New York Philharmonic: Exclusive European Residency at the Usedom Festival announced for 2022

By December 1, 2021 Uncategorized

Featuring world-class soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Jan Lisiecki, and Thomas Hampson

 
 
 
 

Liberty Island Usedom 2022

In May 2022, the New York Philharmonic will perform three exclusive concerts at Kraftwerk Peenemünde, presented by the Usedom Music Festival.

“I am thrilled that through our work, the dream of bringing the New York Philharmonic to Usedom – long held on the island – could finally come true.
Over the past three years, we have worked intensively to forge a connection between the orchestra and the Usedom Music Festival, and to create a constellation that enabled this project to become a reality, a project which has been envisioned for almost ten years, among others by Kurt Masur. Special congratulations to Thomas Hummel, the Executive Director of the Usedom Music Festival, and sincere thanks for the wonderful cooperation, and to Deborah Borda, President and Chief Executive of the New York Philharmonic and her wonderful team.
This vision, another bridge between the U.S. and Germany, is particularly close to my heart and in a personal sense, closes a circle: during my own time in New York, I was fortunate to organize a concert with young musicians in the city for the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In coordination with the Senate of Berlin, the Klavierhaus New York and the Atlantikbrücke, we arranged for a piece of the Berlin Wall to be shipped to New York City which is now installed on Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan.” – Tanja Dorn

The Peenemünde Power Station, now housing a concert hall, was used as a missile test and development site in World War II, intended to destroy the cities of New York and London, among others. By presenting the New York Philharmonic with three world-class soloists in residency in that very place, the Usedom Festival hopes to make a special statement for peace, reconciliation and cultural understanding.

Residency details below:

Friday, May 20 2022, 8:00 pm

Nina Shekhar: Lumina (European Premiere)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 „Emperor“
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9 E-flat Major op. 70
Side by Side: New York Philharmonic & Baltic Sea Philharmonic

Jan Lisiecki (piano)
Jaap van Zweden (Music Director)
New York Philharmonic

Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has Baltic and North American roots and is already one of the greatest pianists of our time at the age of 26. He plays Beethoven’s most popular piano concerto, also known as the “Emperor Concerto”, in which gentle, intimate moments alternate with majestic sounds. Light and shadow exist side by side here, as they do in the award-winning work Lumina by young American composer Nina Shekhar, the first piece in the opening concert. To close, the unmistakeable spirit of freedom the New York Philharmonic melds with the cosmopolitan sound of a young generation of musicians of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in the unprecedented Side by Side project. Both orchestras join forces to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony together, in which the composers satirizes the ban on composing imposed on him by Stalin with all the means of art – a strong statement for peace and unity, against totalitarianism and oppression.

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Saturday, Mai 21 2022, 08:00 pm

Joan Tower: 1920/2019 (European premiere)
André Previn: Violin Concerto „Anne Sophie“
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
Jaap van Zweden (Music Director)
New York Philharmonic

There is no other violinist that connects Germany and the United states like four-time Grammy Award winner and world-class soloist, mentor and visionary Anne-Sophie Mutter. Her late husband, American-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor André Previn, who died in 2019, wrote the violin concerto “Anne-Sophie” for her. It is one of his most popular works and a profound love letter full of virtuosity, dedicated to a master of her instrument. Joan Tower also celebrates strong women: With her work 1920/2019, borne out of the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19, the young composer celebrates the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote and which celebrated its centennial in 2020. The New York Philharmonic also finds diversity in equality in Béla Bartók’s most successful work. His Concerto for Orchestra, premiered in Boston in 1944, showcases the orchestra’s brilliance.

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Sunday, May 22 2022, 01:00 pm

George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Gustav Mahler: Selection from: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 D Minor op. 70

Thomas Hampson (Baritone)
Jaap van Zweden (Music Director)
New York Philharmonic

Composer George Walker was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for composition. His poignant, delicately poetic”Lyric for Strings” and the fiercely patriotic Symphony No. 7 by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák bookend the concert, cradling Gustav Mahler’s songs “Aus des Knaben Wunderhorn” in their midst. The U.S. baritone Thomas Hampson, global ambassador of the Lied, will bring them to life to conclude the New York Philharmonic’s exclusive residency in the historic power plant on the island of Usedom.

Learn more at: ny-mv.eu