One Lucky Duck

As a college student, how did Alan Gilbert get into a photo with the legendary Leonard Bernstein? Find out by taking a tour of the Music Director’s private studio at the Philharmonic’s home in Avery Fisher Hall, courtesy of a new, iPad app by Global Sponsor Credit Suisse. Download it for free.

What do the New York Philharmonic, Donna Summer, and Jerry Garcia have in common?

Recordings by all have been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, as announced today. The CBS radio broadcast of the November 14, 1943, Philharmonic concert that made Leonard Bernstein a household name, when he stepped in at the last minute for Bruno Walter, will live among the likes of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” the sound track album of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

Not bad company to keep …

“It has the feeling of wanting something very badly that you can’t have.”

— Former Philharmonic Music Director Leonard Bernstein on Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 during a Young People’s Concert. The modern-day Philharmonic is on stage right now rehearsing the masterpiece led by current Music Director Alan Gilbert.

Want to hear it? You can, beginning tonight through Saturday on a program with Dvořák’s Carnival Overture and the World Premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman.

Meet Jaap

We would like to introduce you to conductor Jaap van Zweden, who will lead the Orchestra in its next program April 12–17 in his Philharmonic debut. To get you acquainted, here are some fun facts about Mr. van Zweden:

— He currently holds the posts of Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Radio Chamber Orchestras, and Music Director Designate of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

— Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year

— Appointed at nineteen as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

— While at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, it was Leonard Bernstein who urged him to try conducting. (How’s that for a Philharmonic connection?)

See you soon, Jaap!

It’s been 44 years since the New York Philharmonic last performed in Montreal, but next month Music Director Alan Gilbert and the Orchestra will head north of the border for two concerts on November 4–5 as part of the inaugural season of Maison symphonique de Montréal — the new home of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

The Philharmonic’s last performance in Montreal was during the 1967 Universal and International Exhibition with former Music Director Leonard Bernstein. View that concert program in the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives.

Today in Philharmonic History

On October 24, 1955, Leonard Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic’s first appearance at the U.N. in a United Nations Day Concert, which celebrated the organization’s 10th anniversary. The concert opened with remarks by U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, and Jose Maza, president of the 10th session of the General Assembly, also spoke.

life:

October 18 marks the 50th anniversary of West Side Story, the acclaimed musical about two star-crossed lovers in 1950s New York City and the racial prejudices that keep them apart. In honor of the occasion, LIFE.com takes a look back at the evolution of the show—which made its Broadway debut in 1957 and was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie in 1961—from stage to screen.

(see more — ‘West Side Story’ A Look Back)

Happy 50th Anniversary West Side Story! Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic will perform Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story on the nationally televised A New Yorker’s New Year’s Eve. Check your local listings for PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. 

In 2010, on the 20th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s death, a 60-CD set of the late Laureate Conductor’s recordings with the Philharmonic was released on Leonard Bernstein: The Symphony Edition. The set sold out quickly in its first printing but has just been re-issued and includes recordings from Bernstein’s historic years with the Orchestra — 1953 to 1976 — as well as 60 photographs of the conductor/composer/teacher and a large-format book with extensive essays by Klaus Geitel, a prominent German journalist, and German musicologist Wolfgang Stähr.

Orchestrating West Side Story

In this video, Leonard Bernstein’s lifelong friend and collaborator Sid Ramin talks with the composer’s daughter, Jamie, about orchestrating West Side Story both for the Broadway show and the film version. 

This week on September 7 and 8, the New York Philharmonic plays Leonard Bernstein’s entire, electrifying score alongside the Academy Award-winning film for its 50th Anniversary.