The Musical Is Political

Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero isn’t the only politically charged work on this week’s program, which juxtaposes the aforementioned opera with a violin concerto (Prokoviev’s First, which was written in 1917, the same year that the Tsar was overthrown by the Bolsheviks).

“One really shouldn’t even try to draw an explicit connection between the two genres,” says Alan Gilbert. “Still, in the period leading up to his composing this concerto, Prokofiev was reacting to oppressive forces that were similar to those under which Dallapiccola was subjected when he composed this opera, and I feel together that these two pieces make a sympathetic pairing. Indeed, I see Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 — which is one of my favorite of his works because of its sincerity and poignancy — as a musical representation of an individual trying to find a resonance in the face of adversity.”

You can dive into the musical world of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, as marked by Leonard Bernstein, courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives.

A Whale of an Archives Tale

With summer upon us and the ocean calling many a beach-goer, we were recently reminded of one of the more entertaining entries in the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives, namely in the first violin parts for Alan Hovhaness’s And God Created Great Whales, a 1970 work commissioned by the Philharmonic (reprised in 1974). You can browse the full score, with more such markings, by clicking here. We’re particularly fond of the final image, mirroring as it does the classic cartoon “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met.”

Happy Birthday, Jazz Style

Acting Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio is celebrating his birthday far from home, by traveling on the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. And it’s not all Bruckner and Tchaikovsky while he’s on the road, as he has already been practicing (in photo, by Chris Lee, above) for his solo in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in the jazz-infused program May 31–June 1.

If  you’re one of the lucky ones to have tickets for these almost sold-out concerts, check out this taste of the score for the piece that Leonard Bernstein marked (which lives in our Digital Archives) to prep for when you hear him jam!

Babbitt, Run

On what would have been Milton Babbitt’s 97th birthday, here’s a gift to all of us from the Digital Archives: the unpublished manuscript to the composer’s Relata II, as marked by Leonard Bernstein (its dedicatee) before he, as our Music Director, conducted it as part of the Philharmonic’s 125th anniversary season. The program preceding it was Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Isaac Stern as the soloist). You can page through the entire score here.

Scour the Score

Courtesy of the Boosey & Hawkes Online Scores project, you can virtually browse through the 116-page score of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The piece, the final work commissioned during Mr. Lindberg’s tenure as The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, will receive its World Premiere Thursday evening, performed by Yefim Bronfman and led by Music Director Alan Gilbert.

Take a peek; think you could take this on?

“A must-see work for fans of art, film, and music alike.”

This is how podcast host Mark Travis describes Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 cult classic film Koyaanisqatsi in the latest edition of On the Music. The Philharmonic will perform Philip Glass’s powerful score alongside the movie on November 2–3, featuring Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble, conductor Michael Riesman, and The Collegiate Chorale, James Bagwell, director.