GUEST CONDUCTOR ARILD REMMEREIT LEADS SEATTLE SYMPHONY IN TCHAIKOVSKY’S “PATHÉTIQUE” SYMPHONY
FOR RELEASE Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Program Includes Visionary Pianist Gabriela Montero Performing Mozart
Productions:
Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony
Seattle, WA – Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit will join Seattle Symphony November 19–22 as one of several guest conductors to lead the Orchestra this season. The program will begin with Irgens-Jensen’s Partita Sinfonica, followed by Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, featuring rising star pianist Gabriela Montero, whose performance at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama brought her international acclaim. The second half of the program will include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique.” Performances will take place Thursday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 20, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November 22, at 2 p.m. as part of the Masterworks season and Popular Classics series. All performances will take place in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium at Benaroya Hall. Tickets are available from $17–$100.
Arild Remmereit’s appearance places a spotlight on Seattle Symphony’s search for a new Music Director. The international search is ongoing, and guest conductors both this season and next are under consideration. While the candidates for the position will remain confidential, the caliber and quality of guest conductors is sure to draw considerable attention to Seattle Symphony and its upcoming programs. Patrons are invited to share their comments and suggestions regarding the search by writing to maestrosearch@seattlesymphony.org.
Following the concert on Saturday, November 21, Seattle Symphony will present Ask the Artist, featuring Arild Remmereit. Audience members will have the opportunity to pose questions about the performance and artists.
One hour prior to performances on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Seattle Symphony will present a Talk Music speaker in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium at Benaroya Hall. Talk Music events feature leading voices in the local classical music field, and are free with ticket purchase. George Halverson Fiore, Seattle Symphony Associate Conductor for Choral Activities Emeritus, will give a presentation titled "The Elvira Madigan Adagio."
Arild Remmereit
Born in Norway, Arild Remmereit took his first piano lessons at age 6, trumpet lessons at age 8, and also had a career as a boy soprano. In 1986 he graduated from the Norwegian Conservatory of Music in Oslo, where he studied piano, voice and composition. He attended conducting seminars at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, studied with Jorma Panula in Stockholm and earned a degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He studied with Leonard Bernstein and appeared as an assistant for Myung-Whun Chung in Oslo and Paris, and for Mariss Jansons in Vienna.
Remmereit has conducted numerous orchestras, his most recent engagements including critically acclaimed debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Milan's Filarmonica della Scala, the Vienna Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony. He has a versatile repertoire that also includes contemporary music, as shown in his collaborations with jazz musicians such as Joe Zawinul and Maria Joao.
Remmereit conducted the Residenz Orchestra of Vienna from 1989–1992, and subsequently served as Artistic Director of the Ukrainian State Opera in Kharkov. He has also appeared at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Norwegian National Opera and Sakai City Opera in Osaka. Remmereit has made several recordings with the NDR Radiophilharmonie on the Polygram label, the Oslo Philharmonic for Norwegian Broadcasting on the Simax label, and the Staatskappelle Dresden for Deutsche Grammophon. He currently makes his home in Vienna.
Gabriela Montero
Gabriela Montero's visionary interpretations and unique improvisational gifts have won her a quickly expanding audience and devoted following around the world. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Gabriela gave her first public performance at age 5. She made her concerto debut with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra conducted by Jose Antonio Abreu at age 8, and was granted a scholarship from the Venezuelan Government to study in the United States.
Montero's engagements include acclaimed performances with the New York Philharmonic with Lorin Maazel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and Rotterdam Philharmonic with the UBS Verbier Chamber Orchestra at the Tuscan Sun Festival. She also has appeared at the Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Koln Philharmonie, Tonhalle Dusseldorf, Istanbul International Festival, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Orchard Hall in Tokyo and at the 'Progetto Martha Argerich' Festival in Lugano where she is invited annually. On January 20, 2009, Montero performed the specially commissioned Air and Simple Gifts alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Anthony McGill at the Inauguration Ceremony of President Barack Obama.
Montero's first EMI/Angel release consisted of one disc of music by Rachmaninov, Chopin and Liszt and one disc of her deeply felt and technically brilliant improvisations. Her award-winning EMI CD Bach and Beyond is a complete disc of improvisations on themes by Bach which topped the charts for several months. Her follow-up EMI recording of Baroque improvisations was released in February 2008 to great critical acclaim, receiving 5-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine and Classic FM.
Program
Ludvig Irgens-Jensen was a self-taught composer, much admired in his native Norway. His Partita Sinfonica is a suite derived from music written in 1938 for a play set in a rural village. It consequently has a folkloric flavor, especially in the lyrical slow section, Bol’s Song.
Between 1784 and 1786, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enjoyed his greatest professional success. His flourishing reputation rested in no small part on the piano concertos he composed and performed in Vienna during this time. Piano Concerto in C major, K. 467, is one of the finest of those works, with an extroverted opening, a dream-like slow movement, and a brilliant finale.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky once declared, “I compose [so that] through the means of musical language I may pour out my moods and feelings.” His final symphony, the Sixth, nicknamed “Pathétique,” conveys a wide range of “moods and feelings” — passion, elegance, heroism and tragedy.
Tickets
Tickets from $17 to $100 can be purchased by calling the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747 or toll-free at (866) 833-4747, faxing the Symphony at (206) 215-4748, ordering online at www.seattlesymphony.org, or visiting the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office in Benaroya Hall at Third Avenue & Union Street, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m. For group sales information, call (206) 215-4784. Student and senior rush discount tickets, subject to availability, go on sale in person at the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at 6 p.m. prior to evening performances and two hours prior to afternoon performances.
Program
MASTERWORKS SEASON / POPULAR CLASSICS SERIES
TCHAIKOVSKY'S "PATHÉTIQUE" SYMPHONY
Arild Remmereit, conductor
Gabriela Montero, piano
Seattle Symphony
Thursday, November 19, 2009, at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009, at 7 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, 2009, at 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 22, 2009, at 2 p.m.
S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium
Benaroya Hall
LUDVIG IRGENS-JENSEN Partita Sinfonica, "The Drover"
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Allegro maestoso
Andante
Allegro vivace assai
Gabriela Montero, piano
INTERMISSION
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, "Pathétique"
Adagio—Allegro non troppo
Allegro con grazia
Allegro molto vivace
Finale: Adagio lamentoso
Thursday's performance is sponsored by Microsoft.
Talk Music speaker one hour prior to performances on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. .
Title: "The Elvira Madigan Adagio"
Lecturer: George Halverson Fiore, Seattle Symphony Associate Conductor for Choral Activities Emeritus
Ask the Artist featuring Arild Remmereit on Saturday, November 21, following the concert.
All programs and artists subject to change. Photos of guest artists and Seattle Symphony are available to the media on request.