In June 2011, The New York Philharmonic This Week - the two-hour, national weekly and international radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin - begins with a program that will be recorded at a concert on the Orchestra's EUROPE / SPRING 2011 tour. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, will conduct Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica. The second broadcast will feature commercial New York Philharmonic recordings of pieces led by former Philharmonic Music Directors. The program includes selections from Prokofiev's ballet score for Romeo and Juliet (conducted by Kurt Masur, recorded 1996); Koussevitzky's Concerto for Double-Bass and Orchestra (conducted by Zubin Mehta, with Philharmonic Principal Bass Eugene Levinson as soloist, recorded 1986); and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 (conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with soprano Teresa Kubiak and bass Isser Buhkin as soloists, recorded 1976).
In the third broadcast, Anne-Sophie Mutter, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in- Residence, returns to the Philharmonic to perform Beethoven's Romance No. 2 and the World Premiere of Sebastian Currier's Time Machines, led by Alan Gilbert, who concludes the program with Bruckner's Symphony No. 2. The fourth broadcast comprises the Philharmonic's presentation of Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Mr. Gilbert and directed by Doug Fitch. The June broadcasts conclude with a program led by David Robertson, featuring Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff's The Isle of the Dead, and Schoenberg's Erwartung, with soprano Deborah Voigt as soloist.
The New York Philharmonic This Week airs locally in the New York metropolitan area on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. [Check local listings]. Concerts are available on the Philharmonic's Website, nyphil.org, for two weeks following the broadcast. The broadcasts are produced and syndicated to more than 300 outlets nationally and 122 outlets internationally by the WFMT Radio Network. Alec Baldwin is the host of the program, WFMT's Mark Travis is the broadcast producer, and New York Philharmonic Audio Director Lawrence Rock is the engineer and music producer.
The New York Philharmonic's first live national radio broadcast took place on October 5, 1930, over the CBS radio network. On that Sunday, Erich Kleiber was on the podium leading the Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Since that historic broadcast, the Philharmonic has enjoyed an almost continuous presence on national radio. Advancing its role as a media pioneer, the Philharmonic, since 2002, has shared its radio broadcast with a worldwide audience through its Website,
nyphil.org. In 2004, the New York Philharmonic was the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the first-ever subscription download series: Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009-10 season. This season the Orchestra released another iTunes pass: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010-11 Season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.
The New York Philharmonic This Week is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic's corporate partner, MetLife Foundation.
Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.
The WFMT Radio Network, the international syndication division of award-winning Chicago classical music station 98.7WFMT (streaming live at wfmt.com/streaming), produces and distributes these broadcasts nationwide. In addition to the New York Philharmonic broadcasts, the WFMT Radio Network syndicates concerts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as ongoing series such as Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio and Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. The WFMT Radio Network also offers a full season of American opera companies such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera On Air, San Francisco Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. In addition, exclusive programming from Germany's Deutsche Welle Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and dozens of classical, folk, jazz, news series, and specials are offered to radio outlets around the world.
Screen and stage actor Alec Baldwin has hosted The New York Philharmonic This Week since the beginning of the 2009-10 season. He received the 2009 and 2008 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his starring role in the television series 30 Rock. For the same role he also won the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Comedy and the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series. Mr. Baldwin made his Philharmonic debut narrating the New York Philharmonic's Inside the Music program on October 10, 2008, and narrated an additional Inside the Music program on January 23, 2009. As part of The Russian Stravinsky: A Philharmonic Festival, Mr. Baldwin narrated L'Histoire du Soldat on May 2, 2010. Mr. Baldwin hosted the 2009 and 2010 New Year's Eve Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts on PBS Stations.
Lawrence Rock has been Audio Director of the New York Philharmonic since 1997, overseeing all audio activities including recording, broadcasting, and live sound. He is the recording and mastering engineer as well as a producer for the recent iTunes Pass, Alan Gilbert: The InauguralSeason, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic. His other recent projects have included producing New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel: The Complete Mahler Symphonies, Live; Deutsche Grammophon's New York Philharmonic DG Concerts downloads; and a Deutsche Grammophon recording of music by Richard Strauss, performed by the Philharmonic. In 2005 Mr. Rock received three Grammy Awards for John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, for which he served as co-producer with the composer, and in 1997 he won a Grammy for engineering an album of works by Aaron Copland, performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. For the Philharmonic's own recording label, New York Philharmonic Special Editions, Mr.Rock co-produced the Grammy-nominated CD Sweeney Todd: Live at the New York Philharmonic and the 10-CD set Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic. He has also made recordings with the Chicago, Houston, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras.
Mark Travis, in his 11th year with the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago, was an editor and producer for Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the Philharmonic's recent subscription download series released on iTunes. Mr. Travis has produced the Philharmonic radio broadcasts since 2003-04, beginning with the monthly New York Philharmonic Live!, and he has been a producer of The New York Philharmonic This Week since its first season, in 2004-05. He has also written and directed broadcasts by the Berlin Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Bavarian Staatsoper, and is currently the managing producer of the Bucksbaum Family Opening Night Lyric Opera of Chicago series. Mr. Travis has an extensive discography as a music-producer that ranges from recordings by the New York Philharmonic on DG to recordings by William Warfield, Jenny Lin, Jeffrey Siegel, and the Chicago Chorale, for labels such as Naxos, Sony, DG,
Random House, and Koch. Mr. Travis, an accomplished singer and classical guitarist, is also one of the producers and hosts of the award-winning On The Music: The New York Philharmonic Podcast, which previews upcoming programs through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, Orchestra musicians, and experts.
THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC THIS WEEK
JUNE 2011
Week of May 30 (from May 24, 2011)
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Lisa Batiashvili, violin
BARTÓK Violin Concerto No. 2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica
Week of June 6 (New York Philharmonic commercial recordings)
Kurt Masur, conductor
Zubin Mehta, conductor
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Eugene Levinson, bass
Teresa Kubiak, soprano
Isser Buhkin, bass
PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet (selections)
KOUSSEVITZKY Concerto for Double-Bass and Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 14
Week of June 13 (from June 2-4, 2011)
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
BEETHOVEN Romance No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra,
Sebastian CURRIER Time Machines (World Premiere)
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 2
Week of June 20 (from June 22-25, 2011)
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Douglas Fitch, director
Alan Opie, baritone (Forester)
Melissa Parks, mezzo-soprano (Forester's Wife/Owl)
Keith Jameson, tenor (Schoolmaster, Mosquito)
Wilbur Pauley, bass (Badger/Priest)
Joshua Bloom, baritone ((Harašta, the Poacher)
Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano (Vixen)
Marie Lenormand, mezzo-soprano (Fox)
Serena Benedetti, soprano (Frantík)
Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano (Dog)
Emalie Savoy, soprano (Rooster/Jay)
Devon Guthrie, soprano (Hen)
New York Choral Artists,
Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus,
Anthony Piccolo, director
JANÁ?EK The Cunning Little Vixen
Week of June 27 (from June 9-11, 2011)
David Robertson, conductor
Deborah Voigt, soprano
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 1
RACHMANINOFF The Isle of the Dead
SCHOENBERG Erwartung
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