IL PRIGIONIERO Highlights GILBERT'S PLAYLIST with NY Phil, Beg. Tonight

Italian modernist composer Luigi Dallapiccola's serialist opera Il Prigioniero, featuring bass- baritone Gerald Finley as The Prisoner and soprano Patricia Racette (in her Philharmonic debut) as The Mother, highlights the next installment of Gilbert's Playlist - four weeks of programs conducted by Alan Gilbert showcasing themes and ideas that have become a hallmark of the Music Director's tenure - tonight, June 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. The program will open with Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Lisa Batiashvili, a frequent soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Additional cast for Il Prigioniero includes tenor Peter Hoare (debut) as The Jailer and Grand Inquisitor; tenor William Ferguson (debut) as the First Priest; baritone Sidney Outlaw (debut) as the Second Priest; and The Collegiate Chorale, directed by James Bagwell.

A protest opera composed between 1944 and 1948, Il Prigioniero follows the story of a man imprisoned during the Inquisition who, when hopeful of his escape, finds that he's been duped into believing he is on his way to freedom when he falls into the arms of the Grand Inquisitor himself. The work dramatizes 20th-century totalitarian oppression, a theme with which Dallapiccola was familiar having grown up under the Austrian Empire and later under Mussolini. "In a totalitarian regime the individual is powerless. Only by means of music would I be able to express my anger," the composer wrote. Dallapiccola would go on to become Italy's leading proponent of 12-tone music by the 1950s, and Il Prigioniero is written in a musical language that injects lyricism into 12-tone modernism.

"Il Prigioniero represents a school of music that has been underserved, and it is a powerful work that I know the Orchestra will play brilliantly," Alan Gilbert said. "Gerald Finley is an amazing singer, but he is also one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, philosophically motivated artists performing today, which is exactly what this piece demands. Patricia Racette has a versatility that is so impressive - she sings cabaret and is also a major diva in Puccini; she is fiercely intelligent and committed in her performance, and is an amazing presence on the stage."

The opening work on the program features violinist Lisa Batiashvili performing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. Ms. Batiashvili - who has performed with the New York Philharmonic often since her debut in 2005, including on the EUROPE / AUTUMN 2010 tour - will also perform the work at Long Island University's Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on June 7, 2013, conducted by Alan Gilbert, who also leads Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, and Assistant Conductor Joshua Weilerstein, who leads Musorgsky's Prelude to Khovanshchina.

"To me, Lisa Batiashvili is an ideal musician: she's such an exquisite instrumentalist, but she also plays in such a natural, unaffected way, and that is not as easy as it sounds," Alan Gilbert said. "I really love this kind of music-making, which never makes points for the sake of making points, but just tells the musical story in a very direct, unadorned way."

For the fourth consecutive season, Alan Gilbert will join Philharmonic musicians in chamber music on a Saturday Matinee concert, June 8, 2013. The afternoon's performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, conducted by the Music Director, will be preceded by Brahms's String Quintet in G major, with Ms. Batiashvili and Mr. Gilbert on violin alongside Philharmonic principal musicians. "All music is chamber music: everybody should be an equal participant," Alan Gilbert said. "Playing chamber music with Philharmonic musicians is exciting and inspiring for me, and it's a way for me to make a different kind of connection with them. Also, I simply enjoy it." This performance concludes the season's survey of Brahms, featuring his complete symphonies and concertos and four of his chamber works on all of the Saturday Matinee Concerts.

The programs in Gilbert's Playlist, taking place during the final weeks of the 2012-13 subscription season, May 30-June 29, 2013, are united by the themes of collaboration, breaking boundaries, theatricality, and wide-ranging music. Gilbert's Playlist continues June 20-22 with a program that will feature Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major, performed by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax; the New York Premiere of The Marie- Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Symphony No. 3; and A Ring Journey, Mr. Gilbert's own synthesis of orchestral music from Wagner's Ring Cycle, based on Erich Leinsdorf's condensed version. Gilbert's Playlist concludes June 27-29 with A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky, a genre-bending fusion of symphony orchestra, ballet, puppetry, filmmaking, and more in a theatrical reimagining of the ballets The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, directed/designed by Doug Fitch, created by Giants Are Small, and starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns.

Related Events
- Pre-Concert Talks

Philharmonic Vice President, Artistic Planning, Ed Yim will introduce the program June 6- 11. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts available for multiple concerts, students, and groups. They take place one hour before each performance in the Helen Hull Room, unless otherwise noted. Attendance is limited to 90 people. Information: nyphil.org or (212) 875-5656.

Insights Series Event - "Gazing into the Totalitarian Abyss: Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero" Harvey Sachs, The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence, speaker
Eileen Moon, cello
Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 W. 65th St.

Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-75), one of the most significant Italian composers of the 20th century, was 18 years old when Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party came to power, and he lived his next two decades under the regime. Harvey Sachs, the New York Philharmonic's Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence and author of the ground-breaking study Music in Fascist Italy, will speak about music in Mussolini's Italy in general and about Dallapiccola and fascism in particular. Associate Principal Cello Eileen Moon performs Dallapiccola's Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio. Tickets: $20; $15 for Philharmonic Friends (Affiliate level and above) and current Subscribers; and $10 for Patrons. For more information, visit nyphil.org/insights.

National and International Radio Broadcast
The program will be broadcast the week of June 16, 2013,* on The New York Philharmonic This Week, a radio concert series syndicated weekly to more than 300 stations nationally, and to 122 outlets internationally, by the WFMT Radio Network.

The 52-week series, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic's corporate partner, MetLife Foundation. The broadcast will be available on the Philharmonic's Website, nyphil.org. The program is broadcast locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.
*Check local listings for broadcast and program information.

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, launching what New York Magazine called "a fresh future for the Philharmonic." The first native New Yorker in the post, he has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual multi-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series, and he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city and country.

In 2012-13, Alan Gilbert conducts world premieres; presides over a cycle of Brahms's complete symphonies and concertos; leads the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and continues The Nielsen Project, the multiyear initiative to perform and record the Danish composer's symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012. The season concludes with Gilbert's Playlist, four programs showcasing themes he has introduced, including the season finale: a theatrical reimagining of Stravinsky ballets with director/designer Doug Fitch and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Sara Mearns. Last season's highlights included tours of Europe and California, several world premieres, Mahler symphonies, and Philharmonic 360, the Philharmonic and Park Avenue Armory's acclaimed spatial-music program featuring Stockhausen's Gruppen, about which The New York Times said: "Those who think classicalmusic needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did."

Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming's recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music."

Tickets for these concerts start at $28. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $18. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). Tickets for Insights Series events are $20; $15 for Philharmonic Friends (Affiliate level and above) and current Subscribers; and $10 for Patrons. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $13.50 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]