NY Philharmonic Announces Recording Releases For January-March 2010

The New York Philharmonic announces details about recordings being released from January-March 2010 as part of the Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season iTunes Pass - the new digital music series available exclusively from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com and nyphil.org/itunes). Eight new releases comprising 21 works will become available over the three months.

The first January release will be Haydn's Symphony No. 95; Martin?'s Piano Concerto No. 4, Incantation, with Garrick Ohlsson; and Sibelius's Symphony No. 1, conducted by Xian Zhang. The second January release, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, features Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta; Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, with the French pianist David Fray making his Philharmonic debut; and Debussy's La Mer.

In February, Christoph von Dohnányi leads Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, featuring solo appearances by Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and PrincipAl Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. The second February release, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, comprises two works by Webern- Im Sommerwind and Symphony, Op. 21 - alongside Schumann's Symphony No. 2.

The final February release, also led by Mr. Gilbert, features Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist. The March 2010 releases, all conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, begin with Haydn's Symphony No. 49, La passione; John Adams's The Wound-Dresser, featuring baritone Thomas Hampson, the Philharmonic's Artist-in-Residence; and Schubert's Symphony in B minor, Unfinished. The second March release - an all-American program from the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert - features Copland's Suite from Appalachian Spring and selections from his Old American Songs, sung by Thomas Hampson, and will conclude with Gershwin's An American in Paris.

The final March release comprises Falla's The Three Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2 and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. The Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season iTunes Pass allows users to own live New York Philharmonic concert recordings of more than 50 works performed during 2009-10 - Alan Gilbert's inaugural season as Music Director - each released within weeks of the actual concert. It also provides additional recordings of concerts from recent seasons and other bonus content, for more than 30 total hours of music.

Users will automatically receive music downloads on a regular basis each month through August 2010 for a one-time price of $150.

The New York Philharmonic is the first orchestra with an iTunes Pass, and Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season is the first classical music iTunes Pass offered by iTunes. The series launched with six releases that included works from the first weeks of the New York Philharmonic's 2009-10 season, the first in Alan Gilbert's tenure, representing the rich range of repertoire that has become a trademark of Mr. Gilbert's leadership. Subsequent releases include performances by Mr. Gilbert and guest conductors of the season.

With iTunes Pass, fans get music and other content from their favorite artists delivered directly to their iTunes library as it becomes available over a season, tour or other set period of time. iTunes Pass buyers will receive an e-mail notification when new content is available, and new items will automatically be delivered to their iTunes music library.

All iTunes music is delivered in the iTunes Plus format, which features the highest quality 256 Kbps AAC encoding with no DRM (Digital Rights Management). When an iTunes Pass is purchased, at any time, users immediately receive all previously released items in the Pass, and new items will be automatically delivered the moment they are available.