On the Bruckner Beat

“Mr. Gilbert’s love for Bruckner is unmistakable, and this performance contained glories: luminous French-horn solos by Philip Myers; awed hushes; pulverizing climaxes.”

 — The New York Times reviews the Philharmonic’s Wednesday evening performance, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3. 

There’s one more chance to catch the program at Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday.

(Photo: Hiroko Masuike, The New York Times)

Accio Baton!

The New York Times compares Ives’s Fourth Symphony to a game of Quidditch, in which “things come hurtling at you from unexpected places,” in this review of our concert program this week.

Though you won’t find Alan Gilbert riding a broomstick you will catch some acrobatics from our Music Director and Assistant Conductor Case Scaglione as they take on this daunting Symphony.

The program, which also includes works by Rouse and Bernstein, run through Saturday. When you come, who knows, perhaps under that tuxedo you’ll catch a glimpse of Alan Gilbert’s Gryffindor uniform … or would it be Ravenclaw? 

Better Know a Bach Soloist: Dorothea Röschmann

The Mass may be in B minor, but there’s nothing minor about the four soloists we have lined up for next week’s program (conducted by our very own Alan Gilbert). First up is soprano Dorothea Röschmann, a native of Flenburg, Germany, which is equidistant between Hamburg and Odense, Denmark.

Perhaps it was her proximity to Scandinavia, but there is a Nordic grace, with touches of Vermeerean light and borealis beauty in Röschmann’s tone that has made her a Phil favorite (she can be heard on our DVD of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2). Of a recent recital she gave at Carnegie Hall, The New York Times wrote: “Sublimity is a term that should never be used lightly. Still, it was unavoidable in the best moments — and there were plenty.” Hear what all the fuss is about in “Die Schatzbarkeit der weiten Erden,” from Dorothea’s 1995 disc of secular cantatas by Bach.

(Source: Spotify)

The Highest Judge of All

The reviews are starting to come in for our production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, and critics are “Bustin’ Out All Over” for John Rando’s production, Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild’s footwork, and the vocal power of a cast that includes Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, and Kelli O’Hara.

“There are times when a production can achieve transcendence not by exceeding expectations but merely by meeting them,” writes USA Today.  “A case in point: the New York Philharmonic’s new concert staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel (* * * * out of four stars)… Helmed by John Rando, under the expert musical direction of conductor Rob Fisher, it features a dizzying array of talent led by musical theater star Kelli O’Hara and operatic baritone Nathan Gunn.”

“… from top to bottom this is as gorgeously sung a production of this sublime 1945 Broadway musical as you are ever likely to hear,” writes The New York Times

Congrats to all for a real nice opening! You have four more chances to catch Carousel in action before it rides away this Saturday.

(Photo of Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck by Chris Lee)

This past Saturday the Philharmonic reached this nice, round number Saturday evening, performing its 15,500th concert. (We did start in 1842, after all.)

On the occasion, Andris Nelsons concluded the concert with Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, “drawing out the spectacular range of the Philharmonic’s sound, from powdery pianissimo strings to deeply hued woodwind solos and the brilliant clarity of the brass,” according to The New York Times. 

“I know that I would not be in this place if it weren’t for so many people. At least for me it takes a village.”

Violinist Jennifer Koh discusses the relationships she has forged since her debut with the Chicago Symphony at age 11 in this New York Times profile. The violinists also explains why she knew, at an early age, that she didn’t want a “full-throttle career” right away.

She’ll join the Philharmonicunder the baton of Lorin Maazel next week to perform Lutoslawski’s Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin and Orchestra.

“Sweet, soulful, and vibrantly responsive.”

The New York Times praised violinist Pinchas Zukerman’s performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Philharmonic, led by Christoph Eschenbach, in this review of Wednesday night’s concert.

If you didn’t make it to that performance, you haven’t missed your chance. The program, including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6, repeats tonight and Saturday.

(Photo credit: Karsten Moran, The New York Times)

Outside the Box

Music Director Alan Gilbert took not just his thinking, but the actual Philharmonic outside the box this year, as The New York Times notes in its “Pleasures of Unexpected Programming” article, calling the Philharmonic 360 program at Park Avenue Armory last June “one of the highlights of Mr. Gilbert’s tenure to date.”

Labor of Love

What ever happened to the signed photo of Gustav Mahler that was one of Arnold Schoenberg’s most prized possessions? The New York Times’s Dan Wakin unravels a detective story that also serves as ”a reminder of one of the more remarkable relationships in music history: between the older master, Mahler, who pushed the concept of the 19th-century symphony to its limits, and the young modernist, Schoenberg, whose conception of harmony changed the sound of classical music.”

Hear Schoenberg’s musical expression of affection when Emanuel Ax, Philharmonic musicians, and others perform his chamber orchestra arrangement of Mahler’s magnificent song cycle Das Lied von der Erde on November 4.