The MET Orchestra
Performers
The MET Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor
Karen Cargill, Mezzo-Soprano
Stuart Skelton, Tenor
Program
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish"
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
ROBERT SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97, “Rhenish”
Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony represents the culmination of his symphonic innovations. When Schumann began composing the work, he had recently accepted the position of municipal music director in Düsseldorf, by the Rhine River, and journeyed to nearby Cologne to visit its magnificent cathedral. He called this music “a piece of life by the Rhine,” and working with the full orchestral palette, he created one of the great German Romantic musical landscapes. Ebullient in character and mood, the work belies any sense of the melancholy or depression that would eventually overwhelm its composer.
GUSTAV MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
In summer 1907, Mahler began work on Das Lied von der Erde—ostensibly a song cycle, but symphonic in scale and form. He had completed his Eighth Symphony the previous year, and—deeply superstitious, and conscious that composers such as Beethoven and Bruckner had died after completing, or attempting to complete, a ninth—titled the new work a “song-symphony,” refusing to assign it a number. One of Mahler’s most deeply personal works, the songs explore the complexities of life and death. From its opening melancholy drinking song to its piercingly beautiful farewell, Das Lied von der Erde is one of the finest fusions of words and music ever written.
Bios
The MET Orchestra
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world's finest orchestras. From
the time of the company's inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading
conductors in both opera and concert performances, and has developed into an orchestra of
enormous technical polish and style. The MET Orchestra (as the ensemble is referred to when
appearing in concert outside the opera house) maintains a demanding schedule of
performances and rehearsals during its 33-week New York season, when the company performs
as many as seven times a week in repertory that this season encompasses 26 operas.
In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert
performances. Arturo Toscanini made his American debut as a symphonic conductor with The
MET Orchestra in 1913, and the impressive list of instrumental soloists who have appeared
with the orchestra includes Leopold Godowsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo
Casals, Josef Hofmann, Ferruccio Busoni, Jascha Heifetz, Moriz Rosenthal, and Fritz
Kreisler. Since the orchestra resumed symphonic concerts in 1991, instrumental soloists
have included Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, Alfred Brendel, and Evgeny Kissin, and the
group has performed six world premieres: Milton Babbitt's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998),
William Bolcom's Symphony No. 7 (2002), Hsueh-Yung Shen's Legend (2002), Charles
Wuorinen's Theologoumenon (2007) and Time Regained (2009), and John
Harbison's Closer to My Own Life (2011).
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen's restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical
music in the 21st century. He is currently the principal conductor and artistic advisor for
London's Philharmonia Orchestra and the conductor laureate for the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, where he served as music director from 1992 until 2009. The 2016-2017 season
is his second of three as the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York
Philharmonic, and his first of five years as artist in association at the Finnish National
Opera and Ballet. Additionally, Mr. Salonen is artistic director and cofounder of the
annual Baltic Sea Festival, now in its 14th year, which invites celebrated artists to
promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. He made
his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 leading the Met premiere of Janáček's From the
House of the Dead and returned in 2016 for a new production of Richard Strauss's
Elektra.
As a composer, Mr. Salonen's works move freely among contemporary idioms, combining
intricacy and technical virtuosity with playful rhythmic and melodic innovations. He has
composed a number of pieces for symphony orchestra, and this season, his cello concerto for
Yo-Yo Ma premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was subsequently performed by
the New York Philharmonic. He is the recipient of many major awards, including a Grammy
Award, the UNESCO Rostrum Prize, the Siena Prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society's Opera
and Conductor Awards, the Litteris et Artibus medal, the rank of Officer of the Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres from the French government, the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the
Lion of Finland, the Helsinki Medal, the Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, and seven
honorary doctorates in four different countries. Musical America named him
its Musician of the Year in 2006, and he was elected an honorary member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.
Karen Cargill
Winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award, Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill made her
debut this season with the Canadian Opera Company as Waltraute in
Götterdämmerung and returned to Scottish Opera as Judith in Bluebeard's
Castle. In the coming years, she will make her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival and
return to both the Met and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She also will appear in
concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Staatskapelle Dresden, and London
Symphony Orchestra. She made her Met debut in 2012 as Waltraute and has since appeared with
the company as Anna in Les Troyens and Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg, both of which were presented as part of the Met's Live in
HD broadcast series.
Ms. Cargill regularly sings with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Cleveland,
Philadelphia, Chicago, Berlin, Dresden, London, Rotterdam, and Seoul, and has worked with
conductors who include James Levine, Donald Runnicles, Valery Gergiev, Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, Myung-whun Chung, Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, and Robin Ticciati. She
also appears regularly at the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin,
BBC Proms, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2013, she was appointed associate
artist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with which she has performed Berlioz's
Béatrice et Bénedict, La mort de Cléopâtre, L'enfance du
Christ, and Les nuits d'été; Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde,
Symphony No. 4, and Kindertotenlieder; and Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.
Their recording of Les nuits d'été and La mort de Cléopâtre, conducted by
Mr. Ticciati, was chosen as Gramophone's Recording of the Month in June 2013. Past
and future highlights with her regular recital partner Simon Lepper include appearances at
Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London's Wigmore Hall, and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, as
well as recitals for BBC Radio 3. Together with Mr. Lepper, she recently released a
critically acclaimed album of lieder by Alma and Gustav Mahler.
Stuart Skelton
Winner of the 2014 International Opera Award for Best Male Singer and two Helpmann Awards,
Stuart Skelton is one of the finest heldentenors on the stage today. He has been critically
acclaimed for his beautiful voice, outstanding musicianship, and intensely dramatic
portrayals in performances on the leading concert and operatic stages of the world,
including in Berlin, Hamburg, London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Vienna, Beijing,
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Sydney, with
orchestras that include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, and
San Francisco Symphony, as well as with the radio symphonies of Hamburg, Munich, and
Frankfurt, and the symphony orchestras of Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmania, and West
Australia.
Mr. Skelton made his Met debut in 2011 as the Drum Major in Wozzeck and has
since been heard as Siegmund in Die Walküre and Tristan in a new production of
Tristan und Isolde. He has sung with such acclaimed conductors as James Levine,
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Jiří Bělohlávek, James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis,
Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Asher Fisch, Mariss Jansons, Philippe Jordan,
Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Donald
Runnicles, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Simone Young. He has appeared at many of the world's
leading opera companies, including Opéra de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper
Dresden, Zurich Opera, English National Opera, Opera Australia, West Australian Opera,
Seattle Opera, and Santa Fe Opera. This season, he sang Siegmund at the Baden-Baden
Festival, Tristan at English National Opera, the title role of Lohengrin at Opéra
de Paris, Laca in Jenůfa at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and the title role of
Peter Grimes at the Bergen International Festival. His extensive discography
includes releases with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra,
Philharmoniker Hamburg, State Opera of South Australia, Seattle Opera, BBC Symphony
Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco
Symphony.