Scene and Heard

Violinist Joshua Bell was greeted backstage by author Salman Rushdie after his performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto last night. Bell — who celebrates his birthday today — will perform the work with conductor Daniel Harding and the New York Philharmonic tonight and tomorrow night.

Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), which had its riotous premiere on May 29, 1913, was originally produced by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. Hear the Philharmonic perform this work tonight through Saturday, December 10, conducted by Daniel Harding. 

(via blogthoven)

… to us!

169 years ago on this day,the New York Philharmonic’s first concert took place in the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway before an audience of 600. The concert opened with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and was led by Philharmonic founder-father Ureli Corelli Hill.

Tonight, the Orchestra performs its 15,277th concert before an audience of thousands, led by Daniel Harding. 

Happy birthday to America’s oldest (and most fabulous) symphony orchestra!

This week’s concerts with guest conductor Daniel Harding and violinist Joshua Bell were featured on the latest edition of WNET’s This Week at Lincoln Center. Hear more about the program, which will include works by Oliver Knussen, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky.

(Source: lincolncenter)

We’ve Got Your Number(s), Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky was born in 1840, just two and a half years prior to the first concert given by America’s oldest symphony orchestra — the New York Philharmonic. The Russian composer’s life spanned the first five decades of the Philharmonic’s existence, which included its first performance of a Tchaikovsky work (the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, on April 22, 1876) and his Philharmonic conducting debut on May 5, 1891, in a program that featured his Festival Coronation March. Tchaikovsky’s music has been performed by the Philharmonic on 3,085 occasions — a number that will increase by four on December 7–10 when Joshua Bell performs Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, conducted by Daniel Harding.

(Source: triplejesus)

Talent at an Early Age

When Joshua Bell’s parents discovered that their five-year-old son had stretched rubber bands across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard on the piano, they got a scaled-to-size violin and started giving him lessons. And the rest is history …

Joshua Bell returns to the Philharmonic on December 7–10, 2011 to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, on a program conducted by Daniel Harding.

kdkathryn:

A schematic of Mahler symphonies.

Why should the trumpets get all of the glory? On December 1–3 the violas will shine when Daniel Harding and the Philharmonic perform Mahler’s never-completed Symphony No. 10 — after all, Mahler chose the violas to start off the Adagio of his final composition. Once you’ve mastered this handy schematic, go to nyphil.org/mahler to further test your knowledge.

“From great joy … to [the] most unremittingly stark, violent, and brutal”

On the Music brings you conductor Daniel Harding speaking about the works he will conduct on the concerts of December 7–10, featuring Joshua Bell performing Tchaikovsky’s exuberant Violin Concerto, Stravinsky’s “brutal” The Rite of Spring, and the festive Flourish with Fireworks by British composer Oliver Knussen.

“To live for you, to die for you.”

On the Music brings you Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, a work written during a particularly tumultuous time in the composer’s life. Daniel Harding conducts the work in a “completion” prepared by British musician, musicologist, and broadcaster Deryck Cooke on the concerts of December 1–3.