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Beethoven's Eroica & Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

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Beethoven's Eroica & Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

Friday, October 21—Sunday, October 23, 2022

Friday, October 21—Sunday, October 23, 2022
Orchestra Hall
2 hours

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 remains one of the most popular works in the repertoire for its melodic richness, and is played here by Benjamin Beilman, whom The New York Times has praised for his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence.” Beethoven’s Eroica is a stirring musical depiction of a heroic figure. The composer famously rededicated it to “the memory of a great man” after its original dedicatee, Napoleon Bonaparte, proved to be a tyrant like any other. The piece by Olga Neuwirth that opens this program was inspired by her grandfather’s Eastern European Jewish musical heritage and reflects on how her complex family history informs her identity.

Program

OLGA NEUWIRTH
Masaot/Clocks without Hands
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

Artists

Matthias Pintscher

conductor

Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris. In 2020-2021, Pintscher also began a three-season appointment as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s new Creative Partner. Known equally as one of today’s foremost composers, Pintscher’s works are frequently commissioned and performed by major international orchestras.  

Pintscher opened his 2021-2022 season as the “Theme Composer” of Suntory Hall’s 2021 festival, including the world premiere of his work neharot which he conducted with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In January 2022, his violin concerto written for Leila Josefowicz, Assonanza II, will be premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony under Pintscher’s baton. He makes debuts in 2021-2022 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Lahti Symphony, and Musikkollegium Winterthur. He returns to the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romance, Barcelona Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Holland Festival, Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Boulez Ensemble. In recent seasons, Pintscher has begun to conduct staged operas, and in 2021-2022 will return to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin to lead Lohengrin, for which he gave the production’s premiere the prior season. 

Pintscher has held many titled positions, most recently as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Association for nine seasons. In 2018-2019, he served as the Season Creative Chair for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He was Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra from 2016-2018. 

Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös in his early twenties, during which time composing soon took a more prominent role in his life. Pintscher's music is championed by some of today's finest performing artists, orchestras, and conductors. His works have been performed by such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among many others. He is published exclusively by Bärenreiter. Pintscher has been on the composition faculty of the Juilliard School since 2014. 

Benjamin Beilman

Benjamin Beilman has won international praise both for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which the Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.” The Times has also praised his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence,” and the Strad described his playing as “pure poetry.” A 2018 feature in The Boston Globe remarked that Beilman’s “playing already has its own sure balance of technical command, intensity, and interpretive finesse.” 

Highlights of Beilman’s 2021/22 season include performances of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Concerto with the Indianapolis, Toledo, and Charlotte Symphonies, as well as the premiere a new Violin Concerto by Chris Rogerson with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New. In Europe, highlights include performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony and Elim Chan, the Antwerp Symphony and Krzysztof Urbański, the Toulouse Symphony and Tugan Sokhiev, and the Trondheim Symphony and Han-Na Chan. He will also return to the BBC Scottish Symphony and the Tonkünstler Orchestra, with whom he has recorded a concerto by Thomas Larcher. 

Planned engagements for the 2020/21 season included the San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and San Antonio Symphony; debuts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Basel Symphony, and Staatskapelle Weimar, as well as a return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Highlights in recent seasons include debuts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra as soloist in the Beethoven Concerto, conducted by Janowski; return engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, both at home, and at Carnegie Hall; and his return to the London Chamber Orchestra to play-direct.  

In past seasons, Beilman has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra. Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Karina Canellakis, Edward Gardner, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero. 

In recital and chamber music, Beilman performs regularly at the major halls across the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kölner Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Louvre (Paris), Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo), and at festivals he has performed at Verbier, Aix-en-Provence Easter, Prague Dvorak, Robeco Summer Concerts (Amsterdam), Music@Menlo, Marlboro, and Seattle Chamber Music, amongst others. In early 2018 he premiered a new work dedicated to the political activist Angela Davis written by Frederic Rzewski and commissioned by Music Accord which he has performed extensively across the US. 

Beilman studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a London Music Masters Award. He has an exclusive recording contract with Warner Classics and released his first disc Spectrum for the label in 2016, featuring works by Stravinsky, Janáček, and Schubert. Beilman plays the "Engleman" Stradivarius from 1709 generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. 

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Saturday, October 22
7:45pm
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Beethoven Symphony No. 3 – Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin (excerpt)

Playing with rich sound and plenty of brilliance, Mr. Beilman conveyed both dreamy lyricism and heated intensity. ”

-The New York Times

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