RICHARD STRAUSS (1864 -1949)
Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (1910)
A musical match made in heaven: Strauss’ opulent suite from his opera The Knight of the Rose plus the festivity of the New York Philharmonic’s 2005 Opening Night Gala. On this celebratory night, the ravishingly beautiful melodies and glittering waltzes will transport you to Vienna’s golden era.

Conductor, composer, and pianist Bramwell Tovey has been music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) since September 2000 and is also principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He has presided as host and conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Summertime Classics series at Avery Fisher Hall since its founding in 2004. Mr. Tovey has appeared as a guest conductor with ensembles including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Frankfurt Radio, and Bournemouth Symphony orchestras, and, in North America, the orchestras of Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Seattle, Montreal, and Toronto, where his trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise Saloon, was premiered in December 2009. This season Mr. Tovey appears with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall; in January and February he led the VSO in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, featuring the Toronto Mendelssohn and Vancouver Bach Choirs and an international cast, at the Cultural Olympiad of the Winter Olympic Games. In May 2010 he will return to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as curator, conductor, and piano soloist for the contemporary Metropolis Festival, and to the main subscription season in the fall of 2011. He will make his Sydney Symphony debut in the 2010–11 season.

Mr. Tovey’s recent compositions include Urban Runway, co-commissioned by the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, premiered in the summer of 2008, and The Inventor, a full-length opera for the Calgary Opera to be premiered in January 2011. In 2003 he was honored with a Juno Award for Best Canadian Classical Composition for his Requiem for a Charred Skull. Bramwell Tovey received a 2008 Grammy Award and a 2008 Juno Award for his recording of violin concertos by Barber, Korngold, and Walton with violinist James Ehnes and the VSO. His other numerous honors include fellowships from the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and honorary doctorates of law from the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, and Kwantlen University College. In 1999 he received the M. Joan Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction, a Canadian prize awarded to artists for outstanding contributions to the performing arts.

Find additional upcoming performances with Bramwell Tovey

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein made her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Recent and upcoming performances include recital debuts at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Vienna Konzerthaus, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Aspen and Ravinia festivals, and in Cologne, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Bremen, Rome, and Lisbon. She also made her debut with the Dresden Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Minnesota, and New Jersey Symphony orchestras. This season she will give her third recital at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In August 2007 Ms. Dinnerstein released her debut solo CD of the Goldberg Variations (on Telarc), which earned the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Classical Chart during its first week of sales. In September 2008 the recording received the Diapason d’Or Award. As a winner of the Astral Artistic Services National Auditions, she appeared as concerto soloist and in recital at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. She received the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for her recordings of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello with cellist Zuill Bailey. Since 1996 Ms. Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the United States for the Piatigorsky Foundation. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Peter Serkin. She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio, the distinguished pupil of Artur Schnabel. For two summers Ms. Dinnerstein was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. These Summertime Classics concerts represent her New York Philharmonic debut.