LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Violin Concerto (1806)
It has been called “the Mount Everest of violin concertos” and his “tenth symphony with violin obbligato.” It is Beethoven’s only concerto for the instrument. Completing the work at the last minute for his friend and formidable violin prodigy Franz Clement (1780-1842), Beethoven gave the soloist no time to properly prepare for the premiere. And, as was the case with many other Beethoven works, this concerto’s manuscript bristled with changes in chalk, pencil, and ink. In what must be one of the most notorious premieres on record, Clement got through his demanding part, and allegedly decided to insert his own sonata on the G-string—playing it with the violin held upside down—between the Allegro and the Larghetto. Some accounts even state that Clement planned to play the concerto’s opening movement before intermission and the remaining movements after. This would have let him entertain his audience with his solo fantasia as well. The show-off shenanigans notwithstanding, it may be hard to understand why it received mixed reviews. One critic wrote: “One fears that if Beethoven will pursue his present path, he and the public will come to no good end.” Moreover, the lack of preparation by Clement also may have contributed to the dismal reception. The concerto then lay virtually neglected until the 13-year-old violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim “resurrected” it nearly four decades later. The New York Philharmonic did not give the first American performance until 1861. The concerto is a bravura composition of startling emotional scope, and longer by far than concertos that had come before. Starting with soft taps on the timpani—a recurrent motif that is integral to the work’s fabric—it unfolds as a marvelous exchange between soloist and orchestra into a work that has thrilled audiences for generations.

CÉSAR FRANCK (1822-1890)
Symphony in D Minor (1886-1888)
Today, Franck’s Symphony in D Minor is a beloved staple of the orchestral repertoire, but it was not always so. The composer was already 66 years old when he first tried his hand at symphony-writing for the first time (Brahms’s 43 years for his first attempt seem positively youthful by comparison), and it was his only work in the genre. His unorthodox approach earned him few accolades. The mild-mannered composer was chagrined at the response to his composition: uncooperative musicians at the Paris Conservatoire and petty, conservative academics who criticized the symphony for silly things, such as the use of the English horn and the fewer than “normal” number of movements. Today such criticisms strike us as absurd, but at the time, dogmatic views of what a symphony should be were firmly entrenched. Franck was an organist, and somewhat like fellow-organist/composer Anton Bruckner, his music floods the listener with luxuriant waves of sound. Reflecting a practice first employed by Liszt and reminiscent of Wagner’s leitmotifs, Franck creates a three-note cell in the first intense and yearning movement that becomes the seed for recurring melodies throughout the work. The movement ends with a forceful canonical treatment of the cell. In the slow movement, you’ll hear softly plucked strings, joined by the harp and the maligned, but lovely, English horn solo. In the Allegro non troppo finale, Franck revisits the English horn motif, now transformed and taken up by the whole orchestra with magnificent inevitability. Ultimately, all of the themes are united brilliantly, and D Minor is triumphantly transformed into D Major in the glorious ending.

Riccardo Muti was born in Naples, Italy, where he studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale, graduating with distinction. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in composition and conducting by the Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi,” Milan. He first came to the attention of critics and the public in 1967, when he was unanimously awarded first place in the Guido Cantelli Conductors Competition in Milan. The following year he was appointed principal conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a position he maintained until 1980. In 1971 he was invited by Herbert von Karajan to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, the first of many occasions that led, in 2001, to a celebration of 30 years of artistic collaboration.

During the 1970s Mr. Muti was the London Philharmonia’s chief conductor (1972–82), succeeding Otto Klemperer. In 1980 he succeeded Eugene Ormandy as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, where he remained until 1992. From 1986 to 2005 he was music director of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, overseeing projects such as the Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy and the Wagner Ring Cycle, in addition to bringing many less-performed and neglected works to light. His long tenure culminated on December 7, 2004, in the re-opening of the restored La Scala, with Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta, originally commissioned for La Scala’s inaugural opening night performance in 1778.

Over the course of his career, Riccardo Muti has conducted most of the world’s important orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, and the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra with which he has particularly close ties, and with which he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival since 1971. In April 2003 the French national radio channel, France Musique, broadcast a “Journée Riccardo Muti,” comprising 14 hours of his operatic and symphonic recordings. On December 14, 2003, he conducted the opening concert of the newly-renovated opera house “La Fenice” in Venice. In 2004 Mr. Muti founded the “Luigi Cherubini” Youth Orchestra comprising young musicians selected by an international committee from 600 instrumentalists throughout Italy. With the Cherubini Orchestra he is leading a five-year project dedicated to the Neapolitan School of the 18th century for the Salzburg Whitsun Festival.

On May 5, 2008, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association appointed Mr. Muti as its tenth music director; he will begin his five-year contract in September 2010. In the same season he will start as director of the Rome Opera House. Riccardo Muti’s last appearance with the New York Philharmonic was in November 2009. He is scheduled to return on April 14–17, 2010. For more information, visit www.riccardomuti.com.

VADIM REPIN
Violin, born in 1971 in Novosibirsk, Siberia
Vadim Repin’s career kicked into high gear when he won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels at the age of 17. Much preparation led up to that demanding 30-day event. His happy childhood had been full of music “…lots of listening, practicing, and learning new things on the violin, and also plenty of performing. My teacher used to say that the stage is a great teacher.” Once immersed in his violin studies, “I never had any doubt, any question of what I wanted to do with my life. …I gave all my time, all my will to practicing and never looked back, or ahead. I never wondered: what will happen, how will I make it? For me, it was a dive-in situation.” While he has performed with all the great orchestras of the world, Vadim Repin has also participated in some rather extraordinary events, such as the concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich before an outdoor audience of 8,000; or the eve-of-wedding concert for Crown Prince Willem Alexander of the Netherlands and his bride, the Argentinian Maxima Zorreguieta, before wedding guests that included royalty and heads of state; and in 2008 a concert in Tel Aviv, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel with the Israel Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti. Vadim Repin plays on the magnificent 1736 Guarneri del Gesù “von Szerdahely” violin.

“Simply the best, the most perfect violinist I have ever heard.” Yehudi Menuhin

“The greatest living violinist” (Tagesspiegel (Berlin))

“Repin is recognized as the foremost young violinist to emerge from Russia since the days of Heifetz, Milstein and David Oistrakh.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Music seems to be violinist Vadim Repin’s true mother tongue. He plays fluently, with a wide-ranging vocabulary. His amazing technique is combined with intense feeling for an outstanding whole. He’s as adept at lush lyricism as he is with instrumental fireworks; at times, his playing seemed incandescent.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)