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New York Philharmonic
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Contrasting Austrians: Mozart & Bruckner
2009 – 2010New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season
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The 2009–10 season — Alan Gilbert’s first as Music Director of the Philharmonic — introduces his vision for the Orchestra, one that both builds on its rich legacy and looks to the future and reflects the diver sity of his interests. He sees the Orchestra as a place that both celebrates the greatest of the classical repertoire and nurtures today’s composers and tomorrow’s music. The season's programming reflects his belief in the importance of artistic collaboration, his commitment to raising audience awareness and understanding of music, and his interest in making the Philharmonic a destination for all.
“I’d like to develop a special kind of rapport and trust with our audience,” Mr. Gilbert says. “The kind of belief that would make them feel comfortable hearing anything we program simply because we programmed it. Looking ahead, I hope my performances with the Orchestra will consist of our tightly combined human chemistry, a clear persona that is both identifiable and enjoyable.”
About This SeriesIn Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the New York Philharmonic breaks new ground by being the first orchestra to offer a season’s worth of recorded music for download. Offered exclusively through iTunes, this series brings the excitement of Alan Gilbert’s first season to an international audience.
The iTunes Pass will give subscribers access to more than 50 works, comprising new music (including New York Philharmonic commissions) and magnificent selections from the orchestral repertoire, performed by many of the world’s top artists and conductors. The subscription also features bonus content, such as Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, and exclusive extras, including additional performances and lectures.
For more information about the series, visit nyphil.org/itunes.
Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season
Executive Producer: Vince Ford
Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis
Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock
Performance photos: Chris Lee
Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks
Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.
Christoph von Dohnányi’s appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished
Conductors 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.
Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.
Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.
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New York Philharmonic
Christoph von Dohnányi, ConductorGlenn Dicterow, Violin (The Charles E. Culpeper Chair)Cynthia Phelps, Viola (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair)
Recorded live December 10–12, 2009,Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
MOZART (1756–91)
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra (K.364/320d) (1779) 31:23Allegro maestoso 13:27
Andante 11:34
Presto 6:22
GLENN DICTEROW, CYNTHIA PHELPS
BRUCKNER (1824–96) Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic (1874/1878–80; ed. R. Haas, 1936) 1:08:15Moving, not too fast 18:52
Andante quasi Allegretto 16:41
Scherzo and Trio: Moving — Not too fast, on no account dragging 11:15
Finale: Moving, but not too fast 21:27
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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra (K.364/320d)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The genre of the symphonie concertante (often referred to by the Italian term sinfonia concertante) was particularly associated with Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although its popularity spilled over to other musical centers. The symphonie concertante served as a showpiece for multiple soloists — often using combinations that strike us as improbable — and, in its classic form, the orchestra was usually made to play the part of a not very interactive accompanist. Mozart, of course, had a way of breaking molds, and in his Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra (the Italian term for the genre is commonly used when referring to this piece) we do find a certain measure of subtle interaction between the soloists and the orchestra. Yet, Mozart was also an astute mimic, and it is clear from this score that he grasped the “rules” that governed the form.
Mozart had ample exposure to symphonies concertantes during his extended visit to Paris in 1778, and after he returned to Salzburg in January 1779 he set about composing two symphonies concertantes. The first, in A major (K.320e), featured a solo group of violin, viola, and cello, but Mozart abandoned it after 134 measures. The other, in Eflat major (K.364/320d), spotlighted violin and viola, and that is
the work we hear in this concert. Several of Mozart’s other symphonic works with multiple soloists are clustered around this time: his Concerto for Flute and Harp (K.299), written just after his arrival in Paris and premiered in May 1778; a lost Sinfonia concertante for Flute, Oboe, Horn, and Bassoon (K.297b), from April 1778; a lost Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra (K.315f), in late 1778; and the Concerto in Eflat major for Two Pianos and Orchestra (K.365), in early 1779.
Compositions for solo violin and viola were popular in Salzburg at the time, and local composers turned out a notable repertoire for the combination. It’s no surprise that Mozart should have selected this dyad for his Sinfonia concertante; a few years later, in 1783, he would return to the same combination when he penned two lovely duos (K.423 and 424) to fill out a set of such pieces that his friend Michael Haydn had been commissioned to supply to the city’s archbishop.
The Eflatmajor Sinfonia concertante is not mentioned in Mozart’s correspondence, not surprisingly, since he composed it while
living at home and therefore would have had no reason to convey information about it to anyone at a distance. Neither does it figure in other contemporary documents, with the result that we don’t know when or by whom it was first played. The autograph manuscript is lost, though drafts of the cadenzas and of the last nine measures of the first movement survive; these help confirm that the first published edition was prepared accurately. In fact, the cadenzas for this piece are the only authentic cadenzas we have for any of Mozart’s string concertos, making them valuable beyond the role they play in the piece itself.
This Sinfonia concertante towers above the other compositions Mozart produced at the time, and it can be reckoned among his early masterpieces. The key of Eflat major seems to have resonated with a specific character in Mozart’s mind, implying a conflation of majesty and warmth that resurfaces time and again in his compositions that are set in that key, including four piano concertos (K.271, K.365, K.449, and K.482), the Serenade for Wind Octet (K.375), the Horn Quintet (K.407), three horn concertos (K.417, K.447, and K.495), a string quartet (K.428), a piano quartet (K.493), the Clarinet Trio (K.499), the Symphony No. 39 (K.543), the Divertimento for String Trio (K.563), a string quintet (K.614), and the opera Die Zauberflöte (K.620). In this Sinfonia concertante, Mozart casts his middle movement in the relative minor key of C minor, one of the rare instances in which he included a minorkey movement in a majorkey concerto — or, in this case, a nearconcerto.
In ShortBorn: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria
Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Work composed: summer or early autumn 1779, in Salzburg
World premiere: unknown
New York Philharmonic premiere: February 25, 1917, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony (which would merge with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s New York Philharmonic), Alexander Saslavsky, violin, Samuel Lifschey, viola
Listen for …
The finale of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola opens with an orchestral introduction (the rondo theme), after which the soloists — violin first, then viola — play a tune of ineluctable charm, marked by little skipping figures referred to as “Lombardie rhythms” or “Scotch snaps.” This runs its course and deposits us on the doorstep of a great theme first played by the solo violin.
It’s hard to quantify just what makes a theme “great”: the inevitability of its con-tours, its malleability in the face of develop-ment — so many things can play a role. This passage’s first two sonorities bespeak gran-deur, and from there the melody stretches higher to reach a peak before plummet-ing back down again in a genial tumble of triplets. Then the viola repeats what the violin has just uttered. This episode recurs later in the movement, but this time with the viola in the lead, and again it makes an extraordinary impression.
The theme is simple, yet one may find embedded in it the perfect expression of late 18th-century mores: nobility is wedded to wit, dignity to buoyancy. For a moment we are transported to an 18th-century aristo-crat’s drawing room. The conversation is clever and cultured, but suddenly all heads turn as one of the assembled eminences — a Voltaire, perhaps, or a Franklin — imparts an observation that towers above the surround-ing babble, and then brings the proceedings back to earth with an irrepressible chortle.
Instrumentation: two oboes, two horns, and strings, in addition to the solo violin and viola.
Cadenzas: Glenn Dicterow and Cynthia Phelps perform Mozart’s cadenzas.
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Notes on the Program (continued)
Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, RomanticAnton Bruckner
By the time he reached the period of his Fourth Symphony in 1874, Anton Bruckner had staked a firm place in Austrian musical life. He had distinguished himself especially as an organist, an almost peerless improviser on that instrument by all reports. In 1855 he had sought out the best harmony and counterpoint teacher he could find, Simon Sechter, to help him remedy what he perceived as his deficiencies in those areas, and after six years of what was largely a correspondence course (Sechter was in Vienna, Bruckner in Linz) he moved on to pursue similar enrichment in the fields of orchestration and musical form from another esteemed pedagogue, Otto Kitzler. Bruckner also grew increasingly infatuated with the music of Wagner, and in 1865 he traveled to Munich (at Wagner’s invitation) to attend the premiere of Tristan und Isolde, the first of several Wagner premieres he would witness.
On a personal level, Bruckner was growing all the while into a sort of eccentric personality, an odd mixture of naïveté and political awareness, an obviously gifted figure who alternated between absolute conviction and selfdoubt, who was generally successful in his undertakings but who entered into unknown professional waters with the greatest reluctance. He also developed the curious habit of proposing marriage to teenaged girls and then being miffed when they turned him down; this
In ShortBorn: September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Upper Austria
Died: October 11, 1896, in Vienna
Work composed: January 2–November 22, 1874; revised January 18, 1878– June 5, 1880; further revisions effected in 1886 are not reflected in the edition used in this performance.
World premiere: February 20, 1881, Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1880 version
New York Philharmonic premiere: March 30, 1910, Gustav Mahler, conductor
trait, which would follow him through to his advanced years, was partly responsible for a mental collapse that landed him in a sanatorium for three months in 1867.
The following year, after much shillyshallying, he finally moved to the musical capital of Vienna, where he succeeded his teacher Sechter as professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Vienna Conservatory, where he also took on organ pupils. The University of Vienna welcomed him to its faculty, too, although the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick, already on the university’s staff, did everything he could to prevent it. Hanslick would become a thorn in the composer’s side, gleefully condemning practically every note Bruckner wrote — presumably the better to promote the music of Johannes Brahms, the perceived rival to Bruckner whom Hanslick adored.
Despite the lack of critical support, it was during his first few years in Vienna that Bruckner finally flowered into a dedicated composer of symphonies. He had, in fact, completed a “Study Symphony” in Bflat major and his
Symphony No. 1 in C minor while still living in Linz, but the artistic stimulation of Vienna appears to have helped release the vigorous flow of ensuing works: the Dminor Symphony that he later withdrew (and which is occasionally revived, under the curious rubric “Symphony No. 0”) in 1869; the Symphony No. 2 in C minor in 1871–72; the Symphony No. 3 in D minor in 1872–73; the Symphony No. 4 in Eflat major in 1874; and the Symphony No. 5 in Bflat major in 1875–76. Apart from the “Study Symphony” and “No. 0,” each of these would undergo considerable revision, with work on various stages of various pieces often occupying the composer at the same time. The chronology of Bruckner symphonies is accordingly hard to pin down.
Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is the only one of his nine to which he gave a subtitle. Although Bruckner was not essentially a Romantic composer — not, at least, in the sense that figures such as Weber, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Wagner embodied the ideals of the aesthetic movement called Romanticism — his Romantic Symphony does evoke Teutonic Romanticism in its allusions to the hunt and, by extension, to its brilliant spotlighting of the instruments most associated with that pursuit, the horns.
In this performance, we encounter this symphony in a version that includes the socalled “Hunt” Scherzo, replacing the scherzo Bruckner originally composed for this work. Even apart from that movement, the horns are so often prominent
as to practically define the sonic world of this piece.
Edition: prepared by Robert Haas, published in 1936 by the International Bruckner Society.
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.
A Paean to Romanticism
Quite a few years after he composed his Fourth Symphony, Bruckner penned a scenario for it. Although this descrip-tion seems to have been an afterthought crafted to justify the subtitle rather than a “plot” that inspired the composition of the work, it remains interesting all the same, coming as it does from a bastion of “absolute music” at a time when “program music” was in full flower. Here’s how he described the first movement:
Medieval city — dawn — morning calls sound from the towers — the gates open — on proud steeds the knights ride into the open — wood-land magic embraces them — forest murmurs — bird songs — and thus the Romantic picture unfolds.
The second movement, a “rustic love-scene” in which “a peasant boy woos his sweetheart, but she scorns him.” The Scherzo, “The Hunting of the Hare,” and its Trio section, “Dance Melody during the Huntsmen’s Meal.” And the Finale, a “Folk Festival.”
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New York Philharmonic
ViolinsGlenn Dicterow
Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Chair
Sheryl Staples Principal Associate
Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair
Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Chair
Enrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe
Minyoung ChangHaeYoung Ham
The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Chair
Lisa GiHae KimKuanCheng LuNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles Rex
The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair
Fiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel
Marc Ginsberg Principal
Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell
Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair
Duoming Ba
Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair
Martin EshelmanQuan GeJudith GinsbergMyungHi Kim+Hanna LachertHyunju LeeDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin
ViolasCynthia Phelps
Principal The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair
Rebecca Young*Irene Breslaw**
The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair
Dorian Rence
Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Chair
Dawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart
The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen Chair
CellosCarter Brey
Principal The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair
Eileen Moon*The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair
Qiang TuThe Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Chair
Evangeline Benedetti
Eric BartlettThe Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair
Elizabeth DysonMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoRuPei YehWei Yu
BassesEugene Levinson
Principal The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair
Orin O’BrienActing Associate Principal The Herbert M. Citrin Chair
William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Chair
Randall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi OkamotoLeonid
Finkelshteyn++
FlutesRobert Langevin
Principal The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair
Sandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman
PiccoloMindy Kaufman
OboesLiang Wang
Principal The Alice Tully Chair
Sherry Sylar*Robert Botti
English HornThomas Stacy
The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair
ClarinetsMark NuccioActing Principal
The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Chair
Pascual MartinezForteza
Acting Associate Principal The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair
Alucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++
E-Flat ClarinetPascual Martinez
Forteza
Bass ClarinetAmy Zoloto++
2009–2010 SeasonALAN GILBERT Music DirectorDaniel Boico, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus
BassoonsJudith LeClair
Principal The Pels Family Chair
Kim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast
ContrabassoonArlen Fast
HornsPhilip Myers
Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair
Erik Ralske Acting Associate Principal
R. Allen SpanjerHoward Wall
TrumpetsPhilip Smith
Principal The Paula Levin Chair
Matthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith
TrombonesJoseph Alessi Principal The Gurnee F. and
Marjorie L. Hart Chair
Amanda Stewart*David Finlayson The Donna and
Benjamin M. Rosen Chair
Bass TromboneJames Markey
TubaAlan Baer Principal
TimpaniMarkus Rhoten
Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair
PercussionChristopher S. Lamb
Principal The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair
Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair
HarpNancy Allen Principal
The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Chair
Keyboard In Memory of Paul Jacobs
HarpsichordLionel Party
PianoThe Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Chair
Harriet WingreenJonathan Feldman
OrganKent Tritle
LibrariansLawrence Tarlow Principal
Sandra Pearson**Sara Griffin**
Orchestra PersonnelManagerCarl R. Schiebler
Stage RepresentativeLouis J. Patalano
Audio DirectorLawrence Rock
* 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 Membersof the SocietyPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin MehtaCarlos Moseley
New York PhilharmonicGary W. Parr Chairman
Zarin Mehta President and Executive
Director
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The Music Director
In September 2009 Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, the first native New Yorker to hold the post. For his inaugural season he has introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The MarieJosée Kravis ComposerinResidence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and Artistin Residence, held by Thomas Hampson; an annual threeweek festival; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s newmusic series. He leads the Orchestra on a major tour of Asia in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi; on a European tour in January–February 2010; and in performances of world, U.S., and New York premieres. Also in the 2009–10 season, Mr. Gilbert becomes the first person to hold the William Schuman Chair
in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes.
Highlights of Mr. Gilbert’s 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic included the Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic, featuring Bernstein’s Kad-dish Symphony. In May 2009 he conducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The World in Flower, a New York Philharmonic Commission, and in July 2009 he led the New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks and Free Indoor Concerts, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, and four performances at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.
In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following his final concert as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; The Cleveland Orchestra; Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, where he served for three seasons.
Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and
The Juilliard School. He was a substitute violinist with The Philadelphia Orchestra for two seasons and assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.
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Christoph von Dohnányi
is recognized as one of the world’s
preeminent orchestral and opera conductors. His
appointments have included opera directorships in Frankfurt and
Hamburg; principal orchestral conducting posts in Germany, London, and Paris; and his 20year tenure as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, where he led 1,000 concerts and 15 international tours. He has also held the position of chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra (NDRSO), in Hamburg, since September 2004.
This season, in North America, Mr. von Dohnányi leads performances with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Last season he became honorary conductor for life of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, which he leads this season in Madrid, Cardiff, Paris, and London. Highlights of recent seasons include a series of concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a residency at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Philharmonia Orchestra, which he also led on a United States tour; and a tour to China with the NDRSO. Mr. von Dohnányi recently made his first appearance with The Cleveland
Orchestra since he assumed the title of music director laureate of that orchestra in 2002. He also led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and he conducted performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Mr. von Dohnányi conducts frequently at the world’s great opera houses, including London’s Covent Garden, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna Staatsoper, and those in Berlin and Paris. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, leading the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Die Bassariden and Friedrich Cerha’s Baal.
Christoph von Dohnányi has made critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. With the latter he recorded a variety of symphonic works and a number of operas, including Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu, Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Strauss’s Salome, and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. With The Cleveland Orchestra his discography of more than 100 works includes concert performances and recordings of Wagner’s Die Walküre and Das Rheingold; the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; symphonies by Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky; and works by Bartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse, and Webern, among many others.
The Artists
New York Philharmonic
Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow
made his solo debut at age 11 with the Los Ange
les Philharmonic. He has won numerous awards and competi
tions, including the Young Musicians Foundation Award and Coleman Award
(Los Angeles), The Julia Klumpke Award (San Francisco), and the Bronze Medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1970). He is a graduate of The Juilliard School. In 1967 Mr. Dicterow made his New York Philharmonic debut at the age of 18, and in 1980 he joined the Orchestra as Concertmaster. Highlights of his annual Philharmonic solo performances have included Bernstein’s Serenade, conducted by the composer, on a 1986 American tour; a 1990 Live From Lincoln Center telecast; a concerto at the White House in 1982; and playing for more than 10,000 people at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, in 1999. His solo Philharmonic appearances last season included Bernstein’s Serenade, conducted by thenMusic Director Designate Alan Gilbert at Carnegie Hall; Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1; and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1. Mr. Dicterow has also been a soloist with orchestras in North America, from
Los Angeles to Montreal, and abroad, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras.
Glenn Dicterow’s discography includes solo and chamber works; he has recorded concertos with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and London Symphony Orchestra. He can also be heard in the violin solos of film scores including The Turning Point, The Untouchables, Altered States, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Interview with the Vampire.
Mr. Dicterow is on the faculty of Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music. He and his wife, violist Karen Dreyfus, are founding members of The Lyric Piano Quartet, which is in residence at Queens College.
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Cynthia Phelps enjoys a
versatile career as an established chamber
musician, solo artist, and, since 1992, Principal Violist of
the New York Philharmonic. Her solo appearances with the Orches
tra have included Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 6 and 3 last season; performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali; and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned. Her other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao.
Ms. Phelps regularly appears with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic. She has performed with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, St. Lawrence, and Prague string quartets, and The KalichsteinLaredoRobinson Trio. She has appeared in the summer music festivals of Marlboro, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Seattle, Bridgehampton, Steamboat Springs, Vail, SchleswigHolstein, Naples, and Cremona; and at Mostly Mozart and Music at Menlo. She is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Les Amies, a fluteharpviola
group formed with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc.
Ms. Phelps’s honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition. Her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR, Radio France, Italy’s RAI, and WGBH in Boston. Her most recent recording — Air, for flute, viola, and harp, on Arabesque — was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Cynthia Phelps has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
The Artists
New York Philharmonic
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New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by Americanborn 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 December 18, 2004, gave its 14,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.
Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20thcentury musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 to the summer of 2002; named Music Director Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.
Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning or premiering many important works, such as Dvorák’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 works such 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; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; Augusta Read Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson Settings for Soprano and Orchestra; and EsaPekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto.
The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák, 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 over the last century become renowned around the globe, appearing in 428 cities in 61 countries on 5 continents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by thenMusic Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the first visit there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world and for which the Philharmonic received the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. Other historic tours have included the 1930 Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first Tour to the USSR, in 1959; the 1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, featuring the first performances in
mainland China; and the 75th Anniversary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel.
A longtime media pioneer, the Philharmonic began radio broadcasts in 1922 and is currently represented by The New York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated nationally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org and Sirius XM Radio. On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philharmonic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence has continued with annual appearances on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as the first Orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Awards, one of the mostwatched television events worldwide. In 2004, the New York Philharmonic was the first major American Orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the firstever subscription download series, Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009–10 season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.
On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic proudly announced a new partnership with Credit Suisse, its firstever and exclusive Global Sponsor.
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