Leonidas Kavakos To Make Conducting Debut, 10/20

In his first appearances as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, violinist and conductor Leonidas Kavakos will make his Philharmonic conducting debut leading and performing J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in D minor (reconstructed), BWV 1052, and conducting Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque and Schumann's Symphony No. 2. The program takes place Thursday, October 20, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 21 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, October 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m.

"The Philharmonic is full of incredibly talented people who are such fantastic colleagues, and the atmosphere is so friendly," said Leonidas Kavakos. "Alan and I have a wonderful friendship, and I feel honored and happy to have worked with him. This honor of being Artist-in-Residence comes after a beautiful, long period of working together."

On making his New York Philharmonic conducting debut, Mr. Kavakos said: "If somebody told me eight or nine years ago that this was going to be happening, I would say, 'Yes, that's a very beautiful dream indeed.' To imagine that I will have the chance to stand on the podium in front of that orchestra as a conductor is something that ... there are no words to describe that kind of feeling. There's nothing I could wish for more."

"Leonidas Kavakos is an unbelievable violinist," said Music Director Alan Gilbert. "What he can do on the violin is unparalleled, and what he stands for as a musician is absolutely special. He's absolutely ferocious in going after what he believes in. The success he's had as a conductor is, in part, because he knows what he wants and how to achieve it, and musicians respect him so enormously that they will follow him to the end of the Earth."

Leonidas Kavakos will again conduct and perform J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in D minor (reconstructed), BWV 1052, on the Young People's Concert on October 22, 2016.

Mr. Kavakos's residency will feature three solo appearances - including his Philharmonic conducting debut in these performances, as well as the World Premiere-Philharmonic Commission of Lera Auerbach's Violin Concerto No. 4 and Brahms's Violin Concerto; a recital with pianist Yuja Wang, presented by the Philharmonic in association with Lincoln Center's Great Performers; and a Young People's Concert. He will also be featured in the free Insights at the Atrium event "An Evening with Leonidas Kavakos" alongside Lera Auerbach.

A friend of the Philharmonic, he made his debut in 2002 and has appeared with the Philharmonic in 38 concerts. Highlights include Dutilleux's L'Arbre des songes (December 2005, led by Iván Fischer); Sibelius's Violin Concerto on the EUROPE / AUTUMN 2010 tour led by Alan Gilbert; and, in a chamber appearance on a Saturday Matinee Concert, Schubert's String Quintet in C major alongside Alan Gilbert on violin and Philharmonic musicians.

As a conductor, Mr. Kavakos has led the Camerata Salzburg, where he was artistic director from 2007 to 2009, and the Atlanta, Boston, St. Louis, and London symphony orchestras. In 2009 he won an ECHO Klassik award for his recording with the Camerata Salzburg of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, on which he was both soloist and conductor, and in 2014 he became the first soloist to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Ball.

Artists
The New York Philharmonic has named violinist and conductor Leonidas Kavakos The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2016-17 season. His residency features three solo appearances in repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, his Philharmonic conducting debut, a recital with pianist Yuja Wang (presented in association with Lincoln Center's Great Performers), and a Young People's Concert. Also in the season he appears with The Philadelphia Orchestra; plays and conducts the Houston Symphony; embarks on a recital tour with Ms. Wang in both Europe and the U.S.; and undertakes a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and a tour to Switzerland with the Mariinsky Orchestra. Mr. Kavakos had already won three major competitions by age 21: the Sibelius, the Paganini, and the Naumburg. This success led to his making the first recording in history of the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903-04), which won the 1991 GramophoneConcerto of the Year Award. He has since appeared regularly as soloist with the Vienna, Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras; London, Boston, and Chicago symphony orchestras; and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia Orchestras. As a conductor Mr. Kavakos has worked with the Atlanta, Boston, London, and Vienna symphony orchestras; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; and Budapest Festival Orchestra. This season he makes conducting debuts with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Mr. Kavakos's first release on the label, of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with pianist Enrico Pace (2013), earned him an ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year award. Later recordings include Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly; Brahms's violin sonatas with Yuja Wang; and, his most recent recording, Virtuoso (released in April 2016). His earlier discography includes recordings for BIS, ECM, and Sony Classical. Mr. Kavakos was named Gramophone Artist of the Year 2014. Leonidas Kavakos plays the "Abergavenny" Stradivarius violin of 1724. He made his New York Philharmonic debut playing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy as part of a July 2002 Concerts in the Parks performance, led by Bramwell Tovey; he most recently joined the Orchestra for J.S. Bach and Sibelius, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in March 2016.

Repertoire
The reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's (1685-1750) Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, is based on his earlier Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, probably created in the late 1720s or early 1730s, which may itself have been based on an earlier violin concerto from ca. 1714-17. In three movements (Allegro, Adagio, Allegro), BWV 1052 contains extended passages in the first two movements that illustrate Bach's knowledge of Vivaldi's ornate style, and the fast-slow-fast structure is typical of concerto writing of the period. The moodier D minor first and last movements also serve as bookends to the introspective G minor movement, which echoes the emotional feeling of much of Bach's sacred music. The Philharmonic previously presented a violin arrangement of BWV 1052 in March 1959, with soloist Joseph Szigeti led by Pierre Monteux.

Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) originally composed his Berceuse élégiaque in 1909 as a work for solo piano (to be added to his 1907 collection titled Elegies). Later that year, he adapted the nine-minute work for orchestra, adding the subtitle "Des Mannes Wiegenlied am Sarge siner Mutter" ("The man's lullaby at his mother's coffin"). At the time Busoni, like his peer Schoenberg, was beginning to experiment with the possibilities of a musical world beyond the traditional scale, and inBerceuse élégiaque he created a tone poem-like work that sonically illustrates the sadness of losing a loved one, a kind of lullaby for the end of life. The New York Philharmonic gave the work's premiere on February 21, 1911, at Carnegie Hall, led by Gustav Mahler, Philharmonic Music Director at the time; it turned out to be his last public performance. Diagnosed with a heart ailment, Mahler returned to Europe and died in Vienna on May 18. The Philharmonic most recently presented Berceuse élégiaque in March 1993, led by Oliver Knussen.

Robert Schumann (1810-56) composed his Symphony No. 2 in 1846, when he was recovering from a nervous breakdown in 1844. Frequently tormented by bouts of depression and exhaustion, the physical distress of painful tinnitus, and attempted suicide, his creativity had suffered. The following year he and his wife, Clara, decided to leave Leipzig's hustle and bustle and move to quieter Dresden. This symphony, though long in coming, was the first large-scale piece to follow his breakdown, and its creation had a salubrious effect on him, as he confided: "I wrote the symphony ... when I was still half sick; it seems to me that one must hear this in it. Not until the last movement did I begin to feel myself again; actually, after finishing the entire work my health did improve. Still ... it reminds me of a dark time." In 1846 his friend and champion Felix Mendelssohn premiered the symphony in Leipzig with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Theodore Eisfeld conducted the Philharmonic's first performance of the symphony at the Broadway Tabernacle in 1854; Christoph von Dohnyáni led the most recent performance in April 2014.