The Orchestra may be back from a three-week tour, but there’s no rest for the wicked as we prepare to launch into our final month of the 2012–13 season. Following next Monday’s Free Annual Memorial Day Concert at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, we host a slew of guest artists including Wynton Marsalis, Paulo Szot, Megan Hilty, Marin Mazzie, Lisa Batiashvili, Gerald Finley, Patricia Racette, Lionel Bringuier, Leonidas Kavakos, Emanuel Ax, and Sara Mearns. For a full calendar of our June journey, click here.
[video]
[video]
Congratulations to James Levine as he prepares to return to the concert stage this weekend, following a two-year hiatus. While his performance this weekend will be with his “home” team of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Jimmy would occasionally step next door to conduct the Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall (you can see the full measure of his appearances with us by searching his name here). In this photo from the Digital Archives, he shares shop talk with Leonard Bernstein.
Welcome back, Jimmy!
Our list of distinguished audience members on tour grew a bit longer last night: Austrian Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer came to our May 15 concert, our first of three at the Vienna Konzerthaus celebrating the Konzerthaus’s centenary. Federal President Fischer offered his congratulations post-concert to Alan Gilbert, Matthew VanBesien, and our soloist for that evening, Emanuel Ax, before the three gentlemen went to the post-concert reception for our Global Sponsor Credit Suisse. Thank you very much for joining us, Dr. President, and happy birthday to the Wiener Konzerthaus! Here’s to another 100 years.
[video]
[video]
Love that Bill Murray attended the @nyphil’s Dresden show … and that they call him “Peter Venkman” on Facebook — pic.twitter.com/be6p0ai97q
Well, there’s somethin’ you don’t see everyday… While filming in Dresden, Bill Murray (aka Phil Connors aka Bob Harris aka Steve Zissou) spent his day off at Volkswagen’s Die Gläserne Manufaktur watching Alan and the Orchestra perform Christopher Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms, Bernstein’s Serenade (with Joshua Bell), and Magnus Lindberg’s wildly theatrical and raucous Kraft (which used reporposed Volkswagen auto parts for its found instruments).
If we had to pick one day to live over and over, yesterday may not be a bad choice; if you missed the performance, for the next 90 days you’ll have the change to re-live it, courtesy of medici.tv.