AlanGilbert, Conductor ItzhakPerlman , Violindata.instantencore.com/pdf/1005657/04-11+Pension+Fund_reconfirm.pdf · AlanGilbert,Conductor ItzhakPerlman ,Violin Thisconcertwilllastapproximately

23April 2011

ITZHAK PERLMAN AND THE PHILHARMONIC

Monday, April 11, 2011, 7:30 p.m.

Alan Gilbert, ConductorItzhak Perlman, Violin

This concert will last approximatelytwo hours, which includes oneintermission.

Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln CenterHome of the New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, Music Director,holds The Yoko NagaeCeschina Chair.

Itzhak Perlman’s appearanceis made possible through theHedwig van Ameringen GuestArtists Endowment Fund.

Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is theRadio Station of the New YorkPhilharmonic.

Programs are supported, in part, by publicfunds from the New York City Departmentof Cultural Affairs, New York StateCouncil on the Arts, and the NationalEndowment for the Arts.

Instruments made possible, in part, by TheRichard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.

Steinway is the Official Piano of the New YorkPhilharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.

Exclusive Timepiece of the New York Philharmonic

Global Sponsor

04-11 Pension Fund:Layout 1 4/1/11 10:52 AM Page 23

New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, ConductorItzhak Perlman, Violin

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy(1840–93) (1869; rev. 1870, 1880)*

Andrea MORRICONE Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso (1988)(b. 1964)(arr. Angela Morley)

HUPFELD “As Time Goes By” (1931), from Casablanca (1942)(1894–1951)(arr. John Williams)

BARRY Main Title from Out of Africa (1985)(1933–2011)(arr. Angela Morley)

John WILLIAMS Theme from Schindler’s List (1993)(b. 1932)

GARDEL “Por una cabeza” (1935), (a.k.a. Tango from(1890–1935) Scent of a Woman) (1992)(arr. John Williams)

Intermission

New York Philharmonic24


25April 2011

*Recorded by the New York Philharmonic andcurrently available

The New York Philharmonic’s recording series,Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic:2010–11 Season, is available through iTunesvia an iTunes Pass. For more information, visitnyphil.org/itunes.

Other New York Philharmonic recordings areavailable on all major online music stores aswell as on major labels and the New YorkPhilharmonic’s own series.

The New York Philharmonic This Week, nationallysyndicated on the WFMT Radio Network, isbroadcast 52 weeks per year. Radio schedulesubject to change; for updated information visitnyphil.org.

In consideration of both the artists and the audi-ence, please be sure that your cell phones andpaging devices have been set to remain silent.

The photography, sound recording, or videotapingof these performances is prohibited.

MOZART Overture to Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute),(1756–91) K.620 (1791)*

SCHUBERT Overture to Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp),(1797–1828) D.644, a.k.a. Rosamunde Overture (1820)

KREISLER Liebesleid (1910?)(1875–1962) Liebesfreud (1910?)(arr. Clark McAlister) Schön Rosmarin (1910?)

Tambourin chinois, Op. 3 (1910?)

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b (1806)*(1770–1827)

The New York Philharmonic thanks the Musicians of the Orchestra fordonating their services for this concert to benefit the pension fund of the

New York Philharmonic.


26 New York Philharmonic

Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator

yours: also the introduction in E, the Alle-gro in B-flat minor and the second subjectin D-flat.

Of the broad melody evoking the younglovers, first stated by English horn and mutedviolas, Balakirev remarked:

I imagine you are lying nude in your bath andthat Artôt-Padilla herself is washing yourtummy with a hot lather of scented soap.

It is true that during the preceding yearTchaikovsky had harbored a sort of profes-sional infatuation for Désirée Artôt, a Belgiansoprano who had just made a splash locallyin a Shakespeare-derived role of her own —Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello. He con-vinced himself that he might be able to fall inlove with her, and he decided that theyshould be married. His friends were aghast,

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky dedicated hisRomeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy toMily Balakirev, a mover and shaker of Russianmusical politics since the 1850s who hadsuggested that the 29-year-old composerwrite a concert overture based on Shake-speare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In fact,Balakirev sent a long letter instructingTchaikovsky in detail how he should realize theproject; kibitzed about the key, the harmonicstructure, and the rhythmic niceties; and evenoffered a sample of what the opening meas-ures would sound like if hewere composing it.Correspondence flew back and forth as

Tchaikovsky worked on the piece, taking quite alot of Balakirev’s advice to heart. “The layout isyours,” Tchaikovsky assured him. He continued:

The introduction portraying the friar, thefight — Allegro, and love — the secondsubject; and, secondly, the modulations are

Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born: May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia

Died: November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

Work composed: October 7–November 27, 1869; revised in thesummer of 1870 and again in the summer of 1880 into the versionperformed in these concerts

World premiere: This version was premiered May 1, 1886, in Tiflis(Tbilisi), Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recent perform-ance: premiered April 22, 1876, George Matzka, conductor; selectionsfrom the work were most recently performed at Colorado’s Bravo! VailValley Music Festival on July 29, 2009, Bramwell Tovey, conductor

Estimated duration: 19 minutes Tchaikovsky, ca. 1870


27April 2011

and within a few months Artôt’s mother (hav-ing been advised by Tchaikovsky’s friendNikolai Rubinstein that the composer wasnot husband material in the traditional sense)swept her daughter off to Warsaw, whereDésirée promptly married a Spanish baritoneand added Padilla to her surname. In the end,this proved a great relief to Tchaikovsky. Ashe well knew, the real object of his affectionsjust then was not Désirée Artôt, but ratherEduard Zak, a 15-year old student at theMoscow Conservatory.Romeo and Juliet was not a success when

Nikolai Rubinstein conducted its premiere, inMoscow on March 16, 1870, and that summerTchaikovsky undertook extensive revisions.That gave rise to the beginning of the overture-fantasy as we now know it, and in the summerof 1880 Tchaikovsky again put the piecethrough a severe rewrite. After fully a decade’swork, Romeo and Juliet (now enriched by adire, unforgiving coda) reached masterpiecestatus, an achievement that was recognized in1884when it won the 500-ruble Glinka Award,the first of many prizes that would comeTchaikovsky’s way in his remaining years.

Andrea Morricone was born into film-music royalty; his father was Ennio Morri-cone, who received a Lifetime AchievementAcademy Award in 2007 in honor of a ca-reer that included scores for such films asOnce Upon a Time in America and The Mis-sion. Andrea was schooled at the Accade-mia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and went on toconduct a host of orchestras in Europe andthe Americas. He has found a particularniche in film music, and has composed thescores for nearly 20 films, includingGiuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso(1988 — its original Italian title was NuovoCinema Paradiso), the story of a filmmakerwho recalls his boyhood and the beginningsof his passion for motion pictures in post-World War II Sicily. The film won a GoldenGlobe Award for Best Foreign LanguageFilm in 1988 and an Academy Award asBest Foreign Language Film in 1989, whilethe score, jointly composed by Ennio andAndrea Morricone, was honored with GreatBritain’s BAFTA Award. Andrea Morriconewrote the famous Love Theme, which is per-formed in this concert.

Love Theme from Cinema ParadisoAndrea Morricone(arr. Angela Morley)

Born: October 10, 1964, in Rome, Italy

Resides: Los Angeles, California

Work composed: 1988

World premiere:with the release of the film, onNovember 17, 1988, in Italy

New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s onlyprevious performance of this piece was on April 12, 2005,Leonard Slatkin, conductor, Itzhak Perlman, soloist.

Estimated duration: 3 minutes A scene from the 1988 film Cinema Paradiso



“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all theworld, she walks into mine,” laments RickBlaine (played by Humphrey Bogart) in ref-erence to Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), his onetime sweetheart. Such is the set-up forCasablanca, that most romantic of WorldWar II films, directed in 1942 by Michael Cur-tiz. Ilsa, arriving at Rick’s bar, addresses thepianist: “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time GoesBy.’” Sam does so, singing the unforgettablelyrics: “You must remember this /A kiss is justa kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The funda-mental things apply / As time goes by.” Rickruns in, admonishing the pianist, “Sam, Ithought I told you never to play …,” and hiseyes meet Ilsa’s.The film’s music director was Max Steiner,

a composer born in Vienna (in 1888) whohad studied piano with Johannes Brahmsand composition with Gustav Mahler — and,as if that weren’t enough, had RichardStrauss for a godfather. He moved to Amer-ica at the outbreak of World War I, found suc-cess on Broadway, and in 1929 made his wayto Hollywood, where he achieved stardom

through such scores as King Kong (1933),Gone with the Wind (1939), Dark Victory(1939), and The Letter (1940), in addition toCasablanca. At a late date in the shooting ofCasablanca, Steiner apparently realized thepotency of the dramatic moment the songdefines, and he regretted that he had notwritten a new piece for that moment. He pe-titioned to do so, but it was out of the ques-tion: by that time, Ingrid Bergman had movedon to another project, and had had her haircut. The scene could not be revised, and so“As Time Goes By” remained as the virtualtheme song of Casablanca, and Steiner hadno choice but to employ the borrowedmelody liberally as he composed his filmscore around it.The song was the work of Herman

Hupfeld, a Broadway composer who neverpenned a complete show score but could re-liably be tapped to provide a song to fit intopretty much any theatrical situation. He hadoriginally written “As Time Goes By” in 1931for a musical comedy titled Everybody’s Wel-come, a moderately successful show that ran

“As Time Goes By,” from CasablancaHerman Hupfeld(arr. John Williams)

Born: February 1, 1894, in Montclair, New Jersey

Died: June 8, 1951, in Montclair

Work composed: 1931

World premiere: in the musical Everybody’s Welcome, onOctober 13, 1931, at New York City’s Schubert Theater

New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s onlyprevious performance of this piece was on December 31,2006, Ted Sperling, conductor, Audra McDonald, soloist.

Estimated duration: 5 minutes A climactic scene from the 1942 film Casablanca


29April 2011

for 139 performances. (The show’s music wasotherwise by Sammy Fain, its lyrics by IrvingKahal.) Frances Williams sang it in the show,and later in the year Rudy Vallee made arecording of it, so it served credibly as a stan-dard when it surfaced in Casablanca. Its usein the film made it an instant hit. In 2004 theAmerican Film Institute named it the secondgreatest movie song of all time, edged outonly by “Over the Rainbow.”

By the time John Barry died this January,he had long been acknowledged as one ofthe most ubiquitous and influential of all filmcomposers. His profession seemed practi-cally fated. His mother had been trained as aclassical pianist, and his father was a silent-movie projectionist who moved up the ladderuntil he owned a chain of cinemas in north-ern England. Barry claimed that as a child healready aspired to be a film composer, andon the way to fulfilling his ambitions he be-came an adept pianist and trumpeter.

Some of his earliest professional work wasas an arranger for popular dance bands, andthis soon led him to the world of the film stu-dios. Over the course of 50 years he wouldproduce approximately 100 film scores, aswell as the music for 25 television themes.Some of the most instantly identifiable ofBarry’s scores are the 15 he composed forthe James Bond movies, scores that deeplyinfluenced the “movie sound” of their era. Hereceived five Academy Awards: two for BornFree (for Best Song and Best Original Score),and one each for The Lion in Winter, Out ofAfrica, and Dances with Wolves.Sydney Pollack’s 1985 adventure drama

Out of Africa, loosely based on Isak Dine-sen’s autobiography of that name, was anepic story that unrolled in Kenya in the years1914–31. Barry’s title music conveys thevastness of the subject, opening up at aleisurely pace that suggests a vista of theHappy Valley or the Serengeti as enjoyedfrom a hot-air balloon.

Main Title from Out of AfricaJohn Barry(arr. Angela Morley)

Born: as John Barry Pendergast, on November 3, 1933, in York,Great Britain

Died: January 30, 2011, in Oyster Bay, Long Island

Work composed: 1985

World premiere: December 10, 1985, with the film’s opening inLos Angeles, California

New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s only previousperformance was on April 12, 2005, Leonard Slatkin, conductor,Itzhak Perlman, soloist.

Estimated duration: 3 minutes

The movie poster from Sydney Pollack’s 1985 film Out of Africa



JohnWilliams is the pre-eminent composerof Hollywood film music and has been for thepast three decades. He was born into the filmindustry, after a fashion, since his father wasa film-studio musician, and he grew up study-ing first piano, then trombone, trumpet, andclarinet. When his family moved to Los An-geles, in 1948, Williams began studying withthe jazz pianist and arranger Bobby Van Eps.During the early 1950s he did a stint in theAir Force (conducting and orchestrating forbands), studied at The Juilliard School for ayear with the eminent Rosina Lhévinne, andbeganmaking his way in the world of jazz clubsand recording studios. Back in Los Angeles forthe second half of the decade, Williams studiedcomposition at UCLAwith Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Arthur Olaf Andersen and soonbecame enmeshed in the musical side of thetelevision and movie industry.He orchestrated a number of feature films

in the 1960s and by the 1970s emerged asan important film-score composer in his ownright. The breakthrough that would make hisname synonymous with the sounds of thescreen came with Steven Spielberg’s aquatic

thriller Jaws. Spielberg would go on to delivera profusion of Hollywood hits of surprisinglydifferent character, and Williams became thecomposer of choice to mirror, support, andadvance their action and their emotionalstates through music.He concurrently maintained close working

relationships with other leading Hollywood di-rectors. For George Lucas and others he pro-vided thememorablemusical underpinnings forseveral of the Star Wars films; for Oliver Stonehe supplied scores forBorn on the Fourth of July(1989), JFK (1991), andNixon (1995). He alsocomposedmusic for AlfredHitchcock, Brian dePalma, Alan J. Pakula, Barry Levinson, and RonHoward. Working at a pace of about two filmscores per year, he has now completed morethan 80, and in the course of doing so he hasbeen recognizedwith an impressive successionof honors, including 5 Academy Awards, 21Grammys, 4 Golden Globes, and 6 Emmys, inaddition to induction into the Hollywood BowlHall of Fame (in 2000) and a Kennedy CenterHonor (in 2004).

Schindler’s List, based on a novel byThomas Keneally (itself drawn from factual

Theme from Schindler’s ListJohn Williams

Born: February 8, 1932, in Flushing (Queens), New York

Resides: Los Angeles, California

Work composed: 1993

World premiere: with the film’s opening, in New York Cityon December 1, 1993

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recentperformance: premiered February 10, 2004, JohnWilliams, conductor, Glenn Dicterow, soloist; most recentlyperformed December 2, 2009, Daniel Boico, conductor,Itzhak Perlman, soloist

Estimated duration: 4 minutesA scene from the 1993 film Schindler’s List, starring BenKingsley and Liam Neeson


31April 2011

occurrences), tells the story of an industrialistin Germany — a member of the Nazi party —who managed to save the lives of more than1,000 Jews during the Holocaust by employ-ing them in his factories, navigating astonish-ing political and economic challenges in doingso. Appearing at a concert at Boston’s Sym-phony Hall in 2009 (at which Spielberg wasalso in attendance), Williams told the audiencethat he was flabbergasted when he first sawa rough cut of the film. “I had to walk aroundthe room for four or five minutes to catch mybreath,” the composer reported. “I said toSteven, ‘I really think you need a better com-poser than I am for this film.’ And he verysweetly said, ‘I know, but they’re all dead.’”Itzhak Perlman has been connected with

this music from the start. He performed thissubdued yet curiously hopeful piece on thesound track, and it has become a frequentlyvisited item in his concert repertoire.

Although he apparently was born in the southof France, Carlos Gardel insisted that hewas a child of Uruguay. His unmarried mother

moved to Argentina when he was an infant,and he grew up to become the most endur-ing voice of the Argentine tango. He startedout as a bar singer and party entertainer, butin 1917 he catapulted to fame in SouthAmerica and beyond with his song “Mi nochetriste,” which sold more than 100,000 copies.Soon he became a recording star as well,and in the course of his brief life he recorded770 pieces, of which 514 were tangos. Hissuave demeanor was captured in 11 films;the first of them was silent, but the rest showthat his dramatic, seductive musical stylingswere fully supported by his personal bearing,which had something in common with that ofHumphrey Bogart.Gardel’s career ended in a plane crash in

Medellín, Colombia, in 1935. Seated next tohim was his friend Alfredo Le Pera, who hadwritten the lyrics for “Por una cabeza.” Hewasmourned throughout the world. Indeed, hisfuneral cortège traveled fromColombia to NewYork, and from there to Rio de Janeiro, Monte-video, and finally Buenos Aires, where he wasburied to the sounds of his tango “Silencioso.”

“Por una cabeza” (a.k.a. Tango from Scent of a Woman)Carlos Gardel(arr. John Williams)

Born: December 11, 1890, apparently in Toulouse, France (as CharlesRomuald Gardès)

Died: June 24, 1935, in Medellín, Colombia

Work composed: 1935, in New York City, to lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera

World premiere: The song’s early performance history is not welldocumented; Scent of a Woman was released first in the United Stateson December 23, 1992.

New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s only previousperformance was on April 12, 2005, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, ItzhakPerlman, soloist.

Estimated duration: 4 minutesAl Pacino dancing the tango with Gabrielle Anwarin Scent of a Woman



“Por una cabeza” may well be Gardel’smost acclaimed composition, along with “MiBuenos Aires querido.” Its title is translatedas “By a Head,” and the lyrics are the senti-ment of a horse-race gambler who compareshis compulsion for the track to his addictionto women.Gardel himself sang it stunningly in his final

film, Tango Bar, but it has also been heard inmany other films, includingMartin Brest’s 1992film drama Scent of a Woman. There it ac-companies Al Pacino (as a blind, alcoholic re-tired Army officer) as he leads Gabrielle Anwarin a sultry tango in a New York restaurant.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s involve-ment with opera spanned nearly his entireshort career. Beginning with Apollo et Hy-acinthus, a Latin intermezzo which was pro-duced at Salzburg University in 1767, hecompleted no fewer than 19 operas. He fin-ished almost all of Die Zauberflöte (TheMagic Flute) (his last work in the genre to bestaged) during the spring and early summer of

1791, but several numbers (including theOverture) remained to be written.Having overseen the premiere of his co-

eval opera, La clemenza di Tito, in Prague,Mozart returned to Vienna for the final prepa-rations for the premiere of Die Zauberflöte.He had recently renewed a friendship withEmanuel Schikaneder, a singer-actor-dancer-manager-playwright who had been bumpingup against the Mozart family with some regu-larity since late 1780, when a company he di-rected appeared in Salzburg. Schikanederwas now at the helm of Vienna’s 1,000-seatFreihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, where hespecialized in presenting lighthearted German-language singspiels, sometimes to librettos hehad written himself. His resident musical en-semble was impressive, including an orches-tra of 35 players and an impressive troupe ofsinging actors. Schikaneder himself craftedthe libretto for Die Zauberflöte, drawing onseveral collections of stories and fairy talespopular in Germany and Austria at the time.His audience did not embrace the new work

Overture to Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K.620Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria

Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna

Work composed: Mozart wrote his singspiel Die Zauber-flöte mostly between April and July 1791, although theopera’s Overture and its Act II March of the Priests wereapparently completed later, since in his personal catalogueMozart dated them September 28.

World premiere: September 30, 1791, at Vienna’sFreihaus-Theater auf der Wieden

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recentperformance: premiered November 18, 1843, Ureli CorelliHill, conductor; most recently performed January 15, 2011,Daniel Boico, conductor

Estimated duration: 7 minutesThe design for “The Queen of the Night” from Mozart’sThe Magic Flute, by Simon Quaglio, 1818


33April 2011

immediately at its unveiling in September1791, but they soon fell to its charms. Mozartconducted only the first two performances,and then relinquished the podium to col-leagues who husbanded the singspiel to hugepopular acclaim. Finally, the composer had a

much-needed hit on his hands. If he had notdied little more than two months following thepremiere, Die Zauberflöte would doubtlesshave changed the course of his life.There does seem to be a good deal of

hocus-pocus going on in Die Zauberflöte, andmuch of it, we are told, makes sense onlywhen one understands that the work is an al-legory for Masonic beliefs and rites. For ex-ample, the number three is said to holdmystical significance to Freemasons, so theoverriding key of this opera is E-flat major, withthree flats in the key signature, and theOver-ture opens with a grand proclamation (Ada-gio) of each of the three notes of the tonictriad. Following this grave introduction, the or-chestra skips off in a gleeful, fugal Allegro, thetheme of which seems to have been borrowed(consciously or not) from a piano sonata byMuzio Clementi, only to be interrupted by an-other solemn proclamation of the three chords(this time in the dominant key of B-flat). Theremainder of the Overture is notable forMozart’s brilliant use of counterpoint and dy-namic contrasts, building a considerably more

Mozart’s Masonic Opera

Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist and producer ofDie Zauberflöte, was a Freemason, and Mozart hadalso joined a Masonic lodge — the Loge zur Wohl-thätigkeit, or “Lodge of Beneficence” — in Vienna inDecember of 1784. Within a month he was raised tothe second degree of Freemasonry, and the followingyear he appears to have been elevated further, to therank of Master Mason. Although the details ofFreemasonry were then, and remain today, shroudedin secrecy, there is no question that the movementwas aligned to the general ideals of Enlightenmentthought, and that in both Europe and America itproved attractive to free-thinking political liberals andmore than a few artists. Mozart composed a numberof pieces specifically for use at Masonic gatherings,but Die Zauberflöte seems to represent his most ex-treme attempt to employ Masonic imagery and sym-bolism in a public entertainment.

Overture to Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp), D.644,a.k.a. Rosamunde OvertureFranz Schubert

Born: January 31, 1797, in Vienna, Austria

Died: November 19, 1828, in Vienna

Work composed: sometime between April and August 1820, in Vienna

World premiere: August 19, 1820, at the premiere staging of theplay Die Zauberharfe at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recent perform-ance: premiered March 30, 1901, Frank Damrosch conducting theNew York Symphony (which would merge with the New York Philhar-monic in 1928 to form today’s Philharmonic); most recently performedJanuary 31, 2004, Riccardo Muti, conductor

Estimated duration: 10 minutesA portrait of Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder,1825



complex piece than one might expect fromwhat is really only a single theme.

The Schubert overture performed in thisconcert has been a staple of the orchestralrepertoire so long — it has even been a partof the American concert world for a centuryand a half — that calling it anything otherthan the Rosamunde Overture invitesheaps of confusion. And yet, this music wasnot one of the nine vocal or instrumentalnumbers that Schubert contributed in 1823to the first (and apparently only) staging ofthe four-act play Rosamunde, Fürstin vonZypern (Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus),(which, by all accounts, was a very bad playby a very bad playwright, the society matronHelmina von Chézy, whose dreadful librettofor Weber’s opera Euryanthe represents herother principal collision with the history ofmusic. For Rosamunde’s two performancesSchubert used the Overture he had writtenin 1821–22 for his own unperformed operaAlfonso und Estrella.The point is that the piece played tonight

was not connected to Rosamunde at all — or,at best, it became connected to it after thefact and then only theoretically. Schubertwrote this Overture in 1820 for the three-act“magic play” Die Zauberharfe (The MagicHarp), by Georg von Hofmann, which wasunveiled in August 1820 at the Theater ander Wien and ran for eight performancesthrough October 12. After the Overturecame the “magic play” itself — drenched infantastic Medievalism, hard to follow, des-perately under-rehearsed — into which wereinterspersed 13 further pieces of incidentalmusic by Schubert. As with Rosamunde, crit-ics found Die Zauberharfe easier to recom-mend for its music than for its text, althoughopinions were split even about the music.

So how did it happen that the Overture toDie Zauberharfe became known as the Over-ture to Rosamunde? In 1827 this piece waspublished by the Viennese firm of M.J. Lei-desdorf in an arrangement for piano duet, in-explicably under the title Ouvertüre zumDrama Rosamunde, and ensuing publicationsfollowed suit. Historians have used a fairamount of imagination in trying to makesense of this confusion, such as the scholarElizabeth Norman McKay, who theorized inFranz Schubert: A Biography (Oxford, 1996)that “For an overture, he took over one he hadalready written for Alfonso und Estrella, laterreplacing this for any projected future pro-duction of Rosamunde with the Zauberharfeoverture of 1820.” Although she offers noscholarly citation to support her claim, at

Views and Reviews

Die Zauberharfe limped through eight performancesbut it was neither a popular nor a critical success. Adetailed review in the Theaterzeitung (August 26,1820) at least held out some praise, however mixed,for Schubert’s contribution:

First a few words on the book of this melodrama or,as it prefers to call itself, magic play; and unfortu-nately, with the best will in the world, nothing veryedifying may be said about it. Alas! Though thewitchery might pass, with what distressing tediumdoes it overflow, as it were, still affecting one’smemory and paralyzing even themost fluent criticalpen! … True, there is the music — and real music!Many good ideas, forceful passages, cleverly man-aged harmonic pieces, insight and understanding;but also inequalities in abundance, commonplacesside by side with originalities, a mixture of light andfar-fetched, valuable and frivolous things; so thatone cannot, in spite of better moments, do other-wise than regard the whole as perfunctory. Not thatit deserves censure, but it is to be wished that thetalented composer will in future find a better sub-ject and a full measure of deliberation.


35April 2011

least the general idea would explain how thechange of title could have appeared in au-thorized, published form in Schubert’s ownVienna while he was still alive. But even if hedid want to have this played at future pro-ductions of Rosamunde, there were none. Inpractical and historical terms, it remains theOverture to Die Zauberharfe.

Ask a violinist his or her impression of FritzKreisler and you are almost sure to receivea response saturated with reverence. He wasamong the greatest of the great ones, a leg-end in his own time, and a fiddler for the

ages. His destiny seemed clear practicallyfrom the outset, when at the age of seven hebecame the youngest student ever admittedto the Vienna Conservatory, where AntonBruckner taught him music theory andJoseph Hellmesberger, Jr., served as his vio-lin professor.Three years later he graduated with a gold

medal. He moved on to the Paris Conserva-toire, which awarded Kreisler its premier prixwhen he was 12 — and that was the last vi-olin instruction he ever had. Before long, helaid aside his violin to enroll as a pre-medstudent in Vienna, and then to fulfill military

LiebesleidLiebesfreudSchön RosmarinTambourin chinois, Op. 3Fritz Kreisler(arr. Clark McAlister)

Born: February 2, 1875, in Vienna, Austria

Died: January 29, 1962, in New York

Works composed and premiered: all composed by 1910 at the latest, as they were first published that year (or asearly as 1905, depending on which source one believes). There is no information about their early performance histories.

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recent perform-ances: Liebesleid: premiered June 30, 1941, Eugene Goossens, con-ductor, Mischa Elman, soloist; most recently played on December 31,2007, Lorin Maazel, conductor, Joshua Bell, soloist

Liebesfreud: premiered June 11, 1965, Andre Kostelanetz, conductor,Carroll Glenn, soloist; most recently played on December 31, 2007,Lorin Maazel, conductor, Joshua Bell, soloist

Schön Rosmarin: premiered December 31, 1984, Zubin Mehta, con-ductor, Shlomo Mintz, soloist; most recently played on September 16,1998, Kurt Masur, conductor, Isaac Stern, soloist

Tambourin chinois: premiered January 7, 1916, Walter Damrosch con-ducting the New York Symphony (which would merge with the NewYork Philharmonic in 1928 to form today’s Philharmonic), Fritz Kreisler,soloist; most recently played on December 2, 2009, Daniel Boico, con-ductor, Itzhak Perlman, soloist

Estimated durations: Liebesleid, 4 minutes; Liebesfreud, 3 minutes;Schön Rosmarin, 3 minutes; Tambourin chinois, 4 minutes Fritz Kreisler, ca.1910



service. When he decided to return to music,he regained his technique quickly, only to failan 1896 audition for an opening in the violinsection of the Vienna Court Opera (which wasactually the Vienna Philharmonic moved fromthe stage to the pit). Within two years, how-ever, he appeared with the orchestra, but as asoloist, and to great acclaim. His career wasoff and running. Sir Edward Elgar composedhis Violin Concerto for Kreisler, who premieredit in 1910 with the composer conducting.Still, there were impediments. He was

wounded in World War I while serving in theAustrian Army, and when he and his Ameri-can wife came to the United States, he wassomewhat thwarted by anti-German senti-ment. (They returned to America for good in1939, and he was granted American citizen-ship in 1943.) An accident in April 1941— hewas hit by an egg-delivery truck when hestepped off the curb at 57th Street and Madi-son Avenue — robbed him of some of his

sight and hearing, and by 1950 his careerhad ended. Yet through all this, he performedwith a unique combination of ease, grace,charm, technical perfection, tonal luster, andidiosyncratic personality.What’s more, he composed quite a few

works, including a string quartet, cadenzas forthe Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos,and pieces he passed off as discoveries he’dmade of works by earlier composers, andeven an operetta.He also penned numerous light pieces for

the violin. Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow),Liebesfreud (Love’s Delight), Schön Ros-marin (Lovely Rosemary), and Tambourinchinois (Chinese Tambourin) are among themany of his numbers that remain today in theworking repertoire of violinists. Their compo-sitional history is obscure, as is true of manyof his works. Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, andSchön Rosmarin were published together asa set (appearing in that order) under the titleAlt-Wiener Tanzweisen (Old Viennese DanceMelodies), attributed to Joseph Lanner, aViennese composer who was a friendly com-petitor to Johann Strauss I. Confusion ex-tends even to the date when this publicationwas issued, with some sources suggesting itwas as early as 1905. In 1910 the pieceswere published under Kreisler’s name, whichat least cleared up the matter of their true au-thorship, and Kreisler recorded them all in theyears 1910–12.The faux-oriental Tambourin chinois simi-

larly dates from no later than 1910. Kreislerfirst recorded it on May 13 of that year forthe Victor label, with the pianist GeorgeFalkenstein, and submitted the compositionfor copyright that September. The piecewould remain a favorite among record col-lectors, so that Kreisler re-recorded it in1911 for release on the HMV label, with pi-anist Haddon Squire; in 1915 and 1928 for

In the Composer’s Words

Frederick Herman Martens, in his book Violin Mas-tery: Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers (1919),reported this comment from KKrreeiisslleerr on the inspira-tion for Tambourin chinois:

I don’t mind telling you that I enjoyed very muchwriting my TTaammbboouurriinn cchhiinnooiiss. The idea for it cameto me after a visit to the Chinese theater in SanFrancisco — not that the music there suggestedany theme, but it gave me the impulse to write afree fantasy in the Chinese manner.

To which Mr. Martens adds this footnote:

It is interesting to note that Nikolai Sokoloff, con-ductor of the San Francisco Philharmonic, return-ing home from a tour of American and Frencharmy camps in France, some time ago, said: “Mymost popular number was Kreisler’s Tambourinchinois. Invariably I had to repeat that.” A strong in-dorsement [sic] of the internationalism of Art bythe actual fighter in the trenches.


37April 2011

Victor, with Carl Lamson; in 1936 for Elec-trola, with Franz Rupp; and in 1942 for RCAVictor with Charles O’Connell conducting theVictor Symphony Orchestra.

Despite numerous false starts at a variety ofstage works, the only opera that Ludwig vanBeethoven managed to sink his talons intoand carry through to completion — and an-other completion, and yet another after that —was the work he unveiled in 1805 under thetitle Leonore and transformed by fits andstarts into what is known today as Fidelio. Inthe years immediately following the FrenchRevolution, theatrical plots involving politicaloppression, daring rescues, and the triumphof humanitarianism grew popular in manyEuropean countries. The author Jean-Nico-las Bouilly had recently scored a successwith his libretto for Les Deux journées, a “res-cue opera” set by Luigi Cherubini (whosemusic Beethoven greatly admired); whenan opportunity to set a different Bouilly li-bretto came Beethoven’s way, the composer

Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Ludwig van Beethoven

Born: December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the

17th), in Bonn, Germany

Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Work composed: 1806, for the first revision of Beethoven’s operaLeonore, later transformed into Fidelio. This overture draws on musi-cal material drafted as early as 1804.

World premiere: March 29, 1806, at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien

New York Philharmonic premiere and most recent perform-ance: premiered December 20, 1862, Theodore Eisfeld, conductor;most recently performed July 21, 2007, Andrew Davis, conductor, atthe Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival

Estimated duration: 14 minutes

Vincenz Raimund’s engraving of the dungeonscene from the 1815 performance of Beet -hoven’s Fidelio at Vienna’s Kärtnertortheater

Beethoven and Opera

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”Shakespeare’s maxim might be cited to sum up notonly the complications that confront the married cou-ple at the center of Beethoven’s opera Leonore/Fi-delio, but also Beethoven’s relationship with thegenre of opera in general. Independent arias, balletsequences, and incidental music for theatrical pro-ductions run liberally through his catalogue, butwhen it came to creating a complete standaloneopera Beethoven seemed perpetually stymied. Hewas always on the lookout for an appropriate libretto.For about four years (1807–11) he toyed with writingan opera based on Macbeth and for three years in the 1820s he held on to the libretto for Melusine,which the poet Franz Grillparzer crafted expressly forhim from a medieval fairy tale. At different timesBeethoven expressed interest in turning tales involv-ing the deceived knight Bradamante and the questingscholar Faust into operas, but these ideas also cameto naught. His first real attempt at opera came in1803: Vestas Feuer, a drama set in ancient Rome witha libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder (who a dozenyears earlier had crafted the libretto for Mozart’s DieZauberflöte). But Beethoven’s heart wasn’t in it, andhe diverted most of his creative energy that year tohis Third Symphony and the Waldstein Piano Sonata —probably a good thing for posterity.



pounced, enlisting his friend Joseph Sonn -leithner to adapt Bouilly’s text and translate itinto German. The plot involves a marriage rendered

rocky not by spousal squabbling but rather bythe imposition of ominous political forcesfrom the outside. Florestan has been unjustlyimprisoned by Don Pizarro (a nobleman in18th-century Spain), but his devoted wife,Leonore, manages to get a job in the prisondisguised as a boy (in which semblance shecalls herself “Fidelio”). Don Pizarro decides toexecute Florestan before the imminent arrivalof a virtuous prison-inspection team, but “Fi-delio” intercedes and holds him at bay with apistol until the good guys arrive — at whichpoint Leonore (shedding her disguise) andFlorestan are reunited in their marriage andDon Pizarro’s goose is cooked. Leonore was not well received at its 1805

premiere and its run ended after three perform-ances. (There were extenuating circumstances:

Napoleon’s troops had just marched in to oc-cupy Vienna, and most of the city’s aristo-cratic class had fled to the countryside.)Beethoven immediately set about revisingthe piece, and on March 29, 1806, he intro-duced a truncated and restructured versionof Leonore. This fared little better, and its runwas cut short by an argument between thecomposer and the theater’s management.When plans surfaced to revive the work in1814, Beethoven effected still further alter-ations and renamed the opera Fidelio. Finallythe opera was a hit, and it is in that final formthat we almost always find it produced today.Each of these versions sported a different

overture. (Beethoven even composed a fourthoverture, known today as the Leonore Over-ture No. 1, for a performance that wasplanned for Prague in 1807 but ended up nottaking place.) The LeonoreOverture No. 3introduced the 1806 incarnation. It wasnever a part of the final version of the opera,where it was replaced by the so-called Fide-lio Overture, but it still maintains a place inmany modern performances thanks to thelong-standing though not universal traditionof inserting it between the two scenes of thatopera’s second act. The Leonore Overture No. 3 is divided into

three general sections. The Adagio introduc-tion opens with an attention-getting chordand then a descending C-major scale that,oddly, comes to rest on F-sharp (a harmonicinterloper in that scale), and then the musicgoes ranging through a series of distanttonalities, suggesting the dark confusion ofFlorestan in his cell. A foretaste of the plotcontinues in the spirited Allegro section; itsheroic theme and its tense development leadto the famous offstage trumpet fanfares —harbingers of the arriving prison inspectors.After a review of various themes, Beethovenlets loose a triumphant Presto.

What Can Go Wrong, Will

The most dramatic moment in the Leonore OvertureNo. 3 surely arrives with the offstage trumpet calls —or maybe not so surely. Fritz Spiegl, in his entertain-ing volume Music Through the Looking Glass, de-scribed inopportune scenarios:

The most famous offstage story is probably apoc-ryphal, and concerns the trumpeter who had re-hearsed in the ideal spot for the Leonore trumpetcalls, just inside the stage-door — only to be forciblyrestrained by the door-keeper at the performance:“You can’t play that thing in here; there’s a concertgoing on inside!” On two other occasions thingswent wrong in the same piece. Once the trumpetcall failed to materialize at all, as the player had gotlost in the labyrinthine corridors of the hall on theway to his place. In the other performance, the off-stage player’s location was quite different at theperformance from the one agreed earlier. “Why did-n’t you play where you were before?” asked theconductor. “I’m sorry, but there was somebody in it.”


39April 2011

2010–2011 SEASONALAN GILBERT, Music Director, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina ChairDaniel Boico, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus

VIOLINSGlenn DicterowConcertmasterThe Charles E. CulpeperChairSheryl StaplesPrincipal AssociateConcertmasterThe Elizabeth G. BeineckeChairMichelle KimAssistant ConcertmasterThe William PetschekFamily ChairEnrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe

Minyoung Chang+Hae-Young HamThe Mr. and Mrs. TimothyM. George ChairLisa GiHae KimKuan-Cheng LuNewton MansfieldThe Edward and PriscillaPilcher Chair Kerry McDermott+Anna RabinovaCharles RexThe Shirley Bacot ShamelChairFiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserThe William and ElfriedeUlrich ChairYulia Ziskel

Marc GinsbergPrincipalLisa Kim*In Memory of Laura MitchellSoohyun KwonThe Joan and Joel I. PicketChairDuoming Ba

Marilyn DubowThe Sue and EugeneMercy, Jr. ChairMartin EshelmanQuan GeJudith GinsbergStephanie JeongThe Gary W. Parr ChairHanna LachertHyunju LeeJoo Young OhDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin

VIOLASCynthia PhelpsPrincipalThe Mr. and Mrs. FrederickP. Rose ChairRebecca Young*Irene Breslaw**The Norma and LloydChazen ChairDorian Rence

Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J.McDonough ChairDawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert RinehartThe Mr. and Mrs. G. ChrisAndersen Chair

CELLOSCarter BreyPrincipalThe Fan Fox and Leslie R.Samuels ChairEileen Moon*The Paul and DianeGuenther Chair

The Shirley and JonBrodsky Foundation ChairEvangeline Benedetti

Eric BartlettThe Mr. and Mrs. James E.Buckman ChairElizabeth DysonMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoQiang TuRu-Pei YehThe Credit Suisse Chair in honor of Paul CalelloWei YuWilhelmina Smith++

BASSESEugene LevinsonPrincipalThe Redfield D. BeckwithChairOrin O’BrienActing Associate PrincipalThe Herbert M. Citrin Chair

William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B.Hess ChairRandall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi Okamoto

FLUTESRobert LangevinPrincipalThe Lila Acheson WallaceChairSandra Church*Mindy Kaufman

PICCOLOMindy Kaufman

OBOESLiang WangPrincipalThe Alice Tully ChairSherry Sylar*Robert BottiThe Lizabeth and FrankNewman Chair

ENGLISH HORN

The Joan and Joel SmilowChair

CLARINETSMark NuccioActing PrincipalThe Edna and W. Van AlanClark ChairPascual MartinezForteza

Acting Associate PrincipalThe Honey M. Kurtz FamilyChairAlucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++

E-FLAT CLARINETPascual MartinezForteza

BASS CLARINETAmy Zoloto++

BASSOONSJudith LeClairPrincipalThe Pels Family ChairKim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast

CONTRABASSOONArlen Fast



HORNSPhilip MyersPrincipalThe Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder ChairStewart Rose++*Acting Associate PrincipalCara Kizer Aneff**R. Allen SpanjerErik Ralske+Howard WallDavid Smith++

TRUMPETSPhilip SmithPrincipalThe Paula Levin ChairMatthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith

TROMBONESJoseph AlessiPrincipalThe Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. HartChairAmanda Davidson*David FinlaysonThe Donna and Benjamin M. RosenChair

BASS TROMBONEJames MarkeyThe Daria L. and William C. FosterChair

TUBAAlan BaerPrincipal

TIMPANIMarkus RhotenPrincipalThe Carlos Moseley ChairKyle Zerna**

PERCUSSIONChristopher S. LambPrincipalThe Constance R. Hoguet Friends ofthe Philharmonic ChairDaniel Druckman*The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. UlrichChairKyle Zerna

HARPNancy AllenPrincipalThe Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight IIIChair

KEYBOARDIn Memory of Paul Jacobs

HARPSICHORDLionel Party

PIANOThe Karen and Richard S. LeFrakChairHarriet WingreenJonathan Feldman

ORGANKent Tritle

LIBRARIANSLawrence TarlowPrincipalSandra Pearson**Sara Griffin**

ORCHESTRA PERSONNELMANAGERCarl R. Schiebler

STAGE REPRESENTATIVELouis J. Patalano

AUDIO DIRECTORLawrence Rock

* Associate Principal** Assistant Principal+ On Leave++ Replacement/Extra

The New York Philharmonic usesthe revolving seating method forsection string players who arelisted alpha betically in the roster.

HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE

SOCIETYPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin MehtaCarlos Moseley



The Artists

Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko NagaeCeschina Chair, began his tenure at the NewYork Philharmonic in September 2009. Thefirst native New Yorker to hold the post, heushered in what The New York Times called“an adventurous new era” at the Philharmonic.In his inaugural season he introduced a num-ber of new initiatives: the positions of TheMarie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence,held by Magnus Lindberg; The Mary andJames G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, held in2010–11 by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter; anannual three-week festival, which in 2010–11is titled Hungarian Echoes, led by Esa-PekkaSalonen; and CONTACT!, the New York Phil-harmonic’s new-music series. In the 2010–11season Mr. Gilbert is leading the Orchestra ontwo tours of European music capitals; twoperformances at Carnegie Hall, including thevenue’s 120th Anniversary Concert; and astaged presentation of Janácek’s The CunningLittle Vixen. Highlights of his inaug ural sea-son included a major tour of Asia in October2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi,and performances in nine cities on the

EUROPE / WINTER 2010 tour in February2010. Also in the 2009–10 season he con-ducted world, U.S., and New York premieres,as well as an acclaimed staged presentationof Ligeti’s opera, Le Grand Macabre.In January 2011 Alan Gilbert was named

Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studiesat The Juilliard School, a position that will beginin fall 2011. This adds to his responsibilities asthe first holder of Juilliard’s William SchumanChair in Musical Studies, establishing Mr. Gilbertas the principal teacher for all conductingmajors at the school. He is also conductorlaureate of the Royal Stockholm PhilharmonicOrchestra and principal guest conductor ofHamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra. He hasconducted other leading orchestras in the U.S.and abroad, including the Boston, Chicago,and San Francisco symphony orchestras; LosAngeles Philharmonic; Cleveland and Philadel-phia Orchestras; and the Berlin Philharmonic,Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orches-tra, and Amsterdam’s Royal ConcertgebouwOrchestra. From 2003 to 2006 he served asthe first music director of the Santa Fe Opera.Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University,

The Curtis Institute of Music, and The JuilliardSchool. From 1995 to 1997 he was the as-sistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.In November 2008 he made his MetropolitanOpera debut con ducting John Adams’sDoctorAtomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s ScythianSuite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestrawas nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, andhis recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 re-ceived top honors from the Chicago Tribuneand Gramophonemagazine. On May 15, 2010,Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor ofMusic degree from The Curtis Institute of Music.

April 2011 41


Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman enjoys su-perstar status rarely afforded a classical mu-sician. In 2009 Mr. Perlman took part in theInauguration of President Barack Obama,premiering a piece written for the occasionby John Williams and performing with clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist GabrielaMontero, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. PresidentRonald Reagan granted him a Medal of Lib-erty in 1986, and President Bill Clintonawarded him the National Medal of Art inDecember 2000. In 2003 he was a KennedyCenter Honoree and in 2007 he performedat the State Dinner for Her Majesty TheQueen and His Royal Highness The Duke ofEdinburgh, hosted by President and Mrs.George W. Bush at The White House. In the 2010–11 season Mr. Perlman trav-

els to Chile and Brazil for orchestral andrecital performances, and appears in Japan

with pianist and frequent collaborator RohanDe Silva. Other highlights include a specialperformance with the Chicago Symphony Or-chestra to benefit the Rotary Foundation’sEnd Polio Now campaign and a performancewith the Toronto Symphony Orchestra atCarnegie Hall. Mr. Perlman also appears withstudents and alumni from the Perlman MusicProgram in New York, Washington, D.C., andPrinceton, N.J.Mr. Perlman also conducts leading orches-

tras, including the New York Philharmonic; thisseason marks his third as artistic director ofthe Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra. Hewas music advisor of the St. Louis SymphonyOrchestra from 2002 to 2004, and he wasprincipal guest conductor of the Detroit Sym-phony Orchestra from 2001 to 2005. Itzhak Perlman devotes considerable time

to education, both in his participation eachsummer in the Perlman Music Program and inhis teaching at The Juilliard School, where heholds the Dorothy Richard Starling FoundationChair. He proudly possesses four EmmyAwards and fifteen Grammy awards. He wasawarded an honorary doctorate and a centen-nial medal on the occasion of Juilliard’s 100thcommencement ceremony in 2005.Mr. Perlman records for EMI/Angel, Sony

Classical/Sony BMG Masterworks, DeutscheGrammophon, London/Decca, Erato/ElektraInternational Classics, and Telarc. For moreinformation visit www.itzhakperlman.com.



The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842by a group of local musicians led by American-bornUreli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It currently plays some 180concerts a year, and on May 5, 2010, gave its15,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by anyother symphony orchestra in the world.Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae

Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009,the latest in a distinguished line of 20th-centurymusical giants that has included Lorin Maazel(2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991to the summer of 2002; named Music DirectorEmeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); PierreBoulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who wasappointed Music Director in 1958 and given thelifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.Since its inception the Orchestra has champi-

oned the new music of its time, commissioning orpremiering many important works, such as Dvorák’sSymphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmani-noff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin’s PianoConcerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations. ThePhilharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of suchworks as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 andBrahms’s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering traditionhas continued to the present day, with works of majorcontemporary composers regularly scheduled eachseason, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– andGrammy Award–winning On the Transmigration ofSouls; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; AugustaRead Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily DickinsonSettings for Soprano and Orchestra; Esa-PekkaSalonen’s Piano Concerto; Magnus Lindberg’s EXPOand Al Largo; and Christopher Rouse’s Odna Zhizn.The roster of composers and conductors who

have led the Philharmonic includes such historicfigures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák, GustavMahler (Music Director, 1909–11), Otto Klemperer,Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director,1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini(Music Director, 1928–36), Igor Stravinsky, AaronCopland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor, 1947–49),Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director, 1949–58), Klaus

Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor, 1969–70),and Erich Leinsdorf. Long a leader in American musical life, the Philhar-

monic has become renowned around the globe, andhas appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries on five con-tinents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by then-Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic per formancein Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea —the first visit there by an American orchestra. In Octo-ber 2009 the Orchestra, conducted by Music DirectorAlan Gilbert, made its debut in Hanoi, Vietnam. ThePhilharmonic subsequently received the 2008 Com-mon Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy for its his-toric performance in Pyongyang, and on November16, 2010, received the Asia Society’s Cultural Am-bassador Award for its concerts in Pyongyang andHanoi. Other historic tours have included the 1930Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first South Ameri-can Tour, in 1951; the first Tour to the U.S.S.R., in 1959;the 1984 Asia Tour, including the first tour of India; the1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, with the first per-formances in mainland China; and the 75th Anniver-sary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel.A media pioneer, the Philharmonic began radio

broadcasts in 1922, and is currently represented by TheNew York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated na-tionally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org.On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philhar-monic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s YoungPeople’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence hascontinued with annual appear ances on Live From Lin-coln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as thefirst Orchestra ever to perform live on the GrammyAwards, one of the most-watched television eventsworldwide. In 2004 the Philharmonic became the firstmajor American orchestra to offer downloadable con-certs, recorded live. The most recent initiative is AlanGilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010–11 —downloadable concerts, recorded live, available eitheras a subscription or as 12 individual releases. Since1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 record-ings, with more than 500 currently available.On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic

proudly announced a new partnership with CreditSuisse, its first-ever and exclusive Global Sponsor.


April 2011 43


LGOs

p22



LGOs

p 23

April 2011 45


userʼs guide

p 24



Documents

AlanGilbert, Conductor ItzhakPerlman , Violindata.instantencore.com/pdf/1005657/04-11+Pension+Fund_reconfirm.pdf · AlanGilbert,Conductor ItzhakPerlman ,Violin Thisconcertwilllastapproximately