Esteemed conductor Sir Simon Rattle concludes his two-season Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall this fall, leading four concerts with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Ensemble Connect, and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Maestro Rattle launched his Perspectives series last November, leading the Berliner Philharmoniker in a Beethoven symphony cycle over five consecutive days.
Sir Simon first appears at
Carnegie Hall this season on
Monday, October 10 at 8:00 p.m. with a focus on Mahler-the composer he credits as having inspired him to become a conductor-conducting Mahler's powerfully tragic Symphony No. 6 in A Minor with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The following week, Sir Simon works with Ensemble Connect, formerly known as Ensemble ACJW, in preparation for their performance of Schubert's Winterreise - A Composed Interpretation for Tenor and Small Orchestra, a re-imagination of the beloved work by Hans Zender, on
Sunday, October 16 at 3:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall, featuring tenor Mark Padmore. The concert, which launches Ensemble Connect's tenth anniversary season, marks the group's second collaboration with Maestro Rattle.
The conductor points to connections between the Mahler and Schubert works with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (which he conducts at The Metropolitan Opera this fall), saying, "If you put the Mahler 6, Tristan und Isolde, and Winterreise together, there is a type of kinship. Winterreise is the piece that opened up that type of possibility-the journey towards death, the idea that anything is allowed in the search for expression."
Sir Simon has appeared at
Carnegie Hall nearly 50 times since his debut in 1976, with nearly half of those performances as Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, a title he has held since 2002. Sir Simon conducts his final two New York performances as Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker at
Carnegie Hall in November. On
Wednesday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m. he leads the orchestra in
Pierre Boulez's Éclat and Mahler's Symphony No. 7 in E Minor; on
Thursday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m. he conducts a program of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D Major, plus music by Webern, Schoenberg, and Berg.
About the Artists
Sir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. From 1980 to 1998, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was appointed Music Director in 1990. In 2002 he took up his current position of Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Artistic Director of the Philharmonie Berlin where he will remain until 2018. In the 2017-2018 season, Rattle will become Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Rattle has made over 70 recordings for EMI record label (now Warner Classics), and has received numerous prestigious international awards for his recordings on various labels. Releases on EMI include Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms (which received the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance), Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Symphonic Dances, all recorded with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Rattle's most recent releases (the Beethoven and Sibelius Symphonies, Bach's Passions, and Schumann's Symphonies) have been for Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, the orchestra's in-house label.
As well as fulfilling a taxing concert schedule in Berlin, Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker regularly tour within Europe, North America, and Asia. The partnership has also broken new ground with the Education program, earning the Comenius Prize in 2004, the Schiller Special Prize from the city of Mannheim in May 2005, the Golden Camera and the Urania Medal in spring 2007. He and the Berliner Philharmoniker were also appointed International UNICEF Ambassadors in the same year, the first time this honor has been conferred on an artistic ensemble.
Maestro Rattle has strong longstanding relationships with the leading orchestras in London, Europe, and the US; initially working closely with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra, and more recently with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He regularly conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he has recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos (with Alfred Brendel) and is also a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Founding Patron of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Sir Simon Rattle was knighted in 1994 and in the New Year's Honours of 2014 he received the Order of Merit from Her Majesty the Queen.
The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging-and exceeding-that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.
Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, The Philadelphia Orchestra today boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at
Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.
The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia's many communities, as it builds an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. The orchestra's award-winning Collaborative Learning initiatives engage more than 50,000 students, families, and community members through programs such as PlayINs, side-by-sides, PopUp concerts, free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, and residency work in Philadelphia and abroad. The orchestra's musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region.
The Berliner Philharmoniker, founded in 1882 as a self-governing body, has long been esteemed as one of the world's greatest orchestras. Hans von Bülow, Arthur Nikisch, and Wilhelm Furtwängler were the principal conductors who left their distinctive mark in the Berliner Philharmoniker's early decades. In 1955, Herbert von Karajan became the orchestra's artistic director and, in the ensuing years, worked with the musicians to develop a unique tonal quality and performing style that made the Berliner Philharmoniker famous all over the world. Claudio Abbado, chief conductor from 1989 to 2002, devised a new type of programming, with increased emphasis on contemporary works, expanded chamber recital series and operas in concert performance. When
Sir Simon Rattle took the orchestra's helm in September 2002, the Education Program was initiated to ensure that the Berliner Philharmoniker reaches a wider and, especially, younger audience.
During an orchestra assembly on June 21, 2015, Kirill Petrenko was elected by a large majority of the members of the Berliner Philharmoniker as the Chief Conductor Designate of the orchestra.
Ensemble Connect is made up of some of the finest young professional classical musicians in the United States who are taking part in a two-year fellowship program created in 2007 by
Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The program prepares fellows for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership by offering them top-quality performance opportunities, intensive professional development, and the opportunity to partner throughout the fellowship with a New York City public school.
As performers on the concert stage and in their work in schools and communities, musicians of Ensemble Connect have earned accolades from critics and audiences alike for the quality of their concerts, their fresh and open-minded approach to programming, and their ability to actively engage any audience.
Exemplary performers, dedicated teachers, and advocates for music throughout the community, the forward-looking musicians of Ensemble Connect are redefining what it means to be a musician in the 21st century.
Carnegie Hall's Perspectives
Now in its 17th season, Carnegie Hall's Perspectives series is an artistic initiative in which select musicians are invited to explore their own musical individuality and create their own personal concert series through collaborations with other musicians and ensembles.
Previous Perspectives artists have included: Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour; Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso; Indian classical tabla player Zakir Hussain; experimental rocker
David Byrne; singer-songwriters
Rosanne Cash and
James Taylor; as well as conductor and pianist
Daniel Barenboim; conductors
Pierre Boulez,
James Levine,
Michael Tilson Thomas, and
David Robertson; violinists Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Christian Tetzlaff; cellist
Yo-Yo Ma; pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Evgeny Kissin, Maurizio Pollini, Sir András Schiff, Peter Serkin, and Mitsuko Uchida; sopranos Renée Fleming and
Dawn Upshaw; mezzo-soprano
Joyce DiDonato; bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff; the Emerson String Quartet; the Kronos Quartet; and early music ensemble L'Arpeggiata.
Program Information
Monday, October 10 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 6 in A Minor
Tickets: $49-$156
Sunday, October 16 at 3:00 p.m.
Zankel Hall
ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor
Mark Padmore, Tenor
HANS ZENDER Schubert's Winterreise-A Composed Interpretation for Tenor and Small Orchestra
Tickets: $63, $75
Wednesday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
Sir Simon Rattle, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
Pierre Boulez Éclat
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 7 in E Minor
Tickets: $73-$250
Thursday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
Sir Simon Rattle, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
ANTON WEBERN Six Pieces, Op. 6
Arnold Schoenberg Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16
ALBAN BERG Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Tickets: $73-$250
Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.
For
Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are
Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.
In addition, for all
Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit
carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.
Photo Credit: Chris Lee
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