Renee Fleming to Round Out Carnegie Hall Perspectives Series with THE STRAND SETTINGS and More, 4/26 & 5/4

Renowned soprano Renée Fleming completes her Carnegie Hall Perspectives series with two concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, April 26 and May 4. Appearing on Friday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. with the New York Philharmonic and Music Director Alan Gilbert, Ms. Fleming performs the world premiere of a song cycle The Strand Settings by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic.

She returns the following week, on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m., with a special program entitled Vienna: Window to Modernity, a tribute to the music of the turn of the twentieth century, an era in which the Austrian capital was a hotbed of creativity in music and the visual arts. Ms. Fleming will be joined by pianist Jeremy Denk, violist Paul Neubauer, cellist Colin Carr, and the Emerson String Quartet for works by Brahms, Schoenberg, R. Strauss, Wagner, Webern, Karl Weigl, Egon Wellesz, and Eric Zeisl. See below for complete program details.

These two programs follow two widely acclaimed concerts that launched her Perspectives earlier this year: a duo recital with Susan Graham and the New York premiere of André Previn's opera, A Streetcar Named Desire.

In planning her programs, Ms. Fleming shared, "The Perspectives series puts the spotlight on a performing artist in an unusual way...To be the curator, as it were-to be the person who says, 'What is my point of view?'-is a special gift, particularly for an artist who has been performing for a long time.

"The tradition of singing fascinates me," she continued. "I'm interested in singing in all of its forms, how it has been presented over time and how it has changed and evolved with technology, with style, or with the popularity of various kinds of music. My idea, then, in thinking about this was to present a wide variety of performance styles, and to work with colleagues that I admire. Certainly, contemporary music had to be represented not only because I follow it closely, but also because I feel strongly that it must be a part of a singer's profile. It's never lost on me that 100 years ago, 80 percent of my repertoire would have been new, whether Puccini or Strauss or any of the composers that we now take for granted."

Further details on each concert are noted below. For more information on Renée Fleming's Perspectives series, please visit carnegiehall.org/fleming. For a video interview with Renée Fleming, please click here. In addition, Ms. Fleming sat down with several of her collaborators including Leon Botstein, Susan Graham, and André Previn for a special one-on-one video series. Visit carnegiehall.org/fleming to view the series.

April 26: New Music by Anders Hillborg with Alan Gilbert & the New York Philharmonic
On Friday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Ms. Fleming sings the world premiere of The Strand Settings by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg with the New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert. The new piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic. Also on the program are Respighi's Fontane di Roma and Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Ms. Fleming notes, "Scandinavia's exemplary music education system has created a school of composition that is almost unrivalled. I've long been a fan of Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen, more recently, Jimmy Lopez, who was trained there, and Anders Hillborg. I'm so thrilled that Anders agreed to create a new piece for this concert. I'm also delighted that the work will be a setting of the poems of Mark Strand, of whom I am a great fan. This concert also gives me the opportunity to work again with Alan Gilbert, who's an incredibly deep-thinking and gifted musician and conductor. We're so privileged to have him in New York. The way in which he encouraged me to grow by offering me the Messiaen Poemes pour Mi to open his entire tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic was both challenging and exciting at the same time. We share an interest in twentieth-century and new music, and our commitment to supporting the music we love as a living, breathing, evolving art form."

May 4: Vienna: Window to Modernity
The finale of Renée Fleming's Perspectives series on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Vienna: Window to Modernity pays tribute to the time and place where the European musical tradition, under the influence of an enormous burst of creativity and social change, gave way to the twentieth century. The soprano hosts the program of chamber music including Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht with the Emerson String Quartet, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellist Colin Carr; selections from Weigl's Five Songs for Soprano and String Quartet; and Brahms's Intermezzos in A Major, Op. 118 Nos. 1 and 2 featuring pianist Jeremy Denk. The complete program is detailed below.

"I haven't had many opportunities to sing chamber music in my career," Ms. Fleming said. "It sparks my imagination to think that, before the advent of widely available recording and radio, so much music was performed at home both by professionals and by accomplished amateurs. Imagine what knowledge and appreciation they brought to the concert hall as audience members! I would like to evoke that kind of collegial music-making with this recital. I feel especially lucky to be creating this recital with such highly-esteemed colleagues. I will be sharing the program with the Emerson Quartet, who will feature in Schoenberg's masterpiece Verklärte Nacht. Music at the turn of the century was pulled both back to romanticism and forward to atonality at the same time. It's fascinating to see how composers coped with this transition.

Vienna: Window to Modernity previews next season's citywide festival-Vienna: City of Dreams-in which Carnegie Hall and other cultural institutions salute Vienna's extraordinary artistic legacy. This three-week, multi-disciplinary festival features symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, and lieder, as well as a sampling of new sounds that are emerging from this historic cultural capital. For more information and updates in the coming months, visit carnegiehall.org/vienna.

One of the most celebrated artists of our time, Renée Fleming continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, while also extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. In recent seasons, Ms. Fleming has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series for movie theaters and Live from Lincoln Center on PBS. As a musical statesman, she has performed at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, at the "We Are One" inaugural celebration for Barack Obama in 2009, and on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in last summer's Diamond Jubilee Concert for HM Queen Elizabeth II. A three-time Grammy Award winner, Ms. Fleming has recorded a wide range of CDs and DVDs, including Verdi's La traviata, filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the jazz album Haunted Heart; and a pop covers album, Dark Hope. Her most recent recording, Poèmes, has been nominated for the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo. She recorded Alexandre Desplat's theme song, "Still Dream" for Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians, a major Thanksgiving 2012 release. Master Chef Daniel Boulud created the dessert "La Diva Renée" in her honor, and in 2008, Ms. Fleming launched La Voce by Renée Fleming, a fragrance with proceeds benefiting The Metropolitan Opera. Her awards include Sweden's Polar Prize, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, and Honorary Membership in the Royal Academy of Music. Ms. Fleming is currently a member of Carnegie Hall's Board of Trustees and serves on the board of Sing for Hope. In 2010, she was named the first-ever creative consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Now in its 14th 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 conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim; conductors Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, and David Robertson; violinists Gidon Kremer and Christian Tetzlaff; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Maurizio Pollini, András Schiff, Peter Serkin, and Mitsuko Uchida; soprano Dawn Upshaw; bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff; the Emerson String Quartet; the Kronos Quartet; early music ensemble L'Arpeggiata; Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour; Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso; Indian classical tabla player Zakir Hussain; experimental rocker David Byrne; and singer/songwriter James Taylor.

Program Information:

Friday, April 26, 2013 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, Music Director and Conductor
Renée Fleming, Soprano

Ottorino Respighi Fontane di Roma
ANDERS HILLBORG The Strand Settings (World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic)
Modest Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean, The Juilliard School, and special guest, composer Anders Hillborg.

Tickets: $40-$120

Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
VIENNA: WINDOW TO MODERNITY
Renée Fleming, Soprano and Host
Jeremy Denk, Piano
Emerson String Quartet
•• Eugene Drucker, Violin
•• Philip Setzer, Violin
•• Lawrence Dutton, Viola
•• David Finckel, Cello
Paul Neubauer, Viola
Colin Carr, Cello

Richard Strauss Drei Lieder der Ophelia, Op. 67
JOHANNES BRAHMS Ophelia Lieder
Arnold Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Richard Wagner from Wesendonck Lieder, Op. 91
(arr. Rudolf Leopold)
•• "Im Treibhaus"
•• "Träume"
JOHANNES BRAHMS Intermezzo in A Minor, Op. 118, No. 1
JOHANNES BRAHMS Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2
KARL WEIGL from Five Songs for Soprano and String Quartet
•• "Trost"
•• "Regenlied"
EGON WELLESZ "Mir scheint, das Angesicht der Welt verging," Op. 52, No. 5 from Sonnette der Elisabeth Barrett-Browning
ANTON WEBERN Drei Stücke (1913)
ERIC ZEISL "Der Mond steht da" from Mondbilder
ERIC ZEISL "Komm süsser Tod"
ERIC ZEISL "Gigerlette"
Arnold Schoenberg from Cabaret Songs
•• "Galathea"
•• "Gigerlette"

Tickets: $38-$115

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.

Photo © Richard Termine.