CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Munich Philharmonic
Performers
Munich Philharmonic
Valery Gergiev, Music Director and Conductor
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano
Program
RAVEL La valse
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"
Encore:
DEBUSSY Etude No. 6, "Pour les huit doigts"
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
Bios
Valery Gergiev
Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev initially studied conducting under Ilya Musin at the
Leningrad Conservatory. While still a student, he won the Herbert von Karajan conducting
competition in Berlin. In 1978, Yuri Temirkanov appointed him assistant conductor of the
Mariinsky Opera, where he made his debut conducting Prokofiev's adaptation of Tolstoy's
War and Peace. In 1988, Maestro Gergiev became music director and, in 1996,
artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre (including the Mariinsky Ballet,
Mariinsky Opera, and Mariinsky Orchestra). Founder and director of several
festivals--including Stars of the White Nights--Maestro Gergiev also served as principal
conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2016.
Maestro Gergiev's close cooperation with the Munich Philharmonic began in the 2011-2012
season. Since then, he has performed the complete symphonies of Shostakovich and a cycle of
works by Stravinsky with both the Munich Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Since
the 2015-2016 season, he has been chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. As
Maestro der Stadt ("The City's Maestro"), he reaches out to Munich concert
audiences through subscription concerts and performances for young people, public
rehearsals, an open-air concert series on the Odeonsplatz, and the MPHIL 360° festival,
while reaching an international audience through regular live streams and television
broadcasts from the Philharmonie Concert Hall in the Gasteig Cultural Center in
Munich.
In September of 2016, the orchestra's own record label, MPHIL, released its first
recordings with Maestro Gergiev: Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," and Bruckner's
Symphony No. 4, "Romantic." Further recordings that focus on Bruckner's symphonies are in
preparation. Maestro Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic have toured to numerous European
cities, as well as Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan.
Munich Philharmonic
The Munich Philharmonic was founded in 1893 and has since vastly enriched Munich's musical
life. Even in the orchestra's earliest years, conductors like Hans Winderstein and Felix
Weingartner guaranteed the highest level of performance. Gustav Mahler conducted the
orchestra in the world premieres of his Fourth and Eighth symphonies, and in November 1911,
the world premiere of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde took place under Bruno
Walter's direction. Ferdinand Löwe led the first Bruckner concerts and established the
orchestra's Bruckner tradition, which was then gloriously continued by Siegmund von
Hausegger and Oswald Kabasta. Eugen Jochum opened the first concert after World War II with
Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. In the autumn of 1945, the
orchestra acquired the services of Hans Rosbaud, an outstanding conductor who strongly
supported new music. His successor, from 1949 to 1965, was Fritz Rieger, during whose
administration the groundwork was laid for the Philharmonic's successful youth work.
During the Rudolf Kempe era (1967-1976) the Munich Philharmonic made its first tour to
what was then the USSR. In 1979, Sergiu Celibidache conducted his first series of concerts
with the orchestra and was then appointed its general music director later that year. From
September 1999 until July 2004, James Levine was the orchestra's chief conductor, winning
the prize for the best concert program from the German Music Publishers' Association in the
spring of 2003. In January 2004, the Philharmonic made Zubin Mehta the first conductor
laureate in the orchestra's history. In May 2003, Christian Thielemann signed a contract as
new general music director. He led the orchestra to Japan, Korea, and China in November
2007. These highly successful performances were followed by a repeat tour to Japan for five
concerts in May 2010.
January 2009 marked the beginning of a series of concert performances of Richard Strauss's
Der Rosenkavalier in collaboration with the Festival Theatre in Baden-Baden.
Strauss's Elektra followed one year later, and in January 2011, the Philharmonic
presented the four symphonies of Johannes Brahms. The orchestra traveled with Conductor
Laureate Zubin Mehta in September of 2010 to South America, where it received the praise of
both press and public. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Munich world premiere,
Maestro Thielemann led two performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in October 2010. Lorin
Maazel assumed the position of chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic in 2012. In his
two-year tenure, Maazel expanded the orchestra's repertoire and worked on flexible
sounds.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant
interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys a celebrated
international career. Mr. Aimard has been awarded the 2017 International Ernst von Siemens
Music Prize in recognition of a life devoted to the service of music.
He performs throughout the world each season with major orchestras under conductors who
include Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Eötvös, Sir Simon Rattle, and Vladimir Jurowski. He has
been invited to curate, direct, and perform in a number of residencies, with projects at
Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, the Lucerne
Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la musique in Paris, and London's Southbank Centre.
Mr. Aimard was the artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to 2016; his final
season was marked by a performance of Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux with concerts
programmed from dawn to midnight.
This season sees Mr. Aimard continue his trio collaboration with Mark Simpson and Antoine
Tamestit, and the development of an innovative program of concerts for the Fondation Louis
Vuitton in Paris. He also performs with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo
Järvi in Taiwan. Along with his engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The
Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Aimard joins the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen for
a series of concerts entitled Inspirations.
Mr. Aimard has made many highly successful and award-winning recordings. His releases on
the Deutsche Grammophon label--The Liszt Project in 2011 and Debussy's Préludes in
2012--were joined by a new recording of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I,
in 2014.