[Feb. 4, 2011] - Individual concerts may come and go, but within the New York Philharmonic’s 2011-12 season announcement yesterday was the unveiling of a very exciting initiative that is actually taking place online and perhaps may prove of more lasting consequence: the Digital Archive Project, which offers a scholar’s dream treasure trove that is instantly accessible to anyone in the world with internet access. Currently, the site offers all materials from the years 1943-1970, but is slated to eventually include some 7,000 hours of video and audio and 8 million individual pages of documents.
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The archives are incredibly well integrated and easy to use, considering the wealth of material at hand. For example, not only can you look at the original program from Leonard Bernstein’s historic 1943 debut, when the then 25-year-old newcomer was called in during a massive snowstorm to fill in for a sick Bruno Walter during a radio broadcast—but in a single click, you can also hear the original radio broadcast of that concert.
The materials include conductors’ scores, complete with their hand-written notes, such as this Beethoven Ninth Symphony score carrying markings by both Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein.
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Speaking of live performances, as music director Alan Gilbert settles in as something of a NY Philharmonic old hand in his third season, several familiar faces are re-appearing at the orchestra. After stirring up intense media interest with the New York premier of works such as Kraft, composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg will extend his residency in New York to a third year; the orchestra will perform the world premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman in May 2012, and Lindberg continues to curate the Philharmonic’s new music series, “Contact!”, which will include a world premiere from Brazilian-American composer Alexandre Lundsqui this December. The orchestra will also give the premiere of star British composer Thomas Ades’ Polaris in January 2012.
One of the most hotly anticipated events of the season is going to be a co-production with the 55,000-square-foot Park Avenue Armory in a concert centered on the idea on the spatial relationships between sounds. At the heart of this program within this massive space is Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gruppen, a work that calls for three separate orchestras and three conductors, and three other works that also play with the idea of layered sound: the Finale of Act I from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, Ives’ The Unanswered Question, and Boulez’ Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna.
Just as the New York Philharmonic provided a catalytic point of reflection and insight for the somber first anniversary of September 11th, an occasion for which the orchestra commissioned John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls, the orchestra has commissioned a new piece from New York composer John Corigliano to mark the passing of a decade: One Sweet Morning, a song cycle to feature mezzo Stephanie Blythe, which will be performed on Sept. 30th and again on October 1st and 4th.
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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