Alan Gilbert launches fourth season at NY Phil in September
Following the phenomenal success of Philharmonic 360, perhaps his “boldest venture to date” (The New Yorker), Alan Gilbert embarks on his fourth season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. On September 19 he leads the first of four “imaginatively conceived” (The New York Times) subscription concerts presenting Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes as soloist in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and Kurtág’s …quasi una fantasia…, on a program that concludes with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, before presenting a special Opening Gala with violinist Itzhak Perlman eight days later. These five concerts launch another wide-ranging and gripping season for Gilbert and the orchestra – one that includes world, U.S., and New York premieres; creative programming initiatives like CONTACT!, The Nielsen Project, The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival, and the personal June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist; EUROPE / SPRING 2013, a nine-city tour of Central Europe and Turkey; a residency in Ann Arbor, MI; and collaborations with Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse, Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax, soprano Renée Fleming, violinists Gil Shaham and Joshua Bell, jazz composer/trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and more. To close the season, Gilbert and the orchestra reunite with hit director/designer Doug Fitch, producer Edouard Getaz, and Giants Are Small for a highly innovative production – complete with video projection, puppets, and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Sara Mearns – of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Fairy’s Kiss. Among other highlights of the conductor’s upcoming season are debuts with the Berlin Staatskapelle and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as return engagements with Munich’s Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, the NDR Hamburg Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, and – closer to home – The Juilliard School, where he leads staged performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
Gilbert’s creative programming recently won praise in The New York Times, which stated: “Those who think classical music needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did.” The appointment of American composer Christopher Rouse, who starts a two-year tenure as the Philharmonic’s second Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, attests to the conductor’s inspired commitment to new music, and homegrown new music at that. Gilbert describes Rouse as “one of the most important composers working today,” and considers the position of composer-in-residence “a really crucial one.” Fittingly, after leading the world premiere of Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms, a New York Philharmonic commission, in New York –alongside music by Ives and Bernstein, two other iconic Americans (April 17-20) – Gilbert is placing it prominently in his tour programs in the major concert halls of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Turkey (May 2-17). Earlier in the season, Gilbert will conduct performances of Rouse’s Phantasmata (Feb 21-22) and Seeing for Piano and Orchestra. This latter work was written for pianist Emanuel Ax, who – as incoming Artist-in-Residence and honorary member of the Philharmonic – undertakes the solo role (June 20-22).
For the Philharmonic’s upcoming Carnegie Hall appearance, Gilbert serves up a second world premiere, when soprano Renée Fleming – “entrancing” (The New York Times) in their most recent collaboration – rejoins the orchestra for the first performance of a song cycle by prominent Swedish composer Anders Hillborg (April 26). Like Symphony (2012) by Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Stucky, whose New York premiere Gilbert leads in late fall (Nov 29-Dec 1), the new song cycle is a Philharmonic co-commission. Hillborg’s music is in the spotlight once again when Gilbert directs a new installment of CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new-music series, wherein the New York premiere of the Swedish Grammy-winner’s Vaporized Tivoli shares a program with three U.S. premieres: Yann Robin’s Backdraft, a New York Philharmonic co-commission; Poul Ruders’s Oboe Concerto, featuring Philharmonic Principal Oboe Liang Wang; and Unsuk Chin’s Gougalon (April 5-6).
One of Gilbert’s most creative plans for the Philharmonic’s coming season is a new installment of The Nielsen Project, whereby he resumes his championship of the Danish composer’s music with performances of the Flute and Violin Concertos, to be recorded for future release on Denmark’s Dacapo label (Oct 10-13). On September 25, Dacapo will issue the first recording in the series, a pairing of Nielsen’s Second (“The Four Temperaments”) and Third (“Sinfonia espansiva”) Symphonies (the new recording is available now as a “Mastered for iTunes” title). The New York Times wrote enthusiastically about the live performances that were the basis for this debut release: “Bringing renewed attention to Nielsen may seem a surprising priority for a New York-born conductor. But music directors should have personal passions, and it is heartening to see Mr. Gilbert turning one of his into a major statement. … Mr. Gilbert drew colorful, glittering and full-bodied playing from the musicians.” The complete set of Nielsen’s symphonies – the first time the New York Philharmonic has recorded all six – and the three concertos will be released on four individual CDs, and in 2015 will be released in a boxed set commemorating the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen’s birth.
As spring approaches, the New York Philharmonic’s The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival arrives, reclaiming the peerless Baroque master’s music for the symphony hall as Gilbert puts his own stamp on the monumental Mass in B minor (March 13-16). In June the conductor offers June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist, a personal and imaginative series showcasing many of the themes running through his tenure (May 30-June 22), before drawing the Philharmonic’s season to a close with the hotly anticipated all-Stravinsky event (June 27-29). This collaboration with Doug Fitch, Edouard Getaz, and Giants Are Small reunites the team behind the production of Ligeti’s Le Grande Macabre – “an instant Philharmonic milestone” (The New York Times) – and the equally celebrated realization of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (hailed by The Washington Post as “another victory”).
For all the ingenuity of these special projects, Gilbert’s commitment to the mainstays of the orchestral canon remains paramount. His expertise in repertory staples is widely acknowledged, with The New York Times praising “the Philharmonic that Mr. Gilbert has worked toward since his start: a brilliant organization in which individual virtuosity and ensemble unanimity are a given, resulting in music enlivened without need for excess or distortion.” The symphonies that predominate in Gilbert’s 2012-13 Philharmonic season – at home in New York, in Ann Arbor, and on the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour – represent the development of the form from its Classical roots to the full-flowering of Romanticism: Mozart’s 36th, Brahms’s Beethovenian First, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” and Bruckner’s Third, dubbed his “Wagner Symphony.” The new season’s programming also offers such perennial favorites as Respighi’s The Fountains of Rome, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Away from the Philharmonic, Gilbert explores a range of repertory choices – from Stravinsky and Hindemith with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Bartók’s sole opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, in his debut with the Berlin Staatskapelle.
Gilbert, who is also Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at Juilliard, will also lead three performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in a fully-staged production co-presented by Juilliard and The Metropolitan Opera and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. This new production features the Juilliard Orchestra and a cast drawn from the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard.
A detailed list of the conductor’s 2012-13 engagements follows, and additional information may be found at his website: www.alangilbert.com.
Alan Gilbert: engagements, 2012-13
Sept 19, 20, 21 & 22; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Kurtág: …quasi una fantasia… (with Leif Ove Andsnes)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Leif Ove Andsnes)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Sept 27; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Respighi: The Fountains of Rome
Selections for Violin and Orchestra (with Itzhak Perlman):
Rimsky-Korsakov: Fantasy on Russian Themes
Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs
Tchaikovsky/arr. Glazunov: Scherzo from Souvenir d’un lieu cher
John Williams: Theme from Schindler’s List
Sarasate: Introduction and Tarantella
Respighi: The Pines of Rome
Sept 28, 29 & Oct 2; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Musorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Daniil Trifonov)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Sept 29; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Saturday Matinee Concert
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Oct 4, 5 & 6; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D minor (with Emanuel Ax)
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto (with Emanuel Ax)
Mozart: Symphony No. 36
Oct 10, 11, 12 & 13; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Nielsen: Flute Concerto (with Robert Langevin)
Nielsen: Violin Concerto (with Nikolaj Znaider)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2
Oct 17, 18 & 19; Amsterdam, Netherlands (Concertgebouw)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Wassenaer: Concerto armonico No. 2 in B-flat
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
R. Strauss: Oboe Concerto (with Lucas Macias Navarro)
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses
Nov 5; Berlin, Germany (Philharmonie)
Berlin Staatskapelle (debut)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
Nov 6; Berlin, Germany (Konzerthaus)
Berlin Staatskapelle
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
Nov 14, 17 & 19; New York, NY
Juilliard Orchestra
Mozart: Così fan tutte (Cast drawn from the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard)
Nov 29, 30, & Dec 1; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
New York, NY
Stucky: Symphony (New York premiere, Philharmonic co-commission)
Barber: Violin Concerto (with Gil Shaham)
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Dec 6 & 9; Hamburg, Germany (Laeiszhalle Musikhalle)
NDR Hamburg Symphony
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Frank Peter Zimmermann)
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Act II
Dec 7; Lübeck, Germany (Musik und Kongresshalle)
NDR Hamburg Symphony
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Frank Peter Zimmermann)
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Act II
Jan 10, 11, 12 & 15, 2013; Boston, MA (Symphony Hall)
Boston Symphony
Dutilleux: Métaboles for Orchestra
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (with Lisa Batiashvili)
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
Ravel: La Valse
Jan 31 & Feb 1; Hamburg, Germany (Laeiszhalle Musikhalle)
NDR Hamburg Symphony
Brahms: Double Concerto (with Stefan Wagner, violin; Andreas Grünkorn, cello)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Feb 7 & 8; Leipzig, Germany (Groser Saal, Gewandhaus)
Gewandhaus Orchestra (debut)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D, Op. 25
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op. 19 (with Lisa Batiashvili)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Feb 14, 15 & 16; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Rudolf Buchbinder)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
Feb 21 & 22; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Rouse: Phantasmata
Bloch: Schelomo (with Jan Vogler, cello)
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
Feb 23; Ann Arbor, MI (Hill Auditorium)
New York Philharmonic
Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart: Symphony No. 36
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
Feb 24; Ann Arbor, MI (Hill Auditorium)
New York Philharmonic
Musorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Bloch: Schelomo (with Jan Vogler, cello)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
March 13, 14, 15 & 16; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival
J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor (Dorothea Röschmann, soprano; Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano;
Steve Davislim, tenor; Eric Owens, bass-baritone; New York Choral Artists)
April 5; New York, NY (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
New York Philharmonic
CONTACT! No. 2
Chin: Gougalon (U.S. premiere)
Ruders: Oboe Concerto (U.S. premiere, with Liang Wang)
Hillborg: Vaporized Tivoli (NY premiere)
Robin: Backdraft (U.S. premiere)
April 6; New York, NY (Symphony Space)
New York Philharmonic
CONTACT! No. 2
Chin: Gougalon (U.S. premiere)
Ruders: Oboe Concerto (U.S. premiere, with Liang Wang)
Hillborg: Vaporized Tivoli (NY premiere)
Robin: Backdraft (U.S. premiere)
April 11 & 12; Munich, Germany (Herkulessaal der Residenz)
Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester
Brahms: Serenade No. 1, Op. 11
Britten: Les Illuminations, Op. 18 (with Anna Prohaska, soprano)
Britten: A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
April 17, 18, 19 & 20; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Rouse: Prospero’s Rooms (world premiere)
Bernstein: Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”) (with Joshua Bell)
Ives: Symphony No. 4
April 24, 25 & 27; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 (with Emanuel Ax)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 3
April 26; New York, NY (Carnegie Hall)
New York Philharmonic
Respighi: The Fountains of Rome
Hillborg: Song cycle (world premiere, Philharmonic co-commission, with Renée Fleming)
Musorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
May 2-17
European Tour with the New York Philharmonic
Cities/programs TBA
May 27; New York, NY (The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine)
New York Philharmonic
Free Annual Memorial Day Concert
Bruckner: Symphony No. 3
May 30; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Rush Hour Concert Program No. 3
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (music director/trumpet)
Marsalis: Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3)
May 31 & June 1; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist
The Jazz Effect
Stravinsky: Ragtime for 11 Instruments (conducted by Case Scaglione)
Shostakovich: Tahiti Trot (conducted by Case Scaglione)
Copland: Clarinet Concerto (with Mark Nuccio)
Marsalis: Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3)
June 6, 8 & 11; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Lisa Batiashvili)
Dallapiccola: Il Prigioniero (cast to include Gerald Finley, bass-baritone; Patricia Racette, soprano; Peter Hoare, tenor; The Collegiate Chorale)
June 7; Greenvale, NY (Tilles Center, C.W. Post Campus)
New York Philharmonic
Musorgsky: Prelude to Khovanshchina
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Lisa Batiashvili)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
June 8; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
Saturday Matinee Concert
Brahms: String Quintet in G major (with Gilbert on violin)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
June 20, 21 & 22; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist
Rouse: Seeing for Piano and Orchestra (with Emanuel Ax)
Wagner/arr. Alan Gilbert, after Erich Leinsdorf: A Ring Journey
June 27, 28 & 29; New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist
(with Sara Mearns, dancer; a production by Giants Are Small; Doug Fitch, director/designer; Edouard Getaz, producer; Karole Armitage, choreographer)Stravinsky: The Fairy’s Kiss
Stravinsky: Petrushka
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© 21C Media Group, September 2012