ANTONÍN DVORÁK (1841-1904)
Carnival Overture (1891)
Bristling with spirit and energy, Carnival is the second of Dvorák’s three concert overtures, collectively called “Nature, Life, and Love” (the other two are In Nature’s Realm and Othello). The running thread is a theme representing the life force, which the composer called “nature,” and which has the power “to create and sustain life, but also, in its negative phase, could destroy it,” according to John Clapham’s study of the composer. Dvorák premiered his triptych in April 1892 at a sort of farewell concert in Prague, prior to leaving for America to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. In October of that year he led another performance of these overtures at Carnegie Hall—his inaugural appearance in the United States. Dvorák’s program for Carnival reads: “The lonely, contemplative wanderer reaches the city at nightfall, where a carnival is in full swing. On every side is heard the clangor of instruments, mingled with shouts of joy and the unrestrained hilarity of people giving vent to their feelings in their songs and dance tunes.” Dvorák’s vibrant music depicts this joyful scene with exhilarating orchestral sonorities.

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 (1876)
Robert Schumann famously anointed the 20-year old Brahms as Beethoven’s heir apparent—a burden he wasn’t able to lay down till he was 43. Believing that a symphony was the standard by which a composer is judged, and having heard Beethoven’s Ninth for the first time in the mid 1850s, he lamented as late as 1870, “I shall never write a symphony! You have no idea what it’s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you.” Interestingly enough, though Brahms composed a number of orchestral compositions that found their way into other works—viewed by some as “practice runs”—he picked up and laid down this symphony for years without completing it. In 1876 he finally overcame the fear of inevitable comparison with Beethoven and gave the world his long-awaited First Symphony. Still, conductor Hans von Bülow couldn’t resist calling it “Beethoven’s Tenth.” Moreover, the redoubtable music critic Eduard Hanslick (who was making life hell for Wagner and those who loved him) was in Brahms’s corner, saying: “Seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation—testimony that the unusual was expected of Brahms in this supreme and ultimately difficult form…” From the dramatic, insistent C Minor pulse of the introduction, sounded by the timpani and bass instruments, to the brilliant brightness of the C Major horn calls in the Allegro, there is no doubt that this gripping masterpiece was worth waiting for.

Xian Zhang became music director of La Verdi (the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi) at the start of the 2009–10 season. In April 2009 she conducted that orchestra in a concert at the Salla Nervi of the Vatican City for the Pope and President of the Republic of Italy. Prior to this appointment, she served as the New York Philharmonic’s Associate Conductor (and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair) for three years, having previously held the position of Assistant Conductor.

In Europe, future highlights include debuts with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where her program includes the world premiere of Mikko Heiniö’s Moon Concerto; and Orchestre National de Belgique, with whom she will appear at the Europalia Festival. Other European engagements include the London Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Verona Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Residentie Orkest, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She will also conduct the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, and Vienna Symphony at the 2011 Bregenz Festival, and the ORF Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

In North America, upcoming engagements include her debuts with the New Jersey and National Symphony Orchestras; The Minnesota Orchestra; and a return to the Juilliard Orchestra, following her recent tour with the ensemble to China. Last season she appeared with the Chicago, Toronto, and Indianapolis symphony orchestras and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As an opera conductor, Xian Zhang made her debut with Puccini’s La bohème for English National Opera in spring 2007, and conducted Puccini’s Turandot in Beijing in May 2009.

Born in Dandong, China, Xian Zhang made her professional debut conducting Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Central Opera House in Beijing at the age of 20. She trained at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, earning both her bachelor and master of music degrees, and served one year on its conducting faculty before moving to the United States in 1998.