Alan Gilbert rounds out spring season at NY Phil with “Gilbert’s Playlist” and more

Following an extensive tour of Europe, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have returned to their hometown for the remaining concerts of their 2012-13 season. Back at Lincoln Center, the conductor’s fourth season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic comes to a colorful conclusion with “Gilbert’s Playlist,” a personal curatorial series showcasing many of the themes that have enhanced his tenure with the orchestra so far. The 13-concert series (May 30–June 29) will present Gilbert and the orchestra in a wide range of repertoire that includes a powerful one-act opera by Dallapiccola; Gilbert as chamber musician; and a staged production of Stravinsky’s Petruskha and The Fairy’s Kiss in a collaboration that marks the return of Giants Are Small and designer/director Doug Fitch (who created successful productions of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre and Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the New York Philharmonic) and the Philharmonic debut of New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns.
 
“Gilbert’s Playlist” launches on May 30, when the conductor and Philharmonic join forces with trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for Marsalis’s Swing Symphony, which also forms the centerpiece of a program exploring the influences of jazz on orchestral music (May 31 & June 1).
 
Next, following their recent success with the same concerto in Leipzig, Gilbert reunites with Lisa Batiashvili for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 on a program with Dallapiccola’s searing one-act opera, Il prigioniero (“The Prisoner”) (June 6-11). Gilbert and Batiashvili also serve as the two violinists in Brahms’s String Quintet in G, which they will undertake with the Philharmonic’s principal viola Cynthia Phelps, principal cello Carter Brey, and associate principal viola Rebecca Young, on a Saturday Matinee Concert on June 8.
 
The New York Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence, Christopher Rouse, and Artist-in-Residence, Emanuel Ax, come together for the next “Playlist” offering, which presents the New York premiere of Rouse’s Third Symphony alongside Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 with Ax as soloist. The program will conclude with A Ring Journey: an arrangement by Gilbert (after Erich Leinsdorf) of music from Richard Wagner’s epic “Ring” cycle (June 20-22).
 
“Gilbert’s Playlist” and the Philharmonic’s 2012-13 season culminate with the hotly anticipated premiere of A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky (June 27-29), a fusion of symphony, theater, and ballet that pairs Petrushka with The Fairy’s Kiss. This collaboration with Doug Fitch, Edouard Getaz, and Giants Are Small reunites the team behind two renowned Philharmonic presentations: the production of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre – “an instant Philharmonic milestone” (New York Times) – and the equally celebrated realization of Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, hailed by the Washington Post as “another victory” for Gilbert and company. The trailer for A Dancer’s Dream is available on YouTube here, and the Philharmonic’s “making of” video, featuring commentary by the music director himself, may be viewed here.
 
Gilbert remarks:
 
“Obviously, a more correct title for these upcoming weeks of programming would be ‘Alan Gilbert’s Mini-Playlist,’ because the whole year is, in some sense, my playlist. But the title seemed unwieldy, so we went with this to reflect the fact that this collection of programs is simply a kind of stream-of-consciousness tour of areas of music that I am intrigued by and we are excited to present to our audiences. It’s a way for us to cap the season with some whimsy and some daring, although these days, given our track record – and what audiences have come to expect from us – it’s becoming business as usual for us to think out of the box and take risks in the orchestral world.”
 
 
Alan Gilbert: upcoming engagements
 
May 30
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
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
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
The Jazz Effect
Copland: Clarinet Concerto (with Mark Nuccio, clarinet)
Marsalis: Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3)
 
June 6, 8 & 11
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Lisa Batiashvili, violin)
Dallapiccola: Il prigioniero
Cast to include Gerald Finley, bass-baritone (The Prisoner); Patricia Racette, soprano (The Mother); Peter Hoare, tenor (The Jailer and Grand Inquisitor); William Ferguson, tenor (First Priest); Sidney Outlaw, baritone (Second Priest); The Collegiate Chorale, James Bagwell, director)
 
June 7
Brookville, NY
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
Long Island University
New York Philharmonic
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Lisa Batiashvili, violin)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
 
June 8
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
Saturday Matinee Concert
Brahms: String Quintet in G (with Gilbert on violin)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
 
June 20-22
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
Haydn: Piano Concerto No. 11 in D (with Emanuel Ax)
Rouse: Symphony No. 3 (New York premiere)
Wagner/arr. Alan Gilbert, after Erich Leinsdorf: A Ring Journey
 
June 27-29
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
“Gilbert’s Playlist”
A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky
 
Doug Fitch, director/designer
Karole Armitage, choreographer
Clifton Taylor, lighting designer
Irina Kruzhilina, costume designer
Margie Durand, make-up designer
 
A production by Giants Are Small
Edouard Getaz, producer
 
Sara Mearns, dancer
Amar Ramasar, dancer and puppeteer
Matt Acheson, master puppeteer
William da Silva, puppeteer and circus performer
Abbey Roesner, dancer/assistant choreographer
With appearances on film by Eric Owens (The Moor) and Anthony Roth Costanzo (Petrushka)
 
Stravinsky: The Fairy’s Kiss
Durey: Neige, for piano, four hands (excerpt) (with Eric Huebner, piano; Steve Beck, piano)
Stravinsky: Petrushka
 
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