Friday, September 26, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
To mark both the opening of the 55th anniversary season of the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series and Philippe de Montebello's valedictory year as Metropolitan Museum Director, the Museum will present a concert by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra that features a performance of Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals with Philippe de Montebello reading the Ogden Nash verses as narrator, and pianists Orion Weiss and Inon Barnatan as soloists. Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 10 for Strings in B Minor; and Mozart's Symphony No. 29 in A Major, K. 201, complete the program, which takes place in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.
This opening concert of the Museum's 2008-2009 season of concerts is part of Triptych, a three-event series – also including a conversation with Robert Hughes on October 28 and a poetry reading with Isabella Rossellini on December 9 – that honors Philippe de Montebello's final year as Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"This is the final season – after 31 brilliant years – that one of the concert series' staunchest supporters, Philippe de Montebello, will serve as the Metropolitan Museum's Director before retiring, and he has kindly accepted my invitation to participate in a triptych of programs that will pay tribute to his love of the visual arts, music, and the spoken word," said Concerts & Lectures General Manager Hilde Limondjian. "His collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on opening night will provide an auspicious launch to our chock-full, 76-event season in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium."
Tickets to the concert, priced at $60, are available by calling 212-570-3949, or may be purchased online at www.metmuseum.org/tickets.
Philippe de Montebello – whose long and storied career at The Metropolitan Museum of Art has spanned nearly a third of the institution's entire history – has served for the past 31 years as its eighth, and longest-serving, Director. He first joined the staff as a curatorial assistant in 1963, became Director in 1977, and assumed the additional role of Chief Executive Officer in 1998. He leads a professional staff of more than 300 curators, conservators, educators, and librarians, as well as an administrative staff, reporting through the Museum's President , consisting of more than 2,300 full- and part-time employees. Mr. de Montebello plans to step down as Director of the Museum by December 31, 2008, or upon the arrival of his successor. He recently announced that he will then assume the first Fiske Kimball Professorship in the History and Culture of Museums at New York University's renowned Institute of Fine Arts in Manhattan. In announcing Philippe de Montebello's upcoming retirement, Museum Chairman James R. Houghton said in January: "He leaves an incomparable legacy of accomplishment that has significantly enhanced the institution and brilliantly served its vast international public. No museum director anywhere has done more to expand and enrich the appreciation of art for more generations and with greater taste, erudition, diplomacy, and vision than Philippe de Montebello."
Pianist Orion Weiss is one of the most sought-after soloists and collaborators in his generation of young American musicians. In the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Weiss toured the U.S. with the Orchester der Klangverwaltung Munich and appeared with orchestras including the Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Albany Symphony. The season also saw the release of his debut recording, a recital disc for Yarlung Records. In the past two seasons, he has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, New World Symphony, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman. He won the 2005 Juilliard William Petschek Award and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Mr. Weiss's impressive list of awards includes the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School. He was featured in both the 2004 Musical America and the March 2004 Symphony Magazine as part of the next generation of great artists in classical music. A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Mr. Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.
Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan, still in his twenties, has already proved himself an exceptional musician with a flourishing international reputation. In recent seasons Inon performed recitals in New York's Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Salla Verdi in Milan, Wigmore Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Arts Theatre in Shanghai, and the Rising Stars series of the Ravinia and Gilmore festivals. His orchestral appearances include concerts with the Houston Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Mr Barnatan's debut CD of Schubert piano works was released by Bridge Records in 2006 to warm critical response, and was recommended by Gramophone Magazine in its 2006 awards issue. In 2007 he released a duo CD with violinist Liza Ferschtman on Challenge Records, with works by Beethoven and Schubert. Mr Barnatan also appears in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's first critically acclaimed release on Deutsche Grammophon's digital label, DG Concerts. An avid chamber musician, Inon has collaborated with the Jerusalem String Quartet, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Jonathan Biss, Martin Fröst ,Paul Neubauer, Joseph Silverstein, and Liza Ferschtman. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Inon now resides in New York City.
In addition to appearing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Orpheus tours on a regular basis throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Orpheus's 2007-2008 season tour included appearances in Asia and throughout the United States at concert halls in the Miami and Washington, DC regions, as well as New Jersey, Indiana, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. Orpheus' June 2008 Asia tour included performances in Japan and Korea. Recognized internationally as one of the world's great orchestras, the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has been thrilling music lovers on four continents for 34 years. Accompanying the critical acclaim for Orpheus' live appearances are numerous distinctions and awards, including a 2001 Grammy Award for Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures, a 1998 Grammy nomination for its recording of Mozart piano concerti with Richard Goode, and the 1998 "Ensemble of the Year" award from Musical America. Founded in 1972, Orpheus is a self-governing organization. Central to its distinctive personality is its unique practice of sharing and rotating leadership roles. For each work to be performed, the members of the orchestra select the concertmaster and the principal players for each section, a group whose role is to form the initial concept of the piece and to shape the rehearsal process.
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