Alan Gilbert’s Munich Philharmonic debut highlights fall guest conducting dates
After an extraordinarily busy start to his new season with the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert hits the road in October for a series of guest conducting engagements with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. His debut with the Munich Philharmonic (Oct 16, 18, 19) will include his first performance of Janácek’s thrilling Sinfonietta. A program of Haydn and Beethoven with the San Francisco Symphony (Oct 27–29) will also include Dutilleux’s L’arbre des songes, a violin concerto to be performed by Renaud Capuçon. Concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra (Nov 11–13) will feature Schoenberg’s hauntingly beautiful Pelleas und Melisande, which Gilbert conducted to great acclaim in his first season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and last season with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. With Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra (Dec 1–3), Gilbert will conduct – among other works – Brahms’s grandly scaled Piano Concerto No. 2, with guest soloist Yefim Bronfman. In two Paris concerts (Dec 9 and 10) Gilbert will lead the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in his own arrangement of music from Wagner’s Ring cycle. Gilbert’s next concerts with the New York Philharmonic will take place in Canada on November 4 and 5 at the Maison symphonique de Montréal – the new home of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Gilbert and the Philharmonic are back in New York December 16 and 17, for further performances in CONTACT!, the Philharmonic’s new-music series.
Even before the curtain went up on Gilbert’s third season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – a gala event on September 21 with soprano Deborah Voigt, broadcast nationally on PBS – Gilbert led the orchestra in three special concerts: A Concert for New York, a free, nationally and internationally televised performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” given in remembrance and renewal on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of 9/11; a free concert in New York’s Central Park, with pop superstar Andrea Bocelli and special guests; and a performance of Walton’s Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario, featuring narration by legendary stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer. Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony was reprised for the orchestra’s first subscription program of the season, and was enthusiastically acclaimed. In the Financial Times, critic Martin Bernheimer gave the concert a five-star (out of five) review, calling it “glorious business”:
“The challenge at hand entailed the stupendous sprawl of the Mahler Second, aka the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. Although it lasts about 85 minutes, it goes on forever with some conductors. Gilbert, thank goodness – and smartness – is not one of them.
“He knows how to give Mahler his rhetorical due without exaggeration or distortion. He understands the value of understatement – everything being relative – yet keeps the expressive indulgences in focus. Eliciting virtuosic precision and propulsion from his orchestra, he mustered massive dynamic contrasts. He gauged the cumulative climaxes with careful bravado. He savoured Mahler’s cataclysmic outbursts, whimsical digressions, introspective interludes and reverential resolutions; still, he avoided lingering over minutiae, kept the line taut, the attacks sharp, the nuances subtle and the pauses tense.”
Below, Alan Gilbert briefly discusses his upcoming guest conducting engagements.
Further below is a list of upcoming programs for Alan Gilbert’s 2011-12 season.
A Conversation with Alan Gilbert
Q: The first of your guest conducting engagements this season marks your debut with the Munich Philharmonic. Tell us about that.
AG: I’m excited to go the Munich Philharmonic for the first time. It’s an orchestra that has a wonderful tradition, and I’ve heard many great performances by them with recent music directors such as Zubin Mehta and James Levine. The long era before, with Celibidache, made a huge impression on me because that’s how I got to know a lot of the Bruckner symphonies as well as other important repertoire. The Janácek Sinfonietta is a piece I’ll be doing for the first time – I’m on a Janácek high these days because of the Cunning Little Vixen, which was such a memorable and powerful experience for me and I think for everybody who came when the New York Philharmonic performed it in the spring. Janácek has this unusual ability to sound completely natural and folksy, as though it’s just simple music of the people; yet with this weird, iconoclastic, quirky edge that I think makes Janacek really speak to people today.
Q: Your next stop after that is San Francisco.
AG: The San Francisco Symphony is one of the orchestras I’ve enjoyed guest conducting the most. I’ve always had a good time there and it’s an excellent orchestra. I particularly remember doing Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony with them a few years ago, so I’m excited to be doing Haydn and Beethoven with them, as well as one of the masterpieces of the 20th century by one of our greatest living composers, Henri Dutilleux. We’ll be doing his violin concerto.
Q: You’ve had a long relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra, which comes up next in your fall guest conducting tour.
AG: The Cleveland Orchestra is obviously an extremely important orchestra for me. I spent three years there as Assistant Conductor; I know the orchestra well, but I also have a history with them that was very formative for me. It was the first time I ever got close to a great orchestra in a very direct way. I obviously grew up with the New York Philharmonic, but the Cleveland Orchestra was where I had responsibilities, where I was being nurtured as well as encouraged to try things out. It’s always fun to go back. We’ll be doing a wonderful program – concertmaster Bill Preucil is a great artist and will be playing a couple of solo pieces, and I’ll get to do one of my favorite Schoenberg pieces, Pelleas und Melisande.
Q: You’ve been Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004, and you’ll return there in December for three concerts.
AG: I have a very warm and friendly relationship with the city of Hamburg. My work with the orchestra there is a situation I didn’t expect to continue this long. When I took the Principal Guest position I figured it would last for three or four years, but I’m still there and it still feels great. In fact, we just extended our relationship – this is an interim season where, because of my schedule, I’ll only be able to lead them for a single week. But we agreed that it would be mutually desirable for me to continue to hold the position. I’m excited to be doing Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Fima Bronfman, as well as the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra.
Q: You’re doing your own synthesis of music from Wagner’s “Ring” when you return to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in December.
AG: The Philharmonique is an orchestra I’ve been conducting for a long time, and they were really excited about the idea of my doing this Wagner synthesis that I put together based on ideas that I got from Eric Leinsdorf’s arrangement. The Ring is a huge masterwork that I’ve always loved, and I think this is a wonderful way to enjoy the music. Even though we actually play in a couple of places where ordinarily there are voices, the orchestral texture is so complete that, even without the voices, you can get a very strong picture of the psychology, the humanity, and the expression of the music.
Q: Switching gears to your hometown orchestra, how do things feel at this stage in your relationship with the New York Philharmonic?
AG: I can scarcely believe that it’s already my third year with the New York Philharmonic, both because time passes so quickly, and also because it still feels so fresh here. The musicians are playing at the highest level, and we’re having even more fun together on stage. It’s just really gratifying and exciting to explore more and more repertoire together. And now we have a history: we can keep it fresh with new repertoire, but we can also look back at the work that we’ve done together. I can’t wait for the season to unfold.
Alan Gilbert: Upcoming 2011-12 Engagements
All concerts with New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, NYC unless otherwise noted.
Oct 16, 18, 19
Munich, Germany
Münchner Philharmoniker with Joshua Bell, violin
Dvořák: Zlatý kolovrat (“The Golden Spinning Wheel”)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Janácek: Sinfonietta (“Military Sinfonietta” or “Sokol Festival”)
Oct 27, 28, 29
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony with Renaud Capuçon, violin
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8
Henri Dutilleux: L’arbre des songes
Haydn: Symphony No. 99
Nov 4
Montreal, Quebec
Maison symphonique de Montréal
New York Philharmonic
Wagner: Overture and Bacchanal from Tannhäuser
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Nov 5
Montreal, Quebec
Maison symphonique de Montréal with Robert Langevin, flute and Nancy Allen, harp
New York Philharmonic
Schubert: Overture to Rosamunde
Mozart: Flute and Harp Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 3
Nov 11, 12, 13
Cleveland, OH
Severance Hall
Cleveland Orchestra with William Preucil, violin
Beethoven: Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50
Webern: Im Sommerwind
Bruch: Adagio Appassionata
Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5
Dec 1, 2, 3
Hamburg, Germany (Laeiszhalle Musikhalle, 12/1, 2)
Kiel, Germany (Schloss, 12/3)
NDR Hamburg Sinfonieorchester with Yefim Bronfman, piano
Schumann: Manfred Overture, Op. 115
Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83
Dec 9
Paris, France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Barry Douglas, piano
Liszt: Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo
Liszt: Totentanz, S. 126
Wagner, arr. Gilbert: The Ring Without Words, for Orchestra
Dec 10
Paris, France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Wagner, arr. Gilbert: The Ring Without Words, for Orchestra
Dec 16, 17
New York, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art (12/16)
Symphony Space (12/17)
Musicians from the New York Philharmonic with HK Gruber, chansonnier
Alexandre Lunsqui: Fibers, Yarn, Wire
Magnus Lindberg: Gran Duo
HK Gruber: Frankenstein!! A Pan-Demonium for Chansonnier
Dec 28, 29, 30
New York Philharmonic with Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Haydn: Symphony No. 88
Schubert: Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra
orch. Britten: “Die Forelle”
orch. Reger: “Gretchen am Spinnrade”
orch. Webern: “Du bist die Ruh”
orch. unknown: “An Silvia”
orch. Reger: “Nacht und Träume”
orch. Reger: “Erlkönig”
Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet)
Ravel: La Valse
Dec 31
New York Philharmonic with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Gershwin: Concerto in F
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Jan 4
New York Philharmonic
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet)
Ravel: La Valse
Jan 5, 7, 10
New York Philharmonic
Thomas Adès: Polaris (New York Premiere)
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Jan 6
Brookville, NY
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
New York Philharmonic
Thomas Adès: Polaris
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Jan 18, 19, 20, 21
New York Philharmonic with Lang Lang, piano
Magnus Lindberg: Feria
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
Jan 22
All-Brahms Recital with Frank Peter Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin; Enrico Pace, piano; Philip Myers, horn; Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Alan Gilbert, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Eileen Moon, cello
Brahms: Scherzo for Violin and Piano (from FAE Sonata)
Brahms: Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano in E-flat major, Op. 40
Brahms: String Sextet No. 1
Jan 26, 27, 28
New York Philharmonic with Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
Feb 2 – Feb 18
EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour with New York Philharmonic
Dates/programs TBA
Feb 23, 25, 28
New York Philharmonic with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Steven Stucky: Son et Lumière
Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été
Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Feb 24
Philadelphia, PA
Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
New York Philharmonic with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Steven Stucky: Son et Lumière
Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été
Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
March 2
New York, NY
Avery Fisher Hall
Juilliard Orchestra with soloist TBA
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Rouse: Violin Concerto
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
April 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 20
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
Wagner: Lohengrin
April 12, 14
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor, “Tragic”
April 25
New York Philharmonic with Lisa Batiashvili, violin
Berlioz: Le Corsaire Overture
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5, “Turkish”
Debussy: La Mer
April 26, 27, 28
New York Philharmonic with Lisa Batiashvili, violin
Berlioz: Le Corsaire Overture
Marc Neikrug: Concerto for Orchestra
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5, “Turkish”
Debussy: La Mer
May 2
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
New York Philharmonic
Mahler: Symphony No. 6, “Tragic”
May 3, 4, 5
New York Philharmonic with Yefim Bronfman, piano
Dvořák: Carnival Overture
Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
May 7 – 15
CALIFORNIA / SPRING 2012
New York Philharmonic
Dates/programs TBA
May 19 (matinee)
New York Philharmonic with Glenn Dicterow, violin
Schubert: Octet
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 1
Dvořák: Carnival Overture
May 19, 22, 26
New York Philharmonic with Glenn Dicterow, violin
Dvořák: Carnival Overture
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
May 23
New York Philharmonic with Evgeny Kissin, piano
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Other works TBD
May 28
New York, NY
The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
New York Philharmonic
Memorial Day Concert
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
June 14, 15, 16
New York Philharmonic with Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Joshua Hopkins, baritone
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
Korngold: Violin Concerto
Nielsen: Symphony No. 3, “Sinfonia espansiva”
June 16 (matinee)
New York Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert, conductor and violin; Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Maria Kitsopoulos, cello; Joshua Hopkins, baritone
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major
Nielsen: Symphony No. 3, “Sinfonia espansiva”
June 20, 21, 22, 23
New York Philharmonic with Emanuel Ax, piano; Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; Paul Appleby, tenor; Joshua Hopkins, baritone; New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22
Mozart: Mass in C minor, “Great”
June 29, 30
New York, NY
The Park Avenue Armory
New York Philharmonic
Pierre Boulez: Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna
Mozart: Act I Finale from Don Giovanni
Stockhausen: Gruppen for Three Orchestras
Ives: The Unanswered Question
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