Starting October 27, medici.tv Launches “I ? NY Philharmonic,” an Exclusive Five-Day Festival of Free Webcasts
Starting October 27, medici.tv presents “I ? New York Philharmonic” a free, five-day virtual festival of special events, kicking off with an exclusive webcast of the New York Philharmonic’s production of A Dancer’s Dream – music director Alan Gilbert leading an acclaimed theatrical, multimedia performance of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Fairy’s Kiss from June 2013. The New York Times said of the event: “This is the third collaboration between Mr. Gilbert and Doug Fitch, who, with the video director Edouard Getaz, are founders of the production company Giants Are Small, which combines puppetry and video. The first project was the Philharmonic’s staging of Ligeti’s apocalyptic opera, Le Grande Macabre, in 2010. The following year they collaborated on a production of Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen. These programs were not just high points in Mr. Gilbert’s tenure as music director of the Philharmonic, but inspiring examples of how an American orchestra can take a creative leap and reinvent itself.”
The “I ? New York Philharmonic” festival on medici.tv continues on October 28 with Stockhausen’s Gruppen from the New York Philharmonic’s 2012 “Philharmonic 360” season-finale event, co-presented with New York’s Park Avenue Armory. The performance sees three conductors – Gilbert, Magnus Lindberg and Matthias Pintscher – leading subsets of the Philharmonic in Stockhausen’s spatial, multi-orchestra landmark work at the Armory. The New York Times said: “Those who think classical music needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did at the Park Avenue Armory. … The audience broke into prolonged applause and cheers.”
On October 29, it’s “The Pyongyang Concert,” featuring the New York Philharmonic’s historic 2008 concert with Lorin Maazel in Pyongyang, North Korea. The performances include Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony, as well as works by Gershwin and Bernstein. The concert led the Economist to say: “For at least 90 minutes in a theater in Pyongyang, it was possible…to believe that 55 years of cold-war hostility were coming to an end.”
The New York Philharmonic’s Chinese New Year Gala Concert from 2012 is webcast on October 30. Led by conductor Long Yu, the program features traditional Chinese music and a performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 by Lang Lang, who brought to the work “all the steely athleticism and flagrant showmanship it warrants,” according to the New York Times. The program also includes Mahler’s “Der Einsame im Herbst” from Das Lied von der Erde, with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, performed during the Philharmonic’s February 2013 Chinese New Year Gala Concert.
On October 31, the final webcast of the “I ? New York Philharmonic” festival on medici.tv presents the spectacular performance of Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft at Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory in Dresden, Germany, with Alan Gilbert leading the Philharmonic on the orchestra’s EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour. The performance of the Finnish composer’s site-specific work, involving instruments made out of found material, including VW car parts, features Lindberg himself at the piano. It was Gilbert and the Philharmonic who gave Kraft its New York premiere in 2010, during Lindberg’s tenure as the orchestra’s composer-in-residence. Gilbert said: “Kraft is one of Magnus Lindberg’s most important and influential works.” The New York Times agreed, adding: “This lurching, intricate and sonically wondrous half-hour work was fascinating to hear and fun to watch.” The program also includes the orchestra’s current composer-in-residence Christopher Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms, as well as Bernstein’s Serenade with Joshua Bell as violin soloist.
Each of these medici.tv webcasts of the New York Philharmonic is free and available for replay until November 3.
The New York Philharmonic
Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world; on May 5, 2010, it performed its 15,000th concert—a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world. The Orchestra has always played a leading role in American musical life, championing the music of its time, and is renowned around the globe, having appeared in 432 cities in 63 countries—including its October 2009 debut in Vietnam and its February 2008 historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, earning the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. The Philharmonic’s concerts are broadcast on the weekly syndicated radio program The New York Philharmonic This Week, streamed on nyphil.org, and have been telecast annually on Live From Lincoln Center on U.S. public television since the series’ premiere in 1976. The Philharmonic has made almost 2,000 recordings since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. The first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live, the Philharmonic released the first-ever classical iTunes Pass in 2009–10; the self-produced recordings continue with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2013–14 Season. The Orchestra has built on its long-running Young People’s Concerts to develop a wide range of education programs, including Very Young People’s Concerts, for pre-schoolers; School Day Concerts, with supporting curriculum for grades 3–12; the School Partnership Program, enriching music education in New York City; Very Young Composers, enabling students to express themselves through original works; Learning Overtures, fostering international exchange among educators; and online resources used in homes and classrooms around the world. Alan Gilbert became Music Director in September 2009, succeeding a series of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. Credit Suisse is the New York Philharmonic’s exclusive Global Sponsor.
About medici.tv
Critical praise grows for medici.tv with each passing month. The Toronto Star called the site “a seismic shift in the world of classical music,” and the Baltimore Sun said: “This is an amazing site for lovers of classical music.” According to Alex Ross’s blog, The Rest Is Noise, “The hits keep coming at medici.tv.” Offering “treasures aplenty” was how Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly put it, naming medici.tv as one of the web’s best classical experiences.
Since its official launch in May 2008, medici.tv has gained international recognition, bringing together a community of 150,000 music and arts lovers from 182 countries – who have watched over 20 million videos to date. In addition to offering live concert hall events that music lovers can experience on their computers and entertainment systems, medici.tv now offers a free application (available at the Apple App Store and for the Android) that makes it possible to experience world-class artistry on iPads, iPhones and the Android. Consumers of Samsung Smart TVs can now access the medici.tv application worldwide in 170 countries since March 1, 2013, on the 2011, 2012 and 2013 models, as well as all future ones. More than 60 client universities globally use medici.tv, including Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
In addition to Webcasts of more than 100 live concerts each year, medici.tv has partnered with the world’s top artists and music institutions to offer subscriptions that give music lovers the opportunity to watch more than 1,200 video-on-demand programs. They include concerts, operas, recitals, documentaries, master classes, artist portraits and archival material by such legendary musicians as Maria Callas, Glenn Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein, Georg Solti and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Reference opera productions are key to the medici.tv library, including Don Carlo at London’s Royal Opera House starring Rolando Villazón and The Fairy Queen at Glyndebourne conducted by William Christie. Also new to the library is archival footage of Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan and Vladimir Horowitz, alongside master classes by Alfred Brendel and James Conlon.
New York Philharmonic on medici.tv
Sunday, Oct 27
New York Philharmonic
“A Dancer’s Dream”: Two Works by Stravinsky (2013)
Monday, Oct 28
New York Philharmonic
“Philharmonic 360”: Stockhausen’s Gruppen at Park Avenue Armory (2012)
Tuesday, Oct 29
New York Philharmonic
“The Pyongyang Concert” (2008)
Wednesday, Oct 30
New York Philharmonic
“Chinese New Year Gala Concert,” including Lang Lang in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (2012)
Thursday, Oct 31
New York Philharmonic
Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft, plus Christopher Rouse’s Prospero’s Rooms and Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade with Joshua Bell (2013)
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