New York Philharmonic

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Haydn & Sibelius, with Ohlsson’s Martinu

2009 – 2010New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season

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The 2009–10 season — Alan Gilbert’s first as Music Director of the Philharmonic — introduces his vision for the Orchestra, one that both builds on its rich legacy and looks to the future and reflects the diver sity of his interests. He sees the Orchestra as a place that both celebrates the greatest of the classical repertoire and nurtures today’s composers and tomorrow’s music. The season's program­ming reflects his belief in the importance of artistic collaboration, his commitment to raising audience awareness and understanding of music, and his interest in making the Philharmonic a destination for all.

“I’d like to develop a special kind of rapport and trust with our audience,” Mr. Gilbert says. “The kind of belief that would make them feel comfortable hearing anything we program simply because we programmed it. Looking ahead, I hope my performances with the Orchestra will consist of our tightly combined human chemistry, a clear persona that is both identifiable and enjoyable.”

About This SeriesIn Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the New York Philharmonic breaks new ground by being the first orchestra to offer a season’s worth of recorded music for download. Offered exclusively through iTunes, this series brings the excitement of Alan Gilbert’s first season to an international audience.

The iTunes Pass will give subscribers ac­cess to more than 50 works, comprising new music (including New York Philhar­monic commissions) and magnificent selections from the orchestral repertoire, performed by many of the world’s top artists and conductors. The subscrip­tion also features bonus content, such as Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, and exclusive extras, including additional performances and lectures.

For more information about the series, visit nyphil.org/itunes.

Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season

Executive Producer: Vince Ford

Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis

Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock

Performance photos: Chris Lee

Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks

Martinu°: Incantation, Piano Concerto No. 4, H. 358 used by arrangement with Baerenreiter Verlag.

Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.

This concert series is presented by

Garrick Ohlsson’s appearance is made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists

Endowment Fund.

Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural

Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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

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

New York Philharmonic

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New York Philharmonic

Xian Zhang, ConductorGarrick Ohlsson, Piano

Recorded live November 12–17, 2009,Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

HAYDN (1732–1809)

Symphony No. 95 in C minor, Hob. I:95 (1791) 17:36Allegro moderato 4:52

Andante cantabile 4:48

Menuet 4:16

Finale: Vivace 3:40

MARTINU° (1890–1959)

Incantation, Piano Concerto No. 4, H. 358 (1955–56) 20:03Poco allegro 9:38

Poco moderato 10:25

GARRICK OHLSSON

SIBELIUS (1865–1957) Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (1898–99; rev. 1900) 37:51Andante ma non troppo — Allegro energico 11:14

Andante ma non troppo lento 9:01

Scherzo: Allegro 5:15

Finale (quasi una fantasia) — Andante — Allegro molto 12:21

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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator

Symphony No. 95 in C minor, Hob. I:95Joseph Haydn

For nearly three decades Joseph Haydn was steadily and (for the most part) happily employed in the service of the Esterházy Princes, an immensely powerful family of Austro­Hungarian aristocrats who ruled over vast expanses of Central Europe. He had been hired in 1761 and leapt into a routine that was to involve making music not only at the court’s palace in Eisenstadt (some 30 miles southeast of Vienna), but also at its residences in Vienna itself and in Kitsee, overlooking the Danube. Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who ascended to the throne shortly after Haydn was hired, set about creating a splendid Versailles­like palace at Esterháza, at the southern tip of the Neusidlersee, and after 1766 Haydn spent most of his time there until Niko­laus’s death, on September 28, 1790.

Prince Nikolaus was succeeded by his son Paul Anton, who did not care for music. Two days after his father’s death he fired the entire court orchestra and opera com­pany, retaining only a small wind band for ceremonial occasions. He granted Haydn a pension of 1,000 florins a year; thus, for the first time in decades, Europe’s most esteemed composer was free to explore. Various offers were forthcoming, and in the end he accepted an invitation from the expatriate German violinist and impresario Johann Peter Salomon to undertake a residency in England in 1791. He returned to Vienna in the summer of 1792, having

enjoyed his time in England so much that he happily accepted a second invitation to visit London, in 1794.

For these two residencies Haydn con­ sented to write a group of 12 symphonies (his Nos. 93 through 104) that ever since have been dubbed the “London” or the “Salomon” symphonies. The works exhibit enormous diversity, and the set as a whole represents the apex of his symphonic achievement. At the final concert of his second visit (on May 12, 1794), Salomon was pleased to inform the assembled crowd that Haydn had agreed to stay in England for a further season. It appears that the composer may have been thinking of settling in London permanently, but an un­anticipated reversal of circumstances made him reconsider. The music­hating Prince Paul Anton died abruptly, and his successor, Prince Nikolaus II, immediately moved to restore the Esterházy musical program to its former glory, reconfirming the importance of Haydn’s position as Kapellmeister. Ever the loyal employee, Haydn returned to Austria at the conclusion of his London commitments

in the 1795 season; that was the last England would see of Haydn.

The Symphony No. 95, composed for the first of Haydn’s stays in England, is the only one of the London symphonies set in a minor key. In fact, except for the composer’s Sturm und Drang phase of the 1770s, minor keys are rare in his symphonies, whose intellec­ tual excursions generally chart an overall sunny course. It seems to have surprised the London audience, and this symphony accord­ingly scored less success than the others that Haydn composed during his stay there. It does not lack for enthusiasts among modern Haydnophiles, however, who find it fascinating to consider how the composer, in his symphon­ic maturity, handled the possibilities of large musical structures in a minor key.

The first thing one notices in this connec­tion is the uncharacteristic absence of a slow introduction, omnipresent in Haydn’s other late symphonies; given that he was writing in a minor key, Haydn probably felt that the gravity of such an opening would prove unnecessary. In truth, Haydn’s “minor­mode sensibility” is considerably less relentless here than it was in his Sturm und Drang pieces: here it is leavened with contrasting expanses in the major key and with such no­fail, ear­tickling devices as the constantly evolving orchestration in the second­movement variations (which are in no way predictable) and the wonderful cello solo (against pizzicato strings) in the Trio of the Menuet. Haydn even casts his Finale in the ma­jor, but he maintains the symphony’s overriding sense of seriousness by including substantial episodes in the minor mode and impressive passages of inspired polyphonic writing.

In ShortBorn: almost certainly on March 31, 1732, since he was baptized on April 1, in Rohrau, Lower Austria

Died: May 31, 1809, in Vienna

Work composed: early 1791

World premiere: either April 1 or April 29, 1791, at the Hanover­Square Concert Rooms in London, with the composer conducting

New York Philharmonic premiere: January 23, 1875, Carl Bergmann, conductor

Shades of Mozart

As much as C minor is not a typical “Haydn key,” it is very much a “Mozart key,” having been pressed into service for such of the latter’s works as his Wind Serenade (K.388), Mass (K.427), Piano Sonata/Fantasy (K.457/475), and Piano Concerto (K.491). Haydn must have been thinking of some of his friend’s works when he wrote this symphony, which very often sounds quite Mozartean — as in the develop-ment section of the first movement, in the unyielding power of the Menuet, and in the fugal excursions of the Finale (which evoke the correspond-ing movement of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony).

That Mozart was much on Haydn’s mind is beyond question. In fact, Haydn’s major concern about embark-ing on his trip to London seems to have been taking leave of his consid-erably younger friend, who doubtless apprised him of what he might expect in London, having visited that city as a child prodigy. In fact, Mozart tried to discourage Haydn from making the journey. At dinner on December 15, 1790, the day of Haydn’s departure, Mozart exclaimed, “We are probably saying our last adieu in this life,” which the 58-year-old Haydn took to refer to his own advancing age. A year later, when Haydn, still in London, learned of his friend’s death at the age of 35, he was devastated.

Instrumentation: flute, two oboes, two bas­soons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

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Notes on the Program (continued)

Incantation, Piano Concerto No. 4, H. 358Bohuslav Martinu°

Bohuslav Martinu° entered the Prague Conservatory as a violinist when he was 16, but his interests, which included a passion for theater and literature, proved too broad­ranging to spell success at what was essentially a technical school. In June 1910 he was expelled for — as the official record put it — “incorrigible negligence.”

This ended up not being such a bad thing for Martinu° , as it forced him to continue his work as a composer away from the restrictive influence of academia. (A brief stint studying privately with Josef Suk several years later would prove just as inimical to his nature.) By the end of World War I, which he managed to wait out as a music teacher in his hometown, he had completed some 120 scores, and in 1923 his horizons broadened thanks to a fellowship that enabled him to study in Paris, which was the place to be for a composer in the 1920s. “I went to France not to seek to save myself there,” he would recall, “but rather to confirm my opinion.” He continued:

What I sought there was neither Debussy

nor Impressionism nor Expressionism, but

rather the true fundamentals of Western cul­

ture, which, in my opinion, harmonize much

better with our own national character than

a labyrinth of conjectures and problems.

A period of study with Albert Roussel

In ShortBorn: December 8, 1890, in Policka, Bohemia

Died: August 28, 1959, in Liestal, near Basel, Switzerland

Works composed: from about December 22, 1955, through about February 10, 1956, on commission from the Fromm Foundation in Chicago

World premiere: December 4, 1956, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Leopold Stokowski conducting the Symphony of the Air, with Rudolf Firkušný as soloist

New York Philharmonic premiere: February 15–18, 1958, Rafael Kubelík, conductor, Rudolf Firkušný, soloist

instilled in Martinu° the sense of transparency so esteemed among French composers.

Martinu° remained in Paris for 17 years, mostly in a state of alarming indigence, lapping up the influence of the passing avant­garde — especially of Stravinsky — and earning respect for his own composi­tions. Friends urged him to return to Prague, where a position at the conservatory now would probably have been his for the asking, but he and his wife felt it wiser to continue west rather than east. Following the Nazi invasion, they left Paris in June 1940, lead­ing a peripatetic existence during which they often went without a roof over their heads. Eventually, the Martinu°s made their way to Lisbon and from there (with the music­loving philanthropist Paul Sacher footing the bill for steamship tickets) to New York, where they arrived on March 31, 1941.

Martinu° , who was largely unknown in America when he arrived, needed to rebuild

his reputation almost from scratch. His life was further complicated in 1946 by a serious fall from a second­floor balcony in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which damaged his nervous system and his hearing. Until then, he had been amazingly prolific; even while he was living through the terror of enemy oc­cupation and the frustration of trying to escape Europe, music seemed to fairly rush from his pen. He spent his final decade composing at a more measured pace and moving about in quest of a sat­isfying place to live: to Nice (1953–55), then back to America (1955, teaching for a short while at The Curtis Institute of Music), then to Rome, and finally to Basel, where he died of cancer.

He composed his Incantation, Piano Concerto No. 4, during his brief second American period, when he began to reap the recognition his accomplish­ments deserved. In 1955 the New York Music Critics Circle named his Fantaisies symphoniques the best new work of the year, and that summer he was elected to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In such works of his final decade Martinu° avoided the stan­dard classical structures he had formerly embraced, and instead employed what he described as a “fantasy style” in which material unrolls organically, over the un­usual framework of just two movements, in what seems in many ways a structural free­form. The New York critics found the piece perplexing in this regard, though by and large they appreciated the work’s extraordinary instrumental color and its

obvious seriousness of purpose. Musical America reported: “At first hearing, the work seemed to be almost totally lacking in integration or stylistic unity.” However, Martinu° maintained that the work was fu­eled by musical logic, insisting to his friend and biographer Miloš Šafránek, that “with a little imagination, the form significantly changes (which bothers the critics), but that does not mean that there is no form.”

Instrumentation: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, tenor drum, tambourine, xylo­phone, suspended cymbal, crash cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, harp, and strings, in addition to the solo piano.

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Sources and Inspirations

Although Sibelius was to some extent in thrall to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 when he wrote his own Symphony No. 1, he also seems to have been inspired to some degree by another famous predecessor, ar-guably the most astonishing first symphony in the history of music: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830). On March 2, 1898, Sibe-lius (traveling in Berlin) noted in his sketch-book that he had been deeply moved by a performance of the Berlioz piece: “O santa inspirazione! O santa dea!” he wrote, and within two months his own First Symphony began to take shape. At one point in his sketchbook we find the notation “Berlioz?” jotted above some ideas for his sympho-ny’s Finale; the fact that Sibelius did attach the words “quasi una fantasia” to that very movement further bolsters the sense that these two “fantastic” works shared some kinship, at least in Sibelius’s mind.

He had written quite a lot of orchestral music, including repertoire staples such as the tone poem En Saga, the Karelia Suite, and the Lem-minkäinen Suite (which includes his famous tone poems The Swan of Tuonela and Lem-minkäinen’s Homecoming).

Notwithstanding previous orchestral achievements, even very successful ones, it is a signal moment when a composer unleashes his first symphony on the world. By the closing decades of the 19th century, writing a sym­phony had become something of a political statement, an affirmation of the symphonic tradition that reached from the time of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven through the era of Brahms, Bruckner, and Tchaikovsky. This tradi­tion was still intact but increasingly battered by the rivalries of the Liszt­Wagner camp, who were not much given to symphonies, at least not to ones that adhered to the time­honored forms. Through his symphonic poems Sibelius had shown considerable sympathy for the Lisztian ideals, but he found that the mainstream symphonic tradition also offered opportunities for his expression.

In Sibelius’s First Symphony a listener may be fleetingly reminded of its composer’s Ger­man contemporaries, such as Richard Strauss, but the most striking point of contact would seem to be with the late­romantic Russian composers, particularly Tchaikovsky. Finland was under Russian political dominance at the time, and in terms of musical culture Sibelius’s Helsinki was practically joined at the hip to St. Petersburg, a mere 200­mile train ride to the east. Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathé-tique, made a powerful impression on Sibelius

Notes on the Program (continued)

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39Jean Sibelius

The seven full­scale symphonies that Jean Sibelius composed between 1898 and 1924 stake his place as one of the most imposing symphonists of the 20th century. Even during Sibelius’s lifetime, the music historian Cecil Gray felt no compunction in declaring that Sibelius was “the greatest master of the symphony since the death of Beethoven.”

Such a statement is inevitably a reflec­tion of taste rather than of aesthetic cer­tainty, but it probably raised few eyebrows in the 1930s, when Gray made his pronounce­ment. Sibelius was by then revered as the preeminent living exponent of the symphony, carrying forward a grand tradition that was becoming increasingly marginalized among composers. At that moment many of the world’s leading musical citizens were hang­ing on Sibelius’s every report of progress on his Eighth Symphony, which he had begun in 1928 and which he declared to be almost complete in 1933. Hope waned as the de­cade progressed, and it became increasingly apparent that this composer’s creative days were over. Apart from two short pieces for men’s chorus and some revisions of earlier pieces, Sibelius composed not a single work after 1931 — which is to say, in the last 26 years of his life.

As musical fashions changed in the 1930s and ensuing decades, the compos­er’s reputation plummeted, as critics increas­

ingly championed styles less clearly connected to the 19th­century mainstream, whether it was the liberated tonality of the Schoenber­gians or the neo­classicism of Stravinsky and his French colleagues. However, by the 1980s and ’90s interest in Sibelius was in the ascen­dant again, and in the past 15 years or so his music has become the object of widespread interest, buoyed in part by the emergence of an extraordinary generation of Finnish musi­cians devoted to championing the music of the man justly revered as the patriarch of Finnish music.

Sibelius was not an old man when he com­ posed his last symphony, and he was not a young man when he wrote his first. He was 33 years old when the work heard tonight was unveiled. By that time he had completed his musical training in Helsinki, Berlin, and Vienna; he had immersed himself in the folklore of his native country; and he had absorbed influ­ences from leading composers of various nations, forging them into a distinctive voice.

In ShortBorn: December 8, 1865, in Tavestehus (Hämeenlinna), Finland

Died: September 20, 1957, in Järvenpäa

Work composed: April 1898 through early 1899; revised 1900

World premiere: April 26, 1899, in Helsinki, Finland, the composer conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society; in its revised version, July 1, 1900, with Robert Kajanus conducting the same orchestra, also in Helsinki

New York Philharmonic premiere: December 4, 1930, Leopold Stokowski, conductor

when it was played in Helsinki in 1894 and again in 1897, and occasionally wags have referred to Sibelius’s First Symphony as Tchaikovsky’s Seventh. However, influ­ence coexists here with unquestionable originality, and for every Tchaikovskyan hallmark we find a readily identifiable Sibelius trait that points forward to the distinct language of this unique master.

Instrumentation: two flutes (both dou­bling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, harp, and strings.

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BassoonsJudith LeClair

Principal The Pels Family Chair

Kim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast

ContrabassoonArlen Fast

HornsPhilip Myers

Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair

Erik Ralske Acting Associate Principal

R. Allen SpanjerHoward Wall

TrumpetsPhilip Smith

Principal The Paula Levin Chair

Matthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith

TrombonesJoseph Alessi Principal The Gurnee F. and

Marjorie L. Hart Chair

Amanda Stewart*David Finlayson The Donna and

Benjamin M. Rosen Chair

Bass TromboneJames Markey

TubaAlan Baer Principal

TimpaniMarkus Rhoten

Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair

PercussionChristopher S. Lamb

Principal The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair

Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair

HarpNancy Allen Principal

The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Chair

Keyboard In Memory of Paul Jacobs

HarpsichordLionel Party

PianoThe Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Chair

Harriet WingreenJonathan Feldman

OrganKent Tritle

LibrariansLawrence Tarlow Principal

Sandra 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 uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.

Honorary Membersof the SocietyPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin MehtaCarlos Moseley

New York PhilharmonicGary W. Parr Chairman

Zarin Mehta President and Executive

Director

New York Philharmonic

ViolinsGlenn Dicterow

Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Chair

Sheryl Staples Principal Associate

Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair

Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Chair

Enrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe

Minyoung ChangHae­Young Ham

The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Chair

Lisa GiHae KimKuan­Cheng LuNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles Rex

The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair

Fiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel

Marc Ginsberg Principal

Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell

Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair

Duoming Ba

Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair

Martin EshelmanQuan GeJudith GinsbergMyung­Hi Kim+Hanna LachertHyunju LeeDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin

ViolasCynthia Phelps

Principal The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair

Rebecca Young*Irene Breslaw**

The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair

Dorian Rence

Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Chair

Dawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart

The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen Chair

CellosCarter Brey

Principal The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair

Eileen Moon*The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair

Qiang TuThe Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Chair

Evangeline Benedetti

Eric BartlettThe Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair

Elizabeth DysonMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoRu­Pei YehWei Yu

BassesEugene Levinson

Principal The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair

Orin O’BrienActing Associate Principal The Herbert M. Citrin Chair

William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Chair

Randall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi OkamotoLeonid

Finkelshteyn++

FlutesRobert Langevin

Principal The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair

Sandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman

PiccoloMindy Kaufman

OboesLiang Wang

Principal The Alice Tully Chair

Sherry Sylar*Robert Botti

English HornThomas Stacy

The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair

ClarinetsMark NuccioActing Principal

The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Chair

Pascual MartinezForteza

Acting Associate Principal The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair

Alucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++

E-Flat ClarinetPascual Martinez

Forteza

Bass ClarinetAmy Zoloto++

2009–2010 SeasonALAN GILBERT Music DirectorDaniel Boico, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus

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In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following his final concert as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco sym­phony orchestras; The Cleveland Orches­tra; Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Amsterdam’s Royal Concert­gebouw Orchestra; and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, where he served for three seasons.

Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard Univer­sity, The Curtis Institute of Music, and

The Juilliard School. He was a substitute violinist with The Philadelphia Orchestra for two seasons and assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

The Music Director

In September 2009 Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, the first native New Yorker to hold the post. For his inaugural season he has introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The Marie­Josée Kravis Composer­in­Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and Artist­in­ Residence, held by Thomas Hampson; an annual three­week festival; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new­music series. He leads the Orchestra on a major tour of Asia in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi; on a European tour in January–February 2010; and in performances of world, U.S., and New York premieres. Also in the 2009–10 season, Mr. Gilbert becomes the first person to hold the William Schuman Chair

in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, con­ducting, and hosting performance master classes.

Highlights of Mr. Gilbert’s 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic included the Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic, featuring Bernstein’s Kad-dish Symphony. In May 2009 he conducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The World in Flower, a New York Philhar­monic Commission, and in July 2009 he led the New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks and Free Indoor Concerts, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, and four performances at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

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At the

start of the 2009–10 sea­

son, Xian Zhang became music direc­

tor of La Verdi (the Or­chestra Sinfonica di Milano

“Giuseppe Verdi”). In April she led the orchestra in a concert at

the Sala Nervi, in Vatican City, for the Pope and the President of the Republic of Italy. Prior to her current appointment she served as the New York Philharmonic’s Associate Conductor (and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair) for three years, having previously held the position of Assistant Conductor.

In Europe, upcoming highlights include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, leading the world premiere of Mikko Heiniö’s Moon Concerto; and Or­chestre National de Belgique, with whom she appears at the Europalia Festival. Other European engagements include the London Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Verona Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Residentie Orkest, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She also conducts Hamburg’s NDR Sym­ phony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Sym­

phony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony at the 2011 Bregenz Festival, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

In North America, upcoming engage­ments include her debuts with the Min­nesota Orchestra and the New Jersey and National Symphony Orchestras, and a return to the Juilliard Orchestra, follow­ing her recent tour with them to China. She also recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago, In­dianapolis, and Toronto symphony orches­tras. Her opera credits include conducting Puccini’s La bohème for English National Opera in spring 2007 and his Turandot in Beijing in May 2009.

Born in Dandong, China, Xian Zhang made her professional debut conducting Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Central Opera House in Beijing at the age of 20. She earned both her bachelor’s and mas­ter of music degrees from Beijing’s Central Conservatory; she subsequently served on its conducting faculty for a year before moving to the United States in 1998.

Pianist Garrick

Ohlsson’s repertoire ranges

over the entire piano literature. A student of

the late Claudio Arrau, he is particularly known for his inter­

pretations of the works of Chopin. Mr. Ohlsson is also an avid chamber

musician who has collaborated with many major ensembles.

In recognition of the bicentenary of Chopin’s birthday, Mr. Ohlsson is pre­senting a series of all­Chopin recitals in Seattle, Berkeley, La Jolla, and New York (at Lincoln Center) in the fall and winter of 2010. A film based on Chopin’s life and his music is planned for simultaneous release. Other highlights of the 2009–10 season include appearances with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, and Vancouver. He gives solo recitals in Chicago, Fort Worth, and Philadelphia, and plays a special gala concert to be presented in Chopin’s birth house in Warsaw on March 1. Mr. Ohlsson’s debut in Russia will take place during St. Petersburg’s Winter Festival in December, when he appears both in recital and with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, Bridge, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, and Virgin Classics labels. In Febru­ary 2008 he won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for his Beethoven Sonatas, Vol. 3 (Bridge).

A native of White Plains, New York, Garrick Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of eight. He won first prizes at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and 1968 Montréal Piano Competition, in addition to his 1970 triumph at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Artists

New York Philharmonic

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New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American­born Ureli 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 180 concerts a year, and on December 18, 2004, gave its 14,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.

Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20th­century musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 to the summer of 2002; named Music Director Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.

Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning or premiering many important works, such as Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations. The Philharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of works such as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering tradition has continued to the present day, with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled each season, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy

Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; Augusta Read Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson Settings for Soprano and Orchestra; and Esa­Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto.

The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák, Gustav Mahler (Music Director, 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director, 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director, 1928–36), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, 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 Philharmonic has over the last century become renowned around the globe, appearing in 428 cities in 61 countries on 5 continents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by then­Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the first visit there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world and for which the Philharmonic received the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. Other historic tours have included the 1930 Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first Tour to the USSR, in 1959; the 1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, featuring the first performances in

mainland China; and the 75th Anniversary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel.

A longtime media pioneer, the Phil­harmonic began radio broadcasts in 1922 and is currently represented by The New York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated nationally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org and Sirius XM Radio. On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philharmonic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence has continued with annual appearances on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as the first Orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Awards, one of the most­watched television events worldwide. In 2004, the New York Philharmonic was the first major American Orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the first­ever subscription download series, Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009–10 season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.

On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic proudly announced a new partnership with Credit Suisse, its first­ever and exclusive Global Sponsor.

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