Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 3, 4, and 5, 8 PM;

Sunday, April 6, 2:30 PM

Canadian-born conductor Peter Oundjian, Artistic Director of the Caramoor Festival and Music Director-designate of the Toronto Symphony, leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic April 3, 4, 5, and 6 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. An award-winning violinist prior to launching his podium career in 1995, Oundjian will lead the Philharmonic in a pair of orchestral masterworks - Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 - and spotlight the violin virtuosity of Concertmaster Alexander Treger in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218.

Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert event that takes place one hour before each performance in the Pavilion's Grand Hall, features an interview with conductor Peter Oundjian by conductor/pianist Lucinda Carver.

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894 is, to quote Debussy, "…really a sequence of mood paintings, throughout which the desires and dreams of the faun (a mythological creature - half man, half goat) move in the heat of the afternoon." A landmark in orchestral composition, Debussy's sensual, dreamlike evocation of Stéphane Mallarmé's poem was at first attacked for its "formlessness," but has long since been recognized as a masterpiece of musical Impressionism.

Mozart wrote all five of his violin concertos in a single year, 1775. At 19, he was already a veteran violinist, with five years' experience as concertmaster in the Salzburg court orchestra, where duties included playing, composing, acting as co-conductor, and performing as soloist in
concertos. It was for this last role that he wrote these concertos, each of which builds on the knowledge gained from its predecessors. It was with the last three (K. 216, K. 218, K. 219) that Mozart entered his musical maturity. These are his earliest pieces now regularly heard in the concert hall.

Rachmaninoff had a terrible time after the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony in 1897. (The conductor had been drunk, the press had been merciless, and Rachmaninoff sought psychological treatment to nurse his wounded confidence back to health.) It was not until 1908 that the Russian composer unveiled his Symphony No. 2. This time, he enjoyed unqualified success with a work that has maintained its popularity through the decades. The late-Romantic masterwork equals the largest scores of Bruckner or Mahler in length and breadth while displaying Rachmaninoff's ability to create an unending and beautiful flow of melody. The gorgeous Adagio third movement, in fact, has proven a treasure-trove for pop singers and songwriters seeking tuneful inspiration.

Born in Canada, conductor PETER OUNDJIAN studied violin with Manoug Parikian in England and subsequently attended the Royal College of Music in London. He furthered his studies at the Juilliard School in New York, where he was a pupil of Ivan Galamian, Itzhak Perlman, and Dorothy DeLay. During his time in London, Oundjian was chosen to participate in three recording sessions with Benjamin Britten, an experience that sparked his enthusiasm for conducting. Oundjian held the position of first violinist with the Tokyo String Quartet for 16 years before an injury to his hand prompted him to focus his musical attention on conducting. He made his podium debut at the Caramoor International Music Festival in 1995 and was named the Festival's Artistic Director in 1997. Subsequent appointments as Music Director of the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam and Principal Guest Conductor of Belgium's Flemish Radio Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony reflect his growing stature on the international conducting scene. Most recently, he was appointed Music Director- of the Toronto Symphony, a post he will assume in the 2004/2005 season. Guest conducting engagements throughout Europe and North America fill his calendar. His current schedule lists performances with the orchestras in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, as well as in Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, London, and Berlin, among others.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Concertmaster ALEXANDER TREGER began his musical training at the age of five in his native Russia. He studied with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory and, following graduation, became a member of the Moscow Radio Symphony. Treger subsequently became Concertmaster/Soloist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and, a year after arriving in the U.S. in 1973, joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was named Assistant Concertmaster in 1978, promoted to Second Concertmaster two years later, and appointed Concertmaster in 1985. Treger has won high praise for his solo performances with the orchestra at the Music Center, the Hollywood Bowl, and in Southern California communities. With the Philharmonic, he has performed concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Bartók, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Szymanowski, Wieniawski, and John Williams. Treger has appeared as a guest conductor with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, California's Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Santa Monica Symphony, and the Turku Philharmonic (Finland). He made his Los Angeles Philharmonic conducting debut in January 1998. He has served as Music Director/Conductor of the Crossroads Chamber Orchestra since 1993, and in 1997 was appointed to succeed Mehli Mehta as Music Director/Conductor of the American Youth Symphony.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, April 3, 8 PM

Friday, April 4, 8 PM

Saturday, April 5, 8 PM

Sunday, April 6, 2:30 PM

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor

ALEXANDER TREGER, violin

DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218

RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2

Upbeat Live, a free pre-concert event that takes place one hour before each performance in the Pavilion's Grand Hall, features an interview with conductor Peter Oundjian by conductor/pianist Lucinda Carver.

Tickets ($14 - $82) are on sale now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. Tickets are also available online at www.laphil.com. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available two hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323.850.2000.

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