The American Symphony Orchestra Presents MARRIAGE ACTUALLY, 10/15

Music Director Leon Botstein opens the ASO's 53rd season by shining a light on one of the most fascinating partnerships in classical music: the marriage of Richard and Pauline Strauss. Despite the failure of Pauline's own musical career and the famously sharp-tongued barbs she often directed at Strauss himself, the marriage endured and Strauss frequently used their relationship as inspiration for his music. The works on this concert bring together rarely-heard music from Intermezzo, the opera Strauss wrote when Pauline accused him of adultery; the NY debut of Mark Bebbington in Parergon, a piano concerto portraying the illness of the couple's son; and Symphonia Domestica, representing 24 hours in the life of the Strauss family at home.

Maestro Botstein shares the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor's Notes Q & A at 7pm in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Free for all ticketholders.

WHEN:
Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 8 PM

WHERE:
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium, Perelman Stage), 57th Street and 7th Avenue

PROGRAM:
Marriage Actually
American Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein, conductor
Mark Bebbington, piano (NY debut)

Richard Strauss:
Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo
Parergon on Symphonia Domestica
Symphonia Domestica

TICKETS:
$29 / $39 / $54 and subscriptions are available at americansymphony.org and by phone at 212-868-9276. Tickets are also available at CarnegieHall.org, at the Carnegie box office, or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. The Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7pm in Stern Auditorium is free with concert ticket.

About Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein is now in his 23rd year as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He is renowned for his visionary zeal, often creating concert programs that give audiences a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear live performances of works that are ignored in the standard repertory, and inviting music lovers to listen in their own way to create a personal experience. At the same time he brings his distinctive style to core repertory works. He is also co-Artistic Director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been President since 1975. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Music Director from 2003-2011.

Mr. Botstein leads an active schedule as a guest conductor all over the world, and can be heard on numerous recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra (including their Grammy-nominated recording of Popov's First Symphony), the London Philharmonic, NDR-Hamburg, and the Jerusalem Symphony. Many of his live performances with the American Symphony Orchestra are available online, where they have cumulatively sold more than a quarter of a million downloads. Upcoming engagements include the Royal Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, and the Taipei Symphony. Last season's guest-conducting included the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela and Japan, the first non-Venezuelan conductor invited by El Sistema to conduct on a tour.

Highly regarded as a music historian, Mr. Botstein's most recent book is Von Beethoven zu Berg: Das Gedächtnis der Moderne (2013). He is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous articles and books. He is currently working on a sequel to Jefferson's Children, about the American education system. For his contributions to music he has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University's prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria. Other recent awards include the Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize, the highest award given by the University of Alabama; the Bruckner Society's Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer's music; the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society; and Carnegie Foundation's Academic Leadership Award. In 2011 he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.

About American Symphony Orchestra
Now in its 53rd season, the American Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski, with a mission of making orchestral music accessible and affordable for everyone. Music Director Leon Botstein expanded that mission when he joined the ASO in 1992, creating thematic concerts that explore music from the perspective of the visual arts, literature, religion, and history, and reviving rarely-performed works those audiences would otherwise never have a chance to hear performed live.

The orchestra's Vanguard Series, which includes these themed programs as well as an opera-in-concert and a celebration of an American composer, consists of six concerts annually at Carnegie Hall. ASO goes in-depth with three familiar symphonies each season in the popular series Classics Declassified at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and has an upstate home at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it performs in an annual subscription series as well as Bard's SummerScape Festival and the Bard Music Festival. The orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and has performed in countless benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation and PBS.

Many of the world's most accomplished soloists have performed with the ASO, including Yo-Yo Ma, Deborah Voigt, and Sarah Chang. The orchestra has released several recordings on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, and Vanguard labels, and many live performances are also available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances.

About Mark Bebbington
Mark Bebbington is a leading UK pianist who has made more than 30 recordings, the most recent of which, released in 2013, include four British piano concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. His solo recital recordings earned no fewer than seven consecutive sets of five stars in BBC Music Magazine and range from Mozart concertos to an acclaimed ongoing series of music by British composers (hailed recently by The Guardian as "revelatory").

Over recent seasons, Mr. Bebbington has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe (both as recitalist and as soloist with major orchestras), as well as the Far East and North Africa. Within the U.K., he has appeared in concertos with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestras and the London Mozart Players. He has been featured on BBC Television and Radio and also on major European television and radio networks. Projects for 2014-15 include further concerto recordings and performances with the Ulster, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia and BBC orchestras, as well as debuts at the Husum "Piano Rarities" Festival in Germany and the Grand Theatre at Opera National de Bordeaux and London solo recitals at the Southbank Centre, St John's Smith Square and Wigmore Hall.

More information available at americansymphony.org.