New York Philharmonic

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2009 – 2010New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season

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Dancing to Falla

and Bernstein

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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

Producer, Recording and Mastering Engineer: Larry Rock

Performance photos: Chris Lee

Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

© Copyright 1967 by Amberson Holdings, LLC. Copyright Renewed.

Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, Publisher.

Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.

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.

New York Philharmonic

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New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, Conductor

Recorded live October 30–31, 2009,Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

BERNSTEIN (1918–90) Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1961) 24:28Prologue 4:41

“Somewhere” 4:17

Scherzo 1:30

Mambo 2:32

Cha­Cha 1:00

Meeting Scene 0:44

“Cool” Fugue 4:16

Rumble 2:00

Finale 3:28

FALLA (1876–1946) El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), Suite No. 2 (1916–19) 13:10The Neighbors’ Dance (Seguidillas) 3:30

The Miller’s Dance (Farruca) 3:02

Final Dance (Jota) 6:38

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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator

Symphonic Dances from West Side StoryLeonard Bernstein

As early as 1949 Leonard Bernstein and his friends Jerome Robbins (the choreog­rapher) and Arthur Laurents (the librettist) batted around the idea of creating a musi­cal retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, set amid the tensions of rival social groups in modern New York City. The project took a long time to find its eventual form — an early version tentatively titled East Side Story was altered when it was discovered that all the really suitable tenements were on the other side of town — and much of the composition was carried out more or less concurrently with Bernstein’s work on his operetta, Candide. It was while working on these projects, in November 1956, that Bernstein was appointed Joint Principal Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, not only reviv­ing a relationship with the Orchestra that had been dormant for the preceding six years, but also placing him in a position to succeed Dimitri Mitropoulos as the Orchestra’s Music Director, which he did in September 1958.

As the production of what came to be called West Side Story moved into the home stretch, it was beset by several crises. Cheryl Crawford, the producer, got cold feet about what she termed “a show full of hatefulness and ugliness,” but her partner, Roger Stevens, jumped in to ensure that the project would continue.

Further, the young Stephen Sondheim, who had been brought on as lyricist, engaged his friend Harold Prince to become a producer. Then, to everyone’s amazement, Robbins announced at the 11th hour that he would prefer to direct the show rather than choreograph it. In the end, Robbins was persuaded to stay on as choreographer in addition to being director, and was granted an unusually long rehearsal period as an inducement.

On August 19, 1957, West Side Story opened in a tryout run in Washington, D.C. When it reached Broadway it proved a very firm hit, running for 772 performances — just short of two years — before embarking on a national tour and making its way back to New York in 1960 for another 253 performances, after which it was released as a feature film, in 1961.

“The radioactive fallout from West Side Story must still be descending on Broadway this morning,” wrote Walter Kerr, critic of the Herald Tribune, in the wake of the New York opening, and one might argue that his assumption remains true more than a half­century later. West Side Story stands as an essential, influential chapter in the history of American theater, and its engrossing tale of young love set against a background of spectacularly choreographed gang warfare has found a place at the core of Americans’ common culture.

In the opening weeks of 1961 Bernstein revisited his score for West Side Story and extracted nine sections to assemble into what he called the Symphonic Dances. The impetus was a gala fund­raising concert for the New York Philharmonic’s pension fund, to be held the evening before Valentine’s Day. The event was styled as an overt lovefest, celebrating not only Bernstein’s involvement with the Orchestra up to that time, but also the fact that he had agreed that very month to a new contract that would ensure his presence for another seven years. In the interest of efficiency, Bernstein’s colleagues Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, who had just completed the orchestration of West Side Story for its film version, suggested appropriate sections of the score to Bernstein, who placed them not in the order in which they occur in the musical,

The Work at a GlanceJack Gottlieb, who for many years served as Bernstein’s amanuensis, provided the following summary of the sections of the Symphonic Dances and describes how they relate to the action in the well-known musical:

Prologue: The growing rivalry between two teenage gangs, the Jets and the Sharks.

“Somewhere”: In a visionary dance sequence, the two gangs are united in friendship.

Scherzo: In the same dream, they break through the city walls and suddenly find themselves in a world of space, air, and sun.

Mambo: Reality again; competitive dance between the gangs.

Cha-Cha: The star-crossed lovers see each other for the first time and dance together.

Meeting Scene: Music accompanies their first spoken words.

“Cool” Fugue: An elaborate dance sequence in which the Jets practice controlling their hostility.

Rumble: Climactic gang battle during which the two gang leaders are killed.

Finale: Love music developing into a processional, which recalls, in tragic reality, the vision of “Somewhere.”

In ShortBorn: August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts

Died: October 14, 1990, in New York City

Work composed: The musical West Side Story was composed principally in the fall of 1955 through summer 1957; Bernstein assembled portions of its score into the Symphonic Dances in early 1961, overseeing the orchestration for this version as it was carried out by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal. The Symphonic Dances are dedicated “To Sid Ramin, in friendship.”

World premiere: the musical itself, on August 19, 1957, at the National Theater in Washington, D.C.; the Symphonic Dances, on February 13, 1961, Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, in a pension fund gala concert titled “A Valentine for Leonard Bernstein”

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Notes on the Program (continued)

but instead in a new, uninterrupted sequence derived from a strictly musical rationale. Two of the show’s most popular songs are found in the pages of the Symphonic Dances: “Somewhere” and (in the Cha­Cha section) “Maria.”

Instrumentation: three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets plus E­flat clarinet and bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bongos, suspended cymbal, cymbals, tenor drum, snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, drum set, cowbells, timbales, conga drum, police whistle, vibraphone, chime, wood block, triangle, orchestra bells, tom­tom, guiro, maracas, finger cymbals, tambourine, harp, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.

El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), Suite No. 2Manuel de Falla

As a teenager, Manuel de Falla y Matheu set his sights on becoming an author, but by the time he was 20 he acquiesced instead to a consuming passion for music. His youth­ful piano studies paid off, and he advanced quickly through his instruction, graduating in 1899 from the Madrid Conservatory with a first prize in piano and a thorough education in harmony, counterpoint, and composition. Nonetheless, Falla’s first steps in his chosen profession were far from dynamic. Unable to scrape together a living by composing serious music and not quite a good enough pianist to find acclaim in the recital hall, he turned to the closest enterprise that might prove commercially viable: the composition of zarzuelas (peculiarly Spanish stage works that might be described as a regional varia­tion on operetta). He composed six between 1900 and 1904; only one reached the stage, and it left him no better off financially than before.

Still, those early experiences helped to clarify his goals, and they prepared him to realize his first certifiable masterpiece, La vida breve (The Brief Life), a true opera, which he wrote in 1904–05. But plans to produce it fell through, and Falla left Spain in 1907 for where the action was — Paris. He would remain there until 1914, associating closely with Dukas, Debussy, and Ravel.

The outbreak of World War I forced Falla’s

return to Spain. This time Madrid proved more amenable to his talent. Further stage works rich in Spanish flavor flowed from his pen, beginning with El amor brujo (1915), and in 1916 Falla heard the premiere of his first major symphonic work, which had occupied him since 1909: Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), a set of three “symphonic impressions” — his term — for piano and orchestra.

El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) followed shortly thereafter. It shares its title with that of its source, a famous novella published in 1874 by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón based on the popular romance El corregidor y la molinera (The Magistrate and the Miller’s Wife). Back in 1905 it had been one of three possibilities Falla and his librettist considered turning into an opera. The three prospective subjects were written on pieces of paper and the decision was left to the chance of the draw. La vida breve was picked, and El sombrero de tres picos went on the back burner.

In ShortBorn: November 23, 1876, in Cádiz, Spain

Died: November 14, 1946, in Alta Gracia, Argentina

Work composed: 1916–19

World premiere: at least in part on June 17, 1919, in Eslava; the complete staged ballet on July 19, 1919, at the Alhambra Theatre, London, by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Ernest Ansermet, conductor

New York Philharmonic premiere: November 19, 1925, Willem Mengelberg, conductor

Recording the Symphonic DancesIn his memoir Leonard Bernstein: Notes from a Friend, the late Schuyler Chapin recalled the first recording of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which was made three weeks after the work’s world premiere, at a time when Chapin was head of the Masterworks division of Columbia Records:

Although I thought the recording a fine idea, I wanted [Bernstein] to be careful about expensive recording-time rehearsals. “I know, I know,” he said. “I know about expenses. Don’t worry. I only need to touch up a few things before taping starts.”

But I did worry. ... On the day of the recording, about halfway through the allotted time, I called [the producer] John McClure to ask how things were going. “Oh, just fine,” he replied. “He’s rehearsing away. But we haven’t recorded a note yet.”

“What?” I yelled, slamming down the phone and racing from my office to the studio. ...

The afternoon dragged on endlessly and the money kept being spent. It was too late to pull out; I had no choice but to complete all the work. When we finally finished, the disk ended up costing over $25,000 a side, something of a grim benchmark for the industry at the time.

Although it didn’t help much, Bernstein was horrified when I told him and immediately offered to delay receiving royalties on this particular recording until the costs were recouped. I said I’d take him up on his offer if I needed to and suggested he pray.

He did, and so did I, and, miracle of miracles, by the end of 1962 all costs had been completely recovered and the record was making money for everyone.

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Notes on the Program (continued)

Falla still hoped to set the work as an opera, but Alarcón’s will forbade a texted musical setting of this novella. It seemed, however, that a staged version could pass legal muster as long as no text was involved, so in 1916–17 Falla composed his long­simmering score. The work was unveiled as a staged pantomime in 1917 in Madrid, to a scenario by María Martínez Sierra under the title El corregidor y la molinera. The famous impresario Serge Diaghilev was in Madrid with his Ballets Russes just then. He attended numerous performances of El corregidor, was captivated by what he saw, and asked Falla to expand the work into a full ballet for his troupe. This involved the creation of some entirely new numbers and the expansion of the instrumentation throughout, since the pantomime version had been crafted for only 18 players. The premiere was planned for 1917, but World War I dragged on and made that schedule impractical. The war finally ended, and the premiere occurred in London in 1919, a starry affair that brought Falla together with conductor Ernest Ansermet, Pablo Picasso as the designer of sets and costumes, and Léonide Massine as both choreographer and one of the principal dancers.

Instrumentation: two flutes (one doubling piccolo) plus another piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, triangle, bass drum, castanets, tam­tam, harp, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.

The StoryThe ballet’s action centers on three characters in an Andalusian village: the miller and his wife, who love each other deeply (while remaining generally flirta-tious), and an old magistrate. The music opens with a fanfare (“Introduction”) followed by a depiction of a languorous “Afternoon.” The magistrate takes a fancy to the miller’s wife, who dances a seduc-tive “Fandango.” The magistrate (“The Corregidor”), pompous in his tricorn hat, flirts back (solo bassoon). She responds with feigned tenderness (“The Miller’s Wife”) and entices him with a bunch of grapes (“The Grapes”). The miller chases the magistrate away.

That night neighbors gather at the miller’s home to celebrate the Feast of St. John (“The Neighbors’ Dance” followed by “The Miller’s Dance”). Confusion ensues, not depicted in the orchestral suites. The magistrate has the miller arrested, and then pursues the miller’s wife. They end up on a bridge; she pushes him into the shallow stream below and flees. He goes to her home; finding nobody there, he removes his wet clothes, lays them out to dry (with his tricorn hat prominent, of course), puts on the miller’s nightshirt, and falls asleep. The miller escapes custody and returns home to find the magistrate in his bed. Assuming that his wife has given in to her suitor, the miller sets off to take re-venge by courting the magistrate’s wife. Policemen enter in search of him and, seeing the figure in his clothes, mis-takenly try to arrest the magistrate. The miller, his wife, and the neighbors enter and gradually sort out the confusion. In the end everyone dances a jota (“Final Dance”) while tossing the magistrate’s effigy in a blanket.

New York Philharmonic

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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 Okamoto

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 Composer­in­ Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist­in­Residence, 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 Concert gebouw 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.

New York Philharmonic

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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 429 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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