New York Philharmonic Podcast

The season-long Focus on Mahler concludes with Mahler's Symphony No. 5, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, who provides an overview of the works on this program. Pianist Emanuel Ax discusses his milestone 100th performance with the Orchestra — which he makes on April 28 — as well as the works he is performing on this program: Debussy's "evocative" and "revolutionary" Estampes for solo piano, and Messiaen's challenging Couleurs de la cité céleste.

This podcast is designed especially to acquaint young listeners with the themes and music of the April 2, 2011 Young People's Concert.

Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur discusses how great music can convey an important human message. In addition, Philharmonic Program Annotator James M. Keller discusses the "story" of Liszt's Les Préludes; Philharmonic President Zarin Mehta introduces Sofia Gubaidulina's Two Paths, and Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps and Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young speak about the roles they "portray" in it; and composer/conductor Victoria Bond addresses the high standards that Brahms set for himself in his Symphony No. 1.

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the New York Philharmonic's Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, discusses Sofia Gubaidulina's In Tempus Praesens, a work that was written for her and which is receiving its New York Premiere in this program that is conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Podcast host Mark Travis also discusses the origins of Prokofiev's Overture in B-flat major, American, and provides a guide through the Ukrainian folk tunes that infuse Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, Little Russian.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen discusses the thematic link that ties the three composers whose works are performed on this program — Haydn, Bartók, and Ligeti — and explores Ligeti’s dreamlike and hypnotic Clocks and Clouds. New York Philharmonic Artistic Administrator John Mangum talks about the folk-derived elements heard in Haydn’s Symphony No. 8, Le Soir. Podcast host Elliott Forrest explores Bartók’s “eerie and percussive” Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring Olli Mustonen, and the scandalous Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin.

This podcast is designed especially to acquaint young listeners with the themes and music of the March 12, 2011 Young People's concert.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen talks about the element of "shock-value" that binds together the music of Haydn, Bartók, and Ligeti, the three composers featured on the three-week Hungarian Echoes: A Philharmonic Festival. Podcast host Mark Travis describes Ligeti's early, accessible Concert Românesc; Philharmonic Artistic Administrator John Mangum talks about the virtuosity displayed in Haydn's Symphony No. 7, Le Midi; and Mr. Salonen discusses the psychological aspects of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a dark tale of the revelation of secrets and the risks it poses.

Podcast host Mark Travis and Music Director Alan Gilbert introduce the three-week Hungarian Echoes: A Philharmonic Festival. Artistic Administrator John Mangum discusses Haydn's early masterful three-symphony cycle that binds the festival, beginning with the Sixth, Le Matin; pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard describes Ligeti's Piano Concerto, which he calls "an absolute masterpiece"; and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen speaks of the difficult time during which Bartók composed his Concerto for Orchestra.

The season-long Focus on Mahler continues with Daniel Harding conducting Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, with Scottish soprano Lisa Milne. Program Annotator James M. Keller discusses the influence of French impressionism on Szymanowski's concerto, and Mr. Dicterow offers his thoughts on the work's poetry and sensuality, and reflects on performing the work. Artistic Administrator John Mangum explores the origins of Mahler's Symphony No. 4.

Conductor Paavo Järvi speaks about the various influences, including rock music, that lead to the accessibility of Aditus, composed by fellow-Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür; the power and honesty that Janine Jansen brings to the Britten Violin Concerto; and why Beethoven's Fifth Symphony continues to be fresh and relevant to every new generation. Composer-conductor Victoria Bond discusses the structures and vocal qualities in the Britten concerto, and the late Leonard Bernstein considers the importance of the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis — who makes his New York Philharmonic subscription debut with these concerts — talks about the jazz influence of Schulhoff's Hot-Sonate for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, and shares his insights on rehearsing the work with conductor and orchestra. Artistic Administrator John Mangum explores the Russian romantic roots that infuse Glazunov's melodic and melancholic Concerto for Alto Saxophone, and the theatrical origins of the works that bookend this program: Haydn's six-movement Symphony No. 60, Il distratto, and R. Strauss's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.

Pianist Jonathan Biss discusses Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, which he describes as one of the composer's most dramatic works. Podcast host Mark Travis explores both the Beethoven concerto and the other work on this program, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Further insights into Shostakovich's heartrending work are provided by composer-conductor Victoria Bond and the composer himself, in an interview recorded in 1973 during one of the composer's rare visits to the United States.

Podcast host Elliott Forrest introduces the works on the all-Beethoven first half of this program: Symphony No. 8 and the concert aria "Ah, perfido." Music Director Alan Gilbert discusses his close relationship with Scandinavian music and the natural pairing of the works on the second part of the program: three songs for soprano and orchestra by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, performed by soprano Karita Mattila, and Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments.

This podcast is designed especially to acquaint young listeners with the themes and music of the January 15, 2011 Young People's Concert.

Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi shares his thoughts on Brahms's stormy Piano Concerto No. 1, which Radu Lupu performs with the New York Philharmonic, as well as on Dvorák's Symphony No. 8. Podcast host Mark Travis, composer/conductor Victoria Bond, and Philharmonic Director of Education Theodore Wiprud also contribute to the understanding of the history and highlights of these two pillars of the repertoire.