SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
Symphony No. 2 (1907)
To find more time for composing in 1906, Rachmaninoff needed to get out of Moscow: “I have escaped from my friends. Please don’t give me away,” he confessed to an acquaintance. The result of his get-away to Dresden—incognito and secluded—was the unabashedly romantic Symphony No. 2. Coming in at around 50 minutes in length, it is Rachmaninoff’s grandest work, washing over the listener with its sweeping melodies, lush orchestrations, and inspired lyrical passages. At its St. Petersburg premiere it enjoyed immediate acclaim (in contrast to the dismal failure of his First Symphony that had plunged the composer into grim despair and hypnosis treatment on Dr. Nicholas Dahl’s couch). The symphony unfolds slowly with the Largo’s stately grandeur, moves on to a brilliant Scherzo, then transitions to an impassioned, yearning Adagio—one of Rachmanioff’s most beautiful creations—and concludes with a bright, whirlwind Allegro vivace that evokes the sound of bells in its final measures. The composer believed that music gave him the means to express his emotions: “Music should express the sum total of a composer’s experiences…Music is born only of the heart and it appeals to the heart. It is love.” And it surely is this power of music that has connected Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony with audiences for more than a century.

SEMYON BYCHKOV, conductor, born in 1952 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia
Semyon Bychkov’s musical career was off to an early start: at age five he was studying piano at the House of Scientists (a kind of club for scientists that featured a wide variety of activities); in his early teens he entered the Glinka Choir School, were musical studies and singing had equal importance with the academic curriculum. At 14 he directed his first choir, an orchestra at age 17 and an opera at age 18. He continued his formal training at the Leningrad Conservatory and was invited to conduct the famed Leningrad Philharmonic, a rare honor for a student. But apparently when Communist Party officials learned that the young man was Jewish and objected to his presumed political views, the concert was cancelled. Realizing that his career would be doomed, he applied to leave the Soviet Union and, unexpectedly, the KGB gave him an exit visa. He arrived in the United States in 1975. He held music directorships at both the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic, and fortuitously was called upon for short-notice substitutions at the Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, and the Berlin Philharmonic. International acclaim followed. Life in the West made a strong impression on him…like being able to buy all the bananas he wanted (they were a rarity in the Soviet Union). “There was one event that happened a few weeks after I became a U.S. citizen which left an indelible impression on me. I received a letter from Ronald Reagan. It was a very warm, very personal letter, saying that as along as people like me choose America as a new home, it would always remain a great country. Where else in the world would the Head of State honor a little know musician with a letter such as this?” He is at home with both the operatic and symphonic repertoire, and especially values Luciano Berio and Henri Dutilleux, saying that they have had the greatest influence on him among composers he has worked with. “They are not just extraordinary creators. They are not only interested in their own music, but in music in general and its value, its historical development. They are just as attached to the great music of the past as to the idea that in order to have a permanent value, new music must correspond to contemporary spiritual needs and reflect the life we are living today. I have been inspired by both.” Semyon Bychkov is married to pianist Marielle Labèque, one of the soloists on this program.

“All power to Bychkov’s elbow. [In his Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2] there is spontaneity, ardour and a big-hearted sense of involvement.” Gramophone Magazine

Violinist Michelle Kim has been Assistant Concertmaster (The William Petschek Family Chair) of the New York Philharmonic since 2001. She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony. An active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has collaborated with violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas Zukerman; cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell, and Gary Hoffman; and pianists Lang Lang and Yefim Bronfman. She has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music, La Jolla Chamber Music, Strings in the Mountain, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music festivals. She has also served as the first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet, and was a Sterne Virtuoso Artist at Skidmore College in 2007–08. A former Presidential Scholar, Ms. Kim attended the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music as a Starling Foundation scholarship recipient. She has been a member of the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music; Colburn School of Performing Arts; and University of California, Santa Barbara. Michelle Kim currently teaches at the Mannes College of Music.

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Lisa Kim joined the Philharmonic violin section in 1994 and was named Associate Principal, Second Violin Group (In Memory of Laura Mitchell), in 2003. She teaches in South Korea and the United States, and has performed with the Seoul National Philharmonic Orchestra and the SooWon, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and Durham symphony orchestras. Ms. Kim’s chamber music activities have included the Philharmonic Ensembles series, Hofstra Chamber Ensemble series, Mostly Chamber Festival, Lyric Chamber Music Society, and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic; collaborations with the late Lukas Foss, Lynn Harrell, Ani Kavafian, Yo-Yo Ma, and Garrick Ohlsson; European performances under the International Music Program; and Jordan’s Jurash Festival at the invitation of King Hussein. Lisa Kim began violin studies at age seven, attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. She has won prizes in the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, Bryan Young Artists String Competition, Winston-Salem Young Talent Search, and Durham Symphony Young Artists Competition. She joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 1999.

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Cynthia Phelps is the Philharmonic’s Principal Viola (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair). Her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Boston Chamber Music Society, and Bargemusic. She has toured internationally with the Zukerman and Friends Ensemble; appeared with The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Guarneri, American, Brentano, and Prague string quartets; and has given recitals in the music capitals of Europe and the U.S. Her honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola and Washington International String competitions. Her most recent album, for flute, viola, and harp, on Telarc, was nominated for a Grammy Award.She has released a solo CD on Cala Records. Ms. Phelps has performed on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, NPR, Radio France, and RAI in Italy.

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Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996, and made his subscription debut as soloist with the Orchestra in May 1997, performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations led by then-Music Director Kurt Masur. He has performed as soloist in subsequent seasons in the Elgar Cello Concerto with André Previn conducting; in William Schuman’s A Song of Orpheus with Christian Thielemann; in Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with Music Director Lorin Maazel and with former Music Director Zubin Mehta; and in the Brahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and conductor Christoph Eschenbach. The Brahms was repeated at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002 as part of Kurt Masur’s final concerts as Philharmonic Music Director.

Carter Brey rose to international attention in 1981 as a prizewinner in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. Subsequent appearances with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra were unanimously praised. The winner of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Young Concert Artists’ Michaels Award, and other honors, he also was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize, and has performed as soloist with many of America’s major symphony orchestras.

His chamber music career is equally distinguished. He has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Spoleto Festival in the U.S. and Italy, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals, among others. He presents an ongoing series of duo recitals with pianist Christopher O’Riley; together they have recorded The Latin American Album, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico (Helicon Records). His recording with Garrick Ohlsson of the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano was released by Arabesque in the fall of 2002 to great acclaim.

Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Laurence Lesser and Stephen Kates, and at Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot, and where he was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ilaria Dagnini Brey, and their two children, Ottavia and Lucas. Among his outside interests are marathon running, ballroom dancing, and sailing (he holds two U.S. Sailing certifications and restored a classic sloop that he sails out of City Island).

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