JUNE 22, 2010 @ 7:30 PM
The Knights
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Jan Vogler, cello
***
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture (1826)
Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Silent Woods, Op.68, No.5 (1883) for cello & orchestra
Jan Vogler, cello
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony No 8 in b minor, ‘Unfinished’, (1822)
Intermission
Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
‘Madame Press Died Last Week at 90’
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony 3 in D major (1815)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Knights – orchestral ensemble
The Knights are a fellowship of adventurous musicians who cultivate collaborative music making and who creatively engage audiences in the shared joy of musical performance. Based in New York City, The Knights expand the orchestral concert experience with their diverse programming, innovative formats, and unique atmosphere of camaraderie that creates the intimacy and immediacy of chamber music.
Led by conductor Eric Jacobsen, The Knights perform in a wide spectrum of concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tonic, the Brooklyn Lyceum, Le Poisson Rouge, Celebrate Brooklyn, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Central Park, Mass MoCA, and the Whitney Museum. Also in demand on the international stage, they have appeared at the Dresden Musikfestspiele, the National Gallery in Dublin, and they will tour Germany in the fall of 2010 with cellist Jan Vogler. Their expanding presence on the music festival scene includes invitations to perform at the Ravinia Festival, the Stillwater Music Festival in Minnesota, and at the Caramoor Festival’s Fall Gala with Yo-Yo Ma
Jan Vogler, Violoncello – Biography – Season 2009/10
Since he dedicated himself to his instrument he has constantly been working on expanding the spectrum of his cello sound and refines his musical language in an enduring dialogue with renowned contamporary composers and interpreters – with passion and the required dose of risk. The New York Times admires Jan Vogler’s “lyrical intuition”, the Gramophone Magazine praises his “spiralling virtuosity” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung certified him the talent to be able to “let his cello speak like a singing voice”. „From Screaming to singing – Jan Vogler and his cello” was the title of a 2004 Strad issue. In October 2006, Jan Vogler received the European Award for Culture. Vogler is artistic director of the Moritzburg Festival near Dresden and intendant of the Dresden Music Festival since October 2008. As a spokesman for culture he joined Germany’s Federal President Horst Köhler on his state visit to Korea in February 2010.
In 2009/10, Jan Vogler will continue his prosperous collaborations with pianists Martin Stadtfeld and Hélène Grimaud in numerous recitals. After the world premiere of Udo Zimmermann’s cello concerto Lieder von einer Insel with the Bavarian Radio Symphony in May 2009, Vogler will premiere two further works: With Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian’s new cello concerto he will open the MusikTriennale Cologne in 2010 together with the Cologne Radio Symphony. In April 2010 him and the Boston Symphony will premiere a new work by US-American composer John Harbison. Jan Vogler will also appear with the Dresden Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Singapore Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Jan Vogler, who currently lives in Dresden and New York together with his wife and two daughters started as principal cellist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden only aged 20 but left the position in 1997 in order to fully concentrate on his already successful career as a soloist. Carreer highlights include his performances with the New York Philharmonic, one of them with Lorin Maazel during the reopening festivities of the Dresden Frauenkirche in 2005 when he premiered English composer Colin Matthews’ Berceuse for Dresden. Jan Vogler plays the precious Montagnana ‘Ex-Hekking’ cello from 1721.
Alongside the standard pieces Jan Vogler’s orchestra repertoire includes exceptional works such as the cello concerto Dunkle Saiten by Jörg Widmann which is dedicated to Jan Vogler, and the cello concertos by Samuel Barber, Graf, Hasse, Bürger, and Michael Haydn.
Vogler began his successful collaboration with Sony Classical in 2003/04 with a recording of Strauss’ Don Quixote and Romance with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Fabio Luisi. Another Sony recording, titled The Secrets of Dvorák’s cello concerto with the New York Philharmonic and David Robertson, was awarded the Diapason d’Or, among others. Following a CD with Fauré and Ravel piano quintets, in 2006 two new CDs were released with musicians of the Moritzburg Festival, performing Mozart chamber works, one of which was awarded the ECHO Klassik 2006. His highly successful recordings for Berlin Classics include the cello concertos by Samuel Barber and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. His encore CD My Tunes was released on Sony Classical in February 2007. The next CD from September 2007, Concerti Brillanti, includes cello concerti by Hasse, Graf, Michael Haydn (world premiere recordings), and C.P.E. Bach, recorded with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Reinhard Goebel. His “Tango!”-CD with the Moritzburg Festival Ensemble has been released in Germany in July 2008. In April 2009, Sony published Vogler’s recording of Shostakovitch (cello concerto No. 1 et. al.) and Jimi Hendrix works, recorded in New York together with the local chamber orchestra The Knights. Autumn 2009 saw the release of Bach sonatas with Martin Stadtfeld, January 2010 the second “Knights”-CD, on which Vogler can be heard in Dvorák’s Waldesruh.