Ma r ia Pa b n A lo nde A r C a r so thu sal n H e r Gr s J Bud i fe um ulia ap t es t H o z M iau F i s x r sz ch e St r i ar i G o ng M e ws l y n ua r Qu r nu k i Ho ne J a c h r ne r i S qu ar t Ro i K n n se t r i n el i et e N J i o s Tim at h el n at g Q n e d E m a S er s e fo n M t r han ua u i on n P r rT S hre i l s t e g Q u B i s s t e t r ĂŠ e E i n G ar t V la Da m Zi n t r i n g lisa o F Qu dim e et r e M be g t h S o r P D av i r H o y r a r a n c e a r t e t ch w i a t i i d D r o w H e s c a it z ss J t t i ar z g o r s a n kop k y iels M i a s ch ecz f A Le o a Y e nd y re n a r d h u d s l aw
Segovia Rudolf Serkin Isaac Stern Vladimir Ashkenazy
“I get most joy in life out of music.” Albert Einstein
If Princeton University Concerts could be expressed as an equation, it might be: great music equals a composer’s compelling voice multiplied by virtuosic performers in the perfect concert hall. Since 1894, the music of history’s most revered composers has been performed by the world’s most celebrated artists right here at Princeton University. During the 2011-12 season, an extraordinary roster of musicians will make their Princeton debuts and join this pantheon. Among them are some of the most highly regarded artists of our time… young musicians on the cusp of sensational careers… and riveting performers pioneering new forms of expression. Under new artistic direction, Princeton University Concerts will continue to make history by commissioning new work and blazing new trails while delivering an experience more intimate, more personal and more moving than anywhere else. What’s more, these transporting performances will take place in our own world-class venue, Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall.
Be here for History in the Music Making. “I am trying to play my very best tonight out of affection for Princeton.” Dame Myra Hess, acknowledging the support of Princeton’s Arthur Mendel for her wartime concerts in London
Emanuel Ax Daniel Barenboim Alfred Brendel Leon Concert Classics Series
“Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“America’s greatest quartet” (Time Magazine), named for the 19th Century American philosopher, has captured nine Grammies, three Gramophone Awards and the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, and prompted the Times of London to opine, “with musicians like this there must be some hope for humanity.” Their season-opening concert features works that are among the most moving and provocative that humanity has ever produced. The first of Beethoven’s legendary late string quartets launches our seasonlong tribute to a composer whose music is still considered radical. Following Barber’s astonishingly moving anthem (as originally written) comes a brilliant quartet by Shostakovich, who knew something of Beethoven’s pain and anguish. With Soviet authorities turning a deaf ear to his genius, he saved his most private utterances for quartets he wasn’t sure would ever be heard in public. On that score, happily, he was wrong.
This concert will be part of “MEMORY AND THE WORK OF ART,” a community-wide festival exploring how the arts shape collective and cultural memory and condition our knowledge of the past. For more information, visit princeton.edu/memory
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Fleisher
Richard Goode
Gidon Kremer
Yo-Yo Ma
Concert Classics Series
Thursday, November 10, 2011 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 Barber Cello Sonata in C minor, Op. 6 Stravinsky Suite Italienne for Cello and Piano Chopin Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65
At age four, Alisa Weilerstein had chicken pox, so her grandmother (in addition, no doubt, to making chicken soup) fashioned a makeshift instrument from cereal boxes to keep her occupied. That soon gave way to a real instrument, and now the 29-year-old cellist breakfasts with champions of music whenever she wishes. Lest you conclude that she’s done nothing but concertize for the last two and a half decades, consider that she holds a degree in Russian history from Columbia. “If Ms. Weilerstein is precocious,” wrote the New York Times, “it is in communicating, as many older musicians do not, a distinctive artistic personality.” Israeli-born Inon Barnatan, her pianist in this concert, was praised by London’s Evening Standard as “a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative.” The pair will communicate their worldly insights into music spanning two centuries.
“Music is an intellectual experience that doesn’t allow the mind to get in the way.” Paul Muldoon poet, professor and chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts
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* Princeton University Concerts Debut
Ivan Moravec
Garrick Ohlsson
András Schiff
Joan
Concert Classics Series
featuring musicians of The Academy
“We learned to manifest our genius through what no one could take away – our voices and our music.” Cornel West, writer, philosopher and professor in the Center for African American Studies
Sarah Beaty, clarinet Owen Dalby, violin Joanna Marie Frankel, violin Meena M. Bhasin, viola Nicholas Canellakis, cello Angelina Gadeliya, piano
Thursday, January 19, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 11 David Bruce Gumboots [Princeton premiere] Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2
If their name is less than memorable, the artistry of this young ensemble is unforgettable. Their mission: to be musical ambassadors to the next generation of audience members by giving back to the communities that nurtured them. Their provenance is sterling: ACJW is a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The young musicians will be in residence here at Princeton, working with music students. Their program features a work by contemporary composer David Bruce. Gumboots was inspired by the African tradition of Gumboot dancing that originated in the often flooded goldmines of South Africa, where slaves circumvented the ban on speaking to each other by slapping their Wellingtons and chains to communicate. Mr. Bruce calls his piece a “celebration of the rejuvenating power of dance.” At the end of a recent performance, reported the Charleston City Paper, listeners “leaped to their feet, screaming and shouting, like they’d been blown out of aircraft ejection seats.” * Princeton University Concerts Debut
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Sutherland
George Szell
Henryk Szeryng
Beaux
Concert Classics Series
Thursday, February 16, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 YsaŸe Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27, No. 1 Saint-SaËns Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 With a blazing career, huge technique, large discography, Frankfurt professorship and an infant son, Julia Fischer does not often perform in the United States, which makes us especially fortunate to have her. Quite simply, at 27 she ranks among the world’s top violinists. “She may have spitfire technique,” observed the Financial Times, “but the notes are not an end in themselves but purely a means to expressing musical truths.” In addition to a Beethoven sonata, she will take the stage by herself to perform a fiendishly difficult sonata by Ysaÿe. The program concludes with a sonata by SaintSaëns, which closes with a virtuosic movement that’s sure to knock your socks off, should you be wearing any.
“Music is many things to many people: we may not know what it is or where it so mysteriously springs from but we know that we can’t live without it.” Joyce Carol Oates writer and professor of the humanities and creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
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* Princeton University Concerts Debut
Arts Trio
Nash Ensemble
Juilliard String Quartet Concert Classics Series
“It’s impossible to imagine what our lives would be without music. It is a miraculous phenomenon that never disappoints, but always and only exalts.” C.K. Williams, poet and professor of writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts
Thursday, March 1, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, “Serioso” Haydn String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 33, No. 2, “The Joke” Mozart String Quartet in D Major, K. 575 The Hagen Quartet comprises three siblings from Salzburg who have been playing together for more than 30 years, and a “newcomer” who joined them 25 years ago. Such is their renown and standing as the most enduring quartet in Europe that they seldom perform in the United States. A Wigmore Hall engagement was reviewed this way by The Independent:
“Their performance was filled with subtlety and wonder… the playing was breathtaking in its precision, dynamism and agility—a thrilling encounter.” For their Princeton appearance, they pair a string quartet that ends rather comically by the “father” of the genre, and a somber one by Beethoven, who months before composing it confided to a friend, “If I had not
* Princeton University Concerts Debut
read somewhere that a man may not voluntarily part with his life as long as a good deed remains for him to perform, I should long ago have been no more—and indeed by my own hand.” The concluding work by Mozart— given that he, too, was plagued by physical ailments and was, as usual, financially strapped when he wrote it—is surprisingly joyful.
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Kronos Quartet Tokyo String Quartet Claudio Arrau Concert Classics Series
Thursday, March 15, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2 Debussy String Quartet Brahms Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2
“As near to perfect as one can possibly find.” BBC Music Magazine
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Four virtuosi still in their 20s—three from the former Soviet Union and one from La Jolla—make up one of the hottest string quartets in the world. A critic from the Vancouver Sun gushed, “Normally it takes years and years to develop such a blend of voices and such a spectrum of colors. They have loads of energy and passion and the control, finesse and sophistication to go with it.” Presumably, Daniel Barenboim agrees; he loaned the favorite cello of his late wife, Jacqueline du Pré, to the quartet’s cellist. Their program includes works by two masters of the genre, along with the only quartet penned by Debussy. In recently ranking this Impressionist among the top ten composers of all time, the New York Times explained, “With his pioneering harmonic language, the sensual beauty of his sound and his uncanny, Freudian instincts for tapping the unconscious, Debussy was the bridge over which music passed into the tumultuous 20th Century.”
* Princeton University Concerts Debut
Benjamin Britten
Cleveland String Quartet
Rudolf
Concert Classics Series
“Beethoven could not have predicted the events that inspired Janácek to compose his Sonata, but his music addresses every aspect of the human experience, and therefore is moving in any context.” Jonathan Biss
Paderewski Memorial Concert Thursday, April 5, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Beethoven Sonata in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1 Janácek “In the Mists” Beethoven Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight” Janácek Sonata 1.x.1905, “From the Street” Beethoven Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 81a, “Les Adieux” Jonathan Biss says he must love a piece in order to play it—and he especially enjoys coupling composers to create a dialogue between the two. Terrific intensity characterizes the music of Beethoven and Janáček, he tells us. “Beethoven’s sonatas give you the feeling that from the first note, you’re being inexorably led towards the last. Janáček, by contrast, is perhaps the greatest master of the apparent musical nonsequitur. Their building blocks could not be more different, making the similarities in their temperament all the more fascinating. The deep nostalgia in Janáček’s In the Mists, I feel sure, is a longing for a lost musical world, the very world that Beethoven inhabited. But when I play Beethoven after the Janáček Sonata—a gut-wrenching lament for a murdered Czech worker—it carries the feeling of consolation to a far greater extent. Beethoven could not have predicted the events that inspired Janáček to compose his Sonata, but his music addresses every aspect of the human experience, and therefore is moving in any context. I become the conduit through which a conversation between two great masters takes place.” And now you know why Jonathan Biss is considered a musician’s musician.
* Princeton University Concerts Debut
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Firkusny
Fritz Kreisler
Alicia de Larrocha
Ignacy
Concert Classics Series
A recital with dance – world premiere Thursday, May 3, 2012 8 pm Pre-concert Lecture 7 pm Including songs by Brahms, Hahn, Glück and Handel The season finale marks a first in the 118-year history of Princeton University Concerts—an interdisciplinary presentation uniting music and dance. The greatest choreographer of his generation and perhaps the greatest countertenor of any generation continue a partnership that began with Glück’s Orfeo at the Metropolitan Opera. The program includes the griefstricken Orfeo’s aria “Che Faro,” the plaintive beauty of which moves Amor to bring Eurydice back to life. At Princeton, Mr. Morris, who insists upon live music for all of his Company’s performances, will have one of the most intimate settings ever for his work.
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“David Daniels is our greatest countertenor. He has a dynamic range that no one else has: floating pianissimi and enormous power that can fill the biggest halls.” Mark Morris
* Princeton University Concerts Debut
Jan Paderewski
Itzhak Perlman
Trevor Pinnock Richardson Chamber Players
Our resident ensemble of performance faculty, distinguished guest artists and supremely talented students Sponsored by Princeton University Concerts Formed in 1994-95, this ensemble comprises musicians who teach instrumental music and voice at Princeton University, distinguished guest artists, and supremely talented students. A highlight of their three concerts will be Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, written in 1940 while the composer was in captivity in a stalag in Silesia. “It was dreadfully cold—the stalag was buried under snow,” he later recalled. The 30,000 prisoners, mostly French, were starving. The quartet was given its world premiere before an audience of 5,000 in January 1941 under less than ideal conditions. “The four musicians played on broken instruments. [The] cello had only three strings, and the keys on my upright would stick and not rebound… I had been rigged out with a green jacket in utter tatters and was wearing wooden clogs.” In a triumph of the human spirit, the composer survived, as did his composition. Overcoming the worst degradation human beings can devise to create everlasting beauty? Priceless.
Sunday, October 16, 2011 3 pm
Art & Memory
Ravel from Le Tombeau de Couperin Chausson Chanson perpétuelle Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time Players to include Jennifer Tao, piano; Anna Lim, violin; Barbara Rearick, mezzo-soprano; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Jo-Ann Sternberg, clarinet; and Susannah Chapman, cello Part of the series “Memory and the Work of Art,” a Princeton Community Collaboration. For more information visit Princeton.edu/memory
Sunday, March 11, 2012 3 pm
Looking Forward & Back
Beethoven Variations from Judas Maccabeus Paul Lansky Ancient Echoes Stravinsky Octet for Winds Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn Players to include Peggy Kampmeier, piano; Tom Kraines, cello; Jo-Ann Sternberg, clarinet; John Ferrari, percussion; Wayne du Maine, trumpet
Sunday, May 6, 2012 3 pm
Constable & Landscape
Debussy Nuages from Preludes, arr. Ravel Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte Britten Phantasy Quartet Schumann Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 Players to include Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Elizabeth DeFelice, piano; David Kellett, tenor; Anna Lim, violin; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Tom Kraines, cello; Matthew Sullivan, oboe Presented in collaboration with the Princeton University Art Museum
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Leontyne Price Paul Robeson Janos Starker Joseph Special Event
“Anyone familiar with Renaissance music knows that this group has attained superstardom.” The Boston Globe
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Peter Phillips, Director
presented in collaboration with McCarter Theatre Monday, December 12, 2011 8 pm A program for the holiday season, including works by Taverner, Pärt, Britten, Sweelinck and Palestrina Nearing their 40th anniversary, the Tallis Scholars are “the rock stars of Renaissance vocal music,” in the words of the New York Times. Director Peter Phillips has created, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity that he feels best serve the sacred Renaissance repertoire, so that every detail of the musical lines can be heard. The result: a beauty of sound for which the ensemble is world-renowned. Their holiday program is built around various masterful settings of the Magnificat, or Song of Mary, by composers who span the centuries. Among them, Renaissance composers Praetorius and Palestrina, and contemporary composers Taverner and Pärt.
Szigeti
Frederica von Stade
Pinchas Zukerman Special Event
presented in collaboration with the Princeton University School of Architecture Tuesday, March 6, 2012 8 pm
Maybe you know their story—kind of like Spiderman’s only different. Two students at the Curtis Institute with a love for country western and bluegrass teamed with a third who had deep roots in jazz and improvisation, calling their garage band Time for Three. Later, while the Philadelphia Orchestra was giving an outdoor concert in 2003, lightning caused a power failure (or perhaps it should henceforth be known as a power surge). As technicians tried to restore the stage lights, two of the orchestra’s musicians—secretly members of Tf3!—stepped forward to give an impromptu jam session. The crowd went wild! Thus was born a supergroup that has since given high-wattage performances all over the country. Zach, Nick and Ranaan share a passion for composing, arranging and improv, and their music is a fascinating blend of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz. So a Bach air is likely to give way to a tune from Fiddler on the Roof, which might precede Amazing Grace. Make time for these three.
“Three benevolent monsters, monsters of ability and technique surely… Conveyers of an infectious joy I find both touching and moving.” Sir Simon Rattle
* Princeton University Concerts Debut
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and take advantage of one of the lowest ticket prices in town.
“Relishing a breathtaking classical music performance in the majestic yet intimate Richardson Auditorium while in the company of my music-loving friends has been among my most cherished moments as a Princeton student.” Mariana Olaizola, Class of 2013
TICKET PRICES FULL SUBSCRIPTIONS (the best deal)
SPECIAL EVENTS
Concert Classics Series 8 concerts, save up to 30% Emerson String Quartet Alisa Weilerstein & Inon Barnatan Ensemble ACJW Julia Fischer & Milana Chernyavska Hagen Quartet Jerusalem Quartet Jonathan Biss David Daniels & Martin Katz
Tallis Scholars – available to subscribers only. All single tickets will be sold by McCarter Theatre at higher prices. A $40 B $35 C $30
A $229 B $179 C $119
Richardson Chamber Players 3 concerts, save 20% All subscriptions $30, add this series to the Concert Classics series and the price is $24
à LA CARTE SERIES · NEW Next Generation Series 3 concerts featuring the brightest young musicians, save 20% Alisa Weilerstein & Inon Barnatan Julia Fischer & Milana Chernyavska Jonathan Biss
A $96 B $72 C $48
Make Your Own Series Choose 3 or more different series concerts from all of our offerings and save 10% off the single ticket prices. Please call us at 609-258-2800 to make your own series.
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Add this to a full Concert Classics Series and save even more: A $35 B $30 C $25 Time for Three – FREE to all subscribers, both full and à la carte series buyers.
STUDENT TICKETS Students of all ages with a valid ID can attend our concerts for as little as $5. Student tickets go on sale September 6, 2011.
SINGLE TICKETS If available, single tickets go on sale September 6, 2011. To be alerted about single ticket sales, please sign up for our e-mail or mailing list by visiting princetonuniversityconcerts.org
PLEASE NOTE A $6 processing fee is added to all orders. We are not able to offer refunds or exchanges on ticket orders.
All programs and artists are subject to change.
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Introducing the Prince-10!
just $10 for any concert
If all of these glorious concerts sound wonderful, here’s something that will sound even better. In addition to our low ticket prices, we’re offering the Prince-10 coupon that you can use to buy a ticket to any one of our concerts, subject to availability. Beethoven? Garage Band? Young Artists? Whatever your pleasure, it’s yours for ten dollars. Simply present this coupon at the box office on the night of a concert. To check availability, call us at 609-258-2800.
Now THAT’S history in the music making! Limit one per person.
THE BENEFITS
VENUES & PARKING
Free Tickets · NEW
All concerts take place in Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall, unless otherwise noted. Richardson Auditorium is located on the Princeton campus behind Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street.
All subscribers are offered a free ticket to Time for Three on Tuesday, March 6. Limit one ticket per person.
Single Ticket Discount · NEW
Full subscribers receive $5 off single ticket prices.
Ticket Discounts · NEW
When possible, we offer discounted tickets to subscribers only. This year, add The Tallis Scholars or The Richardson Chamber Players to a full subscription package and receive a discount.
The Best Seats
Subscribers get the best reserved seats and can choose exactly where they want to sit.
Flexibility · NEW
Subscribers have the option to choose from one of our series packages or to make their own series.
ORDER YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TODAY! By phone
call the Concert Office at 609-258-2800
Online
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If available, the best place to park is in town at metered spaces near Palmer Square and along Nassau Street. Metered parking on Princeton streets is limited to one or two hours in most cases and operates from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Free parking is available on campus at the indoor parking garage located on Elm Drive off of Faculty Road on the Princeton University campus, a ten-minute walk to Richardson. Three municipal parking garages that charge a fee are located on Chambers, Hulfish and Spring streets in downtown Princeton, just off of Palmer Square.
ACCESSIBILITY
Richardson Auditorium is accessible to patrons with disabilities. Limited space for wheelchair seating is available upon request. Please call the Concert Office for more information at 609-258-2800. A limited number of parking spaces are available on campus for people with valid handicap permits. Please call the Concert Office for more information at 609-258-2800.
PHOTOGRAPHY EMERSON STRING QUARTET: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco. ALISA WEILERSTEIN: Jamie Jung. INON Barnatan: Marco Borggreve. ENSEMBLE ACJW: Jennifer Taylor. JULIA FISCHER: Uwe Arens, Decca. HAGEN QUARTET: Harald Hoffmann. JONATHAN BISS: J. Katz, EMI Classics. DAVID DANIELS: Bernard Benant, Virgin Records. TALLIS SCHOLARS: Eric Richmond. TIME FOR THREE: Philip De Jong. GRAPHIC DESIGN carol a.s. derks | derkstudio
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woolworth center princeton nj 08544
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“With Beethoven, music first began to find the speech of pathos, of the impassioned will, of the dramatic vicissitudes in the soul of man.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Beethoven’s work is featured on almost every program in the 2011-12 season. Join renowned Beethoven scholar Scott Burnham for 30 minutes before most concerts, as he surveys Beethoven’s creative genius. This rare opportunity—a kind of public seminar—is usually only experienced in the classroom by Princeton students.
Alexander Hall, home of Richardson Auditorium