Here, There, and Everywhere

As our musicians prepare to go on tour together, many individual performers have received accolades for their performances near and far.

Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow: Performed as soloist on Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, led by Long Yu.

Organist Ken Tritle: Led an acclaimed performance of Britten’s War Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, of which he is the music director — this, right after overseeing the chorus for our own  performances of Ives’s Fourth Symphony.

Principal Cello Carter Brey and Associate Principal Cello Eileen Moon: Performed with their Plaza colleagues in “The Cellists of Lincoln Center,” a performance presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall.

Congrats to all for how wonderfully they’ve been representing the Phil!

(Portraits by Chris Lee)

Cello-bration

“Brey’s measured approach, with steady pacing and lighter tone, reminded us of the origin of these pieces as intimate works for private study: the expressivity of the music seemed to emerge solely from the magisterial logic of its craft,” writes The New Yorker of Carter Brey’s recent marathon of the Complete Bach Cello Suites. “The most compelling moments came when the essential qualities of the instruments were brought to the fore: the melancholy Fifth Suite, in which the top string is tuned downward to give the instrument a darker sound, and the Sixth, in which the pealing brightness of the high string elicited a murmur of delight from the audience.”

If you missed this performance, you can still catch Carter in the 2013–14 season: He joins Alisa Weilerstein and Daniel Müller-Schott October 24–26 for Krzysztof Penderecki’s Concerto grosso for three cellos. This comes hot on the heels an opening gala featuring another noted cellist, Yo-Yo Ma.

(Photo: Chris Lee)

Cello-bration

“I think Bach is actually the most important composer for our time, because he gives us something we don’t have,” cellist Jan Vogler recently told ABC’s Sandy Kenyon. “We have this fast communication and then Bach can really bring us back to ourselves, to our souls, to our real center.”

Jan, who recently performed Bloch’s Schelomo with us at Avery Fisher Hall in New York and at the University Musical Society in Michigan (and will reprise the work in Dresden this May on our EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour), can be seen and heard above in ABC’s special report performing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major off of his new album on Sony.

For comparison’s sake, own Principal Cello Carter Brey plays the same work (along with Bach’s other five cello suites) on Monday at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Tickets are currently sold out, but you can click here for more information on our waiting list.

Spring Break

While Principal Cello Carter Brey has been holding down the musical fort in New York, the rest of the Orchestra has joined an army of college students and others having good times during their Spring Break. Here is one member and her husband enjoying sunnier climes; can you guess who it is and where they are? Their attire provides a hint…

Better Know a Bach Soloist: Carter Brey

Our very own Principal Cello Carter Brey takes on Bach’s Complete Suites for Unaccompanied Cello this Wednesday and next Monday. As we previously mentioned, Carter originally said that his first reaction to this program was: “Would I really buy a ticket to hear myself play these pieces in one sitting?” He changed his tune when he had the idea to play the Sixth Suite as originally intended, using a custom-built five-string cello.

A frequent solo voice here at the Phil, Carter is also no stranger to chamber music in New York and beyond. Hear him above in a live performance from Music@Menlo of Debussy’s Cello Sonata with pianist Gilbert Kalish.

(Source: Spotify)

Taking Off(stage)

Tonight at 7:00 p.m., you can see and hear violinist (and New York Philharmonic debutant) Isabelle Faust and Philharmonic Principal Cello Carter Brey (who has his own sold-out pair of concerts as part of The Bach Variations) in our latest installment of New York Philharmonic Offstage. Hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon, the event is free and open to all at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. Come join the Bach-chanale!

(Photos: Felix Broede [Faust], Chris Lee [Brey], Marco Antonio [Spurgeon])

If it Ain’t Baroque

‘I have to confide that, when the Philharmonic asked me if I’d like to do this Bach marathon, my first reaction was, ’Would I really buy a ticket to hear myself play these pieces in one sitting?’” Philharmonic Principal Cello Carter Brey said of his upcoming marathon performances of the complete Bach Cello Suites. “As I thought about it more, I decided that I could justify it if I brought something to it that would challenge me.”

That challenge, he decided, would be to play the Suites on cellos with a Baroque setup: one cello for the first five suites, and a five-string cello, as originally intended, for the Sixth Suite.

Check out these videos of Carter on Bach’s beloved Cello Suites. Due to popular demand, a second date for Carter’s Bach marathon has been added.

Photos: Luthier James McKean makes the five-string cello with a Baroque setup for Carter Brey.

Stairway to Bach

Lately, we’ve had to be careful running up and down the backstage stairwell at Avery Fisher Hall, so as not to collide with Principal Cello Carter Brey as he practices Bach.

Carter is preparing for his marathon performance of Bach’s Cello Suites as part of The Bach Variations festival. The originally scheduled performance is already sold out, so today we announced that a second date has been added: April 1 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Run (carefully) and get your tickets before they sell out, too!

It’s Carter Brey Day

Happy birthday to Carter Brey, the eminent and award-winning cellist who became the Philharmonic’s Principal in 1997. We are really looking forward to hearing him as a soloist this season, first as one of the concerto soloists (along with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow) in the Brahms Double, November 8–10, and 13, and when he plays all of Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello on March 27 during The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival.