By Sedgwick Clark
Repertoire for international orchestra tours is usually so ho-hum that Alan Gilbert’s tour with the New York Philharmonic, which began on April 16 in Dublin, came as a jolt to me. If you’ve been going to his concerts the past few weeks, you’ll have heard the music—and noted, I should add, the top-notch level of performances.
The majority of the works are early 20th century—Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Bartók, and Richard Strauss—but work their way up to Shostakovich’s Tenth (1953) and then to downright contemporary fare: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx, the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’s Senza sangue, and five composers on one of Gilbert’s new-music CONTACT! concerts of whom only Salonen is well known.
Being of critical mien, I might have had my druthers to strut the Phil’s stuff to the world, beginning with a couple of Carl Nielsen’s works that Gilbert led so magnificently earlier this season—the Fifth or Sixth symphonies or the Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra’s superb new principal clarinet, Anthony McGill. But perhaps the maestro has chosen the great Dane’s effervescent Maskarade Overture as an encore.
I suppose the programs of largely familiar fare below will daunt a few concertgoers in some backward bergs, but only the Cologne concert on May 1might be chancy for New York subscribers. The distinguished German, Viennese, French, and Russian orchestras bring their music here (although rarely do the British ones, which should change with the onset of Simon Rattle at the LSO). So now Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are giving them a taste of their own music the way we do it over here.
New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert: EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour (April 16–May 1)
April 16
Dublin, Ireland
National Concert Hall
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
April 17
London, England
Barbican Centre
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
April 18
London, England
Milton Court Concert Hall
CONTACT!
Daníel Bjarnason: Five Possibilities
Timo Andres: Early to Rise
Missy Mazzoli: Dissolve, O My Heart
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Homunculus for string quartet
Shulamit Ran: Mirage for five players
April 19
London, England
Barbican Centre
Young People’s Concert
Stravinsky: Petrushka (staged)
Doug Fitch, director/designer
Edouard Gétaz, producer
A Production by Giants Are Small
Tom Lee, puppetry director
April 19
London, England
Barbican Centre
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Debussy: Jeux
Stravinsky: Petrushka (staged)
Doug Fitch, director/designer
Edouard Gétaz, producer
A Production by Giants Are Small
Tom Lee, puppetry director
April 21
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Royal Concertgebouw
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
April 22
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Royal Concertgebouw
Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
April 23
Luxembourg
Philharmonie Luxembourg
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
April 25
Paris, France
Philharmonie de Paris
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx
Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
April 26
Paris, France
Philharmonie de Paris
Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)
Debussy: Jeux
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
April 28
Frankfurt, Germany
Alte Oper Frankfurt
Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
April 30
Cologne, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
May 1
Cologne, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Peter Eötvös: Senza sangue (world premiere of New York Philharmonic co-commission,
with Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano & Russell Braun, baritone)