New York Philharmonic Announces 2014-15 CONTACT! Series

Entering its sixth season in 2014-15, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will include five programs featuring World, U.S., and New York Premieres, four of which explore the new-music scene from four different countries, and a fifth curated and hosted by composer John Adams. CONTACT! will return for three programs at SubCulture, co-presented with 92nd Street Y: John's Playlist, featuring works by five composers selected by John Adams; a concert of works by Israeli composers, featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili alongside Philharmonic musicians; and a performance of works by Italian composers. Two CONTACT! programs will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Met Museum Presents: a concert of works by Nordic composers conducted in part by Music Director Alan Gilbert; and a program featuring works from Japan, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky.

The Philharmonic will also perform highlights from the 2014-15 season of CONTACT! during its second International Associate Residency at London's Barbican Centre as part of the EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour. Further details to be announced at a later date.

CONTACT!, established by Music Director Alan Gilbert in the 2009-10 season, highlights the works of both emerging and established contemporary composers, performed by smaller ensembles of Philharmonic musicians in intimate venues outside the Lincoln Center campus.

Since its inception, CONTACT! has presented 20 World Premieres (as of the end of the 2013-14 season), including Matthias Pintscher's songs from Solomon's garden (2010), Sean Shepherd's These Particular Circumstances (2010), and Carter's Three Controversies and a Conversation (2012).

Alan Gilbert said: " The work that composers do is the most important contribution to music at any given time. I have enormous admiration for composers, and I feel incredible gratitude that they are willing to struggle through the difficult process that is musical creation. One of the ways the Philharmonic can be a resource and an important catalyst for musical composition is to continue our very active commissioning program. I think it's one of the greatest things we can do for music."

Christopher Rouse, who in 2014-15 will be completing his three-year term as The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence, advises the Philharmonic on the CONTACT! series. One of America's most prominent composers of orchestral music, Mr. Rouse won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Trombone Concerto, commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic.

Christopher Rouse said: "I'm very pleased that CONTACT! will be taking a geographical bent next season with overviews of contemporary music in Scandinavia, Italy, Japan, and Israel. There are wonderful composers at work from all of these countries, and I hope that our CONTACT! programming will prove exciting to our listeners. In addition to this, John Adams will curate a CONTACT! program of music about which he is especially enthusiastic. All in all there will be a wealth of splendid new music for our audiences to encounter and enjoy."

JOHN'S PLAYLIST, Curated and Hosted by JOHN ADAMS
Works by Dani?el BJARNASON, Ingram MARHSALL, Missy MAZZOLI, and Timo ANDRES
November 17, 2014, at SUBCULTURE, Co-Presented with 92nd Street Y

The 2014-15 season of CONTACT! opens with John's Playlist, curated and hosted by composer John Adams, featuring five chamber works he has selected: Dani?el Bjarnason's Bow to String (2009; rev. 2012) and Five Possibilities for clarinet, cello, and piano (2014); Ingram Marshall's Muddy Waters (2004); Missy Mazzoli's Dissolve, O My Heart (2010); and the New York Premiere of Timo Andres's Early to Rise (2013). This program, November 17, 2014, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y.

The first movement of Icelandic composer Dani?el Bjarnason's Bow to String refers to an art installation by the Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson in which a small orchestra accompanies a performer repeatedly singing the lyrics "Sorrow conquers happiness." Originally composed in 2009 for multi-layered cello, specifically for cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, this version of Bow to String is composed for solo cello, clarinet, horn, two pianos, string quartet, and double bass. Mr. Bjarnason writes that Five Possibilities, written for and premiered by Trio Ariadne in April 2014, is "in five short movements that each follows its own logic, creating fleeting images or glimpses of larger worlds." He has composed works commissioned, premiered, or performed by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra, and So Percussion, and they have been conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, and John Adams, among others. Dani?el Bjarnason's string arrangements can be heard on the 2013 Sigur Ro?s album Kveikur, and he contributed the score to the 2012 feature film The Deep.

American composer Ingram Marshall based Muddy Waters (for an amplified chamber ensemble comprising marimba, piano, electric guitar, bass clarinet, cello, and contrabass), commissioned by Bang on a Can All-Stars, on a tune from the Bay Psalmbook of 1692, the first printed music in North America, titled Lichfield, itself based on Psalm 69: "The waters in unto my soul are come, oh God me save, I am in muddy deep sunk down where I no standing have." Mr. Marshall writes: "In the course of the piece the psalm tune goes through various transformations.... The affect shifts, chiaroscuro like, from darkness and gloom to exuberance and sanguinity." He notes that the conclusion shifts "away from the psalm tune to a reference to Muddy Waters (the blues singer), who has the last word." Ingram Marshall's influences have included Indonesian and electronic music. Since 1985 his primary focus has been on works for ensembles, both with and without electronics. He has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Magnum Opus, and Orpheus.

American composer Missy Mizzoli composed Dissolve, O My Heart, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for violinist Jennifer Koh's Bach & Beyond project, which combines Bach's Sonatas and Partitas with newly commissioned works. Ms. Koh requested a piece based on Bach's Partita in D minor. Ms. Mizzoli explains: "Dissolve, O My Heart begins with the first chord of Bach's Chaconne, a now-iconic D minor chord, and spins out from there into an off- kilter series of chords that doubles back on itself, collapses, and ultimately dissolves in a torrent of fast passages." Melding indie-rock sensibilities with formal training from Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding, Richard Ayers, and others, Missy Mazzoli's music has been performed by, among others, the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, American Composers Orchestra, New York City Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, NOW Ensemble, and cellist Maya Beiser.

American composer Timo Andres writes that the ten-minute, four-movement string quartet Early to Rise is "the most recent in a series of Schumann-inspired pieces I've written; this time, the seed is a five-note accompanimental figure from his late piano cycle Gesa?nge der Fru?he (Morning Songs). At first, Early to Rise uses this figure in a canon, gently cycling through harmonies while its rhythms rub against each other in expanding and contracting patterns.... In the final section, momentum builds in the opposite direction with a simple downward-drifting chorale, picking up speed until it reaches a frenetic conclusion." Timo Andres's recent commissions have come from the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; a consortium including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, and San Francisco Performances; and the Library of Congress, among others. Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Mr. Andres's 2010 album Shy and Mighty "achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene."

The Philharmonic has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with John Adams since 1983, when it performed the New York Premiere of his Grand Pianola Music. The Orchestra has since given the World Premieres of Easter Eve 1945 (2004, conducted by Mr. Adams) and On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), co-commissioned by the Philharmonic and Lincoln Center's Great Performers series in memory of the victims of 9/11. The latter won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Music, and its recording on Nonesuch - featuring the Philharmonic led by Lorin Maazel with the New York Choral Artists and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus - received the 2005 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Mr. Adams's China Gates will be performed by pianist Marino Formenti, June 4, 2014, during the Philharmonic's inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL. During the 2014-15 season (March 26-28, 2015), Alan Gilbert will conduct the Philharmonic and violinist Leila Josefowicz in the World Premiere of John Adams's Scheherazade.2 - Symphony for violin and orchestra, a New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam; the Royal Concertgebouw; and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson, chief conductor and artistic director.

NEW MUSIC FROM ISRAEL
Featuring Violinist LISA BATIASHVILI, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Works by Josef BARDANASHVILI, Avner DORMAN, Yotam HABER, and Shulamit RAN February 9, 2015, at SUBCULTURE, Co-Presented with 92nd Street Y

The second CONTACT! program of the season focuses on chamber music by contemporary Israeli composers, and will feature a performance by the Philharmonic's 2014-15 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili alongside Philharmonic musicians. The concert will include Josef Bardanashvili's String Quartet No. 1 (1985), in which Ms. Batiashvili will perform; the New York Premiere of Avner Dorman's Jerusalem Mix (2007); the New York Premiere of Yotam Haber's Estro poetico-armonico II (2014); and Shulamit Ran's Mirage for five players (1990). This program, February 9, 2015, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y, which will present Israeli-themed programming throughout the season.

Josef Bardanashvili's String Quartet No.1, commissioned by the Georgian State Quartet, adheres to classical style while also utilizing tango rhythm, quasi-jazz rhythmic patterns, vertical harmonic constructions, and a reference to the Dies irae. The second movement is an homage to Mahler, offering "a song-prayer of praise to the harmony of the universe.... The thematic metamorphoses both fortify the main musical idea and allow for the sense of constant renewal. 'It is not the time that leaves us; it is we who move away from it,'" the composer writes. Mr. Bardanashvili's influences include Jewish and Georgian folk-music, liturgical traditions, jazz, rock, and western art music. He is currently composer-in-residence of the Israel Camerata Jerusalem. The work is being included in this CONTACT! program at the request of the 2014-15 season New York Philharmonic Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili, who, like Mr. Bardanshvili, is Georgian-born.

Avner Dorman's woodwind and piano quintet Jerusalem Mix is named for a popular Israeli dish of various fried meats: "The dish, much like the city of its origin, is a melting pot of flavors and characters - each preserving some of its unique characteristics while contributing to the whole," the composer writes. The work is in six parts - Jerusalem Mix, The Wailing Wall, Wedding March, Blast, Adhan, and Jerusalem Mix - each reflecting different aspects of the city.

"The movements are based on two simple melodic cells - one chromatic and the other made of a whole step," Mr. Dorman continues. "For me, the fact that these simple motives can lend themselves to the music traditions of Christianity (Armenian dance), Islam, and Judaism, express that on a deep cultural, musical, and humane level, our cultures are closer than we realize." Avner Dorman's compositions have been performed by the Israel and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig's Gewandaus Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, and Lucerne Festival, among others. The New York Philharmonic gave the U.S. Premiere of Mr. Dorman's Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! in March 2009, led by former Music Director Zubin Mehta.

Yotam Haber's Estro poetico-armonico II, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, is based on 50 psalm settings by Benedetto Marcello, a contemporary of J.S. Bach, who was inspired by the liturgical music of the Venetian Jewish community. Mr. Haber was introduced to Marcello's music while living in Rome, where he also studied archival recordings of Roman cantors from the 1940s. Mr. Haber states: "I was inspired by the Jewish communities of Rome and Venice that were segregated for so many generations since their initial arrival in Italy after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem. I imagined that one generation passed on to another these ancient musical traditions, and through a kind of telephone-game-evolution, the music lost or gained its essence on each transference. When I came across the first edition of Marcello's psalms, I read his introduction with great astonishment and pleasure: he, too, spoke of an imagined musical filament connecting the music sung in the Venetian synagogue of his day with an 'ancient music sung passed down from Mount Sinai.' The theory, of course, can never be proved, nor should it be, in order to appreciate the beauty and brilliant inventiveness of his music." Yotam Haber's recent commissions include works for Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, new works for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, CalArts's REDCAT, Contemporaneous, Gabriel Kahane, Either/Or, Alarm Will Sound, the 2012 and 2014 Venice Biennale, 2012 Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Neuvocalsolisten Stuttgart and ensemble l'arsenale, FLUX Quartet, JACK Quartet, Cantori New York, the Tel Aviv-based Meitar Ensemble, and the Berlin-based Quartet New Generation. Born in Holland and raised in Israel, Nigeria, and Milwaukee, Mr. Haber is the recipient of a 2013 NYFA award, the 2007 Rome Prize, and a 2005 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.

Shulamit Ran's Mirage for five players, commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Da Capo Chamber Players, features harmonic and melodic nods to Middle-Eastern music. "Throughout, I aimed for a free-flowing, yet intense, at times incantational style of delivery," she writes. Mirage had its World Premiere at 92nd Street Y in 1991. Shulamit Ran is the second female composer to have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music (for her 1990 Symphony). Her music has been performed by the Israel and Amsterdam Philharmonic orchestras; Chicago, Baltimore, and National symphony orchestras; Philadelphia, Cleveland, American Composers, and Jerusalem Orchestras; and l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Orchestra of St. Luke's. Ms. Ran served as composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons, beginning in 1990.

NEW MUSIC FROM ITALY
Works by BERIO, Vitturio MONTALTI, Salvatore SCIARRINO, and Luca FRANCESCONI
May 11, 2015, at SUBCULTURE, Co-Presented with 92nd Street Y

The season's final concert at SubCulture will feature chamber music by modern and contemporary Italian composers. The program will include Berio's Diffe?rences for five instruments and tape (1959); the U.S. Premiere of Vitturio Montalti's Passacaglia for marimba and cello (2008); the U.S. Premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's tre duetti con l'eco (2006); and the New York Premiere of Luca Francesconi's Encore Da capo (2011). This program, May 11, 2015, at SubCulture, is a co-presentation by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y.

Luciano Berio composed Diffe?rences for flute, clarinet, harp, viola, cello, and magnetic tape. The 17-minute work is one of the first to combine acoustic instruments with electronic music. Diffe?rences was premiered in 1959 at Paris's Salle Gaveau, directed by former Philharmonic Music Director Pierre Boulez. From the early 1950s Berio was an exponent of the new generation of the European avant garde, bringing it to a wider audience. From 1974 to 1980 he directed the department of electroacoustics at Paris's IRCAM, and in 1987 he founded the Centro Tempo Reale in Florence. The New York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered Berio's Sinfonia in 1968, celebrating the Philharmonic's 125th anniversary, conducted by the composer, as well as his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, led by then Music Director Pierre Boulez.

Vittorio Montalti's Passacaglia for marimba and cello is, in the composer's words, a "virtual homage" to Anton Webern. "It is an e?tude about repetition," Mr. Montalti writes. "A musical figure is reiterated continually, lending itself to unexpected deviations. Besides the mere repetition, the figure can freeze, block, or open a door on an unexpected pathway." Particularly interested in the fields of electronic music and musical theater, Vittorio Montalti, as composer-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome, is currently working on a musical theater project for two voices and live electronics. He has received commissions from the Venice Biennale, Teatro La Fenice, Divertimento Ensemble, and Bergamo Musica Festival, among others, and was awarded the Silver Lion at the 54th International Festival of Contemporary Music during the 2010 Venice Biennale. Mr. Montalti counts Luca Francesconi, also features on this program, as a major influence.

Salvatore Sciarrino's tre duetti con l'eco for flute, bassoon, and viola plays with the dual nature of echo through three duets: loneliness and splitting, fragmentation and distance ("Great is the risk of loving the void under the illusion of being loved in return," the composer writes), and delays and iridescence. "More and more voices respond within a form of intertwining as multidimensional as time in the theory of Einstein," he writes. Mr. Sciarrino was awarded the 2012 BBVA Foundation Frontiers Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music; the jury cited his "new and unique syntax ... at the heart of his creations in his way of combining extreme reduction with a richness of detail. He stands out for his use of microtonality and his conscious reworking of ideas and materials from past periods and cultures."

Salvatore Sciarrino has said: "In my work there is a dual connection between music and literature, since for me they are the same language. Literature is the air we artists breathe. I myself write plays and other kinds of text that serve me as inspiration in my compositional practice."

Luca Francesconi's Encore Da capo, the composer writes, "starts from energy in a pure state, almost primogenial indeed: pulse, rhythm. This energy unfolds and evolves gradually from the undefined to the defined." Mr. Francesconi works in a wide variety of media, and his music synthesizes the styles and resources of traditions including electro-acoustic music, jazz, African percussion, and Italian folksong. In 1990 he founded AGON Acustica Informatica Musica in Milan, a center of musical production and research using new technologies.

NEW MUSIC FROM NORDIC COUNTRIES
Conducted by Music Director ALAN GILBERT
Works by Kaija SAARIAHO, Per NØRGA?RD, ?uro Z?IVKOVIC?, and Kalevi AHO March 7, 2015, at THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

The season's first of two CONTACT! programs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Met Museum Presents will feature music by contemporary Nordic composers and will be conducted by Alan Gilbert as well as a second conductor to be announced at a later date. Alan Gilbert will conduct works by Per Nørga?rd and Kalevi Aho, to be announced at a later date; the second conductor will lead the U.S. Premiere of the string-orchestra version of Kaija Saariaho's Terra Memoria (2006) and a work by ?uro Z?ivkovic?, to be announced at a later date. This concert takes place March 7, 2015, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho wrote of Terra Memoria, her second string quartet: "I love the richness and sensitivity of the string sound.... I feel when writing for a string quartet that I'm entering into the intimate core of musical communication. The piece is dedicated 'for those departed.' We continue remembering the people who are no longer with us; the material - their life - is 'complete,' nothing will be added to it. Those of us who are left behind are constantly reminded of our experiences together.... The title Terra Memoria refers to two words which are full of rich associations: to earth and memory." Ms. Saariaho is a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers who are now, in mid-career, making a worldwide impact. Study and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music, and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. The New York Philharmonic has previously performed four of Ms. Saariaho works, including the 1999 World Premiere of Oltra Mar, Seven Preludes for the New Millennium, one of the Orchestra's Messages for the Millennium commissions, conducted by then Music Director Kurt Masur.

Per Nørga?rd is considered by many to be the most prominent Danish composer after Carl Nielsen. He has composed in a variety of genres, from symphonies, operas, and chamber music to film and theater music. Mr. Nørga?rd's encounters with the work of Swiss artist and schizophrenic Adolf Wo?lfli reintroduced irrationality, conflict, and instability in Mr. Nørga?rd's music. Per Nørga?rd's recent works are more intimate, open, and vulnerable, and his string-concertos from the 1980s explore the musical element of time. Members of the New York Philharmonic performed Mr. Norgard's Tango Chikane on a Special Evening with Viktor Borge and a Company of Friends on October 28, 1968.

Finnish composer Kalevi Aho has composed 13 symphonies to date, as well as operas, concertos, vocal music, and works for chamber groups and solo instruments. His works have developed from neo-classicism through modernist idioms to post-modernism. His music tends to contrast wide-ranging moods, styles, and genres, and his symphonic works often reflect an "abstract drama" similar to his operatic scores. Mr. Aho has received Denmark's Leonie Sonning Prize (1974), Germany's Henrik Steffens Prize (1990), and Poland's Flisaka Prize (1996). A writer as well as composer, Mr. Aho's output has totaled 500 essays, presentations, columns, and other writings.

An early interest in folklore and Byzantine music led Serbian-Swedish composer and violinist ?uro Z?ivkovic? to develop a variety of compositional techniques, such as polyrhythm, improvisation, special harmony-based scales, microtones, layer-polyphony (multiphony), and heterophony, and a recent interest in the harmonic organization has resulted in a new approach to his composition process. Mr. Z?ivkovic?'s music has been commissioned, performed, recorded, and broadcast by leading soloists and ensembles across Europe, Japan, and North America. His On the Guarding of the Heart received the Grawemeyer Award in 2014.

NEW MUSIC FROM JAPAN
Conducted by JEFFREY MILARSKY
Works by TAKEMITSU, Misato MOCHIZUKI, Dai FUJIKURA, and MESSIAEN June 5, 2015, at THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

In the season's fifth and final installment of CONTACT!, Jeffrey Milarsky makes his New York Philharmonic subscription debut conducting a program of modern and contemporary works by Japanese composers and a work influenced by Japan: Takemitsu's Archipelago S for 21 players (1993); the U.S. Premiere of Misato Mochizuki's Si bleu, si calme (1997); the World Premiere- New York Philharmonic Commission of a work by Dai Fujikura; and Messiaen's Japan-inspired Sept Haikai (1962). This concert takes place June 5, 2015, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In Toru Takemitsu's Archipelago S for 21 players, the orchestra is placed around the hall in five disparate groups like an archipelago. Further explaining the title, the composer wrote: "'S' means also the initial of Seto Inland Sea of Japan, Stockholm, and Seattle, which has beautiful islands. This work was inspired by these seascapes." Toru Takemitsu encountered Western music - from Jazz through classical works ranging from Debussy to Schoenberg - during the post-war years through radio broadcasts by the American occupying forces, and was influenced by the European avant-garde of Messiaen, Nono, and Stockhausen, as well as Fumio Hayasaka, who introduced him to film music and to the film director Akira Kurosawa, for whom Takemitsu produced cinematic several scores. Takemitsu also took a great interest in other art forms including modern painting, theater, film, and literature. Alan Gilbert conducted the Philharmonic in Takemitsu's Requiem for String Orchestra in March 2011 in sympathy and admiration for the Japanese people following the earthquake and tsunami. Takemitsu was one of the composers commissioned by the Philharmonic to write a work in honor of its 150th anniversary; the Orchestra premiered his commission, Family Tree, in April 1995, led by Leonard Slatkin.

Misato Mochizuki's Si bleu, si calme is based on the natural cycles of water and air (condensation and evaporation, winds, and currents). "Bleu" (blue) represents air and water and focuses on development and complexity; "Calme" (calm) represents space and silence and explores the simplification of intervals and rhythmic figures. Ms. Mochizuki entered the Composition and Computer Music program at IRCAM (1996-97). Combining Western tradition and the Asian sense of breath, her works have been performed at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Venice Biennale, and the Folle Journe?e in Tokyo. Other highlights include Portrait Concerts at Tokyo's Suntory Hall (2007) and Paris's Festival d'Automne in Paris (2010) and a cinema concert at the Louvre with the music to the silent film Le fil blanc de la cascade by Kenji Mizoguchi (2007). Ms Mochizuki was composer-in-residence at the Festival international de musique de Besanc?on (2011-13), and she writes a column about music and culture for the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Dai Fujikura says: "I am extremely happy to write a new piece for CONTACT!. I remember when I was very small, around five, there were quite a few New York Philharmonic LPs at my home. I have been spying on their CONTACT! concerts from afar, and I was always impressed by the level of experimentations in their programs. It is a very brave thing to do, and I am honored to take part in this adventure." Dai Fujikura's music has been led by conductors including Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Peter Eo?tvo?s, and Jonathan Nott, and he has collaborated in the experimental pop/jazz/improvisation world. In April 2014 he was appointed composer-in-residence with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra; has received commissions from the BBC Proms, among others; and is working on his first opera, to be co-produced by the The?a?tre du Champs Elyse?es, Lausanne, and Lille. Dai Fujikura's music will also be performed during the 2013-14 season of CONTACT! - his work silence seeking solace on Stephan Balkenhol's Sphaera / Frau im Fels will receive its U.S. Premiere in Beyond Recall (May 29 and 31, 2014, at The Museum of Modern Art), a CONTACT! program as part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL.

Olivier Messiaen's Sept Haikai, seven small works for solo piano and small orchestra, combines Japanese sensibility, Messiaen's own richly chromatic musical language, and gagaku - seventh-century Japanese court music. An ornithologist as well as a composer, Messiaen said that Sept Haikai was enriched by the song of 25 Japanese birds, and he identifies each in the score. The first and final movements, which he explains resemble "the two guardian gods flanking the entrance of Buddhist temples," frame the piece; the second and fifth movements evoke Japanese locations - Nara Park, with its four Buddhist temples, and Miyajima, "perhaps the most beautiful landscape in Japan." One of the most influential composers of the 20th century, Olivier Messiaen is noted for his music's rhythmic complexity, his unique approach to melody and harmony, and the profound spirituality that informed his compositions - interests that were informed by his visits to Japan, where he notated Japanese bird song and experienced the gagaku ensemble. The Philharmonic has performed Messiaen's music numerous times since 1947, when the Orchestra premiered his Hymne pour grand orchestra, led by Leopold Stokowski. The Philharmonic's performance history of Messiaen also includes the World Premiere of E?clairs sur l'au-dela?... (Illuminations of the Beyond...), a Philharmonic commission, in November 1992, led by then Music Director Zubin Mehta.

Tickets may be purchased online at 92y.org or metmuseum.org. Tickets will be available at nyphil.org August 17, 2014. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (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. [Ticket prices subject to change.]

Pictured: CONTACT! performance at SubCulture. Photo by Chris Lee.

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