is currently artist-in-residence in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music and a member of the piano faculty at The Boston Conservatory, in the first joint appointment between both institutions. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in June 2011, when he performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, led by Bramwell Tovey; in his most recent appearance with the Orchestra he performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, led by Semyon Bychkov, in October 2013.

Repertoire:

Johannes Brahms's (1833-97) Variations on a Theme by Haydn had a lengthy genesis. In 1870 one of Brahms's friends, Haydn biographer Karl Ferdinand Pohl, showed him a suite for wind instruments to be played out of doors, and believed to be the work of Haydn. Attracted to the theme of the second movement, which was apparently taken from a traditional tune, Brahms copied it down, and three years later began writing a series of variations on that melody. Two versions emerged: one for orchestra, which was premiered in August 1873, and another for two pianos, which received its first performance February 1874. The work comprises the theme, eight variations, and a passacaglia finale, and is among the most popular compositions in the genre. The piece was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in February 1878, conducted by Theodore Thomas; the Orchestra's most recent performance of the complete work was in June 2007, led by Lorin Maazel.

British composer Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) became known for using technology and a rational approach to composition to convey a profoundly spiritual message. Influenced by an array of styles, ranging from the British choral tradition to Stockhausen's 20th-century experimental concepts, he was invited to IRCAM by Pierre Boulez in 1980, and ultimately became known for his enlightened, modernist sound. Harvey composed his evocative Tranquil Abiding for chamber orchestra in 1998. The title comes from the Buddhist term for a state of pointed concentration, and the one-movement work is based on a single slow, breathing rhythm comprising, according to its publisher, "an 'inhalation' on an upper note followed by an 'exhalation' on a lower one. There are melodic fragments above it: one using only one pitch, another three pitches, another five pitches, another eight pitches and a fifth fifteen pitches." These performances mark the Philharmonic's first of an orchestral work by Jonathan Harvey.

Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1854-58) is another one of the composer's works that had a long, complex evolution; Brahms revised it even after it was premiered in 1859. It is symphonic in scope, lasting around 45 minutes; after a long and stormy orchestral introduction, the peaceful Adagio comes as blessed relief; the composer wrote to Clara Schumann of the section: "I am also painting a lovely portrait of you; it is to be the Adagio." In his book on Brahms, Burnett James writes that the work "marks the end of Brahms's youthful romantic period. Never again was he to let himself go with such uninhibited passion; never again to wear his heart so unashamedly on his sleeve." The New York Philharmonic first performed this concerto at The Academy of Music in 1875, with soloist Nannetta Falk-Auerbach and conducted by Carl Bergmann; Christoph von Dohna?nyi led Paul Lewis in the Orchestra's most recent performance of the work, in April 2014.

Antoni?n Dvor?a?k (1841-1904) infused his 1893 String Quintet in E-Flat major with the rhythms and sounds traditionally associated with folk music, the American versions of which he was hearing in the small town of Spillville, Iowa, where the composer and his family were living when it was written. Of particular interest is the first movement, which utilizes a fragment of Native American song, likely suggested by the songs and dances of a traveling troupe of Iroquois Indians he heard that summer. A slow, somewhat melancholy theme opens this "Viola Quintet" - meaning that the fifth instrument is a second viola - but soon the movement becomes more animated and energetic. The slow third movement is a theme with five variations, and the finale features pizzicato, suggesting Indian drumming. This work, along with the American Quartet and the New World Symphony, attests to Dvor?a?k's endless bounty of melodies inspired by his visit to America.

Tickets for these performances start at $30. 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.]

Pictured: Kirill Gerstein performing with the NY Philharmonic. Photo by Chris Lee.