Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra To Celebrate 175th Anniversary At Carnegie Hall, 2/24-26

The venerable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, celebrating its 175th anniversary this season, returns to Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for three concerts, each featuring a work by Schubert, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst February 24-26.

On Friday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m., the orchestra will perform the overture to Schubert's melodrama Die Zauberharfe, Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben, and the U.S. premiere of Time Recycling composed by René Staar, longtime violinist with the orchestra. The second program, on Saturday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m., features Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder in Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, Schubert's Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished," and Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin Suite; and on Sunday, February 26 at 2:00 p.m., the Vienna Philharmonic will perform Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 and Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, "Great." This final concert will be broadcast live on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, and streamed on wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr as part of the Carnegie Hall Live series. It will be heard later on radio stations across the country through the WFMT Radio Network.

Tickets, priced $73-$250, 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.

The Carnegie Hall concerts are part of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's U.S. tour that also includes concerts at Memorial Hall, presented by Carolina Performing Arts, in Chapel Hill, NC on Monday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. and at Artis?Naples in Naples, FL on Wednesday, March 1 and Friday, March 3 at 8:00 p.m. In Chapel Hill, Mr. Welser-Möst will lead the Vienna Philharmonic in the Schoenberg and Schubert program, and at Artis?Naples they will repeat the first and last Carnegie Hall programs.

Masterclasses and Lectures

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has long been committed to fostering young musicians through its education programs, which include a variety of initiatives ranging from lessons, masterclasses and workshops that encourage an open dialogue with Vienna Philharmonic musicians and conductors, to open rehearsals for students and chamber concerts in schools. In advance of their three concerts at Carnegie Hall, musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will lead masterclasses on Thursday, February 23 in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing, working with alumni of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.

In Chapel Hill, Vienna Philharmonic archivist Dr. Silvia Kargl and historian Dr. Friedemann Pestel from the University of Freiburg (Germany) will give two lectures on Monday, February 27. The first lecture titled "Ambivalent Loyalties: The Vienna Philharmonic between National Socialism and Post-War Austria" discusses the orchestra's role under National Socialism and its post-war consequences based on new findings from the orchestra's archives. Moreover, Silvia Kargl and Friedemann Pestel will give a pre-concert talk on the orchestra's 175 year history, presenting images of centerpieces from the orchestra's rich archival collections.

The Vienna Philharmonic returns to Naples for the second year of its three-year residency at Artis?Naples from March 1-3. In addition to the two concerts, Vienna Philharmonic musicians will work with members of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in chamber music, woodwind, and string masterclasses, and Silvia Kargl and Friedemann Pestel will give a lecture on the history of the orchestra and Viennese culture and traditions in the Daniels Pavilion on Wednesday, March 1.

Joint Exhibit with New York Philharmonic and Austrian Cultural Forum New York

The Vienna Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, both celebrating their 175th anniversaries this season, will present a joint exhibit of archival material from throughout the orchestras' histories at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York from February 23-March 10. The exhibit, "Vienna and New York: 175 Years of Two Philharmonics," is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and will feature documents written at the founding of each orchestra, historic conducting scores, programs, photographs from performances and tours, and letters from composers and conductors who played significant roles in the orchestras' histories. The exhibit launches with a private event on Wednesday, February 22 that will feature the first ever chamber performance by musicians from both the Vienna and New York Philharmonics. Also on display at the ACFNY, during the first week of the exhibit, will be a sculptural installation by Vienna-based Swiss artist Nives Widauer. Ms. Widauer will create a new rocket-like structure made up of instrument tour cases from both orchestras, as part of her series "Special Cases - Cosmic Rockets."

About the Artists

There is perhaps no other musical ensemble more closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Over the course of its 175 year history, the musicians of this most prominent orchestra of the capital city of music, have been an integral part of a musical epoch that - thanks to an abundance of uniquely gifted composers and interpreters - is regarded as truly unique. The Vienna Philharmonic is renowned for its distinctive musical style passed from generation to generation, as well as its structure and history. Formed in 1842 by conductor-composer Otto Nicolai and members of the Imperial Court Opera Orchestra as a professional orchestra for the performance of symphonic repertoire (which until that time had not existed in Vienna), the orchestra's initial objective was to perform symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven in their own city. Assuming all responsibility and risk, the musicians formed a democratic orchestra and a "founding document" outlining a self-governing administration was drafted by Otto Nicolai. The document, which is followed by the orchestra to this day, stipulates that only musicians of the opera orchestra can become members of the Philharmonic; that musicians organize and present their concerts autonomously; and that they divide earnings among themselves. Today, the Vienna Philharmonic presents more than 40 concerts annually at the Musikverein in Vienna, performs over 50 concerts on tour around the world, appears every summer (since 1922) at the Salzburg Festival, and presents a New Year's Concert, which is broadcast internationally to more than 90 countries, and the free Summer Night Concert Schönbrunn, attended annually by up to 100,000 people. With numerous benefit concerts at home and on tour, the Vienna Philharmonic is much more than Austria's most coveted "cultural export." Orchestra members are considered ambassadors, expressing through their performances the ideals of peace, humanity, and reconciliation. The musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra endeavor to implement the motto with which Ludwig van Beethoven prefaced his Missa solemnis: "From the heart, to the heart."

For more than fifty years, Rudolf Buchbinder has appeared in concerts all over the world with the most renowned orchestras and conductors. Having recently celebrated his 70th birthday, this season takes him on tours with the Vienna Philharmonic under the batons of Zubin Mehta and Franz Welser-Möst, as well as concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Berlin Philharmonic led by Christian Thielemann. At the invitation of Mariss Jansons, Mr. Buchbinder is Artist in Residence with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Mr. Buchbinder has documented his broad artistic range-with repertoire from Bach to contemporary music-with more than one hundred recordings, many of which have won awards. He is especially known for his interpretations of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. To date, he has performed Beethoven's complete cycle of sonatas more than fifty times in places including Berlin, Buenos Aires, Dresden, Milan, Beijing, St. Petersburg, Zurich, and four times each in Vienna and Munich. In 2014, he became the first pianist ever to perform the complete Beethoven sonatas during one summer season at the Salzburg Festival, a cycle that was recorded live and released on DVD. Mr. Buchbinder has been the artistic director of the Grafenegg festival since its founding in 2007. Under his leadership, it has developed into one of Europe's foremost festivals for orchestral music. He has published two books: his autobiography Da Capo, as well as My Beethoven-Life With the Master.

Franz Welser-Möst has developed a particularly close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. He has twice appeared on the podium at the New Year's Concert and conducts the orchestra regularly in subscription concerts at the Musikverein, as well as in Lucerne, at the BBC Proms, and on tour in Scandinavia, Japan, and the US. This special relationship was recognized in spring 2014 when he was presented with the orchestra's Ring of Honour. Mr. Welser-Möst has received many other honors and awards, while his numerous CDs and DVDs have been awarded many international prizes. Mr. Welser-Möst has been music director of The Cleveland Orchestra since 2002 and his contract currently runs until 2022. From 2010 to 2014, he was general music director of the Vienna State Opera, where he notably conducted twentieth-century works such as Janá?ek's Ká?a Kabanová, From the House of the Dead and The Cunning Little Vixen, as well as Hindemith's Cardillac. In Vienna and Cleveland, he has focused on the operas of Richard Strauss and conducted performances of Salome, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Arabella. Mr. Welser-Möst makes regular appearances at the Salzburg Festival. After triumphant successes with Rusalka, Der Rosenkavalier, and Fidelio, he conducted a new production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae in 2016, and, having worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2009, he conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden there in 2017.

(Photo Credit: Vienna Philharmonic Facebook/Martin Kubik)