Selected Commissions & Premieres

Since its founding in 1842, 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; Gershwin's Concerto in F; and Copland's Connotations, in addition to the U.S. premieres of works such as Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 7, 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. John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, written in memory of September 11, 2001, and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with Lincoln Center's Great Performers, received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music; a CD of the work, performed in concert by the Orchestra in 2002, was released on Nonesuch in August 2004, and garnered three Grammy awards.