The 2016 New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, return for the 51st season with five free outdoor concerts, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, on the Great Lawn in Central Park, Manhattan, beginning today, June 15 and continuing tomorrow, June 16; Prospect Park, Brooklyn (June 17); Cunningham Park, Queens (June 20); and Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx (June 21).
The New York Philharmonic will present Share the Stage during the 2016 Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, featuring performances by local musicians in their home boroughs. Share the Stage was launched in 2015 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Concerts in the Parks to salute the diversity of New York City's resident musicians.
Due to an unanticipated scheduling conflict, Lang Lang is unable to perform with the New York Philharmonic on October 5, 2016, as previously announced. On that program, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 will be replaced by Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, with the rest of the program remaining unchanged: Barto?k's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre, for Trumpet and Orchestra. Principal Trumpet Christopher Martin will make his Philharmonic solo debut performing Mysteries of the Macabre.
Jazz pianist Aaron Diehl will join Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic for the 2016-17 season Opening Gala Concert, performing Gershwin's Concerto in F in his New York Philharmonic debut, Wednesday, September 21, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. The concert launches the New York Philharmonic's 175th anniversary season and Music Director Alan Gilbert's farewell season with a program honoring the Philharmonic's legacy of premiering important works, particularly music connected to New York City. As previously announced, the concert will also feature the New York Premiere of John Corigliano's Stomp for Orchestra and Dvo?ak's Symphony No. 9, From the New World.
World-famous sculptor Anish Kapoor will design the sets for ENO's unmissable new production of Tristan and Isolde. Directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by former ENO Music Director Edward Gardner, Tristan and Isolde is one of the most hotly-anticipated arts events of 2016.
Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will replace The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens, who has withdrawn due to illness, on advisement from his doctor, in selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds in his Philharmonic debut, Today, May 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.
Itzhak Perlman will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct and perform Beethoven's Romances Nos. 1 and 2 for Violin and Orchestra, and to conduct Brahms's Symphony No. 4 and Academic Festival Overture, Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.
Pianist Shai Wosner's eclectic new recording pairs concertos and solo pieces by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and György Ligeti (1923-2006), exploring their quirky humor and other connections across centuries. Performing with conductor Nicholas Collon and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Wosner plays Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D, and Ligeti's Piano Concerto, one of the most challenging piano works of the late 20th century. The concertos are interspersed with solo works including Haydn's Capriccio (Fantasia) in C, Haydn's Capriccio in G, “Acht Sauschnider mussen sein” (It takes eight to castrate a boar), and Ligeti's rarely heard Capriccios Nos. 1 and 2. The recording will be available from iTunes, Amazon.com and other music retailers on Friday, May 20 in the U.K. and Friday, June 3 in the U.S.
Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will replace The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens, who has withdrawn due to illness, on advisement from his doctor, in selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds in his Philharmonic debut, Thursday, May 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.
The New York Choral Society will present Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes, today evening, May 10th, 2016, 8pm at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Composed entirely from selected passages from the Bible's Old Testament, Israel in Egypt relates the harshness of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt and their subsequent triumphant escape from the Pharaoh's oppressive regime. Israel in Egypt is atypical in Handel's choral output, as it contains little solo material and is dominated by large-scale virtuosic choruses that exhibit Handel's mastery as a musical storyteller.
Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic on the CALIFORNIA 2016 tour, this week, May 3-7, 2016. The tour will feature four orchestral concerts with appearances in Costa Mesa, San Diego, and San Francisco.
New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Frank Huang will make his Philharmonic solo debut leading and performing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, as well as leading Grieg's The Last Spring, Thursday, June 2, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 4 at 8:00 p.m.
A range of performances and events from the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL will be made available through live video webcasts, live audio streams, and on-demand video and audio, several in partnership with WQXR's Q2 Music, which will also feature a 24-hour biennial marathon on May 24. Biennial highlights will later be featured on a radio broadcast on WFMT's Relevant Tones with Seth Boustead, and on a release of biennial highlights on the Philharmonic's digital recording series Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2015-16 Season.
Earth Day has come and gone in 2016, but symphonic orchestra audiences in New York have lots to remember from this year's celebration, with performances of Mahler's DAS LIED VON DER ERDE (SONG OF THE EARTH). In less than a week, we had two different versions of the piece, with differing pluses and minuses: First, the San Francisco Symphony, under its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas performed the work at Carnegie Hall, then Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic had the home court advantage at Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall.
Music Director James Levine Conducts Concerts with Pianist Evgeny Kissin on May 19 and an All-Wagner Program with Soprano Christine Goerke and Tenor Stefan Vinke on May 26;
The Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership continues this summer when students from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy travel to New York City to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program as the first international Zarin Mehta Fellows, June 11-17, 2016, and the New York Philharmonic travels to Shanghai for its second annual performance residency, July 2-8, 2016.
Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, featuring baritone Thomas Hampson and tenor Stefan Vinke, in his Philharmonic debut, and Sibelius's Symphony No. 7, beginning today, April 20, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, April 22 at 11:00 a.m.
Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a Tribute to Kurt Masur, taking place at the 25th Annual Free Memorial Day Concert, a tradition inaugurated in 1992 by the late Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur (1927-2015) as a gift to the people of New York City. The concert will feature a performance of Brahms's Symphony No. 2, as well as addresses from Music Director Alan Gilbert; trumpet player and Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic and managing director Wynton Marsalis, who will also perform; and baritone Thomas Hampson, who will also perform. The free concert will take place on Monday, May 30, 2016, at 8:00 p.m. at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.
