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  • CONDUCTOR VLADIMIR JUROWSKI LEADS THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC AND PIANIST LARS VOGT AT WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
  • Nov. 5, 2005
  • Exciting Russian Compositions Frame Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20

    SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2005, AT 8 PM

    SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2005, AT 2 PM

    Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic and pianist Lars Vogt at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, November 5, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 6, at 2 p.m. The program highlights the music of two adventurous Russian composers, Alfred Schnittke and Sergei Prokofiev, and features Vogt as soloist on Mozart’s beloved Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466.

    Michael Walsh, former music critic for Time magazine, hosts an Upbeat Live discussion in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall one hour prior to each concert. Upbeat Live, free to all concert ticket holders, offers audiences the opportunity to enhance their concert-going experience by learning more about the performances and music.

    Moscow-born Jurowski, who serves as Music Director of Glyndebourne and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic, is on the way to becoming a household name for classical music audiences. Under his baton, the Philharmonic opens the concert with Schnittke’s (K)ein Sommernachtstraum, composed in 1986 for the Salzburg Festival. The piece exhibits the Schnittke penchant for incorporating multiple styles within a single composition. The program continues with Vogt, one of the leading pianists of his generation, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466, composed during the height of Mozart’s popularity in Vienna. The concert concludes with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Full of tension, drama, lyricism and wit, the piece marked Prokofiev’s return to the symphonic form after a break of 16 years.

    VLADIMIR JUROWSKI’s brilliant debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in April 1996 with Nabucco was welcomed by enthusiastic acclaim both by public and critics. Born in Moscow, he completed his early musical studies with his father at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he moved with his family to Germany, where he finished his studies at the Music Academy in Dresden and in Berlin, specializing with Colin Davis, Rolf Reuter, and Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival, where he conducted Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night. The sensational success of that production presented him as one of the most interesting young conductors of our day. He successfully returned to the Wexford Festival in 1996 for Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du nord. He then conducted many performances at the Komische Oper in Berlin, with the Welsh National Orchestra in Cardiff, with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, and with the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 1997 he made successful debuts on the podium of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and at the Echternach Festival with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. During the same year he also had an outstanding success at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he conducted Moise et Pharaon, and made his debuts at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome (leading the first Italian performance of Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 8). Since 1998 Vladimir Jurowski has been a guest of some of the most important musical institutions in Italy and abroad, such as the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Edinburgh Festival, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, the Oslo Philharmonic, Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino. In 1999 he debuted at the Metropolitan Opera with Rigoletto, returning in 2003 to conduct Janácek’s Jenufa. In recent seasons he also made highly successful debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. Highlights of his recent/future engagements include new productions of Penderecki’s The Devils of Loudun at the Semperoper in Dresden, Parsifal at the Welsh National Opera, The Queen of Spades at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as Albert Herring, Die Fledermaus, and Die Zauberflöte in Glyndebourne. In the future Vladimir Jurowski will also conduct concerts with the London Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National de France, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. His discography includes the first-ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM (1994), L’étoile du nord by Meyerbeer for Naxos-Marco Polo (1996), Werther by Massenet for BMG (1999), and a recording of works by Milhaud, Debussy, and Tomasi for Arte Nova (1999). In January 2001 Vladimir Jurowski commenced his position as Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and last year was also appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition he has recently been awarded the honor of joining the Conductor Collegium of the Russian National Orchestra.

    The 2005/2006 seasons finds pianist LARS VOGT embarking on a dazzling array of high-profile engagements in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, performing over 80 concerts and releasing two recordings on EMI Classics. His collaborations with the great orchestras and conductors of the world continues, as he appears with the Berlin Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, the London Symphony and Bernard Haitink, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Leonard Slatkin, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt, and many others. Vogt gives solo recitals in London, Zürich, Paris, Nuremburg, and Zaragoza. Prized as a chamber musician, Vogt will perform with various ensembles in Salzburg, Lucerne, Frankfurt, and Berlin. In many ways the pièce de resistance of Vogt’s season is his chamber music festival at Heimbach, nestled in the hills near Köln. The festival, called Spannungen (www.spannungen.de), is renowned for creating each year the epitome of the chamber music experience. Other festival appearances for Lars Vogt this season include La Roque d’Anthéron, Salzburg, the Proms, Lucerne, and Edinburgh. In the United States this season, Vogt will be heard in solo recitals in Kansas City and New York’s Zankel Hall; in duo recital with Christian Tetzlaff in Philadelphia, Princeton, New Orleans, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall; in chamber music in San Francisco; and in concerto appearances in five major U.S. cities. He will perform the Grieg Piano Concerto in his Chicago Symphony debut, conducted by Daniel Harding, and Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Stockholm Philharmonic and conductor Alan Gilbert at Carnegie Hall. Among the highlights of Lars Vogt’s 2004/2005 season were his Boston Symphony debut at the Tanglewood Festival, and a performance of Stravinsky’s Les Noces with composer/pianist Thomas Adès, pianists Katia and Marièlle Labèque, and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Lars Vogt is signed exclusively to EMI Classics and has made three concerto recordings, in collaborations with Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado; seven solo recital recordings, in repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mussorgsky, and Lachenmann to Schubert and Brahms; and seventeen chamber music recordings, fifteen of which were recorded live at the Spannungen Festival. Last year EMI released an album of French repertoire Vogt made with violinist Sarah Chang. Two CDs made at the 2004 Spannungen Festival were released this year and a 2-CD set of Mozart sonatas is set for issue in January 2006. Lars Vogt was born in 1970 in Düren, a small town in Germany. He studied with Ruth Weiss (Aachen) and Prof Karl-Heinz Kämmerling (Hannover). He first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition, which catapulted him to a life of touring Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. He lives in Germany with his wife, composer Tatiana Komarova, and their young daughter. For more information about Lars Vogt, visit www.larsvogt.com.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association’s involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2005, at 8 PM

    SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2005, at 2 PM


    WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    VLADIMIR JUROWSKI, conductor

    LARS VOGT, piano

    SCHNITTKE (K)ein Sommernachtstraum

    MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466

    PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5



    Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall one hour prior to select concerts, and are free to all ticket holders. The Upbeat Live presentation on Saturday, November 5, and Sunday, November 6, is hosted by Michael Walsh, former music critic for Time magazine.

    Tickets ($15-$129) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. When available, choral bench seats ($15), will be released for sale to selected Philharmonic, Colburn Celebrity Recital, and Baroque Variations performances beginning at noon on the Tuesday of the second week prior to the concert. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For all information, please call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Cathy Williams, 213.972.3689; Photos: 213-972-3034