Alan Gilbert’s winter 2011 concerts
In addition to giving several new programs with the New York Philharmonic this winter, Alan Gilbert will guest-conduct three other orchestras in the coming weeks. Beginning on January 20, he will conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra in a program of Lindberg, Rouse and Beethoven. In February, Gilbert makes his debut with Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in a program featuring Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with soloist Nelson Freire, and Debussy’s Images. Then, in March, Gilbert returns to Germany for concerts with Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, where he has been principal guest conductor since 2004. Dates and program details follow below.
Gilbert’s three concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra on January 20 – 22 include Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO, which the Finnish composer wrote for the opening concert of Gilbert’s tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009. Gilbert has conducted Lindberg’s music extensively, especially over the past two seasons, during which Lindberg has served as the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence with the New York Philharmonic. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross in his “Best of 2010” summary praised Gilbert’s “explosive rendition” of Lindberg’s Kraft, performed by the New York Philharmonic in the fall. Also on the Philadelphia program, Richard Woodhams will be the soloist in Christopher Rouse’s Oboe Concerto. Gilbert’s longtime advocacy of Rouse’s music has included critically acclaimed recordings for BIS with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Rounding out the program is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”. Gilbert’s last performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra were in February 2008, when he conducted a program pairing Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos with Nielsen’s Second Symphony. Peter Dobrin reported on the occasion for the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“As wonderful as the Bartók was, Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, in its first Philadelphia Orchestra performance, was every bit as confident, and turned out to be a kind of confessional for the 40-year-old conductor. …
“Not merely satisfied with anger, Gilbert expressed the entire first [angry] movement in one muscular sweep. … It was an act of invigoration, and especially satisfying to hear the Philadelphia strings, which can sometimes wallow in their own sound, move as immediately as they did.
“Gilbert encouraged the orchestra to reach into its performance tradition in the melancholy third movement, drawing Brucknerian depth from the strings (Gilbert is also a violinist, and once was a substitute player in the orchestra). … That’s a lot of substance in one concert, but that’s Gilbert. In coming weeks in various cities he’ll lead Berio, Marc Neikrug, Steven Stucky, Daniel Börtz and, yes, more Nielsen.”
Upcoming concerts with the New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert’s winter concerts with the New York Philharmonic continue with a program featuring the New York premiere of Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days, described as a concerto for piano with moving images (Jan 6 – 8). The work is a collaboration between Adès – who is also the piano soloist – and his partner, the Israeli video artist Tal Rosner. Rounding out the program is Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, with baritone Thomas Hampson, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. Hampson was the orchestra’s first Artist-in-Residence last season, and he will tour Europe with the New York Philharmonic this spring.
Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2, “The Four Temperaments,” is the centerpiece of another Gilbert/New York Philharmonic program later in the month that will also feature soprano Karita Mattila singing Beethoven’s Ah, perfido! and songs by Sibelius (Jan 27 – 19, Feb 1). Gilbert has conducted the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen extensively throughout his career; as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra concert mentioned above, he has previously conducted Nielsen’s Third Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with the orchestra of his alma mater, the Curtis Institute.
Alan Gilbert’s partnership with the New York Philharmonic (he is currently in his second season as Music Director) was named in many critics’ “Best of 2010” lists, including taking the number one spot – for their production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre – in Justin Davidson’s wrap-up for New York magazine. That same Ligeti production was cited in lists compiled by Alex Ross for the New Yorker and Steve Smith for Time Out New York. Smith was also one of two New York Times critics – along with Vivien Schweitzer – to feature the Ligeti production in their end-of-year appraisals. Under a headline that read, “Philharmonic Renewed Under a Bold Conductor,” Smith noted, “With the arrival of Alan Gilbert as the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2009 came the promise of youthful vigor and bold initiatives. But who could have anticipated that by the midpoint of Mr. Gilbert’s second season the Philharmonic would be a potent, even groundbreaking force for contemporary music?” Schweitzer also included Gilbert’s performance with the orchestra of music by Wagner, Sibelius and Lindberg at Carnegie Hall as one of the best classical music events of 2010.
Reviewing Gilbert’s recent New Year’s Eve concert, which presented an all-Tchaikovsky program broadcast live on public television, Steve Smith wrote in The New York Times: “From the opening bars of the Polonaise you were confronted with 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.”
Gilbert offers unique insights into his work with the New York Philharmonic and reflects on other musical and cultural topics, in his “Curiously Random” blog for Musical America:
http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?cat=100
Alan Gilbert: upcoming engagements
All concerts are with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, except where noted.
Jan 4
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition)
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Act II
Jan 6-8
Mozart: Symphony No. 40
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (with Thomas Hampson, baritone)
Thomas Adès: In Seven Days (Concerto for piano with moving image) (New York premiere)
Jan 20-22
Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Orchestra
Magnus Lindberg: EXPO
Christopher Rouse: Oboe Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”
Jan 27-29, Feb 1
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8
Beethoven: Ah, perfido! (with Karita Mattila, soprano)
Sibelius: Selected songs for soprano and orchestra (with Karita Mattila, soprano)
Nielsen: Symphony No. 2, “The Four Temperaments”
Jan 29, matinee
Mozart: Divertimento for Two Horns and Strings
Nielsen: Symphony No. 2, “The Four Temperaments”
Feb 2-4
School day concerts
Program tba
Feb 14
An Evening with Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo, tenor
Sonya Yoncheva, soprano
Nuria Pomares, dancer
Program to include works by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Léhar and Falla
Feb 19, 21, 22
Rome, Italy; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (debut)
Debussy: Images
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Nelson Freire, piano)
March 4, 5
NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany (March 4)
Bremen, Germany (March 5)
Schubert: Rosamunde (Overture)
Mahler, arr. Berio: Early Songs (with Thomas Hampson, baritone)
Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra
March 24, 25, 27
NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany (March 24, 27)
Lübeck, Germany (March 25)
Magnus Lindberg: Al largo (German premiere)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Lisa Batiashvili, violin)
Dvorák: Symphony No. 6
March 26
Hamburg, Germany; NDR Hamburg Quartet
Gilbert plays second violin on program of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven
April 15
New York, NY; Juilliard Orchestra
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
April 27
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (Rush HourConcert)
April 28-30
Messiaen: Couleurs de la cité céleste
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
May 4, 6-7
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Lisa Batiashvili, violin)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
May 5
New York Philharmonic: Carnegie Hall’s 120th Anniversary Concert
Dvorák: Carnival Overture
Beethoven: Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello, “Triple” (with Emanuel Ax, piano; Gil Shaham, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello)
Ellington: Songs (with Audra McDonald, soprano)
Gershwin: An American in Paris
May 12-24
“EUROPE / SPRING 2011”: European tour with the New York Philharmonic
May 30
Free Annual Memorial Day Concert at Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
Program to include Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
June 2-4
Beethoven: Romance No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra
Sebastian Currier: Time Machines (world premiere) (with Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 2
June 22-25
Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
Fully staged production directed and designed by Doug Fitch
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© 21C Media Group, January 2011