Thursday, January 24, 2013

NYPO Season 2013-14

The press release links finally landed in my in-box last night. I don't understand why the NYPO sends out links to either their web site or to PDFs, rather than dropping their press releases into the email itself - and they haven't responded to inquiries about this - although, sure, the email that goes out is nicely decorative. Note: I and many other journalists care more about being able to read the content easily than we do about decorations.

Anyway, the press release is here; the season is a mixture of not-so-interesting standards (I already mentioned Bronfman playing the LvB concertos and the Tchaikovsky 1, right?) with some nice new music, though there's not so much of interesting 20th c. music. (Please let me know if the press release link doesn't work, as it looks a little odd in my browser.)

Christopher Rouse is the composer-in-residence, and the orchestra will be performing several of his works:
  • Symphony No. 4 (World Premier)
  • Requiem (NY Premier)
  • Oboe Concerto (NY Premier)
  • Rapture
Some other points of interest:
  • A series of works featuring retiring concertmaster Glenn Dicterow
  • Mark-Anthony Turnage, Frieze (US Premier, NYPO Co-Commission)
  • Osvaldo Golijov, Azul with Yo-Yo Ma, Last Round
  • Shostakovich 11 (Bychkov)
  • Penderecki, Concerto Grosso with three solo cellists (Dutoit; Brey, Weilerstein, Mueller-Schott)
  • Salonen, Violin Concerto (Salonen; Josefowicz - but you knew that, right?)
  • Britten, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings; Spring Symphony (Gilbert; Appleby, Royal, Cook; Philip Myers, horn)
  • Poulenc chamber music with Jeffrey Kahane, piano
  • Ades, Three Studies from Couperin (Zinman)
  • Handel, Messiah (Manze)
  • Lindberg, Piano concerto no. 2 (Gilbert; Bronfman)
  • Zemlinsky, The Mermaid (Boryeko)
  • Nielsen 1 and 5 plus Helios Overture (Gilbert)
  • Dudamel conducts Vivier's Orion and Bruckner 9
  • Heras-Casado conducts Britten, Bartok, Shostakovich
  • Andrew Davis conducts a new piece by Julian Anderson and the Franck Symphony Variations with the fleet-fingered Marc-Andre Hamelin
  • Bernard Haitink has two good programs; Webern, Berg violin concerto (Kavakos), Beethoven 3; Mahler 3 (Bernarda Fink!)
  • Vladimir Jurowski conducts Stravinsky, Szymanowski, and Prokofiev
  • Anthony Cheung, new work
  • Sam Shepherd, new work
No works by women have been announced (the Unsuk Chin piece I previously mentioned is in this season).  I did not see any women conducting during the season.

UPDATED to correct egregious errors, with thanks to reader Eric G.

8 comments:

John Marcher said...

Despite its gender imbalance, it's quite a season!

Lisa Hirsch said...

I believe I managed to accidentally delete a comment from Henry Holland saying "it's a boring season." :)

I have emailed him about a repost.

Eric G said...

Lisa -

There are few mistakes in your reporting here:

Asia/Winter is a tour, not a piece by Rouse.

Also, the Biennial details have not been announced, and the premieres you mention are 12/13 season (in the 2013 portion), and not in 13/14.

-Eric

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thanks; duly fixed!

Comments don't appear immediately because the blog is on moderation. (I have disproved one comment only, because of name-calling directed to another commenter.)

Henry Holland said...

Lisa, apart from my "boring" comment, I noted that this is, hands down, the best format for seeing a symphony season at a glance:

http://www.laphil.com/tickets/calendar-fullseason

It's all there, day-by-day, and since the Philharmonic usually omits a piece (usually the 20th century stuff, of course) on "Casual Fridays", it's nice to see what's left of the Friday concerts.

Henry Holland said...

OK, I take back the "boring" comment, that was based on just the highlights. Looking at the full schedule, I would say it's "unadventurous", lots of safe modernism amid the war horses.

For me, the highlight would be a chance to hear Britten's wonderful Spring Symphony with his gorgeous Serenade for T, H & S.

But then there's the usual programming gambit that utterly baffles me:

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Christopher ROUSE Rapture
Magnus LINDBERG Piano Concerto No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

Rouse and especially Lindberg's music are not in the same galaxy as Tchaikovsky (not a slight on his music, which I love), why not program some thornier Bartok like the complete Miraculous Mandarin ballet score or something similar instead?

The cynic in me imagines the planning meeting going something like this:

"OK, we've got Rouse and Lindberg, what else to program for the second half that will actually get butts in the seats?"

"Tchaikovsky!"

Lisa Hirsch said...

I am sure the conversations are exactly like that, alas. Agree with you about the LAPO season calendar, and I wish every orchestra would provide that. I do note that the NYPO chronological program is a PDF in approximately that format.

I bet you will not need to travel to NY to hear the Serenade. :)

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to add that Alan Gilbert has commented on connections between Lindberg and Tchaikovsky.