JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Serenade No. 1 (1858)
In 1853, five years before he completed his Serenade No. 1, Brahms had made the acquaintance of Robert and Clara Schumann, two people who would become his comrades-in-music, his champions, and friends. They encouraged the talented young man to write in the symphonic genre, though his first symphony would not come about till much later. In the meantime Brahms tried his wings with orchestral works like the present Serenade, which he spoke of at first as a “Symphony-Serenade,” as though he couldn’t quite decide on its classification. While it began as a nonet he eventually expanded its orchestration, and in 1860 it was finally premiered as the six-movement Serenade No. 1, conducted by the composer’s friend Joseph Joachim. Its lyrical, fresh, and charming music is a delight to hear.

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15 (1854-58)
The First Piano Concerto is a remarkable work from a young man who started out on his musical career as a piano player in the dives and taverns of Hamburg’s harbor. Its evolution was complex and its gestation long, due in part to Brahms’s self-critical nature and to the high expectations he would have to live up to, in order to meet Robert Schumann’s prophecy about the then-just-20-year-old composer: he would “ reveal his mastery not by gradual development but would spring, like Minerva, fully armed, from the head of Jove.” Brahms revised the concerto even after its premiere in 1859, when he was the soloist and Joseph Joachim conducted. The concerto is symphonic in scope, lasting around 45 minutes. The rolling thunder of the timpani marks the concerto’s long and stormy orchestral introduction, whose mood, according to Joachim, was colored by events in Schumann’s life—his attempted suicide in 1854 and subsequent confinement in an asylum till his death two years later. The peaceful Adagio comes as blessed relief (“I am also painting a lovely portrait of you; it is to be the Adagio,” the composer wrote to Clara Schumann, Robert’s wife and Brahms’s platonic love). The Rondo finale with its two huge cadenzas brings this powerful and massively difficult work to a rousing conclusion. In his book on Brahms, Burnett James wrote: “The D Minor Concerto is a direct and authentic transcript of Brahms’s deepest and most tortured experiences at the time of its production. It also marks the end of Brahms’s youthful romantic period. Never again was he to let himself go with such uninhibited passion; never again to wear his heart so unashamedly on his sleeve….”

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he has conducted seven World Premiere–NewYork Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky; and he conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world. Other recent tours have included Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in the fall of 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. On February 17, 2009, he will be named a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and first conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy.

Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has been released on DVD by Decca.

EMANUEL AX, piano, born in 1948 in Lvov, Poland
Emanuel Ax is renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity, but also for the exceptional breadth of his performing activities. Each season his distinguished career includes appearances with major symphony orchestras worldwide, recitals in the most celebrated concert halls, chamber music collaborations, the commissioning and performance of new music, and adding to his acclaimed discography. One of the most popular and respected pianists in the world, Emanuel Ax started his piano career in Warsaw when he was just seven years old. “That’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I’m doing. I also went to a regular college as well as the conservatory. That was my dad’s influence—music is a pretty iffy career. … What you need is luck.” While still a boy, in 1961, he and his family moved to Winnipeg, Canada. Thanks to the sponsorship of the Boys Clubs of America he enrolled in the pre-college division at Juilliard, and was soon winning prize after prize, including the Young Concert Artists Award, the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 1974, and the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 1979. Seven Grammy Awards further attest to his achievements. His exquisite lyricism and brilliant technique allow him to tackle all parts of the repertoire, from Mozart to today’s music. In recent seasons he has premiered John Adams’s Century Rolls, Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, and Bright Sheng’s Red Silk Dance, and at these Philharmonic concerts he plays Messiaen’s Couleurs de la cité céleste. He says, “Performing remains enormously fun for me and in some ways it is becoming even more fun. …And how lucky am I to be in a profession where I never have to think about retiring, but can play music forever.”

“His greatness, his overwhelming authority as musician, technician and probing intellect emerges quickly as he plays. Within minutes, we are totally captured by his intensity and pianistic achievement.” Los Angeles Times

“His performances have a clarity and unpretentiousness that direct our focus to the music itself and not the interpreter at the keyboard.” Chicago Sun Times

Find additional upcoming performances with Emanuel Ax