California Dreaming

Following a second concert in San Francisco, with none other than New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow as soloist, the Orchestra concluded its tour in San Diego. Along the way there was time to ride shotgun with the top down next to Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey. See the sights and hear the sounds of the final stops on the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour. 

East Coast, Represent!

The Philharmonic Penguins, led by Zubin Mehta (pictured),won the prized Davies Cup in a 24-16 game against the San Francisco Symphomaniacs in 1981. Sadly, they then lost the trophy two years later when the West Coasters met their rivals in New York in 1983 with an 11 to 6 win. The team - now led by Captain Alan Gilbert - is poised for a comeback to settle the score this Sunday, when the Penguins and the Symphomaniacs square off again for the trophy in SF during the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour. Look closely at this 1981 photo, and you’ll spot a young Alan Gilbert celebrating. (Photo courtesy of New York Philharmonic Digital Archives).

Organized by “Coach” Walter Rosenberg, the Philharmonic’s former Principal Percussionist, the Penguins have played in New York and all over the world. Famous maestros who have led the Penguins onto the field have been Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, and Leonard Slatkin.

Check out what fans on the West Coast are saying about the New York Philharmonic during the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour:

“It’s going to be pretty epic.”

That pretty much sums up how excited Philharmonic Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey is for the New York Philharmonic’s first-ever performance at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis near his hometown of Sacramento, CA. Check out his complete interview in the Sacramento Bee in anticipation of Saturday’s concert as part of CALIFORNIA 2012.

“What makes this current thing fizzy is that it’s a battery of the two: the orchestra with Alan, and Alan with them. That’s what people are excited about.”

— Alec Baldwin on Alan Gilbert, as told to the Los Angeles Times’ Culture Monster blog, following the Philharmonic’s performance of Mahler’s Sixth at Carnegie Hall last week. Alan and the New York Philharmonic perform in Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall tomorrow night, as part of the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour. Stay tuned for photos and video from the tour, this week.

From the Big Apple to City of the Arts

The first stop on the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour is the “City of the Arts” – Costa Mesa. The New York Philharmonic has performed in the Orange County locale only three times in its 170-year history, most recently in 2006 when it helped to inaugurate the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, en route to a major tour of the Far East. On May 8, Alan Gilbert takes the Orchestra back to Segerstrom Hall, treating the audience to Berlioz, Debussy, Ravel, and a Beethoven concerto with Yefim Bronfman.

Back to Santa Barbara

More than 40 years have passed since the New York Philharmonic last visited Santa Barbara, known for its gorgeous weather, majestic mountains, beaches, and Spanish architecture. As shown in this program from the Digital Archives, on the last visit to the “American Riviera” in 1969, Seiji Ozawa conducted Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 and Copland’s Concerto for Clarinet, with the legendary Stanley Drucker — who retired in 2009 after 60 years as Principal Clarinet. The program ended with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, which, coincidentally, Alan Gilbert will also lead in Santa Barbara on May 10 during the CALIFORNIA 2012 tour.

California, You’re a Grand Old State

To our friends on the West Coast: be sure to check out “Singing the Golden State” — an exhibit at the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco curated by James M. Keller, the New York Philharmonic’s Program Annotator, The Leni and Peter May Chair — where you can discover the byways of California and its extraordinary history as documented through early popular songs, and listen to period recordings of California-themed songs from the vaudeville era. The New York Philharmonic will make its own stop in San Francsico during the upcoming CALIFORNIA 2012 tour, when the Orchestra takes part in the Centennial Celebration of the San Francisco Symphony.

(Source: thetwistedpineapple)