New York Philharmonic

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1 New York Philharmonic 26 The French School: Berlioz & Saint-Saëns New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season 2 3

2 Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season The 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 Series In 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. 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 Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser. Sir Andrew Davis s appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors 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. 2 3

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4 New York Philharmonic Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor Kent Tritle, Organ Recorded live June 3 5, 2010, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts BERLIOZ ( ) Overture to Les Francs-juges (1826) 11:29 SAINT-SAËNS ( ) Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 (1886) 35:41 Adagio Allegro moderato 10:00 Poco adagio 10:19 Allegro moderato 7:33 Maestoso Allegro 7:49 KENT TRITLE 6 7

5 Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator Overture to Les Francsjuges Hector Berlioz That Hector Berlioz was a genius is beyond doubt, but genius does not always ensure a calm passage through life. Berlioz s biography makes extraordinary reading, especially when liberally peppered with accounts lifted from his beautifully written Mémoires, which have been vividly captured in English translation by David Cairns. Pressed by his father, a physician, to pursue his same profession, Berlioz s musical inclinations were largely ignored in his youth. As a result, he never learned to play the piano in a more than rudimentary sense, and his practical abilities as a performer were limited to lessons on flute and guitar, both of which he played with some accomplishment but short of true virtuosity. He was sent to Paris to attend medical school, hated the experience, and took advantage of being in the big city by enrolling himself in private musical studies and, beginning in 1826, the composition curriculum at the Paris Conservatoire. Graduation from the Paris Conservatoire was a virtual prerequisite for aspiring French composers. Nearly as essential was snaring the Prix de Rome, a foreignstudy fellowship whose winners were sent off to a residency in Italy, a nation whose ancient cultural lineage was considered to wield an indispensable influence over the formation of the creative intellect. Berlioz applied to that annual competition In Short Born: December 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France Died: March 8, 1869, in Paris Work composed: September 1826 in Paris; dedicated to Berlioz s friend Narcisse Girard World premiere: May 26, 1828, the composer conducting at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris New York Philharmonic premiere: March 7, 1846, Alfred Boucher, conductor five times. Each year marked an incremental step toward success. He failed the fugue exam in his first try, but in his second and third attempts he at least proceeded to the stage of composing the cantatas that would spell ultimate success or, in his case, failure. In 1830, in his fifth attempt, he was finally honored with the Prix de Rome for his cantata La Mort de Sardanapale, of which only a fragment survives. Another prerequisite to the establishment of a young composer s career in Berlioz s France was almost as critical: scoring a triumph in the opera house. Berlioz never really succeeded at this, despite numerous attempts, but in the course of his failures he created a body of stage music that remains captivating to this day, even if little of it has captured a place on the A-list of the operatic repertoire. Berlioz s first operatic failure was the three-act lyric drama Les Francs-juges, which he worked on in It was a gloomy sort of Gothic opera (one that owed much to Weber s Der Freischütz, which was immensely popular at that time) about secret tribunals in medieval Germany. The difficult-to-translate title might be rendered as The Self-Appointed Judges and is often given in English as The Judges of the Secret Court. The libretto survives intact, but after repeated unsuccessful attempts to get the opera produced, Berlioz destroyed most of what he had composed, so that only five of the dramatic numbers survive. However, he never let go of the overture, which he composed in September 1826, signaling his completion of the principal parts of the score, and he frequently conducted it on his concert tours. The overture is an odd sort of piece Berlioz s sense of musical logic was strictly his own but there is no denying that this 13-minute movement embodies a swashbuckling character that is, frankly, alluring. Its very sound, particularly at the overture s climax, has something of the slightly later Symphonie fantastique to it. Either one likes that sound or one does not. Felix Mendelssohn did not. In 1834 he summed up his impression of Berlioz s piece by saying, His orchestration is such... an incongruous mess that one ought to wash one s hands after handling one of his scores. The Berlioz biographer D. Kern Holoman has rightly remarked: It is a dubious undertaking to judge the overture without knowing just how it relates to the opera that followed. In this case, there is no choice. It is the only music from Berlioz s first opera that one is likely to hear or at least that one is likely to hear in its roughly original form, since Berlioz In the Composer s Words In his Mémoires, Berlioz revealed an unpleasant extra-musical association that he had relating to the Overture to Les Francs-juges: It was during this period that I wrote my first full-scale orchestral work, the Overture to the Francs-juges. The Waverley overture followed soon afterward. At the time I knew so little of the mechanism of certain instruments that, having written the trombone passage in D-flat major in the introduction to the Francs-juges, I was struck by a sudden fear that it might prove extremely difficult to play, and I nervously took it to show to one of the trombone players at the Opéra. His answer completely set my mind at rest. On the contrary, he said, D flat is a particularly good key for the trombone; you can count on the passage having a splendid effect. I was so elated that I went home with my head in the clouds and, not looking where I was going, twisted my ankle. I get a pain in my foot whenever I hear the piece. Others, perhaps, get a pain in the head. did recycle some of this material in his Symphonie fantastique and his Symphonie funèbre et triomphale. Instrumentation: two flutes (doubling piccolos), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, and strings. 8 9

6 Notes on the Program (continued) Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 Camille Saint-Saëns In marveling over Camille Saint-Saëns s talents, the composer Charles Gounod wrote: Monsieur Saint-Saëns possesses one of the most astonishing musical organizations I know of. He is a musician armed with every weapon. He is a master of his craft as no one else is... He plays, and plays with the orchestra as he does the piano. One can say no more. Gounod might also have noted that his fellow Parisian was a highly accomplished organist (who for two decades reigned in the loft at Paris s Madeleine church), a champion of forgotten earlier music and of contemporary composers, an inspiring teacher (who, as professor at the École Niedermeier in Paris, did much to shape the raw talents of Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, among others), a gifted writer, a world traveler, and an avid and informed aficionado of disciplines such as Classical languages, astronomy, archaeology, philosophy, and even of the occult. Saint-Saëns started piano lessons at the age of two and a half; he soon began studying with a former pupil of Kalkbrenner and Mendelssohn, and he embarked on composition and organ instruction at age seven, by which time he was already performing works by J.S. Bach, In Short Born: December 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France Died: March 8, 1869, in Paris Work composed: September 1826 in Paris; dedicated to Berlioz s friend Narcisse Girard World premiere: May 26, 1828, the composer conducting at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris New York Philharmonic premiere: March 7, 1846, Alfred Boucher, conductor Handel, and Mozart in public. In 1846, when he was ten, he made his formal recital debut at Paris s Salle Pleyel, with a program that included piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven. The applause was so resounding that he topped off the event by offering to play any of Beethoven s piano sonatas from memory as an encore. The last of Saint-Saëns s completed symphonies, the Third was composed at the behest of the Philharmonic Society of London, which at that time was conducted by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & fame). In August 1883 the orchestra s secretary invited Saint-Saëns to come to London the following year. The invitation was: either to play one of your concertos, or to compose a new one and play it, or to play a concerto by some other master, whichever you prefer; but I need scarcely add, they would prefer you to appear in one of your own compositions. Talk soon turned instead to the pos sibility of a new symphony, and by March Saint-Saëns was far enough along in his planning to inform the orchestra of the new work s instrumentation ( there are no harps, happily ); that it would be cast in two movements (in that regard, mirroring his coeval Fourth Piano Concerto and Violin Sonata No. 1); that the symphony would be difficult; that this devil of a symphony had moved up in his mind by a semitone ( it didn t want to stay in B minor, and is now in C minor); and that one aggravation would be that the piano part would involve one player at first and two later ( Happily, pianists are not rare in our epoch ). The prominent use of the organ has earned this piece the nickname Organ Symphony, a rubric never sanctioned by the composer. In fact, that term may be a bit misleading, since French composers of that time composed a good many pieces that were titled organ symphonies ; these were not orchestral works at all but rather big-boned, multimovement pieces for solo organ. Saint-Saëns recognized that requiring an organ could limit performance possibilities, since many concert halls lacked them, but he was perfectly content with the idea of a small organ being brought in for the occasion. On May 18, 1886, the composer wrote from London to his publisher, Jacques Durand: We have sight-read the symphony. I was right: it is really terribly challenging. Nevertheless, the next day the premiere went well, and the composer could follow up with a glowing report: The symphony A Touching Dedication Saint-Saëns dedicated his Symphony No. 3 to Franz Liszt, who was by then a grand old man of music. On learning of this tribute, Liszt wrote on June 19, 1886: Very dear friend, Happy in the friendship you have so often shown to me, I express to you my heartfelt gratitude. The success of your symphony in London gives me great pleasure, and it will continue in a crescendo in Paris and elsewhere. For any dedication I would ask you simply to inscribe my name. I must content myself with writing just the same thing beneath these lines due to the weakness of my vision. With much devotion and cordial friendship, Franz Liszt Saint-Saëns did not follow Liszt s request precisely. On July 31 Liszt died; when the symphony appeared in print that November, it was headed with the words Á la Mémoire de Franz Liszt ( To the Memory of Franz Liszt ). enjoyed a colossal success, spiced up by just enough opposition to make the success more intense. Instrumentation: three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, organ, piano (two-hands and four-hands), and strings

7 New York Philharmonic Season ALAN GILBERT Music Director Daniel Boico, Assistant Conductor Leonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus Violins Glenn Dicterow Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Sheryl Staples Associate Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Enrico Di Cecco Carol Webb Yoko Takebe Minyoung Chang+ Hae-Young Ham The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Lisa GiHae Kim Kuan-Cheng Lu Newton Mansfield The Edward and Priscilla Pilcher Kerry McDermott Anna Rabinova Charles Rex The Shirley Bacot Shamel Fiona Simon Sharon Yamada Elizabeth Zeltser The William and Elfriede Ulrich Yulia Ziskel Marc Ginsberg Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Duoming Ba Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Martin Eshelman Quan Ge Judith Ginsberg Myung-Hi Kim+ Hanna Lachert Hyunju Lee Daniel Reed Mark Schmoockler Na Sun Vladimir Tsypin Violas Cynthia Phelps The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Rebecca Young* Irene Breslaw** The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Dorian Rence Katherine Greene The Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Dawn Hannay Vivek Kamath Peter Kenote Barry Lehr Kenneth Mirkin Judith Nelson Robert Rinehart The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen Cellos Carter Brey The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Eileen Moon* The Paul and Diane Guenther Qiang Tu The Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Evangeline Benedetti Eric Bartlett The Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Elizabeth Dyson Maria Kitsopoulos Sumire Kudo Ru-Pei Yeh Wei Yu Basses Eugene Levinson The Redfield D. Beckwith Orin O Brien Acting Associate The Herbert M. Citrin William Blossom The Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Randall Butler David J. Grossman Satoshi Okamoto Flutes Robert Langevin The Lila Acheson Wallace Sandra Church* Renée Siebert Mindy Kaufman Piccolo Mindy Kaufman Oboes Liang Wang The Alice Tully Sherry Sylar* Robert Botti English Horn Thomas Stacy The Joan and Joel Smilow Clarinets Mark Nuccio Acting The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Pascual Martinez Forteza Acting Associate The Honey M. Kurtz Family Alucia Scalzo++ Amy Zoloto++ E-Flat Clarinet Pascual Martinez Forteza Bass Clarinet Amy Zoloto++ Bassoons Judith LeClair The Pels Family Kim Laskowski* Roger Nye Arlen Fast Contrabassoon Arlen Fast Horns Philip Myers The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Erik Ralske Acting Associate R. Allen Spanjer Howard Wall Trumpets Philip Smith The Paula Levin Matthew Muckey* Ethan Bensdorf Thomas V. Smith Trombones Joseph Alessi The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart Amanda Davidson* David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bass Trombone James Markey Tuba Alan Baer Timpani Markus Rhoten The Carlos Moseley Percussion Christopher S. Lamb The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Harp Nancy Allen The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Keyboard In Memory of Paul Jacobs Harpsichord Lionel Party Piano The Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Harriet Wingreen Jonathan Feldman Organ Kent Tritle Librarians Lawrence Tarlow Sandra Pearson** Sara Griffin** Orchestra Personnel Manager Carl R. Schiebler Stage Representative Louis J. Patalano Audio Director Lawrence Rock * Associate ** Assistant + 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 Members of the Society Pierre Boulez Stanley Drucker Lorin Maazel Zubin Mehta Carlos Moseley New York Philharmonic Gary W. Parr man Zarin Mehta President and Executive Director 12 13

8 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 Marie- Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, held by Thomas Hampson; an annual three-week festival; and CONTACT, the New York Philharmonic s new-music 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 season, Mr. Gilbert becomes the first person to hold the William Schuman in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes. Highlights of Mr. Gilbert s 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 Kaddish 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. 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 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 Concert gebouw 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 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. On May 15, 2010, The Curtis Institute of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree

9 The Artists Sir Andrew Davis has served as music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago since He is conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (having previously served as principal conductor), conductor laureate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (following the conclusion of his tenure as the second-longest-serving chief conductor since its founder, Sir Adrian Boult), and former music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In the season he conducts productions of Puccini s Tosca, Gounod s Faust, Mozart s The Marriage of Figaro, and Berlioz s The Damnation of Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Britten s Albert Herring at Santa Fe Opera. He conducts the Philadelphia, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Spanish National, and Royal Scottish National orchestras; the Chicago, St. Louis, Montreal, Toronto, BBC, and Melbourne symphony orchestras; and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Montreux Festival. Sir Andrew was born in Hertfordshire, England, and studied at King s College, Cambridge. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary, and his conducting credits span the symphonic, operatic, and choral worlds. He is also a great proponent of 20th-century works, including those by Janáček, Messiaen, Boulez, Elgar, Tippett, and Britten. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew has led concerts at the BBC Proms and on tour to Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, and Europe. He has conducted all of the major ensembles of the world, from the Berlin Philharmonic to Amsterdam s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and at opera houses throughout the world, including The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and the Bayreuth Festival. Sir Andrew s discography includes recordings for Decca, Deutsche Grammophone, Warner Classics International, Capriccio, EMI, and CBS. In 2008 he released Elgar s Violin Concerto with James Ehnes and London s Philharmonia Orchestra (Onyx Classics), which won a Gramophone Award. Releases in 2007 included Beethoven s Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Min-Jin Kym (Sony); a solo recital of operatic favorites with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and soprano Nicole Cabell (Decca), which won the Solti Prize from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique; and the First Piano Concertos by Liszt and Chopin with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Yundi Li (Deutsche Grammophon). Sir Andrew s honors include receiving the Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck Music Award (1991) and being named a Commander of the British Empire (1992) and a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List (1999). Kent Tritle has been the organist of the New York Philharmonic since In that time he has played on recordings of Brahms s A German Requiem, Britten s War Requiem, and Henze s Symphony No. 9, all conducted by Kurt Masur, as well as on the Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd conducted by Andrew Litton. He has also recorded more than a dozen CDs as soloist and conductor; is featured on the Cala label s New York Legends series with New York Philharmonic English Horn Thomas Stacy; and he can be heard on recordings on the Telarc, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, and VAI labels. As an organ recitalist Mr. Tritle performs regularly across the United States and in Europe, including at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Zurich s Tonhalle; Paris s Church of St. Sulpice; King s College, Cambridge; and at Westminster Abbey. He will be performing upcoming recitals in Dresden and Wiesbaden. Mr. Tritle is one of America s leading choral conductors. He is the founder and music director of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the acclaimed concert series at New York City s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, where he has also been music director since He is now in his fifth season as music director of the Oratorio Society of New York, New York City s acclaimed 200-voice volunteer chorus, and in his third season as music director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City. Kent Tritle is director of choral activities at the Manhattan School of Music and a member of the faculty of The Juilliard School. He is also renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire. From 1996 to 2004 he was music director of the Emmy-nominated Dessoff Choirs. Mr. Tritle holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting

10 New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American-born 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 20th-century musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel ( ); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 to the summer of 2002; named Music Director Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta ( ); Pierre Boulez ( ); and Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning or premiering many important works, such as Dvořák 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 Esa-Pekka Salonen s Piano Concerto. The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler (Music Director, ), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director, ), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director, ), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor, ), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director, ), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor, ), and Erich Leinsdorf. Long a leader in American musical life, the Philharmonic has over the last century become renowned around the globe, appearing in 429 cities in 61 countries on 5 continents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by then-music 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 first-ever 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 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

11 Performed, produced, and distributed by the New York Philharmonic 2010 New York Philharmonic NYP