Back to Press Release List > 01/08/2010 - Mariss Jansons Leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for Two Nights at Carnegie Hall in February

On Tuesday, February 16 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall presents the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam (the “world’s greatest orchestra” (Gramophone, December 2008) led by its Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons. Violinist Janine Jansen joins the Orchestra for Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor; also on the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E Minor. The following evening, Wednesday, February 17 at 8:00 p.m., the Orchestra and Maestro Jansons perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in D Minor with mezzo-soprano Jill Grove, the New York Choral Artists, and The American Boychoir.

Artist Information
Janine Jansen has been a star in her native Holland ever since her Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut in 1997 and today is recognized internationally as one of the world’s most exciting and versatile violinists. Her London debut in November 2002, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, was quickly followed by invitations from some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, as well as NHK Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Jansen first appeared in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage in May 2007 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with such eminent conductors as Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Riccardo Chailly, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Sakari Oramo, Daniel Harding, Mark Elder, Edo de Waart, and Sir Roger Norrington. Ms. Jansen studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn, and Boris Belkin, and, among her many accolades, she was a BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Dutch Music Prize from the Ministry of Culture, the highest distinction an artist can receive in the Netherlands. In 2006, she was among the most prominent iTunes instrumentalists and was recipient of the Echo Award. Each one of her recordings has been awarded a Golden CD for sales in the Netherlands, while her debut album won a platinum disc for sales in this territory.

Renowned for her distinctive dramatic voice and passionate artistry, American mezzo-soprano Jill Grove has won critical raves throughout America and Europe for her distinguished portrayals of the heroines of German and Italian opera. She is also equally at home with the world's leading orchestras and in recital. Ms. Grove is the winner of a 2003 ARIA award, a 2001 Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant, a 1999 George London Foundation Career Grant, a 1997 Sullivan Foundation Career Grant, and the 1996 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also the recipient of a 1996 Richard Tucker Foundation Study Grant and a 1995 Richard F. Gold Career Grant. Ms. Grove was a member of the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera and the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She has also sung with the Opera Theater of St Louis. She attended the Music Academy of the West, the New England Conservatory, and Stephen F. Austin State University, from which she received a Distinguished Alumna Award in 2006.

The New York Choral Artists, a professional chorus founded by Joseph Flummerfelt in 1979, appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic. Highlights of recent performances with the orchestra include Brahms’s A German Requiem in September 2001, commemorating the events of September 11, and the world premiere, in fall 2002, of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. In 2006 the chorus performed Verdi’s Requiem and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, both with Lorin Maazel, and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, with Xian Zhang. Their most recent collaboration with the Philharmonic was in December 2008, in a concert version of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, led by Lorin Maazel. Other performance highlights include celebrating the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall, and the US premiere of Paul McCartney’s Standing Stone with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. The New York Choral Artists have sung under the batons of Bernstein, Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Leinsdorf, Masur, Muti, Nelson, Shaw, Slatkin, Tilson Thomas, and others. The chorus’ discography features many recordings with the New York Philharmonic, including On the Transmigration of Souls with Lorin Maazel and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Leonard Bernstein, both of which won Grammy Awards; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Zubin Mehta; Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar,” with Kurt Masur; and Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Recordings with other orchestras include Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Oedipus Rex, and Requiem Canticles; Beethoven’s The Ruins of Athens; Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; an album of Christmas songs featuring soprano Kathleen Battle; and a Christmas album conducted by Joseph Flummerfelt.

For over 73 years, The American Boychoir has been regarded as the United States’ premier concert boys’ choir and one of the finest boy choirs in the world. Its members—boys from grades 4 through 8, reflecting the ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity of the nation—come from nine states and four foreign countries to pursue a rigorous musical and academic curriculum at The American Boychoir School, the only non-sectarian boys’ choir school in the nation. Founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1937, The American Boychoir has been located in Princeton, New Jersey, since 1950. In addition to maintaining an active national and international touring schedule, the ensemble performs and records regularly with such world-class artists and ensembles as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, soprano Jessye Norman, pop diva Beyoncé, jazz vocalist and conductor Bobby McFerrin, and Sir Paul McCartney.

Mariss Jansons became the sixth chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2004. Since 1988, he has appeared on several occasions as a guest conductor in Amsterdam. Born in Latvia and a resident of St. Petersburg, Mr. Jansons was chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 to 2000, during which time he raised that orchestra’s standing to an international level. He subsequently held the post of Music Director with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, leading them to equal levels of success. He has been Principal Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich since September 2003, a post he combines with his position at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mr. Jansons studied violin, piano, and orchestra at the Leningrad Conservatory and conducting with Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. He won the International Herbert Von Karajan competition in Berlin in 1971. From 1973, he worked for several years as assistant conductor of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra (now the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra). He has also been a regular guest conductor of other major international orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston, Chicago, and London Symphony Orchestras. He was appointed Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2003. Mr. Jansons has recorded with such orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker and Vienna Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic. Many of these recordings have won international prizes, including an Edison and a Grammy Award. A series of recordings with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on its own label RCO Live has received enthusiastic acclaim from public and press alike. Mr. Jansons has been awarded various international honors for his achievements, including the Cross of Merit from King Harald of Norway and memberships of the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. In May 2006 he was awarded the Order of the Three Stars, Latvia´s highest state honor.

In December 2008 the leading British music magazine Gramophone ranked the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as the "World's Greatest Orchestra," chosen by a panel of prominent music critics from all over the world. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra continues to be a company of 120 virtuosos whose vast repertoire is reflected in its large discography of over 1,200 recordings of which many of them were awarded internationally. The orchestra now records on its own RCO Live label (US distribution HM USA). Since its establishment in 1888, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam has had only six chief conductors: Willem Kes (1888–1895), Willem Mengelberg (1895–1945), Eduard van Beinum (1945–1959), Bernard Haitink (1959–1988), Riccardo Chailly (1988–2004), and Mariss Jansons (from 2004). Several have also had special artistic relationships with major American orchestras: Willem Mengelberg was the New York Philharmonic's Music Director from 1922 to 1930, and Eduard van Beinum was Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1956 until his sudden death in 1959. Bernard Haitink was appointed Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2006 and is Conductor Emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Program Information
Tuesday, February 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA
Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor
Janine Jansen, Violin

JEAN SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27

Sponsored by Toshiba Corporation
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Wednesday, February 17 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA
Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor
Jill Grove, Mezzo-Soprano
New York Choral Artists
Joseph Flummerfelt, Chorus Director
The American Boychoir
Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Music Director

GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 3 in D Minor

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with Benjamin Sosland, The Juilliard School.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.