A History of Violins

“All music is chamber music: everybody should be an equal participant,” says New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert. “Playing chamber music with Philharmonic musicians is exciting and inspiring for me, and it’s a way for me to make a different kind of connection with them. Also, I simply enjoy it.”

For the fourth consecutive season, Alan joins musicians of the Philharmonic in a chamber music performance, this time Brahms’s String Quintet in G Major, paired with the decidedly non-chamber Symphony No. 6 by Tchaikovsky. Catch both in a special Saturday Matinee Concert this weekend at Avery Fisher Hall as part of Gilbert’s Playlist.

(Top Photo: A young Alan demonstrates his form on violin. Below (photo by Chris Lee): Alan performs with former Artist-in-Residence Frank Peter Zimmermann and musicians of the Philharmonic during the 2011–12 season.)

The Ives of April

All season, Philharmonic pianist Eric Huebner has been looking forward to this week’s program with Ives’s Fourth Symphony:

“It was the first piece I played with the Philharmonic [in 2004], and it happened to be one of Alan Gilbert’s first with the Orchestra. Now that I’m a pianist on the roster, it brings it full circle,” he says.

The program ends Saturday night, and the next day Eric joins fellow Philharmonic musicians for an afternoon of chamber music at Merkin Concert Hall.

Musical Summer

The Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Concert Hall begins Sunday. As always, it’s a chance to hear the Orchestra’s musicians up close, taking the spotlight in the intimate context of chamber music.

This first of the season’s six concerts includes works by Victor Yoran, Mozart, and Schumann, as well as Barber’s Summer Music for Wind Quintet, the lush American composer’s evocation of a languid summer afternoon — just the thing to warm you up on a chilly autumn afternoon. 

A Very Brahms Season

The music of Johannes Brahms will be heard a lot this season, as the Philharmonic performs all of his symphonies and concertos. But this titan of orchestral music also composed  intimate chamber works that reflected his warmth and humor, and four of them  will be featured on our Saturday Matinee series. 

We kick things off this Saturday, September 29, with his autumnal Clarinet Quintet, created in 1891, after the composer — who’d felt he’d run out of ideas — was freshly inspired by meeting clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld.

Read more about his inspiration in our online program notes. 

What’s Up, Glenn?

Catch up with Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, as he and the Philharmonic prepare to head into the new season. Hear him:

• On the radio, performing Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 tonight on The New York Philharmonic This Week (broadcast by WQXR at 8 p.m., or check local listings for other times.)
• In the Catskills, with the Lyric Piano Quartet on September 8 at the Windham Chamber Music Festival.
• In the new Philharmonic season, performing Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Principal Cello Carter Brey, conducted by Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur, November 8–10, and November 13.  

Where in the World is Alan Gilbert?

Down east. In Maine. The Philharmonic’s Music Director has temporarily traded in his baton for a violin to join his wife, cellist Kajsa Willem-Ohlsson, and others at the Salt Bay Chamberfest for a performance of Metamorphosen, which The Free Press of Maine describes as “one of Richard Strauss’s last works, a rumination on the destruction and change wrought by World War II.

Alan returns to Big Apple for a Rite-ous beginning of the Philharmonic’s 2012–13 season on September 19.

Like Father, Like Son

John Sege of the Sante Fe Reporter spotlights Alan Gilbert as “the New York Philharmonic’s trailblazing young conductor” in this review from the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Alan Gilbert’s ties to Santa Fe go way back.  Both he and his father were violinists in the Santa Fe Opera orchestra before Alan became the SFO’s first-ever musical director in 2003.

“All music is chamber music.” – Alan Gilbert

Grab a chance to see Philharmonic musicians in a more intimate setting as they take on Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor, Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s String Quartet No. 2, and more in the Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Concert Hall series. The chamber music programs throw a spotlight on individual musicians, and subscriptions are a deal at $150 for six concerts.

Desert Sounds

The New York Philharmonic’s Music Director Alan Gilbert arrived yesterday at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival with baton, violin, and viola in tow. As the Festival’s Artist-in-Residence, Alan will be quite busy during the next two weeks performing Brahms on the viola, Mendelssohn on the violin, and picking up the baton to lead the ensemble in Strauss, Kreisler, and Schoenberg, among others.

Check out Alan’s full schedule for this year’s festival, including a performance this weekend with his sister,violinist Jennifer Gilbert.