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<\/a>In Berlin, where contemporary music thrives from the Philharmonie to off spaces, it is a widespread perception that New York\u2019s mainstream institutions are afraid to program anything past Stravinsky. A look at Alan Gilbert\u2019s recent undertakings with the New York Philharmonic, notably in a hugely successful \u201c360\u201d concert of Mozart, Stockhausen, Boulez and Ives in June that exploited the full space of Park Avenue Armory and was streamed live on medici.tv<\/a>, reveals the idea to be a fallacy. Yet it is ironic that the orchestra\u2019s new season has kicked off with a tribute to Le Sacre du Printemps <\/em>(The Rite of Spring<\/em>). The concert is only the first of many events that will commemorate the centenary of Stravinsky\u2019s ballet, which falls on May 29 of next year. <\/p>\nAs with many works that have shaped the canon, the work was a scandal upon its Paris premiere. Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky reportedly set off physical fights in the audience, perhaps a response to the primitive energy that Stravinsky\u2019s music launched onstage\u2014a far cry from the cultivated elegance high society expected to encounter on the Champs-Elys\u00e9es. Le Sacre <\/em>has since become one of the most widely recorded and well-known 20th-century works. Even if it doesn\u2019t feel monumental, in the right hands, it is still hard to resist the score\u2019s raw power.<\/p>\n Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic, seen at Avery Fisher Hall on September 19, made a strong account for venerating Stravinsky, investing ripping strings and grinding rhythms with the animalistic vigor that turns this music into a pagan feast. The painterly dissonances of \u201cThe Sacrifice\u201d emerged with ethereal mystery, while the players invested the metallic, stabbing attacks of the final \u201cSacrificial Dance\u201d with unrepressed drive. The delicate, overlapping wind solos of the opening \u201cAdoration of the Earth\u201d emerged with unpretentious clarity before ceding to the mechanical churning of the \u201cAugurs of the Spring\u201d that effectively wipes the unconscious of its need for soothing classical idioms.<\/p>\n Beethoven\u2019s Third Piano Concerto, performed with Leif Ove Andsnes, received a less unified, persuasive interpretation. Andsnes could not quite match the heat of the Philharmonic in the opening Allegro<\/em>, although his clean, incisive pianissimi nearly redeemed the performance. He and Gilbert communicated effortlessly, and yet the emotional arc from inner torment to Mozartean bitter-sweetness at times lacked conviction. The inner Largo <\/em>movement felt a bit studied despite the orchestra\u2019s sensitive phrasing, while the players\u2019 tempered use of bombast was well suited to the final Rondo <\/em>in its stormy pursuit of light-heartedness. Andsnes brought a natural, although not terribly spontaneous, playfulness to his final solo passages.<\/p>\n Opening the program was Kurtag\u2019s \u2026quasi una fantasia<\/em>\u2026for Piano and Groups of Instruments, an approximately 10-minute work that calls for the distribution of instrument clusters around the performance space while the pianist (Andnes) remains onstage in pseudo-concerto style. The rustling percussion and sparse descending piano melodies that open the piece would have been even stronger with the lights dimmed, but even more importantly than visual aesthetics, Avery Fisher Hall did not provide ideal acoustics. The snare drums behind me at one point overwhelmed the timpani onstage. Gilbert nevertheless coordinated the work with care, allowing sensuous sighing melodies to linger as strongly as the battery of percussion.<\/p>\n Although the piece is not tailor made for Avery Fisher Hall, Gilbert is making a concerted effort to seduce his audience base into what many listeners would consider unusual repertoire, and one hopes that he will succeed. It takes vision, charisma and daring but sound artistic choices to guide an orchestra through the current age of economic uncertainty and cultural levelling. And if Stravinsky\u2019s Rite of Spring <\/em>can teach us anything, it is that challenging the status quo is sometimes the only way to make artistic progress. As I descended into the subway after the concert, the flute melody from the opening \u201cAdoration of the Earth\u201d hovered mystically. It was of course just a busking musician. Even if New York does not meet the expectations of more academically-minded new music connoisseurs, one can\u00b4t deny its magic.<\/p>\n