New York Philharmonic

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2009 – 2010New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season

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From Beethoven & Mozart to Zemlinsky

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The 2009–10 season — Alan Gilbert’s first as Music Director of the Philharmonic — introduces his vision for the Orchestra, one that both builds on its rich legacy and looks to the future and reflects the diver sity of his interests. He sees the Orchestra as a place that both celebrates the greatest of the classical repertoire and nurtures today’s composers and tomorrow’s music. The season's program­ming reflects his belief in the importance of artistic collaboration, his commitment to raising audience awareness and understanding of music, and his interest in making the Philharmonic a destination for all.

“I’d like to develop a special kind of rapport and trust with our audience,” Mr. Gilbert says. “The kind of belief that would make them feel comfortable hearing anything we program simply because we programmed it. Looking ahead, I hope my performances with the Orchestra will consist of our tightly combined human chemistry, a clear persona that is both identifiable and enjoyable.”

About This SeriesIn Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the New York Philharmonic breaks new ground by being the first orchestra to offer a season’s worth of recorded music for download. Offered exclusively through iTunes, this series brings the excitement of Alan Gilbert’s first season to an international audience.

The iTunes Pass will give subscribers access to more than 50 works, comprising new music (including New York Philhar­monic commissions) and magnificent selections from the orchestral repertoire, performed by many of the world’s top artists and conductors. The subscription also features bonus content, such as Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, and exclusive extras, including additional performances and lectures.

For more information about the series, visit nyphil.org/itunes.

Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season

Executive Producer: Vince Ford

Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis

Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock

Performance photos: Chris Lee

Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks

Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony used by arrangement with Universal Edition A.G., Vienna

Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.

Thomas Hampson is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.

Hillevi Martinpelto’s appearance is made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists Endowment Fund.

Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural

Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.

Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.

New York Philharmonic

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New York Philharmonic

Neeme Järvi, Conductor Hillevi Martinpelto, Soprano Thomas Hampson, Baritone

Recorded live November 5–7 & 10, 2009,Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)

Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus(The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43 (1800­01) 4:53

MOZART (1756–91)

Symphony No. 38 in D major, Prague,K.504 (1786) 24:44

Adagio — Allegro 10:18

Andante 8:17

Finale: Presto 6:09

ZEMLINSKY (1871–1942)

Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, After Poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Op. 18 (1922–23) 48:44

I. Slowly (grave), with somberly passionate expression 11:34

II. Lively 7:01

III. Adagio 6:59

IV. Slowly 7:34

V. Fiery and forceful 2:03

VI. In violently changing tempo and expression,

yet severely rhythmical 4:46

VII. Molto adagio (extremely slow and soulful) 8:47

HILLEVI MARTINPELTOTHOMAS HAMPSON

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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator

Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43

Ludwig van Beethoven

Whether Prometheus was a good guy or a bad guy depends on your point of view, and on who’s telling his story. The basic facts — if “facts” apply when discussing Greek mythology — were enunciated by the poet Hesiod: Prometheus was a Titan trickster who stole the gift of fire from Zeus (king of the gods) and delivered it to man. Zeus retaliated by sending Pandora and her notorious box to Earth, unleash­ing evil, drudgery, and disease among mankind. Or (Hesiod notes, alternatively), Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock and arranged for an eagle to dine eternally on his liver. Either way, Prometheus’s prank was punished, and his reputation was sorely stained.

Aeschylus, on the other hand, viewed the event from the side of the mortals. Instead of decrying Prometheus for upset­ting the cosmic order, he ennobled the fallen god as the bringer of fire to man — and, with it, the possibility of civilization, with all its incumbent arts and sciences. Aeschylus, one might argue, saw Prome­ theus as the fulcrum in human cultural history; if he was doomed to suffer, he did so to benefit the future accomplishments of humans. (His name, after all, means “forethinker.”)

Ludwig van Beethoven would have related to Prometheus’s burden. He was not without a substantial ego himself, and while still a fledgling composer he assumed that the musical world would revolve around his achievements — even if Vienna had so far failed to take note of the obvious. His 18th­century output included such substantial pieces as a sym­phony and two piano concertos, plus a fair amount of chamber music; a work for the stage, however, would probably be needed to propel him to a higher plateau of fame. He turned that corner in 1800, when he was commissioned to compose a score for the new ballet Die Geschöpfe des Pro-metheus (The Creatures of Prometheus).

Ballet rode the crest of popularity in turn­of­the­century Vienna. One of the city’s most applauded dancers was Salva­tore Viganò, a Neapolitan by birth and a nephew of the composer Luigi Boccherini. He choreographed the new Prometheus ballet to spotlight his wife and himself, with the partners portraying statues brought to

life by the fallen god. When the work was premiered, the program described the title character in Aeschylean terms:

a lofty soul, who found the people of his

time in ignorance, refined them by means

of science and the arts, and gave them

manners, customs, and morals.

The action depicts how the two statues, “through the power of harmony, are made receptive to all the passions of human existence.” Prometheus entrusts their edu­cation to the best of teachers — including Orpheus for music, Terpsichore for dance, and Melpomene for tragedy — and each episode is depicted through the course of 16 choreographed numbers. The muse Melpomene slays Prometheus in this ver­sion, to punish him for bringing mankind to life, but in the end he is re­deified when Apollo sees that humanity is not such a bad thing after all.

The new ballet scored a hit, running for 14 performances and returning for 13 the next season. Beethoven provided a worthy score for what proved to be a light enter­tainment, though not without carping that Viganò had failed to depict Prometheus’s suffering adequately. The score offers momentary delights throughout, but one of its apogees is the high­spirited Overture, which was published independently in 1804. Another highlight of Beethoven’s incidental music is the finale, where the composer unveils a theme to which he would return in three later works, most

December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, GermanyMarch 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

1800–01; dedicated to Princess Christiane von Lichnowsky (when the work was published in piano reduction)

March 28, 1801, at the Burgtheater in Vienna

January 23, 1913, Josef Stransky, conductor

famously in the last movement of his Sym­phony No. 3, Eroica.

The opening sonority of the Overture, an unstable seventh chord in the third inver­sion, serves as a harmonic red herring. Apart from demonstrating the sort of musi­cal audacity to which Beethoven was dis­posed, it serves to remind many concert­goers of the very similar feint that opens the composer’s First Symphony, which had been premiered almost precisely a year earlier. These two works stand at the head of the path along which Beethoven would soon develop his own Promethean tendencies in orchestral music.

Instrumentation: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.

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Notes on the Program (continued)

Symphony No. 38 inD major, Prague, K.504

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart moved from his native, provincial Salzburg to the exciting Austrian capital of Vienna in 1781, he seems to have assumed that the world would be his oyster. This was not to be, however. He met with a good measure of success, to be sure, gaining a following as a virtuoso pianist and as a composer — the latter even in the high­stakes world of musical theater. But Vienna was full of other talented composers, and many of them were more politically savvy than Mozart was, for his genius was often ac­companied by an obstreperous streak. The ten years he spent in Vienna (where he would die in 1791) might be characterized as a love­hate relationship, in which Mozart derived important aesthetic sustenance from the city’s cultural life but often felt personally underappreciated.

Not so with Prague — which Mozart loved, and which loved him back. Germany, Austria, and Bohemia shared an active cultural exchange in the 18th century. In the balance of cultural trade, Bohemia seems to have been a net exporter: its gifts to the musical world included the flotilla of Czech musicians who elevated Mannheim (in southern Germany) to a mid­century musical center so prominent that its orchestra set the standard to which all others aspired. For all its openness to

outsiders, Prague seems not to have attracted immigrants quite so easily. Its welcome mat was out to Mozart, though, and its music­loving populace was quick to embrace such operas as Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni unconditionally, even when Vienna had put forth a respect­ful but more guarded reception. Franz Xaver Niemetschek, the composer’s early biographer, clarified the difference when recounting the first performances of Figaro:

In Vienna ... they slandered him and did

their best to belittle his art.... [In Prague]

the enthusiasm shown by the public was

without precedent; they could not hear

it enough.

In 1786 Mozart received an invitation to visit Prague — apparently extended by a coterie of culturally inclined citizens of the city’s German­speaking community, well known for its patriotic support of the Austro­Germanic arts. At the beginning of 1787 Mozart, his wife, and a consider­

In ShortBorn: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria

Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna

Work composed: 1786, in Vienna; he entered it into his catalogue of compositions on December 6

World premiere: apparently January 19, 1787, in Prague, Bohemia, the composer conducting

New York Philharmonic premiere: January 27, 1866, Carl Bergmann, conductor

able entourage traveled by coach to the Bohemian capital for what would be the closest the composer ever came to a plea­sure trip. His musical obligations were few, limited to an evening conducting Le nozze di Figaro and a couple of performances as a pianist, during which he particularly distinguished himself as an improviser.

Mozart also arrived bearing gifts, chief among them the D­major Symphony that he had completed late in 1786 and that would forever have the name of “Prague” attached to it. Mozart led a distinguished orchestra — albeit a small one of about 20 players — in the work’s premiere, which appears to have taken place on January 19, 1787. Years later, in 1808, Niemetschek reported:

the symphonies [Mozart] composed for

this occasion are real masterpieces ...

full of surprising modulations, and have

a quick, fiery gait, so that the very soul

is transported to sublime heights. This

applies particularly to the Symphony in D

major, which remains a favorite in Prague,

although it has doubtless been heard a

hundred times.

Indeed, this symphony is one of Mozart’s most impressive — in spite of the fact that it has only three movements, rather than the by then traditional four. What’s missing is the Minuet­and­Trio that normally oc­cupies the third movement of a classical symphony. It’s anyone’s guess as to why Mozart decided not to include one, but he

more than compensates for its absence by attaching a slow introduction to the open­ing Allegro. Though such introductions are found in the later symphonies of Haydn and in those of Beethoven, they are not much associated with Mozart. In this open­ing, Mozart seems to be looking ahead to the perplexing chromatic ruminations of Don Giovanni, which (as it happens) Prague would giddily idolize within a year.

Instrumentation: pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus tim­pani and strings.

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Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, After Poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Op. 18

Alexander Zemlinsky

Among the array of powerful talents populating turn­of­the­20th­century Vienna was Alexander von Zemlinsky. (He would drop the aristocratic “von” after World War I.) He instructed and champi­oned a heady roster of composers, whose works would become better remembered than his own. He took a young Arnold Schoenberg under his wing, taught him personally, and employed him as a musical assistant. (Schoenberg’s Op. 1, a set of songs, is dedicated to his “teacher and friend Alexander von Zemlinsky”; in 1901 the two became brothers­in­law when Schoenberg married Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde.) Alban Berg and Anton We­bern were among his students in the art of orchestration, and in 1900 his friend Gustav Mahler conducted the premiere of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal ... (Once Upon a Time ...), the second of his eight operas, at the Vienna Hofoper.

Zemlinsky also promoted his composer­ colleagues from the podium, and by all accounts was a refined conductor of not only the classics but also of music by the aforementioned Schoenberg (including the 1924 premiere of his Erwartung), Berg, and Webern, as well as Schulhoff, Korngold, Weill, Krenek, Hindemith, Janácek, and many other notables of

Central European modernism. He held a succession of prestigious conducting ap­pointments, including those at the Vienna Volksoper (where he led the Viennese premiere of Richard Strauss’s Salome), the Hofoper (where he worked alongside Mahler), and, from 1911 to 1927, the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague (later renamed the Deutsches Landestheater).

Apart from his 16­year tenure in Prague, Zemlinsky tended to move frequently from one post to another, and he sometimes became swept up in aesthetic disagree­ments and personal rivalries. Inevitably, he ran afoul of the Nazis, and during those dark years his oeuvre was consigned to the list of forbidden “degenerate music.” His mother was the issue of a mixed Sephardic­Turkish Muslim marriage and his father, born a Catholic, had converted to Judaism. If such a pedigree hadn’t done Zemlinsky in after the rise of the Nazis, his promoting of composers whose works

were more brashly modernist than his own would have proved insuperable. A few months after the Anschluss, Zemlinsky and his wife fled from Vienna, via Prague, to New York, where he found little success before he was disabled by a stroke, in 1939. His death three years later went largely unnoticed.

In September 1922 Zemlinsky advised his publisher, Emil Hertzka:

This summer I’ve written something along

the lines of the Lied v.d. Erde. I haven’t

yet found a title for it. There are seven

completely interrelated songs for baritone,

soprano, and orchestra, which run without

a break.

Some might view it as foolhardy, or even an act of hubris, to place before the public a work so obviously descended from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, which had been unveiled in November 1911, six months after the death of its composer. The resemblance cannot be missed. Both are imposing examples of the symphony­as­song­cycle, Mahler’s cast in six discrete movements, Zemlinsky’s in seven connect­ed ones. Both use a large orchestra with two alternating vocal soloists: contralto (or baritone) and tenor for Mahler, soprano and baritone for Zemlinsky. Both employ (at least ostensibly) Asian texts of a mysti­cal bent, in German translation: presumed eighth­century Chinese poems chosen by Mahler; poems by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore chosen by Zemlinsky. Antony Beaumont, in his biography of

About the Poet

The polymathic Rabindranath Tagore (born in Kolkata, a.k.a. Calcutta, in 1861; died there in 1941) remains a towering figure of Indian cultural history even if his stock has fallen somewhat in the Western world. The son of a Maharashi (“great sage”), he began winning acclaim in his 20s for his poetry, some of which was radical in embracing verse forms not previously espoused by Bengali poetic traditions.

While managing his father’s estates, he lived in close contact with impoverished la-borers, an experience that fed his humani-tarian instincts and the political potency of his future writings. Prolific to a fault (his complete writings run to nearly 30 thick vol-umes), Tagore was also a noted painter and musician; he wrote more than 1,000 songs, one of which, “Amar Shonar Bangla” (“My Golden Bengal”), has served since 1972 as the national anthem of Bangladesh.

In 1913 Tagore became the first non-European honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature, in recognition “of his profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.” In 1915 he was awarded a British knighthood, which he renounced four years later to protest British colonial abuses in India. From 1912 to 1933 he traveled widely throughout the world, hailed on five conti-nents as a celebrity.

The composer Alexander Zemlinsky may have first met Tagore during the poet’s visit to Prague in 1921. Certainly they met in 1926, during a follow-up visit there, when the festivities included Zemlinsky conduct-ing the last movement of his Lyric Sym-phony in Tagore’s presence.

In ShortBorn: October 4, 1871, in Vienna, Austria

Died: March 15, 1942, in Larchmont, New York

Work composed: April 2, 1922–August 29, 1923; the texts are from The Gardener, by Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), in Hans Effenberger’s German translations of 1914

World premiere: June 4, 1924, in Prague, the composer conducting the ISCM Festival orchestra

New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s only previous performances of this work were December 13–15, 1979, James Levine, conductor, Johanna Meier, soprano, Dale Duesing, baritone

Notes on the Program (continued)

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Notes on the Program (continued)

Zemlinsky, insists:

the similarities are skin deep. The form

of Mahler’s work is linear, Zemlinsky’s is

circular; Mahler divides his work into six

clearly separated movements, Zemlinsky

prefers a through­composed, operatic

structure.

Fair enough, and Beaumont notes differ­ ences of ethos, too, with Mahler bidding a nostalgic adieu to the natural world while Zemlinsky traces a sensual encounter between a man and a woman. Still, most of us are likely to remark on the works’ similarities rather than their disparities, and we may well agree that Zemlinsky’s achievement in this remarkable work is not lessened by its obvious genealogy.

Instrumentation: four flutes (two dou­bling piccolo), three oboes (one dou­bling English horn), three clarinets (one doubling E­flat clarinet) and bass clarinet, three bassoons (one doubling contrabas­soon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, triangle, cymbals, tam­tam, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, harp, celesta, harmonium, and strings, in addition to the soprano and baritone soloists.

From the Premiere

Shortly after the premiere of the Lyric Symphony, during the ISCM (Interna-tional Society for Contemporary Music) Festival in Prague in 1924, Zemlinsky received an enthusiastic letter from his former pupil Alban Berg. Berg had known Zemlinsky since 1905, and in 1926 he would quote his teacher’s Lyric Sym-phony in his own Lyric Suite for String Quartet. The letter itself is now missing, but Berg’s preliminary draft of the letter survives:

[Even if] now at last I believe that I re-ally know your Lyric Symphony, in ten years’ time [I will] be forced to admit that today I have only an inkling of the score’s boundless beauties. But this can do nothing whatsoever to diminish my love, which — as it affects me in a particularly personal way — is that true love which overcomes me only in the case of a small, select body of music.

[...] Freed from all the secondary considerations, limitations, and ob-stacles that have to be surmounted in works of other genres [...], with the Lyric Symphony (never before was a title so ambiguous & at once so mean-ingful) a musical [child] is born — one that contains not one note too many, nor indeed one too few.

I

Ich bin friedlos,ich bin durstig nach fernen Dingen.Meine Seele schweift in Sehnsucht,den Saum der dunklen Weite zu berühren.O grosses Jenseits,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse, ich vergesse immer,dass ich keine Schwingen zum Fliegen habe,dass ich an dieses Stück Erdegefesselt bin für alle Zeit.

Ich bin voll Verlangen und wachsam,ich bin ein Fremder im fremden Land —dein Odem kommt zu mirund raunt mir unmögliche Hoffnungen zu. Deine Sprache klingt meinem Herzenvertraut wie seine eig’ne.O Ziel in Fernen,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse immer, ich vergessedass ich nicht den Weg weiss,dass ich das beschwingte Ross nicht habe.

Ich bin ruh’los,ich bin ein Wanderer in meinem Herzen.Im sonnigen Nebel der zögernden Stunden,welch gewaltiges Gesicht von dirwird Gestalt in der Bläue des Himmels.O fernstes Ende,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse, ich vergesse immer,dass die Türen überall verschlossen sindin dem Hause, wo ich einsam wohne,o fernstes Ende,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.

I have no peace, I thirst after far­off things. My soul roams in longing to touch the hem of dark distance. O vast beyond, o untamed call of your flute.I forget, I always forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am chained to this piece of earth for all time.

I am full of longing and vigilant, I am a stranger in a strange land — your breath descends upon me and whispers impossible hopes. Your language is as familiar to my heart as is its very own. O far­off goal, o untamed call of your flute. I always forget, I forget that I do not know the way, that I do not have the winged horse.

I am restless, I am a wanderer in my heart. In the sunny haze of the languid hours, how powerfully your visage takes shape in the blue of the sky. O furthest end, o untamed call of your flute. I forget, I always forget, that the doors are shut everywhere in the house, where I dwell alone, o furthest end, o untamed call of your flute.

Texts and Translations

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II

Mutter, der junge Prinz muss an uns’rer Türe vorbeikommen:

wie kann ich diesen Morgen auf meine Arbeit acht geben?

Zeig mir, wie soll mein Haar ich flechten;zeig mir, was soll ich für Kleider anziehen?Warum schaust du mich so verwundert an,

Mutter?Ich weiss wohl, er wird nicht ein einz’ges Malzu meinem Fenster aufblicken.Ich weiss im Nu wird er mir aus den Augen

sein;nur das verhallende Flötenspielwird seufzend zu mir dringen von weitem.Aber der junge Prinz wird bei uns

vorüberkommen,und ich will mein Bestes anziehen für diesen

Augenblick.

Mutter, der junge Prinz ist an uns’rer Türe vorbeigekommen,

und die Morgensonne blitzte an seinem Wagen.Ich strich den Schleier aus meinem Gesicht,riss die Rubinenkette von meinem Halsund warf sie ihm in den Weg.Warum schaust du mich so verwundert an,

Mutter?Ich weiss wohl, dass er meiner Kette nicht

aufhob.Ich weiss, sie ward unter den Rädern

zermalmtund liess eine rote Spur im Staube zuruck.Und niemand weiss, was mein Geschenk

war und wer es gab.Aber der junge Prinz kam an unsrer Tür

vorüber und ich hab’ den Schmuck von meiner Brust

ihm in den Weg geworfen.

Mother, the young prince must surely pass byour door:

how am I to concentrate on my work thismorning?

Show me, how shall I braid my hair;show me, how shall I clothe myself?Why do you look at me so amazed,

mother?I know well that not even oncewill he glance up at my window.I know he will disappear in an instant from

my view;only the vanishing sound of the flutewill reach me, sighing from a distance.Yet the young prince will

pass by,and I wish to be arrayed in my finest for this

moment.

Mother, the young prince has passed by ourdoor,

and the morning sun flashed from his chariot.I swept aside the veil from my face,tore off the chain of rubies from my neckand flung it into his path.Why do you look at me so amazed,

mother?I know well that he did not pick up

my chain.I know it was crushed under the

wheels,leaving behind a red streak in the dust.And no one knows what my gift was and

who gave it.Yet the young prince did pass by

our doorand I did fling the jewels from my breast

into his path.

Text and Translation (continued)

III

Du bist die Abendwolke,die am Himmel meiner Träume hinzieht.Ich schmücke dich und kleide dich immer mit

den Wünschen meiner Seele.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen,Du, die in meinen endlosen Träumen wohnt.

Deine Füsse sind rosigrotvon der Glut meines sehnsüchtigen Herzens.Du, die meine Abendlieder erntet.Deine Lippen sind bittersüssvom Geschmack des Weins aus meinem

Leiden.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen.Du, die in meinen einsamen Träumen wohnt.

Mit dem Schatten meiner Leidenschaft hab’ ich deine Augen geschwärzt,gewohnter Gast in meines Blickes Tiefe.

Ich hab’ dich gefangen und dich eingesponnen, Geliebte,

in das Netz meiner Musik.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen.Du, die in meinen unsterblichen Träumen

wohnt.

You are the evening cloud,floating in the sky of my dreams.I bejewel and clothe you ever with the

longings of my soul.You are my own, my own,you, who dwell in my infinite dreams.

Your feet are rosy­redwith the glow of my yearning heart.You, who gather my songs in the evening.Your lips are bittersweetwith the taste of the wine of my

sufferings.You are my own, my own.You, who dwell in my solitary dreams.

With the shadow of my passionI have darkened your eyes,intimate guest of my gaze’s depth.

I have captured and woven you,my love,

in the net of my music.You are my own, my own.You, who dwell in my undying

dreams.

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IV

Sprich zu mir, Geliebter,sag’ mir mit Worten, was du sangest.Die Nacht ist dunkel, die Sterne sind in

Wolken verloren.Der Wind seufzt durch die Blätter.Ich will mein Haar lösen,mein blauer Mantel wird dich umschmiegen

wie Nacht.Ich will deinen Kopf an meine Brust

schliessenund hier in der süssen Einsamkeit lass dein

Herz reden.Ich will meine Augen zumachen und lauschen,ich will nicht in dein Antlitz schauen.Wenn dein Worte zu Ende sindwollen wir still und schweigend sitzen.Nur die Bäume werden im Dunkel flüstern,die Nacht wird bleichen, der Tag wird dämmern.Wir werden einander in die Augen schauenund jeder seines Weges ziehn.Sprich zu mir, Geliebter.

Speak to me, my love,tell me in words what you told me in song.The night is dark, the stars are lost in the

clouds.The wind sighs through the leaves.I want to untie my hair,my blue cloak will enfold you

like night.I want to clasp your head to

my breastand have your heart speak in the sweet

loneliness.I want to shut my eyes and listen,I do not want to glance at your face.When your words are at an endwe want to sit still and silent.Only the trees will whisper in the dark,the night will pale, the day will dawn.We will look into each other’s eyesand each will go his way.Speak to me, my love.

Text and Translation (continued)

VI

Vollende denn das letzte Liedund lass uns auseinander gehn;vergiss diese Nacht, wenn die Nacht um ist.Wen müh’ ich mich mit meinen Armen zu

umfassen?Träume lassen sich nicht einfangen,meine gierigen Hände drücken Leere an

mein Herzund es zermürbt meine Brust.

Complete the final song nowand let us part from one another;forget this night, when the night is no more.Who do I uneasily clasp in

my arms?Dreams cannot be made captive,my anxious hands press emptiness to my

heartand it bruises my breast.

V

Befrei’ mich von den Banden deiner Süsse,Lieb! Nichts mehr von diesem Wein der Küsse,dieser Nebel von schwerem Weihrauch

erstickt mein Herz.Öffne die Türe, mach Platz für das

Morgenlicht.Ich bin in dich verloren, eingefangenin die Umarmungen deiner Zärtlichkeit.Befrei’ mich von deinem Zauberund gib mir den Mut zurück,dir mein befreites Herz darzubieten.

Free me from the bonds of your sweetness,my love! No more of this wine of kisses,'this mist of heavy incense stifles

my heart.Open the doors, make place for the morning

light.I am lost in you, capturedby the embraces of your tenderness.Free me from your spelland give me back the courage,to offer you my freed heart.

VII

Friede, mein Herz,lass die Zeit, für das Scheiden süss sein,lass es nicht einen Tod sein, sondern

Vollendung.Lass Liebe in Erinn’rung schmelzenund Schmerz in Lieder.Lass die letzte Berührung deiner Hände

sanft sein,wie die Blume der Nacht.Steh’ still, steh’ still, o wundervolles Ende,für einen Augenblickund sage deine letzten Worte in Schweigen.Ich neige mich vor dir,ich halte meine Lampe in die Höhe,um dir auf deinen Weg zu leuchten.

Peace, my heart, let the time for parting be sweet,

let it be not a death, but, rather, completion.Let love melt into memoryand pain into song.Let the last touch of your hands

be gentle,like the nocturnal flower.Stand still, stand still, oh wondrous end,for a momentand say your last words in silence.I bow to you,I hold up my lamp,to light you on your way.

English translation by Steven R. Cerf

Translator’s note: This English version is, by and large, a literal rendering of Hans Effenberger’s German translation of Tagore. The attempt has been made to capture Effenberger’s own neo­ Romantic idiom, to which Zemlinsky obviously attuned his music with considerable care. — S.R.C.

Translation © 1979 by The Philharmonic­Symphony Society of New York, Inc.

New York Philharmonic

20 21

ViolinsGlenn Dicterow

Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Chair

Sheryl Staples Principal Associate

Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair

Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Chair

Enrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe

Minyoung ChangHae­Young Ham

The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Chair

Lisa GiHae KimKuan­Cheng LuNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles Rex

The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair

Fiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel

Marc Ginsberg Principal

Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell

Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair

Duoming Ba

Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair

Martin EshelmanQuan GeJudith GinsbergMyung­Hi Kim+Hanna LachertHyunju LeeDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin

ViolasCynthia Phelps

Principal The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair

Rebecca Young*Irene Breslaw**

The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair

Dorian Rence

Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Chair

Dawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart

The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen Chair

CellosCarter Brey

Principal The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair

Eileen Moon*The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair

Qiang TuThe Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Chair

Evangeline Benedetti

Eric BartlettThe Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair

Elizabeth DysonMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoRu­Pei YehWei Yu

BassesEugene Levinson

Principal The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair

Orin O’BrienActing Associate Principal The Herbert M. Citrin Chair

William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Chair

Randall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi OkamotoJon Deak++Leonid

Finkelshteyn++

FlutesRobert Langevin

Principal The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair

Sandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman

PiccoloMindy Kaufman

OboesLiang Wang

Principal The Alice Tully Chair

Sherry Sylar*Robert Botti

English HornThomas Stacy

The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair

ClarinetsMark NuccioActing Principal

The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Chair

Pascual MartinezForteza

Acting Associate Principal The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair

Alucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++

E-Flat ClarinetPascual Martinez

Forteza

Bass ClarinetAmy Zoloto++

2009–2010 SeasonALAN GILBERT Music DirectorDaniel Boico, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus

BassoonsJudith LeClair

Principal The Pels Family Chair

Kim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast

ContrabassoonArlen Fast

HornsPhilip Myers

Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair

Erik Ralske Acting Associate Principal

R. Allen SpanjerHoward Wall

TrumpetsPhilip Smith

Principal The Paula Levin Chair

Matthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith

TrombonesJoseph Alessi Principal The Gurnee F. and Marjorie

L. Hart Chair

Amanda Stewart*David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin

M. Rosen Chair

Bass TromboneJames Markey

TubaAlan Baer Principal

TimpaniMarkus Rhoten

Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair

PercussionChristopher S. Lamb

Principal The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair

Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair

HarpNancy Allen Principal

The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Chair

Keyboard In Memory of Paul Jacobs

HarpsichordLionel Party

PianoThe Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Chair

Harriet WingreenJonathan Feldman

OrganKent Tritle

LibrariansLawrence Tarlow Principal

Sandra Pearson**Sara Griffin**

Orchestra PersonnelManagerCarl R. Schiebler

Stage RepresentativeLouis J. Patalano

Audio DirectorLawrence Rock

* Associate Principal** Assistant Principal+ On Leave++ Replacement/Extra

The New York Philharmonic uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.

Honorary Membersof the SocietyPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin MehtaCarlos Moseley

New York PhilharmonicGary W. Parr Chairman

Zarin Mehta President and Executive

Director

22 23

The Music Director

In September 2009 Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, the first native New Yorker to hold the post. For his inaugural season he has introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The Marie­Josée Kravis Composer­in­ Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist­in­Residence, held by Thomas Hampson; an annual three­week festival; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new­music series. He leads the Orchestra on a major tour of Asia in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi; on a European tour in January–February 2010; and in performances of world, U.S., and New York premieres. Also in the 2009–10 season, Mr. Gilbert becomes the first person to

hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes.

Highlights of Mr. Gilbert’s 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic in cluded the Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic, featuring Bernstein’s Kad-dish Symphony. In May 2009 he con ducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The World in Flower, a New York Philhar­monic Commission, and in July 2009 he led the New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks and Free Indoor Concerts, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, and four performances at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following his final concert as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco sym­phony orchestras; The Cleveland Orches­tra; Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Amsterdam’s Royal Concert­gebouw Orchestra; and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, where he served for three seasons.

Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard Univer­sity, The Curtis Institute of Music, and

The Juilliard School. He was a substitute violinist with The Philadelphia Orchestra for two seasons and assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

24 25

The Artists

Con­ductor

Neeme Järvi appears

with many of the world’s most prominent

orchestras and soloists. Recent and future engage­

ments include the Berlin Phil­harmonic, Royal Concertgebouw

Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bavar­ian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the major orches­tras of Scandinavia. In the United States, he is regularly invited to conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago, Detroit, and National symphony orchestras. Past operatic engagements have included The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris (Bastille), San Francisco Opera, and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with such soloists as violinist Janine Jansen, cellist Truls Mørk, and pianists Hélène Grimaud, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, and Radu Lupu. Highlights of his 2009–10 season include opening the Bergen Philharmonic’s season; returns to the Gothenburg Symphony (National Orchestra of Sweden), Royal Scottish Na­tional, and London Philharmonic orches­tras; and two trips to China: first for a tour with The Hague Philharmonic, and again to conduct the Shanghai Symphony and China Philharmonic Orchestras.

Mr. Järvi is chief conductor of The Hague Philharmonic and is conductor laureate and artistic advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He is music director emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony, first principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Highlights of Mr. Järvi’s discography, which comprises more than 440 record­ings, include complete symphony cycles of Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nielsen, and Brahms, as well as works by composers from his native Estonia. He has recorded for Chandos, Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, and EMI, among other labels. He recently released Wagner: The Ring — An Orches-tral Adventure on Chandos.

Neeme Järvi’s honors include an honor­ary doctorate from the Music Academy of Estonia, the Order of the National Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of Estonia, the City of Tallinn’s first­ever ceremonial sash and coat of arms insignia, and being named one of the Estonians of the Century. He also holds honorary doctorates from Wayne State University, University of Michigan, University of Aber­deen, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He has received the Commander of the North Star Order from His Majesty, King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden.

In the 2009–10 sea­

son, Hillevi Mar-tinpelto, who lives in

Stockholm, sings regularly at the Royal Swedish Opera.

Recent operatic engagements have included Elisabeth in Wagner’s

Tannhäuser, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, and the Marschal­lin in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in Stockholm; Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin in Leipzig; Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in Gothenburg; Cio­Cio­San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Berlin; Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Dresden, Menorca, and Hong Kong; and Vitellia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in Munich and at the Maggio Musicale Fio­rentino. She has sung Lieder recitals and concert perform­ ances of La clemenza di Tito, Weber’s Der Freischütz, and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürn-berg at the Edinburgh International Festi­val, as well as concert performances of La clemenza di Tito with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London and New York. Her international symphonic concerts have featured Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony in Amsterdam; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Birmingham; Mendelssohn’s Elijah in

Paris; Handel’s Messiah at the BBC Proms in London; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Berlin and at the Tanglewood Music Festival; Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in Turin; and Sibelius’s Luonnotar with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Ms. Martinpelto’s principal recordings are on the Deutsche Grammophon and EMI labels.

She has long been associated with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner — on stage, in concert, and on recordings — collaborating on works by Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Schumann, and others. Additional recordings include Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Vitellia in his La clemenza di Tito, and Verdi’s Don Carlo and Gustavo III. She performs regularly in Great Britain, Italy, and Germany, and she often presents solo recital programs and duo recital programs (with Anne Sofie von Otter).

Hillevi Martinpelto trained in Stockholm. In May 2006 she received the title of Hovsångare (Singer of the Royal Court) from His Majesty, King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden.

26 27

The Artists

American baritone Thomas

Hampson has performed in the world’s

preeminent concert halls and opera houses, and with

many of today’s most renowned musicians and orchestras; he also

maintains an active interest in teaching, music research, and technology. An im­portant interpreter of German romantic song, he is known as a leading proponent of the study of American song through his Hampsong Foundation, which he founded in 2003 to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. Much of Mr. Hamp­son’s 2009–10 season is devoted to his “Song of America” project. In collaboration with the Library of Congress, Mr. Hamp­son is performing recitals and presenting master classes, educational activities, exhibitions, and broadcasts across the country and through a new interactive on­line resource, www.songofamerica.net. As part of the project, he has released a new album, Wondrous Free — Song of America II, on his own label, Thomas Hampson Media. Other engagements include Mendels sohn’s Elijah, led by Kurt Masur, in Leipzig; Verdi’s Ernani and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Zurich Opera; Verdi’s La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera; solo

recitals throughout the United States and in many European capitals; and the galas of the Vienna Staatsoper and the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas.

This season Mr. Hampson became the first Mary and James G. Wallach Artist­in­Residence at the New York Philhar­monic, as well as the Orchestra’s Leonard Bernstein Scholar­in­Residence. In these roles he will perform three programs with the Orchestra, appear on its European tour, give a recital at Alice Tully Hall, and present three lectures entitled “Listening to Thought” as part of the Philharmonic’s Insights Series.

Thomas Hampson has released more than 150 albums, which have received honors including a Grammy Award, two Edison Prizes, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He has been named Kammersän­ger of the Vienna Staatsoper; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France; and Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America by Dr. James H. Billington, Librar­ian of Congress. Other honors include the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences (in 2004) and the Edison Life Achievement Award (2005).

New York Philharmonic

28 29

The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American­born Ureli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It currently plays some 180 concerts a year, and on December 18, 2004, gave its 14,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.

Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20th­century musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 to the summer of 2002; named Music Director Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.

Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning or premiering many important works, such as Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations. The Philharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of works such as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering tradition has continued to the present day, with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled each season, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy

Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; Augusta Read Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson Settings for Soprano and Orchestra; and Esa­Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto.

The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák, Gustav Mahler (Music Director, 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director, 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director, 1928–36), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor, 1947–49), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director, 1949–58), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor, 1969–70), and Erich Leinsdorf.

Long a leader in American musical life, the Philharmonic has over the last century become renowned around the globe, appearing in 428 cities in 61 countries on 5 continents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by then­Music Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the first visit there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world and for which the Philharmonic received the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. Other historic tours have included the 1930 Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first Tour to the USSR, in 1959; the 1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, featuring the first performances in

mainland China; and the 75th Anniversary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel.

A longtime media pioneer, the Phil­harmonic began radio broadcasts in 1922 and is currently represented by The New York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated nationally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org and Sirius XM Radio. On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philharmonic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence has continued with annual appearances on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as the first Orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Awards, one of the most­watched television events worldwide. 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 first­ever 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. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.

On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic proudly announced a new partnership with Credit Suisse, its first­ever and exclusive Global Sponsor.

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Performed, produced, and distributed by the New York Philharmonic© 2009 New York Philharmonic

NYP 20100107