CASUAL FRIDAYS PERFORMANCE ON MAY 3RD
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 2, 3, 4 at 8 PM and Sunday, May 8 at 1 PM at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Acclaimed 22-year-old violinist Hilary Hahn returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic on May 2, 3, 4 and 5 to perform Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 under the baton of Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The program continues with Mahler's Symphony No. 1. The abbreviated Casual Fridays performance on Friday, May 3rd includes the Mahler Symphony only, with no intermission and is followed by a mixer at Otto's Bar and Grill.
In a catalog brimming with over 120 works, Johannes Brahms composed only thirteen purely orchestral pieces. However, the self-critical composer believed that the symphony was the truest test of an artist's technical mastery, and so he approached the large orchestral forms with measured fervor. While it is not known when Brahms began his work on the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, the work did see its premiere in Leipzig on New Year's Day, 1879. Ms. Hahn has recently recorded the Concerto for Sony Classical.
Although Mahler's First Symphony does contain the composer's trademark contrast between chaos and the serene, the work contains only seeds of the pessimism that characterized much of his later work. The Symphony, in a version that was later extensively revised, was first performed in Budapest in November of 1889. After cutting a fifth (middle movement) of the symphony, it was published in its current form in 1906.
American violinist HILARY HAHN, 22, has already established herself as one of the most accomplished and compelling artists on the international concert circuit. This season, Hahn tours the United States with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and makes an extended recital tour of North America, Europe, and Japan. As an artist with Sony Classical, Hahn has most recently released a pairing of the concertos of Brahms and Stravinsky making it her fourth album to date. Admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music in 1990, at the age of ten, Hahn made her major orchestra debut a year-and-a-half later with the Baltimore Symphony. Her 1993 Philadelphia Orchestra debut was followed by engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony. In 1995, at age 15, Hahn made her German debut playing the Beethoven concerto with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in a concert broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe. Two months later, she received the 1995 Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1996, Hahn completed the formal requirements for her bachelor's degree at Curtis, signed an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, the tenth conductor to head the Los Angeles Philharmonic, began his tenure as Music Director in October, 1992. Salonen made his American debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 1984, and he has conducted the orchestra every season since. He recently received a contract that will extend his tenure through the 2005/6 season. Among the many highlights of Salonen's activities with the Philharmonic have been world premieres of new works by composers John Adams, Bernard Rands, Rodion Shchedrin, Steven Stucky, and Salonen himself, well-received Ligeti and Stravinsky Festivals, appearances at the Ojai Festival, seven critically acclaimed international tours since 1992, and his extensive recording with the Philharmonic for Sony Classical. Salonen was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1958. He made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1979, and he has been one of the world's most sought-after conductors since his debut in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra in September 1983. He served as principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia of London from 1985 to 1994 and as principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 1995.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE
Thursday, May 2, 8 PM
Friday, May 3, 8 PM (Casual Fridays Series)
Saturday, May 4, 8 PM
Sunday, May 5, 2:30 PM
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, conductor
HILARY HAHN, violin (except May 3)
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (except May 3)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1
Tickets ($12-$78) are available at the the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, Tu Música, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 213/365-3500. Tickets are also available on-line at laphil.com. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available 2 hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.
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Elizabeth Hinckley, 323/850-2047; David Barber, 323/850-2023