| |
|
Founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American-born Ureli Corelli Hill, the New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world. In continuous operation throughout two-thirds of our nation’s history, the Philharmonic has played a leading role in American musical life and development. In 2002-03, the Philharmonic celebrated its 160th Anniversary. Currently, the Orchestra plays some 180 concerts a year, most of them in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, during its September-to-June subscription season.
Lorin Maazel became Music Director in September 2002. He succeeded Kurt Masur, who was Music Director from 1991 until the summer of 2002, and who was named Music Director Emeritus on June 1, 2002. Previous Music Directors have included Zubin Mehta (1978-91), and Pierre Boulez (1971-77). Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958, was given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.
Since its inception, the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, giving the first performances of many important works, such as Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the composer at the keyboard; Gershwin’s Concerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations, in addition to the U.S. premieres of works such as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. The pioneering tradition has continued to the present day with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled each season. The 2002-03 subscription season was launched with John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, written in memory of September 11, 2001.
The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes historic figures such as Theodore Thomas, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Mahler (Music Director, 1909-11), Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Mengelberg (Music Director, 1922-30), Furtwängler, Toscanini (Music Director, 1928-36), Stravinsky, Koussevitzky, Copland, Walter (Music Advisor, 1947-49), Mitropoulos (Music Director, 1949-58), Szell (Music Advisor, 1969-70), Tennstedt, and Leinsdorf. Soloists who have performed with the Orchestra include the great instrumentalists and singers of many generations.
The Orchestra undertook its first domestic tour in 1882, under Leopold Damrosch. After its merger in 1928 with the Symphony Society of New York, the Philharmonic made its first European tour, under Arturo Toscanini, in 1930. Today, the Orchestra has performed in approximately 412 cities in 57 countries on five continents. Since 1980, Citibank has sponsored 16 of the Orchestra’s tours abroad, supporting performances in 85 different cities and 40 countries and territories. These included Europe (1980, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000), South America (1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001), and Asia (1984, 1989, 1994, 1998). The Philharmonic has also made seven United States tours since 1980, including the Citibank-sponsored 1999 North America tour.
The New York Philharmonic’s remarkable achievements in radio, television, and other media have helped shape communications history. In keeping with its longstanding commitment to reaching the widest audiences possible, the Philharmonic, in 1922, became one of the first orchestras to broadcast a live concert. Its live coast-to-coast radio broadcast of 1930 was the first of its kind. It continued live broadcasts until 1966, when radio broadcasts went for several years to a tape-delay format. In 1997 the Orchestra returned to the airwaves, becoming the nation’s only symphony orchestra to be broadcast live on a national scale, and on a regular basis.
Since making its first recording in 1917, the Philharmonic has recorded nearly 2,000 albums; more than 500 recordings are currently available. Recordings of the New York Philharmonic are available on major labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, London, New World, RCA, Sony Classical, and Teldec. Two discs produced under the Orchestra’s extensive collaboration with Teldec and Kurt Masur received “Record of the Year” awards from Stereo Review. In 1997 the Philharmonic launched its own award-winning record label, New York Philharmonic Special Editions™, with the release of a 10-CD set of historic radio broadcasts (1923-87) from the Orchestra’s archives. This was followed by The Mahler Broadcasts 1948-1982, a 12-CD collection of live radio broadcasts featuring the nine complete Mahler symphonies, and the 10-CD An American Celebration, exploring the Orchestra’s relationship with American music. In 2000, Special Editions™ released Bernstein LIVE, a 10-CD set featuring Philharmonic performances led by Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Live at the New York Philharmonic. The latest Special Editions™ set is the 10-CD Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic, released in October 2001.
Television and the Internet have further expanded the Philharmonic’s audiences. For more than 20 years, the Orchestra regularly broadcast its Young People’s Concerts®, and since 1976, has made frequent appearances on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. On
November 14, 1996, the Philharmonic became the first symphony orchestra to produce and release a recording—a digitally re-mastered CD of Leonard Bernstein’s historic 1943 conducting debut—for exclusive distribution over the Internet.
After more than 70 years in Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonic moved in 1962 to Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center. The building was later renamed Avery Fisher Hall in recognition of a major gift, a portion of which was used in 1976 for a complete redesign of the auditorium.
In 1965 the Philharmonic launched a series of free annual Concerts in the Parks. More than 13 million people have attended these concerts since they were established. The Philharmonic’s Liberty Weekend Concert in Central Park on July 5, 1986, drew an estimated 800,000 listeners, the largest audience in history for a classical music concert. On February 7, 2002, the Philharmonic gave its 13,500th concert—a milestone unmatched by any other orchestra in the world. In February 2003, the Philharmonic was honored by The Recording Academy® with a Trustees Award in recognition of the organization’s outstanding contributions to the industry and American culture. Members of the Philharmonic also performed on the 45th Annual Grammy® awards ceremony, broadcast internationally on television from New York’s Madison Square Garden. It was the first time that a major symphony orchestra has performed live on the Grammy awards. In June 2003, the New York Philharmonic, under its Music Director, Maestro Lorin Maazel, was in residency at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia.
Knowledge about the Philharmonic's early history and its important role in the shaping of America's musical life in the 19th century has recently been greatly expanded by the acquisition of the Harold Lineback Collection, a trove of musical memorabilia amassed over a lifetime of collecting by Lineback, a St. Louis businessman.
|
|
|
|
 |
The Apollo Rooms in lower Manhattan were the site of
the first concert of the New York Philharmonic Society,
December 7, 1842.
|
|
|
|
