Cellist Alban Gerhardt Makes His Hollywood Bowl Debut

Conductor Yakov Kreizberg leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday and Thursday, August 10 and 12, at 8 p.m. The August 10 concert highlights the music of Czech composer Antonín Dvorák and opens with cellist Alban Gerhardt making his Hollywood Bowl debut in Dvorák's B-minor cello concerto. On August 12, Kreizberg conducts a program built around the theme of "Star-Crossed Music."

The "Dramatic Dvorák" program opens with the composer's B-minor cello concerto, composed when Dvorák lived in New York. The evening concludes with his Symphony No. 8, considered to be the most idiomatically Slavic of Dvorák's symphonies. The "Star-Crossed Music" program invokes three famously doomed couples: Romeo and Juliet (in Tchaikovsky's fantasy-overture inspired by Shakespeare's play), Tristan and Isolde (in the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's opera), and finally, Tony and Maria from West Side Story (in the "Symphonic Dances" drawn from Leonard Bernstein's musical reworking of Romeo and Juliet). The program opens with Richard Strauss' tone poem Death and Transfiguration.

The Russian-born American conductor YAKOV KREIZBERG has established an international reputation both in the opera house and on the concert podium. After immigrating to the United States in 1976, Kreizberg was awarded conducting fellowships at Tanglewood, where he studied with Bernstein, Ozawa, and Leinsdorf, and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. He holds the positions of Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

After winning several international competitions early in his musical career, ALBAN GERHARDT has established himself as one of the world's leading cellists. His debut with the Berlin Philharmonic led to performances as soloist with such orchestras as the NDR Symphony in Hamburg, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Järvi, Sir Neville Mariner, Kurt Masur, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Osmo Vänskä. Gerhardt recorded the Dvorák Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic for BBC Music Magazine followed by the Brahms Double Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili and the Barber Concerto (for Amati). He has also recorded the Brahms Sonatas for Harmonia Mundi and a selection of Spanish encores for EMI. This performance marks Gerhardt's debut at the Hollywood Bowl.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 8 PM

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

YAKOV KREIZBERG, conductor

ALBAN GERHARDT, cello

DVORÁK Cello Concerto

DVORÁK Symphony No. 8

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, August 12, 2004 at 8 PM

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

YAKOV KREIZBERG, conductor

STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration

BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet

August 10 media support provided by K-MOZART

August 12 sponsored by United Airlines;
media support provided by K-MOZART

Tickets ($1 - $78) are on sale now at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office, by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, at all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons May, Tower Records and Ritmo Latino locations), or online at HollywoodBowl.com. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850-2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000

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