Thomas Adès
Mahler
Alan Gilbert and the
New York Philharmonic
2011–12 Season
Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic
2011–12 Season
Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic:
2011–12 Season — twelve live recordings
of performances conducted by the Music
Director, two of which feature guest conductors — reflects the passion and curiosity
that marks the Orchestra today. Alan Gilbert’s third season with the New York Philharmonic continues a voyage of exploration
of the new and unfamiliar while reveling in
the greatness of the past, in works that the
Music Director has combined to form telling
and intriguing programs.
Every performance reveals the chemistry
that has developed between Alan Gilbert
and the musicians, whom he has praised
for having “a unique ethic, a spirit of wanting to play at the highest level no matter
what the music is, and that trans­lates into
an ability to treat an incredible variety
of styles brilliantly.” He feels that audiences are aware of this, adding, “I have
noticed that at the end of performances
the ovations are often the loud­est when
the Philharmonic musicians stand for their
bow: this is both an acknowledgment of
the power and beauty with which they perform, and of their dedication and commitment — and their inspiration — throughout
the season.”
These high-quality recordings of almost
30 works, available internationally, reflect
Alan Gilbert’s approach to programming
which combines works as diverse as One
Sweet Morning — a song cycle by American master composer John Corigliano
exploring the nature of war on the tenth
anniversary of the events of 9/11 — with
cornerstones of the repertoire, such as
Dvořák’s lyrical yet brooding Seventh
Symphony. The bonus content includes
audio recordings of Alan Gilbert’s onstage
commentaries, program notes published in
each concert’s Playbill, and encores given
by today’s leading soloists.
For more information about the series,
visit nyphil.org/recordings.
2
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, Conductor
Recorded live January 5, 7 & 10, 2012
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Thomas ADÈS (b. 1971)
Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra (2010–11; New York Premiere, Co-Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Miami’s New World Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London’s
Barbican Centre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony)
MAHLER (1860–1911)
Symphony No. 9 13:47
1:21:39
Andante comodo
In the tempo of a comfortable ländler, somewhat clumsy and very coarse
Allegro assai, very insolent
Very slow and even holding back
3
27:33
15:10
13:12
25:44
Alan Gilbert on This Program
Thomas Adès is a composer who has an incredible ear and sense of rhythm, so
the complexity in his scores is always there for a reason — Tom really knows how
to express feelings through his craft. This quality is very apparent in his opera The
Tempest, which I conducted in Santa Fe some years ago, and in In Seven Days, which
the Philharmonic and I performed in 2010, as there are dramatic aspects to both of
those pieces, but even in non-narrative works he tells a story. Always in his work, what
the audience hears is understandable even at the first exposure: there are colors and
harmonies that are recognizable, but are combined in a very unique and personal way.
Tom is such an honest, serious composer that I’ve always known that Polaris would be
interesting, and I am looking forward to the increased focus on the orchestra that is
possible when not presenting the visuals that can be associated with this work.
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is the last symphony he completed, and as such has a particular resonance. It ends with a powerful, valedictory moment, which seems like death,
or perhaps the attainment of the ultimate spiritual peace. All of Mahler’s symphonies are
great, and all attempt to really encapsulate the human experience, but the Ninth probably goes the farthest. I think that all conductors wrestle with this piece — approaching
it feels like climbing an epic mountain — but the rewards are tremendous. It really does
say it all, and it seems to give a picture of what it means to be human in every sense,
both the joys of living and the difficulty of coming to the end of one’s life. Mahler’s Ninth
Symphony never fails to go straight to the heart.
4
5
New York Philharmonic
6
7
Notes on the Program
By James M. Keller, Program Annotator
The Leni and Peter May Chair
Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra
Thomas Adès
In Short
Born: March 1, 1971, in London, England
Resides: in London
The British composer Thomas Adès
studied piano and composition at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama and
at King’s College, Cambridge, where his
composition teachers included Alexander
Goehr and Robin Holloway. In 1989 he
was awarded second prize in the BBC’s
“Musician of the Year” contest, in recognition of his skill as a pianist, and to this day
he continues to concertize and record as
a pianist, both in solo repertoire and as a
collaborative artist.
He also appears regularly as a conductor of symphony orchestras and opera.
Adès has served as composer-in-residence for several organizations, including
the Hallé Orchestra (1993–95) and the
Ojai Festival (2000). He held Carnegie
Hall’s composer chair during the 2007–08
season, and in 2009–10 he was the
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic’s featured
composer. He has recently been fêted
through the “Aspects of Adès” festival
at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as
an artist-in-residence at the Melbourne
Festival, and as a featured composer at
the 2011 Holland Festival. His two operas
have met with considerable success:
Powder Her Face was premiered at the
Cheltenham Festival in 1995, and The
Tempest was premiered and later revived
at Covent Garden and has received further
performances from the opera companies
of Copenhagen, Strasbourg, and Santa Fe
(where it was conducted by Alan Gilbert).
Work composed: in 2010, co-commissioned by
the New York Philharmonic and Miami’s New World
Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation,
London’s Barbican Centre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony; musical
score revised through April 2011
World premiere: January 26, 2011, Michael Tilson
Thomas conducting the New World Symphony at the
opening of the New World Center in Miami Beach,
Florida
New York Philharmonic premiere: these performances, which mark the New York premiere
Adès has served as Britten Professor of
Composition at the Royal Academy of Music; was music director of the Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group (1998–2000);
and from 1999 to 2008 was artistic
director of the Aldeburgh Festival. He has
been honored with many awards, including
the Stoeger Prize of The Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center (1998) and an
honorary doctorate from Essex University
(2004). In 2000 he received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his orchestral work Asyla. The EMI recording of The
Tempest has earned him two impressive
honors: the Diapason d’Or de l’Année and
the 2010 Classical BRIT Award for Composer of the Year.
Polaris was conceived for performance
with a projected visual work by the film
and video-maker Tal Rosner. The work has
been given with projections arranged in different ways, but it is also written so that it
8
In the Composer’s Words
can be presented as a purely musical piece.
A work of some 14 minutes in duration,
Polaris is structured broadly in three sections. At the very outset we hear piano and
second violins intoning delicate droplets of
eighth notes. High woodwinds, harp, and
touches of percussion join this remote,
chilly texture. Here Adès uses the technique
of diminution canon, through which the
same melodic sequence sounds against
itself at different speeds. (This method of
melodic-rhythmic construction is inherent
to Indonesian gamelan music, a possible
influence, although the effect here is quite
different.) Even if one’s ear does not pick
up on the canons, there is no mistaking the
overall effect, which suggests the process
of change-ringing and which yields a kind of
ostinato that repeats (not literally, but in its
general contour) to lend a clarity of structure through nearly all of the piece.
A gradual enriching of the texture leads
to the entry of the brass section, bit by bit,
again with canons at play. Adès allows the
brass section to be located at a distance
from the rest of the orchestra if the conductor so desires. Their slow undulation suggests billowing waves, with the sparkle of
the ostinato always hovering starlike above.
Only a minute before the end does the ostinato retreat, leaving the orchestra to hammer out its last pages with weighty finality.
Just as Polaris, the North Star, serves as the
center of magnetism, so Adès zeroes in on
a single note at the end: the note “A” — to
which all the instruments adjust their tuning
before a concert begins. For an orchestra,
the note “A” serves as the lodestar. It is the
musicians’ Polaris.
Polaris explores the use of star constellations for naval navigation and the
emotional navigation between the absent
sailors and what they leave behind. ... It
is scored for orchestra, including groups
of brass instruments that may be isolated
from the stage. These instruments play in
canon, one in each of the three sections
of the piece, entering in order, from the
highest (trumpets) to the lowest (bass
tuba). Their melody, like all the music
in this work, is derived from a magnetic
series, a musical device heard here for
the first time, in which all 12 notes are
gradually presented, but persistently
return to an anchoring pitch, as if magnetized. With the first appearance of the
twelfth note, marked clearly with the first
entrance of the timpani, the poles are
reversed. At the start of the third and final
section, a third pole is discovered, which
establishes a stable equilibrium with the
first.
— Thomas Adès
Instrumentation: three flutes (one doubling piccolo, another doubling piccolo and
alto flute), three oboes, three clarinets (one
doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons and
contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets
and piccolo trumpet, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, marimba, vibraphone, orchestra
bells, tubular bells, crotales, wood chimes,
shell chimes, tam-tam, bass drum, two
harps, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.
This note is adapted from an essay that
originally appeared in the programs of the
San Francisco Symphony, and is used with
permission. © James M. Keller
9
Notes on the Program
(continued)
Symphony No. 9
Gustav Mahler
In Short
Born: July 7, 1860, in Kalischt (Kalište), Bohemia, near
the town of Humpolec
Died: May 18, 1911, in Vienna, Austria
Throughout his career Gustav Mahler balanced the competing demands of his dual
vocation as a composer and conductor.
Responsibilities on the podium and in the
administrative office completely occupied
him during the concert season, thereby
forcing him to relegate his composing
to the summer months, which he would
spend as a near-hermit at some idyllic
spot in the countryside.
Mahler wrote his Ninth Symphony
mostly during the summer of 1909 at
Alt-Schluderbach near Toblach, an Italian
community in South Tyrol, on the border
with Austria in the Dolomite Alps. He had
constructed a composition studio set at
the edge of a spruce forest, not far from
the home that he and his wife, Alma,
rented; a fence topped with barbed wire
ensured that nobody would interrupt him
while he worked, which he did beginning
at six o’clock every morning. Gustav and
Alma had already spent the summer of
1908 there, where he recharged himself
after an extended visit to conduct various
works at The Metropolitan Opera in New
York. He was back in New York for the
1908 season, conducting the New York
Symphony as well as at The Met; near the
end of the season he also led the New
York Philharmonic, which he had agreed
to take over as Music Director beginning
in the fall of 1909. The composition of the
Ninth Symphony therefore coincided with
the beginning of his New York Philhar-
Work composed: sketches begun in summer 1908,
mostly composed late spring 1909 through April 1,
1910
World premiere: June 26, 1912, by the Vienna
Philharmonic, Bruno Walter, conductor
New York Philharmonic premiere: December 20,
1945, Bruno Walter, conductor
monic years, which were regrettably brief,
ending after only two seasons, with his
death in May 1911 in Vienna.
On April 1, 1910, Mahler wrote to his
amanuensis, the conductor Bruno Walter,
to report that he had completed his Ninth
Symphony. “In it,” he declared, “something is said that I have had on the tip of
my tongue for some time; perhaps (as a
whole) it comes closest to the 4th. (But
it is completely different.)” Indeed, this
heartrending revelation of Mahler’s soul
is “completely different” from the often
dreamlike expanses of his fairy-tale Fourth
(which preceded the Ninth by a decade).
Nevertheless, the two do share a sense of
conveying something about the transience
of life — perhaps somewhat fancifully in
the Fourth, certainly with unrestrained
emotion and sentiment in the Ninth.
Mahler was pushing himself to his
limit through his overbooked calendar of
conducting commitments, not to mention
the physical and intellectual drain of his
composing, and he was doing so against
doctors’ orders. The year 1907 had been
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The End of an Era
a cruel one for Mahler: in addition to his
break from the musical life of Vienna,
where he had been based for years, he had
lost his eldest daughter to scarlet fever;
then, that summer, he had learned that he
was suffering from heart disease (a valvular
defect) that, while not likely to prove immediately fatal, was potentially dangerous
and could well shorten his life. An outdoor
enthusiast, he was forced to curtail his
physical activities drastically.
Against such a background, the composition of a ninth symphony also held other
troubling prospects. Beethoven, Schubert,
Bruckner, and Dvořák had all brought their
symphonic cycles to completion with their
Ninth Symphonies. To Mahler, whose mindset had recently developed a superstitious
streak, the very idea of a ninth symphony
summoned up thoughts of mortality. In fact,
pretty much everything summoned up
thoughts of his own mortality, but he was
not yet ready to give in to fate. When he
completed his Ninth Symphony he was still
three months short of his 50th birthday, and
upon finishing it he promptly plunged into the
composition of yet another symphony.
Sadly, Mahler’s Tenth would remain an
incomplete torso, leaving his Ninth to stand
as a poignant swan song. The idea of this
work as a sort of leave-taking seems reinforced by its musical content; its principal
theme is derived from Beethoven’s Farewell (Les Adieux) Piano Sonata, and the
symphony — particularly its opening and
concluding movements, both of which are
slow — is filled with intimations of yearning,
nostalgia, regret, despair, isolation, resignation, and even personal solace.
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony not only brings
to a conclusion his completed orchestral oeuvre, but it also represents a final
achievement in the mainstream symphonic
tradition that had been developing for more
than a century and a half. Bruno Walter
wrote of “the prophetic significance” of
the work:
Here Mahler stands once more upon
the mysterious threshold beyond which
lies a new unexplored province of the
realm of music. Mahler’s “quotation”
themes appear as ghostly symbols,
reduced to bare outlines; the texture is
thinned out, much as in some passages
of the latest Beethoven; the independent melodic lines are projected bluntly
against a vast empty horizon and clash
with each other in harsh, portentous
friction. This is not only Mahler’s last
symphony: the symphonic form as such
is torn apart after having been tried to
the limit.
Instrumentation: four flutes and piccolo, three oboes (one doubling English
horn), three clarinets and E-flat clarinet
and bass clarinet, four bassoons (one
doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani
(two pairs), cymbals, snare drum, bass
drum, tam-tam, triangle, orchestra bells,
low-pitched chimes, two harps, and strings.
Mahler’s autograph uses a single harp, but
Bruno Walter divided the part between two
instruments, an arrangement that is used in
these performances.
11
New York Philharmonic
ALAN GILBERT
Marilyn Dubow
Ru-Pei Yeh
Music Director
The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair
The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair
The Credit Suisse Chair
in honor of Paul Calello
Case Scaglione
Joshua Weilerstein
Assistant Conductors
Leonard Bernstein
Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990
Kurt Masur
Music Director Emeritus
violins
Glenn Dicterow
Concertmaster
The Charles E. Culpeper Chair
Sheryl Staples
Principal Associate Concertmaster
The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair
Michelle Kim
Martin Eshelman
Quan Ge
The Gary W. Parr Chair
Judith Ginsberg
Stephanie Jeong+
Hanna Lachert
Hyunju Lee
Joo Young Oh
Daniel Reed
Mark Schmoockler
Na Sun
Vladimir Tsypin
VIOLAS
Cynthia Phelps
Principal
The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose
Chair
Alucia Scalzo++
Amy Zoloto++
Wei Yu
Wilhelmina Smith++
E-FLAT CLARINET
BASSES
BASS CLARINET
Timothy Cobb++
Acting Principal
The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair
Orin O’Brien*
Acting Associate Principal
The Herbert M. Citrin Chair
William Blossom
The Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess
Chair
Randall Butler
David J. Grossman
Satoshi Okamoto
Pascual Martinez Forteza
Amy Zoloto++
BASSOONS
Judith LeClair
Principal
The Pels Family Chair
Kim Laskowski*
Roger Nye
Arlen Fast
CONTRABASSOON
Arlen Fast
Rebecca Young*
Irene Breslaw**
FLUTES
HORNS
Enrico Di Cecco
Carol Webb
Yoko Takebe
The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair
Robert Langevin
Principal
The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair
Philip Myers
Katherine Greene
Sandra Church*
Mindy Kaufman
Hae-Young Ham
The Mr. and Mrs. William J.
McDonough Chair
PICCOLO
Assistant Concertmaster
The William Petschek Family Chair
The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George
Chair
Lisa GiHae Kim
Kuan Cheng Lu
Newton Mansfield
The Edward and Priscilla Pilcher
Chair
Dorian Rence
Dawn Hannay
Vivek Kamath
Peter Kenote
Kenneth Mirkin
Judith Nelson
Robert Rinehart
Mindy Kaufman
CELLOS
Fiona Simon
Sharon Yamada
Elizabeth Zeltser
Carter Brey
The William and Elfriede Ulrich Chair
Yulia Ziskel
Marc Ginsberg
Principal
The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair
Eileen Moon*
The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair
ENGLISH HORN
The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair
CLARINETS
Ricardo Morales
Eric Bartlett
Principal Designate
Principal
The Shirley and Jon Brodsky
Foundation Chair
Lisa Kim*
Maria Kitsopoulos
Acting Principal
The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark
Chair
In Memory of Laura Mitchell
Soohyun Kwon
The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair
Duoming Ba
Elizabeth Dyson
The Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair
Sumire Kudo
Qiang Tu
12
Mark Nuccio
AUDIO DIRECTOR
Lawrence Rock
TIMPANI
Markus Rhoten
Principal
The Carlos Moseley Chair
Kyle Zerna**
PERCUSSION
Christopher S. Lamb
Principal
The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair
Daniel Druckman*
The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair
Kyle Zerna
Principal
The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III
Chair
Philip Smith
The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair
Principal
Nancy Allen
TRUMPETS
Principal
The Paula Levin Chair
Matthew Muckey*
Ethan Bensdorf
Thomas V. Smith
TROMBONES
Joseph Alessi
Principal
The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart
Chair
Daniele Morandini++*
Acting Associate Principal
David Finlayson
The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen
Chair
Carl R. Schiebler
Joseph Faretta
Alan Baer
Acting Associate Principal
Cara Kizer Aneff
R. Allen Spanjer
Howard Wall
David Smith++
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
MANAGER
STAGE REPRESENTATIVE
TUBA
HARP
Principal
The Alice Tully Chair
The Lizabeth and Frank Newman Chair
The Daria L. and William C. Foster Chair
Stewart Rose++*
Liang Wang
Sherry Sylar*
Robert Botti
James Markey
Principal
The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair
OBOES
The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen
Chair
Kerry McDermott
Anna Rabinova
Charles Rex
BASS TROMBONE
KEYBOARD
In Memory of Paul Jacobs
HARPSICHORD
Paolo Bordignon
PIANO
The Karen and Richard S. LeFrak
Chair
Jonathan Feldman
ORGAN
Kent Tritle
LIBRARIANS
Lawrence Tarlow
Principal
Sandra Pearson**
Sara Griffin**
Pascual Martinez Forteza*
Acting Associate Principal
The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair
13
* Associate Principal
** Assistant Principal
+ On Leave
++Replacement/Extra
The New York Philharmonic uses
the revolving seating method for
section string players who are listed
alphabetically in the roster.
HONORARY MEMBERS
OF THE SOCIETY
Emanuel Ax
Pierre Boulez
Stanley Drucker
Lorin Maazel
Zubin Mehta
Carlos Moseley
The Music Director
New York Philharmonic Music Director
Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina
Chair, began his tenure in September
2009, creating what New York magazine
called “a fresh future for the Philharmonic.” The first native New Yorker to hold the
post, he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for both the city
and the country.
Mr. Gilbert’s creative approach to programming combines works in fresh and
innovative ways. He has forged artistic
partnerships, introducing the positions of
The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-inResidence and The Mary and James G.
Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual
three-week festival, and CONTACT!, the
new-music series. In 2011–12 he conducts world premieres, Mahler sympho-
nies, a residency at London’s Barbican
Centre, tours to Europe and California, and
a season-concluding musical exploration of space at the Park Avenue Armory
featuring Stockhausen’s theatrical immersion, Gruppen. He also made his Philharmonic soloist debut performing J.S. Bach’s
Concerto for Two Violins alongside Frank
Peter Zimmermann in October 2011. Last
season’s highlights included two tours of
European music capitals, Carnegie Hall’s
120th Anniversary Concert, and Janáček’s
The Cunning Little Vixen, hailed by The
Washington Post as “another victory,”
building on 2010’s wildly successful staging of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, which
The New York Times called “an instant
Philharmonic milestone.”
In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became
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Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he is the
first to hold the William Schuman Chair in
Musical Studies. Conductor Laureate of the
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
and Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts the world’s leading orchestras,
such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Alan Gilbert made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2008 leading
John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, the DVD
of which was nominated for a Grammy
Award for Best Opera Recording in 2011.
Other recordings have garnered Grammy
Award nominations and top honors from
the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone
15
magazine. Mr. Gilbert studied at Harvard
University, The Curtis Institute of Music,
and Juilliard, and was assistant conductor
of The Cleveland Orchestra (1995–97).
In May 2010 he received an Honorary
Doctor of Music degree from Curtis, and
in December 2011 he received Columbia
University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for
his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.”
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, founded
in 1842 by a group of local musicians
led by American-born Ureli Corelli Hill,
is by far the oldest symphony orchestra
in the United States, and one of the
oldest in the world. It currently plays
some 180 concerts a year, and on May 5,
2010, gave its 15,000th concert — a
milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.
Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko
Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure
in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20th-century musical
giants that has included Lorin Maazel
(2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director
1991–2002, Music Director Emeritus
since 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91);
Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard
Bernstein (appointed Music Director in
1958; given the lifetime title of Laureate
Conductor in 1969).
Since its inception the Orchestra has
championed the new music of its time,
commissioning and/or premiering many
important works, such as Dvořák’s
Symphony No. 9, From the New World;
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3;
Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; and
Copland’s Connotations. The Philharmonic
has also given the U.S. premieres of such
works as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8
and 9 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This
pioneering tradition has continued to the
present day, with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled
each season, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning
On the Transmigration of Souls; Melinda
Wagner’s Trombone Concerto; Esa-Pekka
Salonen’s Piano Concerto; Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO and Al largo; Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3);
Christopher Rouse’s Odna Zhizn; and, by
the end of the 2010–11 season, 11 works
in CONTACT!, the new-music series.
The roster of composers and conductors
who have led the Philharmonic includes
such historic figures as Theodore Thomas,
Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler (music director 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, Richard
Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo
Toscanini (Music Director 1928–36), Igor
Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter
(Music Advisor 1947–49), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director 1949–58), Klaus
Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor
1969–70), and Erich Leinsdorf.
Long a leader in American musical life,
the Philharmonic has become renowned
around the globe, appearing in 430 cities
in 63 countries on 5 continents. Under
Alan Gilbert’s leadership, the Orchestra
made its Vietnam debut at the Hanoi Opera House in October 2009. In February
2008 the Philharmonic, conducted by then
Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, D.P.R.K.,
earning the 2008 Common Ground
Award for Cultural Diplomacy. In 2012 the
Philharmonic becomes an International
Associate of London’s Barbican Centre.
The Philharmonic has long been a media pioneer, having begun radio broadcasts
in 1922, and is currently represented by
16
The New York Philharmonic This Week
— syndicated nationally and internationally 52 weeks per year, and available
at nyphil.org. It continues its television
presence on Live From Lincoln Center on
PBS, and in 2003 made history as the
first symphony orchestra ever to perform
live on the Grammy Awards. Since 1917
the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000
recordings, and in 2004 became the
first major American orchestra to offer
downloadable concerts, recorded live.
Since June 2009 more than 50 concerts
have been released as downloads, and
the Philharmonic’s self-produced recordings will continue with Alan Gilbert and the
New York Philharmonic: 2011–12 Season,
comprising 12 releases. Famous for its
long-running Young People’s Concerts, the
Philharmonic has developed a wide range
of educational programs, among them the
School Partnership Program that enriches
music education in New York City, and
Learning Overtures, which fosters international exchange among educators.
Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of
the New York Philharmonic.
17
New York Philharmonic
Executive Producer: Vince Ford
Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis
Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock
Assistant Producer: Nick Bremer
Photos of Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: Chris Lee
Thomas Adès's Polaris used with permission from Faber Music, LTD and EAMD LLC
Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by
Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.
Alan Gilbert, Music Director, holds The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair.
Major support provided by the Francis Goelet Fund.
Exclusive timepiece of the New York Philharmonic
Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is the Radio Home of the New York Philharmonic.
Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.
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New York Philharmonic
Performed, produced, and distributed
by the New York Philharmonic
© 2012 New York Philharmonic
NYP 20120104
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