NY Philharmonic Announces Radio Broadcast Details

In May 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 commercial New York Philharmonic recordings of past  performances. They include Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1 (conducted by Charles  Munch, with pianist Walter Hendl as soloist, recorded 1948); Ben-Haim's Sweet Psalmist  of Israel (conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Sylvia Marlowe, harpsichord, and  Christina Stavrache, harp, recorded 1959); and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13, BabiYar (conducted by Kurt Masur, with baritone Sergei Leiferkus and the Men of the New  York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director, recorded 1993). The following week pianist Emanuel Ax - who is celebrating his 100th performance with the Philharmonic - will play Debussy's Estampes for solo piano, followed by Messiaen's Couleurs de la cité céleste, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, who will also lead the Orchestra in  Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

The third broadcast features an all-American program of commercial New York Philharmonic recordings. The program includes selections from Gershwin's Porgy and  Bess (conducted by André Kostelantetz, recorded 1954); Russo's Symphony No. 2, Titans (conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with trumPeter Maynard Ferguson as soloist, recorded  1959); Ellington's A Tone Parallel to Harlem (arranged by Wynton Marsalis, conducted  by Kurt Masur, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, recorded 1999); and an abridged version of Copland's The Tender Land (conducted by Aaron Copland, with soprano Joy  Clements, mezzo-soprano Claramae Turner, tenor Richard Cassilly, baritone Richard  Fredricks, and bass Norman Treigle, and the Choral Art Society, director William Jonson,  recorded 1965). The final broadcast, led by Alan Gilbert, features the Opening Night  program of the Orchestra's 2010-11 season: the U.S. Premiere - New York Philharmonic  Co-Commission of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony, with Mr. Marsalis as soloist and  the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; R. Strauss's Don Juan; and Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.

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.