PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 (1878)
Joseph Kotek, a young violin student of Tchaikovsky’s at the Moscow Conservatory, worked with the composer in Switzerland during the period of the Violin Concerto’s creation, playing through the sketches as they were written. In the hope that Leopold Auer, respected head of the violin department at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, would premiere the work, Tchaikovsky initially dedicated it to him; but Auer pronounced it “impossible to play” and turned down the inaugural performance. His judgment seemed like the kiss of death for the concerto, and its premiere would be delayed another three years until a former classmate, Adolf Brodsky, finally agreed to play it. A grateful Tchaikovsky decided to dedicate the concerto to him. Upon hearing the premiere in Vienna in 1881, the feared critic Eduard Hanslick described the concerto as “music that stinks to the ear” and “beats the violin black and blue.” The audience applauded Brodsky but hissed the work itself. Despite these trials and tribulations, and the critics’ opinions notwithstanding, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto has gloriously survived and stands as one of the most beloved in the repertoire. Even Leopold Auer later championed the work, performing it and teaching it to his students. Characterized by ravishingly beautiful passages, graceful melodies, and dizzying virtuosity, this masterpiece has spoken heart-to-heart to generations of adoring audiences.

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 3, “Polish” (1875)
Having just had his First Piano Concerto torn to shreds by his superior, Nikolai Rubinstein, director of the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky suffered in a deep depression. But underlying this melancholy was a loneliness that sprang from his homosexuality (which he indicated with the letters “XXX”). He wrote to his brother Anatoli: “It’s a fact that XXX constitutes an unbridgeable chasm between me and the majority of people. It imparts to my character an aloofness, a fear of people, a timidity, an excessive shyness, a distrustfulness—in a word, a thousand traits which are making me more and more unsociable.” Thoughts of suicide had entered his consciousness, and he was unenthusiastic about his creative work. But as winter gave way to spring, his spirits improved and he began sketching his Third Symphony. Travel to visit friends and family seemed to unleash his creative powers, and the symphony was completed in the summer of 1875. The same Rubinstein who had treated Tchaikovsky so harshly earlier in the year conducted the premiere in November before a receptive Moscow audience, and the following year in St. Petersburg. Because of the Polish dance rhythms in the final movement the 5-movement symphony received the nickname “Polish” from Sir August Manns, who conducted the work at London’s Crystal Palace in 1899. Yet the second movement, marked “alla tedesca” (in the German style), features a waltz, and the entire work is wholly Russian in feel. A contemporary critic praised its “beauty and variety of forms, the nobility of style, the original and rare perfection of technique.”

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he has conducted seven World Premiere–NewYork Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky; and he conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world. Other recent tours have included Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in the fall of 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. On February 17, 2009, he will be named a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and first conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy.

Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has been released on DVD by Decca.

JANINE JANSEN, violin, born in 1978 in Soest, Holland
Making her Amsterdam Concertgebouw debut in her native country at age 19 brought Dutch violinist Janine Jansen critical raves and numerous engagements; today she is recognized as one of Europe’s most exciting violinists. She comes from a musical family: her grandfather was a church choir director, her father an organist, her mother a soprano, and her brother is a cellist. She began studying violin at the age of six, gave her first public performance when she was just ten years old, and made her concert debut at 14 with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. At 16 she had decided to become a violinist. She studied music at the Conservatory of Utrecht and in 2003 received the Dutch Music Prize from the Ministry of Culture. She twice garnered the Edison Classic Public Award: for her debut recording and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons—complete with an alluring photograph of the artist—and featuring her father at the harpsichord. About the work she performs at these concerts she says “the Britten is technically very challenging for both soloist and orchestra, but the musical language is as intense and expressive as can be—such underlying tension! For me the most impressive part of the concerto is the very end. The coda starts like a prayer and becomes a cry of pain and despair. You can feel how influenced Britten was by the tensions in the world at the time of the Spanish Civil War. After playing the last notes I feel emotionally finished and empty, yet at the same time nourished and filled with wonder.” She and the London Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi recently recorded the Britten concerto. Janine Jansen plays the 1727Antonio Stradivari, “Barrere.” In her free time she enjoys seeing friends and family, movies, reading, and hiking in Switzerland.

“Jansen played Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto with bravura abandon, her hair whipping around and the strands flying off her bow. Just hitting the myriad notes of Britten’s challenging score in tune and in time wasn’t enough for this risk-taking soloist. She maximized the expressivity of every one, making those notes whisper and sing, caress and sear.” Star-Ledger

“Whenever a violin repertory piece needs revitalizing, there’s one simple solution. Hire Janine Jansen to play it.” The Times of London (commenting on her Britten Violin Concerto recording)

Find additional upcoming performances with Janine Jansen