Everything about New York Philharmonic Orchestra totally explained
The
New York Philharmonic is the oldest active
symphony orchestra in the
United States, organized during 1842. Based in
New York City, the Philharmonic performs most of its concerts at
Avery Fisher Hall. The orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004. Since 2002, the Philharmonic's
music director has been
Lorin Maazel, whose tenure is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2008-2009 season. Starting with the 2009-2010 season,
Alan Gilbert is scheduled to become the Philharmonic's next music director.
History
Founding and first concert, 1842
The orchestra was founded by
Ureli Corelli Hill in 1842 as the
New York Philharmonic Society – the third Philharmonic on American soil since 1792, declaring as its purpose "the advancement of instrumental music." The first concert of the New York Philharmonic, on
December 7,
1842, took place in the
Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway before an audience of 600. The concert opened with
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 led by American-born conductor
Ureli Corelli Hill, who was also founder and first president of the Philharmonic. Two other conductors, German-born
Henry Christian Timm and French-born
Denis Etienne, led parts of the eclectic, three-hour program, which included chamber music and several operatic selections with a leading singer of the day, as was the custom. The musicians operated as a cooperative society, deciding by a majority vote such issues as who would become a member, which music would be performed and who among them would conduct. At the end of the season the players would divide any proceeds amongst themselves.
Beethoven's ninth and a new home, 1846
After only a dozen public performances and barely four years old, the Philharmonic organized a concert to raise funds to build a new music hall. The centerpiece was the American premiere of
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 to take place at
Castle Garden on the southern tip of Manhattan. About 400 instrumental and vocal performers gathered for this premiere. The chorals were translated into what would be the first English performance anywhere in the world. However, with the expensive US$2.00 ticket price and a war rally uptown, the hoped-for audience was kept away and the new hall would have to wait. Although judged by some as an odd work with all those singers kept at bay until the end, the Ninth soon became the work performed most often when a grand gesture was required.
During the Philharmonic's first seven seasons, seven musicians alternated the conducting duties. In addition to Hill, Timm and Etienne, these were William Alpers, George Loder, Louis Wiegers and Alfred Boucher. This changed when, in 1849,
Theodore Eisfeld was installed as sole conductor for the season. Stransky led all of the orchestra's concerts up until 1920, and also made the first recordings with the orchestra in 1917.
Mergers and outreach, 1921
When the Philharmonic merged in 1921 with the
National Symphony, it also acquired the imposing conductor
Willem Mengelberg. For the 1922-1923 season Stransky and Mengelberg shared the conducting duties, but Stransky was ousted thereafter. For nine years Mengelberg dominated the scene, although other conductors, among them
Bruno Walter,
Wilhelm Furtwängler,
Igor Stravinsky, and
Arturo Toscanini, led about half of each season's concerts. During this period, the Philharmonic became one of the first American orchestras to boast an outdoor symphony series when it began playing low-priced summer concerts at
Lewisohn Stadium in upper Manhattan. In 1920 the orchestra hired
Henry Hadley as "associate conductor" given specific responsibility for the “Americanization” of the orchestra: each of Hadley's concerts featured at least one work by an American-born composer. which met with positive reaction from the orchestra musicians. This engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestra's next music director. He assumed the post in September 2002, 60 years after making his debut with the Orchestra at the age of twelve at Lewisohn Stadium. In his first subscription week he led the world premiere of
John Adams'
On the Transmigration of Souls commissioned in memory of those who died on
September 11, 2001. Maazel is scheduled to conclude his tenure as the Philharmonic's music director at the end of the 2008-2009 season.
In 2003, due to ongoing concerns with the acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall, there was a proposal to move the New York Philharmonic back to
Carnegie Hall and merge the two organizations, but this proposal didn't come to fruition. Currently, Avery Fisher Hall is scheduled to undergo renovations starting in 2010. On
December 18,
2004, the New York Philharmonic performed its 14,000th concert, a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world, setting a
Guinness World Record.
In April 2007, the Philharmonic announced that it would add a new position, of "principal conductor", to the orchestra, as well a composer-in-residence position, a "director for a mini-festival", and an artist-in-residence. On July 18, 2007, the Philharmonic named
Alan Gilbert as its next music director, effective with the 2009-2010 season, to succeed Lorin Maazel. In addition, the same announcement stated that
Riccardo Muti would guest-conduct from 6 to 8 weeks per season and conduct the orchestra on tours, in an equivalent of a "principal guest conductor" without a formal title with the orchestra. It was also reported that the orchestra would retreat from the earlier announced plan of a division of labor between a music director and a "principal conductor".
The current Assistant Conductor of the orchestra is
Xian Zhang.
The concertmaster of the orchestra is
Glenn Dicterow.
Visit to North Korea, 2008
The Philharmonic performed in
Pyongyang at the invitation of the
North Korean government on
February 26,
2008. The event was the first significant cultural visit to the country from the United States since the end of the Korean War. The concert was held at the
East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. The program included the national anthems of both North Korea (
Aegukka) and the United States (
The Star-Spangled Banner), the Prelude to Act III of
Lohengrin by Richard Wagner, Antonín Dvořák's
Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", George Gershwin's
An American in Paris, Georges Bizet's
Farandole, Leonard Bernstein's
Overture to Candide, and the popular Korean folk song
Arirang. The Dvořák, Gershwin, and Bernstein works were each originally premiered by the New York Philharmonic.
The visit was anticipated as an opportunity to broaden relations with one of the world's most isolated nations. The U.S. State Department viewed the invitation as a potential softening of anti-U.S. propaganda. In response to initial criticism of performing a concert limited to the privileged elite, the New York Philharmonic arranged for the concert to be broadcast live on
North Korean television and radio. It was additionally broadcasted live on
CNN and
CNN International.
Music directors
Honors and awards
Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
1965 Bernstein: Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish”
1974 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
1978 Concert of the Century
1991 Ives: Symphony No. 2; Gong on the Hook and Ladder; Central Park in the Dark; The Unanswered Question
2005 Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
1990 Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor
1974 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
1976 Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
2005 Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls
Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
1962 Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
1963 Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals; Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
1964 Bernstein: Young People's Concerts
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra
1979 Horowitz Golden Jubilee - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
1982 Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration
Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance
1963 Wagner: Götterdämmerung: Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene; Die Walküre: Wesendonck Lieder
Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
1970 Berio: Sinfonia
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical
1976 Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
1979 Varèse: Amériques/Arcana/Ionisation
1982 Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary CelebrationFurther Information
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