{"id":1737,"date":"2011-06-28T09:24:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T13:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2011-10-20T23:32:40","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T03:32:40","slug":"afterthoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=1737","title":{"rendered":"Afterthoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alan Gilbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been thinking generally about how orchestras define themselves and, specifically, about what the New York Philharmonic means to the public we serve.<\/p>\n

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Last week\u2019s Philharmonic production of The Cunning Little Vixen<\/em> was a joy to work on, and I am hugely proud of what we achieved as an institution. For the last month or so, our various departments banded together and effectively functioned as a top-notch opera company. Hallways became costume and prop storage areas, people could be heard discussing the story and meaning of Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s masterpiece, and the buzz of activity with its unifying force was truly gratifying.<\/p>\n

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The experience we had last year with Ligeti\u2019s Le Grand Macabre<\/em> was helpful \u2014 we certainly learned a lot that came in handy this second time around. But, at the same time, the bar had been set so high by the enormous triumph of the Ligeti that I think we all felt real pressure to have a great success. Many of the previews in the press openly wondered, \u201dCan they do it again?\u201d and \u201dWill lightning strike twice?\u201d On a personal level, I was hoping to provoke a response that would justify the unusual commitment that presenting a staged opera demands of the Philharmonic.<\/p>\n

It worked. Reactions were overwhelmingly positive, and many opera buffs even said that they felt that we achieved a greater-than-usual emotional power with Doug Fitch\u2019s enchanting production of Vixen.<\/em> I am sure that the unexpected and non-traditional setting was largely responsible for this \u2014 as soon as one entered Avery Fisher Hall one felt a fresh sense of possibility that naturally comes along with the unexpected. Who had ever seen a huge grove of sunflowers sprouting among the musicians of the New York Philharmonic?<\/p>\n

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What was most gratifying, however, was the response to the Orchestra\u2019s playing. Each night the ovations were the loudest when the musicians stood. Of course, my choice of this particular opera was largely influenced by the prominent role that the orchestra plays, but the combination of hearing the New York Philharmonic play this ravishing score, with its range of opulence and shimmering tenderness, and of actually seeing the musicians on stage had to have been extremely powerful in inspiring this reaction. It felt like a new paradigm not only for opera, but also for orchestras. Why shouldn\u2019t we do away with the artificial boundaries that separate art forms?<\/p>\n

Of course the New York Philharmonic\u2019s primary mission remains that of performing great orchestral repertoire at the highest possible level. I will never forget this season\u2019s many highlights, which include memorable performances of Mozart\u2019s Symphony No. 40, Bruckner\u2019s 2nd, Mahler\u2019s 5th, and Beethoven\u2019s Eroica.<\/em> I will equally remember Lindberg\u2019s Kraft,<\/em> and Vixen,<\/em> both because they were artistically important and gratifying, but perhaps even more because they were accepted and received with an enthusiasm that is doing away with the lines that would have at one time caused them to be defined as \u201dout-of-the-box.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Last week more than one audience member came backstage after a performance of Vixen<\/em> to tell me that the applause for the Orchestra and for me was not only for that night\u2019s performance: it was also for our vision, and for what this Orchestra is coming to mean for New York City. All of us on stage sense this as well. We feel the support and connection with the audience that is based on this identity \u2014 an identity that is, after all, at the very core of our aspiration to be, in the deepest, most meaningful way, New York\u2019s own Orchestra.<\/p>\n

(For more information on Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, visit nyphil.org<\/a>.)<\/p>\n