TAN DUN, born in 1957 in Si Mao, Hunan Province, China
Piano Concerto New York Philharmonic Commission, world premiere
Despite the interest in music that had already manifested itself in the young Tan Dun, he was unable to pursue it, growing up as he did during China’s Cultural Revolution. He was, instead, sent for two back-breaking years of “re-education” and work as a rice-planter in a government commune. Still, he organized his co-workers into musical groups, and learned their folk songs and how to play traditional Chinese instruments. When a ship carrying the local government-sponsored Peking Opera troupe capsized near the commune one day, the resulting loss of performers provided him a job as a string player with the troupe and thereby a means of leaving the commune. Before long he was studying at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. There he was exposed for the first time to Western music and soon became a leading exponent of the cultural pluralism of the “New Wave” of contemporary Chinese music. It’s also where he wrote his first symphony. He and many other young Chinese composers were incorporating China’s ancient culture into their works—but not enough to satisfy the hard-line Chinese government, which for a time prohibited his music to be performed or broadcast. Increasing recognition outside China of Tan Dun’s accomplishments led him out of his country. In 1986 he came to the U.S. on scholarship and earned his Doctorate in Musical Studies at Columbia University. It was here that he encountered the music of Philip Glass, John Cage, Steve Reich, and others, and found ways to combine their influence with his native music. Of great interest to him is the use of “organic” instruments—water bowls and paper, for example—harking back to the rituals and ceremonies of the village shaman of Tan Dun’s youth. His many compositions have earned him prestigious awards, including the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for classical composition, an Oscar and a Grammy (for Best Original score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a recording of that music, respectively), and was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year. Tan Dun is also a conductor who has led the Royal Concertgebouw, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston, BBC, Montreal, NHK, and Sydney symphony orchestras, among many others. In addition to this New York Philharmonic commission, his newest opera, The First Emperor, starring Plácido Domingo and Elizabeth Futral, was recently given its world premiere to great acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera. His many-faceted creations are best summed up on Tan Dun’s Website: “At the dawn of the 21st century, peoples and cultures are in contact as never before. New expressive languages are being created that speak across cultures, ages, and disciplines. What music is being made out of this convergence? Composer Tan Dun is writing music linking ritual with the concert hall, the avant-garde with ancient spirituality, and—to the babble of the computer age—bringing the stillness of nature. His works range from orchestral to gamelan, encompass the visual and dramatic arts, and express a common humanity.” The present Piano Concerto is his second commission from the Philharmonic (Kurt Masur premiered his Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra). After Lang Lang performed Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolor, the composer stated: “I do believe Lang Lang is one of the most outstanding pianists of our time.”

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
The Firebird (1910)
The great impresario Serge Diaghilev offered the opportunity to compose The Firebird for the renowned Ballets Russes to the just-27-year-old Stravinsky. Before the premiere Diaghilev had predicted, “Mark him well; he is a man on the eve of celebrity.” As foretold, its spectacular success catapulted Stravinsky to fame and led to other collaborations (Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, Apollon musagète, and others). On more than one occasion, Stravinsky acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Tchaikovsky, his fellow-Russian and fellow-composer of great ballet scores. The Firebird, with choreography by the renowned Michel Fokine (1880-1942), was premiered in Paris in 1910 to enormous acclaim. The score’s vibrant colors glitter and pulse with fantastic effects, from luminous to primitive, created by a “wastefully large orchestra” (so said Stravinsky later). The ballet’s exotic scenario overflows with the stuff of fairytales: a prince, 13 princesses, the Firebird’s magic feather, and the evil ogre Kastchei and his malevolent minions. In pursuit of the Firebird, Prince Ivan becomes lost in the magic garden of Kastchei, who has the power to turn trespassers into stone. Ivan spots the Firebird plucking golden apples from a tree and captures her; but he soon restores her freedom in exchange for a feather with special powers to protect him against harm. Thirteen captive princesses had already warned him about the ogre, and when he is captured, Ivan produces the magic feather and is spared from being turned into stone. The Firebird puts the ogre and his followers to sleep with a gorgeous lullaby, and reveals that the secret of Kastchei’s immortality is encased in an egg. Ivan smashes the egg, thus ending Kastchei’s evil dominion and bringing his captives back from their stony spell. Does it need to be said that Ivan marries the most beautiful of the princesses, and they live happily ever after?

LEONARD SLATKIN
Conductor, born in 1944 in Los Angeles, California
Leonard Slatkin is known and respected internationally as a conductor, advocate for music education, and champion of American music, musicians, and conductors. He has a distinguished musical pedigree: his parents were violinist/conductor Felix Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller, who founded the Hollywood String Quartet and played in Hollywood studio orchestras (Felix was the concertmaster of the 20th Century Fox Orchestra). Musical giants, like Arnold Schoenberg and Frank Sinatra, were part of the Slatkin household. Leonard Slatkin started on violin, later switched to piano, and studied conducting with his father. When he was asked to substitute for Zubin Mehta at the Philharmonic in 1974, he decided to keep the announced program, even though it meant spending the night learning a piece he didn’t know. He once compared the learning of a new score to being in a new city and simply driving without a map. “By getting lost, I’ve discovered the most interesting things, which I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.” After 17 years at the helm of the Saint Louis Symphony he became music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in 1996, and in 2003 President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of the Arts. He has always been known as a champion of new music; “With the Philharmonic we’re going to be introducing a new piano concerto that Lang Lang will play, by his compatriot, Tan Dun. So, this for me is important, to come to New York with a variety of repertoire, bringing interesting new things for the audience, and continuing to connect with the ensembles that I’ve had the chance and fortune to conduct over many, many years.” Leonard Slatkin loves baseball, and says that, had he not chosen music, he would have loved being a baseball commentator (something he occasionally did for the Saint Louis Cardinals).

LANG LANG, piano, born in 1982 in Shenyang, China
Lang Lang recalls that when he was just two years old he watched a “Tom & Jerry” cartoon in which Tom plays Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” on the piano. “From that moment on, there was only one thing I wanted: to play the piano.” His father was his first piano teacher, and his mother taught him how to read music. They made great sacrifices to provide the best for their only child (Lang Lang was born when China’s one-child-policy was in force). Among the highpoints of his amazing career his 1999 breakthrough stands out—when he made a dramatic last-minute substitution for an ailing André Watts at the Ravinia Festival in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Since then, he has appeared across the globe to great audience and critical acclaim. In an interview for Deutsche Grammophon, Lang Lang recalls: “When I was very little I heard Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and was really touched by the beautiful melodies and all the exciting passages. And so, since my childhood it’s been a life dream to perform this concerto….When I was nine years old I started to practice it. And then when I was 13, I played it for the first time, in Beijing with the China Youth Orchestra.” He acknowledges that there are special challenges playing such a well-known work: “First, you must respect everything that’s written in the score. Then you need to play not only with your heart, but with your soul, because this piece has real emotional power—it’s like somebody who’s had tremendous life experiences—some are super exciting but some are deeply tragic. At the beginning of the second movement, everything is reborn, you have the most beautiful flute solo, and when the piano comes in, it’s like waterfalls—so beautiful and so pure. When I play that movement I just enjoy myself. I’m not on earth—I’m in some heavenly place.”

“Yes, there’s gold in them fingers.” The Times (London)

“This young pianist, barely into his twenties, has captured wide public attention with the brilliance and energy of his playing.” Washington Post

Find additional upcoming performances with Lang Lang

STEVEN STUCKY
Host of Hear & Now, born in 1949 in Hutchinson, Kansas
Not everyone in the pantheon of today’s composer can claim to have spent time on a farm in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. But Steven Stucky can. It’s also on the prairie that he took up the viola as a boy of 10. Now he’s a music professor at Cornell, his alma mater, and has other prestigious appointments in the music world. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for example, where he is Consulting Composer for New Music, one responsibility is to study scores of other living composers hoping to have their works performed. His credentials make him the perfect choice for the New York Philharmonic’s three Hear and Now concerts this season, in which he leads adventurous music lovers into explorations of new works by fellow American composers—usually in the company of those composers. The programs begin one hour before concert start time, and an abbreviated version of his remarks takes place during the concert itself. Steven Stucky knows each of the composers featured on Hear and Now: Elliott Carter, Avner Dorman, and Peter Lieberson, and says: “I can’t think of three more different composers, but who are so perfect for a Hear and Now treatment. Elliott Carter, whose 100th birthday we celebrate this season, is charming and holds audiences in his hand; Avner Dorman is hot, hot, hot in music circles today, yet his music is approachable and energetic. And Peter Lieberson is a gentle, kind, warm, generous person who writes some of the most beautiful music today.” Steven Stucky will get ready for Hear and Now by studying the scores, communicating with the composers, and attending rehearsals. He believes the secret to opening up fearlessly to new music is to make a human connection between audience and composer—the approach taken in Hear and Now presentations. “The fact that someone is talking to you about the music is almost more important than what the person says. The barriers are taken down when the composer and the audience think of themselves as allies. Call it ‘rooting for the home team.’ That way everybody wins.”