NY Philharmonic Releases Concert Recordings from Alan Gilbert's Inaugural Season

The New York Philharmonic will release four individual concert recordings featuring works performed during Music Director Alan Gilbert's inaugural season. The recordings, which consist of concerts selected by Mr. Gilbert, will be available for download through several major online music stores beginning today.

The recordings feature recent performances from the 2009-10 season by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic. They include Mahler's Symphony No. 3; Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman; Haydn's Symphony No. 49, La passione, John Adams's The Wound-Dresser performed by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Thomas Hampson, Schubert's Symphony in B minor, Unfinished, and Berg's Three Orchestral Pieces; and the All-American New Year's Eve concert featuring the music of Copland, Gershwin, and Cole Porter, also with Mr. Hampson. The new recordings will be available for download on iTunes, Amazon.com, eMusic.com, InstantEncore.com, and in high-quality formats from HDtracks.com; streaming on ClassicalArchives.com, a new classical music specialist site; and as ringtones on various mobile content provider sites.

The New York Philharmonic has also announced recordings being released between April and August 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). Fifteen new releases, comprising more than 37 works, will become available over five months and complete the content that will be available through the iTunes Pass. Highlights from the final 15 album releases of the 2009-10 New York Philharmonic iTunes Pass include works featuring Music Director Alan Gilbert and Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur; conductors David Robertson and Sir Colin Davis; violinists Gil Shaham and Pinchas Zukerman; mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Joyce DiDonato; Principal Oboe Liang Wang, Acting Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio, Principal Bassoon Judith LeClair, and Principal Horn Philip Myers; Word-Premiere-New York Philharmonic Commissions by Christopher Rouse, Peter Lieberson, Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg, and composers from CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series; works performed during The Russian Stravinsky: A Philharmonic Festival, conducted by Valery Gergiev, as well as the Philharmonic's New York Premiere performance of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre. 

The Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season iTunes Pass allows users to own live New York Philharmonic concert recordings of more than 80 works performed during 2009-10 - Alan Gilbert's inaugural season as Music Director - each released within weeks of the actual concert. It also provides recordings of concerts from recent seasons and other bonus content for more than 30 total hours of music, in addition to Mr. Gilbert's comments from the stage and liner notes. Users automatically receive music downloads on a regular basis each month through August 2010 for a one-time price of $150.

With the 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.